(header picture by L. Stokes)
ahoj & thank you for stopping by. i’m pierre mourier, a bit of a globe-trotter, econ undergrad and knowledge worker. i love traveling, reading about affairs, business, culture, design, economics, politics, philosophy, strategy & practicing mobility and simplicity.
i am grateful for the people i meet and the opportunities i am presented with. let me share with you my thoughts, travel stories, and curiosities collected along the way. thank you for your time and kind attention.
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Google CEO Eric Schmidt (who else?) on the future of business. one of the many reasons why business (and business research) gets more exciting by the minute: change+green+free flow of ideas+upward mobility.
what’s next? ask the man.
si vous trouvez le temps long loin de votre douce, voici une série d’objets insolites, de l’artiste Noam Toran. l’exposition s’appelle “accessories for lonely man” et était au Moma de New York.
ci-dessous, vous trouverez le tireur de couette. à la fois inutile et indispensable.
beautiful, simple, effective.
1. Angry Youth, by Evan Osnos (Sociology)
The New Yorker, July 28th
A journey through China’s conservative youth.
2. Unhappy America (Economic Policy)
The Economist, July 24th
3. We interrupt regular programming to announce that the United States of America has defaulted… (Macroeconomics) by Satyajit Das
Eurointelligence, July 23rd
4. From Mao to Wow! (Architecture), by Kurt Andersen
Vanity Fair, August ‘08
5. People vs. Dinosaurs (Policy), by Thomas L. Friedman
The New York Times, June 8th
6. A year of living biblically (Religion), by A.J. Jacobs
EG Conference (17 min. video), July ‘08
Imagine abiding the Bible’s hundreds of recommendations (such as stoning for adultery) for a year. Both instructive and funny!
Have a good read!
4 in 1! but don’t worry, some of them won’t take long.
Blink, Malcom Gladwell’s second book. Malcom is a storyteller, that’s what he does best. Blink is about human intuition; when to trust your intuition, when not to. It is insightful and I enjoyed reading it. His previous book, The Tipping Point, is more elaborate. My advice: we only have time to read so many books, and I strongly recommend you favor his first book over the second. (3/5)
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The Geography of Thought, or Eastern Vs. Western perception of the world. Loved it. I bought this book in Cambodia and it enlightened the rest of my stay in Singapore. It’s an introduction (pros will be bored) to East/West differences in terms of thought processes. If you are going to work within East/West environment (and by East, the author means China/Taiwan/HK/Singapore), you should read this book. The first part is a recap of major philosophical differences. The rest, the core of the book, is comprised of rigorous, practical, yet somewhat redundant, scientific studies. You’ll learn how and why we think differently. Who focuses on internal/external causality? and other questions such as this one will help you in team work. I enjoyed daily examples and applications of the book’s take-aways when working with my Singaporean Chinese team mates. (3.5/5)
Free to choose, a classic by the late Milton Friedman, icon advocate of economic freedom (and personal hero of mine). I won’t elaborate on this piece, other to say you should read it. Whether you see yourself as liberal, conservative or even socialist, this book offers a direct, clear-cut and passionate description of the benefits of free markets and limited government intervention. (4/5)
Last, but not least, Enough by John Naish. It’s probably the best book I read since the Paradox of Choice, back in November. It has 8 parts: enough information, food, stuff, work, options, happiness growth and never-enoughs. Each chapter is a balanced mix of essay, research findings and real-life implications. The unifying theme is the criticism of our ever-more culture, burning up both our natural ecology (e.g. climate change) and personal ecology (e.g. obesity). As for all my favourite books, it is available to whoever wants it. (4.25/5)
Bonus: Gladwell on Genius (Video, New Yorker Conference)
I believe we have the capacity at moments of great challenge to set aside the causes of distraction and rise to the historic challenges. Sometimes I hear people respond to the disturbing facts of the climate crisis by saying “this is so terrible, what a burden”. Let’s reframe that: how many generations in all of human history have had the opportunity to rise to a challenge that is worthy of our best efforts, a challenge that can pull from us more that we knew we could do. We ought to approach this challenge with a sense of profound joy and gratitude that we are the generational about which 1000 years from now orchestras and poets and singers will celebrate by saying: they were the ones that found within themselves to solve this crisis and lay the basis for a bright and optimistic human future. Let’s do that.
Al Gore
The New Al Gore slideshow.
And yet at the same time, 75% of the food price increase is due to shifting production towards biofuels (World Bank). We need priorities.
Here’s a blog ‘devoted to stuff that white people like’. It is extremly funny and put into perspective our uniqueness, freedom from peer pressure (and other forms of social formatting).
I, white person, like religions my parents don’t belong to, organic food, diversity, Barack Obama, tea, gifted children, awareness, traveling, having two last names, breakfast places, Apple products, sushi, art degrees, Japan, being the only person around, study abroad, threatening to move to Canada (which I did!), multilingual children and graduate school. (Full list)
It works for westernized non-whites, too. Non-western non-whites can test their level of whiteness.
Who’s special now?
h/t Aggie
Source: The Economist
I’ve been reading Tom Peters’ work lately. He’s the co-writer of In Search of Excellence, THE management book of the 1980s.
Prof. T. says there is nothing new in management theory in the last 40 years. I beg to differ: read Tom Peters. No, not the old best-seller: his last book Re-imagine.
Tom re-invents both the business book and business itself. More than theories, the piece is an essay on business. No need to prove your point, just throw a couple of ideas out there (on paper) and see how it goes. Some say it is the ultimate bullsh*t. It’s way (way) out of track, out of tone. I say it’s great. Fresh ideas! Bright colors! No out of the box, without the box!
I only agree with ±40% of his ideas, but I fully embrace the format.
To all fellow business undergrad students: if you are tired of vision-mission-values etc. (that’s sound like a broken record if, like me, you were born in the late 80s), next time you pick a business book, make it a Tom Peters’!
You can get an overview here, buy the book from amazon or read a chapter(.pdf).
ok, why not 
ahhhhhh que je tenvie de tous les voyages que tu fais!!!!
tu me diras comment tu te sens en revenant à montreal, mais moi, rien que d’etre allé 1 semaine au costa rica à la relache, je me sens confinée, toujours avec les meme gens du HEC, qui n’ont d’autres interets que le HEC… toujours parler francais… ahhhhh jai hate de repartir, de travailler à l’étranger, d’échanger avec des californiens/australiens/néérlandais etc comme pendant cette semaine là…
entk les photos sont magnifiques…
bisous du froid ^^
Spookie! 2.11pm on June 23, 2008 Permalink
Yaye Al Gore… so inspiring… He’s my hero!!He’s done so much for the planet