From the monthly archives:

January 2008

Feeling Lucky

01.30.2008

I’m in the middle of reading Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, an absolutely fascinating book that has me thinking a lot about luck. One of the main premises addressed how we try to attribute skill or intelligence to events that are due more to chance. In actuality, we often have very little to [...]

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Roller Coaster Aging

01.29.2008

Last night, I came across this line in one of my current reading options:
“I remember forty—a hard age. It is the age when a man discovers that he is all that he is ever going to be. Some men are rather pleased at the discovery. I suspect your brother is not.”
Perhaps this author was [...]

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The Danger of Sure Things

01.28.2008

How many times have you given into the lure of the “sure thing?” Maybe you placed a bet, accepted a job, or went on a date because you believed it a sure thing. Sure things are dangerous because they lower your shields, raise your expectations, and leave you open to disappointment.
The recent Australian Open, one [...]

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Creating a Custom Experience

01.25.2008

Today was my first official day training for an Olympic-length triathlon I try to do each summer. Every year, I wonder what possesses me to sign up, particularly during the last few miles of the race. However, once I’m finished, there’s such a sense of accomplishment. I’m nowhere close to winning (the winner usually beats [...]

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Predictability vs Consistency

01.24.2008

On the Fast Company blog, I found this post highlighting the dangers of predictability for a business, in this case, Starbucks:
It’s not just the service that is average, but predictable. The coffee is the same way…Predictability can be a double edged sword. It can put people in auto pilot, for example. Or it can lull [...]

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Changing Definitions to Avoid Responsibility

01.23.2008

UPDATE: While my original concerns about adult attitudes still stands, the teacher I quoted below, Steven Maher, commented in this post and kindly pointed me to the original transcript of his full interview. Clearly, Frontline made an effort to edit his interview to the greatest effect. I’ve added the additional parts from his interview below [...]

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An Offer of Immortality

01.22.2008

If I offered you immortality, would you take it? I think in a way, many of us are already pursuing an immortality of sorts. Perhaps it’s on the small scale, but I wonder if our passion for user-generated content (or whatever you want to call it) is part of our desire to create our own [...]

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Practicing Openness and Acceptance

01.21.2008

I have commitment issues about books, houses, and relationships. I confess these shortcomings because some might consider them aberrations in an otherwise “normal” life. For example, at any one time, I’m reading 5-6 books. It’s only difficult if I go too long between reading cycles because I forget some of the details.
Regarding houses, I have [...]

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Fighting the Urge to Panic

01.18.2008

The government is coming to your rescue. This morning President Bush gave a non-detailed statement about how the government will help stave off the coming economic crisis.
“The package must be big enough to make a difference in an economy as large as ours,” Bush said. “By passing a growth package quickly, we can provide a [...]

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Storytime for Adults

01.17.2008

Raise your hand if you’re tired of the media’s “the sky is falling” approach to the American economy. Since at least 2006, publications like The Economist and Reason were predicting that the United States housing bubble was going to cause economic pain. Sadly, it appears that few people were paying attention, which led to headlines [...]

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