Most Popular Editorials: So You Botched a Job Interview. What's Next?

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So You Botched a Job Interview. What’s Next? There’s nothing worse than preparing for an interview and blowing it. How can you move forward after flubbing a question — or an entire interview? The author offers five ways to turn a bad interview into success. First, take time to debrief yourself after the interview. Second, use a thank-you note as an opportunity to clarify any questions you might not have answered as well as you would’ve liked. Third, try to keep from ruminating. Fourth, keep your job search moving. Finally, prepare for your next interview — either at the same company or a different one. Continued here

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Are Personalized Ads a Waste of Money? Many Big Tech companies have created platforms that offer businesses tips and tools and services to better target their customers online. These can be helpful — but anybody relying on them needs to be very careful. That’s because many of the claims that these companies are making encourage companies to spend money on ads that target customers who are already inclined to buy. Continued here

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What the Lean Startup Method Gets Right and Wrong The Lean Startup approach was an instant hit in Silicon Valley, as startups embraced this new experimental ethos. Indeed, the evidence strongly suggest that startups should engage in experimentation along the lines pioneered by the Lean Startup Method. But there are two problems with the Lean Startup approach: First, it pushes founders to “get out of the office” and talk to customers as quickly as possible. But the focus on getting fast feedback from customers to Minimal Viable Products makes startups prone to aim for incremental improvements, focusing on what customers want today, rather than trying to see ahead into the future. Second, while the questions Lean asks are useful — you should know who your customers are! — it doesn’t ask the most important one: what is your theory about why your company is going to win? Continued here

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Harvard scientist on why that song is stuck in your head David Silbersweig, Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry and co-director of the Center for the Neurosciences at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, explains how earworms take hold of the brain. Continued here

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How to Architect Your Smartphone for a More Focused Life Use the Pyramids of Phone Productivity to design a digital environment that aligns with the lifestyle you want Continued here

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Psychiatrists are uncovering connections between viruses and mental health. They’re surprising. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, one of the biggest questions was: Why do some people get so much sicker than others? It’s a question that has forced researchers to confront some deep mysteries of the human body, and come to conclusions that have startled them. Continued here

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The Health Toll of Poor Sleep Sleep — both its quantity and its quality — is one of the most frequently discussed health topics. How often have you told a friend or relative, “I’m exhausted, I was up half the night”? Continued here

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How to Skillfully Answer 'What Is Your Desired Salary?' in a Job Interview "In an interview, how do you answer 'What is your desired salary?' without seeming too cheap or too expensive to get the job?" originally appeared on Quora--the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Continued here

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The Top 20 Business Transformations of the Last Decade In 2012, Denmark’s biggest energy company, Danish Oil and Natural Gas, slid into financial crisis as the price of natural gas was plunging by 90% and S&P downgraded its credit rating to negative. The board hired a former executive at LEGO, Henrik Poulsen, as the new CEO. Whereas some leaders might have gone into crisis-management mode, laying off workers until prices recovered, Poulsen recognized the moment as an opportunity for fundamental change. Continued here

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Overwhelmed? Adopt a Paradox Mindset With lockdowns closing schools and offices around the world, it’s become commonplace to see dogs and kids barge into business meetings as the boundaries between work and life have blurred. A seamless balance is impossible. We have to do both – work plus managing our lives, our spouses, kids, pets and home – all at once. Continued here

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Stop Doing Your Team’s Work for Them Your primary task as a leader is to build capability below you — but for new managers, this can be especially challenging. You want to be liked. That’s natural. But remember: Placing performance pressure on your team isn’t cruel. A leader who stretches their people risks the possibility of not being liked in order to give others the opportunity to grow. This means the next time you are tempted to solve a problem for your team member, stop yourself. Turn it into a learning opportunity instead. Continued here

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How driverless cars will change our world It's a late night in the Metro area of Phoenix, Arizona. Under the artificial glare of street lamps, a car can be seen slowly approaching. Active sensors on the vehicle radiate a low hum. A green and blue 'W' glows from the windscreen, giving off just enough light to see inside – to a completely empty driver seat. Continued here

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Science says it’s essential to make time to do nothing. Here’s why Most weeks, I spend my days working from home — thinking, writing, and trying to remember to unmute my Zoom mic before I start talking. By the end of the day, when I finally close my laptop, my brain is fried. Most nights I’m so zonked it’s all I can do to open Instagram and scroll through my feed until time becomes a blur, wanting to stop but unable to tear myself away from the comforting narcotic glow of novelty and stimulation. Continued here

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Grounded! What did a year without flying do to the world? On 14 March 2020, I left my home in the Orkney Islands to drive to Edinburgh international airport. I was due to travel to Germany for a research trip. Full of nervous anticipation, and making frantic last-minute preparations, I hadn’t paid as much attention to the coronavirus crisis as I might have, but events were developing so quickly across Europe, it was dawning on me that international travel might not be an option for much longer. Continued here

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IQ tests can't measure it, but 'cognitive flexibility' is key to learning and creativity Are you good at changing perspectives? If so, it may benefit you in more ways than you imagine. Continued here

