Posting this for me.
You “focus” on the one thing you care about, as you “unfocus” on everything else. If not for every minute of your life, at least for the time you set aside to pursue the thing that matters.
via First, care. | 43 Folders.
rePost::The end of the office… and the future of work – The Boston Globe
I find that i keep meeting young professionals who fantasize about freelancing. When I hear their reasons I cringe. In reality what most people want is to not work. Read the whole thing its an interesting look at what maybe the future of work.
The middle of the 20th century was the age of the great employer: Mainstream success was a stable job at a single company, steadily ascending from middle to upper management. That began to change in the 1970s and 1980s, for reasons that were social as well as economic: American conglomerates began to face stiff foreign competition, and the country accustomed itself to – and even began to celebrate – a more mercurial, less cosseted brand of capitalism. The Organization Man was replaced by the worker as free agent, one who might with little regret leave a job when a competitor gave a better offer, or who might be left jobless when his company merged with another. The arc of the average career trajectory grew more fractured.
What we’re seeing today, says Thomas Malone, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the author of the 2004 book “The Future of Work,” is a further shift. The growing freelance workforce, he argues, is made up of people who see themselves not as having a single job so much as having several at once. To describe the current change, Malone borrows an image that the sociologist Alvin Toffler used to describe the earlier one.
“One of the things [Toffler] said was that we should move from the idea of a career as a linear progression up the ranks in a single organization to that of a career as a portfolio of jobs that you hold over time in a series of different organizations,” says Malone. “What I’m just now realizing is that many people today see their career portfolio including a combination of jobs at the same time.”
via The end of the office… and the future of work – The Boston Globe.
rePost:: Tips and Tricks for Answering Hard Questions::Less Wrong
Excellent set of advice on how to answer hard problems.
Tips and Tricks for Answering Hard Questions
I've collected some tips and tricks for answering hard questions, some of which may be original, and others I may have read somewhere and forgotten the source of. Please feel free to contribute more tips and tricks, or additional links to the sources or fuller explanations.
Liked the advice below, problem is that I can’t adhere to it. I just begin to obsess on the problem and can’t go to sleep. I really need more discipline!
Sleep on it. I find that I tend to have a greater than average number of insights in the period of time just after I wake up and before I get out of bed. Our brains seem to continue to work while we’re asleep, and it may help to prime it by reviewing the problem before going to sleep.
via Less Wrong: Tips and Tricks for Answering Hard Questions.
Quote:: Knowledge That Matters ::02/08/2010::Scott Adams Blog
Read the whole thing!
In summary, the two opinions about your abilities that you should never trust are your own opinions, and the majority's opinions. But if a handful of people who have a good track record of identifying talent think you have something, you just might.
via Scott Adams Blog: Knowledge That Matters 02/08/2010.
rePost:: On Great Teachers and the Remarkable Life: A Deliberate Practice Case Study »Study Hacks » Blog Archive »
What Makes Great Teachers Great?
“Strong teachers insist that effective teaching is neither mysterious nor magical,” says Ripley. “It is neither a function of dynamic personality nor dramatic performance.”
Instead, Teach for America has identified the following traits as the most important for high-performing teachers such as Taylor:
1. They set big goals for their students and are perpetually looking for ways to improve their effectiveness.
(In the Atlantic article, Teach for America’s in-house professor, Steve Farr, noted that when he sets up visits with superstar teachers they often say something like: “You’re welcome to come, but I have to warn you — I am in the middle of just blowing up my classroom structure…because I think it’s not working as well as it could.” )
2. They’re obsessed about focusing every minute of classroom time toward student learning.
3. They plan exhaustively and purposefully, “working backward from the desired outcome.”
4. They work “relentlessly”…”refusing to surrender.”
5. They keep students and their families involved in the process.
An expert quoted in the article summarized the findings: “At the end of the day…it’s the mind-set that teachers need — a kind of relentless approach to the problem.”
The first four traits above should sound familiar. Setting big goals, working backwards from results to process, perpetually trying to improve, relentless focus — these sound a lot like the traits of deliberate practice.
via Study Hacks » Blog Archive » On Great Teachers and the Remarkable Life: A Deliberate Practice Case Study.
