A note from our editor, Elizabeth MacBride:
I don’t know about all of you, but I’m settling into September. Work is busy; my daughters are at school, and we are moving to new rhythms. I understand how the pandemic has reshaped our lives, their educations and my career. For now.
I’ll take it.
Here are three things I read this week that are worth sharing:
Anand Ghopal’s The Other Afghan Women in The New Yorker. It tells the story of the last few decades from the perspective of a woman living in rural Afghanistan. What I’d also like to see is an honest story from the perspective of American and Afghan military leaders. I’d like to understand how groups of leaders rationalize failing campaigns. Here’s the story I wrote about the experience of one Afghan immigrant trying to save a friend in Kabul.
I’m reading House of Rain, by Craig Childs, which is about the Anasazi, native people living in northwestern New Mexico in the eleventh century. In the chapter I just read, archeologists posit that a clan of Anasazi abandoned a large and long-inhabited village because some rattlesnakes starting crawling in. Simple as that. So much of what we call civilization is about ownership: defending your castle; standing and fighting; taking a stand to protect what is yours. Lately, as in the case of Afghanistan and gun rights, defense has become aggression. In a nomadic culture, the idea of picking a hill to die on … might just seem … silly?
And finally, Naomi Oreskes writing about novelty in Science magazine, about why bad science gets more press than good science. Turns out people probably have a bias toward novelty, in science, news and – I’d add — business. But what is novel may actually be less likely to be good.
Times of Entrepreneurship Stories of the Week
$10B Barrels Toward State Programs for Entrepreneurs. Who Will Benefit?
A new report suggests a haphazard system of incentive programs is ill-prepared.
Can You Trust HR? Two Women Build a Platform To Help People Report Fraud and Sexual Harassment
In this week’s column about the power of small business: WOCstars founder; a new take on the decline in entrepreneurship; and a resource for avoiding bad equity deals.
Read the Story » 
InnerPlant Could Help Farmers Improve Productivity Without Weed Killer
A company out of Tel Aviv University has raised more than $5 million for technology that adds a protein to plants to aid in monitoring.
You may have missed: 3 Women Schooled in a Famous Family Seafood Business Launched a Plant-Based Alternative. They Hit a Tsunami of Opposition. Shelly Van Cleve and her daughters Monica and Allie made Oprah’s list with a 200-year-old family recipe. Then they launched the Plant Based Seafood Co. and got an earful from their industry. Read it here.
You may have missed: Austin is a Great and Still-Thriving Innovation Hub. But Then Came the Texas Lawmakers. Twenty years ago, fears the city would lose its innovative, welcoming edge spawned the “Keep Austin weird” movement. Big corporations and the conservative moment are putting the identity in question, some say. Read it here.
Living the Dream
Best Practices: If you’re looking for the best place to locate your startup, checkout the “Best residence-by-investment cities for business,” a new metric that ranks cities on criteria such as lifestyle, COVID-safety, taxes and education. But some of these cities are pricey—London tops the list—so if you need some more budget-friendly ideas, see 20 Great Places to Startup a Business After the Pandemic.
Buzzworthy: Deepa Purushothaman was the first woman to make partner at Deloitte. In The First , The Few, The Only, she explores the isolation and burnout that often faces women of color who make it to the top of corporate America, where they remain deeply underrepresented. She offers ideas on how woman can harness their collective power.
Rathskeller
Wanderlust : a restaurant or activity from our Top Ecosystems list If you’re hankering for hot comfort food, be sure to check out the San Diego Chicken Pie Shop, where you can sample the chicken pie, along with two eggs smothered in gravy and bacon or sausage with hash browns for $12.95
Made in the U.S.A. Pairing food with the perfect wine can be trickier than it seems. Enter PairAnything—a woman-owned business that allows you to enter a dish you love and get a wine recommendation. Founder Christy Serrano won the Food and Agriculture Sector Award in the Big Bang! Business Competition at U.C. Davis. One focus is helping small, family-run wineries hurt by COVID-19.
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