Before the experiment, managers estimated hybrid would reduce productivity by 2.6%. After the six-month experiment they estimated it increased productivity by 1%. Those working under the hybrid model had a higher satisfaction rate, and 35% lower attrition. - Harvard Business Review
The owner of Blood Manor, one of New York's top Halloween attractions, explains how much he has to spend every year — not just on performers and animatronic figures, but makeup (up to $20,000 for 23 nights), stage blood, fog, and odors. Not to mention insurance and year-round rent. - The New York Times
The distance between a mechanical watch and a modern smartphone seems to embody the divide between the pre-digital and digital worlds. We imagine that people used to live among eccentric, fiddly, physical gizmos, whereas now we navigate a network of infallible devices animated by code. But the digital age is often more fiddly. - The New Yorker
In civic life, decisions are increasingly driven by data, by algorithms, by statistics. Without the ability to understand or even grapple with the numbers and their implications, people are easily disenfranchised and manipulated. - The New York Times
Thinking through—rather than just thinking—is important. A thought or an idea is never that precious. People have thoughts and ideas all the time, many of them preliminary. Sometimes people mistake their feelings for thoughts and ideas, which are in turn mistaken for absolute truths. - Harper's
"Acknowledging that the idea sounds inadvisable, (director James) Bonas and (choreographer Helen) Pickett explained in interviews what they saw instead as promising: Dostoyevsky’s hefty 19th-century novel has a clear dramatic line, and a small core of complex characters … And the book is a will-he-get-caught page-turner, Pickett added." - The New York Times
Just the last few decades, hundreds of thousands of people speaking hundreds of languages have arrived in New York from heavily minority and Indigenous zones of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. At the very moment when languages worldwide are disappearing at an unprecedented rate, many of the last speakers are on the move. - LitHub
While theatre leaders have stressed that they are committed to the safety of their audiences, they have also pointed out that Martyn’s Law – officially, the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill – could stretch the resources of already cash-strapped venues. - The Stage
"Could the Hirshhorn be a major institution? These days, Director Melissa Chiu says it should assume its role as 'the national museum of modern and contemporary art.' The notion would have invited laughs in 1974." - The Washington Post (MSN)
Over the past three days, the streets of Toulouse, France, hosted an urban opera titled The Guardian of the Temple—The Gates of Darkness, in which three massive robotic puppets of mythological creatures performed in several locations around the city. - The Atlantic
"Everyone who works (in the job) has stories about the expensive, delicate, sacred and impossibly large things they’ve had to pack into a crate and ship somewhere:" weird things such as an electric chair, and difficult things like a 3,000 pound pre-Columbian artifact amidst an ice storm. - The Washington Post (MSN)
“I feel very passionately about Halloween music. It’s camp. It’s carnal. It’s macabre. It’s, like, silly. It’s the only holiday where all of those get to exist at once.” It’s also an $11.6 billion business. - The New York Times
"Is it normal for a French visitor to pay the same price ... as a Brazilian or Chinese visitor?" said Rachida Dati, who wants the proposed €5 surcharge to fund upkeep of national heritage sites. "The French people should not have to pay for everything on their own." - The London Standard
The phenomenon — in which bookstores open at midnight on a title's release date, so readers can get their fix as quickly as possible — started with the Harry Potter and Twilight series. Now publishers of serious literature are picking up the practice for some hotly-anticipated novels. - Publishers Weekly
Serial is, after all, a spinoff of long-running public radio hit This American Life. After Serial's massive success, countless people wanted in on true-crime audio, from individuals with home studios to big commercial outlets. The market got flooded, the corporations started cancelling. Is public radio-style funding the way forward? - Nieman Lab
