Would you be surprised that road rage can be good for society? Or that most crashes happen on sunny, dry days? That our minds can trick us into thinking the next lane is moving faster? Or that you can gauge a nation’s driving behavior by its levels of corruption? These are only a few of the remarkable dynamics that Tom Vanderbilt explores in this fascinating tour through the mysteries of the road.
Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, Traffic gets under the hood of the everyday activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological, and technical factors that explain how traffic works, why we drive the way we do, and what our driving says about us. Vanderbilt examines the perceptual limits and cognitive underpinnings that make us worse drivers than we think we are. He demonstrates why plans to protect pedestrians from cars often lead to more accidents. He shows how roundabouts, which can feel dangerous and chaotic, actually make roads safer—and reduce traffic in the bargain. He uncovers who is more likely to honk at whom, and why. He explains why traffic jams form, outlines the unintended consequences of our quest for safety, and even identifies the most common mistake drivers make in parking lots.
The car has long been a central part of American life; whether we see it as a symbol of freedom or a symptom of sprawl, we define ourselves by what and how we drive. As Vanderbilt shows, driving is a provocatively revealing prism for examining how our minds work and the ways in which we interact with one another. Ultimately, Traffic is about more than driving: it’s about human nature. This book will change the way we see ourselves and the world around us. And who knows? It may even make us better drivers.
About this product: CEOs regularly announce ambitious growth targets, then fail to achieve them. The reason? Their growing addiction to bad profits. These corporate steroids boost short-term earnings but alienate customers. They undermine growth by creating legions of detractors—customers who complain loudly about the company and switch to competitors at the earliest opportunity.
Based on extensive research, The Ultimate Question shows how companies can rigorously measure Net Promoter statistics, help managers improve them, and create communities of passionate advocates that stimulate innovation. Vivid stories from leading-edge organizations illustrate the ideas in practice.
Practical and compelling, this is the one book—and the one tool—no growth-minded leader can afford to miss.
Something scary is happening to boys today. From kindergarten to college, they are less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere twenty years ago. As for young men, it turns out the film Failure to Launch is not far from the truth. Fully one-third of men ages 22-34 are still living at home with their parents-about a 100 percent increase in the past twenty years. Boys nationwide are increasingly dropping out of school; fewer are going to college; and for the first time in American history, women are outnumbering men at undergraduate institutions three to two. Parents, teachers, and mental health professionals are worried about boys. But until now, no one has come up with good reasons for their decline-and, more important, with workable solutions to reverse this troubling trend. Now, family physician and research psychologist Dr. Leonard Sax delves into the scientific literature and draws on his vast clinical experience to propose an entirely original view of why boys and young men are failing in school and at home. He argues that a combination of social, cultural, and biological factors is creating an environment that is literally toxic to boys, ranging from environmental estrogens to the over-prescription of ADHD drugs. And he presents practical solutions-from new ways of controlling boys’ use of video games, to innovative (and workable) education reforms.
From the greatest minds in business today comes a groundbreaking new blueprint for executing the next stage of customer-created value. C.K. Prahalad, the world's premier business thinker, and IT scholar M.S. Krishnan unveil the critical missing link in connecting strategy to execution--building organizational capabilities that allow companies to achieve and sustain continuous change and innovation.
The New Age of Innovation reveals that the key to creating value and the future growth of every business depends on accessing a global network of resources to co-create unique experiences with customers, one at a time. To achieve this, CEOs, executives, and managers at every level must transform their business processes, technical systems, and supply chain management, implementing key social and technological infrastructure requirements to create an ongoing innovation advantage.
In this landmark work, Prahalad and Krishnan explain how to accomplish this shift--one where IT and the management architecture form the corporation's fundamental foundation. This book provides strategies for
Redesigning systems to co-create value with customers and connect all parts of a firm to this process
Measuring individual behavior through smart analytics
Ceaselessly improving the flexibility and efficiency in all customer-facing and back-end processes
Treating all involved individuals--customers, employees, investors, suppliers--as unique
Working across cultures and time-zones in a seamless global network
Building teams that are capable of providing high-quality, low-cost solutions rapidly
To successfully compete on the battlefields of 21st-century business, companies must reinvent their processes and culture in order to sustain innovative solutions. The New Age of Innovation is a complete program for achieving this transformation to meet the needs of the end consumer of the future.
About this product: The author of the bestselling The Art of Innovation reveals the strategies IDEO, the world-famous design firm, uses to foster innovative thinking throughout an organization and overcome the naysayers who stifle creativity.
The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation.
Drawing on nearly 20 years of experience managing IDEO, Kelley identifies ten roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the Anthropologist—the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the Cross-pollinator who mixes and matches ideas, people, and technology to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation.
Filled with engaging stories of how companies like Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Cargill and Samsung have incorporated IDEO's thinking to transform the customer experience, THE TEN FACES OF INNOVATION is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal.
About this product: the Next EXIT lists gas, food, lodging and many other travel services located at USA Interstate Highway exits in the contiguous 48 states. The most complete interstate exit directory ever printed.
Shave lap times or find a faster line through your favorite set of S-curves with professional race driver Ross Bentley as he shows you the quickest line from apex to apex! With tips and commentary from current race drivers, Bentley covers the vital techniques of speed, from visualizing lines to interpreting tire temps to put you in front of the pack. Includes discussion of practice techniques, chassis set-up, and working with your pit chief.
About this product: Drink less, crave less and nip your problem drinking in the bud with the easy Drink/Link Moderate Drinking Program in this book! Drink/Link has helped thousands of drinkers worldwide to control drinking and prevent alcoholism since 1988. Over 80% of the drinkers who have completed this program have either cut their drinking in half or significantly reduced it! No meetings, drugs, belief in a higher power or professional help are required for you to succeed.
First, you learn five healthy drinking guidelines. Then you're given clinically-proven strategies and techniques to help you stay within those guidelines. You'll learn to manage alcohol craving, how to slow down and pace your drinking, pre-plan for drinking occasions, learn from you slips and resolve issues that drive you to drink so they don't lead to binge drinking. Alcohol will become less important to you and you'll automatically drink less.
Drink/Link is the first moderate drinking program registered with the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and has been recognized in many publications, including Time Magazine, ABCNews.com, the New York Post, Esquire and the Scripps Howard News Service.
About this product: Electric Motors and Drives is intended for non-specialist users of electric motors and drives, filling the gap between maths- and theory-based academic textbooks and the more prosaic 'handbooks', which provide useful detail but little opportunity for the development of real insight and understanding. The book explores all of the widely-used modern types of motor and drive, including conventional and brushless D.C., induction motors and servo drives, providing readers with the knowledge to select the right technology for a given job.
The third edition includes additional diagrams and worked examples throughout. New topics include digital interfacing and control of drives, direct torque control of induction motors and current-fed operation in DC drives. The material on brushless servomotors has also been expanded.
Austin Hughes' approach, using a minimum of maths, has established Electric Motors and Drives as a leading guide for electrical engineers and mechanical engineers, and the key to a complex subject for a wider readership, including technicians, managers and students.
* Acquire knowledge of and understanding of the capabilities and limitations of motors and drives without struggling through unnecessary maths and theory * Updated material on the latest and most widely-used modern motors and drives, including brushless servomotors * New edition includes additional diagrams and worked examples throughout
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