India’s Train-18 Success Story
Train-18, now called Vande Bharat Express, India’s 16-coach train, built in 18 months at a low cost is the country’s first attempt at making an indigenous semi high-speed train-set. Lessons from the project from the Financial Express: The real importance of Train 18 lies in the lessons it holds for frugal engineering, project management and […]
An All-Purpose Anthem
The Futility Closet notes, Americans think of the song “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” as a patriotic anthem—which is ironic, because everyone else does, too. We stole the tune from the British, who know it as “God Save the Queen,” and the same melody has served as the national anthem of Denmark, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, […]
Customer Reviews Ruin the Joy of Discovery
In our culture of critique and user reviews, Chris Colin of the Wired Magazine identifies how others’ appraisals ruin the joy of discovery: Technoculture critic and former Wired contributor Erik Davis is concerned about the proliferation of reviews, too. “Our culture is afflicted with knowingness,” he says. “We exalt in being able to know as […]
Splitting the Bill When Dining with Others
New York Times contributor Philip Galanes on etiquette for dining with others: When the bill came, the man said, “Let’s split it 50-50.” I didn’t want to make a scene, so I plunked down my credit card. Would it really have caused a scene in Massachusetts to say: “We’re on a tight budget. Let’s divide […]
A Nobel and a Grammy for George Bernard Shaw
The Futility Closet notes, George Bernard Shaw is the only person who has won both a Nobel Prize and an Academy Award. He won the Nobel in 1925 and an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1938 (for Pygmalion.) “I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite,” he once said, “but only a fiend […]
Hiking in Singapore’s Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
Robyn Eckhardt of the Wall Street Journal notes that Singapore boasts over 300 parks and four nature reserves, including the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Travel just 6 miles from the Central Business District and you’re in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, 400 lush acres that are home to macaques, monitor lizards and an astonishing variety of […]
Finding Your Own Way
American chess player Josh Waitzkin on finding your own way: [There’s] this theme of finding your own way. One of the most common mistakes that I see people make—whether you’re talking about kids or adults—in the learning curve is trying to do it like someone else does it; whether it’s your dad, or your hero, […]
Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger on Share Buybacks
From Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric (2020,) Buybacks are controversial. Some see in them a lack of good ideas from management. Others see them as a kind of second dividend, a way to “return cash to shareholders.” The approach to deciding whether to buy back stock advised by Warren Buffett […]
Not Everyone Benefits from Mindfulness Meditation
Miguel Farias of Coventry University on why mindfulness and other types of meditation can sometimes leave people worse off: Sometimes when people are trying to still their thoughts, the mind can “rebel.” “It’s like a backlash to the attempt to control the mind, and this results in an episode of anxiety or depression.” This doesn’t […]
The Value of a Cultural Mentor
HBR’s summary article on the importance of getting a cultural mentor when joining a new company: We often assume that if we’re successful at one company, we’ll easily succeed at another. But it can be jarring to join a new organization with a very different culture. One way to ease the transition is to find […]