Society & Culture — Posts

44 posts on "Society & Culture" by Shlomo Strauss — bilingual writing on technology, science, and business.

• The Price of Security: Redefining Professional Independence — A personal journey of leaving a grueling job highlights why true independence is about self-determination and embracing the unknown.
• What freedom really means, and where we actually find it — A Passover reflection on the deeper meaning of freedom, beyond economic independence and control over one's fate.
• A train to Jerusalem and what divides us less than we think — A personal essay on a train ride to Jerusalem that weaves together strangers, scorched landscapes, and a question about what holds Israeli society…
• Fear of firing, hunger for pay — and how to strip employers of their — Building a year-long cash cushion and embracing frugality can quietly shift the power balance in any career negotiation.
• What I chose to ignore this year, and why it mattered — A Yom Kippur reflection on tuning out divisive noise and carrying a more intentional mindset into the new year.
• A comfortable job can quietly cost you your ambitions — A well-paying, comfortable workplace can lull personal ambitions to sleep just as surely as a toxic one — and is harder to recognize as a threat.
• Why moderate gaming is not a waste of time — A busy tech consultant makes the case that gaming's demand for total focus delivers cognitive benefits and mental detachment that few other activities can
• Donate to California wildfire relief and you could appear as a South — Comedy Central has partnered with a California wildfire relief fund, giving donors a chance to win a spot as an animated character in the next season of…
• A gold Lego brick worth $15,000 and the decline of workplace loyalty — A rare 14-karat gold Lego brick once given to 25-year employees serves as a lens for examining how job tenure shrank and workplace loyalty transformed.
• Friends on Telegram: an Israeli and Iranians raised to be enemies — A personal account of genuine friendship formed online between an Israeli and young Iranians, and the hope of one day hosting them in a freer Middle East.
• Behind the on-air smile: what TV anchors carry that viewers never see — A tribute to the Channel 10 economy team who keep broadcasting hope and normalcy while privately facing the same fear and uncertainty as their viewers.
• Your employer owes you nothing emotionally — your colleagues are a — A clear-eyed argument for separating the cold logic of employment contracts from the genuine human relationships that make work worth showing up for.
• Leading lines in photography and architecture: how geometry guides — From the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange ceiling to the Chords Bridge, leading lines are a visual tool that draws viewers through a space and focuses attention on
• What it means to be Israeli: grief and joy, division and belonging — A reflection on the Israeli paradox of mourning and celebration, arguing that living between extremes is itself a source of national resilience.
• The Jiangsu shipyard and the cost of erasing the individual — A viral clip of thousands of workers flooding out of a Chinese shipyard becomes a meditation on what dictatorships erase — and what democracies must…
• What overusing the word "I" reveals about a person's mindset — The frequency of first-person pronouns in speech and writing can signal egocentric thinking — and learning to spot it sharpens both your writing and your…
• A year on LinkedIn: what the numbers actually mean — A personal reflection on over a year of writing on LinkedIn, exploring the motivations behind posting and the real value of online professional…
• Why a tech consultant still manages tasks with pen and paper — Despite working with complex digital systems daily, the author argues that a paper notebook offers convenience and flexibility no app has matched.
• Parenting and career ambition are not just a mother's challenge — A personal reflection on balancing professional ambition with equal, active fatherhood — and why the trade-off is worth it.
• Yousuf Karsh and the art of black-and-white portraiture — An exploration of Yousuf Karsh's portrait philosophy — using deliberate lighting and a fleeting unguarded moment to reveal each subject's inner secret.
• Greenland, Trump, and the Danish lawyer who won the world's largest — Behind Trump's bid to buy Greenland lies a fascinating legal history, including a personal family connection to the 1933 Hague ruling that secured Danish…
• Behind the scenes at Channel 10: a technology advisor's perspective — Seven months advising Channel 10 from its planning stages offered a close look at how talent, management, and technology converge to launch a broadcaster.
