Apr 4What Henry Kissinger Says About the Essence of “Leadership”Rather than focus on the usual noteworthy leaders of the 20th Century — Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler, Mao — the near centenarian, Henry Kissinger, has written a book about six lesser-known leaders, Konrad Adenauer, charles de Gaulle, Richard Nixon, Anwar Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew, and Margaret Thatcher. Kissinger had the…29 min read29 min read
Feb 16Member-onlyWhat Does the Zeitenwende Mean for BusinessZeitenwende entered the English lexicon in 2022, a word used by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on February 22, to describe the epochal change triggered by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. (Financial Times) In geopolitics and other ways, the year 2022 marked a sharp turn from the trends of the post-Cold…Zeitenwende14 min readZeitenwende14 min read
Dec 26, 2022Member-onlyHow to Spot Scams in Technical Recruiting: The ImpersonatorAfter validating the resumes of candidates and dodging the tricks of front runners, it’s time to interview promising candidates. This step leads us to yet another scam, impersonation. Impersonation can assume different forms: A hidden party or the candidate searches for answers that display on a second window or monitor…Interview5 min readInterview5 min read
Dec 16, 2022Member-onlyHow to Spot Scams in Technical Recruiting: Front RunningIn an earlier article, The Resume, we discussed scams where candidates misrepresent their qualifications or fabricate them of whole cloth. In this article, we expose a scam perpetrated by agents purporting to represent either hiring companies or candidates or both. …Technical Recruiting5 min readTechnical Recruiting5 min read
Dec 12, 2022Member-onlyHow to Spot Scams in Technical Recruiting: The ResumeRemote work has opened up untapped global sources of talent and offered individuals greater flexibility in their work and lives. Unfortunately, it has also ushered in new ways for unscrupulous individuals or agencies to take advantage of the high demand for skilled workers by fraudulently placing unqualified contract workers. Remote…Software Engineering9 min readSoftware Engineering9 min read
Jul 2, 2022Member-onlyThe Times of My Father-in-law“His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. Having reached 90, my father-in-law died. Looking back, he glimpsed how the twentieth century’s big events had shaped his…History87 min readHistory87 min read
Apr 16, 2022On “The Dawn of Everything”The late David Wengrow and David Graeber have written a breakthrough book that upends simplistic notions of human history; they also take to task renowned figures like Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, and more recent ones like Jared Diamond, Francis Fukuyama, and Yuval Noah Harari. According to the two Davids…24 min read24 min read
Feb 19, 2022Member-onlyOn “The Age of AI”Bookshelves are groaning from the weight of many volumes dissecting the emergence of AI. Some like Kaifu Lee’s AI Superpowers have already been summarized and critiqued by me. (Looi, 2020) However, The Age of AI features a lead author, Henry A. Kissinger, who appears unlikely to pen such a study…AI28 min readAI28 min read
Jan 19, 2022Member-onlyIn Software Outsourcing, Nearshore Beats Offshore!By Mark Looi and Marc Szepan (University of Oxford). Summary Companies use two popular strategies to develop software: outsourcing to offshore locations and Agile development. These strategies are often used together and assumed to deliver similar results to that of software development teams working in the same company at a single…Software Development16 min readSoftware Development16 min read
Jan 15, 2022Member-onlyThe Story of Life, from Molecules to SpeciesWhat forms “life”? This article summarizes a series of briefs in The Economist that explain life from molecular building blocks up. …Economist16 min readEconomist16 min read
