The unpaid interns of the entertainment industry will not go quietly!

Two interns, Alex Footman and Eric Glatt, sued Fox Searchlight last fall for violating minimum wage and overtime laws. 

Now, the plaintiffs are looking to "broaden the scope of the case to include all interns who participated in Fox Entertainment Group's internship program," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The pair's new lawsuit now names two additional plaintiffs. Eden Antalik was a corporate FEG intern while Kanene Gratts worked as an intern on the movie "(500) Days of Summer."

The lawsuit claims that further investigation shows "the same hiring, personnel and company policies that applied to Searchlight interns applied to all interns who participated in FEG's internship program."

In response to the original suit last October, the company blamed any "intern abuse" on "Black Swan" director Darren Aronofsky and his production company, saying they were never Fox Searchlight interns. 

In July 2010, 20th Century Fox and other Fox entertainment units started paying their interns $8 per hour, but were unpaid before that time, even though they had to fill out I-9 forms, sign confidentiality agreements, and were considered employees.

Similar cases were filed against Conde Nast, Hearst, and "The Charlie Rose Show." At Conde Nast, the company reformed its internship programs to add a $550 stipend, per semester.

SEE ALSO: Unpaid interns forced to work like unpaid interns >

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Business Insider's popular War Room vertical is looking for a reporter. Could it be you? Here's how to know if you're the ideal candidate:

*You're an excellent writer

*You have a basic understanding of business

*You consume all types of news and use social media to get it

*You're familiar with Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and other sites that cover the latest trends in business

*You love to learn about what makes CEOs, innovators and creative minds tick   

*You know how to package information in a fresh and creative way

*You have an MBA or you've considered getting one at some point

If this job description interests you, send me an email (jliebman@businessinsider.com) with a paragraph on why you're the one for the job. Please include your resume and a few clips.

Please also note: This job is full-time, and is based in our NYC headquarters.

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In 2005, 31-year old Matt Kepnes took a trip to Thailand that would change the way he viewed his traditional American life. 

By the time he returned to his cubicle in Boston, Kepnes told his bosses he'd be completing his MBA in six months — and resigning.

"My life was heading down a road that I realized I wasn’t ready for," he tells us. "Marriage, houses, kids, 401ks, play dates, college funds — everything you think about when you think of the 'American dream'. While there is nothing wrong with that, it wasn’t what I really wanted."

Kepnes' decision turned into the budget travel blog NomadicMatt.com, which receives roughly 200,000 unique views per month, and generates an average $9,000 monthly income for its writer. His blog has become so well-known that he regularly speaks at conferences, such as TBEX, World Travel Mart, and American Society of Travel Agents. His book, "How To Travel The World On $50 A Day" will be released in February 2013.

Kepnes' blog aims to provide tips for both seasoned and wannabe travelers, from the best hostels to sleep in, the cheapest ways to fly, whether or not traveling via Rail Europe really saves money (it does!), and how to choose the perfect travel credit card.

The blogger has been on many adventures; he got lost in a jungle in Costa Rica, lived off of gambling money as a poker player in Amsterdam, swam with sharks in the Great Barrier Reef, and ate maggots in Thailand. For him, each experience is a story for his readers.

And he's received a lot of attention from his writing. 

One post, titled "Why I'll Never Return To Vietnam," caused widespread controversy after appearing in the Huffington Post. The article described how he was scammed, ignored, lied to, and blatantly overcharged several times during his trip to Vietnam. 

This particular blog post attracted so much attention — more than 300 comments — that Vietnamese government officials even participated in the debate, defending Vietnam as a prime tourist attraction. One article posted a rebuttal headline titled "Why I'll Never Return To NomadicMatt.com Again."

"After the article, I was getting interview requests from the BBC, Vietnamese newspapers, and other travel sites," Kepnes says. "Ministers in the Vietnamese government were even commenting on it. I didn't expect that. I felt honored. How many people say they've been the target of government propaganda?"

Despite the varying mix of praise and criticism, Kepnes has no regrets about the post. "I left the article up on my site because that's the way I feel," he says. "My blog is my opinion — good or bad. No one wants to feel like a walking ATM. There are many people who don't like Paris, London, or Bali because of their experience there. My thoughts on Vietnam are no different."

Since his blog started bringing in revenue, Kepnes tells us his nomadic life has changed. 

