That is a slight understatement. Jonah cautioned against joining the UN, unless it’s out in the field. Today people work for the UN because it’s a job, not because it’s a passion and vocation. The good work done nowadays, he said, is by NGOs.
In 1963, men and women of his generation looked ahead to a booming Africa, an effective and hopeful UN, and an international civil service to be proud of. One can see how he would be disappointed.
Rather than steer young people away from public service, he wanted them to see it unadorned. “It’s a very brutal business being in politics,” he said, “You have to persevere, and idealism doesn’t take you anywhere.”
His mantra: Patience, thoughtfulness, and perseverence. “The world is a very difficult place,” he ended, “If you are tending sheep, it is better to know where the wolves are.”
via “The UN of today is not the UN I entered” – Chris Blattman.
rePost::Half-heartedly, Lessons About Life.
There are 50 lessons in this post read the whole thing in the linked post!!!
Lessons About Life.
1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch!
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
via Half-heartedly, Lessons About Life..
rePost:: » How a Haircut Led to a Handy Acronym | Get Rich Slowly
This (WEALTH) is a nice acronym for determining the real reason for a purchase, and alos to think about a purchase more clearly. Click through to the article to read about what each of the words mean, although I suspect that it is self explanatory.
# Want or need?
# Ego?
# Add-ons?
# Lifestyle?
# Time?
# Happiness?
via » How a Haircut Led to a Handy Acronym | Get Rich Slowly.
rePost::Believing You Can Get Smarter Makes You Smarter
Back in college they instituted a reform in the basic undergraduate curricula called RGEP. This allowed students to choose what general educations subjects to take with certain restrictions. This was met with celebration by a few friends from CAL(College of Arts and Letter), they were celebrating because for them this meant that they can fully skip taking even one math course, through my mildly probing questions (some would say interrogation) I was able to find out that they believed themselves NOT GOOD in math, they seem to believe that they won’t get good in math. This saddened me. (although one was dreaming of graduating with honors and didn’t want to risk a mediocre grade in math subjects). This afflicts most of us, we do a few things well and when faced with the initial problems when trying to get better at something we stop. I say push through, forge your skill from this frustration and anxiety.
Practical Application
Blackwell, Dweck, and Trzesniewski (2002) recently replicated and applied this research with seventh-grade students in New York City. During the first eight weeks of the spring term, these students learned about the malleability of intelligence by reading and discussing a science-based article that described how intelligence develops. A control group of seventh-grade students did not learn about intelligence’s changeability, and instead learned about memory and mnemonic strategies. As compared to the control group, students who learned about intelligence's malleability had higher academic motivation, better academic behavior, and better grades in mathematics. Indeed, students who were members of vulnerable groups (e.g., those who previously thought that intelligence cannot change, those who had low prior mathematics achievement, and female students) had higher mathematics grades following the intelligence-is-malleable intervention, while the grades of similar students in the control group declined. In fact, girls who received the intervention matched and even slightly exceeded the boys in math grades, whereas girls in the control group performed well below the boys.
These findings are especially important because the actual instruction time for the intervention totaled just three hours. Therefore, this is a very cost-effective method for improving students’ academic motivation and achievement.
via Believing You Can Get Smarter Makes You Smarter.
rePost:: Information wants to be free my ass
If we do not support finacially the artists that enriches our lives, we may one day have none of them any longer.
It’s a strange world we live in. We begrudge the folks who actually create the stuff we enjoy reading, listening to, and watching a few pennies for their labor, and yet at the very same time we casually throw hundreds of hard-earned bucks at the saps who run the stupid networks through which the stuff is delivered. We screw the struggling artist, and pay the suit.
Somebod’s got a good thing going.
via Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog: Information wants to be free my ass.
rePost::On being a Bastard
If you are thinking of starting an online community of sorts this is an excellent read.
Any shared resource must be managed in a sustainable fashion, and short term losses (of people or of revenue) must be accepted in order to avoid a tragedy of the commons and ensure that that shared resource continues to be available and effective for those who are using it in a responsible manner.
via On being a Bastard.
rePost:: giving to help
I remember that during Ondoy there were people who tried to fool people who wanted to help. ELE is an excellent way to sieve where you are going to give your money.
giving to help
Many have already written about ways to help in Haiti. The needs there are so desperate that I’m adding my voice to the mix. If you need advice on ways to choose a charity, this, this, & this are helpful guides.
