"Owe nothing to anyone, except for your obligation to love one another. For if you love the other, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law."

Romans 13:8

Don’t Want a Robot to Replace You? Study Tolstoy

From Naked Capitalism:

Why having explored the humanities is a career plus.

Yves here. Some confirmation of this article’s thesis on the value of studying the humanities comes from Google’s study of the differentiating characteristics of its best managers. This list is ranked in order of importance. Note where technical skills fit in.

Be a good coach;
empower your team and don’t micromanage;
express interest in employee’s success and well-being;
be productive and results-oriented;
be a good communicator and listen to your team;
help your employees with career development;
have a clear vision and strategy for the team; and
have key technical skills, so you can help advise the team.

Now admittedly, you have to have technical chops to get hired at Google, but having those undervalued soft skills makes a difference the long run makes, and studying art and literature helps cultivate them. By contrast, studies suggest that studying economics reduces empathy.

Having said all of that, it’s still distressing to see that the rationale for education is mercenary, and not about being a better citizen and having broad-based cultural knowledge.

Economist Morton Schapiro, president of Northwestern University, and his colleague, literary critic and Slavic studies scholar Saul Morson, argue that—contrary to popular belief—studying the humanities is the key to not getting outsourced.

Morton Schapiro, president of Northwestern University, is an economist. Gary Saul Morson, his colleague, does close readings of Tolstoy. Together they teach a course on what economists can learn from the humanities and have co-authored a book, Cents and Sensibility, on the same theme. In the following conversation, they offer insights on how students can get ahead in the job market, what universities are for, why economists should read great novels, and more.

Lynn Parramore: You argue that economists need to know what makes human beings tick and they need to understand ethics, culture and narrative. Why do you feel so strongly about this?

Morton Schapiro: Economists do a good job applying our theories and tools to subjects that are normally associated with other fields, such as the cycle of poverty, individual behavior, and so on. But there’s evidence in citations and surveys that economists approach other fields in a more imperialistic way than they probably should. Saul points out that there’s an idea that other fields have the great questions and economists have the all the answers. Economics brings a lot to these other fields, but these other fields could bring a lot more to economics. One that’s far-flung from what economists usually think of as a basis for useful knowledge is literature.

Saul Morson: Some things can only be explained by stories, like great novels. Ethical questions can be endlessly complex, which is a central theme of great authors like George Eliot. The realistic model of people you get in literature is a lot closer to what people really are like than what you often find in economics.

By the very nature of needing to mathematicize their theories, economists can’t account for some things. You can’t mathematicize culture. A lot of theories covertly smuggle in certain cultural assumptions, like the notion that everybody is like an American. But everybody is not. What looks like an economic model turns out to be a cultural model, and cultures really do differ.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/02/dont-want-robot-replace-study-tolstoy.html

"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."

Corintians 12:9

Innovation's Holy Grail

It would be useful to read the following article in conjunction with the concept of inclusive innovation which emphasizes inclusive growth and economic development..  One of the significant flaws of Korea's economic model lies in not fully taking into consideration inclusive innovation and growth in the long run.  I am not sure that the current administration is well aware of this.  A solid economic policy requires a long term undertaking innovation that drives inclusion.


From Harvard Business Review:

Most innovation programs are built on the assumptions of affluence and abundance. The more, the better. Striving for bigger margins is B School 101. However, we see shaken consumers in the United States and Europe asking for inexpensive or value-for-money products and services. We see billions of first-time consumers in China and India—where economic growth is surging and 2 billion to 3 billion people will join the middle class in the next decade—who can afford only the cheapest offerings. We see the rich and the young in both the developed and the developing worlds demanding environment-friendly products and services. Affordability and sustainability, not premium pricing and abundance, should drive innovation today.

https://hbr.org/2010/07/innovations-holy-grail

나태주: 새사람

제가 좋아하는 시인 중의 한 분이 나태주님 입니다. 우리 설날 맞이하여 더욱 건강하시고 이루려는 모든 일 성취하시기 기원하며 이 시를 올립니다.

새사람

나태주  (1945-)

새해 새날입니다

어제 뜬 해 다시 뜨지만

새해 새날입니다

어찌 새해 새날입니까?

