Category: rePosts

What’s the Significance?
Until his untimely death at the age of 31, Eric Rauch was a biologist and theoretical ecologist at MIT. In his article Productivity and the Workweek, he argues that while productivity has steadily increased in developed countries since 1950, workers’ subjective sense of well-being has not seen a similar increase. In other words, the work week could be drastically shortened without painfully reducing workers’ standards of living. In fact, Rauch points out, “shorter hours were assumed to be a natural consequence of increased productivity in the US until the 1930’s, appearing in the platforms of all major parties.”
But what would we do with all that free time? According to Dan Ariely, lots of things – some directly work-related, some not, but all likely to improve the quality of our working lives. Humans are not, Ariely notes, motivated only by money on the one hand and the desire to sunbathe while sipping martinis on the other. Ironically, a shorter “official” work week would likely weaken the defensive barriers many employees erect between work and play, freeing their minds to reach “a-ha” solutions to work-related problems even while sunbathing, and to use their time at the office more efficiently and effectively.
For companies curious – yet anxious – about becoming more Google-like, a first step might be to take a hard look at your office culture. Do people seem relaxed and enthusiastic about their jobs? Do they spontaneously share ideas and collaborate informally when problems arise? Or is everybody hunched over his or her respective desk all day, radiating a “Harder-Working-Than-Thou” aura?
If b), ask yourself this: is all that hard work translating into the kind of innovation and progress your company dreams of? Chances are it isn’t. The reason, says Ariely, is that human productivity isn’t a simple “numbers game.” And any job that robots won’t be doing 50 years from now needs an employee with a sense of balance and personal freedom, not a slave mentality.
via The Four Day Work Week | Inside Employees’ Minds | Big Think.

Gertrude, and anyone who is reading this, if you are happy with what you are doing, keep doing it. Yes, it really hurts if the people you value belittle what you do. Do not let their words sink in. I am tempted to sing a Selena Gomez song, but I will not. You have no obligation to explain your life to anyone else. Your obligation is to live your life the best way you can. Being happy is all that matters.
via Auntie Janey’s Old-Fashioned Agony Column #27: BPO blues and expired friendships | JessicarulestheUniverse.
 

Read the whole fucking thing!  I totally fucking agree. If your happy and you aren’t hurting other people in a direct way then just fucking do it and let the haters die in envy!

How an undergrad spotted possible water on MarsIn high school, Lujendra Ojha hoped he might one day invent a time machine. A science-fiction fan, he was fascinated with ideas about string theory, multiple universes and time travel.Ojha hasnt cracked those mysteries yet, but he did discover something else otherworldly: possible flows of saltwater on Mars.The 21-year-old is a co-author of a new study in the journal Science suggesting that there is liquid water during warmer seasons on Mars. If its there, this water probably would be briny, because studies have shown that Mars surface is salty.A native of Kathmandu, Nepal, Ojha has always been fascinated by mountains, especially since several of the worlds tallest are in his country. He combined his interest in physics and geology by majoring in geosciences at the University of Arizona.
via How an undergrad spotted possible water on Mars – Light Years – CNN.com Blogs.

http://gapingvoid.com/2011/08/23/the-whale/

Top 5 Entrepreneurial Habits
I’ve hit upon some ways to identify and establish habits. Now, here are some of the habits that I think are most important for entrepreneurs:
Creativity – Yes, this is something that you can practice. Practice writing down new business ideas or ways to improve your business each and every day. You’ll be amazed at how much easier this will become once you get going and how much untapped creativity you had in you.
Planning/ Organizational – Some people are naturally great at planning and organization, but for the rest of us we’ll have to establish some good habits. Get in the habit of writing down tasks that you want to accomplish in the next day or week. Make sure to record what tasks you do every day. To get more organized, spend some time creating a system for processing paperwork or incoming email. Then spend a little bit of time every day working on that process so things don’t pile up.
Connecting With (the Right) People – Find like-minded people to connect with in real life and online. Social networking habits can really pay off in the long haul. Make sure that you dedicate a little bit of time every day to building your network.
Measuring – In order to improve your business over time you have to be measuring the key elements. For online businesses a lot of metrics and measurement can be automated with tools like Google Analytics. However, getting in the habit of checking these regularly and tweaking things as a result will pay off big.
Communicating – If you already write a blog or a lot of emails this may seem like second nature. However, its worth spending some time analyzing your communications and making sure that you understand your audience and that they’re receiving the same message you think you’re sending.
via How to Establish and Maintain the Top 5 Entrepreneurial Habits | Free SEO Tools at SEOJuicer.com – Beautiful Free SEO Software.

OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.
While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.
via Stop Coddling the Super-Rich – NYTimes.com.

Every minute you are bombarded with images of things you are supposed to have in order to be happy and successful. To add insult to unfulfilled desire, you see them being flaunted by people who did nothing to deserve them. They didn’t earn their material possessions, they didn’t do any work. How can they afford these things? Why are they rich and famous? Because worldwide media has created an entire class of artificial celebrities—the people you’re supposed to envy and emulate without quite knowing why. They’re in your face all day, taunting you.
As for crime being punished, this is no longer a certainty. You see people getting away with much bigger crimes, people being lionized for screwing the system. Consider that no one has been held to account for breaking the world economy and causing the global financial meltdown.
When you make the list of factors that led to the violence and looting in London in August 2011, please don’t forget to add “Celebrity Culture and Conspicuous Excess.”
Here is a scary thought. It is so scary we hesitate to say it, but it is already on many minds. If it happened in London, could it happen here? Some would say that it’s already happened, except that the looters were not the underclass.
via Maybe the world has ended and we just haven’t noticed. | JessicarulestheUniverse.

2. (If you are one of the 2 or 3 people living who have not read The Da Vinci Code, SPOILER ALERT!) In The Da Vinci Code, the badly-written yet riveting novel by Dan Brown, the mystery is built around the Holy Blood, Holy Grail theory that Jesus Christ had married Mary Magdalene. (The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail sued Brown, to no avail.) Of course the Catholic Church expressed its outrage, helping push Brown’s potboiler all the way to the top of the bestseller lists and keeping it there.
Experience has shown that an endorsement from the Church is not nearly as effective at moving merchandise as condemnation from the Church. We are seeing this in the case of Mideo Cruz, whom the general public would not have heard of it he hadn’t ticked off the righteous faithful. There’s no merchandise, but there is a reputation to be made.
Seriously, if the protectors of morality had not reacted so loudly to Cruz’s exhibit, most of us would be unaware of his existence (No offense to Mr. Cruz). The show would be viewed by the regular CCP audience, then it would end and likely be forgotten. Not anymore.
Mideo Cruz will now be viewed as a victim of religious oppression, the committed artist who dared violate taboos and challenge the established order etc etc, add your own grant proposal here. With all the yelling, we can’t hear ourselves ask the question: Is the artwork any good?
via Jessica Zafra: You say ‘Blasphemy’, they say ‘Fascism’, we say ‘Huh?’ – Interaksyon.com.