• South Tel Aviv's street art scene hiding in plain sight — Amid the neglected streets of south Tel Aviv's industrial quarter, vivid murals deliver an authenticity that polished city centers rarely can.
• Six countries that will pay you to move in — From Switzerland to Japan, several governments are offering substantial cash incentives to attract new residents to depopulating rural areas.
• Elon Musk claims a Diablo 4 world record — and the gaming world is — Musk posted a run that would place him first globally in Diablo 4's level 150, but the gaming community is debating whether the achievement is legitimate.
• A 4-year cruise for Americans who cannot stomach another Trump term — A cruise line is selling a 4-year, 140-country round-the-world voyage timed to end when Trump's term does, starting at $256,000 per person.
• The everyday ghosting most people never think twice about — A short reflection on why closing the loop with salespeople and service providers, even with a simple no, is a matter of basic respect.
• Washington Post lost 200,000 subscribers by refusing to take a stand — When the Washington Post declined to endorse a presidential candidate, it lost 200,000 subscribers — a case study in why professional fence-sitting…
• Iceland adopts the four-day work week — what the trial actually — After a national trial showed gains in productivity and lower unemployment, Iceland is rolling out the four-day model economy-wide — with caveats worth…
• A hyperrealist sculpture of a homeless man in a Zurich luxury hotel — A Zurich luxury hotel placed a hyperrealist homeless figure by artist Duane Hanson near its reception to provoke reflection on social inequality.
• After restoring power post-typhoon, electrical engineers got a hero's — Residents of Hunan lined the streets to cheer the electrical crews who restored power after a typhoon — a small reminder of what gratitude looks like in…
• The heroes among us: what wartime courage teaches about everyday — Reflecting on recent acts of selfless heroism, the piece calls on us to appreciate the quiet, giving people in our lives while we still can.
• Modern slavery: how Asian crime cartels recruit workers for online — A Wall Street Journal investigation into the story of Billy from Ethiopia exposes a vast forced-labor industry running online scams across lawless corners
• Video games are heading to the Olympics — and the stigma deserves a — Beyond the familiar criticisms, video games offer real cognitive and social benefits — provided consumption stays balanced rather than compulsive.
• A question about your epitaph that reorders your priorities — Drawing on Israeli dark humor and a lifelong question about legacy, a personal essay arguing there is no reason to choose between passion, income, and…
• Call or text first? The generational divide over phone etiquette — A Wall Street Journal study highlights a generational gap on whether to ask permission before calling, and when a phone call beats an endless text thread.
• Ordained at 29 with no plans to serve: a rabbi's certificate and a — An Israeli tech entrepreneur reflects on earning a municipal rabbinical ordination after seven years of study — a credential he will shelve while building
• Iranian friends, Python, and what really drives online hatred of — A personal account of friendship with young Iranians argues that online hostility toward Israel often stems from ignorance rather than malice, and that…
• A digital iron curtain: the internet is splitting into rival blocs — The TikTok ban and China's removal of WhatsApp are symptoms of a broader fragmentation of the global internet into isolated blocs, with dangerous…
• Why shouting at a client never works — and what does — From difficult clients to public protests, the author argues that shouting entrenches positions rather than changing them, and that calm reasoning…
• Fear and dreams: the two tools used to control people — A sharp look at how fear and desire are weaponized to manipulate people, and why healthy skepticism is the most effective defense.
• Melted keys and good intentions: a cautionary tale about DIY computer — A short cautionary story about water damage, a hair dryer, and why knowing your limits matters more than saving money on repairs.
• Ramadan through the eyes of an Israeli father — An Israeli manager reflects on the painful contradiction between his respect for a Muslim colleague and the fear Ramadan stirs in him as a parent living…
• Why employees who demand higher salaries are often less efficient — Workers motivated purely by a paycheck often experience lower efficiency and higher dissatisfaction compared to those driven by personal fulfillment.