Dreading a Mountain of Emails After the Holidays? Follow These 3 Rules to Get Caught Up Quickly

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Dreading a Mountain of Emails After the Holidays? Follow These 3 Rules to Get Caught Up Quickly Start your year off with a clean inbox by following the R.A.D. System. Continued here

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The Case for a Chief of Staff New CEOs are typically focused on creating and implementing a strategy, building a top team, and driving culture change. Optimizing administrative workflow may not seem to be a priority. But a former CEO who now advises boards argues that many chief executives need a chief of staff (CoS)—someone who goes beyond the executive assistant role to help the office function smoothly. According to one CoS, the role encompasses being an air traffic controller for the leader and the senior team, an integrator connecting work streams that would otherwise remain siloed, a communicator linking the leadership team and the broader organization, an honest broker when the leader needs a wide-ranging view without turf considerations, and a confidant. In this article Ciampa outlines what a CoS does, the qualities one needs to succeed, and the ways companies typically design the role (with varying levels of responsibility) to help make a CEO more focused and productive. Continued here

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Gary Shteyngart Reads Weike Wang Gary Shteyngart joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Omakase,” by Weike Wang, which was published in The New Yorker in 2018. Shteyngart is the author of five novels, including, most recently, “Lake Success” and “Our Country Friends.” © 2023 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices Continued here

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'Alice in Borderland's ending was spoiled in the show's first 10 minutes When it comes to TV series, faithful adaptations have the perk of knowing where a story is heading from the onset. For clever writers and directors, like Alice in Borderland’s Shinsuke Sato, this can lead to the seeding of a story’s epic conclusion into the show’s opening scenes. Now that we’ve seen all of Alice in Borderland Season 2, which adapts the second half of the Haro Aso-penned manga, we have answers about what Borderland is, why Arisu is there, and if he has any hope of returning to the real world. And we know that the major twists of that ending were spoiled in the show’s opening minutes, for those who knew where to look… Continued here

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A Philosophy Professor’s Final Class This past spring, the philosopher Richard J. Bernstein taught his final two classes at the New School for Social Research, in New York, where he had been a professor since 1989. One was a course on American pragmatism, the tradition to which his own work belongs. The other was a seminar on Hannah Arendt, who, late in her life, was Bernstein's friend. Years ago, when I got my Ph.D., I was Bernstein's student. I still am, in a way. And so I asked him if I could audit the class on Arendt and write about it. He said that he didn't like passive auditors—I would have to participate fully. That requirement struck me as a good description of what Bernstein had done all his life. Continued here

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You need to play the most underrated post-apocalypse game ASAP When thinking about great Bethesda games, Fallout 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and some of the company’s publishing ventures like DOOM likely come to mind. On the other side of the coin is the infamous Fallout 76. This online take on the Fallout formula sounded fun on paper, but it severely missed the mark — at first. Since its rocky release in 2018, Fallout 76 has become one of the developer’s best games, and certainly the most underrated. The main appeal of Fallout 76 is wandering the land of Appalachia, which is based on the state of West Virginia. In it, players are encouraged to explore the wasteland to uncover secrets, along with gear and interesting story elements, too. You might stumble upon a factory filled to the brim with horrifying ghouls, or maybe an NPC who needs your help escaping from a prison cell. The surprises make it fun. Continued here

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How Managers Become Leaders Few managerial transitions are more difficult than making the move from leading a function to leading an entire enterprise for the first time. The scope and complexity of the job increase dramatically, in ways that can leave executives feeling overwhelmed and uncertain. It truly is different at the top. But how, exactly? Career transition expert Michael Watkins set out to explore that question in an extensive series of interviews with leadership mentors, HR professionals, and newly minted unit heads. Continued here

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The 6 biggest sci-fi video games to look forward to in 2023 The coming year will see the release of some of the most anticipated games in recent memory, and 2023 is looking especially good for sci-fi fans. Continued here

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A New Spin for SoulCycle's Founders If spin class was all about connecting with people, can you build a business around it without the bikes? With Peoplehood, they are going to find out. Continued here

