Endless quantitative easing runs risks, but so does tapering too soon. Many US workers prioritise the benefits of working from home above everything – even their pay cheque. Prioritising purpose, wellbeing, adaptability, diverse connections, and learning would help us thrive. Connecting with strangers could and should be part of this. Reserving enough thinking time in a day is another important component.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Stop assuming that the way to make progress on your most important projects is to work for longer” (Oliver Burkeman in our “Four Thousand Weeks – Time Management for Mortals”, due out at the end of August)

ARTICLE OF THE WEEK

Raghuram Rajan, The Dangers of Endless Quantitative Easing
(Project Syndicate, 2 August 2021)
The renowned economist, who also happens to be a former central banker, argues that with economic growth so uncertain, it is understandable that central banks are reluctant to taper monthly bond purchases until they are confident that inflation has taken off. But he also affirms that they should recognize that prolonging QE is not without risks. Two stand out: (1) the search for yields (the pressure on investors to produce impossible returns in a low-yield environment), and (2) the government’s fiscal exposure to future interest-rate hikes (metered paywall – reads in 6-7 min).
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Lisa Fleisher, Americans Are Willing to Take Pay Cuts to Never Go Into the Office Again
(Bloomberg, 3 August 2021)
Deciding whether employees who can work remotely may do so or not is becoming a real conundrum for many small businesses and large companies alike. A new survey shows that many Americans would be willing to take reduced salaries, give up days off or put in more hours for a job that offers a fully remote option (65% of workers who said their jobs could be done entirely remotely were willing to take a 5% reduction to stay at home). What is true for the US is likely to hold for other advanced economies (metered paywall – reads in 4-5 min).
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Jacqueline Brassey, Future proof: Solving the ‘adaptability paradox’ for the long term
(McKinsey, 2 August 2021)
It is worth going beyond the “consulting-speak” to grasp five actions required to improve our adaptability, transform our relationship with uncertainty and help us thrive. (1) Practice well-being as a foundational skill; (2) Make purpose your North Star and define your ‘non-negotiables’; (3) Experience the world through an adaptability lens; (4) Build deeper and more diverse connections; and (5) Make it safe to learn (free access – reads in 10 min+).
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Joe Keohane, The Surprising Benefits of Talking to Strangers
(The Atlantic, 4 August 2021)
We are often brought up to view strangers as threatening, but as this article argues, we should instead see them as potential sources of comfort and belonging. Also, strangers expand our world. An abundance of recent research shows that talking with strangers (“minimal social interactions” in the jargon) can make us happier, more connected to our communities, mentally sharper, healthier, less lonely, and more trustful and optimistic (metered paywall – reads in 7-8 min).
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Oliver Burkeman, The three-or-four-hours rule for getting creative work done
(Oliver’s Blog, 5 August 2021)
Burkeman’s book on this very subject is coming out at the end of the month. In essence, the book argues that nobody can consistently do the kind of work that demands serious mental focus for more than about three or four hours a day. The real lesson: it pays to use whatever control we have over our diaries not to “maximise our time” or “optimise our day”, in some vague way, but specifically to ringfence three or four hours of undisturbed focus – ideally when our energy levels are highest (free access – reads in 4-5 min).
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