【推荐2】Plato believed that men are divided into three classes: gold, silver and bronze. Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, argued that “ the vital few” contributed to most progress. Such viewpoints are taboo (禁忌) today in public life. Politicians avoid talking of a “leadership class” or “the vital few”. School recruitment turns away from picking winners. Universities welcome the masses: more people now teach at British universities than attended them in the1950s.

In the private sector things could hardly be more different. The world’s best companies struggle tirelessly to find and keep the vital few. They offer them fat pay packets, extra training, powerful instruction and more challenging assignments. Private-equity (私人股权) firms rely heavily on a few stars. Firms in emerging markets are desperate to find high-flyers who can cope with rapid growth and fast-changing environments.

Few people know more about how companies manage talent than Bill Conaty and RamCharan. Mr. Conaty led the human-resources department at General Electric (GE) for 14years. Mr. Charan has spent the past few decades presenting proposals to some celebrated entrepreneurs (企业家). Their recent book, The Talent Masters, provides. a nice mix of portraits of well-known talent factories, such as GE and Procter & Gamble (P&G).

Successful companies make sure that senior managers are involved with “ talent development”. Jack Welch and A. G. Lafley, former bosses of GE and P&G, claimed that they spent 40% of their time on personnel. Andy Grove, who ra n Intel, a chipmaker, obliged all the senior people, including himself, to spend at least a week a year instructing high-flyers . Nitin Paranjpe, the boss of Hindustan Unilever, recruits people from campuses and regularly visits high-flyers in their offices.

Elitism (精英主义) has its drawbacks. In their rush to classify people, companies can miss potential stars. Those who are singled out for special treatment can become too full of themselves.

【推荐3】In its reaction to reports that its Kindle business is exiting the Chinese mainland market, Amazon said customers can still buy Kindle devices through online and offline, while some of its devices have been sold out in the mainland.

No one knows whether customers bought all its products or the company produced too few, leading to the sellout, but it is obvious that Kindle has shut down several online sales channels, forcing many in China to put their Kindles up for sale.

On the other hand, Data shows the number of digital readers was higher than before. The total market value of the digital reading industry grows 21.8 percent over that in 2019.

The reason for the industry’s growth even as Kindle drops is the Smartphone existing everywhere. When it can meet most daily needs, why would one want a Kindle device? In fact, all electronic devices that specialize in single functions are fading out, be it Kindle, MP3 or MP4 players. Even tablets account for only one-tenth of mobile devices sales because one cannot use one to make a phone call.

Besides, Kindle itself has problems. The electronic books that can be bought are expensive, while Kindle Unlimited, a program that allows customers to read any number of eBooks for a monthly subscription (订阅) fee, seldom includes new titles.

In a nutshell, while electronic reading is a booming (繁荣的) market, the market for electronic reading devices is shrinking. That’s why many jokes that the only function left for a Kindle device is to act as a cover for a steaming cup of instant noodles.

Of course, Kindle offers some very good professional resources for scholars, while also allowing users to install an electronic dictionary to let them read in different languages. That’s why many users are saddened and hope Kindle does not disappear forever. Maybe Kindle can find a way to reinvent itself and continue serving its customers.

【推荐2】There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the influence of media is growing stronger and stronger as time passes. If you have noticed, the speed at which news travels around the world has become faster with the development and advancement in technology Media are actually influencing people in different ways.

Whether you admit it or not, watching movies and programs on the television or our laptop, ipad and other mobile devices as we relax takes us away into this different kingdom — that is, there are parts in our being that feels we are the ones in the movie and sometimes we even feel what they are feeling as we get caught in the emotional excitement. The effect of media does not stop when the movie or program ends. And this effect might just be the cause of behavioral changes in people.

With action films, children tend to follow the movie hero, engaging them to violent acts thinking that it is acceptable because his hero became successful in the end. There are cartoon programs that show acts of violence and dishonest acts against others. In return, children tend to copy the characters and think that cheating other people is a way to deal with their problems. They learn to transfer these ill behaviors to friends.

There are some television shows and movies that attempt to create an atmosphere to change the view of people towards social issues such as racial discrimination. In the minds of other people, the effect can be for the better, but some unfortunately for the worse.

There had been instances in the past that young people drunk driving imitating their favorite actress. There was also a case where somebody set a subway ticket booth on fire because he saw it in his favorite film. These are just a few examples of the disturbing influence of media on people’s behavior.

An explanation to these bad acts is that these people could not distinguish fantasy from reality. They get caught up in the kingdom of what they had been watching and the images and scenes become deeply rooted in their minds.

So the media is largely responsible for giving people false ideas and unhealthy pictures, which lead to misbehavior against other people, and can create a dangerous cycle among individuals as they attempt to do the same or even worse things to others. The sad reality is, no one is tuning off their televisions or disconnecting from these influences. The only way programming of this sort will change is when people no longer buy into it, demand it, and watch it.