David Lidsky's Blog, page 296

VW workers threaten more strikes unless leadership makes better compromises

Last week’s strikes at VW’s four carmaking factories are estimated to have cost Volkswagen just under 40,000 euros ($42,308) per minute.

Volkswagen workers said its management had one last chance to compromise on Monday or risk strikes on a scale not previously seen by the German carmaker, as talks began in a bitter standoff over wage cuts and plant closures.

Reddit rolls out its own AI-powered search tool after cracking down on AI companies

Reddit’s RDDT stock jumped 4% by mid-afternoon on Monday in response to the new AI search tool.

Reddit has spent the past six months blocking data scrapers from artificial intelligence companies that refused to pay for access to its vast content database. Now, the social media site has rolled out a new tool of its own that utilizes AI to search the site. And Reddit stock (Nasdaq: RDDT) is soaring, climbing 4% to $169 per share by mid-afternoon on Monday. 

Activist investors want Macy’s to create a real estate unit

They said that Macy’s shares are undervalued and that its real estate is worth between $5 billion and $9 billion.

Activist investor Barington Capital Group is calling on department store retailer Macy’s to develop an internal real estate subsidiary, reduce capital expenditures, and explore strategic options for its Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury chains among other changes to boost its slumping stock, according to its proposal made public Monday.

Luigi Mangione arrested by police as ‘strong person of interest’ in CEO shooting: What we know so far

Law enforcement officials picked up the 26-year-old suspect from a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he was reportedly carrying an anti-healthcare manifesto.

Law enforcement officials have arrested a suspect in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was killed early Wednesday morning outside his midtown Manhattan hotel.

Why you should write your competitor’s business plan

It’s not just an exercise when launching a new business. Here’s how to think deeply about your competition during times of change.

Writing a thorough business plan is a necessary if tedious part of starting a business. But it’s not just for the startup phase. It’s also a good practice for existing businesses to review their initial business plans, and make adjustments after evaluating the plan’s accuracy. A crucial part of any business plan is the competitor analysis: taking a deep dive into what motivates your business’s competitors, and how they approach the market, will inform your strategy. 

What you can do to avoid toxic productivity

It’s easy to fall into the productivity trap. Here’s what you can do to steer clear of unhealthy habits and reduce burnout.

As 2024 comes to a close, you might be feeling the pressure between year-end deadlines and holiday plans. Perhaps you’re looking to supercharge your productivity—or maybe you’re thinking ahead to your resolutions and what you might accomplish in the new year.

Why Jaguar’s controversial new logo actually signals a big shift in car branding

Carmakers are signaling their move from combustion to electric vehicles with new logos that are lighter, rounder, and more lowercase.

The tantrums thrown across social media over the past few weeks in reaction to Jaguar’s redesign have once again revealed a fundamental contradiction underlying contemporary branding. According to its practitioners, it is supposed to differentiate and distinguish companies and their products, allowing them to stand out from the crowd, a line of thinking that was reinforced just last month when New York creative agency &Walsh rolled out its new mantra, “Find your weird.” But any attempt to do something even slightly weird with regard to advertising, marketing, or logo design is typically met by legions of armchair brand analysts taking to LinkedIn to declare it a failure. In Jaguar’s case, though, many took it a step further, viewing the rebrand as some sort of personal affront.

How Alex Karp helped turn Palantir into the West’s AI arms dealer

The way Palantir’s CEO sees it, the AI race is about no less than the future of liberal democracy.

Alex Karp, the chief executive of Palantir, knows his products can be dangerous. Built to extract insights from torrents of data with machine learning and AI, his company’s software is optimizing manufacturing and supply chains but also warfare and kill chains, helping target weapons in Ukraine and across the Middle East. To some, accelerated AI development is an existential threat worthy of a pause. Karp—a brash, self-described socialist who earned his philosophy doctorate in Germany before Palantir chairman Peter Thiel tapped him to run the startup two decades ago—looks at those dangers differently. The way he sees it, not moving fast is the existential risk.

NASA administrators work to get astronauts and space programs off the ground. Here’s how

They play a vital role in deciding what NASA does and how it does it, and they also help build political support for space exploration.

Leaders of NASA sit in an awkward position. While they are the head of a widely recognized organization, they’re often not the most famous individual in the agency. More people probably know the names of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the astronauts currently “stranded” on the International Space Station, than Bill Nelson, the current NASA administrator.

The cognitive cost of AI

Artificial intelligence can help with many types of work, but learning how to mitigate the ‘mind tax’ is important.

I exist at the intersection of two worlds, management and artificial intelligence (AI), which are evolving at different paces. I’ve witnessed firsthand how generative AI tools can democratize access to knowledge, accelerate learning, and spark creativity in ways we never imagined possible. The potential of AI-skilling is staggering. According to a recent report by the AI Forward Alliance, AI-skilling for women and girls is a path to sustainable development that can add $212 billion to the global economy and increase economic resilience.