Word: pocket
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...case study in unexpectedness, consider the Japanese company that became Sony. After World War II, the firm was struggling, when the company's lead technologist proposed a new product: a pocketable radio. That was nearly insane. At the time a radio was a piece of furniture. But the suggestion worked. As a product, yes, but before that as an idea. Cognitive science tells us that the human brain is wired to perceive patterns and is drawn to aberrations--a radio small enough to fit in my pocket...
Behavioral economics theorizes that when we have a gap in our knowledge, we strive to resolve it. Imagine the engineers immediately asking, A pocket-size radio, how would we even start to build one? Just as important, though, the notion of a tiny radio meshed with Sony's business: a maker of electronics. Gratuitous surprise may catch our attention briefly, but it doesn't hold our interest...
...bracing for another dose of pain. As this November once again brings open-enrollment season--that annual headache of working out how much more of our paychecks will go to health benefits next year--2007 looks to bring no relief. For the average employee, premiums and out-of-pocket expenses will reach $2,904 a year for a family, up $300 from 2006. That's the pass-along pain of the costs that employers now endure, nearly $9,000 per employee, up an estimated $518 from this year...
...Someone making $40,000 a year can anticipate a 4% pay increase next year. (Don't spend it all in one place.) With health-care costs expected to rise about 7%, that means at least 16% of that raise would go to higher premiums or new out-of-pocket expenses. Stated another way, your 4% raise is actually closer to 3%. Of course, employers tend to look at it differently. "It's a phenomenon we call the hidden paycheck because companies have essentially been substituting health-benefit dollars for salary and merit increases," says Ron Fontanetta of the benefits-consulting...
...Ethical Tool A burglar's Leatherman in a surgeon's pocket raises many complicated questions