Commentary on the consumption tread mill, is Microsoft next, who are the innovators, learning Mandarin, and worrying about the impossible.

Is our species doomed to consume ourselves into extinction?

Financial Times -- Enough is enough of the age of consumption
Until fairly recently economists envisaged three stages of economic development.

Related.

Ronald Wright – A Short History of Progress
The first of Ronald Wright's 2004 Massey Lectures, collectively entitled "A Short History of Progress".

Dumb decisions.

Vanity Fair -- Microsoft’s Downfall: Inside the Executive E-mails and Cannibalistic Culture That Felled a Tech Giant
Analyzing one of American corporate history’s greatest mysteries—the lost decade of Microsoft—two-time George Polk Award winner (and V.F.’s newest contributing editor) Kurt Eichenwald traces the “astonishingly foolish management decisions” at the company that “could serve as a business-school case study on the pitfalls of success.”

Related.

Vanity Fair – Microsoft’s Odd Couple
It’s 1975 and two college dropouts are racing to create software for a new line of “hobbyist” computers.

Following innovators. Thanks to Robin of Victoria lately of Croatia.

Knowledge Wharton -- 'Creating Innovators': Raising Young People Who Will Change the World
Leading thinkers, from President Barack Obama to Thomas Friedman, argue that innovation is key to improving the United States economy, now and in the future.

Learning languages.

Economist -- Learning Mandarin, whatever it takes
TODAY'S Wall Street Journal offers a useful update to the annual "Americans are rushing to teach their kids Mandarin" story.

What me worry?

National Post -- Andrew Coyne: Quebec separation scenario isn’t just unlikely, it’s impossible
Just in time to celebrate the national holiday a Postmedia/Ipsos Reid poll arrives with news that one in two Canadians couldn’t care less if the country breaks apart.