In America, heir-run companies perform something like 10-20% worse once the son or daughter takes over the business.

In Japan, you don't see this discrepancy.  In fact, heir-run companies perform better!

Another fact about Japan:  the median age of adoption is a little over 25 years old.  Most adoptees are male.

It turns out that pretty much all of the difference in performance between heir-run companies in Japan and America is attributable to the fact that in Japan, if you don't think your son is going to run the company well, you choose a highly-qualified, 25 year old male, and adopt him.

This isn't adoption in the take-him-under-your-wing-and-give-him-some-guidance type of way.  It's actual, legal adoption wherein the adoptee takes the family name.

Tip o' the hat to the recent "re-broadcast" of the Church of Scienology episode on the Freakonomics podcast.

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Excellent scientists that you probably haven’t heard of
There are some scientists that everyone has heard of; Darwin, Newton and Curie all spring to mind. Of course, their scientific discoveries were all legendary. But what about the people who have con…

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For chefs in search of quality ingredients, it’s perfectly rational, if not an imperative, to question the usage of not only MSG, but all chemicals found in the foods we eat. And as chefs at the highest levels of cuisine gravitate toward not just umami, but a more scientific approach to cooking, glutamic acid and MSG are being seen in an entirely new context.

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The Notorious MSG’s Unlikely Formula For Success
The “umami” craze has turned a much-maligned and misunderstood food additive into an object of obsession for the world’s most innovative chefs. But secret ingredient monosodium glutam…

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There are people of a certain mindset who are totally incapable of grasping this.

Creative people’s most important resource is their time — particularly big chunks of uninterrupted time — and their biggest enemies are those who try to nibble away at it with e-mails or meetings. Indeed, creative people may be at their most productive when, to the manager’s untutored eye, they appear to be doing nothing

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In praise of laziness
THERE is a never-ending supply of business gurus telling us how we can, and must, do more. Sheryl Sandberg urges women to “Lean In” if they want to get ahead….

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Turns out that if you use larger data sets you get more accurate results!

Last year, awkward teens everywhere got a rather depressing dose of news when new research suggested that kids who were popular in high school also tended to end up richer than their classmates later in life. "Economics Says Revenge of the Nerds Is a Lie," declared our friends at The Atlantic Wire. "Sorry nerds: popular kids earn more in the long run," mocked Wonkblog.

…

So I couldn't help but feel a little glee upon discovering that Jason Fletcher, a professor at Yale's School of Public Health who has studied the way teenage depression and ADHD impact future earnings, had released a draft paper this week suggesting that, no, being well-liked in 12th grade does not in fact make you wealthier in middle age.

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Revenge of the Nerds: Being Popular in High School Doesn’t Make You Rich, After All – Business – The Atlantic
The Atlantic covers breaking news, analysis, opinion around politics, business, culture, international, science, technology, national profiles on the official site of the Atlantic Magazine.

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True to the religious teachings of their faith, the Christians stated initially that their god knows everything. However, when they rated God's knowledge of 50 moral and non-moral issues (e.g. "God knows if I was helpful to someone"; "… knows what is under my bed"), they showed a clear bias for rating him more knowledgeable and concerned about moral facts than non-moral ones. "In one sitting, students claim both that God knows everything, but knows moral information better than non-moral information," Purzycki said.

There was a similar contradiction among the more varied answers of the Tyvans. Their religion incorporates elements of Buddhism, shamanism and totemism among other influences. They believe in the existence of Cher eezi spirit masters of different forms – including a woman on a horse; a bull; and a small marmot – that oversee natural resources in specific regions. The Tyvans' explicit teachings state that the Cher eezi are not concerned with people's interpersonal moral behaviour. However, asked to rate their spirit masters' knowledge of 50 issues, the Tyvans showed a consistent bias, rating their knowledge and concern of moral facts as greater than their knowledge and concern for non-moral facts.

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Findings from the first study to compare the minds of gods

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I don't know if I want to spread this around, because I prefer there to be more people apologizing not less.

However, it's psychology research, so it's likely to be wrong anyway!

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Refusing to apologize can have psychological benefits (and we issue no mea culpa for this research finding) – Okimoto – 2012 – European Journal of Social Psychology – Wiley Online Library
You have free access to this content. Refusing to apologize can have psychological benefits (and we issue no mea culpa for this research finding). Tyler G. Okimoto1,*,; Michael Wenzel2,; Kyli Hedrick3. Article first published online: 4 NOV 2012. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.1901 …

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One of the reasons that Portal 2 remains amongst my favorite video games of all time is:  it's beautiful.

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D'awww

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