Quote of the Day (Janan Ganesh, on the 1960s, ‘The Last Pre-Global Decade’)

“The 1960s were the last pre-global decade. The 1970s would bring free-floating currencies and the opening of China. It would bring OPEC crises that smashed apart the highly managed economic order. The 1980s would go much further. For people who have found globalisation discombobulating (and you will have noticed there are a few), the 1960s must seem like the last stand of a more familiar world. In other words, a decade that has for so long been synonymous with breakneck progress is now idealised for exactly the opposite reason. The ‘meaning’ of the 1960s has slowly changed.” —British journalist, author and political commentator Janan Ganesh, “Remembering the Last Pre-Global Decade,” The Financial Times, Aug. 17-18, 2019

Quote of the Day (Janan Ganesh, on the Limits of Emotional Intelligence)

“People of genius-level EQ include con artists, pick-up artists, stand-up comedians, spies, abusive partners and, from double-glazing showrooms to the plushest investment bank trading floor, sales staff. Emotional intelligence is what tells you, in a work meeting, that a colleague who keeps touching their face and sipping water is nervous about speaking. Whether you then use that information to soothe them, or to ask them a tough question in front of the others, well, that is a test of your conscience—not your emotional intelligence.”— British journalist, author and political commentator Janan Ganesh, “The Truth About Emotional Intelligence,” The Financial Times, Aug. 26-27, 2023

Quote of the Day (Janan Ganesh, on Offices and ‘The Demystification of the Successful’)

“Except in sectors where the minimum standard is kept high through regulation — medicine, say, or piloting — the standard in a profession is always lower than outsiders would credit. This has to be drummed into young people from less privileged backgrounds, all too many of whom believe that every lawyer is Earl Warren, every trader a Fields Medalist. The office allows them to observe colleagues flail under pressure, utter banalities, or just shamble around. The ultimate benefit of going to the office is the demystification of the successful. You can’t see someone’s clay feet over Zoom.”—“Citizen of Nowhere” columnist Janan Ganesh, “Why the Young Should Go to the Office,” The Financial Times, Nov. 4-5, 2023

The image accompanying this post comes from the 1999 movie Office Space, with Gary Cole playing the kind of clay-footed boss that Ganesh has in mind.