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You need to watch the most important crime thriller on Netflix ASAP It’s not Tarantino’s best or most celebrated movie, but it’s one that changed movie history. Today, it’s almost impossible to imagine a cultural landscape untouched by Quentin Tarantino’s unmistakably recognizable style. His snappy, evocative dialogue, nonlinear storytelling, and animated performances have seeped into the very essence of American filmmaking, and you’d be hard-pressed to walk through a college screenwriting course without reading a cheap imitation of Pulp Fiction. But there was indeed a time before Tarantino made movies, and the filmmaking landscape looked quite different than it does now. Continued here

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3 Reasons to Improve Your Writing This Year Be more confident, connected, and competent by upping your writing skills in 2023. Continued here

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The Power of Options Ask leaders how they will respond to a crisis or a massive new opportunity, and they often will tell you they already know what to do. This is surprising because most crises and opportunities have unexpected elements. A high-powered executive whom we coach once told us, “In any crisis, I come out of the gate fast and take action. I go over, under, or through any wall in my way. With my people, I lead from the front.” To be sure, that approach has the benefit of decisiveness, but it offers a narrow path, especially in high-stakes situations. What happens when such leaders run into obstacles they can’t muscle their way through? Continued here

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Spain Just Launched a Year-Long Digital Nomad Visa for Remote Workers  Looking for an adventure? Now you can say 'adios' to America and 'hola' to Spain thanks to a new digital nomad visa program. Continued here

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You need to watch the most nerve-wracking cult thriller on HBO Max ASAP The “creepy thriller” subgenre uses a different playbook from most horror movies. Horror often defers to the easy shock of a killer on the loose or a supernatural threat, but a creep-fest mines horror from everyday moments and mundane scares, then exaggerates them to extreme lengths to create an uncomfortable story. Within this tense genre, a 2018 movie is a masterclass in the slow boil of family horror. It’s a truly unsettling thriller that launched a trend — and a career. Continued here

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5 major trends to expect from CES 2023 CES 2023 will be a bottomless pit of product announcements so let’s step back and look at the bigger picture. The start of the new year means one thing if you're a technology obsessive like us: CES, the year's largest consumer electronics show. Continued here

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Melodramatic potboilers, worthy classics and DIY escapism: a brief history of the beach read “Like most people I read a book or two on holiday,” says Stuart, a character in Julian Barnes’ 1991 novel Talking it Over. He does not have time for recreational reading; it must wait until he is at leisure. His best friend, the erudite but erratically employed Oliver, derides this attitude. To Oliver, a summer reader is a pedestrian one: incurious and intellectually lazy. Summer reading – or the beach read – is often associated with undemanding, enjoyable narratives: “middlebrow” literary fiction, thrillers, fantasy novels, historical and contemporary romances. This is even reflected in the physical design of books released in the summer months. Light colours and cheerful covers signal their lack of intimidating seriousness. Continued here

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How bright is the Universe? NASA’s Pluto probe shines a light on the long-standing enigma The light coming from stars beyond the Milky Way is two to three times brighter than the light from known populations of galaxies — we are even more out there than we thought! Over seven years ago, the New Horizons mission made history when it became the first spacecraft to conduct a flyby of Pluto. In the leadup to this encounter, the spacecraft provided updated data and images of many objects in the inner and outer Solar System. Once beyond the orbit of Pluto and its moons, it embarked on a new mission: to make the first encounter with a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO). This historic flyby occurred about four years ago (December 31, 2015) when New Horizons zipped past Arrokoth (aka. 2014 MU69). Continued here

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What Having a "Growth Mindset" Actually Means Scholars are deeply gratified when their ideas catch on. And they are even more gratified when their ideas make a difference — improving motivation, innovation, or productivity, for example. But popularity has a price: People sometimes distort ideas and therefore fail to reap their benefits. This has started to happen with my research on “growth” versus “fixed” mindsets among individuals and within organizations. Continued here

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Gender diversity on corporate boards can improve organizational performance Gender inequality on corporate boards of directors is still an issue in Canada, despite diversity disclosure rules. Since 2014, business regulators in Canada have required companies to disclose the number of women on their boards in an effort to increase gender diversity. Despite this, women continue to be underrepresented on Canadian boards. Recent data from Statistics Canada shows that female representation on boards is only at about 19 per cent. The share of women on boards of directors has increased by about 2.5 per cent every year since 2016. Continued here

