Whatever Happened to the United Farmworkers?
On New Year’s Day, a friend mentioned that Frank Bardacke had published his long-anticipated history of the rise and fall of Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers. It was worth the...
When Protection Makes You Weaker
A recent best-selling book suggests that people were Born to Run, yet data suggest that between a third and half of runners get hurt running every year. Why is this? Journalist...
Steve Jobs: One Last Thing…
In preparation for landing at SFO, I had closed the MacBook Air and turned off the iPad, but as I touched down, my iPhone beeped. The text from my son made...
“We are Going to Pass” The Ten Reasons that VCs Turn Down Startups
Every few years, Silicon Valley grows strong, flies high, makes beautiful music and then, like the Phoenix of ancient myth, burns to ashes and starts the cycle again. At the moment,...
Mills and the Future of All-Women Colleges
At the end of last year’s hit movie, The Kids are All Right, Nic and Jules (Annette Benning and Julianne Moore) drop off their daughter Joni (Mia Wasikowska) to begin her freshmen...
Ben Horowitz: Tech’s New Andy Grove
If Silicon Valley is rich, how come it ain’t smart? How is it that we consistently generate innovative companies but rarely produce management thinkers of consequence?
Part of the problem is that...
Atul Gawande: America’s Doctor
Who is Atul Gawande and why is he having a bigger impact on your life than any physician in America who is not treating you?
Gawande is a cancer surgeon in Boston....
Billionaire Amazon CEO works in his own warehouse
He may look like a leprechaun and laugh like a hyena, but do not ever underestimate Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Back in 2006, Amazon accounted for 5.1% of all...
Redesigning California
Most clichés about California are true: we are both America’s most urban state and its most agricultural. We are home to more national parks, more immigrants, and a better public university...
The Horrible Choices Facing the US Auto Hospice
The United States will either lose its car industry and with it much of the industrial midwest, or the federal government will force it to restructure against its will -- something...
Does EFCA Give Workers a Free Choice?
As befits a vanguard organization, Espresso Workers Local One was well ahead of its time. It was a project of the Industrial Workers of the World (the IWW, or Wobblies), a...
Can Ron Bloom and the White House Save the US Auto Industry?
I think very highly of Ron Bloom, the Steelworker Financial adviser just named by President Obama as the car czar. Ron and Diana Farrell of the National Economic Council will head...
Understanding the Economic Triple Whammy
We are in the middle of three economic crises. Although it would be preferable to handle an attack of food poisoning, a vicious cold, and the flu separately, we got all...
The Economics and Politics of Choice Architecture
Some years back, I passed through Schiphol in Amsterdam and realized why some designers consider it the world’s finest airport. Its layout is logical and efficient, public internet terminals are numerous...
Media Wants to Be Digital and Free
Intel founder Gordon Moore famously observed that chip density doubles about every two years. Thanks to Moore's Law, computer processing gets cheaper exponentially, not arithmetically.
Metcalfe's Law is a lesser known but...