Fixed Pies and Third Place
In this week's New Yorker, James Surowiecki reminds us that "business is not a sporting event [and] victory for one company doesn't mean defeat for everyone else." Surowiecki's article, In Praise of Third Place, concerns the fight for market dominance in the video-game industry. The players? Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's Play-Station 3 and Nintendo's Wii. The takeaway? Good news for those of us who continually hector our fellows about collaborative problem-solving and the real social, political and environmental dangers of fixed pie thinking. By not competiting for the number one video-game slot, Nintendo is "beating" its Goliath competitors. [Nintendo] has five billion dollars in the bank...
More
Unhappy Lawyers and the Cooperative Hard Wire
Why are We Unhappy? Maybe it's Because We're Hard Wired to Cooperate By and large, we're liberal arts majors, right? Theater, film, literature, and art history people. Political scientists, philosophers and sociologists. We like mental puzzles. Not the teasers that undid most of us in math class. No, we like problems that require us to be good at analogies and story telling. To sharpen our Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew detective skills. We're good at figuring out who killed Colonel Mustard in the drawing room. We're born litigators. And the fighting part? Most of us complain. But it's part...
More
Page:
1