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In the second lecture of a Harvard economics course called “Using Big Data to Solve Economic and Social Problems,” there is a very interesting chart. But first, let me provide some context. A few weeks ago I mentioned Raj Chetty, a Harvard economist who—you might have guessed—uses big

In accounting, there are two types of transactions. Explicit transactions occur when cash exchanges for a good or service. You paid $20 for a haircut. You can explicitly record that transaction in your accounting book. The other type of transaction is a lot more interesting. Implicit transactions occur over time

I recently heard some marketers say, when conducting market research surveys, “Whatever numbers we need, we’ll reverse engineer the math to hit those numbers.” They said the same thing about headlines. It gave me pause, but it also made me think about larger issues in marketing and publishing. First,

Business contracts are complicated. Filled with “heretofore” and “supplier shall” jargon and endless clauses that try to account for every possible scenario, contracts are usually only ammunition for court. However, a forthcoming article in the next issue of Harvard Business Review suggests a new approach to business contracts, and thus

As I catch up on the news cycle this morning, I’m noticing that wealth inequality is a popular topic in many financial publications. Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio, for example, believes wealth inequality is our biggest economic, social, and political problem facing our nation today. He points out that

A raging debate in evangelical Christian circles right now focuses on women in leadership. Similarly, an important conversation in business right now is all about women in leadership. I wonder if these two arenas are related. The debate in Christianity is over what theologians call “complementarianism” and “egalitarianism.” The former

At work we talk a lot about “the law of market share.” It means that a market leader in any category has only about 20% of their market—which means the leader captures only 1 in 5 customers. This is true regardless of industry. We use this to inform our

Because we are not omniscient creatures, we have to feel our way through life in the dark. One way to bring light to our surroundings is through language. Unfortunately, language is complex. On top of that, our limited nature is really good at overcomplicating things, and language is one of

Well, contrary to my own estimates, robots are in fact pretty good with language. If you don’t know, I’m a content strategist at a marketing agency by day. Unfortunately for me, an artificial intelligence program at JPMorgan Chase has created marketing copy that outperformed human copywriters. Here’s

In the shadow of work is rest. While we were created to work, we were also created to rest. The problem is that American culture isn’t very good at it. That’s because, as The Atlantic pointed out a few years ago, being busy is a status symbol. A