THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER 2006. DAN SPERBER Social and cognitive scientist, CNRS, Paris; author, Explaining Culture Culture is natural A number of us — biologists, cognitive scientists, anthropologists or philosophers — have been trying to lay down the foundations for a truly naturalistic approach to culture. Sociobiologists and cultural ecologists have explored the idea that cultural behaviors are biological adaptations to be explained in terms of natural selection.
Memeticists inspired by Richard Dawkins argue that cultural evolution is an autonomous Darwinian selection process merely enabled but not governed by biological evolution. Evolutionary psychologists, Cavalli-Sforza, Feldman, Boyd and Richerson, and I are among those who, in different ways, argue for more complex interactions between biology and culture. Dangerous ideas are potentially important. Braving insults and misrepresentations in defending these ideas is noble. But wait a minute! The bid would be unrealistic, and so is the fear. Life and death of great ideas (Idea approval index) Many leaders talk about progress, but overlook simple indicators. One easy measure is the Idea Approval Index (IAI). To get this number simply ask one question: How many approvals are needed for an employee to deliver on an idea for a customer? In most organizations it’s a high number. From committees, to review meetings, to long email threads, most companies inhibit change.
A) Marla starts her own company. B) Rupert is a middle manager at Bigtech. That means there are 24 chances for someone to kill the idea no matter how good it is. 24 chances for someone to feel threatened or scared or to insist on stupid changes which is often the first response established people have to new ideas. If you want faster exploration of new ideas lower the Idea Approval Index. (If you dig this kind of thinking: you’ll love the new paperback edition of my bestseller, The Myths of Innovation) The rise and rise of the cognitive elite. Why Parents Hate Parenting. So how do they explain your anguish? I ask. “They just think that Americans are a little too complicated about everything.” One hates to invoke Scandinavia in stories about child-rearing, but it can’t be an accident that the one superbly designed study that said, unambiguously, that having kids makes you happier was done with Danish subjects.
The researcher, Hans-Peter Kohler, a sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says he originally studied this question because he was intrigued by the declining fertility rates in Europe. One of the things he noticed is that countries with stronger welfare systems produce more children—and happier parents. Of course, this should not be a surprise. MOMS: Ever feel alone in how you perceive this role?
This was an opening gambit on UrbanBaby this past April. I totally feel this way. I am a f/t wohm—Work Outside the Home Mom—have a career, and I don’t feel smart or interesting anymore! And couples probably pay the dearest price of all. Les femmes et les technologies de l’information | Digital-In. La direction générale d’IBM a été confiée le 1er janvier dernier à une femme, Ginni Rometty. Première femme à diriger la grande marque centenaire, elle y a effectué toute sa carrière puisqu’elle y a été embauchée comme ingénieur technico-commerciale avant de diriger la branche Services où elle réussira l’intégration de PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Entreprise très attentive à son image, IBM est pionnière sur nombre de sujets concernant sa gestion des ressources humaines et a été dans les années 60 une des premières à confier des responsabilités commerciales et managériales aux femmes en s’appuyant sur une politique volontariste de formation et de promotion interne. La républicaine milliardaire et la démocrate afro-américaine HP, concurrent direct d’IBM, est également dirigé par une femme, Meg Whitman, diplômée de Princeton et de Harvard et multimilliardaire suite à son passage remarqué chez Ebay où elle a fait passer le C.A du groupe de 7 millions à 7 milliards de dollars. How to Be Creative. 40,000 Norwegians gather to sing song Breivik hated. Up to 40,000 Norwegians staged an emotionally-charged singalong in Oslo on Thursday near the court house where Anders Behring Breivik is on trial for the murder of 77 people in a protest organisers said showed he had not broken their tolerant society.
"It's we who win," said guitar-strumming folk singer Lillebjoern Nilsen as he led the mass singalong and watched the crowd sway gently in the rain. Many held roses above their heads, and some wept. The protest followed several days of defiant testimony from Breivik who has admitted he killed his victims in a brutal attack on Norway's multicultural society, but denied criminal guilt, saying he did so in self-defence.
The crowd chose to sing a song - "Children of the Rainbow" - that extols the type of multicultural society Breivik has said he despised and one that he specifically dismissed during the trial as Marxist propaganda. Anders Breivik's trial: A round-up of the first week Norway needs to see Breivik implode. Measuring what makes life worthwhile.