83 Posts found for Source: The Atlantic Monthly

How better design could fix your workday—and your life .

Content: Article | Author: Julie Beck | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

It’s widely assumed that overwhelming people with options — whether in TVs or delicious jams — can make them less likely to make a decision. But maybe that’s wrong.

Content: Article | Author: Derek Thompson | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Forget online surveys and dinnertime robo-calls. A consulting firm called ReD is at the forefront of a new trend in market research, treating the everyday lives of consumers as a subject worthy of social-science scrutiny. On behalf of its corporate clients, ReD will uncover your deepest needs, fears, and desires.

Content: Article | Author: Graeme Wood | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Market Research

Listen to people talk about how they break the rules, in other words, and you’ll figure out what they consider the important rules in the first place.

Content: Quotation | Author: Graeme Wood | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

They’re fractious, frequently wrong, and have lost much of the public’s faith. But their insights are still valuable — as long as you don’t expect them to predict the future.

Content: Article | Author: Noah Smith | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics

This content is restricted to site members. Please log in or register

This content is restricted to site members. Please log in or register

This content is restricted to site members. Please log in or register

Avoid your weaknesses. But do this without telling yourself that the things you can’t do aren’t worth doing. Don’t mask self-doubt with contempt.

Content: Quotation | Author: Zadie Smith | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Personal Development

Can a CEO—even one as talented and visionary as Steve Jobs—really make or break a corporation? Many business scholars have grown skeptical of the idea of chief executive as superhero. Cutting-edge research reveals that while some CEOs clearly do make a big difference, many are merely the most visible cogs in complex machines.

Content: Article | Author: Harris Collingwood | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Corporate Governance

Bankruptcy helps the undeserving—and that’s the way it should be.

Content: Article | Author: Megan McArdle | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics

This lack of direct disagreement between advocates and critics of NAFTA reflects standard economic theory, which predicts both “gains from trade,” meaning higher total income and more efficient production, and “trade adjustments,” including job losses and salary cuts for some. “Trade adjustments” sounds pleasantly minor and temporary, but though economists do not like to say so out loud, their texts explicitly confirm that losses can … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jonathan Schlefer | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics

Why asset bubbles are a part of the human condition that regulation can’t cure

Content: Article | Author: Virginia Postrel | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics

So what can we learn from all this? In the words of the great investor Jeremy Grantham, who saw this collapse coming and has seen just about everything else in his four-decade career: “We will learn an enormous amount in a very short time, quite a bit in the medium term, and absolutely nothing in the long term.” Of course, to paraphrase Keynes, in the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Henry Blodget | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics

Financial bubbles are like epidemics— and we should treat them both the same way.

Content: Article | Author: Robert J. Shiller | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics

Thou shalt not’ might reach the head, but it takes ‘Once upon a time’ to reach the heart.

Content: Quotation | Author: Philip Pullman | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Persuasion, Storytelling

The abiding, distinctive feature of all crashes, whether in stock prices, housing values, or hit-TV-show ratings, is that they startle but don’t surprise. When the euphoria subsides, when the volatile graph lines of excitability flatten and then curve down, people realize, collectively and instantly (and not infrequently with some relief), that they’ve been expecting this correction. The signs were everywhere, the warnings clear, the researchers … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Walter Kirn | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics

Socially responsible investing is neither as profitable nor as responsible as advertised. But if you insist, here’s how to do it right.

Content: Article | Author: Henry Blodget | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Finance, Social Responsibility (ESG) | Industry: Investing

The first problem with labeling a particular style of investing “socially responsible” is that it suggests that other kinds of investing are not. So it’s no wonder many people find the concept silly or offensive.

At some level, after all, our very economic system is socially problematic. The benefits accrue disproportionately to owners (investors, this means you), who make fortunes off the labor of rank-and-file employees. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Investing, Social Responsibility (ESG) | Industry: Investing

As a century of industrialism before the introduction of environmental and labor laws illustrated, the free market does not appropriately “price” the cost of natural resources or pollution. So the idea that responsible investment practices can be used in conjunction with intelligent regulation and consumption to serve the greater good is reasonable. The challenge comes in figuring out how best to do it.

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Economics, Social Responsibility (ESG)