Post at Thought Catalog
The ultimate tool for corporations to sustain a culture of this sort is to develop the 40-hour workweek as the normal lifestyle. Under these working conditions people have to build a life in the evenings and on weekends. This arrangement makes us naturally more inclined to spend heavily on entertainment and conveniences because our free time is so scarce.
This seems like a problem with a simple answer: work less so I’d have more free time. I’ve already proven to myself that I can live a fulfilling lifestyle with less than I make right now. Unfortunately, this is close to impossible in my industry, and most others. You work 40-plus hours or you work zero. My clients and contractors are all firmly entrenched in the standard-workday culture, so it isn’t practical to ask them not to ask anything of me after 1 p.m., even if I could convince my employer not to.
But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work.
We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Friday, August 3, 2012
Market-free zones in market societies
Blog post at Valve
A long, fascinating post about what corporations are, how they arose, what their role is, and how they could change in the future.
As mentioned in the post, reading the Valve survival manual is critical for comprehension of what Dr. Varoufakis is talking about.
Some highlights:
A long, fascinating post about what corporations are, how they arose, what their role is, and how they could change in the future.
As mentioned in the post, reading the Valve survival manual is critical for comprehension of what Dr. Varoufakis is talking about.
Some highlights:
- Valve differs in that it insists that its employees allocate 100% of their time on projects of their choosing. 100% is a radical number! It means that Valve operates without a system of command. In other words, it seeks to achieve order not via fiat, command or hierarchy but, instead, spontaneously. [This is followed by some history regarding Hume vs Hobbes, with further reference to Smith and Hayek]
- Capitalist corporations are on the way to certain extinction. Replete with hierarchies that are exceedingly wasteful of human talent and energies, intertwined with toxic finance, co-dependent with political structures that are losing democratic legitimacy fast, a form of post-capitalist, decentralised corporation will, sooner or later, emerge. The eradication of distribution and marginal costs, the capacity of producers to have direct access to billions of customers instantaneously, the advances of open source communities and mentalities, all these fascinating developments are bound to turn the autocratic Soviet-like megaliths of today into curiosities that students of political economy, business studies et al will marvel at in the future, just like school children marvel at dinosaur skeletons at the Natural History museum.
Well worth a full read, particularly by those who've worked in a corporation.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Stop Stealing Dreams: What is School For?
Seth Godin has written an book, which can be viewed for free here.
Some lines (or paraphrases of them) that I liked:
Some lines (or paraphrases of them) that I liked:
- Section 16: What is school for? ... learning is not done to you. Learning is something you choose to do.
- Section 21: Two bumper stickers: "Cut School Taxes" and "Make School Different". Which one would you put on your car?
- Section 33: Harvard Business School turns out management consultants in far greater numbers than it develops successful bootstrapping entrepreneurs. Ralph Lauren, David Geffen and Ted Turner all dropped out of college because they felt the real challenges lay elsewhere.
- Section 38: Scientific schooling uses precisely the same techniques as scientific management. Measure (test) everyone. Often. Figure out which inputs are likely to create testable outputs. If an output isn’t easily testable, ignore it. It would be a mistake to say that scientific education doesn’t work. It does work. It creates what we test. Unfortunately, the things we desperately need (and the things that make us happy) aren’t the same things that are easy to test.
- Section 39: The other route—the road to the top—is for the few who figure out how to be linchpins and artists. People who are hired because they’re totally worth it, because they offer insight and creativity and innovation that just can’t be found easily. Scarce skills combined with even scarcer attitudes almost always lead to low unemployment and high wages.
- Section 46: But I am wondering when we decided that the purpose of school was to cram as much data/trivia/fact into every student as we possibly could. Because that’s what we’re doing. We’re not only avoiding issues of practicality and projects and hands-on use of information; we’re also aggressively testing for trivia.
