How to work the workers

"Winners at office politics tend to be psychopathic--as well as narcissistic and Machiavellian. These "triads" fly up the corporate ladder, but there are ways to minimize their effect on your success and happiness."

Your Boss Isn’t Just A Psychopath—It’s Way Worse Than That

3Doodler

"The very affordable pen could open new vistas for 3-D creation."

A 3-D Printing Pen Wows Kickstarter

Can you trust an Amazon review?

"Reviewers are gaming the system at Amazon and elsewhere for mischief, politics, and profit"

Clayton Christensen agrees with me

Harvard business professor and best-selling author Clayton Christensen agrees with me. Coincidence? I think not.

“You know, Harvard Business School doesn’t teach accounting anymore, because there’s a guy out of BYU whose online accounting course is so good. He is extraordinary, and our accounting faculty, on average, is average. Some [universities] will survive. Most will evolve hybrid models, in which universities license some courses from an online provider like Coursera but then provide more-specialized courses in person.”

Clay Christensen: First the media gets disrupted, then comes the education industry

PopSci on Bad Bosses

"When employees experiences vicarious abuse it detracts from their relationship with the organization as a whole, because they see that the company as allowing such negative treatment to exist."

Second-hand Abuse

Amazon still doesn't make a profit

Amazon also reported its total sales for 2012 topped $61 billion, up $13 billion from last year. In 2007, Amazon’s annual net sales were $14.84 billion. In other words, Amazon’s sales have quadrupled over the past five years. But profit? Not so much. Amazon ended 2012 with a $39 million loss on the year, which the company blamed on the cost of delivering all the stuff it sells, as well as on the price of digital content...

Amazon’s Growth Looks Like Walmart in the 1990s — But Even Better

Start your own insurance company

This ongoing quest led to Horowitz’s creation of the Freelancers Insurance Company, which now provides health coverage for close to 25,000 New Yorkers and is approaching $100 million in revenues. Along the way, Horowitz has received countless personal accolades. She was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 1999, and in December was named to the New York Federal Reserve Bank board of directors. What’s her secret—how did she transform a goal into a successful battle plan?

Don’t Have Health Insurance? Start Your Own Insurance Company!

is an MBA worth it?

Bottom line is that graduates of the top US programs in the mid 1990s tripled their salaries in five years on average, but grads from the same schools saw half that increase in 2008 and 2009...

GigaOM

Robot Cars compliment the auto industry

So quite sensibly, Muller states that “Instead of Google vs. Detroit” she sees “a new era of collaboration” between tech companies such as Google and conventional automakers like General Motors. And these collaborations could genuinely provide transportation with is not only safer, but more fuel-efficient. Far from posing a threat, is quite exciting.

Why Google's Autonomous Cars Probably Won't Kill the Auto Industry

the Power of Leadership

This story won't surprise anyone. We all understand the importance of leadership, but the commentor's clear and concise description made it post-worthy.

Good Boss vs. Bad Boss output

How Hotel Reservations Work

An explanation from an industry insider.

Blackwater of the Seas

"Anthony Sharp, a 50-year-old veteran of tech startups, grew up with a love for ships. On February 7, he’ll turn that boyhood affection into what might be the first private navy since the 19th century. Sharp’s newest company, Typhon, will offer a fleet of armed ex-Royal Marines and sailors to escort commercial ships through pirate-infested waters. In essence, Typhon wants to be the Blackwater of the sea, minus the stuff about accidentally killing civilians..."

This Tech Entrepreneur Is About to Launch the Blackwater of the High Seas

Entrepreneur Buys the N.Y.S.E.

Pretty interesting version of the rags to riches story:

A bold deal by the owner of Intercontinental Exchange to acquire the New York Stock Exchange shows how technology is transforming the world’s markets.

Jeffrey Sprecher’s Improbable Path to Buying the N.Y.S.E.

Outsourced (not how you think)

"Bob was his company’s best software developer, got glowing performance reviews and earned more than $250,000 a year... Bob was paying a Chinese firm about $50,000 a year to do his work, then spent the day surfing the web, watching cat videos and updating his Facebook page."

How a 'model' employee got away with outsourcing his software job to China

Tred

A better way to buy cars:

Putting up with unctuous, commission-crazed salespeople when buying a new car could become a relic. Seattle-based startup Tred brings new cars to your home or office for test-drives and online purchase, without ever visiting a dealership showroom... Tred makes it so that you can research, choose, and test drive from the comfort of your couch.

Here’s how it works. You go to Tred’s website or iPad app to research and select several cars you want to test drive at a place of your choosing. Tred staffers, not car dealership salespeople, then deliver your pick of cars... If Tred comes to your house, you can see how the cars fit in your garage, handle on the roads you drive every day, and if they can easily accommodate your twins’ car seats. You can also do side-by-side comparisons of different manufacturers’ cars, something most car dealerships aren’t set up to handle.

Wired

I think this is genius. And it is going to take off in a big way.

Business Smart Security

And so, to confront one of the newest and most damaging crimes, it turned to one of the oldest tricks in human history: deception.
Timeline: Explore some of the technological advances that led to cyberspace and some examples of notable hacks.
The Waseca, Minn., company began planting fake data in Web servers to lure hackers into “rabbit holes” in the hopes of frustrating them into giving up. The bait was varied — including bogus user log-ins and passwords and phony system configuration files. Anyone who took it was being watched by Brown, their computer locations tagged and their tactics recorded.

To thwart hackers, firms salting their servers with fake data

A new Bank

Like many people, Josh Reich got fed up with his bank after it charged him overdraft fees and he endured painful customer service calls to fight them. But unlike most people, Mr. Reich, a software engineer from Australia, decided to come up with a better way to bank.

Mr. Reich and a co-founder, Shamir Karkal, created Simple, an online banking start-up company based in Portland, Ore., that offers its customers free checking accounts and data-rich analysis of their transactions and spending habits...

A Financial Service for People Fed Up With Banks

Robot Car traffic enforcement

Rapid progress means self-driving cars are in the fast lane to consumer reality. Is the law up to speed too, asks legal expert Bryant Walker Smith

FC: How To Find The Best Job For You

Should I really become an explosives worker? Spencer Thompson's Sokanu wants to be like a Match.com for careers.

Email Task Management

What I want: better email/task management