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Five essential 'Babylon 5' episodes to watch before the show leaves HBO Max In the ‘90s, Babylon 5 was the last, best hope for non-episodic sci-fi TV. Although Star Trek: Deep Space Nine eventually became a heavily serialized show, Babylon 5’s five-season arc was pre-planned by creator J. Michael Straczynski — an approach that was an utter novelty both then and now. All five seasons of the 1994-1998 show, Babylon 5, are currently streaming on HBO Max but everything will leave on January 25, 2023. So, how do you get the basics of the show before then? While B5 is intended to be watched all the way through, from start to finish, there is an unholy hack. The following are just five episodes of Babylon 5 which, when watched in order, will give you the broad strokes of the entire show, and create the illusion of having watched the whole thing. Continued here

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The 5 Best iPhone Calendar Apps for Taking Control of Your Time in 2023 These calendar apps can save you time and help you be more productive. Continued here

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Can dogs and cats get a cold? An animal expert explains how to protect your pet With winter comes cold and flu season, making coughs and sneezes rife. But it isn’t just humans who get struck down by these seasonal illnesses — our pets can get them too. While many of us have an arsenal of home remedies that we can use to combat these illnesses, the same doesn’t necessarily exist for pets. So what can we do for our four-legged companions if they become ill – and how can we prevent seasonal illnesses in the future? Continued here

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Wind turbines are already skyscraper-sized - In 2023, some 100 miles off the coast of north-east England, the world’s largest wind turbines will start generating electricity. This first phase of the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm development uses General Electric’s Haliade X, a turbine that stands more than a quarter of a kilometre high from the surface of the sea to the highest point of the blade tip. If you placed one in London, it would be the third-tallest structure in the city, taller than One Canada Square in Canary Wharf and just 50 metres shorter than the Shard. Each of its three blades would be longer than Big Ben’s clock tower is tall. And Dogger Bank will eventually have nearly 300 of these giants. Continued here

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To Coach Leaders, Ask the Right Questions In a fiercely complex and challenging world, C-suite and other senior leaders — and those coaching them — need to understand how their inner life is influencing their actions in the outside world. Instead, many corporate leaders focus on doing more than deep thinking, leaving what’s going on internally a vast unexplored territory that they haven’t valued much. That includes what they’re feeling, where they’re feeling triggered, and how early experiences in their lives influence the choices they’re making in the present. To develop on leadership skills like prioritization, decision-making, accountability, and more, the author describes how he’s coached leaders to think through more personal questions designed to better understand their motivations and impulses: Why are you the person and leader you are? Who are you capable of becoming? What’s standing in your way? This underlying premise is that you can’t transform a company without also transforming yourself. Continued here

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Spot reduction: why exercise probably can't help you target fatty areas of the body Many people who want to lose weight have a particular area of their body that they wish they could lose fat from most – whether that’s their stomach, arms or thighs. But while there’s no shortage of videos and guides online talking about how to best “blast fat” from these so-called problem areas, the evidence for whether or not spot reducing fat is actually possible remains mixed. The mechanics of weight loss are quite straightforward and are rooted in the laws of thermodynamics. Basically this means that in order to lose weight, you must expend more calories than you consume. Continued here

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What makes kids want to drop out of sport, and how should parents respond? The new year often means a new season of kids’ sports. Many families may be pondering whether to commit to another season or discovering their child is now saying they’d like to quit their usual sport. My husband and I faced this dilemma last year when our nine-year-old wanted to quit Nippers (junior surf lifesaving). This followed a season of high emotion, where we faced weekly “drop-off dread”, only to have him happily bounce over to us after training, full of smiles and stories. Continued here

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Amazon's selling a ton of these nice home upgrades because they're so cheap & easy If your home could use a little bit of TLC, you’ve come to the right place. We’re sharing 45 of our favorite finds to give your place an instant refresh on a budget. Amazon’s selling a ton of these nice home upgrades because they’re so cheap and easy, which we can all appreciate. From a grout pen to make your bathroom floor look new again and a window film that’ll finally give you some privacy, to organizational tools like under-the-bed storage bags and drawer dividers, these inexpensive products will make a huge difference without breaking the bank. Keep cords neatly bundled and your walls damage-free using these Command cord bundlers that are cheap and don’t require any tools. They’re self-adhesive and can hold up to two pounds without leaving any holes or sticky residue on the wall. To use them, simply prep the hanging surface with some rubbing alcohol, then stick the command strip down. Use the provided refill strips to reuse the cord bundlers again and again. Continued here

