Capitalism, after all, is no fun when real failure becomes a possibility. James Surowiecki More Quotes by James Surowiecki More Quotes From James Surowiecki The truth is that the United States doesn't need, and shouldn't have, a debt ceiling. Every other democratic country, with the exception of Denmark, does fine without one. James Surowiecki ceilingsunited-statescountry Older people do a better job of managing their impulses, and so they're better able to put off putting off. James Surowiecki ablejobspeople In conditions of uncertainty, humans, like other animals, herd together for protection. James Surowiecki protectiontogetheranimal You can't fuel real economic growth with indiscriminate credit. You can only fuel it with well-allocated, long-term investment. James Surowiecki growthreallong In the business world, bad news is usually good news - for somebody else. James Surowiecki good-news-and-bad-newsnewsworld Downsizing itself is an inevitable part of any creatively destructive economy. James Surowiecki economyinsightfulmarketing Developing countries often have hypertrophied bureaucracies, requiring businesses to deal with enormous amounts of red tape. James Surowiecki developing-countriestapecountry I do think that procrastination evolved in humans for good reasons. If you're trying to stay alive as a human being on the savanna 20,000 years ago, worrying about what's right behind that bush is a lot more important than worrying about what might happen three weeks from now. James Surowiecki procrastinationyearsthinking Most of the work on multitasking suggests that it generally makes you less efficient, not more. James Surowiecki multitaskingefficient The reason advertising is governed by fear, after all, is that most agencies rely on just a few clients to bring in the lion's share of their revenues. James Surowiecki lionsagencyclients Steve Jobs was rare: a C.E.O. who actually had a huge impact on his company's fortunes. Contrary to corporate mythology, most C.E.O.s could be easily replaced, if not by your average Joe, then by your average executive vice-president. But Jobs genuinely earned the label of superstar. James Surowiecki impactaveragejobs The financial crisis of 2008 was not caused by investment banks betting against the housing market in 2007. It was caused by the fact that too few investors - including all of the big investment banks - bet too heavily on the housing market in the years before 2007. James Surowiecki financialfactsyears There are lots of people who believe there may be at least some genetic component to procrastination, and even if there isn't, it seems to be the case that procrastination habits are often set relatively early in life (that's certainly the case with me). But I also think that there's lots of evidence that external tools can help quite a bit in getting people to stop procrastinating. James Surowiecki procrastinationbelievethinking Bubbles and crashes are textbook examples of collective decision making gone wrong. In a bubble, all of the conditions that make groups intelligent - independence, diversity, private judgement-disappear. James Surowiecki diversityintelligentdecision I think there is clearly a connection between free time and procrastination. The more you have of the former, all things being equal, the more likely you are to procrastinate. James Surowiecki connectionsprocrastinationthinking Breaking tasks down into smaller sub-tasks can be very useful. James Surowiecki tasks Procrastination also can be a way of self-handicapping: if you don't do a great job, you can always say to yourself, "If I'd only started sooner, I'd have been able to produce something excellent." James Surowiecki procrastinationselfjobs From a social point of view, it's beneficial that homeownership encourages commitment to a given town or city. But, from an economic point of view, it's good for people to be able to leave places where there's less work and move to places where there's more. James Surowiecki viewscommitmentmoving Being out of a job can erode people's confidence and their sense of possibility; and employers, often unfairly, tend to take long-term unemployment as a signal that something is wrong. James Surowiecki jobslongpeople Discussions of health care in the U.S. usually focus on insurance companies, but, whatever their problems, they're not the main driver of health-care inflation: providers are. James Surowiecki carefocusproblem