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How to Identify What You Enjoy Arthur C. Brooks and Lori Gottlieb discuss the importance of fun, the cultural distortion of emotions as “good” or “bad,” and how envy points you in the direction of your deepest desires. Continued here

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The clockwork universe: is free will an illusion? Towards the end of a conversation dwelling on some of the deepest metaphysical puzzles regarding the nature of human existence, the philosopher Galen Strawson paused, then asked me: “Have you spoken to anyone else yet who’s received weird email?” He navigated to a file on his computer and began reading from the alarming messages he and several other scholars had received over the past few years. Some were plaintive, others abusive, but all were fiercely accusatory. “Last year you all played a part in destroying my life,” one person wrote. “I lost everything because of you – my son, my partner, my job, my home, my mental health. All because of you, you told me I had no control, how I was not responsible for anything I do, how my beautiful six-year-old son was not responsible for what he did … Goodbye, and good luck with the rest of your cancerous, evil, pathetic existence.” “Rot in your own shit Galen,” read another note, sent in early 2015. “Your wife, your kids your friends, you have smeared all there [sic] achievements you utter fucking prick,” wrote the same person, who subsequently warned: “I’m going to fuck you up.” And then, days later, under the subject line “Hello”: “I’m coming for you.” “This was one where we had to involve the police,” Strawson said. Thereafter, the violent threats ceased. Continued here

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What Resilience Means, and Why It Matters A small but intriguing new survey by a pair of British consultants confirms the importance of resilience to business success. Resilience was defined by most as the ability to recover from setbacks, adapt well to change, and keep going in the face of adversity. But when Sarah Bond and Gillian Shapiro asked 835 employees from public, private, and nonprofit firms in Britain what was happening in their own lives that required them to draw on those reserves, they didn’t point to tragedies like the London Tube bombings, appalling business mistakes, the need to keep up with the inexorably accelerating pace of change, or the challenges of the still-difficult economy — they pointed to their co-workers. Continued here

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The global market valuation of sectors | COVID Response Center | McKinsey & Company Track the changes in market valuations of industries since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Continued here

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What CIOs need from their CEOs and boards to make IT digital ready | McKinsey What CIOs need from their CEOs and boards to make IT digital ready | McKinsey As any CIO or tech leader can tell you, transforming IT and modernizing a business's technology estate is a significant challenge. Making matters worse, many CEOs and board members still cast a jaundiced eye on large tech projects, which have traditionally run over budget and delivered below expectations. Unfortunately, this mindset undermines the support CIOs need to successfully drive their tech transformations.To understand how CEOs and board members can better support their tech leaders, we spoke with about 120 senior tech leaders and 30 senior business executives over the past 18 months. These detailed interviews provided a range of insights, but these five, in particular, highlight the best measures CEOs and boards can take to provide CIOs with the support they need: Continued here

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To Become a Top Executive, Take Control of Your Personal Brand Today In today’s search-engine era, numerous search platforms make it easier than ever to find out all you could ever need to know about products, businesses or even personal information about senior-level executives. At the same time, with so much information out there, it can be easy to go unnoticed — which is why companies dedicate entire teams to branding their image, mission, vision and values. This branding helps grow their business.  Continued here

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Motivating Employees Is Not About Carrots or Sticks Leaders often rely on the carrot vs. the stick approach to motivate employees, where the carrot is a reward for compliance and the stick is a consequence for non-compliance. But this is an outdated approach that never really works well. Motivation is less about employees doing great work and more about employees feeling great about their work. There is no stronger motivation for employees than an understanding that their work matters, and is relevant to someone or something other than a financial statement. To motivate your employees, start by sharing context about the work you’re asking them to do. Recognize that challenges can materially impact motivation. Be proactive in identifying and addressing them. What might make an employee’s work difficult or cumbersome? What can you do to ease the burden? And remember that if you’re not engaged and enthusiastic about the work you do, it’s unlikely that your team will be. So, check in with yourself about how motivated you are for the job at hand, because employees feel more motivated when their leaders are also motivated. Continued here

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Learning by Doing: When Does it Work? When Does it Fail? - Scott H Young How much do we learn simply by doing the things we’re trying to get good at? This question is at the heart of a personal research project I’ve been working on for several months. Readers can note some previous entries I’ve already written on this project. Continued here

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Processed Foods | Diet Tips While you know by now that processed foods are bad for your overall health—there’s no denying their convenience. This is why they make up so much of Americans’ diets. But just what are all those foods doing to your heart health? And while an occasional trip through the drive-thru won’t hurt, just how much ultra-processed food is too much? Continued here

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When Data Creates Competitive Advantage Many executives assume that customer data can give you an unbeatable edge. The more customers you have, the more data you can gather, and that data, when analyzed, allows you to offer a better product that attracts more customers. You can then collect even more data, repeating the cycle until you eventually marginalize your competitors. But this thinking is usually wrong. Though the virtuous cycles of data-enabled learning may look similar to those of network effects—wherein an offering increases in value to users as more people adopt it and ultimately garners a critical mass of users that shuts out competitors—they are not as powerful or as enduring. Continued here

