Here's our selection of six thought-provoking articles chosen to offer a break from the rigours of the Christmas holidays. All are available free and on-line.
In 1944 America's Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to today's CIA, was trying to undermine the German war effort by recruiting civilian saboteurs in occupied countries. The OSS Simple Sabotage Field Manual provides a fascinating, and often hilarious, insight into the low level forms of disruption that the OSS hoped would weaken the enemy war effort. Declassified in 2008, the manual provides tips which many might recognise in their own place of work ("Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible"; "Talk as frequently as possible and at great length"; "Hold conferences when there is more important work to be done".) Click here for a summary.
Link to full PDF of OSS manual on the CIA website:
On the outskirts of Changsha in southern China stands Mini Sky City. It is a blocky, 204m-high skyscraper, unimpressive by Chinese standards, but a modern engineering marvel. The entire building was assembled from factory-made steel modules and glass in just 19 days. This BBC profile of Zhang Yue, Chairman of Broad Group which built Mini Sky City, describes the techniques used by the company to achieve this feat and his plans to build the world's tallest skyscraper. While the current record holder - Dubai's Burj Khalifa - took five years to complete, Broad Group intends to build the next in just seven months.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-3cca82c0-af80-4c3a-8a79-84fda5015115
Modern tech businesses are often considered to be well-entrenched after just a decade of existence. In this world of cut-throat competition, longevity is rare. But there are 967 businesses in the world today that were founded before the eighteenth century. Astonishingly, 53% of these are located in Japan. This Priceonomics article explains how Japanese culture and corporate practices have contributed to the incredible longevity of some of its oldest firms.
http://priceonomics.com/why-are-so-many-of-the-worlds-oldest-businesses-in/
In the last couple of years a mini industry of economists and futurists has grown up devoted to understanding how technology will change the world of work. In November the Bank of England's Chief Economist, Andy Haldane, gave what we think is the clearest and most readable summary of the key arguments in a speech to the TUC. The charts in the annex are especially fascinating (and not just because they draw on our own research).
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/speeches/2015/speech864.pdf
The race to build the world's first driverless car pits technology giants such as Google and Apple against car maker Tesla and cab company Uber. This article in The Atlantic explains the two leading philosophies adopted by these companies: some are incrementally adding features to the car that automate driving, while others are trying to build driverless cars as fully autonomous vehicles from the start.
This article profiles Japanese mathematician, Shinichi Mochizuki, who claims to have solved one of the most important of all mathematical problems, the "abc conjecture". Mochizuki has dedicated decades to the task and if his proof is correct it "would be one of the most astounding achievements of mathematics this century." There's just one snag: the proof is so complex that no one has been able to confirm definitively whether Mochizuki has cracked the code. In a world increasingly dominated by the computer, this article reminds us that tackling many of the biggest problems still requires a uniquely human combination of creativity and obstinacy.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
