Back in the old days of rock’n’roll you got into the music business by getting as stoned as possible and following a band around until they finally accepted your presence and gave you something to do. Now things are different. It’s an industry run by (mostly) clear-headed businesspeople and has a set of well-defined job descriptions. There are even pensions, for Led Zeppelin’s sake.
Science fiction authors imagined artificial intelligence (AI) using its superior computing power to conquer humanity. Lucky for us, that hasn’t come to pass (yet!). Instead, what we have is so much better: helpful AI capable of automating many key tasks involved in running your business.
The recent US college admissions scandal hit the news largely because a few celebrities were involved, but this kind of thing must be going on all the time. To recap the scandal:
The FBI says pushy parents paid $25m in bribes to get university places for their children.
Actress Lori Loughlin is alleged to have paid $500,000 for college places for her two daughters, in a deal which also got them on to the University of Southern California rowing team.
A family business can be anything from a single mom-and-pop store to a global corporation like Red Bull, BMW or Mittal Steel. What marks them out from other businesses is the family dynamics going on within the company and in the boardroom, which can sometimes lead to quirky management styles and unique cultures and procedures. All this is very old-school, but today’s family-run companies include some of the most innovative and successful business around. Wal-Mart, anyone? Ford? Toyota? The Tata Group? Samsung? All multi-generational family-run businesses.
LinkedIn Learning have published a list of the skills companies need most in 2019 and how to learn them. We’ll get to the list and provide course suggestions, but first it’s worth knowing that LinkedIn Learning is in fact the old Lynda.com, which LinkedIn acquired back in 2015 and re-skinned as LinkedIn Learning.
“I don’t have time for mindfulness and meditation!” says everyone with a job ever. “I’ve got too much to do!”
This is ironic. A mindful mind is more alert, efficient and productive than a non-mindful one, and this creates more ... guess what ... time in which to get things done. Plus an uncluttered mind doesn’t get stressed, feels better, listens better, and does better.
Zach Sims is a college dropout, a statistic of failure in education. Instead of getting an education, though, he founded a teaching company that now has 26 million students. Well played, Zach.
Before the Industrial Revolution, farming had zero carbon footprint (if you discounted methane from cow farts, which they couldn’t do much about except for the inhumane use of corks). Animals were used to pull ploughs, soil management was done by natural means, and crops were developed by cross-breeding. Without knowing the meaning of the term, farming was organic, and it’s a state we are now struggling to return to after ovetechnologyr two centuries of technological advancement.
Puppets are weird. They can be creepy and endearing at the same time, and it’s amazing how the audience project so much of themselves onto what is basically an inanimate object. The skill of handling materials to make this happen is the domain of the puppeteer.
The popularity of True Blood, Twilight and The Vampire Diaries has spawned a variety of educational offers for those with a thirst for the subject. The Gothic has always held a special fascination, but recently it has seen a revival in popular culture which some institutions have formalized into taught and research courses.
The music industry tends to be a place where the winners win big and the rest scrape along as best they can. Raw musical talent is probably not enough to make it to the top. It’s pretty vital to have an entrepreneurial spirit too. But what is the state of the industry today, and what do new arrivals need to know?