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5 years ago, a humble Ubisoft feature changed video games forever “No one is questioning or needs to know why we’re making games accessible these days.” From comprehensive options and customization to more inclusive design practices, disabled players can enjoy more games than ever, across a variety of genres and platforms. In 2020, The Last of Us Part II released with dozens of accessibility features, and The Game Awards introduced its Innovation in Accessibility category. Today, it's not uncommon to hear developers throughout the industry say things like, "Accessible design is just good design." Continued here

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Monster: Jeffrey Dahmer: Did TV go too far in 2022? Few recent cultural works have shown up the divide between critics and audiences quite like this year's awkwardly-titled Netflix series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. The drama about notorious US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered 17 young men and boys between 1978 and 1991, was released mid-week in September on the streaming service, with little pre-publicity and no previews made available for press – a common indication that the show or film in question isn't much good. And duly, the media verdicts that did come in were mostly pretty harsh. By contrast, though, viewing figures proved astronomical: according to Netflix's self-declared ratings, it was watched for 196.2 million hours in its first week of release, at the time giving it the best opening week for a new show on the streaming platform ever, while within 60 days it reached 1 billion hours viewed, placing it in the rare echelons of other globe-conquering cultural phenomena Stranger Things and Squid Game. Whether all those eyeballs on it were favourable – though a 83% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes would suggest most of them were – undeniably people could not stop watching its incredibly grim story play out. And matching the size of its cultural footprint has been the level of debate that it has stirred.  Continued here

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Why for-profit homes won't solve long-term care issues: Privatizing health services is a bad idea that just won't go away Canadian health economist Robert Evans called them zombies: ideas killed long ago by evidence, but re-emerging from the grave — often in disguise. He was talking about user fees for health services. Such fees primarily mean that the poor go without care while the rich may get care they don’t need, but they also add to the bureaucracy required to bill for services. Continued here

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I Ran 4 Experiments to Break My Social Media Addiction. Here's What Worked. Are you spending too much time on social media? If you’d like to break the habit, you can try a few different techniques. One would be to quit cold turkey for a full month. If that sounds too extreme, you can avoid social media at certain times, like after dinner or before breakfast. Blocker tools like Freedom can help you stay on track. A third approach is to try a social “happy hour” — instead of staying off social media at certain times, block out a portion of every day you can look forward to indulging in it. A fourth experiment to try is a taking a day off from social every week, like a Saturday or Sunday. This “day of rest” will help you keep your social habit in check, and make the weekend feel longer. Continued here

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Student and teacher involvement in reforming schooling matters -- how Montr PhD Candidate, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University If you could redesign high school, what might you change? How could the schedule be more flexible? What if teachers worked together as teams? What if groups of students were combined based on interest and given the opportunity to connect learning to their everyday lives? Continued here

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Scientists dig deep and find a way to accurately predict snowmelt after droughts Assistant professor, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin If you live near mountains, for instance in British Columbia, a lot of your water probably comes from mountain snowpack. Over 1.9 billion people globally rely on the snow melting and running off from these mountain snowpacks for their water supply. Continued here

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How to Cut Your Budget During Tough Economic Times Make sure you cut deep and smart the first time Continued here

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Free will: why people believe in it even when they think they're being manipulated We all like to believe that we are free to make our own choices. At the same time, many people think that psychological techniques are constantly being used to sway us – from social media trends to advertising. So how do we square this? In a 2018 study across four countries (Australia, Canada, UK and the USA), responses to the question above were remarkably similar. In fact, they cut across age, gender, religiosity and political affiliation. Continued here

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Austerity has its own life - here's how it lives on in future generations Austerity in the UK is here to stay. The Bank of England has warned that the country is facing the longest recession since records began, predicting that the economic slump will extend well into 2024. At the same time, the most recent budget has been called austerity 2.0 by companies, unions, political figures and policy experts. This suggests the era of public spending cuts seen since 2010 has reached the next phase: austerity as the “new normal”. Austerity policies implemented since 2010 have not been substantially reversed or retracted in recent years. In fact, they have often been levelled at the most marginalised social groups. Continued here

