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1 month ago | 
freakonomics.com | Mark Gardiner |Michael Roberto |Stephen Dubner
Episode Transcript
Hey there, it’s Stephen Dubner, and I’d like to thank you for the overwhelming response to our most recent episode, which was called “Ten Myths About the U.S. Tax System.” There were a lot of good suggestions for follow-up episodes, and we’ll certainly keep those in mind.
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Jan 11, 2025 | 
michael-roberto.blogspot.com | Michael Roberto
When we ask for advice from others, we would like their independent opinion. In other words, we would benefit a great deal if we did not influence their response. However, many of us frame our question or request in a way that does bias the advice we receive.
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Aug 16, 2024 | 
michael-roberto.blogspot.com | Michael Roberto
Effective leaders do not just articulate their goals clearly and concisely; they test for alignment repeatedly. Did their message get through clearly to those several levels below them in the organizational hierarchy? Do middle managers and front-line employees understand the priorities, and do they know what is expected of them? Why might alignment around goals and priorities not exist? Here are five key reasons:1.
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Aug 1, 2024 | 
michael-roberto.blogspot.com | Michael Roberto
Katherine C. Kellogg and her co-authors have written a fascinating new HBS Working Paper titled "Don’t Expect Juniors to Teach Senior Professionals to Use Generative AI: Emerging Technology Risks and Novice AI Risk Mitigation Tactics." They begin by noting that experienced managers often can learn a great deal from younger, less experienced employees. The scholars note the benefits of this "reverse mentorship" in their paper.
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Jul 15, 2024 | 
michael-roberto.blogspot.com | Michael Roberto
Derrick Bransby, Michaela Kerrissey, and Amy Edmondson have published some fascinating new research on psychological safety in the Harvard Business Review. They found an alarming trend regarding new hires and their willingness to speak up. They write, "We studied more than 10,000 employees in a large organization and discovered that new hires’ psychological safety eroded swiftly.
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Jul 12, 2024 | 
michael-roberto.blogspot.com | Michael Roberto
John Keilman has written a Wall Street Journal article this week that is titled "Harley Will Ride or Die With the Graybeards." Keilman reports that, "The Milwaukee-based company is selling less than half as many bikes as it did during its 2006 peak. Harley’s portion of the U.S. large motorcycle market recently dropped to its lowest level since the 1980s." He notes that the average age of the Harley customer has risen substantially in the past two decades.
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Jul 1, 2024 | 
michael-roberto.blogspot.com | Michael Roberto
Professor Craig Wortmann recently shared some terrific advice in a Kellogg Insights column titled, "How to Talk About What You Do (without Being Boring)." Wortmann explains two key mistakes that people make either during job interviews or at networking events. Put simply, many individuals either share too little or too much. Imagine someone asks, "What do you do?" One person might simply state their occupation (banker, lawyer, professor, doctor, etc.).
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May 30, 2024 | 
michael-roberto.blogspot.com | Michael Roberto
We all have experienced projects that miss key deadlines and exceed budgets. It's not a fun experience. In retrospect, it seems obvious that we were overly optimistic in our estimates. Yet, at the start, we thought we had been reasonable, even conservative, in our projections. Why do we make these crucial errors? One study offers an interesting explanation.
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Feb 6, 2024 | 
michael-roberto.blogspot.com | Michael Roberto
Do we learn more from in-person collaborators than remote teammates? That question has been top of mind for many people over the past few years. Much of the dialogue about this question has not been evidence-based though. It's been highly anecdotal. Recently, however, I read about some fascinating research on the topic.
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Dec 19, 2023 | 
michael-roberto.blogspot.com | Michael Roberto
Physicist Peter Carruthers, once the leader of the theoretical division at Los Alamos Laboratory, had a wonderful viewpoint about the discomfort that comes with taking on an interesting challenge: “There’s a special tension to people who are constantly in the position of making new knowledge. You’re always out of equilibrium. When I was young, I was deeply troubled by this.
