Nike used to be known as Blue Ribbon Sports. What's now Sara Lee used to be Consolidated Foods. And Exxon was once… — James Surowiecki Blue Copy Share Image
To be sure, if you watch CNBC all day long you'll pick up some interesting news about particular companies and the economy… — James Surowiecki Company Copy Share Image
“No decision-making system is going to guarantee corporate success. The strategic decisions that corporations have to make are of mind-numbing complexity. But… — James Surowiecki Bad decision Copy Share Image
Procrastination also can be a way of self-handicapping: if you don't do a great job, you can always say to yourself, "If… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
In practice, downsizing is too often about cutting your work force while keeping your business the same, and doing so not by… — James Surowiecki Business Copy Share Image
If someone really wants my company's business, why shouldn't he be able to do everything he can - including paying me off… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
I tend to have a hard time working on pieces long before they're due. That's why I think the fact that I… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Critics of consumer capitalism like to think that consumers are manipulated and controlled by those who seek to sell them things, but… — James Surowiecki Capitalism Copy Share Image
I started in business journalism from the outside, so when I started writing about markets and business, I was struck by the… — James Surowiecki Business Copy Share Image
Making loans and fighting poverty are normally two of the least glamorous pursuits around, but put the two together and you have… — James Surowiecki Business Copy Share Image
If you thought the advent of the Internet, the spread of cheap and efficient information technology, and the growing fragmentation of the… — James Surowiecki Advent Copy Share Image
On the simplest level, telecommuting makes it harder for people to have the kinds of informal interactions that are crucial to the… — James Surowiecki Business Copy Share Image
Lack of confidence, sometimes alternating with unrealistic dreams of heroic success, often leads to procrastination, and many studies suggest that procrastinators are… — James Surowiecki Confidence Copy Share Image
Being unemployed is even more disastrous for individuals than you'd expect. Aside from the obvious harm - poverty, difficulty paying off debts… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
It's a familiar truism that at any one moment, financial markets are dominated by either fear or greed. But the healthiest markets… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Lower oil prices won't, by themselves, topple the mullahs in Iran. But it's significant that, historically, when oil prices have been low,… — James Surowiecki Iran Copy Share Image
From a social point of view, it's beneficial that homeownership encourages commitment to a given town or city. But, from an economic… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
The history of the Internet is, in part, a series of opportunities missed: the major record labels let Apple take over the… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Addictive behavior is kind of the inverse of procrastination: procrastination is about not being able to do what you want to do,… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Publishers, naturally, loathe used books and have developed strategies to depress the secondhand market. They bring out new, even more expensive editions… — James Surowiecki Book Copy Share Image
The value of a currency is, ultimately, what someone will give you for it - whether in food, fuel, assets, or labor.… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Groups are only smart when there is a balance between the information that everyone in the group shares and the information that… — James Surowiecki Balance Copy Share Image
A general principle of good taxation is that similar jobs, and similar kinds of compensation, should be taxed the same way: otherwise,… — James Surowiecki Compensation Copy Share Image
In the days when corporate downsizing was all the rage, Wall Street took a lot of flak for judging companies too harshly… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Solyndra's failure isn't a reason for the government to give up on alternative energy, any more than the failure of Pets.com during… — James Surowiecki Alternative energy Copy Share Image
The truth is that the United States doesn't need, and shouldn't have, a debt ceiling. Every other democratic country, with the exception… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Steve Jobs was rare: a C.E.O. who actually had a huge impact on his company's fortunes. Contrary to corporate mythology, most C.E.O.s… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Standards wars involve lots of variables, and understanding them often seems more an art than a science. They generally involve just two… — James Surowiecki Art Copy Share Image
The paradox of Steve Jobs's career is that he had no interest in listening to consumers - he was famously dismissive of… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Since the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland wants to remain a part of Great Britain, and since Ireland itself has shown little… — James Surowiecki Britain Copy Share Image
Bubbles and crashes are textbook examples of collective decision making gone wrong. In a bubble, all of the conditions that make groups… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
I think there is clearly a connection between free time and procrastination. The more you have of the former, all things being… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
What an economy really wants, after all, is not more investment per se but better investment. It wants capital to flow to… — James Surowiecki Company Copy Share Image
Campaigns fail if they waste resources courting voters who are unpersuadable or already persuaded. Their most urgent task is to find and… — James Surowiecki Campaigns Copy Share Image
When all is said and done, cheap gas is an illusion, because our reliance on gas creates a whole series of costs… — James Surowiecki Accidents Copy Share Image
Of course, looking tough on inflation is part of any central banker's job description: if investors believe that inflation is going to… — James Surowiecki Bankers Copy Share Image
But, if recent history has taught us anything, it’s that self-regulation doesn’t work in finance, and that worries about reputation are a… — James Surowiecki Corporate Copy Share Image
The Xbox 360 is the best game console ever designed. It's fast and powerful - games look as good on the 360… — James Surowiecki Ability Copy Share Image
In terms of productivity - that is, how much a worker produces in an hour - there's little difference between the U.S.,… — James Surowiecki America Copy Share Image
Unfortunately, there is something of a flaw in this idealized picture of the way the scientific community discovers truth. And the flaw… — James Surowiecki Community Copy Share Image
