Listen to Professor Nalebuff as he explains his strategies for coming up with great ideas. (MP3) (iTunes U)
- What would Croesus do?
- Look where incentives are messed up
- Start with an answer and look for a question
- Where else would it work?
Author: Simon Peter (Page 2 of 11)
Currently a doctoral candidate in Management and Economics. Professionally a management consultant. Genuinely interested in technology and its impact on society.
The GIMP, the popular Open Source Photoshop-like tool, might eventually get a new user interface. It’s been about time!
A German court ruled that it is illegal in Germany to operate DVD-renting machines on Sundays, since, according to the court, renting DVDs is a “typical working-day procedure suitable to interfere with Sunday rest” (auf deutsch einen “typisch werktäglichen Lebensvorgang, der geeignet sei, die Sonntagsruhe zu beeinträchtigen”). Note well that no employees are involved in the fully automated renting process at all! The court does acknowledge that the videos rented can be “for the pleasure of customers on Sundays”, but then concludes that “doesn’t mean that they couldn’t be rented during the week”.
How ridiculous.
Germans have (more or less) become “used” to the fact that almost anything has to be closed on Sundays for legal reasons. It used to be similar on Saturday afternoon, but that has changed for the better lately. No shops, no… well, anything, now not even vending machines.
It’s so sad. What can we do against this kind of stubborn stupidity?
(If you find this as ridiculous as I do, then go ahead and digg it!)
After all, we, the Internet generation, are used to do anything anytime.
After seeing a bright spot far on the horizon when looking westwards over Schussental Valley, I decided to track down and visit the place. Turns out the bright spot is a actually an illuminated cross. Not that there are many of this sort in Germany. Interesting place… (enter “Oberlupberg, Germany” in Google Earth if you want to pilgrimage there.)
In Harvard hat das neue Semester begonnen, und bei Macy’s in San Francisco sind bereits Weihnachtsbäume aufgebaut. Ja: der Sommer ist vorbei. Auch die Temperaturen werden merklich kühler. Und so packe ich denn die Koffer und mache mich auf die Heimreise: Good bye, USA! Es war ein traumhafter Sommer.