All posts tagged: better way

How to disagree better – The Atlantic

How to disagree better – The Atlantic

Published by Sam

Our writers’ perspectives on arguing and communicating in healthier ways Damir Sagolj / Reuters February 17, 2024, 8 AM ET This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. In the 1887 essay “Silent People as Misjudged by the Noisy,” an Atlantic contributor proposed an economical approach to talking: “As we get on in life past the period of obstreperous youth, we incline to talk less and write less, especially on the topics which we have most at heart,” the writer noted. “We are beginning to realize the uselessness of perpetually talking … If there is a thing to be said, we prefer to wait and say it only when and where it will hit something or somebody.” Many of us wish we were better at waiting to speak until we knew our words would “hit something or somebody” exactly how we want them to. But more …

Think Twice Before Taking the Top Job

Think Twice Before Taking the Top Job

Published by Sam

Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. I teach many young adults who aspire to be leaders in the private and public sectors. In their classes, they study inspiring cases of success, but they also learn that a good education is no guarantee that things will go well for them. Indeed, as the Harvard Business Review reminds us, some 50 to 70 percent of new executives in private business fail in their role within 18 months of being hired or promoted. We don’t have comparable numbers for the public and nonprofit sectors, but success is far from assured there as well. The reasons usually presented for leadership failure are predictable enough: an inability to build a team, poor communication skills, an unwillingness to do hard things, selfishness, misconduct or moral turpitude, and so forth. But one huge reason that I have seen again and again almost never gets serious attention: Leaders fail when they hate being the leader. People commonly assume that …

The Last Days of the Barcode

The Last Days of the Barcode

Published by skeptic

Once upon a time, a restless cashier would eye each and every item you, the consumer, purchased and key it into the register. This took skill but also time—and proved to be an imperfect way to keep track of inventory. Then one day, a group of grocery executives and inventors came up with a better way: what we now know as the barcode, a rectangle that marks items ranging from insulin to Doritos. It’s so ubiquitous and long lived that it’s become invisible. In this episode of Radio Atlantic, editor Saahil Desai gives an early obituary to a monumental and fading technology. Desai walks us through the surprising history of the barcode, from its origins in the grocery business to Walmart and Amazon (with a detour to the movie Deep Throat). The barcode allowed grocers to stock infinite varieties of everything, which led us to expect infinite varieties of everything and made us the highly demanding and sometimes addicted shoppers we are today. We talk about the barcode and the technology that is about to …

The Books Briefing: What a Classical-Music Critic Reads

The Books Briefing: What a Classical-Music Critic Reads

Published by skeptic

This is an edition of the revamped Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. I love music, but I never learned to play an instrument (something I still occasionally blame my parents for—though, as a father myself, I should know better). The mechanics and language of music are a blind spot for me—a deficiency I was reminded about as I tried to edit a recent essay from Anthony Tommasini, the former chief classical-music critic for The New York Times. Tommasini reviewed a new book about the composer Arnold Schoenberg, whose early-20th-century experiments in music were akin to Pablo Picasso’s in painting and James Joyce’s in fiction. But Schoenberg’s work—and the other envelope-pushing music it inspired—has not found the same sustained interest and acclaim as Picasso’s and Joyce’s. In fact, his music is often categorized as challenging or even infuriating. Tommasini makes a wonderful case for Schoenberg and his continued relevance. But in order to understand his argument and Schoenberg’s innovations, I needed to appreciate the difference …

Talk to a Stranger and Be Happier

Talk to a Stranger and Be Happier

Published by skeptic

Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. Did you miss Diversity Day a few months back? It falls each year on May 21, and is formally designated by the United Nations as “World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.” Personally, I always celebrate the day. I have a cake, and sometimes even a party. Admittedly, that date also happens to be my birthday. And in truth, I am not sure I’d mark the day with festivities if it weren’t my birthday: Do we really need the UN to urge us to go out and celebrate diversity? Few people could disagree with the value of diversity, but somehow, the bureaucratic hectoring makes it seem a bit spinach-y: good for us but not very enjoyable. A better way to think about diversity, in my view, is how it can make us happier every day. The truth is that diversity is indeed very good for us, both as a society and as individuals. …