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When we swim in the ocean, we enter another animal's home. Here's how to keep us all safe Every summer, many Australians head to the ocean to swim, surf, sail, kayak, and walk along the beach. But humans are not alone when we use the ocean. Fish, seals, dolphins, sharks, jellyfish, turtles, stingrays, cuttlefish, and birds often swim alongside us. When we enter the ocean we become part of an entangled web of animal relationships. Continued here

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Appraisal of What Performance? A corporate president put a senior executive in charge of a failing operation. His only directive was “Get it in the black.” Within two years of that injunction, the new executive moved the operation from a deficit position to one that showed a profit of several million. Fresh from his triumph, the executive announced himself as a candidate for a higher-level position, and indicated that he was already receiving offers from other companies. Continued here

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MMP in New Zealand turns 30 at this year's election - a work in progress, but still a birthday worth celebrating In a tidy alignment of round numbers, this year’s general election will also mark the 30th anniversary of the binding referendum that ushered in the mixed member proportional (MMP) system of voting. It will also be the tenth election held under the proportional system, truly a generational milestone in New Zealand’s political history. But the public disquiet that led to the country voting out the old first-past-the-post (FPP) system goes further back, at least as far as the 1978 and 1981 elections. Both saw the centre-left Labour Party lose, despite having won a higher percentage of the vote than the victorious centre-right National Party. Continued here

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How Walmart Canada Uses Blockchain to Solve Supply-Chain Challenges Walmart Canada applied blockchain to solve a common logistics nightmare: payment disputes with its 70 third-party freight carriers. To solve the problem it built a blockchain network. The system has not only virtually eliminated the payments problem; it also has led to significant operational efficiencies. This article offers five lessons on how to create a blockchain network for improving business processes. Continued here

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The rich history of our love affair with luxury In today’s world it could be said, to a certain degree, that even a relatively impoverished person engages with luxury, in some way. If you enjoy regulated heating or cooling at home, regular lighting, chicken meat, or eat chocolates, you are engaging with formats that once indicated luxury. Continued here

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Discovering the 'honeypot': the surprising way restricting immigration can turn out to hurt the working poor Politicians around the world tout immigration restrictions as a way to fight wage stagnation and boost the job prospects of low-paid or unemployed locals. The Trump administration pushed the message aggressively, at one stage calling a proposal to halve migration numbers the RAISE Act (standing for Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy), saying it would raise workers’ wages and help struggling families enter the middle class. Continued here

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What does a conductor actually do? A surprising amount At the age of three, I remember jumping on my parent’s sofa, waving my arms in the air conducting a record of Gilbert and Sullivans Pirates of Penzance. Last week, my four-year-old son was doing the same thing, only to the soundtrack of Disney’s Frozen. “What are you doing?” I said. “I am being you, Daddy,” he replied as he continued directing his imaginary orchestra. I felt a heartstring pluck and I remembered as a child getting excited at the music and just letting my arms wave and wiggle. Fifty years later I do it for real. But what conductor’s actually do can be a bit of a mystery. Continued here

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Europe's 'pyroregions': summer 2022 saw 20-year freak fires in regions that are historically immune, close to normal in fire prone areas Over the summer of 2022, the European “fire season” made headlines, and the burned area was said to be “unprecedented” in many countries. However, an examination of historical climate and fire data provides some important context. Several conclusions were drawn from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), but this dataset is probably not the most appropriate given that its methodologies are constantly being updated. This hampers the analysis of trends over the historical period or the focus on a specific year. Continued here

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Why do people tailgate? A psychologist explains what's behind this common (and annoying) driving habit It’s hot, you’ve had a battle to get the kids in the car, and now you’re going to be late for the family lunch. You turn onto the freeway only to get stuck behind a slow driver in the fast lane. You want them to move over or speed up, so you drive a little closer. Then closer. Then so close it would be difficult to avoid hitting them if they stopped suddenly. Continued here

