Philippa Kaur

Interrogate the internet about the most ridiculous rules people have experienced at work, and the stories roll in. The lab assistant instructed to label the expiry dates on all chemical samples, who was reprimanded for not writing when a bottle of sand would go off (to comply, they put in a date 65m years hence). The accounting firm where only partners were allowed to have plants over a certain height. The company where employees were required to submit requests to maintenance if they wanted the height of their office chairs to be adjusted. The baroque limitations on how often people are allowed to go to the lavatory. More

Car dashboards have an array of indicators that illuminate to warn of trouble. If the boardrooms of Europe’s carmakers had similar systems they would be lit up like a Christmas market. Volkswagen (VW), the largest of the lot by sales, is bracing for strikes beginning on December 1st in response to its plan to close three factories in Germany and cut wages. Northvolt, a once-promising Swedish battery startup in which VW and BMW invested, has collapsed into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Donald Trump is threatening to upend supply chains by imposing a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada. More

.css-1f0x4sl{color:var(–ds-color-london-5);font-family:var(–ds-type-system-serif);font-weight:400;font-size:var(–ds-type-scale-1);line-height:var(–ds-type-leading-lower);}.css-1f0x4sl del,.css-1f0x4sl s{-webkit-text-decoration:strikethrough;text-decoration:strikethrough;}.css-1f0x4sl strong,.css-1f0x4sl b{font-weight:700;}.css-1f0x4sl em,.css-1f0x4sl i{font-style:italic;}.css-1f0x4sl sup{font-feature-settings:’sups’ 1;}.css-1f0x4sl sub{font-feature-settings:’subs’ 1;}.css-1f0x4sl small,.css-1f0x4sl .small-caps{display:inline;font-size:inherit;font-variant:small-caps no-common-ligatures no-discretionary-ligatures no-historical-ligatures no-contextual;line-height:var(–ds-type-leading-lower);text-transform:lowercase;}.css-1f0x4sl u,.css-1f0x4sl .underline{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:0.125rem;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;}.css-1f0x4sl a{color:var(–ds-color-london-5);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-color:var(–ds-color-chicago-45);text-decoration-thickness:0.125rem;text-underline-offset:0.125rem;}.css-1f0x4sl a:hover{color:var(–ds-color-chicago-30);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;}.css-1f0x4sl a:focus{background-color:var(–ds-color-chicago-95);color:var(–ds-color-london-5);outline:none;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-color:var(–ds-color-chicago-45);text-decoration-thickness:0.125rem;}.css-1f0x4sl a:active{background-color:var(–ds-color-chicago-95);color:var(–ds-color-london-5);-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}.css-1f0x4sl [data-caps=’initial’],.css-1f0x4sl .drop-cap{float:left;font-feature-settings:’ss08′ 1;font-size:3.5rem;height:3.25rem;line-height:1;margin:0.0625rem 0.2rem 0 0;text-transform:uppercase;}.css-1f0x4sl [data-ornament=’ufinish’],.css-1f0x4sl .ufinish{color:var(–ds-color-economist-red);}.css-1f0x4sl [data-ornament=’ufinish’]::before,.css-1f0x4sl .ufinish::before{font-size:var(–ds-type-scale-1);content:’ ‘;}As the end of the year draws closer, shopping season is in full swing. On Black Friday, November 29th, retailers will offer steep discounts to lure customers. Some sales started weeks ago. Soon will come the mad dash for Christmas gifts. More

In Victorian London, among the factories and warehouses of the city’s East End, Alexander Parkes developed the world’s first plastic (he inventively called it Parkesine). Notpla, a startup now based in the same part of the city, wants to follow in his footsteps. Unlike Parkesine, however, its material is not made to last. And instead of fossil fuels, it is made from seaweed. At Emirates Stadium, not far away, football fans already gorge on hot dogs served on trays that use the material, which decomposes naturally in just six weeks. More

THE FIRST thing that catches your eye when you enter the poshly serene headquarters of Sequoia Capital on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California, is a metre-wide cross-section of what appears to be a redwood. On closer inspection it turns out to have been a tree in the past—38m years ago, according to a plaque on the back. Now it is solid stone. A gift from Roelof Botha, the venture-capital (VC) firm’s current boss, and his wife, it reminds employees and guests of the durability of the organisation they are visiting, which has existed since 1972. In the accelerated time of Silicon Valley, that is aeons. More

The most popular musicians on Spotify this week included plenty of familiar names, from Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars to Billie Eilish. But also riding high in the streaming platform’s charts were some unexpected stars, including Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien and Boris Johnson. More

An underappreciated force behind great technological change is intense—and petty—rivalry. In the “war of the currents” in the late 19th century, Thomas Edison electrocuted stray animals to discredit Nikola Tesla. A century later Steve Jobs traded insults with Bill Gates during a battle between Apple and Microsoft. Even “Silicon Valley,” a satirical HBO series, starts with a feud—and the priceless quip: “These are billionaires, Richard. Humiliating each other is worth more to them than we will make in a lifetime.” More

AS the dust settled on Donald Trump’s election victory, what businesses did investors think would benefit most from his return to the presidency? Tesla? Big oil? Rustbelt manufacturers? No: two firms that lock people up. Shares in GEO Group and Core Civic, which own and run prisons, soared by two-thirds in the three days after the election, beating the rest of America’s 1,500 most valuable firms. More