The Summer Issue

Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed By David Cain

The perfect customer is dissatisfied but hopeful, uninterested in serious personal development, highly habituated to the television, working full-time, earning a fair amount, indulging during their free time, and somehow just getting by. Is this you?

The Shut-In Economy By Lauren Smiley

We’re now deep into the bombastic buildout of the on-demand economy— with investment in the apps, platforms and services surging exponentially. Right now Americans buy nearly eight percent of all their retail goods online, though that seems a wild underestimate in the most congested, wired, time-strapped urban centers.

Gratuities Grow Dramatically By Hilary Stout

The flat white coffee drink was $4. A suggested tip was $3. Is there something wrong here?

How Technology Tricks You Into Tipping More By Nir Eyal

“The agony of parting with our money has to do with the saliency of [seeing] this money going away.” In other words, the less real money feels, the less painful it is to spend and subsequently, we spend more of it.” Duke Professor Dan Ariely

Mike Rowe - Enough Said!

Manufacturing and Millennials

There has been a great deal of attention paid to the skills gap facing American manufacturers. We all know that many young people shy away from STEM education and they have a distorted, grimy, perception of manufacturing employment and careers. This fact is highlighted in a recent video from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

American Craftsman

Tadd Myers is an award-winning photographer who, in 2009, began traversing our land to capture and collect portraits of the people and products made in small workshops all over the country. Tadd lovingly compiled a book of these people and their creations, “Portraits of the American Craftsman,” with lyrical descriptions of what they make, who they are, and the tradition embedded in their trade.

Facebook: The World’s Biggest Waste of Time? By Bill Robinson

“Facebook isn’t real or productive, it’s just an advanced version of the electronic bulletin boards that have been around since the Internet dawned. Nobody on those old boards met their ‘soul-mate’ or bought a car; or paid their bills; or broadcasted their political opinions; or flamed each other for disagreeing. Facebook (FB) doesn’t really ‘bring people together’ in any traditional sense of the phrase but drives them apart as I will try to prove in this column.”