"When I first started, every day was Saturday," he says. "I had nothing to do and all the time to do it in. Now, there is work to be done, things to research, calls to make, and conferences to attend. I am always checking out prices and asking an insane amount of questions at the tourism office or to the staff at the train station just so I can be sure I know everything to help other travelers."

But even travel bloggers need to take a vacation now and then, and this year, Kepnes had his first. For him, travel is still work, and his time off consists of breaking away from the internet and traveling for himself.

Some people have accused Kepnes of running away from the real world. He addressed this concern in an inspirational post, saying, "I am running away. I am trying to avoid life — I’m avoiding your life. I’m running away from your idea of the 'real' world. Because, really, I am running toward everything — toward the world, exotic places, new people, different cultures, and my own idea of freedom."

"If this whole thing fails, I'll move back to Asia and teach English," he says. "I'm hoping it won't come to that though and until it does, I'm going to keep riding this train."

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Here, a few vivid comparisons that bring home the fact that multitasking makes you dumber.

On his always-interesting blog, Eric Barker quotes a book called “Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long,” by David Rock:

“A study done at the University of London found that constant emailing and text-messaging reduces mental capability by an average of ten points on an IQ test. It was five points for women, and fifteen points for men. This effect is similar to missing a night’s sleep. For men, it’s around three times more than the effect of smoking cannabis.

While this fact might make an interesting dinner party topic, it’s really not that amusing that one of the most common ‘productivity tools’ can make one as dumb as a stoner.

The idea that conscious processes need to be done one at a time has been studied in hundreds of experiments since the 1980s. For example, the scientist Harold Pashler showed that when people do two cognitive tasks at once, their cognitive capacity can drop from that of a Harvard MBA to that of an MBA to that of an eight-year-old.

It’s a phenomenon called dual-task interference. In one experiment, Pashler had volunteers press one of two keys on a pad in response to whether a light flashed on the left or right side of a window. One group only did this task over and over. Another group had to define the color of an object at the same time, choosing from among three colors. These are simple variables: left or right, and only three colors. Yet doing two tasks took twice as long, leading to no time saving. This finding held up whether the experiment involved sight or sound, and no matter how much participants practiced.

The lesson is clear: if accuracy is important, don’t divide your attention.”

Read more here.

I think most of us know this is true, and yet we continue to try to get away with doing more than one thing at once. It reminds me of the old saying: “If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?”

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The recruiting scene in Silicon Valley is brutal.

So, if you get contacted by a recruiter trying to lure you away from a company you love, here's one strategy: Get them to feed you contact information for their own best engineers, under the pretense that you're fascinated by their client but need to do some technical due diligence.

Then poach them right back.

All's fair in love and war, right?

Harry Heymann, a lead engineer at Foursquare, summed up the strategy nicely in a funny comic (which was apparently made by Exec cofounder Justin Kan) on Quora:

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Two decades ago, Ryan Blair was the product of a broken family.

At the age of 13, he was already heavily "involved in stuff" after his father succumbed to drug addiction, he tells us.

Without anyone to turn to for his Attention Deficit Disorder and dyslexia, Blair dropped out of school in the 9th grade and quickly turned to the close-knit "familia" gang life.

In his book "Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain," Blair writes:

"I quickly saw how the system worked, how the street lords kept themselves in power through influence and manipulation. I observed how the older people used bribery and fear to get the younger kids to do their crimes, and I saw how the young people willingly went along with it because it seemed like the only power structure that had any kind of respect in the neighborhood." 

His story was meant for a tragic end, but Blair is no longer even a shadow of his former self — except for the tattoos you see when he wears short-sleeved shirts. 

At 21, Blair started his first company and today, is a serial entrepreneur who also happens to be a multimillionaire. 

He writes:

"Long before I became a millionaire entrepreneur, I was a kid with a criminal record, street gang experience, and a lot of emotional scarring from years of abuse from my father. My teenage years were hardly the typical starting point for a normal, productive life, let alone a successful business career. Turns out, that didn't matter."

While dabbling in the criminal lifestyle, Blair was arrested close to a dozen times. He was 16 years old the last time he was arrested and facing a four-year jail sentence.

Luckily, at the age of 18, Blair's mother "sobered up" and "started dating a guy in real estate," which, he says, allowed him to "see how the legal people do it."

When he realized legal business tactics weren't so different from "street smarts," Blair decided to apply the survival blueprints he learned from his former life into the corporate world.

