In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln sat down at his desk to write one of his generals a long, scathing letter. General Gordon Meade, then commander of the Union Army, had disobeyed the President’s orders to capture General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army when the South found themselves trapped between the Potomac River and […]

In 2012, the travel website, Expedia, learned that, for every 100 customers who booked travel on Expedia, 58 of them placed a call afterward for help. [1] One of the benefits of self-service, from a company standpoint, is maximizing efficiency and minimizing expenses. Longer call times between customer service agents and customers incur higher costs.  And […]

During the spring of 1902, Hanoi, Vietnam, was on the brink of its first bubonic plague outbreak. Years earlier, French colonists built nine miles of sewage piping in a bid to modernize the city with basic amenities like running water and, in particular, flushing toilets. [1] The problem was, while well-built, the sewer’s warm, moist […]

Imagine you’re playing a game of tennis. You’re rallying back and forth, playing a competitive game, when you marginally lean to the left of the court in the middle of a point. Your better-skilled opponent catches the error in their peripheral vision and changes their shot at the last second. Game, set, match. [1] In […]