- Section 52: The real debate if you’re a worker is: do you want a job where they’ll miss you if you’re gone, a job where only you can do it, a job where you get paid to bring yourself (your true self) to work? Because those jobs are available. In fact, there’s no unemployment in that area. OR do you want a job where you’re racing to the bottom—where your job is to do your job, do as you’re told, and wait for the boss to pick you?
- Section 70: What matters is that motivation is the only way to generate real learning, actual creativity, and the bias for action that is necessary for success.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Common Cooking/Baking Mistakes
Article at Cooking Light
This list contains a number of fundamental mistakes, nicely illustrated with clear pictures. I found it quite informative (although that of course means that I was making many of the mistakes that were listed)...
This list contains a number of fundamental mistakes, nicely illustrated with clear pictures. I found it quite informative (although that of course means that I was making many of the mistakes that were listed)...
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Non-intuitive Government Policy #39213
Article at The Atlantic
Behind Door #1 are people of extraordinary ability: scientists, artists, educators, business people and athletes. Behind Door #2 stand a random assortment of people. Which door should the United States open?
In 2010, the United States more often chose Door #2, setting aside about 40,000 visas for people of extraordinary ability and 55,000 for people randomly chosen by lottery.
It's just one small example of our bizarre U.S. policy toward high-skill immigrants.
Behind Door #1 are people of extraordinary ability: scientists, artists, educators, business people and athletes. Behind Door #2 stand a random assortment of people. Which door should the United States open?
In 2010, the United States more often chose Door #2, setting aside about 40,000 visas for people of extraordinary ability and 55,000 for people randomly chosen by lottery.
It's just one small example of our bizarre U.S. policy toward high-skill immigrants.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
The Overjustification Effect
Blog post at You Are Not So Smart
Related to intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation
According to the research, in modern America the average income required to be happy day-to-day, to experience “emotional well being” is about $75,000 a year. According to the researchers, past that point adding more to your income “does nothing for happiness, enjoyment, sadness, or stress.”
In 1980, David Rosenfield, Robert Folger and Harold Adelman at Southern Methodist University revealed a way you can defeat the overjustification effect. Seek employers who dole out reward – paychecks, bonuses, promotions, etc. – based not on quotas or task completions but instead based on competence.
The results of the study suggested when you get rewarded based on how well you perform a task, as long as those reasons are made perfectly clear, rewards will generate that electric exuberance of intrinsic validation, and the higher the reward, the better the feeling and the more likely you will try harder in the future. On the other hand, if you are getting rewarded just for being a warm body, no matter how well you do your job, no matter what you achieve, the electric feeling is absent. In those conditions greater rewards don’t lead to more output, don’t encourage you to strive for greatness. Overall, the study suggested rewards don’t have motivational power unless they make you feel competent. Money alone doesn’t do that.
Related to intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation
According to the research, in modern America the average income required to be happy day-to-day, to experience “emotional well being” is about $75,000 a year. According to the researchers, past that point adding more to your income “does nothing for happiness, enjoyment, sadness, or stress.”
In 1980, David Rosenfield, Robert Folger and Harold Adelman at Southern Methodist University revealed a way you can defeat the overjustification effect. Seek employers who dole out reward – paychecks, bonuses, promotions, etc. – based not on quotas or task completions but instead based on competence.
The results of the study suggested when you get rewarded based on how well you perform a task, as long as those reasons are made perfectly clear, rewards will generate that electric exuberance of intrinsic validation, and the higher the reward, the better the feeling and the more likely you will try harder in the future. On the other hand, if you are getting rewarded just for being a warm body, no matter how well you do your job, no matter what you achieve, the electric feeling is absent. In those conditions greater rewards don’t lead to more output, don’t encourage you to strive for greatness. Overall, the study suggested rewards don’t have motivational power unless they make you feel competent. Money alone doesn’t do that.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Teach practical math
Article at the New York Times
A math curriculum that focused on real-life problems would still expose students to the abstract tools of mathematics, especially the manipulation of unknown quantities. But there is a world of difference between teaching “pure” math, with no context, and teaching relevant problems that will lead students to appreciate how a mathematical formula models and clarifies real-world situations.
