Founding vs Inheriting by Balaji Srinivasan: “When an heir inherits an institution, it’s like inheriting a factory. During normal times the factory continues to operate, the widgets keep coming out, and the career managers appointed by the original founder appear to have everything in hand. Nothing seems amiss. But something important has been silently lost, which is the founder’s ability to invent the institution from scratch – or reinvent it in the face of a crisis, like COVID-19. We can also think of this as read-only culture, the ability to repeat what an ancestor has handed down – but not recreate it from first principles.” [via Arnold Kling]
The power of personal: “Make both customers and workers feel that there is a person on the other side of the transaction. You’ll increase satisfaction, sales, and product quality.” [Thomas McKinlay]
How to forget something: “Memory relies on what cognitive scientists call retrieval cues…Rather than total retrieval-cue avoidance, try a technique called thought substitution. If you had a bitter argument with your sister and think of it every time you see her, work to focus on other, more positive associations. Practice until your brain sees her face and surfaces those better memories first and not the fight. You can also work on what cognitive scientists call direct suppression. ” [from NYTimes]
