David Lidsky's Blog, page 2677
July 18, 2016
5 Jobs That Will Be The Hardest To Fill In 2025
There is a labor shortage looming over the next decade, and jobs in these sectors will be the most difficult to fill.
With low labor-force participation, declining immigration levels, and the looming retirement of baby boomers on the horizon, the U.S. labor market is tightening and driving up wages. Over the next decade, the country will experience a labor shortage that will disproportionately affect some industries and professions, predicts an April 2016 report from The Conference Board.
Your Brain Makes You A Terrible Listener--Here's How To Fix It
When we hear a person's words, we also try to imagine why they're saying them. Most of us suck at this.
Economics used to operate under the belief that people are rational actors. Behavioral economists came along and said that's crazy—there's no such thing as a rational actor. People make decisions for all kinds of irrational reasons. It turns out the same thing is true when we listen.
Scientists Explain All Your Dumb Hiring Decisions
You've definitely heard of cognitive bias by now, but you might still be surprised how deep it can run.
You probably don't need a reminder of how much bad hires can hurt—but here's one anyway: Some research suggests that each bad hire leaves employers with a monetized loss of over $50,000 in productivity. It's also been estimated that replacing bad hires—especially those with specialized skills—can cost companies several times workers' annual salaries.
How Machine Learning Will Help You Make Healthier Choices At Work
One Googler explains how small innovations now are adding up to "smart," health-boosting workplaces of the future.
It's not easy to be healthy. And it's even harder to be healthy at work, where chances are—despite the vogue for standing desks and the like—you're parked in a chair for most of the day, focused on a screen. The average workweek, by one recent measure, is now 47 hours and counting. By and large, more time spent at the office means more time hunched over a computer, probably eating lunch at a desk. Stress—which has been linked to increased risk of stroke, heart disease, and other health issues—is just about inevitable as a result.
July 17, 2016
A Toxic Mix Of Wishful Thinking And Corruption: The Saga Of Iraq's Fake Bomb Detector
Even after the deadliest car bombing in over a decade, Iraqi policemen were still using the ineffective device.
The Iraq car bombing that claimed almost 300 lives on July 3 was blamed by some on the ineffectiveness of a fake bomb detector. Originally developed as lost golf-ball finders, the so-called ADE-651 devices were fraudulently marketed to Iraq and other nations over the last decade as handheld bomb detectors by a British businessman now sitting in jail. But police in Baghdad are still deploying the widely condemned devices at security checkpoints across the city.
Your Photo Of A Burrito Is Now Worth A Thousand Words
Yelp has incorporated deep learning methods that reflect AI trends in major tech companies and change the user experience for the better.
That burrito in your hands—so warm, so gooey, the richness cut by cilantro and red-hot spice. Before you take a bite, you'd better take a picture.
July 15, 2016
What's On Your Phone? Probably Not Your Wallet
Mastercard is just the latest financial behemoth to jump into the mobile wallet game, but it's not clear if anyone is winning in this space.
At a grandiose event atop the World Trade Center, Mastercard unveiled new technology that will enable partnered banks and retailers to send and accept money through a mobile phone. The announcement "will have marked an important moment in our history, and we hope, our industry," said Mastercard's Craig Vosburg.
Why Is This Ad Promoting Getting Your Coworkers Fired?
A San Francisco-based firm tries to recruit staff by advertising that they fire people. It's attention-grabbing, but does it work?
San Franciscans taking public transportation are greeted with an ad emblazoned with the words "We Fire People."
Cleveland's RNC "Event Zone" May Be A Petri Dish For Violence
Opposing protest groups will mix freely in downtown Cleveland next week, and everybody can carry guns.
An estimated 50,000 people are flocking to Cleveland for the Republican National Convention next week. And just as Donald Trump disrupted the party's politics and traditions, his convention is expected to be far more chaotic than the GOP's usually tightly scripted affairs.
How A Groton Geek Won The Education App Sweepstakes
Using Apple technology, one small publisher figured out how to compete with the big boys who dominate the market for high school texts.
At 3:59 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12, John Conner was fidgeting at his kitchen table. He looked down at his iPhone, then up to the hands of the kitchen clock, then down to his iPhone, and up to the clock again, and down and up again...and you get the picture. Conner, the dean of faculty at Massachusetts' elite Groton School, is a gentle, slyly ironic man who still dons the occasional seersucker suit and the awkwardly thin tie—the kind of man, in other words, who prefers getting the time from the hands of an old kitchen clock than from the digits on the iPhone in his hand.
David Lidsky's Blog
- David Lidsky's profile
- 3 followers
