Three timely articles in the Financial Times and an important post from TaxProf Blog.

Four things caught my eye this morning: 

1. A post on TaxProf Blog about Clifford Chance's decision to strip applicants' resumes of information that identifies where they received their degree, in an effort to avoid the bias of elitism (here).
2. An essay by John Gapper (Bankers and lawyers are on an unhealthy treadmill) in the Financial Times about how bad working long hours can be for lawyers and bankers (here).
3. An article by Naomi Shragai (Emotions at work in finance), also in the FT, about how emotions affect our business decisions (here) (including this quote:  "Optimism, for ex­ample, is necessary, but too much can mean crucial realities are ignored. Desire to succeed can be so powerful as to repress the risks involved. Fear is appropriate when caution is called for, and excitement is necessary to motivate staff and move business on.").
4. The subarticle in item 3 (Tales that fund managers tell themselves about decisions), which describes how powerful our own narrative can be in dictating the decisions that we're making (including this quote:  "[Professor David Tuckett of University College London] says: 'The great thing about a story is that it can smoothly get rid of information. Stories create a believable picture of the imagined future by providing grounds for being attracted to the option for some gain, while repelling any potential doubts about loss.'").

Take these four items together, and you can see how powerful our subconscious is in our work lives.