"There's a hierarchy in gangs, a hierarchy of positions and power," he says. "A gang is an economic system, and there's a lot of similarities between gangs and some legal companies."

"I know that it's not always the most powerful organization that's going to make it, it's the one that's most adaptable with the changing times, the one that understands how to manage their politics."

Three years later, the former problem child launched his first company — 24/7 Tech — and his spotty past has made him the business man he is now.

Today, he's the CEO of ViSalus and won the DSN Global Turn Around Award in 2010 when he actually turned the company around from a $6 million debt in early 2008 to $150 million in revenue 16 months later.

“I learned my business skills living in poverty and having had a family that was heavily involved in illegal businesses."

In the beginning, Blair tells us he was nervous about 'taking his skeletons out of his closet," because people are always "looking for a reason to see why they are better than you. People look at people who don't have pedigree upbringings differently."

But "if you avoid it, or hide it, others might feel as though there's a dishonesty there, and hiding something is a very expensive emotional thing for you."

It was something Blair decided he didn't want weighing him down, and tells us he applies this same belief when hiring his own employees. 

"I am 100 percent open to [hiring someone with a criminal record], but only if the person is honest about it."

The entrepreneur is also a contributor for Forbes.com and the Financial Times.

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The Roth IRA is one of the most talked about and least understood financial tools.

Unlike traditional IRAs, which are paid pre-tax and incur taxes on every withdrawal, you pay the current tax rate on Roth contributions and aren't taxed on any future withdrawals as long as you meet certain qualifications. 

What's confusing for consumers isn't weighing the pros and cons of Roth IRAs as much as the concept. It's the choice between leaving savings in a traditional IRA or converting them into a Roth account of their own. 

We asked ChFC Mike Piershale, resident retirement expert and president of Piershale Financial Group, to explain who should steer clear of Roths.

People expecting to use their IRA as income in retirement. If you're approaching retirement or and need to draw funds from the IRA to live on, it's not wise to convert to a Roth, Piershale says. Why? "Converting to a Roth costs money and it takes a certain number of years before the money you pay upfront is justified by the tax savings," he says. "This timeline is greatly increased if you're taking income."  (Use a Roth conversion calculator like this to get an idea of whether you're better off converting.)

Anyone who can't afford it. If you have to use funds from your traditional IRA in order to pay the taxes it will cost you to convert to a Roth, you're better off letting the funds sit tight. "This is a huge and very reasonable reason not to do a Roth conversion," Piershale says. "It just wouldn't make sense." 

Those who will retire in a lower income tax bracket than they're in now. For example, an IRA owner in the 25 percent tax bracket today (making about $70,700 in taxable income for those married and filing jointly), it wouldn't make sense to pay 25 percent on a Roth IRA conversion if you're planning to retire in the 15 percent tax bracket. "It'll be cheaper to wait until you retire and convert at a 15 percent tax rate, which will result in substantial tax savings," he says. "That's a huge tax savings."

Parents who don't want to cut their kids a deal. One of the perks of Roth IRAs is that they are excellent vehicles when uses trusts as beneficiaries. That's because trusts typically trigger a lot more taxes on a let less income. But with a Roth, heirs can make withdrawals forever without tax penalties. "You're leaving a sweeter deal to your kid if you leave them a Roth IRA than if you leave them a traditional IRA," Piershale says. "They can set up something called an inherited IRA."

Anyone who doesn't want to pay the income tax upfront. Piershale himself admits the thought of converting his traditional IRA into a Roth stings when he considers how much he'll be paying upfront in taxes. It's a common concern that keeps some IRA owners from making the switch. "Can you imagine someone has a $300,000 IRA and right upfront they're giving up $75,000 of that IRA?" he says. "[A Roth IRA conversion may] look good on paper when you're running a pure math calculation but in the real world, a lot of things happen. They have a health problem or something happens where they need a lot more money a lot faster."

DON'T MISS: This couple is living the retirement dream on an Argentine vineyard > 

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Today's advice comes from Noel Biderman, president of AshleyMadison.com, via Inc.:

"You don't always have to be positive. You don't have to be everything to everyone. People are smart. They're well informed. They can draw their own conclusions."

The former sports attorney can probably speak on controversial businesses better than anyone else.

His website, AshleyMadison.com, is a dating site for cheaters; users can create profiles and browse other users' profiles to find the perfect person to have a discreet affair with. And while he has received a barrage of criticism for the web site and many advertisers won't work with him, he believed in the business and made it work. Biderman does all of the company's advertising in-house and refrains from outsourcing.

