Ilana Ettinger

We have instinctual responses to help us choose the objects that meet our most basic needs—when we’re hungry, we seek food; when we’re cold, we want warmth. But there is an entire universe of desires for which we have no instinctual basis for choosing one object or another. For these objects of desire, Girard saw that the most important factor in

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How to do it: 1. Define a larger cause.  2. Articulate the problem better than anyone else. 3. Attack the status quo. 4.  Define a category. 5. Build the right team. 6.  Use “grassroots” customer testimony. 7.  Release news in lightning strikes, not dribs and drabs. 8. Organize events to focus attention.9. Nurture your community. 10. Pick noble... See more

Like “future of work” companies, workforce development companies are focused on addressing challenges in the labor markets. But unlike “future of work” companies, which are ambiguously defined to include a wide array of companies, the workforce development category is precisely focused on solutions that improve the quantity and quality of labor.

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Peter Thiel has said that the best startups are like a cult that believes in something true.

For instance: in our society, there seems a general rule that, the more obviously one’s work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it. Again, an objective measure is hard to find, but one easy way to get a sense is to ask: what would happen were this entire class of people to simply disappear? Say what you like about nurses,... See more

On being an early adopter of organic cotton in Patagonia's garments: “The constraints we place on ourselves require innovation that then sets us apart from other companies”