Good thinkers are good questioners. Answers can be helpful but they only have a fixed value. Furthermore, answers tend to become obsolete at an accelerating rate. In addition, analytical thinking is only powerful when it can access a large and accurate base of knowledge--and when one's biases are kept in check.
Do angry blue-collar voters have a point? The losers have been ignored. The evidence reveals that a safety net is going to be needed for companies and workers who have been exposed by policy. Eduardo Porter
Why are high profits a problem for big American companies? Big profits are usually ignored, except by investors.
Profits could be a sign of brilliance or wise investments. But they could be a way to squish competitors. So what, if anything, should be done about them? Economist
Why is learning central to sustained innovation.
The key to successful innovation, most think, is all about improving the development process--or adding new tools. But actually, it's skilled people, not processes, that make for great product. MIT Sloan Mgmt Review
Why do both conservatives and liberals thrill to 'populist' politicians?
Do they have anything in common besides bluster? NYTimes Magazine
Are college students becoming victims of fear and pain?
Some Emory students describe themselves as afraid and in pain after reading "Trump 2016" in chalk around campus. They demanded that the university president take "punitive and positive action." Is this merely political correctness? Or is there another way to understand their demands. Two sociologists argue that there is a new moral order of a victimhood culture, and it is turning students into moral dependents. Heterodox Academy.
How has truth changed for all of us?
Google's Larry Page has imagined a society where smartphones are miniaturized and hooked into a person's brain. If you need some facts, the phone will tell you the answer. Jill Lepore writes that in the history of truth, a new chapter begins. For example, An American Presidential debate has a lo more in common with trial by combat than with trial by jury, which is what people are talking about when they say these debates seem 'childish': the outcome is the evidence. Essentially, when we Google facts, we give up our reason, and, in a republic, our citizenship. Lepore has her finger on how truth has changed. A new chapter begins. The New Yorker.