Tag / society

by YannigRoth

Une fable numérique à la fois superficielle et profondément inquiétante : “Transparence” de Marc Dugain

Je rentre de vacances sur la côte Atlantique et prends le temps d’écrire – avant de me replonger dans les nombreux projets de la rentrée – quelques lignes sur Transparence, un roman d’anticipation qui place la collecte et l’usage des données personnelles au cœur d’une vision très particulière de notre monde en 2068.

Malheureusement, malgré quelques rebondissements savoureux, l’histoire est assez peu intéressante et une grande partie du livre est dédiée à critiquer de manière peu subtile la société actuelle. Mais j’ai trouvé cette critique parfois très juste, et la vision proposée a certainement de quoi nous faire réfléchir.

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by YannigRoth

Joachim Gaucks “Toleranz” ist eine wichtige Erinnerung an das, was Menschen verbindet

Ich habe das Buch des vorherigen Bundespräsidenten (geschrieben mit der Journalistin Helga Hirsch) vor knapp einem Jahr in Düsseldorf gekauft, und es lange liegen gelassen.

Erstens, weil ich Abends und während meiner Wochenenden nicht immer Lust hatte, ein Buch aufzuschlagen, dass so ein “schweres” Thema angeht. Zweitens, weil mir damals die ersten Seiten den Eindruck gegeben haben, dass das Buch viel hitorischer und philophischer war, als ich es erwartet hätte (was in den späteren Kapiteln nicht mehr der Fall ist).

In den diesjährigen Sommerferien habe ich mich endlich dazu entschlossen, es zu Ende zu lesen… und ich habe es sehr genossen. Hier teile ich einige meiner Lieblingspassagen. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

My favorite holiday reads from Cambodia

Koh Rong Samloen ReadingI originally started this blog to share thoughts, reads and conferences that I found worthwhile writting about. It turns out that my last book review dates almost 2 years back, so it’s time to write about books again! Just came back from 2 weeks of really relaxing holidays in Cambodia, a beautifull country that has much more to offer than the magnificient temples of Angkor.

I have spent quite some time reading – as I do under that palm tree on the picture – and I ended up wanting to write a blog post about 4 of the books I have enjoyed most during our holidays, 2 of which are about Cambodia’s tumultuous history. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

This 60-year old short film is worth watching again today. #DontBeASucker

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“We must never let ourselves be divided by race, or color or religion, because in this country we all belong to minority groups. […] And you belong to other minority groups too. […] Your right to belong to these minorities is a precious thing. You have a right to be what you are and say what you think, because here we have personal freedom. We have liberty. And these are not just fancy words; this is a practical and priceless way of living. But we must work at it. We must guard everyone’s liberty, or we could lose our own. If we allow any minority to lose its freedom by persecution or prejudice, we are threatening our own freedom. And this is not simply an idea, this is good hard common sense.” Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

My Favorites of February: Great Ad From Denmark, Rape and Reconciliation & Design at Aston-Martin

ffff

This ad from Denmark’s TV2 station is really cool

I’ll try to make the future posts less political, and less Trump-focused (because smart blogging is not just bashing, and because I’ll need & want to become more constructive at some point). But resistance is necessary when revolting things happen, and it can’t be toned down, so February still was very much about defending political sanity. You’ll see in the links. Beside that, you’ll also find artificial intelligence playing poker, a beautiful ad from Denmark or a great article about Macedonian teens influencing elections just to buy themselves an BMW.
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by YannigRoth

My Favorites of December: Google’s Moonshots, Uber’s Invincibility & Quirky’s Downfall

moonshots

Image via VentureBeat (source: NASA)

Let’s call 2016 a day, and start 2017, with a set of articles that I have found particularly interesting this month of decembre. There’s a recurring theme around hot companies and the reality behing the halos that surround them. Google has no such problem, as its online advertising is so incredibly profitable, allowing Alphabet to finance the most ambitious projects without any need for external funding. But other companies don’t have that luxury, and have failed (Quirky) or are on a path towards failure (Uber), reminding us that there is nothing most important than a healthy business. The very last article of this post, “The Ugly Unethical Underside of Silicon Valley,” comes as a great conclusion to this. I hope you’ll find some inspiration in all these articles I took great pleasure to read myself.
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by YannigRoth

My Favorites in October: LVMH and Cycling, Derek Black’s Story & Donald Trump’s Revolutionaries

Image via Bettmann Archive

Derek Black’s father, 1982 (via Bettmann Archive)

This month again, a bunch of great articles about marketing, management, sports sponsoring or financial innovation. The usual suspects. But, in the wake of the U.S. election, also two long, important articles about U.S. nationalism in the broad sense. The first is a lengthy article about Derek Black, who turned his back to white nationalism as he met co-students from other cultures and beliefs. The second is about the follower crowd of Donald Trump, depicted as a heterogeneous – and sometimes sympathetic – group of people opposing a variety of contemporary realities (from immigration to media) with little alternatives to offer. May these two be as interesting to you as they were to me.
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