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Top Technology and Business Trends for 2023 10 things that will shape the coming year.Continued here S33 Italy's pasta row: a scientist on how to cook spaghetti properly and save money Italians are notoriously – and understandably – protective of their cuisine, as regular arguments about the correct toppings for pizza or the appropriate pasta to use with a Bolognese ragu will attest. So it was hardly surprising that, when a Nobel Prize-winning Italian physicist weighed in with advice about how to cook pasta perfectly which seemed to upend everything the countries’ cooks had been doing in the kitchen for centuries, it caused an almighty row. Continued here S55 To Sustain DEI Momentum, Companies Must Invest in 3 Areas Organizations of all sizes and across industries pledged their support to DEI initiatives in 2020, including building more diverse and equitable companies, and to using their power for good. Now, with the spotlight no longer shining quite so brightly on corporate DEI, how much progress have organizations made against their promises? To understand the state of DEI efforts since 2020, the authors looked at aggregated, self-reported data collected from a subset of 48 of their clients, along with their experiences consulting with additional organizations. Overall, they find evidence of some positive progress. But they also find that organizations could be making better, faster progress if they were more intentional about how they craft their DEI strategies. They’ve identified three areas where organizations need to focus and invest to keep DEI momentum going: connecting a good strategy to the right accountability; collecting and analyzing the right data; and truly empowering DEI leaders. Continued here S60 Building a Learning Organization Continuous improvement programs are proliferating as corporations seek to better themselves and gain an edge. Unfortunately, however, failed programs far outnumber successes, and improvement rates remain low. That’s because most companies have failed to grasp a basic truth. Before people and companies can improve, they first must learn. And to do this, they need to look beyond rhetoric and high philosophy and focus on the fundamentals. Continued here S15 Green streets: why protecting urban parks and bush is vital as our cities grow and become denser More than half of the world’s population lives in cities. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the proportion of people who live in towns or cities exceeds 86%. With our lives increasingly lived in urban environments, it’s vital for our personal wellbeing – and the planet’s – that city planners find ways to foster a connection with nature. The evidence is clear – people need direct, personal experiences with nature to care enough to protect it. As evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould argued, Continued here S52 What's Your Cultural Profile? Take this assessment to understand how well you understand cultural differences within the workplace. Continued here S25 How 1950s bombsites in the UK were turned into adventure playgrounds In 1944, Marie Paneth, an Austrian-born art therapist, imagined a scheme whereby London’s bombsites would be used by local children for building huts and caves and for growing vegetables which they could then sell. Paneth saw the children as the future landlords of these damaged grounds, with minimal adult intervention. In 1946 the children’s rights campaigner and landscape architect Lady Allen of Hurtwood visited the Emdrup junk playground (Skrammellegepladsen Emdrup) in Denmark. Opened in 1943 by a workers’ cooperative housing association on the outskirts of Copenhagen, it featured all sorts of dens and play structures, including a tall watchtower, that children were building from spare building materials donated by local builders. Continued here S27 Supporting a child with long COVID - tips from parents of children living with the condition Long COVID is the patient-preferred term used to describe symptoms lasting more than four weeks after a COVID-19 infection. Children and young people can also suffer from long COVID following even a mild infection with the virus. The latest figures from the UK’s Office for National Statistics show an estimated 69,000 children are living with long COVID, 41,000 of whom have had symptoms for at least a year. The most common symptoms of long COVID in children are fatigue and headaches, but young people can also have a range of other symptoms including chest pain, persistent cough, dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, anxiety and low mood. Continued here S63 A Refresher on Regression Analysis You probably know by now that whenever possible you should be making data-driven decisions at work. But do you know how to parse through all the data available to you? The good news is that you probably don’t need to do the number crunching yourself (hallelujah!) but you do need to correctly understand and interpret the analysis created by your colleagues. One of the most important types of data analysis is called regression analysis. Continued here S47 Why 'Avatar 2' can't win over its most devoted audience He keeps the fireplace constant because he knows how much my mom loves the smell. He built my sister a bookcase with cat ears and sewed me a zippered purse out of old jeans because those were things we liked.