Regardless of how far-fetched and controversial your idea seems, if you believe there's a niche for it and that it will succeed, go for it. The negative opinions of the general public shouldn't be a concern for business owners. Biderman was fully aware that his business was way outside of conventional ideas, but he knew it could yield a profit if he put enough work into it.

"Don't be afraid to take a position you believe in. Trust your own vision and voice and you will be pleasantly surprised by the outcome."

Want your business advice featured in Instant MBA? Submit your tips to tipoftheday@businessinsider.com. Be sure to include your name, your job title, and a photo of yourself in your email. 

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The Harvard Business Review has a feature called THE MANAGEMENT TIP.

I like these tips because they are short and totally digestible, and reading through a half dozen of them feels like at least the equivalent of half an MBA.

Anyway, I have something to say about today’s hot tip — it's a really great tip. Though, there was a time in my life when I would have been like, “Yeah that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, no one does that. Ring Ring. ‘Can I have an informational interview?’ I’d rather die.”

But I have learned that the secret to the informational interview is: You don’t call it an informational interview. What it really is: Being curious and reaching out to strangers. That’s it.

Here are the four times I've done it:

1. I emailed an old boss to ask him to introduce me to his colleague because I thought she did dope work. He wrote an intro email. I replied to the intro email thanking him for the intro and asking his colleague a question, which was: How can I do what you do? Here’s the email, with specifics removed (TOP SECRET).

Thanks, BOB.
Hi, SHIRLEY.
I understand how busy you are, and I thank you reading this. This is what I do now, but I’m really interested in learning more about this other thing and developing my skills there. I admire your work in the field because of this specific reason that I’m going to give right now.

Here’s a sentence or two to show you that I actually have done some research and have some knowledge in this field and am not just going to waste your time by asking you questions I could learn from your Twitter bio.

I suppose what I’d love would be a quick phone call during which we could talk about your work and experiences so I can try to emulate the work that you do! Thanks so much, Logan

Okay so this is actually not even the best email. I’m reading it now and am kind of grossed out by it. In fact it’s kind of a bore—”emulate the work that you do,” ha, that’s dumb. But it worked, so I think maybe the point is … it doesn’t have to be the best email. It just has to be short and sincere. Sometimes you will not get a response. I did on this one, and we had a phone call, and I learned all about the industry, most importantly that it’s FIVE THOUSAND TIMES HARDER than she makes it look. If I didn’t get a response I’d maybe follow-up once and then move on.

2. I met a woman who had a super, super cool job. The next day (week), I sent her an email saying I loved meeting her and was totally jazzed about the existence of her career and that I’d love to talk to her about how she got to where she is if she ever has the time. Time passed. We had a phone call. Time passed. Every now and then I checked in over email. Time passed. She landed a project that required a person just like me, and since I was in her email inbox sometimes, she asked me if I’d like to apply. I said yes and then jumped through one thousand hoops and got the job. I would not say that this is a typical result when you reach out to people, but I would say this is PERHAPS LITERALLY the only way to actually get a job.

Read The Rest At The Billfold >

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I had seen Jeff with his five-year-old buddy around the neighborhood a few times before I ever talked to them.

One time he was patiently helping the boy get the hang of a bicycle, and another time they were poking around the sides of the bike path looking for interesting things that had been left there as trash.

The day I finally stopped and talked with them, they were heading to a playground so the boy—I’ll call him Daniel—could fly a paper kite he had made. Both of them were wearing cowboy hats.

Jeff explained that he isn’t related to Daniel.

“I used to go out with his mom, and his real father ain’t around,” he said. “I’m the only male figure he has in his life.”

Jeff said he’s had a lot of time to spend with Daniel over the past year because he’s been unemployed.

“I’m 54 years old, and this is the first time I’ve been out of work,” he said.

In the past, Jeff said, he’s worked a lot of different jobs. He was a mechanic for a small town near Nashua for a while, and then he ran his own business.

At one point he worked for a traveling carnival, fixing the trucks and the rides as they went from town to town. When he told me that, I had to ask about the safety of carnival rides, which always seems questionable to me. He told me they actually have fewer accidents than amusement park rides because they have to be inspected by an engineer every time they move.

