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Breaking Sitcom Habits with Kimmy Schmidt
March 10, 2015
There were times, watching the new Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, when I was convinced that it was going to be the salvation of the sitcom as we know it—not least because it is committed to finding humor and compassion in the lives of people that most TV shows ...

Daily Bafflements
March 10, 2015
• Oh good heavens, Boston now has a “Startup Czar.” • The Apple Watch is fueling our class anxieties, while Apple’s CEO is fueling all of our other anxieties. • Wikipedia, along with eight other organizations, is suing the NSA over the mass surveillance ...

The Death of the Millionaire Next Door
March 09, 2015
Thomas J. Stanley, the co-author of the personal finance classic The Millionaire Next Door, died in a car accident last week at the age of 71. The obits were both sorrowful and laudatory. The book “stands today as a sort of promise that everyday people have a shot at ...

Daily Bafflements
March 09, 2015
• Here’s what You Need to Know about today’s Apple Watch reveal: according to USA Today, it’s predicted that the top-of-the-line version could cost as much as $5,000 to $10,000, or, about the same amount of money as a 2006 Ford Escape. But hey, why be ...

The Grand Viziers of the VC Economy
March 06, 2015
If start-up founders are our new royalty—as Mark Zuckerberg is Silicon Valley’s prince—then perhaps venture capitalists are their grand viziers. Once advisers to the sultans of the Ottoman Empire, grand viziers wield power behind the scenes. They variously prop up, ...

Daily Bafflements
March 06, 2015
• From Wired this week comes news of “A Smartwatch App That Lets Your Boss Track You Constantly.” Oh hey, cool! “It’s meant to be a social app, where people digitally ‘nudge’ each other to pick up the pace and congratulate colleagues when the ...

A Work in Progress
March 05, 2015
It took about thirty years for the major temples of the Acropolis in Athens to be built in the fifth century BCE. It has been forty years since the Acropolis Restoration Project was founded, and it is not known when its work will be completed. What the casual visitor sees on the ...

For Love of Country (and Money)
March 05, 2015
“I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Rudy Giuliani said recently to a room of right-leaning businessmen at Manhattan’s 21 Club. ”He doesn’t love you, and he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way ...

Daily Bafflements
March 05, 2015
• Headline of the Day, from the Washington Post: “Awash in cash, Bush asks donors not to give more than $1 million – for now.” • In case you missed it, Baffler contributing editor David Graeber talked about the history of debt for a radio series on BBC, ...

Project Management for the Soul
March 04, 2015
There’s a divide that runs through the self-help market. On the one side there’s all the emotional, caring stuff—relationships, self-esteem, and healing. On the other, there’s all the macho business stuff, aimed at the gladiators of the executive boardroom. Split down ...

After Net Neutrality
March 04, 2015
It’s revealing that after passing net neutrality rules last week, one of FCC chairman Tom Wheeler’s first stops was at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The MWC is one of the tech industry’s annual gadget bacchanals—a we’re-here-to-make-news confab on the order ...

Daily Bafflements
March 04, 2015
• Today in Billionaires’ Dreams Do Come True: Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s luxury yacht, the M/Y Octopus, is equipped with an exploration submarine. Allen announced this week that all his deep-sea explorations had not been in vain: he had discovered the wreck ...