Discipline
Saw a great video earlier this week in which Seth Godin shares an old Zig Ziglar story about a school that had problems with student graffiti. In an effort to fight the vandalism, the principal of the school started finding students who had done something good. Then, he sent a note home with the student to their parents reading, "Your son or daughter was caught doing something good in school." The parents had to read...
The Eternal Struggle
For me, this isn't a battle between good and evil. Earlier this week, I was sitting in on a GoToMeeting call at work. The software we were using to view the lecture slides and listen to the speaker was quite good, and everything went very smoothly. One exception: every few minutes, the audio would cut out and then flare up in an oddly metallic-sounding way, briefly, before returning to normal. It was a tiny distraction,...
Not Knowing
I saw a video on YouTube the other day of a speaker addressing a large audience. During the Q&A, someone asked the speaker about politicians, and he proceeded to explain that he felt politicians tend to do things for money in exchange for championing legislation that helps the donor. In the comments on this video, someone wrote, "I'm glad someone is saying this; he's right and people need to learn it." Assuming this the speaker...
Mix and Match
While shopping for a new pair of shoes a few weeks ago, my girlfriend asked me a question I didn't expect: "Which of your feet is larger than the other?" I was caught off guard, simply because, as far as I could remember, no one has ever asked me that before. The first batch of questions back were, "Is that possible? Is that common? Do a lot of people have slight differences in the sizes...
Missing Pieces
In one of their episodes of "Bullshit!", Penn and Teller question the effectiveness of anger management programs. In one study they presented during the episode, a psychologist divided students into two groups. Both groups were required to sit alone in a room and write a simple essay answer to a question. Their essay was taken out of the room and returned a short time later with a nasty review by a TA. One group was...
Time Warp!
I don't usually get nostalgic, but here's a tool I use sometimes to see the way Internet sites were in the past: Wayback Machine You can use it to see how Google's homepage has changed since they first launched 12 years ago (not much) or how Amazon's homepage has evolved (by leaps and bounds). An interesting repository. I think social media is lacking this in some places. I think it would be interesting to be...
Getting the Spirit
From reading the discussions that crop up on comment threads, you start to recognize that the most vocal commenters on the Internet are the literalists. Literalists are really good at finding the exceptions. For example, imagine that a recruiter posts an article on their blog saying there are times when you shouldn't practice too much for a job interview, because it will keep you on your toes and you might come across as more sincere....
Democracy of Creation
I'd like to share a quick story: a few months ago, I wrote on here about musicians on the street. I suspected that they didn't need to wait to be discovered. The ones that really wanted to, I figured, would be able to get their hands on a computer, a mic, and some software that would let them start making music (no record company needed) and that MySpace pages were sufficient to give fans a...
Respectfully
At least once a week, I meet or have to deal with a person who, for whatever reason, doesn't respect me. Sometimes it comes across as blatant arrogance, and other times, it's more subtle, buried deep inside of a passing comment they make to me. I don't really mind this too much, because in social situations, I don't always act in a manner that demands respect. (It's the whole thing about reaping and sowing, I...
Knowing For Sure
We all have lots of ideas, about things to do in at our jobs, personal projects we want to start, and life-changing plans. And we question ourselves, asking, "Is this a good idea? Am I sure this is a good idea?" A much better question: "Does anyone in my situation ever know for sure if they have a good idea or not?" If the answer to that question is no, then maybe the merits of...