Jeff said he wrote songs about his time on the road—he plays a few different instruments, he said—but he’s not interested in traveling any more. He’d like to find a job locally, but it’s hard, both because of the economy and because he lost his license thanks to a DWI. He said it’s almost impossible to work as a mechanic if you don’t have a license.

Jeff lost his apartment in March, when he’d been out of work for a few months and couldn’t pay the rent anymore. He’s a veteran, so he’s been able to get help through the VA, and he’s now living in transitional housing through a two-year program.

He’s not sure what he wants to do next. He could go back to school with help from the VA, he said. He’s 13 credits short of a degree in electronics. But he’s not sure he wants to do that. Mostly, he just wants to find a job that will last him the 10 or 12 years until he can retire.

“I just want to find something I can get into, some tiny niche,” he said.

Jeff has six grandchildren living nearby in Manchester. He doesn’t see them as often as he’d like to, he said, but he gets along with them, and with his two adult children.

He had two other children who died. One was murdered about eight years ago, when he was 21. The other died of SIDS at eight months old.

“I have nightmares,” he said.

The VA has helped him get medication to help him sleep. In the past he’d been wary of using that kind of drug, but lately he’s been having enough trouble that he decided to give it a try.

“So far it ain’t working, but I just started it,” he said.

While we talked, Daniel found a Christmas tree that had been discarded by the edge of the playground and begged Jeff to bring it back to his apartment. Jeff noted that the boy’s mother probably wouldn’t be thrilled at that idea, but he suggested he try to drag it back himself.

Jeff said one time Daniel found a piece of lumber almost as big as himself in Mine Falls Park and pulled it all the way back home. Daniel likes one particular spot in Mine Falls where he can dig in the dirt, Jeff said. He said the two of them go all kinds of places. Over the summer they visited a fish hatchery a bunch of times, and there’s a lake they like to go to too.

“Every park in the city,” Jeff said. “We just go. I usually let him decide.”

Jeff said for a while they rode together on a bicycle that he had fixed up with two seats, but someone stole it recently. That might be a good thing, though, he said. He gave Daniel his own bike a while back, but the boy didn’t want to learn to ride at first. Now losing the double-seater has forced him to try it again.

Jeff said he likes taking Daniel around because the boy’s mother is disabled and can’t get out with him much. But he said that’s not the only reason he does it.

“He helps me more than I help him,” he said.

DON'T MISS: 25 portraits of homeless people in Philadelphia > 

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Nassim Taleb – the man behind the term "black swan" – just published a new paper taking aim at Wall Street titled Why It is No Longer a Good Idea to Be in The Investment Industry.

Taleb explains how as funds have become more and more concentrated among a growing group of investment managers he calls the "spurious tail," it has basically become impossible to be successful in the industry by putting in the work.

You just have to get lucky.

The reason for this is that the track records of successful managers are increasingly characterized by huge wins resulting from "spurious performance," according to Taleb, which has allowed them to "rise to the top for no reasons other than mere luck, with subsequent rationalizations, analyses, explanations, and attributions."

Those winning managers, in turn, attract more investments to their funds, increasing their allocations based on past performance, making them difficult for other managers to compete with as the winners grow their market share.

Taleb thinks the industry is already past the point of no return. He writes that "an operator starting today, no matter his skill level, and ability to predict prices, will be outcompeted by the spurious tail." 

There are two reasons why Taleb thinks the spurious tail has become an unstoppable juggernaut that has completely changed how things work on Wall Street.

The first reason is that the returns generated by the "spurious tail" set are huge. Taleb uses some quick calculus to show how investment returns several – even more than 100 – deviations away from average can now be expected to arise as simply random outcomes under the current industry status quo.

These huge wins are attracting clients to funds who only managed to generate stellar returns in the past by luck. Taleb posits that due to globalization, there is a "winner-take-all" effect driving increasing concentration of investment funds among "top" managers; i.e., the ones who score a big win have an easier time attracting new clients.

And as investments become more concentrated at the top, the deviation from average of expected "spurious tail" returns grows even bigger.

The second reason the spurious tail has become so prominent is that investors operate in a world of "fat tail" risks. That is, the unlikely events that investors previously ignored have become a lot more prevalent lately in today's investment environment.

The fat tails make the spurious tail – those big wins that can be expected to arise simply by chance – even bigger.

And a bigger spurious tail means those who don't get lucky with the big wins are going to have an increasingly hard time attracting investments from clients over the ones who do get lucky.

