What’s the best age gap in a relationship? | A New Approach to Writing Job Descriptions | Melinda French Gates on how leaders can boost women’s economic power | Virtual influencers are burning up South Koreans’ Instagram feeds

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� � � � � � What's the best age gap in a relationship? - The Economist    This article is part of our Summer reads series. Visit the full collection for book lists, guest essays and more seasonal distractions. When a friend opts to date someone who is old enough to be their parent, a common response is to see if the decision passes the “half their age plus seven” test. The rule, whose origins remain mysterious, has been passed down through generations as a way of justifying or, more commonly, pouring scorn on other people’s couplings. It’s fine for a 22-year-old to go out with an 18-year-old. It’s not OK for a 38-year-old to go out with a 23-year-old, however a 26-year-old would be fair game. The older you get, the wider the permissible age gap: a 50-year-old can venture as old as 86. That’s the theory. In practice, research conducted by Christian Rudder, co-founder of OKCupid, a dating website, suggests that when it comes to age gaps, men and women have slightly different ideas. While female users look for men roughly the same age as them (or perhaps a year or two older) men prefer women in their early twenties, regardless of their own age. While women prefer a small and constant age gap, men are so hooked on the idea of a nubile young partner that they prefer a larger age gap the older they get. Continued here � � � � � � Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium A New Approach to Writing Job Descriptions - Harvard Business Review    Traditional job descriptions can’t keep up with the rate of change in real roles in today’s organizations. As new technologies disrupt processes and require new skills, and as companies are moving toward more and more project-based work, we are beginning to see the evolution of job descriptions away from static, holistic prescriptions that follow an employee for years to dynamic guidance that changes based on needs. What’s replacing them are approaches that are more flexible because they’re based on outcomes, skills, or teams. Jobs today are changing fast, and traditional job descriptions can’t keep up. As new technologies disrupt processes and require new skills, and as companies are moving toward more and more project-based work, we are beginning to see the evolution of job descriptions away from static, holistic prescriptions that follow an employee for years to dynamic guidance that changes based on needs. For example, a company that hired an employee for a certain set of tasks might find that four months later, a different set of tasks takes strategic priority. Even though that employee has the right skills for the new tasks, the employee can point to their job description to decline to do the new task by saying that it wasn’t what they were hired to do — or, if they take on the new tasks, their job description becomes quickly out of date. Continued here � � � � � � Melinda French Gates on how leaders can boost women's economic power - The Economist    EARLIER THIS year I contacted a few African development experts for their views on the continent’s priorities. Our conversation centred on issues like debt restructuring and taxation policy, but just as we were wrapping up, one of them, a Ghanaian economist, offered a different piece of advice: “Don’t stop talking about gender.” I appreciated the encouragement—and I understood why it was offered. In the two decades I’ve worked as an advocate for women and girls, I’ve learned that there will always be people who insist that now is not the time to talk about gender equality. When the global agenda gets crowded, gender equality is one of the first items to fall off. It is treated as a distraction from the world’s most pressing problems, even though the data make clear it’s a central part of the solution. Decades of research have shown that when women can fully participate in economies, it increases financial stability for their households, helps families recover more quickly from shocks and supports a country’s resilience. The data show a correlation between women’s economic agency and reduced poverty, and experts consider such agency essential to food security. What’s more, it fuels growth: new figures from Eurasia Group indicate that if policymakers prioritised investments in women’s economic power, the global economy could grow by an additional 7%, or $10trn, by 2030. Continued here � � � � � � Virtual influencers are burning up South Koreans' Instagram feeds - The Economist    South Korean television presenters have been causing trouble. Within the past year one was fired for swearing on live television and another for slandering a dead comedian. A third stands accused of abusing junior colleagues. A solution is to hand: virtual humans. Increasingly common globally, computer-generated influencers are proving especially popular in South Korea. The country’s first, Oh Rozy (“One and Only”), was created by a Seoul-based firm, Locus-X, and appeared on Instagram in 2020. She purports to be a beautiful 22-year-old who works as a singer, model and a sustainability champion. Appearing in adverts for companies including Calvin Klein and Tiffany, and in television shows, Rozy, as she is known to fans, is estimated to have made more than 2.5bn won ($1,8m) last year. She is perhaps best-known for an advert for an insurance company in which she danced across the rooftops of Seoul. After Rozy’s debut more than 150 other digital humans hit South Korea’s social-media and advertising channels in less than three months, according to Baek Seung-yeop, the boss of Locus-X. Virtual k-pop singers are also becoming popular. This year the debut single of a computer-generated girl band, MAVE:, featuring four avatars called Siu, Zena, Tyra and Marty, racked up over 26m views on YouTube. South Korea’s tourism board recently made Yeo Lizzie, another digital confection, its honorary ambassador, replacing Son Heung-min, captain of the national football team. Continued here

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