Why German bosses are heaping unexpected praise on France - The Economist   

A DECADE AGO French business leaders tended to gaze across the Rhine with envious eyes. The German economic model, with its strong exports, conciliatory workforce, low unemployment and productive industry, was a source of widespread admiration. French publishers put out books with such titles as “Should we follow the German model?” Newspaper headlines asked “But how do the Germans do it?” French business chiefs and policymakers alike lamented their country’s inability to emulate their bigger European neighbour.

Today the talk among business leaders in Berlin would make French ministers blush. German bosses, frustrated by the country’s dysfunctional three-party ruling coalition, glance admiringly at the French government, which prioritises business, courts corporate leaders and aggressively promotes France as a place for investment and innovation. Many business types support Christian Lindner, the finance minister and boss of the free-market FDP, who wants corporate tax cuts and less red tape, but the FDP is by far the weakest of the three parties in the government coalition. Meanwhile France is harvesting the fruits of President Emmanuel Macron’s pro-business reforms. In 2022, for the fourth consecutive year, France attracted more foreign direct investment projects than any other European country, according to EY, a consultancy. Paris is also winning the EU race to lure financial services from post-Brexit Britain. “France–the better Germany,” ran a recent headline in Der Spiegel, a German weekly. “The roles have been reversed,” says Klaus Schweinsberg, a German who teaches at ESCP, a leading French business school.

The reason German business leaders are heaping praise on France just now goes well beyond their difficulties at home dealing with the transition from dependence on Russian gas and Chinese exports, which has battered the German economy but left less-reliant France relatively unscathed. It comes down to a sense in Germany that the French have transformed the way they deal with investors and entrepreneurs. A country often criticised for its dirigisme seems to have found a way to use its centralised institutional structures not to control things but to support private-sector firms, lure investors and nurture entrepreneurs.

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Research: When — and Why — Employee Curiosity Annoys Managers - Harvard Business Review   

Researchers conducted a series of studies to understand when curiosity may lead to different reactions in the workplace. They found that curious employees were often seen by their leaders as insubordinate and, in turn, less likable. However, curious employees who were politically skilled were not seen this way. They distinguished between constructive curiosity, which involved seeking information, knowledge, or learning by asking many provocative questions that don’t have easy answers, and unconstructive curiosity, which involved seeking information, knowledge, or learning by asking too many questions and questions with easy answers. Their findings have implications for both managers, who should ensure they’re not dismissing employees expressing constructive curiosity, and employees, who should ensure they’re not engaging in unconstructive curiosity.

In recent years, workplace curiosity has been called essential, transformational, and the most valuable characteristic that leaders can have. Research has shown that curiosity can facilitate psychological safety, problem solving, and innovation. Another study found that curious employees — who enjoy looking for new solutions to complex problems, are eager to learn, and seek information and develop new strategies — are more likely to be seen by leaders as competent, creative, and high-performing. Not surprisingly, organizations have been urged to cultivate and encourage employee curiosity.

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Peter Thiel–cofounded Palantir will overhaul the U.K.’s public health service in a deal worth up to $413M—and people are worried - Fortune Europe   

The U.K.’s National Health Service will start working with Palantir, the tech company cofounded by PayPal’s Peter Thiel, on a data overhaul following a deal worth up to £330 million (about $413 million). 

While that could mean a massive revamp for the U.K.’s publicly funded health care system, it’s sparked concerns about giving Palantir a pivotal role in the NHS.

The contract, awarded to a group led by Palantir, including Accenture, PwC, and others, will involve investments over seven years to build a data platform for NHS England that helps hospitals analyze data, identify trends, and allocate resources within the health system, according to the NHS. This could slash wait times for patients while making the diagnosis process quicker as well. 

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Everything Should Be As Easy to Upgrade As the Steam Deck - WIRED   

When I bought the Steam Deck a few years ago, I was skeptical. I was willing to risk buying only the cheapest version possible—a $400 handheld with a measly 64 GB of storage. Now, I know I love it. I've used it for hundreds of hours already, stuck with limited, slower storage. If I were to rectify this mistake, I'd have to buy a whole new console. Or at least, that's what other gadgets have trained me to believe. Not this time.

I have a long history of upgrading my devices myself, when I can. The desktop PC I use on a daily basis has been ship-of-Theseus'd from the same computer I built over 20 years ago—never fully replaced, but upgraded, piece by piece, over the years. During that time, it's increasingly become the exception to the rule. Until the Steam Deck came along.

I used to replace the battery in my early smartphones when they got old, breathing new life into dated hardware. Now, few phones allow this without cracking open the whole thing. My first MacBook had space on the bottom to upgrade its RAM. Now it’s baked right into the M-series processors. I wouldn’t be able to upgrade it, even if it weren’t difficult to access.

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