For Taleb, the investment industry is a bad choice if you don't want to subject your career entirely to random chance. He writes, "This condition affects any business in which prevail (1) some degree of fat-tailed randomness, and (2) winner-take-all effects in allocation. Conclude, if you are starting a career, move away from investment management and performance related lotteries as you will be competing with a swelling future spurious tail. Pick a less commoditized business or a niche where there is a small number of direct competitors. Or, if you stay in trading, become a market-maker."

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It's been just more than two weeks since Jonah Lehrer quit his post at The New Yorker after it emerged that he fabricated quotes in his book Imagine, but as Buzfeed's Ben Smith and Reyhan Harmanchi report, he's still got another gig within the Condé Nast publishing empire, at his old publication, Wired. The magazine, which published Lehrer's Frontal Cortex blog before it moved to The New Yorker's site, confirmed to Smith and Harmanchi on Tuesday that it was keeping Lehrer's features contract intact, and that "a couple of pieces [are] already in the works." 

Wired spokesman Tim Hammond called Lehrer's decision to invent quotes from Bob Dylan for his book Imagine "a horrible mistake," but said it "does not diminish his work as a valued contributor to the magazine and website." Wired has been vetting Lehrer's past work for the magazine and "to date we have not come across anything that seems too troubling," Hammond told Smith and Harmanchi. On Twitter, Buzzfeed deputy technology editor John Herman floated the theory that Wired editor in chief Chris Anderson "is more forgiving than most other EICs when it comes to stuff like this," because he's also had a brush with plagiarism. In 2009, passages from Wikipedia appeared in Anderson's book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, without citations.

NOW READ: Jonah Lehrer Fell Victim To His Own Cognitive Bias >

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How are “Mad Men”’s Joan Holloway and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright alike?

You might not think they have much in common. But, according to a new study, these women both successfully use feminine charm to get what they want.

The research, lead by Dr. Laura Kray, provides the first-ever academic look at the notion of feminine charm, and its potential economic benefits. Striking the right balance between friendliness and flirtation may be a woman’s secret weapon for a successful negotiation.

The study found that employing the right technique can boost a woman’s chance of success in a negotiation—with either a man or another woman—by as much as one third. The research also found that a woman who uses feminine charm effectively can successfully bargain for roughly 20% off the price of a car.

So, is there a science to flirting? Dr. Kray would say yes.

“Feminine charm is a strategic behaviour aimed at making the person you are negotiating with feel good in order to get them to agree to your goals,” Dr. Kray told The Independent.

The most effective charm will balance warmth and friendliness with flattery and sexiness. Dr. Kray warns that appearing too friendly will hurt women because they can come across as pushovers and people-pleasers, rather than powerful career women.

But too much feminine charm also has its downside. The study found that women who overtly flirt to get ahead are viewed as less trustworthy and authentic by their co-workers.

So should women employ feminine charm to get what they want? Is it fair?

Well, the research shows there is an evolutionary reason for this kind of skill. Women have to engage in flirtatious behavior to disguise the “unappealing” masculine qualities—like competitiveness and aggressiveness—that they need to be successful in a negotiation. Essentially, flirting helps you act like a man without appearing to do so.

Ironically, the most feminine behaviors–like flirtation and playfulness–may be the key for women to achieve parity with men in the workplace and close the pay gap. So, turn on the charm in your next negotiation and you may see a bigger figure on your paycheck.

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The "lean startup movement" is all about failing fast. It's based on the idea that in order to create more successes, you've got to encounter more losses. It's simply a game of statistics. 

In theory, healthy risk is good. But it's not easy, and McKinsey analysts have found that managers across the world are shockingly terrible risk-takers. 

Last year the consultancy asked 1,500 executives from 90 countries to react to investment scenarios, and found that "even at a risk of loss of 75 percent, most respondents were unwilling to accept it on those terms. Instead, they were only willing to accept a risk of loss from 1 to 20 percent."

According to the study's authors Tim Koller and Zane Williams of McKinsey and Dan Lovallo of the Sydney School of Business, this high level of risk-aversion has everything to do with inherent behavioral biases: 

"The first is loss aversion, a phenomenon in which people fear losses more than they value equivalent gains. The second is narrow framing, in which people weigh potential risks as if there were only a single potential outcome—akin to flipping a coin only once—instead of viewing them as part of a larger portfolio of outcomes—akin to flipping, say, 50 coins."

