Culture

Let’s play a game — identify your dominant hand. Quickly snap your fingers five times with that hand. Now, take the forefinger on your dominant hand and draw a capital “E” on your forehead. Daniel Pink — recently named to the Strategic Advisory Council of outplacement services company RiseSmart — calls this game “The E Test.” It’s been used since the 1980s to measure what social scientists call “perspective-taking.” The results can give us insight into your worldview — do you see things strictly from your own perspective, or do you take the views of others into account?

Harvard Professor Paul Peterson and Former Assistant Secretary of Education Chester Finn have been studying the American education system for a long time. What they've observed is a disturbing trend.

 "We had the greatest schools in the 19th century and the early 20th century," said Peterson. "We had elementary education before any other country. We had high schools before any other country. We built colleges before any other country."

But in the 1970s, the momentum changed. 

Do you ever wonder why so many movies now have a number at the end? Superman 3, Batman 5, Fast and Furious 1, 2, 3, 4...(we could go on.) Anita Elberse, professor at Harvard Business School, certainly did. In her new book, Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment, Elberse argues that, despite living in a world with more media sources and entertainment options than ever, our tastes are converging on the flashiest blockbuster hits and the biggest superstars.

What it will take to generate the energy and fuel for a planet that just hit 7 billion and isn’t done growing? Read More...

Think about those emails you get every minute, the texts constantly vibrating in your pocket, a news cycle that never ends. In his book Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, best-selling author Douglas Rushkoff offers up an arresting theory about how living in this brave new world changes us.

If you were to travel back in time 20 or 30 years and tell the first person you saw that machines in the future could read your checks, deposit them, and dispense exactly the amount of money you needed whenever you needed it, you probably would get a few raised eyebrows. Yet, how many times have you visited an ATM in the past month instead of a human bank teller? In a new controversial study from Oxford University, researchers Michael Osborne and Carl Frey argue that this kind of automation is only the beginning. They predict that in the next twenty years an astounding 47 percent of American jobs may become automated.

Most of us have seen a television commercial and thought: “If only I had that iPad, that new television set, or that big Jacuzzi, I’d be so much happier.” But Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, authors of the new book "Happy Money" aren’t so sure. When it comes to money—whether in the form of a bonus, a new car, or the latest gadget--they argue that more is not always better. 

When it comes to new technology, Guy Kawasaki is ahead of the curve. Former Chief Evangelist at Apple and now special adviser to Google in their Motorola division, Kawasaki has long been a Silicon Valley insider. "You can't buy me, but you can rent me," he quips. This week, Kawasaki tells us what he sees ahead for tech. And with legions of followers on Google+ and Twitter, his predictions carry a lot of weight.

Imagine you're a doctor about to write a prescription for a patient, but you realize what she really needs is food, or heat, or a safe place to live. For years, you had two options, says Rebecca Onie, co-founder and CEO of Health Leads. You could either adopt a "don't ask, don't tell policy" and look the other way, or spend valuable time away from clinical care addressing social needs. (In fact, one survey conducted at Bellevue hospital found that for every fifteen minute visit with a patient, doctors spent 9.2 minutes addressing social – and not medical – needs.) That’s where Health Leads comes in. 

What was the last television show your friends, family, or coworkers were buzzing about? Chances are, it wasn't on regular cable television. Brian Stelter, media reporter at the New York Times and author of Top of the Morning, says innovations in television programming and delivery may soon pull the plug on cable as we know it. If you've ever recoiled in horror at the sight of a hefty cable bill, you're not alone - and you may have other options. Companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon have introduced devices that stream content directly from the Internet to your television, bypassing cable altogether. "They're putting Trojan horses in our living rooms," says Stelter, who says such devices could cut in on cable's sizable audience.