▪ An accessory that I’ve featured frequently here is the Michael Kors Runway Gold-Tone Chronograph Watch, which is currently on sale on the Michael Kors website (along with hundreds of new sale styles).
▪ Mickey Drexler Steps Down as Chief of J. Crew, Ending an Era (The New York Times): “Succeeding
him is James Brett, president of the home furnishing brand West Elm. He
will start in July … Mr. Drexler, known as Mickey, will remain
chairman and keep his ownership stake in J. Crew.”
▪ How to Call B.S. on Big Data: A Practical Guide (The New Yorker): “… humans are pretty good at detecting verbal bullshit. Members of the species have, after all, been talking rot for millennia, and its warning signs are well known. Bullshit expressed as data, on the other hand, is relatively new outside scientific circles.“
▪ Even Balloons Are Artisanal Now (The Wall Street Journal): “Long gone are the days of a simple, primary-colored balloon tied to the back of a chair. Whether or not the birthday party staple needed reinventing, we now live in a golden age of balloon innovation … Like cupcakes, they just got reinvented. Because they’re big and they’re showy and they’re wonderful and they hadn’t been touched in a while.“
▪ Random 70(+)% off online finds: Michael Kors Floral Lace Dress, Brooks Brothers Wool Toggle Coat, BB Dakota Faux Suede Coat, Michael Kors Double-Breasted Wool Coat, Diane von Furstenberg Lace Pencil Skirt, DKNY Flocked Lace Top, Madewell Abroad Trench Coat, Chaser Cross Back Mini Dress, DvF Tyche dress, Susana Monaco Cat Dress, BB Dakota Collins Sweater Dress, findersKEEPERS Odom Cable Knit Sweater, J.McLaughlin Dellen Silk Skirt, Lovers + Friends Eve Romper, Splendid Waffle Loose Knit Mini Dress, Lanvin Bubble-skirt Silk-Gazar Dress, Rachel Pally Long Fortuna Dress, and Ashish Embellished Embroidered Cotton Midi Skirt.
▪ Looking For Right And Wrong In The Philippines (Buzzfeed): “In a country with astounding economic inequality, and with very limited resources for the have-nots, you scratch for everything in reach. And if you find a patch of unoccupied roadside land, with trees bearing fruit you can sell, you jump on it and build a home. Several of my relatives in the Philippines told me that this mindset is more like a guiding principle — an ethos of taking all you can get away with … It is not so much a selfish mindset as a team-first mindset. People look out for themselves and take care of their own. More than anything else, the Philippines is a collection of family units jockeying for power and wealth at every level of the class hierarchy, from the impoverished strivers to the oligarchs … There was poverty all around us. There had been poverty all around us every day of our trip, juxtaposed against the gleaming skyscrapers and crowded malls and pristine beaches and wondrous mountain vistas and unending natural beauties that dominate every square mile of the Philippines … the 1986 revolution had been a failure. It had not been a revolution to upend the social order, but a revolution to return the gears of power to the oligarchs who had felt cheated and helpless during the Marcos dictatorship … It is change built on fear — and powered by force of will rather than reform of laws. But in a country where people don’t trust their institutions, where the law’s grip is loose and shaky, where the legal system has been used to hide corruption, justify authoritarianism, silence the press, and jail dissidents — in a place like that, who better to turn to than a man who goes out and says what so many have been thinking for years: Fuck your laws. Trust me, Duterte tells his people, and hold on for the ride. And so the people have placed their faith in a demagogue.“
▪ A Guide to Little White Lies (The Wall Street Journal): “… sometimes we tell white lies for selfish reasons—to avoid an argument or the discomfort of hurting or embarrassing someone. Or even to manipulate. This can damage our relationships, especially if the recipient knows we are lying … New research, published last month in the “Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,” shows that compassionate people lie more than others.“
▪ New York Stories (The New York Times)
▪ Why Aren’t American Teenagers Working Anymore? (Bloomberg): “Why aren’t teens working? Lots of theories have been offered: They’re being crowded out of the workforce by older Americans … Immigrants are competing with teens for jobs … Parents are pushing kids to volunteer and sign up for extracurricular activities instead of working, to impress college admission counselors. College-bound teens aren’t looking for work because the money doesn’t go as far as it used to … teenagers are just getting lazy. A recent BLS analysis offers another theory, backed up by solid data. It appears that millions of teenagers aren’t working because they’re studying instead.“
▪ The Gospel of Hard Work, According to Silicon Valley (Wired): “The programmer or designer or writer or even manager that gives up their life for a 80+ hour moonshot will comparably-speaking be compensated in bananas, even if their lottery coupon should line up. The lion’s share will go to the Scar and his hyenas, not the monkeys.“
▪ Millennials Are Killing Chains Like Buffalo Wild Wings And Applebee’s (Business Insider): “Millennial consumers are more attracted than their elders to cooking at home, ordering delivery from restaurants, and eating quickly, in fast-casual or quick-serve restaurants.“
▪ How to Perfect the Art of a Work Uniform (The New York Times): “The key question you’re asking is, What behavior do we want to produce and what impression do we want to portray … You work backward from that into that uniform.“
▪ (video link) Just Say No To Drug Test Kits (Full Frontal with Samantha Bee via YouTube)
▪ The Downside to Career and Technical Education (The Atlantic): “… although vocational students make higher salaries and are more likely to be employed as young adults, that advantage fades over time; by their late forties, those who went through a general education program have higher employment rates.“
▪ The Opioid Crisis Changed How Doctors Think About Pain (Vox): “Pragmatic pain acceptance is directed at better living … The pursuit of pain relief can often be the cause of more disability, and it can dominate one’s life. What I do might be called pain rehab, where we basically try to get to the very end of the process — which is getting back to living.“
▪ The Fight Over Voice: Why Tech’s Top Companies Are Battling It Out To Listen In (Buzzfeed): “A lot of personal technology today involves friction … We envision a future where that friction goes away, the technology disappears into the background, and customers can be more present in their daily lives.“
▪ Recently ordered: Nordstrom Mongolian Faux Fur Throw, LOFT Lemonade Halter Dress, J. Crew Cropped Cotton Jacket, J. Crew Bow Top with Embroidered Trim, and dRA Santorini Wrap Maxi Dress.
Have a great weekend, everyone!