In many companies, one big loss by an individual can be a career-ender (and in some cases, like when financial firms fall by a single trade, it should be). But the study's authors point out that this philosophy is generally flawed. First of all, the law of statistics prove that "a large number of projects are extremely unlikely to fail," unless they involve all of the same risks. Second, outcomes are always affected by some uncontrollable factors. With these things in mind, companies need to make it easier for employees to take risks — because the potential gains are staggering. They give two easy ways to do this: 

• Evaluate performance based on portfolios of outcomes, not single projects
• Reward skill, not luck

The trick is getting over that first hurdle and accepting that some losses are a good thing. This is how the most innovative companies operate, and initiate the downfall of others. 

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The longer you're unemployed, the less valuable you may seem to a hiring manager.

In her post on AARP.org, Diane Cadrain, a Connecticut-based attorney, writes about how some companies are going as far as placing employment ads that specifically screen applicants based on current employment status. 

The tricky thing is, if you know you didn't get a job because you've been out of work for an extended period of time, is there anything you can do about this?

We spoke to Cadrain to find out more:

1. What should workers do if they’ve been discriminated against due to their unemployment status? 

According to George Wentworth of the National Employment Law Project, the difficulty with providing guidance on what steps to take when a job applicant believes he or she has been subject to job discrimination based on unemployment status is that there are still no explicit statutory protections against the practice of excluding the long-term unemployed from consideration as job applicants, except in New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and Oregon.

But, this is what Wentworth recommends that the applicant should:

1. Apply for the job, even in the face of a policy that appears to screen you out based on your unemployed status. Make it clear in the cover letter that you're qualified for the position and request consideration and an opportunity to explain your unemployment and what you have done to keep your skills fresh.

2. If you've been screen out of the application pool, document those employer actions that appear to discriminate against job applicants because they are unemployed, such as language in the job posting.  Direct a letter of complaint to the company's CEO or Human Resources Director. While the practice may not be illegal, many employers are beginning to change their policies voluntarily as the issue of discrimination based on unemployment begins to receive negative media attention.

3. If the employer's discriminatory policy is described in an on-line job posting, file a complaint with the employment web site that posted the ad.

4. Consider filing a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

5. Support state legislation to expressly prohibit the practice of discriminating against workers based on their unemployed status in the hiring process.

2. What does the law say?

Discrimination based on unemployed status is currently illegal only in New Jersey, Oregon, and the District of Columbia. New Jersey and Oregon ban only ads based on unemployment status, not the underlying practice of excluding unemployed applicants. The District of Columbia law bars both.

Other states in which legislators are considering similar measures include Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin.

3. What if the interviewer said "Why have you been unemployed for so long?" What's the best way to answer this?

Most employers should be familiar with the state of the economy and the high numbers of unemployed people. Applicants should make it clear that they have been diligently seeking work for which they are qualified and should be prepared to describe their efforts in maintaining their skills, including online courses and seminars.

Tell your interviewer that you're qualified for the position. If you've been volunteering — especially within the same industry you're applying for — this will show the employer that you haven't been out of the game, even if you weren't actually employed. 

NOW SEE: 9 common interview questions that are actually illegal > 

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Want better results?

You’re not alone. If you are like a lot of others around you, you might not be sure what to do in order to get better results.

You’re confused and frustrated by things happening to you. Angry at everything that doesn’t seem to be working.

Here are a few answers for you:

1. You’ll get better results when you try harder.
2. You’ll get better results when you stop making excuses.
3. You’ll get better results when you care more about others.
4. You’ll get better results when you ask for help.
5. You’ll get better results when you doubt less.
6. You’ll get better results when you stop being petty.
7. You’ll get better results when you start being creative.
8. You’ll get better results when you put together a better plan.
9. You’ll get better results when you learn something new.
10. You’ll get better results when you deny yourself immediate gratification.
11. You’ll get better results when you build a team to conquer with you.
12. You’ll get better results when you stop letting fear call the shots.
13. You’ll get better results when you listen for answers.
14. You’ll get better results when take time to be inspired.
15. You’ll get better results when you ignore the criticism of the crowd.
16. You’ll get better results when you fight through the pain.
17. You’ll get better results when you have a better attitude.
18. You’ll get better results when you aren’t afraid of failure.
19. You’ll get better results when you just try one more time.
20. You’ll get better results when you understand what is important to other people.
21. You’ll get better results when stop believing everything you hear.
22. You’ll get better results when you control whats in your mind.
23. You’ll get better results when you say “Thank You” and “I’m Sorry” more.
24. You’ll get better results when you stop taking yourself out of the game.
25. You’ll get better results when you tough it out a little more.
26. You’ll get better results when you believe what you’re doing is worth it.
27. You’ll get better results when you’re tired of losing all the time.
28. You’ll get better results when you quit holding back and go “all in”.
29. You’ll get better results when you stop being so damn selfish.

