Nathaniel Ward » Management

Saturday Links: Herding Googlers

Nathaniel Ward — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:00:13 +0000

Photo: Flickr/giiks
Google researchers discovered that technical ability isn’t what makes a good manager. Instead it’s, well, being a good manager. “What employees valued most were even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.” A neat infographic explains Google’s criteria.
Slate explores the dramatic fall of pickpocketing in the United States: “In a 2001 story, the New York Times reported that there were 23,068 reported pickpocketing incidents in the city in 1990, amounting to nearly $10 million in losses. Five years later, the number of reported incidents had fallen by half, and by the turn of the millennium, there were less than 5,000. Today, the NYPD doesn’t even maintain individual numbers on pickpocketing.”
Vasilis Vryniotis offers a list of best practices webmasters should follow before launching a site. These are also good to keep in mind after a site is launched, too.
A new mashup from Greater Greater Washington allows you to redistrict the District of Columbia’s wards based on 2010 census data. Here’s my take.
Last but not least, Remy has a new video for Reason.tv:

Nathaniel Ward — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:12:54 +0000

Did Deregulation Really Cause the Crash? Russ Roberts: “If you lift the speed limit from 65 miles per hour to 200 miles per hour and someone crashes going 195, it would be strange to blame the crash on the change in the speed limit. The question remains as to why someone would be so reckless.”
Teaching Business School Students to Think Creatively.
The Right Way and the Wrong Way to Simplify Taxes. “For the Obama Administration, the new regulation is a way to try to increase tax revenues without Congress having to pass a law…Here’s a better idea: If Washington doesn’t like taxpayers working the system of legal deductions to reduce their tax burden, it can always simplify the code and flatten the rates.”

Nathaniel Ward — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:11:51 +0000

The New Yorker Explores What ‘Management Science’ Really Is.
How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect. “When those patterns break down — as when a hiker stumbles across an easy chair sitting deep in the woods, as if dropped from the sky — the brain gropes for something, anything that makes sense. It may retreat to a familiar ritual, like checking equipment. But it may also turn its attention outward, the researchers argue, and notice, say, a pattern in animal tracks that was previously hidden. The urge to find a coherent pattern makes it more likely that the brain will find one.”
The Administrative State Strikes Again. “We’ve long thought the Railway Labor Act should be rewritten for numerous reasons, but that is Congress’s job.”

Nathaniel Ward — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:56:20 +0000

Tyler Cowen on Health Care Reform. “The Obama administration is proposing that we start by spending more now so we can spend less later. This runs the risk of becoming the new voodoo economics.”
The Next Urban Renewal Boondoggle. Bulldozing decaying cities may be good policy in some places. But if it’s adopted at the federal level, it could be another in a long line of failed urban renewal policies.
Can Washington Be ‘Hands-Off’ With GM? “Many commentators worry that this new, nationalized GM will answer to politicians rather than profit and loss. They fear that this could lead to a $100 billion quagmire. Their fears are not without reason.”