새 마음 새로운 생각이니

새해 새날입니다

삼백 예순 다섯 개

우리 앞에 펼쳐질

디딤돌이거나 징검다리

그 많은 날들을

우리는 하나하나 정성으로

건너가야 합니다

그리하여 삼백 예순 다섯 날

모두 보낸 다음 스스로

말할 수 있어야 합니다

잘 했다 참 잘했다

그것으로 충분했다

후회가 없어야 합니다

새해 새날입니다

새로운 마음 새로운 생각

우리 모두 오늘은 새사람입니다

Apple Shipped More Watches Than Switzerland In Q4 2017

What are the implications of growing uses of smart devices like smart watch?  We hope that technology advancement would benefit more people across the globe if it would be aligned with the conventional devices in smart ways with a good intention.


From Zero Hedge:

For the first time ever, Apple shipped more watches during the holiday quarter last year than the entire Swiss watch industry exported..

Despite the fact that the Apple Watch is consistently playing second (or third) fiddle to the iPhone in terms of public attention, the evidence suggesting that Apple has yet another hit product on its hands is piling up.

According to estimates by market research firm Canalys, the Apple Watch had its best quarter ever in Q4 2017. Driven by the release of the Series 3 model including (optional) LTE support, Apple shipped 8 million watches between October and December, bringing its total for the year to more than 18 million units.

As Statista's chart illustrates, that puts Apple ahead of the entire Swiss watch industry (think Rolex, Swatch etc.) for the quarter, supporting the company’s claims that the Apple Watch became the top-selling watch in the world some time in 2017.

For all of 2017, BI reports that the Swiss exported more watches than Apple shipped, and the Chinese still make far more watches than anyone. But as the data indicates, Apple is rapidly gaining ground.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-13/apple-shipped-more-watches-switzerland-q4-2017

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you"
Peter 5:7

Protests in Tunisia Over IMF-Promoted Policies….for Good Reason

From Naked Capitalism:

Why the IMF’s standard prescription is a poor fit for Tunisia.

IMF’s response[1] to an article published by The Guardian[2] criticizing the organization’s austerity-based requirements in Tunisia is a clear indication of the theoretical framework and the causal links inspiring its operations.

IMF is not the only international donor promoting supply-side policies in Tunisia as well as in the MENA region. Domestic governments in the area have hardly changed their economic agendas, although 2011 uprisings made clear how social discontent was fueled by dire economic conditions and widespread, long-term unemployment.

However, the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF), a 4-year programme approved in May 2016 of US $ 2.9 billion, has played a significant role in shaping Tunisia’s macroeconomic policies, which have in turn contributed to impact on Tunisians’ purchasing power and prospects. In early January 2018 – a very eventful month in Tunisia’s history – people took once again to the streets to protest against 2018 Finance Law, which incorporates several IMF’s recommendations on fiscal discipline.

This law includes a number of fiscal measures to cut the budget deficit to 4.9 of the GDP and comply with the requirements of EFF, meant to promote macroeconomic stability and improve the business climate for private investors.

Nevertheless, this law will hardly unleash sustained private investment rates, let alone growth. It introduces a package of increases in indirect taxation (e.g. the VAT rates, purchase taxes on several consumer goods, the cost of fuel and electricity, etc.) and raises the fiscal burden on enterprises and formal public and private employees, with serious and worrying implications on social justice and redistribution.

The importance of facilitating private initiative in an efficient and transparent way through better governance and institutional reforms may sound as a reasonable point for everybody to agree upon. Yet, a serious discussion is needed on what kind of private initiative is to be promoted and in which sectors.

Tunisia is still stuck in a stagnant economic model consolidated over the past decades, characterized by a huge dependency on foreign demand and capital, driven by tourism, export-oriented manufacturing (mostly consisting of mere assembling and/or low-value-added activities, mostly in the textile, mechanical and electronic sectors) and call centers[3]. This model has proven to be extremely polarizing – both socially and geographically -, as it is traditionally based on low wages and a productive structure concentrated along the coastal areas, marginalizing the hinterland and unable to evolve into a model that can prompt productivity gains and long-term growth.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/02/protests-in-tunisia-over-imf-promoted-policies-for-good-reason.html