​​ So, in 2009, when he gathered my mom and me into the living room, set up his laptop, and played an illegal Avatar torrent for us, it was clear the movie meant a lot to him. (I can count the number of movies I’ve watched with my parents on one hand.) Continued here S8 Bad Apples or Bad Leaders? Leaders typically take responsibility when employees perform poorly but not when employees behave badly. It’s like there’s an unwritten rule that protects leaders when employees engage in deviant workplace behavior. Perhaps this protection stems from the notion that it isn’t fair to hold leaders accountable for the actions of a few bad apples. Our research suggests that surprisingly often, this view of workplace deviance is misguided. We’ve found that leaders have a strong effect on whether employees engage in deviant behaviors. Thus, when employees act badly, their leaders would be wise to take a step back and consider whether and how they may be complicit in that behavior. Workplace deviance includes employee behaviors that violate organizational norms in ways that threaten the well-being of companies and their employees. Sometimes these behaviors are directed toward individuals, such as when an employee physically or verbally lashes out at a colleague or gossips with coworkers. Other times, deviant behaviors are directed toward an organization, such as when an employee steals workplace property or leaks confidential company information. The consequences of workplace deviance include productivity and inventory losses, as well as a host of other expenses that ultimately cost organizations billions of dollars annually. Continued here S23 Just over 1 in 4 members of Congress in 2023 will be women - at this rate, it will take 118 years until there is gender parity When the 118th Congress convenes on Jan. 3, 2023, the number of women among its 535 members will inch up by just two – increasing from 147 in 2022 to 149 in 2023. Even though more women than men voted in the the 2022 midterm elections, women’s representation in Congress, with a total of 535 members, will then stand at just 27.9%. Continued here S49 Pain is not the purview of medics. What can historians tell us? | Aeon Essays Medical science can only tell us so much. To understand pain, we need the cultural tools of history, philosophy and art is a senior research fellow at HEX, the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences at Tampere University. His books include Feeling Dis-Ease in Modern History (edited with Bettina Hitzer, 2022), Humane Professions (2021) and Emotion, Sense, Experience (with Mark Smith, 2020). His next book, Knowing Pain: A History of Sensation, Emotion, and Experience, will be published in May 2023. Continued here S46 NASA’s plan to identify dangerous asteroids takes a major step forward There’s an adage in the engineering field — what gets funded gets built. So it’s sure to be a happy time over at the Planetary Society, as NEO Surveyor, the project the organization has primarily supported over the past few years, has made it through NASA’s grueling budgetary process to reach the “development” stage, with an eye for a launch of the system in 2028. NEO Surveyor is, as the name implies, a satellite specifically designed to survey objects near the Earth (NEO). One of its primary contributions will be to look for asteroids and other small bodies that are potentially on an eventual collision course with Earth but are invisible to typical NEO survey missions because of their location in the solar system. Continued here S62 The Psychology of Your Scrolling Addiction Studies have shown that 77% of employees use social media while on the job. Why is it so easy to fall down the rabbit hole of content consumption? And what does it take to pull yourself out and get back to the work you want to be doing? In this piece, the authors discuss the results of a series of studies exploring what makes people more or less likely to get sucked into endlessly watching videos or looking at posts. They identify three key factors — how much media you’ve already viewed, the similarity of the media you’ve viewed, and the manner in which you viewed it — and argue that all three have the power to influence how appealing related content is likely to feel. Based on these findings, they suggest that if you’re worried about falling into a social media rabbit hole, you should take steps to reduce the similarity, repetitiveness, and relatedness of the content you’re consuming. Continued here S50 A square inch in a Petri dish becomes a grand stage for chemical transformations | Aeon Videos In Chemical Somnia, the Canadian filmmaker Scott Portingale captures the beauty of chemical reactions in wondrous detail. Using time-lapse and macro photography, even a spot smaller than a square inch on a Petri dish springs to dazzling life, capturing processes of crystalisation, phase change and fluid dynamics at speeds and sizes that the human eye can relish. Portingale sets these visuals to a dramatic string score from the Turkish composer Gorkem Sen – performed on an instrument called a yaybahar, which Sen himself invented. Through their inspired collaboration, the pair craft an otherworldly experience at the intersection of human and hidden scales, and the worlds of art and science. From violent criminal to loving parent – a son’s story of his father’s transformation Continued here S24 The British monarchy has always controlled how much we see of it, but Charles III could change that The late author Hilary Mantel once wrote of Queen Elizabeth II that she was “a thing that existed to be looked at”. This became even truer in death. From the moment the sovereign left Balmoral Castle in