Imagine replacing the sequence of algebra, geometry and calculus with a sequence of finance, data and basic engineering. In the finance course, students would learn the exponential function, use formulas in spreadsheets and study the budgets of people, companies and governments. In the data course, students would gather their own data sets and learn how, in fields as diverse as sports and medicine, larger samples give better estimates of averages. In the basic engineering course, students would learn the workings of engines, sound waves, TV signals and computers. Science and math were originally discovered together, and they are best learned together now.
A math curriculum that focused on real-life problems would still expose students to the abstract tools of mathematics, especially the manipulation of unknown quantities. But there is a world of difference between teaching “pure” math, with no context, and teaching relevant problems that will lead students to appreciate how a mathematical formula models and clarifies real-world situations.
Imagine replacing the sequence of algebra, geometry and calculus with a sequence of finance, data and basic engineering. In the finance course, students would learn the exponential function, use formulas in spreadsheets and study the budgets of people, companies and governments. In the data course, students would gather their own data sets and learn how, in fields as diverse as sports and medicine, larger samples give better estimates of averages. In the basic engineering course, students would learn the workings of engines, sound waves, TV signals and computers. Science and math were originally discovered together, and they are best learned together now.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
W.L. Gore Case Study
Article at Management Exchange
It’s hard to talk about management innovation without tipping your hat to W.L. Gore, the venerable maker of Gore-Tex and a host of other pioneering materials and products as diverse as synthetic vascular grafts, Elixir guitar strings, and Glide dental floss. Lauded as "the world's most innovative company" time and time again, Gore's wholly original (and endlessly inspirational) model for creating a true democracy of innovation is firmly rooted in the story of founder Bill Gore.
Bill Gore conceived of W.L. Gore as a kind of experiment in management innovation—one that is still ongoing. The questions that drove him at founding are crucial questions managers everywhere must grapple with today: Was it possible to build a company with no hierarchy—where everyone was free to talk with everyone else? How about a company where there were no bosses, no supervisors, no managers and no vice presidents? Could W. L. Gore preserve a sense of family and collegiality even as it scaled? Could you create a company with no “core” business, one that was as focused on creating the future as on preserving the past? The answers to each of these questions was an emphatic "Yes!"
It’s hard to talk about management innovation without tipping your hat to W.L. Gore, the venerable maker of Gore-Tex and a host of other pioneering materials and products as diverse as synthetic vascular grafts, Elixir guitar strings, and Glide dental floss. Lauded as "the world's most innovative company" time and time again, Gore's wholly original (and endlessly inspirational) model for creating a true democracy of innovation is firmly rooted in the story of founder Bill Gore.
Bill Gore conceived of W.L. Gore as a kind of experiment in management innovation—one that is still ongoing. The questions that drove him at founding are crucial questions managers everywhere must grapple with today: Was it possible to build a company with no hierarchy—where everyone was free to talk with everyone else? How about a company where there were no bosses, no supervisors, no managers and no vice presidents? Could W. L. Gore preserve a sense of family and collegiality even as it scaled? Could you create a company with no “core” business, one that was as focused on creating the future as on preserving the past? The answers to each of these questions was an emphatic "Yes!"
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Edward Tufte
Interview at The Washington Monthly
Edward Tufte occupies a revered and solitary place in the world of graphic design. Over the last three decades, he has become a kind of oracle in the growing field of data visualization—the practice of taking the sprawling, messy universe of information that makes up the quantitative backbone of everyday life and turning it into an understandable story.
In the public realm, data has never been more ubiquitous—or more valuable to those who know how to use it. “If you display information the right way, anybody can be an analyst,” Tufte once told me. “Anybody can be an investigator.”
“Tufte treats data like good writing,” he said. “You have a certain thought—how clearly and beautifully are you conveying it?”
Good design, then, is not about making dull numbers somehow become magically exhilarating, it is about picking the right numbers in the first place.
