FanFare

Meet the man who figured out how to reshape national politics by making tiny investments in the smallest of places. [more inside]
posted by Monochrome on Jun 15, 2018 - 2 comments

Patty McCord helped create a workplace at Netflix that runs more like a professional sports team than a family. If you're not up to scratch, you're off the team. Is this the future of work?
posted by schmod on Sep 2, 2015 - 8 comments

More than 90% of all automobile accidents are all attributable to human error. For some car industry people, a fully-automated car is a kind of holy grail. However, as automation makes our lives easier and safer, it also creates more complex systems, and fewer humans who understand those systems. Which means when problems do arise—people can be left unable to deal with them. Human factors engineers call this “the automation paradox.”
posted by radioamy on Jul 1, 2015 - 5 comments

Alex Blumberg is a former producer for This American Life and Planet Money. Last year he founded Gimlet Media, a podcast network, and hosts its first show, StartUp. “When someone starts talking about something difficult, when they get unexpectedly emotional, your normal human reaction is to sort of comfort and steer away. To say, ‘Oh I’m sorry, let’s move on.’ What you need to do, if you want good tape, is to say, ‘Talk more about how you’re feeling right now.’ It feels like a horrible question to ask. It feels like you're going against your every instinct as a decent human being to go toward the pain that this person is experiencing.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Lynda and Alarm Grid for sponsoring this week's episode. [more inside]
posted by bq on Jan 30, 2015 - 1 comment

A simple primer on (and multiple warnings about) short-selling stock. Fun fact: Unlike the risk of buying a stock, shorting one opens the trader to possibly losing much more than the original investment. [more inside]
posted by psoas on Jan 22, 2015 - 2 comments