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Extreme poverty: how far have we come, how far do we still have to go? Despite making immense progress against extreme poverty, it is still the reality for every tenth person in the world. Continued here

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When Hiring Nobody Is Better Than Hiring Just Anybody As the Great Resignation continues, the temptation to hire anyone willing to take the job should be tempered by the many potential consequences of making a bad hire. If both hiring no one or hiring “just anyone” can be harmful, how can managers know whether it’s better to take a chance on a non-ideal candidate or keep a position vacant until they’re able to find a better one? The authors present four traits that have the biggest impact on teams — reliability, job-readiness, a positive attitude, and good communication skills — and provide guidance for how to support your short-staffed team in the meantime. Continued here

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How do death rates from COVID-19 differ between people who are vaccinated and those who are not? To understand how the pandemic is evolving, it's crucial to know how death rates from COVID-19 are affected by vaccination status. Continued here

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Is the Four-Day Workweek Finally Within Our Grasp? - The New York Times In May 2020, as the pandemic sent stress levels through the roof, an online children’s clothes retailer called Primary started an experiment that it hoped would prevent its staff from burning out: It gave everyone Fridays off. Continued here

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'Why do you like Shah Rukh Khan?' - BBC News I put the question about the Bollywood superstar to a couple of my friends recently. They were taken aback - it wasn't a question they had ever considered. I hadn't either, but a new book, Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh, made me wonder. Continued here

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Elements of Effective Thinking - Farnam Street Do you have a process for making decisions? Are you using mental models and connecting big ideas from multiple disciplines? Are you taking steps to reduce cognitive biases? Have you defined the problem, and do you know what success looks like? Continued here

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They Say Suffering Makes You Stronger. It's Not That Simple | Time It would be nice if it did, particularly since so many of us have been suffering these days. Around three-quarters of a million Americans have died of Covid, and those who loved them often didn’t get to say goodbye or hold a proper funeral. Millions have lost their jobs or their businesses, millions have had their life projects put on hold or derailed. There have been those trapped together who hate each other and others who essentially lived in solitary confinement. Even the luckiest experienced boredom, anxiety, and dread. Continued here

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Is society coming apart? | Society | The Guardian Despite Thatcher and Reagan’s best efforts, there is and has always been such a thing as society. The question is not whether it exists, but what shape it must take in a post-pandemic world Continued here

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Good conversations take time and attention. Here's how to have better ones : Life Kit Having good conversations is an art form. NPR's Sam Sanders tapped longtime radio host and podcaster Celeste Headlee for her tips for really listening and connecting. Continued here

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Can Afghanistan’s underground “sneakernet” survive the Taliban? A once-thriving network of merchants selling digital content to people without internet connections is struggling under Taliban rule. Continued here

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5 Myths About Strategy Unless you have sealed yourself off in a social media echo chamber, lies are easy to spot.  Except, that is, when the lie is a big one.  People hearing or reading big lies start to doubt themselves and think ‘maybe I have got things completely wrong’.  That’s why politicians and propagandists tell big lies. They’re not trying to assert a truth so much as sow doubt and confusion about what is true.  That’s bad, but a smart person can resist a big lie by looking at the evidence at hand. Continued here

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Are you stuck in a “logic box”? Many years ago, as a young business reporter at the New York Times, I learned about the pernicious concept of institutional imperative. The phrase was coined by Warren Buffett, who first wrote about it in his 1989 letter to shareholders, to help explain why organizations that are run by generally smart leaders often make misguided decisions. Though the term institutional imperative sounds like a good thing, Buffett characterized it as a sheeplike response to power and the status quo that can derail critical thinking. Continued here

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How to feel less tired: the 7 types of rest everyone needs These days, it’s hard to find someone who wouldn’t describe themselves as ‘exhausted’. Despite developments in sleep science and increased interest in the secret to getting a good night’s rest, many people feel more tired than ever. So, what gives?  Continued here

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When It’s OK to Trust Your Gut on a Big Decision Should you use your gut feel or not? Recent research suggests that it can be useful, especially in highly uncertain circumstances where further data gathering and analysis won’t sway you one way or another. Where there is debilitating evidence that delays decision making, trusting your gut allows leaders the freedom to move forward. But before relying on it, do two things. Recognize the type of problem at hand. Ask, What is the level of “unknowability”? Reserve your intuition for those decisions that go beyond routine, where calculations of probabilities and risks are not only unrealistic, they are infeasible. Second, be aware of the context in which you are making the decision. If you’re operating in an environment where successful mental models and schemas have already been developed and proven, focus on method and execution. If you’re seeking to make an unusual, distinctive, “diamond in the rough” type of decision (think about trying to predict the next startup unicorn), gut instinct can be helpful. And once you’ve decided to rely on your intuition, don’t try to explain it or justify to others how you arrived at it. If you apply logic and data to gut feel, the more likely you are to put off a decision or make a worse one. Continued here

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The 5 Simple Habits That Can Extend Your Lifespan by Up to 10 Years | by Alexa V.S. | Mind Cafe | Oct, 2021 | Medium According to a 30-year Harvard study, doing these simple and effective things can drastically extend your longevity. Continued here