Edward Tufte occupies a revered and solitary place in the world of graphic design. Over the last three decades, he has become a kind of oracle in the growing field of data visualization—the practice of taking the sprawling, messy universe of information that makes up the quantitative backbone of everyday life and turning it into an understandable story.
In the public realm, data has never been more ubiquitous—or more valuable to those who know how to use it. “If you display information the right way, anybody can be an analyst,” Tufte once told me. “Anybody can be an investigator.”
“Tufte treats data like good writing,” he said. “You have a certain thought—how clearly and beautifully are you conveying it?”
Good design, then, is not about making dull numbers somehow become magically exhilarating, it is about picking the right numbers in the first place.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Google's Project Oxygen
New York Times article
retyped from the NYT article's image
Google's Rules
To engineer better managers, Google pored over performance reviews, feedback surveys and award nominations, correlating words and phrases as only a data-driven company like it can do. Here is an edited list of the directives it produced - in order of importance - as well as a few management pitfalls it found.
Eight Good Behaviors
retyped from the NYT article's image
Google's Rules
To engineer better managers, Google pored over performance reviews, feedback surveys and award nominations, correlating words and phrases as only a data-driven company like it can do. Here is an edited list of the directives it produced - in order of importance - as well as a few management pitfalls it found.
Eight Good Behaviors
- Be a good coach
- Provide specific constructive feedback, balancing the negative and the positive.
- Have regular one-on-ones, presenting solutions to problems tailored to your employees' specific strengths.
- Empower your team and don't micromanage
- Balance giving freedom to your employees, while still being available for advice. Make "stretch" assignments to help the team tackle big problems.
- Express interest in team members' success and personal well-being
- Get to know your employees as people, with lives outside of work.
- Make new members of your team feel welcome and help ease their transition.
- Don't be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented
- Focus on what employees want the team to achieve and how they can help achieve it.
- Help the team prioritize work and use seniority to remove roadblocks.
- Be a good communicator and listen to your team
- Communication is two-way: you both listen and share information.
- Hold all-hands meetings and be straightforward about the messages and goals of the team. Help the team connect the dots.
- Encourage open dialogue and listen to the issue and concerns of your employees.
- Help your employees with career development
- Have a clear vision and strategy for the team
- Even in the midst of turmoil, keep the team focused on goals and strategy.
- Involve the team in setting and evolving the team's vision and making progress toward it.
- Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team
- Roll up your sleeves and conduct work side by side with the team, when needed.
- Understand the specific challenges of the work.
- Have trouble making a transition to the team
- Sometimes, fantastic individual contributors are promoted to managers without the necessary skills to lead people.
- People hired from outside the organization don't always understand the unique aspects of managing at Google.
- Lack a consistent approach to performance management and career development
- Don't help employees understand how these work at Google and doesn't coach them on their options to develop and stretch.
- Not proactive, waits for the employee to come to them.
- Spend too little time managing and communicating
Monday, February 28, 2011
A Linchpin Hierarchy
- Do exactly what the boss says.
- Ask the boss hard questions.
- Tell the boss what your best choice among the available options is. Insist.
- Have co-workers and bosses ask you hard questions.
- Invent a whole new way to do things, something that wasn't on the list.
- Push and encourage and lead your co-workers to do ever better work.
- Insist that they push and encourage you.
I might quibble with the ranking for #6 - I think it's difficult to rank compared with #5. Perhaps Seth is thinking of #5 as only benefiting yourself, whereas #6 benefits the group? Still, pushing for incremental improvement in many people versus a revolutionary improvement that can be spread...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Observe > Predict
Blog post by Scott Berkun
There’s an old concept among architects and urban planners called desire paths. If you walk around a college campus, or urban park, it’s easy to spot the well tread paths between buildings people have made for themselves. These are desire paths, or desire lines. The natural behavior among people shows you where the optimal path should be.
Rather than invent everything out of their own mind, wise creators know a little observation can be an easier way to find the right ideas.
