Summer slowdowns — the phenomenon of a surge of employees taking time off during the summer months — are the bane of executives, but they may be necessary for better productivity. Charlie Warzel argues that a culture that encourages employee breaks benefits both workers and companies in the long run, and that embracing summer slowdown policies such as company-wide breaks can help invigorate workers. He cites Microsoft Japan’s successful four-day work week trial as evidence that productivity grows when workers aren’t exhausted. Read full article here
Education
Overcoming Bias
Kai Cheng’s professor had a brilliant scheme. In his first lecture, he promised that each lecture would feature a “Lie of the Day”. But why? It made his students more attentive and analytical, poring over every detail of his lecture and making sense of why things were true. It was such a powerful teaching method that his students digested his most technical lectures quite easily because they tried so hard to catch his lie. The kicker? There was no lie in that first lecture; he had lied about that too! Read full article here
Merv
August 17, 2022
