With back-to-school season around the corner, college students may be feeling the stress of picking the right dorm roommate, the right classes, and most importantly, the right major. For those who don't know what to do with their careers, it may help to pick the major that promises the biggest paycheck.

In the month of July, the U.S. economy added 164,000 jobs — but how does the alternative workforce, better known as the gig economy, size up?

Erica Volini, Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Leader, says “the number of gig workers is going to grow very dramatically over the next few years.”

According to a new report from Deloitte, self employment in the U.S. is expected to triple to 42 million people by 2020 with millennials as the leaders.

Leo Lewis decries the huge statue of a yellow Sony Walkman in the heart of Tokyo’s Ginza district as nostalgia for a bygone era (“Japan’s reverence for the Sony Walkman is a deadweight”, Tokyo Notebook, July 31). Surely the Japanese are right to celebrate the contribution of their engineers, craftsmen and assembly line workers to this once ubiquitous device.

A giant Walkman is no different to the magnificent forging press erected outside Terni Railway Station in Umbria, or the more prosaic stationary steam engines exhibited under glass beside Hull Marina in East Yorkshire and in Bolton town centre in Lancashire. They are reminders of past technical efforts and triumphs.

To a lot of people, starting their own business seems like the right escape from the dissatisfaction or lack of appreciation at the workplace. Instead of slaving for a monthly salary, they dream of being their own boss. But before you venture out of the comfort of a steady income, understand the risks it entails. Doing business involves risks and any form of entrepreneurship requires you to work harder. Read that line again! You can’t stroll into office late in the morning, take a snooze in the afternoon and rush off early to catch a movie. Being self-employed requires a minimum 10-12 hour workday.

One CEO is looking for $1.2 million for his startup, Agricycle, which has worked with farmers around the world to make dried fruit out of harvests that would otherwise go to waste.

Another has a patent for her company, Terravive, to make compostable cups and forks out of crop scrap. Another is a specialist in prosthetics whose company, Mickey’s Mission, makes dolls for children with physical disabilities so they can have toys that resemble them.

Image: GLEN STUBBE • STAR TRIBUNE

As the global population ages, we will see increasing numbers of older employees in the workforce. Yet age discrimination is prevalent today. According to a recent AARP study, nearly two out of three workers age 45 and older say they have experienced age discrimination.

From Puritan America through much of the 19th century, a same-sex relationship was punishable by death; today same-sex marriage is federally legalized. In 1937 only 33% of Americans believed that a qualified woman could be president; in 2015, 92% endorsed the possibility. In 1958 only 4% of white Americans approved of black-white marriages; today 87% of white Americans do. These findings highlight the fact that our minds can and do change toward greater equality of opportunity. This is good news for business leaders, since greater diversity has many benefits for organizations. For example, it allows the best talent to emerge, makes teams smarter, and improves financial performance.

Forty percent of students don’t graduate. No one is held accountable. No one is fired. That must change.

Five years ago, Fast Company published a profile of entrepreneur Tristan Walker, a Foursquare veteran who was building a shaving and skincare business called Walker & Company. Written by contributor J.J. McCorvey, it was a candid portrayal of an African American founder trying to make his way in Silicon Valley, a place with a grim record on racial inclusion, despite the fact that so many of the iconic companies founded there consider themselves to be models of meritocracy.

The growing number of private biopharma and diagnostic/therapeutic technology company financings completed in recent months masks an overall year-over-year decrease in the total value of those deals.

A look at the just-released 2Q 2019 PitchBook National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) Venture Monitor report detailing January–June 2019 activity showed a total $8.3 billion in 404 deals took place in the “pharma & biotech” sector. That’s a 14% drop in value from the $9.67 billion recorded during the first half of 2018, though the number of deals rose year-over-year from 317 in the first half of last year.

A refrain I often hear from technology entrepreneurs to investors is that their product or solution is so innovative that it will cause a “paradigm shift” in the industry. Their assumption is that customers and investors will be wowed by this into buying, ignoring the evidence that large-scale change takes a long time, most often fails, and scares away customers and investors alike.

Suburbs and automobiles are necessary bedfellows in the United States, but this is why many experts believe that these low density, physically spread-out communities are the worst places for older persons to live. This assessment should be taken seriously. We know that transportation requests are the leading concern of older callers to the Eldercare Locator service funded by the U.S. Administration on Aging.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

In my experience as a business advisor and angel investor these days, I seem to more frequently hear from entrepreneurs and business owners with “can’t-fail” or “get-rich-quick” ideas. In my view, these are the least likely to succeed, partially because the people behind them have the wrong expectations and traits. The instant gratification approach just doesn’t work in business.

America has always been called the “Land of Opportunity”, where any child who studies and works hard can rise up out of poverty and attain some greater measure of socioeconomic success. Many of us would like to believe that all children have this same opportunity, regardless of the neighborhood in which they grow up. At the same time, we hear more and more of the increasing wealth gap between the “haves” and “have nots” in our country.

Image: https://www.linkedin.com

The rising cost of living in big cities is pushing families to the suburbs.

Millennials, in particular, are on the hunt for suburbs that offer affordable homes, good jobs, and good weather. As a result, the suburbs are increasing in popularity at a rate that's more than twice as fast as their neighboring cities, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Tri-Valley region’s companies generate $42 billion in gross domestic output every year across different industries. In recognition of the region’s achievements in entrepreneurship, the Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group established the #GameChangers Awards in 2015. The awards highlight companies in the Tri-Valley area and the innovations they’re using to disrupt their respective industries. This year Innovation Tri-Valley (ITV) recognized nine local companies who have had a significant global impact.

Image: Coast + Range CEO David Knoepfle and alumni GameChanger Cathy Koubek, Donor Network West. HEIDI BEETZ PHOTOGRAPHY

In cities around the world, a growing movement is redefining the spatial geography of the innovation economy.

Image: Julie Wagner is a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings. BROOKINGS

In the era of the CATS trailer and #catsofinstagram, it’s easy to forget that scientific research is what originally convinced our feline friends to allow their images to be captured and disseminated.

An anonymous white French pussy took one for the team in 1894, when scientist/inventor Étienne-Jules Marey dropped it from an unspecified height in the Bois de Boulogne, filming its descent at 12 frames per second.

Image: http://www.openculture.com

Ever since co-founding Okta over 10 years ago, I've been interested in learning about other entrepreneurs' journeys and helping other leaders bring their visions to life. We all start with an initial idea and run into roadblocks as we grow, but how does each leader overcome those challenges? What does it take to go from two people at a borrowed desk to thousands of employees working on a billion dollar problem?

It’s no secret that people post their best selves to social media. You’ll only see a picture taken in their living room after the floor has been vacuumed and the pillows fluffed. Sure, their children have temper tantrums, but we’ll only hear about it if it’s funny or somehow wrapped in a humble brag. The week they spend at the beach rates hourly pictures of ocean views and palm trees, but the other 51 weeks are barely documented.

Image: https://www.campaignlive.com