Wednesday 24th April 2024

How Burnout Became Normal — and How to Push Back Against It - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)

Slowly but steadily, while we’ve been preoccupied with trying to meet demands that outstrip our resources, grappling with unfair treatment, or watching our working hours encroach upon our downtime, burnout has become the new baseline in many work environments. From the 40% of Gen Z workers who believe burnout is an inevitable part of success, to executives who believe high-pressure, “trial-by-fire” assignments are a required rite of passage, to toxic hustle culture that pushes busyness as a badge of honor, too many of us now expect to feel overwhelmed, over-stressed, and eventually burned out at work. When pressures are mounting and your work environment continues to be stressful, it’s all the more important to take proactive steps to return to your personal sweet spot of stress and remain there as long as you can. The author presents several strategies.

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Who Has Savings in This Economy?

Perhaps not surprisingly, those aged 60+ are the age group with the highest percentage saying they have leftover money at the end of the month. This age group spent the most time making peak earnings in their careers, are more likely to have investments, and are more likely to have paid off major expenses like a mortgage or raising a family.

All three of these countries have stable, well-developed economies, so it’s unlikely that any of them will default on their growing debts. With that said, higher government debt leads to increased interest payments, which in turn can diminish available funds for future government budgets.

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Why a stronger dollar is dangerous - The Economist (No paywall)

It sets the stage for a nasty new Trump-China clash, among other things

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The Man Who Killed Google Search

This is the story of how Google Search died, and the people responsible for killing it. The story begins on February 5th 2019, when Ben Gomes, Google’s head of search, had a problem. Jerry Dischler, then the VP and General Manager of Ads at Google, and Shiv Venkataraman, then

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The unsurprising non-detection of intelligent aliens

If you’ve ever gazed up at a dark and clear night sky, you might feel the same thing that I do each and every time: a feeling that it’s beckoning us and drawing us in to explore and wonder what’s out there in the great abyss of space. Each point of distant, twinkling light isn’t just a star in its own right, but also a chance: for planets, for biochemistry, and for life. If we really allow our imaginations to run wild, we might even imagine the existence of something better than mere life, such as the existence of intelligent, self-aware, and technologically advanced civilizations.

But that brings up a question that humanity has obsessed over for generations: If the ingredients for life are common, and we evolved naturally, then where is everyone else? Many of you consistently write in with variations on this question, including Franco Camporeale, Oleg (Alex) Naum, and Zoe Eppley, asking things like:

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"Tend and befriend": The simple relationship hack for burnout resilience

Research has shown that the most important factor in determining how you respond to stress is how you think about your ability to handle it. Don’t miss the significance of this statement. The power to determine your best response to stress is in your control, and it depends on nothing more than how you choose to view your ability to manage it. With a little practice, you can learn to shift from a threat response to a challenge response, even if you’ve lived with an overactive amygdala your whole life. Here’s how it works.

The second you face a stressor, your brain automatically begins to evaluate the situation and the resources you have at your disposal to respond to it. Beneath your conscious awareness, the brain begins gathering information: How hard will this be? Do I have the strength, skills, courage, and the help I need to face this and get through it?

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The Chiron effect: Are "wounded healers" better healers?

Bret broke up with his long-term girlfriend. He’s lonely and cries more often than anyone knows. Stuck in a dark place, he picks up the phone and messages Anth. Anth isn’t a close friend, but Bret picked him over his dad, his brother, and his best friend is because Anth went through a brutal divorce last year. He knows what this pain feels like.

Ellen has just been told she has breast cancer. The doctor, though young, is friendly and says all the right things, but she still wants to scream in his face. He gives Ellen a leaflet. It has undoubtedly passed eight rounds of medically rigorous editing, but she throws it in the bin after one read. Later, a nurse says to her, “Oh, I had breast cancer five years ago. All clear now.” And Ellen looks up. Suddenly, she wants to know everything this nurse has to say.

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Buy Now, Pay Later Lender Affirm Expands Into Financing Elective Medical Procedures

Over the past year, Affirm has more than doubled the number of elective medical merchants on its network, reaching around 130 at of the end of 2023. The San Francisco-based company is hoping to tap growing consumer demand for financing for cosmetic treatments, dental services, medical devices and veterinary procedures. 

While Affirm has been adding elective medical providers since the middle of last year, it has not previously discussed or publicized its push into the sector, the first by a major BNPL provider in the U.S. market, the company said.     


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Antitrust Watch: U.S. Sues to Stop Handbag Deal, Grocery Chains Sell Off to Boost Merger Odds

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday sued to block Coach parent Tapestry's $8.5 billion deal to buy Michael Kors owner Capri, saying it would eliminate "direct head-to-head competition" between the flagship brands of the two luxury handbag makers.

"The proposed merger threatens to deprive millions of American consumers of the benefits of Tapestry and Capri's head-to-head competition, which includes competition on price, discounts and promotions, innovation, design, marketing and advertising," the FTC said.


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Levi Strauss' Direct-to-Consumer Shift Trades Wholesaler Habits for Increased Efficiency

Levi Strauss is famous for its blue jeans--but the 170-year-old company is looking to update itself to boost sales of its signature product and more. For starters, it's drawing notice as a deft manager of its customer relationships and its use of their data. That focus is giving the company an edge in efficiently marketing its popular clothing.

The major changes still underway at Levi Strauss were highlighted in a Wall Street Journal update on the company's 2022 historic strategic shift that reduced its longtime reliance on selling its products through department stores and other wholesaler channels, instead dealing directly with consumers.  


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