There’s an old concept among architects and urban planners called desire paths. If you walk around a college campus, or urban park, it’s easy to spot the well tread paths between buildings people have made for themselves. These are desire paths, or desire lines. The natural behavior among people shows you where the optimal path should be.
Rather than invent everything out of their own mind, wise creators know a little observation can be an easier way to find the right ideas.
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| From Flickr |
Why fund science that doesn't benefit society?
Blog post at Page F30
links to a Science Channel interview of Neil deGrasse Tyson
Do you think I'm being driven when I look at the early universe or study the rotation of galaxies or the consumption of matter by black holes, do you think I'm being driven by the lessening of the suffering of the people on Earth? Most research on the frontier of science is not driven by that goal. Period.
Now, that being said, most of the greatest applications of science that do improve the human condition comes from just that kind of research. Therein is the intellectual link that needs to be established in an elective democracy where tax-based monies pay for the research on the frontier.
So I take issue with the assumption that science is simply to make life better. Science is to understand the world. And use that -- now you've got a utility belt of understanding. Now you access your tools out of that...to use that power in the greater good of our species.
links to a Science Channel interview of Neil deGrasse Tyson
Do you think I'm being driven when I look at the early universe or study the rotation of galaxies or the consumption of matter by black holes, do you think I'm being driven by the lessening of the suffering of the people on Earth? Most research on the frontier of science is not driven by that goal. Period.
Now, that being said, most of the greatest applications of science that do improve the human condition comes from just that kind of research. Therein is the intellectual link that needs to be established in an elective democracy where tax-based monies pay for the research on the frontier.
So I take issue with the assumption that science is simply to make life better. Science is to understand the world. And use that -- now you've got a utility belt of understanding. Now you access your tools out of that...to use that power in the greater good of our species.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
How Great Entrepreneurs Think
Article at Inc.com
Sarasvathy likes to compare expert entrepreneurs to Iron Chefs: at their best when presented with an assortment of motley ingredients and challenged to whip up whatever dish expediency and imagination suggest. Corporate leaders, by contrast, decide they are going to make Swedish meatballs. They then proceed to shop, measure, mix, and cook Swedish meatballs in the most efficient, cost-effective manner possible.
Sarasvathy likes to compare expert entrepreneurs to Iron Chefs: at their best when presented with an assortment of motley ingredients and challenged to whip up whatever dish expediency and imagination suggest. Corporate leaders, by contrast, decide they are going to make Swedish meatballs. They then proceed to shop, measure, mix, and cook Swedish meatballs in the most efficient, cost-effective manner possible.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
You’re not a profession. You’re a set of skills.
Blog post at Pop Economics
I’m Pop. I’m not going to tell you my profession, and most of you who have guessed have been incorrect... But I think I’m pretty good at writing, math, and turning complex subjects into something everyday people can understand. I (just recently) have gained basic web publishing and marketing knowledge. And I think I have a decent eye for catchy design.
Ok, so what profession am I? No idea, right? That’s the point. I could be a number of things. I could write technical manuals. I could be in marketing for an engineering company. I could be a teacher.
I’m Pop. I’m not going to tell you my profession, and most of you who have guessed have been incorrect... But I think I’m pretty good at writing, math, and turning complex subjects into something everyday people can understand. I (just recently) have gained basic web publishing and marketing knowledge. And I think I have a decent eye for catchy design.
Ok, so what profession am I? No idea, right? That’s the point. I could be a number of things. I could write technical manuals. I could be in marketing for an engineering company. I could be a teacher.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Longevity advice
from Dr. Marle Charlotte De Goliere Devenport, 109 years old as of November 27, 1933.
"Never get angry; learn self control; develop agility; be quick and lithe, not musclebound; avoid excesses in all things; don't put anything on your face that you wouldn't put in your stomach; don't let your mind die."
Google News, Courtesy of Metafilter
"Never get angry; learn self control; develop agility; be quick and lithe, not musclebound; avoid excesses in all things; don't put anything on your face that you wouldn't put in your stomach; don't let your mind die."
