Comments for Davos Newbies

Comment on The Ottoman empire and my taxes by Angie

Angie — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:26:21 +0000

It’s not for all Armenians. It is specifically for those families who received awards from NY Life for money owed to their ancestors who perished during the Genocide. You can look up the NY Life suit or AXA Insurance suits yourselves.

And please, don’t be so ignorant as to say “Is this all due to the popularity of System of a Down?” Please, that is insulting to every single Armenian who has had a family member (or many) killed by the Turks and who fight for recognition of that horrible crime in order to help end the cycle of genocide.

Comment on Why use McKinsey — or any of the other guys? by EC

EC — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:08:14 +0000

I worked as McKinsey consultant. Companies hired us because we have lots of very smart people. Many companies lack the in-house intellectual horse power to perform fact-based analysis. McKinsey does fact-based analysis very well. McKinsey consultants also work significantly longer hours than most corporate bureaucrats. McKinsey charges a great deal for their services. Even so, they’re a bargain.

Comment on “The Pepsi of Austrian writing” by Jaywalker

Jaywalker — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:28:19 +0000

While a joy to read, the review is deeply flawed and mean. Using Zweig’s desperate suicide for a cheap joke is not a sign of class but a token for the reviewer’s intention and mean streak.

If Zweig is really Pepsi, who is the “real thing”? Zweig is no copy, no cheap version. He developed and mined two niches of his own: For his female readers, novels and short stories about caged women in psychological distress (mirroring Zweig’s in the closet/bisexual situation). For his male readers, biographies about pathbreakers, writers, scientists and politicians with a twist. Each biography mirrors part of Zweig and his time, e.g. Zweig disguised as non-violent, accomodating Erasmus vs the meaty Luther. Zweig’s account of Joseph Fouché, eminence grise and survivor of all the French Revolution, the Empire and the Restoration, is a treat for political junkies. The World Of Yesterday is still one of the finest tributes to the Habsburg Empire.

Zweig is a smooth (no Dan Brown, he), sometimes a bit flowery writer – is readability really a flaw? Is it really wrong to outsource grammar and spell-checking? In fact, this is the key to Zweig’s productivity and readability. Delegating and accepting peer review prevents brilliant trainwrecks such as Musil’s Men without Qualities. Shouldn’t a writer not only be published but also read?

Contemporary critics were mostly jealous about the commercial and public success of filthy rich kid Zweig. They sound like GM execs talking about Japanese cars. Instead of learning about Zweig’s processes, they hold their own non-performing struggles dear.

The review also disregards Zweig’s tireless labor of love of translating and promoting other and lesser known writers. Overall, concentrating on Zweig’s weaknesses and neglecting his strengths does not do justice to the man and his work.

Comment on Undercover Boss — good and bad by KPD

KPD — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:19:50 +0000

The UK version (Back to the Floor) had a Wedgwood exec and a Heathrow manager, among others–I felt sorry for the latter (impossible job). The show was really well done (natch).

Comment on Undercover Boss — good and bad by Lance Knobel

Lance Knobel — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:45:21 +0000

The US Undercover Boss comes from a British producer, Stephen Lambert. I’m unsurprised he tried the format out in the UK first.

Clocking Off was brilliant, and didn’t have the fiction of corporate hierarchies implicit in Undercover Boss (now that Larry has seen the truth, of course everything will be OK). Going further back, there’s also Alan Bleasdale’s Boys from the Blackstuff.

Comment on Undercover Boss — good and bad by Nico Macdonald

Nico Macdonald — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:45:14 +0000

It seems some version of Undercover Boss went out in the UK last year. More generally, it is remarkable how little real work features in the cultural sphere, from drama to documentary to comedy. In the former category an honorable exception was Paul Abbott's Clocking Off. In the latter category The Office which was at least about white collar work.

Comment on Davos redux by J Richard Finlay

J Richard Finlay — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:20:44 +0000

When it comes right down to it, there are few thoughts the big players mount at Davos that could not be distilled into a simple Tweet. Their use of technology and methods of transportation have changed, but in most other ways they are little different than the princes and grand dukes who trotted themselves out every so often to remind the people that they still existed, confusing – as receding fragments of supremacy so often do – vanity with relevance.

Comment on Davos redux by Spirit of Davos « The Toynbee convector

Spirit of Davos « The Toynbee convector — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:10:53 +0000

[...] of Davos February 2, 2010 Lance Knobel defends the WEF here and here, denying that Davos is painted “in the style of George Grosz or Otto Dix”. (Kirchner, [...]

Comment on Davos redux by David Derrick

David Derrick — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:50:14 +0000

I’ve spun a few more thoughts:

http://davidderrick.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/spirit-of-davos/

Comment on The story of Davos by Spirit of Davos « The Toynbee convector

Spirit of Davos « The Toynbee convector — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:45:27 +0000

[...] of Davos February 2, 2010 Lance Knobel defends the WEF here and here, denying that Davos is painted “in the style of George Grosz or Otto Dix”. (Kirchner [...]