Sublime
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But generally, the move from government provision of housing, food, and jobs programs to this network of semiprivate organizations introduced perverse incentives into life-sustaining institutions. The result has been a wealth transfer of public money to boards of directors staffed largely by local elites that are more likely to be responsive to
... See moreDavid A. Banks • The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America
the head of the Campus Committee for Unity and Multiplicity,
Sofia Samatar • The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
He held this power during the administrations of six Governors—Alfred E. Smith, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Herbert H. Lehman, Thomas E. Dewey and W. Averell Harriman, as well as Rockefeller. He held it during the administrations of five Mayors—Fiorello La Guardia, William O’Dwyer, Vincent Impellitteri, Robert F. Wagner, Jr., and John V. Lindsay.
Robert A. Caro • The Power Broker
There are only three ways to get a bureaucracy to do anything it wasn’t designed to do: by stealth, with secret and deniable support from allies in the staff hierarchy; by getting air-cover from a sufficiently high-up Sociopath who can play poker with whichever oversubscribed Sociopath is in charge of exception-handling for the specific process
... See moreVenkatesh Rao • The Gervais Principle: The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space (Ribbonfarm Roughs Book 2)
When Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairperson (1996–99) Brooksley Born wanted to regulate the derivatives that would later be a major cause of disaster, the PBS program Frontline detailed how she was blocked in 1998 by the triumvirate of Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and Deputy US Treasury
... See moreEdward O. Thorp • A Man for All Markets
People in Boyd’s office wondered what was going on with him. Several days a week for month after month he did not come to work until almost noon. He yawned and gulped smart juice, trying to awaken. And every time his boss asked why he was late, Boyd said, “I was doing the Lord’s work last night.” Then he took a big drink of coffee, lit a Dutch
... See moreRobert Coram • Boyd
PHILOSOPHER: Suppose that as a result of following your boss’s instructions, your work ends in failure. Whose responsibility is it then?
Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga • The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness
In his mind, the conversation was over, but James Rorimer was a bulldog: short, squarely built, and not afraid of a challenge. Through persistence and hard work he had advanced to the highest levels of the Metropolitan Museum, America’s greatest cultural institution, in less than ten years. He had that potent mixture of ambition and belief: in
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