Cornell University law professor Lynn Stout’s new book, The Shareholder Value Myth, examines how the maniacal quest to raise share prices is bad for everyone. Even Jank Welch, who was a proponent has called it “the dumbest idea in the world“. A HBR review of the book here & if you can read a few chapters for free here
Month: November 2012
Fears & Ideas [Interview]
Essays [Links]
Optical Illusion [Video]
There’s nothing that twists the mind quite like an optical illusion and this one is pretty great.
Stick Dance Math Cooperative [Video]
Now if only it was as easy to get 6 year olds to do this!
I will always be there with you [Letters of note]
On May 1st of 2003, just weeks after being deployed to Iraq, Army Pfc. Jesse A. Givens, of Springfield, Missouri was killed when his tank fell into the Euphrates river. He was 34-years-old. Shortly after his death, this letter was delivered to his bereaved wife, Melissa, and his 6-year-old stepson, Dakota (“Toad”). Melissa and Jesse’s unborn child, Carson (“Bean”), entered the world on the 29th of May, a few weeks after his father’s death.
Cameron & India’s Nero [Article]
The Guardian examines Why David Cameron is doing business with India’s ‘modern-day Nero’. This link provides some context to what happened during the Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002. Warning: The image of the man begging for his life to be spared may disturb you deeply, as it did to me when it was published on the front page of every major newspaper in India the day after the riots erupted.
The Online Education Revolution [Essays]
Moral code [Article]
Nicholas Carr wonders how long it will be before machines need to have ethical systems built in. Imagine, he says, that you’re happily tweeting away as your Google self-driving car crosses a bridge, its speed precisely synced to the 50 m.p.h. limit. A group of frisky schoolchildren is also heading across the bridge, on the pedestrian walkway. Suddenly, there’s a tussle, and three of the kids are pushed into the road, right in your vehicle’s path. Your self-driving car has a fraction of a second to make a choice: Either it swerves off the bridge, possibly killing you, or it runs over the children. What does the Google algorithm tell it to do?”