HBR: “The best leaders, we’ve discovered, pay close attention to the goals employees have in the workplace—to feel valued and connected, to have a sense of purpose, and to perform their jobs well—and react to people’s emotions in ways that support those goals. They also know when to simply acknowledge employees’ feelings, when to give advice, and when to provide employees with the space and time to handle their emotions privately. The choices leaders make here matter. In a review of 220 studies on the effects of how people respond to others’ emotions at work, which was published in 2024, we found clear evidence that what leaders say or do when they see that employees are upset, frustrated, or overwhelmed can have enormous consequences.”
WSJ: “Drinking water is crucial for preventing dehydration and keeping the body functioning, particularly in the heat of the summer. But consuming too much over a short period can lead to health problems including disorientation, nausea, vomiting and, in severe cases, seizures or death. Overhydration could be a growing issue, some researchers say, as more people train for endurance competitions like marathons, heat waves become more frequent and reusable water bottles become a staple of everyday life. The message of staying hydrated is so ubiquitous that 40-ounce, stainless-steel tumblers have become status symbols. “People have this fear that they’re always dehydrated or underhydrated and they need to fix that regularly,” said Colleen Muñoz, director and co-founder of the Hydration Health Center at the University of Hartford. “That’s probably not usually the case.””
Bloomberg: “Game theory can help explain how ranked choice voting changes the behavior of candidates, as well as the elites who support them. Consider a ranked choice election that has five or six candidates. To win the election, you can’t just appeal to your base. You also can’t alienate your opponent’s base. You want supporters of other candidates to regard you as “not too bad,” because if they hate you, they could rank you very low and get you tossed out of the running quickly. Candidates are thus encouraged to moderate their positions and their behavior — that is, not to call each other too many names. If the favorite candidate of one voter calls the favorite of another “weird,” for example — to choose an example not quite at random — the latter voter might respond by voting down the name-caller to the very bottom. The result? Negative campaigning diminishes, and politics moderates. The effect can be especially pronounced in party primaries, which sometimes are dominated by the most extreme voters. The candidates also compete in different ways. In particular, they try to outdo each other when it comes to constituency service, which is a way of being popular without offending anybody.”
FT: “LinkedIn is deploying artificial intelligence to issue career advice and has introduced games to the platform, in a drive to hook in users more often and stimulate growth in the fiercely competitive social media industry. The professional social network has recently introduced daily puzzles, as well as AI features to develop articles that can advise workers…“It’s about building this daily habit,” editor-in-chief Daniel Roth told the Financial Times. “Once you’re on LinkedIn, it’s time to share your knowledge, get knowledge, get information and get content.”…“Practical advice and tools are the best bet for expanding usage: getting back to that core mission of why people use LinkedIn rather than competing in different spaces that you don’t have to compete in,” said Rebecca McGrath, a technology analyst at Mintel.”
