My weekly collection of the provocative, intriguing, or curious, in a world where the house is falling down. The contextual, the cultural, and other things that catch my eye.

Image of a mute swan by The Wildlife Trusts

Maybe work-life ‘balance’ isn’t the thing holding women back at work. A fascinating Harvard company study found gendered perceptions of roles screened a dysfunctional culture of overwork. Related: From a few months back, questions about work life ‘balance’ are always gendered.

That story about the boss in Seattle who decided to pay all his staff $70K. So how did that turn out? Well, as it happens.

‘White swans’ are a bit like black ‘elephants,’ apparently. They are the predictable results of accumulated vulnerabilities and policy mistakes. And the global finance sector has a whole flock of them right now.

The coronavirus is changing the way scientists collaborate. It’s about preprint and rapid review.

Remembering Freeman Dyson. A physics colossus. If you want something more stretching, his last article is here.

The 2020 Olympics will have animated pictograms. There are 73 of them, representing 33 Olympic and 22 Paralympic sports.

Design futurist Anab Jain talks about Ursula LeGuin. On reading The Dispossessed: “a lens to look at the present” (podcast, 10 minutes).

Sorry to miss last week’s edition: I ran out of time.

“The whole world’s at sixes and sevens, and why the house hasn’t fallen down about our ears long ago is a miracle to me.” (Thornton Wilder)