the Zealous

Excerpts from The Unique Psychological World of Lawyers:

Martin Seligman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder of the School of Positive Psychology, which focuses on the attributes that produce success and happiness, has identified optimism as critical for both. In his book, Authentic Happiness (Free Press, 2002), Dr. Seligman reviewed his research on whether any personality attributes were consistently correlated to success in any of 104 careers he studied. Interestingly enough, the only career he found consistent correlations for was lawyering. And the attribute? Pessimism. Pessimism was so highly correlated with success in lawyers that the higher the pessimism in law students, the higher their grades.

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This professor in Geneva predicts that artificial intelligence will displace 800 million jobs in the next ten years. In an interview you can find here: Globots and telemigrants: The new language of the future of work, Prof. Richard Baldwin is asked if the rise of the telecommute economy, ie, flexible work hours and/or work from home, is the precursor to massive job displacement. His answer:

(Laughs) Yes, there’s an element of a Greek tragedy to it. By trying to be more flexible with work, you thought you were getting control of your life. You could come home and take care of the kids while handling a few emails. But you actually arranged it so you ended up out of work because a telemigrant took your job for much less.

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Abro Industries, out of Indiana, makes and sells products under the “Made in the USA” label. Abro sells products like duct tape and epoxy glue, and does quite well in emerging economies. Abro’s Tim Demarias scours the world seeking to open new markets. At one point, Tim noticed that sales were down considerably, and suspected counterfeiters. In an NPR broadcast entitled “The Stolen Company”, Tim recounts his adventures in chasing down one particularly ruthless counterfeiter out of China. Here’s the transcript of the broadcast:

[NPR HOST]: Anyways, Tim couldn't figure this out. Why were his sales slipping?
[NPR HOST]: And then he heard from a customer who had seen some counterfeit Abro products in China.
[NPR HOST]: Tim gets on a plane to investigate. His first stop is this trade show that everyone in his business goes to.