Learned Today::Apple are evil? — The Endeavour
Apple are evil?
by John on February 8, 2010
Mike Croucher wrote a post the other day explaining why he’s going to buy an iPad. He said that one of the objections to the iPad he’d heard was
Apple are evil because they take away control of how we use their devices.
I teased Mike that I would never say “Apple are evil.” On this side of the Atlantic we’d say “Apple is evil.” But in the UK it is accepted usage to say “Apple are evil.”
“Apple” is a collective noun when used to refer to Apple Inc. British English treats collective nouns as plural, but American English treats them as singular. Although the British usage sounds odd to my American ears, it makes sense just as much sense as the American convention. You could argue for plural verbs because corporations are made of individual people, or you could argue for singular verbs because the corporations act as a single entity. See Grammar Girl’s tip on collective nouns for more background.
via Apple are evil? — The Endeavour.
rePost::Ohio strip club hosts 'Lap dances for Haiti' – Odds and Ends – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News
I support this!!! hehe.
Ohio strip club hosts 'Lap dances for Haiti'
02/09/2010 | 09:52 AM
TOLEDO, Ohio – A strip club in Ohio has raised $1,000 for Haitian earthquake relief during what was billed as “Lap dances for Haiti.” Marilyn's on Monroe in Toledo donated the $10 cover charges collected Saturday to ISOH (I-S-O-H)/IMPACT, an organization based in suburban Perrysburg that provides food and clothing for Haiti.
via Ohio strip club hosts ‘Lap dances for Haiti’ – Odds and Ends – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News.
Elink Video:: Live Action of XKCD's I Love Discovery Channel
This video was awesome!!!
The comic is here http://xkcd.com/442/
rePost::Noynoy and Great Expectations | Filipino Voices
The challenges facing the Philippines are many, with solutions conflicting. This necessitates a lot of sacrifice from all sectors of society. This is Noynoy’s second weakness, his lack of great oratorical gifts. His first being his unproven mettle for leadership. I pray he finds his voice because if if he doesn’t her lineage may not be enough to counter the power of GMA2 or the one who must not be named. If people do not understand why they are sacrificing, sacrifice becomes a bitter medicine, hard to swallow. If we cannot embolden people, help them find the courage to stare down corruption, report the erring officials, being vigilant against opportunist in and outside the administration, Noy may win the election but lose the war.
Please anyone but GMA2.
He answered, as with his previous answers, in that circuitous manner. The core message is lost in the minor crests and dips. His words traveled from his lips to my ears and my brain discerned that his answer, in brief, was that he could not miss the opportunity to create change. I sat back, unmoved. I did not get the answer I wanted. I was no closer to getting a better sense of his motivations for running as I had before sharing breathing space with the good senator.
But what did I expect? Noynoy does not have the gravitas of men and women who command loyalty by simply being. He has not the charm of his father nor a revolution brewing in his favor as his mother. All he has are his shoulders frail. Here is a man who had indeed chosen to pick up the biggest rock in sight and to willingly strike it on his head. And he does it not for naked quest for power. Megalomania is to Noynoy as sweet is to brick. These properties do not compute.
These days, his noticeably thinner body seems to bow under the weight of his assumed burden, this man who has had no great aspirations to power, this man who has had no messianic pretensions. In running for the highest office in the land at a time of great crisis, perhaps Noynoy only wishes to honor the memory of his mother and father, and in doing so resurrect in all of us what was was great and proud in the Filipino.
via Noynoy and Great Expectations | Filipino Voices.
rePost::Pakistani ambassador rejected because his name is NSFW in Arabic | FP Passport
funny!
Pakistani ambassador rejected because his name is NSFW in Arabic
Posted By David Kenner Wednesday, February 3, 2010 – 4:48 PM Share
Despite having served for years as a distinguished Pakistani diplomat, Akbar Zeb reportedly cannot receive accreditation as Pakistan's ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The reason, apparently, has nothing to do with his credentials, and everything to do with his name — which, in Arabic, translates to “biggest dick”:
In Saudi Arabia, size does count.
A high level Pakistani diplomat has been rejected as Ambassador of Saudi Arabia because his name, Akbar Zib, equates to “Biggest Dick” in Arabic. Saudi officials, apparently overwhelmed by the idea of the name, put their foot down and gave the idea of his being posted there, the kibosh.
via Pakistani ambassador rejected because his name is NSFW in Arabic | FP Passport.