One of my first bosses, the publisher of a digital media startup, sat just a few rows of desks away from me. She blended in fairly easily. The only thing that made her stick out was that her leather jacket, unlike the ones some of my co-workers wore to work, was custom made, with the words “suffering from realness” written on the back.
Work sucks on principle, but it often sucks specifically because of bosses. A 2018 poll from Monster (the job search site, not the energy drink) found that 76 percent of Americans leave their jobs because of “toxic” bosses, whom they described as power-hungry, micromanaging, incompetent, or absent. Just 19 percent of people saw their bosses as helpful mentors and advocates. And more than half of people who leave their jobs do so because of their manager, according to research from a leadership consulting firm.
6 new paperbacks for reading list By Moira Macdonald, The Seattle Times
Published: January 24, 2021, 6:04am
Share: A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bollen. (Harper)
It’s a new year, and time for hope and self-examination and … maybe some new books? Visit your local bookstore and wish them well for 2021 and don’t miss that new-in-paperback table, which might hold these recommended titles and many more.
• “A Beautiful Crime” by Christopher Bollen (HarperCollins, $16.99). “What makes the crime in Bollen’s stylish new novel so beautiful is that the perps’ plan works out even better than they’d hoped at least for a while,” wrote Washington Post reviewer Dennis Drabelle of “A Beautiful Crime” last year. In a plot that sounds very Patricia Highsmith-influenced, the tale focuses on two young New Yorkers and co-conspirators determined to carry out a fraudulent plan including some questionable silver and a crumbling palazzo in Venice, I
Itâs a new year, and time for hope and self-examination and . maybe some new books? Visit your local bookstore and wish them well for 2021 â and donât miss that new-in-paperback table, which might hold these recommended titles and many more.
âA Beautiful Crimeâ by Christopher Bollen (HarperCollins, $16.99).
âWhat makes the crime in Bollenâs stylish new novel so beautiful is that the perpsâ plan works out even better than theyâd hoped â at least for a while,â wrote Washington Post reviewer Dennis Drabelle of âA Beautiful Crimeâ last year. In a plot that sounds very Patricia Highsmith-influenced, the tale focuses on two young New Yorkers and co-conspirators determined to carry out a fraudulent plan including some questionable silver and a crumbling palazzo in Venice, Italy. At a time when we canât visit Venice ourselves, Drabelle suggests, âyou might want to settle for a few cuticle-biting hoursâ with thi
ARTS
The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey
Cinnabar Theater s production of James Lecense s gay-themed solo play, performed by Michael Pavone. Thru Jan. 31. https://cinnabartheater.org/
Ann
Los Altos Stage Company s production of Holland Taylor s one-woman play about the amazing outspoken late Texas Governor Ann Richards, performed by Judith Miller. Jan. 22-24, 29-31. $20 per device. http://losaltosstage.org
Bechtel Fest 8
Chicago s Broken Nose Theatre company presents a series of online plays; the annual festival of new short plays features an ensemble of femme, female-identifying, non-binary, trans and queer actors talking about things other than men; free, thru March 26. https://brokennosetheatre.com/
In 1970, a Japanese roboticist named Masahiro Mori described what he called the uncanny valley - a point on a graph relating human affinity for a machine to its likeness of humans themselves, where human affinity plummets as the likeness becomes nearly indistinguishable from ourselves. As robots become more humanlike, our fondness for them increases.
But when machines reach a point where they look so much like us that we can barely tell they re different from us, Mori postulated that we ll feel repulsed instead of affectionate. Since we haven t been able to produce robots that are nearly indistinguishable from humans yet, it s somewhat difficult to know whether Mori is correct. However, with a new empathetic humanoid robot, researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the UK have brought us a step closer to the rim of the uncanny valley.