Pick one. Try a few.

You’ll be surprised at the difference.

The secret to getting better results is simply to do whatever it takes to improve. To adapt. To learn. To grow. To try a little bit harder each day.

And while that doesn’t come easily, the results you’ll get are worth the struggle.

What’s stopping you from getting better results?

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Today's advice comes from Lucy Zhang, software engineer at Facebook, via Fast Company:

"We sent out the survey to our Beluga users after we launched for a couple of months and we asked them what was one thing we can do to make the product better and make you use it more. And the feedback was that they want more of their friends on it. That's when we realized we had a great product, but we weren't getting the reach we wanted."

Sometimes you reach a point where your current business model just isn't working for you. It doesn't always mean you have to abandon the company altogether. Other solutions, such as re-branding the company's image or partnering with another business, will do the trick. The latter is the case for former Google employee Lucy Zhang, who created the Beluga mobile group chat messenger and eventually joined forces with Facebook to create Facebook's current messenger.

Zhang turned to her Beluga users to figure out what she could do to attract a wider audience. She kept their advice in mind and saw an opportunity with Facebook to achieve what her customers were asking for. Feedback from your customers or users can be invaluable to the business. If you really want to know what you can do to make your business better, let your clients be entirely candid about how you can improve, and you'd be surprised with the results.

"After talking to Facebook, we got more and more excited about the prospect of being able to bring our ideas and our product to a lot more users. And that's really what made us decide to come [to Facebook]."

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My coworkers have been buzzing about CardMunch for a long time. They wrote about the app months before LinkedIn acquired it in January.

I didn't try CardMunch until yesterday. It's one of the few things I can honestly say I wish I had found sooner.

Cardmunch doesn't eliminate business cards altogether, but it keeps you from having to hoard (and lose) piles of them.

The app is simple. You take a picture of a business card and upload it to CardMunch. CardMunch has people type in the person's information and store it as a clean, mobile contact. It also keeps a photo of the original business card as a backup.

Since CardMunch is owned by LinkedIn, the app automatically finds the person's profile, pulls in shared connections, and pulls in highlights from their bio.

Cards are transcribed quickly and are listed in alphabetical order.

Take, for example, Marissa Mayer's old Google business card. Here's me uploading it into CardMunch:

First, take a picture of the card:

In a few minutes, the contact will appear in your list with a "new" banner. Scroll down to find the contact's name.

The picture of the card is saved even after the contact information is transcribed and stored in CardMunch.

Here's what Marissa's card looks like as a CardMunch app. Unfortunately CardMunch isn't great at using LinkedIn to update contact information. Since Marissa now has a new job, CardMunch doesn't pull in her updated Yahoo LinkedIn profile.

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Today's advice comes from Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, via Fast Company: 

"There's a couple of ways to keep your energy and your drive and your curiosity alive. One is the people you work with.

You feed off each other's energy for the mission of what you are doing in the world, for what you are trying to achieve, for tackling those problems with a collaborative team spirit. Those are key." 

Hoffman believes it's important for leaders in the company to remain optimistic, even if the business isn't doing so well. According to him, people feed off of each other's energy. Leaders should be able to thrive under pressure, still pushing forward even in the face of recent losses. It's important to maintain a light-hearted attitude. If you don't believe in the company, no one will. Hoffman also advises to stay focused on the primary goal of the business, and remove money from the equation as a motivation factor.

"Also, remembering what you are trying to do. Entrepreneurs very rarely succeed when they just say, 'Well, what I am trying to do is just make a lot of money.' "

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There's one name that's been coming up again and again when we talk to tech CEOs about the talent they've brought on board: Daversa Partners.

That's the firm run by Paul Daversa, who's arguably the hottest recruiter in Silicon Valley right now.

He and his team recently helped hire CFOs for Airbnb and Square and worked on One Kings Lane's epic hiring spree.

Daversa's also placed executives for enterprise companies like Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, and Zuora.

Bruce Brown and Bill Beer are two of the top partners in Daversa's San Francisco office.

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