1762 본문읽기 10
카테고리 없음2023. 5. 22. 14:57
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1762-28
Cutting costs can improve profitability but only up to a point. If the manufacturer cuts costs so deeply that doing so harms the product's quality, then the increased profitability will be short-lived. A better approach is to improve productivity. If businesses can get more production from the same number of employees, they're basically tapping into free money. They get more product to sell, and the price of each product falls. As long as the machinery or employee training needed for productivity improvements costs less than the value of the productivity gains, it's an easy investment for any business to make. Productivity improvements are as important to the economy as they are to the individual business that's making them. Productivity improvements generally raise the standard of living for everyone and are a good indication of a healthy economy.
1762-29
The overabundance of options in today's marketplace gives you more freedom of choice. However, there may be a price to pay in terms of happiness. According to research by psychologists David Myers and Robert Lane, all this choice often makes people depressed. Researchers gave some shoppers 24 choices of jams to taste and others only 6 choices. Those who had fewer choices were happier with the tasting. Even more surprisingly, the ones with a smaller selection purchased jam 31% of the time, while those with a wider range of choices only purchased jam 3% of the time. The ironic thing about this is that people nearly always say they want more choices. Yet, the more options they have, the more paralyzed they become. Savvy restaurant owners provide fewer choices. This allows customers to feel more relaxed, prompting them to choose easily and leave more satisfied with their choices.
1762-31
There are countless examples of scientific inventions that have been generated by accident. However, often this accident has required a person with above-average knowledge in the field to interpret it. One of the better-known examples of the cooperation between chance and a researcher is the invention of penicillin. In 1928, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming went on a vacation. As a slightly careless man, Fleming left some bacterial cultures on his desk. When he returned, he noticed mold in one of his cultures, with a bacteria-free zone around it. The mold was from the penicillium notatum species, which had killed the bacteria on the Petri dish. This was a lucky coincidence. For a person who does not have expert knowledge, the bacteria-free zone would not have had much significance, but Fleming understood the magical effect of the mold. The result was penicillin — a medication that has saved countless people on the planet.
1762-32
Honeybees have evolved what we call "swarm intelligence," with up to 50,000 workers in a single colony coming together to make democratic decisions. When a hive gets too crowded in springtime, colonies send scouts to look for a new home. If any scouts disagree on where the colony should build its next hive, they argue their case the civilized way: through a dance-off. Each scout performs a "waggle dance" for other scouts in an attempt to convince them of their spot's merit. The more enthusiastic the dance is, the happier the scout is with his spot. The remainder of the colony votes with their bodies, flying to the spot they prefer and joining in the dance until one potential hive overcomes all other dances of the neighborhood. It would be great if Congress settled their disagreements the same way.
1762-33
Confident leaders are not afraid to ask the basic questions: the questions to which you may feel embarrassed about not already knowing the answers. When you don't know something, admit it as quickly as possible and immediately take action ― ask a question. If you have forgotten who the governor is or how many hydrogen atoms are in a molecule of water, quietly ask a friend but one way or the other, quit hiding, and take action. Paradoxically, when you ask basic questions, you will more than likely be perceived by others to be smarter. And more importantly, you'll end up knowing far more over your lifetime. This approach will cause you to be more successful than you would have been had you employed the common practice of pretending to know more than you do. To make good leaders, effective teachers encourage, invite, and even force their students to ask those fundamental questions.
Cutting costs can improve profitability but only up to a point. If the manufacturer cuts costs so deeply that doing so harms the product's quality, then the increased profitability will be short-lived. A better approach is to improve productivity. If businesses can get more production from the same number of employees, they're basically tapping into free money. They get more product to sell, and the price of each product falls. As long as the machinery or employee training needed for productivity improvements costs less than the value of the productivity gains, it's an easy investment for any business to make. Productivity improvements are as important to the economy as they are to the individual business that's making them. Productivity improvements generally raise the standard of living for everyone and are a good indication of a healthy economy.
1762-29
The overabundance of options in today's marketplace gives you more freedom of choice. However, there may be a price to pay in terms of happiness. According to research by psychologists David Myers and Robert Lane, all this choice often makes people depressed. Researchers gave some shoppers 24 choices of jams to taste and others only 6 choices. Those who had fewer choices were happier with the tasting. Even more surprisingly, the ones with a smaller selection purchased jam 31% of the time, while those with a wider range of choices only purchased jam 3% of the time. The ironic thing about this is that people nearly always say they want more choices. Yet, the more options they have, the more paralyzed they become. Savvy restaurant owners provide fewer choices. This allows customers to feel more relaxed, prompting them to choose easily and leave more satisfied with their choices.
1762-31
There are countless examples of scientific inventions that have been generated by accident. However, often this accident has required a person with above-average knowledge in the field to interpret it. One of the better-known examples of the cooperation between chance and a researcher is the invention of penicillin. In 1928, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming went on a vacation. As a slightly careless man, Fleming left some bacterial cultures on his desk. When he returned, he noticed mold in one of his cultures, with a bacteria-free zone around it. The mold was from the penicillium notatum species, which had killed the bacteria on the Petri dish. This was a lucky coincidence. For a person who does not have expert knowledge, the bacteria-free zone would not have had much significance, but Fleming understood the magical effect of the mold. The result was penicillin — a medication that has saved countless people on the planet.
1762-32
Honeybees have evolved what we call "swarm intelligence," with up to 50,000 workers in a single colony coming together to make democratic decisions. When a hive gets too crowded in springtime, colonies send scouts to look for a new home. If any scouts disagree on where the colony should build its next hive, they argue their case the civilized way: through a dance-off. Each scout performs a "waggle dance" for other scouts in an attempt to convince them of their spot's merit. The more enthusiastic the dance is, the happier the scout is with his spot. The remainder of the colony votes with their bodies, flying to the spot they prefer and joining in the dance until one potential hive overcomes all other dances of the neighborhood. It would be great if Congress settled their disagreements the same way.
1762-33
Confident leaders are not afraid to ask the basic questions: the questions to which you may feel embarrassed about not already knowing the answers. When you don't know something, admit it as quickly as possible and immediately take action ― ask a question. If you have forgotten who the governor is or how many hydrogen atoms are in a molecule of water, quietly ask a friend but one way or the other, quit hiding, and take action. Paradoxically, when you ask basic questions, you will more than likely be perceived by others to be smarter. And more importantly, you'll end up knowing far more over your lifetime. This approach will cause you to be more successful than you would have been had you employed the common practice of pretending to know more than you do. To make good leaders, effective teachers encourage, invite, and even force their students to ask those fundamental questions.
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