Sometimes a theory becomes so powerful that no fact can withstand a collision with it. Indeed, it accumulates such overwhelming attractiveness as a persuasive, explanatory model, that facts wandering into its range are simply either absorbed or obliterated. It happens so quickly and completely as to escape detection. A violent end with no witnesses. In many ways, psychoanalysis is a good example of this . . .
Benjamin Graham, author of the venerable “Intelligent Investor,” used the phrase “Mr. Market” to make the point that the stock markets are often irrational, thus presenting profitable opportunities for investors. And today, it is also common for supposedly sophisticated and hard-nosed stock market observers to anthropomorphize the market. . .
An animal behaviorist calls ants inept individuals who, somehow, are able collectively to create striking organizations which can both adapt efficiently to their own evolving needs and cycling changes in the environment, and respond effectively to most emergencies arising from natural catastrophes or marauding neighbors. Inept individuals, no one of whom has any clue as to how they all do it, but who manage to do it anyway. As for us . . .
Have you noticed the uniformity, in recent years, in the must-have look for male actors – and, indeed, for celebrities in many fields? In this age of carefully market- researched entertainment, you can rest assured that this particular fashion trend clearly is intended to make a statement. . .
That’s what scientists are: the myth-makers of today. Strings and quarks, anti-matter and boson particles: what are they but the earth, wind, water, and fire of our age – speculated entities imagined precisely in order to resolve gaps in our theories, magically endowed values reinforcing our expectations and hopes, studio-designed resolutions to real-world dissonances. We imagine that we are opening new frontiers with these investigations. But if we look more closely . . .
The word “entrepreneur” is one of those that sends pulses racing and sets hearts a-fluttering among management gurus and organizational “leaders” around the world. It sparks images of boldness and creativity, daring endeavors and world-changing innovation. And so this term, which specifically refers to those who venture to launch new businesses, has become an adjective describing yet a new superlative quality of the ever-celebrated hero-leader. But “Bootstrapping,” by Sramana Mitra . . .
We’ve noted over the past two days that a historic feature of international law holds that regimes that are tolerated by their people must be viewed as fundamentally legitimate. A problem with this is that it is often impractical for those people to do other than try to tolerate the otherwise intolerable, lending an implausible legitimacy to some pretty unpleasant regimes. As a result, leaders and followers alike can find themselves desperately collaborating in some disturbingly Orwellian devices to help them accommodate to the facts on the ground. This happens in the world of work, as well . . .
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