Morning Advantage: In Case of Emergency, Break Greece
HBR.org 2012-06-04
"If you're the prime minister of a small European country," says Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman in this BBC interview, "you have only two options. One is to go along with whatever the Germans are demanding, and the other is to leave the euro." Not surprising, then that Krugman sees Greece inevitably pulling out of the euro zone, perhaps around the mid-June elections. The attitude of other euro zone countries seems to be less "Don't leave" and more "And stay out!" according to findings from this Pew Research Center poll. It shows just how isolated Greece has become. Of the eight European countries in the survey, citizens in seven chose the Germans as "hardest-working." The holdout? Greece, where the choice was Greece. (People in five countries chose Greece as the laziest country, a category in which Greeks chose Italy.) Greece was also the country where respondents held the harshest view of European integration, with just 18% saying it had helped their economy. But if Greece does leave the euro, what's the impact? Central bankers seem clueless. And if there's one thing that makes central bankers panicky, it's feeling clueless.
Netflix Never Implemented the Algorithm that Won the Netflix Prize (TechDirt)
This item is from April, but new to me (and I hope, you). How come Netflix shelled out $1 million in its much-ballyhooed recommendation-engine competition — and then never used the new algorithm? Because its business moved quickly from DVDs to streaming, causing customers to change their behavior and rendering the new algorithm obsolete. Also, it was too expensive. Innovators, remember: perfect (but slow and expensive) is the enemy of good enough (but fast and affordable).
AND YOU CAN'T HIRE ANYONE, EITHER
Why You Can't Get a Job (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Wharton professor Peter Cappelli takes a closer look at the jobs crisis and argues that it's not just because of a weak economy. It's because of a hiring system that's broken down. It's technology that makes it easy for unqualified applicants to swamp employers; employers who create unrealistic wishlists of skills; and HR functionaries who rely on algorithms to sort through resumes. Employers have become less willing to pay ("we’ve gotten used to the idea that wages don't go up") and more willing to leave positions open month after month (finance departments see it as a savings, but it "involves lots of costs that the company's internal accounting system doesn't recognize," says Cappelli). Any of that sound familiar?
Crazy Stupid Love
North Carolina Attempts to Outlaw Rising Sea Levels (The Guardian) Why Incompetents Think They're Awesome (Ars Technica) Book Review: What Money Can't Buy (Management Today)