James Surowiecki
James Surowiecki
James Michael Surowieckiis an American journalist. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he writes a regular column on business and finance called "The Financial Page"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
CountryUnited States of America
writing pieces delay
I tend to delay writing by doing more research - it's really the act of writing the piece that I have the hardest time with.
risk defense rewards
Defense contractors are able to reap tremendous profits while rarely confronting the risks for which those profits are supposed to be the reward.
country developing-countries red
Developing countries often have hypertrophied bureaucracies, requiring businesses to deal with enormous amounts of red tape.
marketing insightful economy
Downsizing itself is an inevitable part of any creatively destructive economy.
writing thinking hard-times
I tend to have a hard time working on pieces long before they're due. That's why I think the fact that I write a column is really good for me - the column has to be done, and there's no getting around it.
car guarantees driving
If being the biggest company was a guarantee of success, we'd all be using IBM computers and driving GM cars.
republic corporations way
The typical American corporation is a shareholders' republic the same way that China is a peoples' republic.
responsibility thinking government
Of course, plenty of people don't think that guaranteeing affordable health insurance is a core responsibility of government.
jobs procrastination self
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."
president economy states
Of course, presidents are always blamed or rewarded for the state of the economy.
wall blow tough
On Wall Street, fraudulent schemes tend to thrive during economic booms, and to blow up when times turn tough.
writing thinking perfect
I started in business journalism from the outside, so when I started writing about markets and business, I was struck by the fact that markets seemed to work well even though people are often irrational, lack good information and are not perfect in the way they think about decisions.
believe procrastination thinking
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.
mean people decision
If someone really wants my company's business, why shouldn't he be able to do everything he can - including paying me off - to get that business? Because bribery encourages people to make decisions based on the wrong criteria, which means in the business world that it distorts the efficient allocation of resources.