“The best way to let people go is to let them know when they're hired that it's an uncertain environment and that their job is always at risk and even if you let them go, it's not that you don't love them.” PeopleEnvironmentRisk Author:Paul Saffo
“I think companies over the last 10 years have done a very bad job of explaining to their employees what the intrinsic risks are. All I know is, if you wait until you let the employee go to deal with the issue of how do you communicate to the employee about being let go, it's too late to do anything.” ThinkingDoneWaitingRiskLetting GoCommunicateEmployee Author:Paul Saffo
“I'm not sure the notion of employee or job is going to survive the transition over the next couple of decades. The very notion of a fulltime job will seem as quaint in 20 years as the notion of someone getting a gold watch at their retirement in the 1950s.” CoupleGoldNot SureEmployeeRetirement Author:Paul Saffo
“This new economy that's just emerged has a new central economic actor. It's not the worker, the person who produces, nor the person who consumes, the purchaser. It's a new actor that does both things at the same time, call them a creator. They both create and consume in the same single act, and we're just beginning to see the shape of this new economy and it changes not just the economy itself, it's going to change the whole nature of the work relationship.” EconomyEconomic Author:Paul Saffo
“Rhetoric matters, but at the end of the day policy matters more.” PolicyRhetoric Author:Garry Kasparov
“I have no idea how long Putin will last. The good news is, Putin doesn't know either. It will be sudden and it won't be peaceful. He has burned his bridges.” LongPeaceful Author:Garry Kasparov
“One lesson is to not to play desperately if your position is worse but still reasonable. Lashing out wildly in an inferior position usually only hastens defeat. Meanwhile, solid, stubborn defense can demoralize the attacker, make him lose confidence. When that happens, the tables can turn. Keep fighting, stay steady, keep morale high - and public protests are good for all of these things.” FightingDefeatProtestSteadyStubbornMorale Author:Garry Kasparov
“Dictatorships can exist with free markets - not that China is really a free market - especially in poor countries where the regime insists that it's a choice between food and liberty, a false choice. But increasing affluence will inevitably result in political pressure.” CountryPoliticalChoicesPoorLibertyDictatorshipFree Market Author:Garry Kasparov
“The political spectrum is not linear but circular. In my experience the extreme left always ends up rubbing shoulders with the extreme right. They are philosophically blood brothers.” PoliticalBrother Author:Jimmy Reid
“Right, left, Greens, Baathists, whatever: it comes down to grabbing and holding power and using ideology - or religion, race - as a justification.” IdeologyJustification Author:Garry Kasparov