Google News, Courtesy of Metafilter
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Proofiness (or data != information)
Blog post by Seth Godin
As the number of apparently significant digits in the data available to us goes up (traffic was up .1% yesterday!) we continually seek causation, even if we're looking in the wrong places. As the amount of data we get continues to increase, we need people who can help us turn that data into information.
Proofiness is a tricky thing. Data is not information, and confusing numbers with truth can help you make some bad decisions.
As the number of apparently significant digits in the data available to us goes up (traffic was up .1% yesterday!) we continually seek causation, even if we're looking in the wrong places. As the amount of data we get continues to increase, we need people who can help us turn that data into information.
Proofiness is a tricky thing. Data is not information, and confusing numbers with truth can help you make some bad decisions.
Friday, December 3, 2010
~1,300 pitches in a 4D visualization
New York Times visualization
First 1:40 of the video introduces some background and concepts.
Next minute is a killer 4D visualization - X, Y, Z, and time.
That's a lot of data crunched down to support some great storytelling.
First 1:40 of the video introduces some background and concepts.
Next minute is a killer 4D visualization - X, Y, Z, and time.
That's a lot of data crunched down to support some great storytelling.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
How to pack for a year
Blog post at LostGirlsWorld
The list of gear she relied on heavily is quite interesting:
The list of gear she relied on heavily is quite interesting:
- Bag in a Bag
- Zinetic Pocket Slippers
- Headlamp
- Pack towel
- Sleep sack/sleeping bag
- Ziploc Big Bags
- Fleece Pillowcase
- iPod
- U-Pillow
- Compression Sacks
The list of gear she got rid of is also quite instructive:
- Synthetic long sleeve tops (start to smell after prolonged use)
- Travel shirts
I'm particularly intrigued by Zinetic Pocket Slippers, as they are cheaper (and perhaps slightly more socially acceptable) than Vibram FiveFingers. Unfortunately, Zinetic appears to be a small manufacturer and it's difficult to find any stores with stock.
Friday, November 12, 2010
You can't see what you don't measure...
Slate
The Big Picture
NPR
If the goal of the Dow Jones Index is to give a single-number summary of the US equity market, the articles listed above argue (convincingly, IMO) that the goal is not being met.
By weighting the prices of a small number of stocks, instead of the market capitalizations of a large number of stocks, the Dow fails to capture the true effects of money flowing in and out of the market as a whole.
Given the amount of time and energy spent following the Dow Jones Index, I would argue that there should be a strong effort to make the index as accurate as possible (or restate the goal). Or, as the Slate article suggests, use a different index.
That's why money managers prefer to use broader market-cap weighted indexes to help create their own portfolios and benchmark their own performances.
The Big Picture
NPR
If the goal of the Dow Jones Index is to give a single-number summary of the US equity market, the articles listed above argue (convincingly, IMO) that the goal is not being met.
By weighting the prices of a small number of stocks, instead of the market capitalizations of a large number of stocks, the Dow fails to capture the true effects of money flowing in and out of the market as a whole.
Given the amount of time and energy spent following the Dow Jones Index, I would argue that there should be a strong effort to make the index as accurate as possible (or restate the goal). Or, as the Slate article suggests, use a different index.
That's why money managers prefer to use broader market-cap weighted indexes to help create their own portfolios and benchmark their own performances.
Another alternative: RAFI 1000
EDIT: My title was inspired by a quote I'd read before. Here, it is used in a article describing how airport security in the US could be vastly improved by focusing on the people, rather than the threats.
We have a saying in Hebrew that it's much easier to look for a lost key under the light, than to look for the key where you actually lost it, because it's dark over there.
EDIT: My title was inspired by a quote I'd read before. Here, it is used in a article describing how airport security in the US could be vastly improved by focusing on the people, rather than the threats.
We have a saying in Hebrew that it's much easier to look for a lost key under the light, than to look for the key where you actually lost it, because it's dark over there.
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