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FirstRand is recognised as a highly innovative business that encourages and rewards original thinking from its people. It has created Perspectives, a portal of original, specifically commissioned content, to provide writers, authors, artists, thinkers, academics, researchers and visionaries a platform to share new ideas and unique concepts.
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Featured article
Wasteful saving and the curious case for negative interest rates
Oscar Wilde’s whimsical 1800’s quote “money was made to be spent, therefore, to save it is a waste of money” recently became true. This is the result of the growing global phenomenon of negative interest rates.
Read moreThe man who created a universe
I suppose many tributes begin with some background information on their early lives, their ancestry, possibly even make reference to the fact that they had a different name at birth. To be honest all of these things seem far too grounded in our universe.
02.2021 | Alistair Duff
Liespotting series:
A beginner’s guide to becoming a human lie
detecting machine
In a previous article we discussed the emergence of the study of lies. We discussed the heavy lifting scientific work done by Ekman and Matsumoto and the amazing contributions that they have made to our understanding of this science.
02.2021 | Alistair Duff
The weird world of quantum computers
The magician gazed out at his audience. “It’s a cold night,” he said. “Does anyone have a pair of gloves I can borrow?”
01.2021 | Barry Dwolatzky
Is the music no longer good or are you just getting old?
People of my generation and older generally aren’t qualified to comment on the state of music today. I’m 30 years old and I have to concede that my peers and I long entered the stage of our lives in which we start to sound more and more like our parents.
12.2020 | Kibo Ngowi
A man, a mouse and an imagination
People of all ages around the world have been touched by Walt Disney. Whether you watched his productions as a child or have enjoyed them with your own children, his classics have kept open the doors of make-believe.
12.2020 | Ingrid Wood
Crowdfunding. More proof that everything is hackable. Even money.
Joseph Pulitzer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Alexander Pope and the history of crowdfunding
The collective financing an outcome is not a new concept.
11.2020 | Nicole Wills
Reward hacking: Moving beyond goal-driven behavior
At the risk of significantly over-simplifying the field, software development is achieved by articulating a certain goal or objective and mapping out a logical, algorithmically-based method of getting there.
11.2020 | Barry Morisse
Why the obsession with zombies?
What is a zombie anyway?
According to pop culture, a zombie is a reanimated corpse with an insatiable hunger for human flesh.
11.2020 | Athalie Russell Besseling
Witty with a dash of sweet acid
Steven Boykey Sidley’s fourth novel, Free Association, is quite simply brilliant. It also has its finger pulsing on the heart of all that is topical
20.2020 | Arja Salafranca
Did Hollywood become a cash cow business without anyone noticing?
No industry has been more involved in shaping trends and informing the masses; nor has any industry been the topic of near constant conversation around the water cooler more than Hollywood.
10.2020 | Alistair Duff
Sharing positive - can good news save the planet?
Albert Schweitzer, a German physician and Nobel Peace Prize winner, coined the phrase “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it”.
10.2020 | Jon Stilwell
Trivia that will make you seem smarter
It may be a while before we can safely sit down at a dinner party but when we do, we certainly don’t want to be talking COVID-19.
10.2020 | Ingrid Wood
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