I'm currently reading a nice little book called Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky that discusses at some length the difference between being a professional and being an amateur. And it seems that being labelled an amateur isn't really so bad at all, and may in fact be a good thing. One of the professional vs.... Continue Reading →
In the name of safety
I read a post by Alex Tabarrok today, regarding school safety in his son's school (via the Marginal Revolution blog) today. The post is really a letter that he'd written to his son's school principal, regarding the introduction of security guards and cameras. From the post (emphasis mine): When going to school requires police, security guards and cameras how... Continue Reading →
The Three Christs Experiment (and Business Superstars)
I came across this nice write up on "The Three Christs of Ypsilanti" experiment (via Marginal Revolution) about how a psychologist put three people -- all of whom claimed they were Christ -- together in a mental institution, in the hope that the effect of their conflicting identities would somehow awaken them to the possibilities that... Continue Reading →
Student loans and how the deed is infinitely stronger than the word
Interesting article giving the perspectives of three people with outstanding student loans and how they're paying it off. I'd never been that heavily in debt and I do sometimes wonder what I'd do. Though I cannot say for sure, I do not see myself holding off the payment of loans if I could I help... Continue Reading →
I'm a sucker for personality tests. Here's one I haven't taken (and believe me I've taken many) which though I wouldn't read too much into its results, does seem in its own little way pretty accurate: ColorQuiz (I suppose one reason I like personality tests is that I'm always amazed when they get things right, and... Continue Reading →
Colour Quiz
I want to live a positively interesting life
Because that's the best way I know of living a "good" life. To live the good life, I'll want to live a positively interesting life. There's something I heard or read about before about performance measurement: that if you want to positively reinforce the behaviour of someone, you should not reward based on outcome, but rather... Continue Reading →
Potential vs actual performance
Nice article on how potential beats actual performance when during an evaluation (based on a study on the great potential vs actual performance question, actual journal article paywalled though). In one study, the authors took out a Facebook ad to promote the fan page of a comedian. They created different versions of the ad. Some versions... Continue Reading →
Living in the Future
I tend to live in the future more than I live in the present or the past. I’m constantly thinking about what comes next, and how events will come to transpire. This tendency of mine is both blessing and curse. It is a blessing because I’m constantly planning ahead: nasty surprises are few and far... Continue Reading →
The Science of Happiness: Buying Happiness
I’m curious: today I read again about the “science” of happiness, and one of the things mentioned in the article is the oft-quoted “buy experiences, not things”. How many studies, really, have there been done on to prove this? What’s the definition of an “experience”, as opposed to a “thing”? The article provides the example... Continue Reading →
Sour Grapes
I'd recently read a post called It's Not So Easy to be Rich that talked about the difficulties of, you guessed it, being rich. Being one of the un-rich, I couldn't help but feel a little happier reading about the unhappiness that comes with richness. Maybe, I thought, being rich just isn't that great after... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 