My general rule of thumb could be summarized as the ELE rule:
1. Is it an Established organization with a longtime in-country presence?
2. Does the organization employ, empower, and partner with Local individuals and organizations (eg, houses of faith, community groups)?
3. Does the organization have Experience in disaster relief and/or health care?
via Texas in Africa: giving to help.
rePost::Lawyer's life lessons from Jollibee | ABS-CBN News Online Beta
Nice set of lessons, hope they can do a more indepth feature.
Lawyer’s life lessons from Jollibee
by Arnel Paciano Casanova | 01/14/2010 8:06 PM
(Editor’s note: Between slapping relish on Jolly Hotdogs, funneling Crispy Fries in carboard holders and pledging allegiance to a giant bee–working at a global fast food chain has its lessons.
Here are some nuggets of wisdom from a former rank-and-file Jollibee employee, who has since moved on to brighter things.)
Lessons I Learned from Jollibee
1. A Jollibee worker is a happy worker. When you do things with a smile, a heavy task becomes lighter. Then you discover that you can lift up the mountains in your life.
2. When your contract ends, it means a better job is waiting for you.
…
Atty. Arnel Paciano Casanova is the Executive Director of Asia Society in the Philippines and the youngest appointed General Counsel of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.
He is a law graduate of the University of the Philippines with a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. He is a Philippine Legion of Honor Medal awardee, the highest non-combat merit medal in the country.
via Lawyer’s life lessons from Jollibee | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.
rePost:: How to brag
Do I brag a lot? I hope not. Nice read!! from MR!
I think save for the obvious name/school/gadget dropping we are largely ignorant of the times we brag about stuff. This presents us a problem when trying to control our bad habit. I suggest that the cliche advice thinking before speaking is one of the most useful advice that we could employ against bragging.
How to brag
No one likes a show-off. But to get ahead in this world, you're going to need to let at least some people know what you're capable of. Thankfully Nurit Tal-Or has arrived with a pair of studies that offer some insight into how to brag without coming across as big-headed.
….
The crux of it: context is everything when it comes to boasting. If Avi’s friend raised the topic of the exams, Avi received favourable ratings in terms of his boastfulness and likeability, regardless of whether he was actually asked what grade he got. By contrast, if Avi raised the topic of the exams, but failed to provoke a question, then his likeability suffered and he was seen as more of a boaster. In other words, to pull off a successful boast, you need it to be appropriate to the conversation. If your friend, colleague, or date raises the topic, you can go ahead and pull a relevant boast in safety. Alternatively, if you’re forced to turn the conversation onto the required topic then you must succeed in provoking a question from your conversation partner. If there’s no question and you raised the topic then any boast you make will leave you looking like a big-head.
via BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: How to brag.
rePost::don’t worry if you don’t know “absolutely everything” before starting out | Gapingvoid
“DON’T WORRY IF YOU DON’T KNOW ‘ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING’ BEFORE STARTING OUT.”
That’s probably the last thing you need…
A lot of people massively postpone their EVIL PLANS, for the simple reason that they don’t have an answer for every possible contingency.
They don’t know enough about the industry. They don’t know enough people in the industry– especially the A-Listers. They don’t know enough about where the market is going to be in five years. They don’t know enough about what could possibly go wrong. They don’t know where EVERY SINGLE LAST POSSIBLE LANDMINE is buried.
So instead of getting on with it, they spend the next few years keeping their Nowheresville day job, whilst spending their evenings surfing the web, scouring the trade magazines, researching everything like crazy, trying to get a thorough, small-time Outsider’s view about what the big-time Insiders are currently up to.
And then they often compound this by also trying to get a handle on the even bigger stuff. What will happen to the American/Asian/European/Brazilian/Whatever economy in the next 2/5/10/25/Whatever years, and how will these BIG things affect their tiny, obscure niche.
They want to have ALL the answers, before ever risking getting their feet wet. Hell, before even getting their little toe wet…
Agreed, a wee bit of prudence and informed circumspection are lovely virtues to have, but overdoing it can be ultimately unproductive, for a variety of reasons. Here are my four favorite ones:
via don’t worry if you don’t know “absolutely everything” before starting out | Gapingvoid.
I’m not getting any younger, sometime I will have to make the plunge, I hope its soon. This was a nice read!!!