Weekend Briefing No. 112
Welcome To The Weekend
Shalom from Israel.
It's not everyday you meet one of your heroes. Check out our photo on Instagram. Elias Chacour is an Arab Palestinian Melkite Christian who has grown up in Palestine and has struggled in the regions of Galilee to promote brotherhood amongst Jews, Muslims and Christians. His tireless efforts for equality have earned him three separate nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. This week he told us his story (see his book Blood Brothers below) which challenged me and my friends to be a bold friend of both Israel and Palestine.
Mideast Diplomat Seeks Peace in Everyone, Despite Violence
For too long the lines of engagement have been drawn too rigid: To be “pro-Israel” is to be “anti-Palestinian” and vice versa. This paradigm forces one to ignore very real justice issues on the “other side”. What I’m seeing on this trip is that either side will only know peace if and only if the other side does too. Our generation of Americans can commit our support to American policy that is truly pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, pro-American and pro-peace, all at the same time. Would it be enough? Who knows. But, given our unique position, peace will likely never bloom absent this homegrown American movement. Learn more in Huffington Post (9 minutes).
The Myth Of The Ethical Shopper
We're still trying to eliminate sweatshops and child labor by buying right. But that's not how the world works in 2015 for 2 reasons. 1) Developing countries are producing for other developing economies who prefer cheap undifferentiated goods to ethical goods. 2) Large company’s are reputation conscious, but it’s not the largest or the second-largest company we should be worried about anymore. It’s the 44th, or the 207th. Those small-batch, hemp-woven Daisy Dukes you bought in Dumbo are far more likely to be made in a sweatshop than your $7 H&M gym shorts. Learn more at Highline (20 minutes).
Calculate Your Economic Risk
If the machines are indeed going to be taking more of our jobs, “how much economic risk do I face in the future?” you may wonder. “How does my risk differ from that of others?” So some economists teamed up to construct an economic risk calculator that allows you to assess your chances of experiencing poverty in the next five, 10 or 15 years. For many Americans, the future risk of poverty is far from trivial. Learn more in the New York Times (8 minutes).
Why So Many Thirtysomething Women Are Leaving Your Company
Organizational leaders report that women are leaving primarily because of flexibility needs and family demands. Women in their thirties disagree. A new report shows, firstly, women care about pay. Secondly, women and men leave organizations for similar reasons. With men and women expressing similar concerns about why they leave their jobs, leaders have the opportunity to retain and advance their top talent, both male and female, by focusing on common priorities: pay and fair compensation. Learn more in Harvard Business Review (4 minutes).
How One Programmer Broke The Internet By Deleting A Tiny Piece Of Code
npm ERR! 404 'left-pad' is not in the npm registry. This is the error message that developers around the world saw last week. Most of them had never heard of ‘left-pad’, but somehow their software couldn’t run without it. This is the story of how a clash between a patent attorney and a 28-year-old open source coder briefly broke the internet. It shows how writing software for the web has become dependent on a patchwork of code that itself relies on the benevolence of fellow programmers. When that system breaks down, as it did last week, the consequences can be vast and unpredictable. Learn more at Quartz (8 minutes).
Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel
When tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed and nearly one million forced into refugee camps in 1948, Eli Chacour began a long struggle with how to live out his personal spirituality. In Blood Brothers, he blends his riveting life story with historical and biblical research to reveal a little-known side of the Arab-Israeli conflict. I just finished it and it challenged me to reconsider the conflict and how I might be a peacemaker. Buy the book at Amazon.
Bear Grylls Teaches You Two Skills To Make You More Of A Man
1) Firecraft. Three ingredients necessary for a fire: fuel, heat and oxygen. Preparation is key: have enough dry tinder, enough dry kindling, and enough larger fuel all ready to go before you begin. 2) Knots. You can do pretty much everything you’re ever likely to need to do in the wild, in the house or on adventures with just three simple, effective knots. They are the overhand knot, the clove hitch and the bowline. Learn more at GQ (5 minutes).
About The Weekend Briefing
The Weekend Briefing is a selection of this week’s top stories on innovation and society, curated by Kyle Westaway – author of Profit & Purpose and Managing Partner of Westaway. Thanks for making the Weekend Briefing a part of your Saturday morning routine. Have a restful and thoughtful weekend.