the back of the glassy hearse on September 8 2022, we could, if we wanted, stare nonstop at her coffin for the eight days that followed. The visibility of the monarchy – of both Elizabeth II and of her successor, Charles III – during that extraordinary period was unprecedented. Continued here S53 How to Debate Ideas Productively at Work Research tells us that cognitive diversity makes a group smarter. Two heads are, indeed, better than one, and many heads are even better, especially when everyone is willing to share their expertise and opinions. While diverse thinking and disagreements can be uncomfortable, they are more likely to lead partners or a team to make progress, innovate and come up with breakthrough solutions than consensus and “nice” conversations in which people hold back what they think. But how do you have a productive debate? By reminding your group to follow four general rules: Remember we’re all on the same team. Keep it about facts, logic, and the topic at hand.  Don’t make it personal. Be intellectually humble. Continued here S59 Is Data Scientist Still the Sexiest Job of the 21st Century? Ten years ago, the authors posited that being a data scientist was the “sexiest job of the 21st century.” A decade later, does the claim stand up? The job has grown in popularity and is generally well-paid, and the field is projected to experience more growth than almost any other by 2029. But the job has changed, in both large and small ways. It’s become better institutionalized, the scope of the job has been redefined, the technology it relies on has made huge strides, and the importance of non-technical expertise, such as ethics and change management, has grown. How it operates in companies — and how executives need to think about managing data science efforts — has changed, too, as businesses now need to create and oversee diverse data science teams rather than searching for data scientist unicorns. Finally, companies need to think about what comes next, and how they can begin to think about democratizing data science. Continued here S54 When You're Younger Than the People You Manage Welcome to the ranks: More than 60% of Millennials and nearly half of Gen Z employees say they are people managers. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, take a moment to bask in your glory. Adding the word “manager” to your title might feel intimidating at first, but you’re here. You did it. Take a beat to celebrate the exhilarating road ahead. Continued here S30 DNA in the water shows South African scientists where to find a rare pipefish Keeping track of the world’s wildlife populations is fundamental to conservation efforts in the face of the continued deterioration of global biodiversity. But some species are harder to study than others. Some aquatic species, for instance, elude detection because they are extremely rare and sparsely distributed. Continued here S51 A Matchmaker's Advice on How to Make a Great First Impression at Work I embarked on a research project to find out. For 10 years, I interviewed my single clients, their former dates, and even random singles at bookstores, airport lounges, and speed dating events. More than 1,000 people shared their stories with me: stories about why they initially connected with someone but lost interest after a first date, stories about online attractions that sparked as fast as they fizzled, and stories about first impressions that almost immediately went sour. Continued here S56 A Refresher on Regression Analysis You probably know by now that whenever possible you should be making data-driven decisions at work. But do you know how to parse through all the data available to you? The good news is that you probably don’t need to do the number crunching yourself (hallelujah!) but you do need to correctly understand and interpret the analysis created by your colleagues. One of the most important types of data analysis is called regression analysis. Continued here S64 The Case for a Chief of Staff New CEOs are typically focused on creating and implementing a strategy, building a top team, and driving culture change. Optimizing administrative workflow may not seem to be a priority. But a former CEO who now advises boards argues that many chief executives need a chief of staff (CoS)—someone who goes beyond the executive assistant role to help the office function smoothly. According to one CoS, the role encompasses being an air traffic controller for the leader and the senior team, an integrator connecting work streams that would otherwise remain siloed, a communicator linking the leadership team and the broader organization, an honest broker when the leader needs a wide-ranging view without turf considerations, and a confidant. In this article Ciampa outlines what a CoS does, the qualities one needs to succeed, and the ways companies typically design the role (with varying levels of responsibility) to help make a CEO more focused and productive. Continued here S65 How Managers Become Leaders Few managerial transitions are more difficult than making the move from leading a function to leading an entire enterprise for the first time. The scope and complexity of the job increase dramatically, in ways that can leave executives feeling overwhelmed and uncertain. It truly is different at the top. But how, exactly? Career transition expert Michael Watkins set out to explore that question in an extensive series of interviews with leadership mentors, HR professionals, and newly minted unit heads. 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