Barry Schwartz: The real crisis? We stopped being wise
February 2009
"Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for “practical wisdom” as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world."
"Barry Schwartz studies the link between economics and psychology, offering startling insights into modern life. Lately, working with Ken Sharpe, he's studying wisdom."
***
Extra..
Elizabeth Gilbert: A different way to think about creative genius
February 2009
"Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk."
"The author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert has thought long and hard about some large topics. Her next fascination: genius, and how we ruin it."
***
I would agree that everybody possesses some form of genius,
it just has a tendency to be beaten down and stifled by others while growing up.
Perhaps one of the most universal human tragedies is when everyday people
are robbed of the opportunity to achieve their fullest potentials
and to live a happy productive life.
I wonder how many Einsteins were born in places like Kenya who could’ve been but never were
because their growth was stunted by the circumstances of their environment?
Tragic.
2.17.2009
NY Times "News You Can Endow" Op-Ed Article Circa January 27, 2009
News You Can Endow
By DAVID SWENSEN and MICHAEL SCHMIDT
Published: January 27, 2009
"Although the problems that the newspaper industry faces are well known, no one has offered a satisfactory solution. But there is an option that might not only save newspapers but also make them stronger: Turn them into nonprofit, endowed institutions — like colleges and universities. Endowments would enhance newspapers’ autonomy while shielding them from the economic forces that are now tearing them down."
[...]
"By endowing our most valued sources of news we would free them from the strictures of an obsolete business model and offer them a permanent place in society, like that of America’s colleges and universities. Endowments would transform newspapers into unshakable fixtures of American life, with greater stability and enhanced independence that would allow them to serve the public good more effectively."
---
To give a little background on this for those who may not already know,
I spend a lot of time trying to come up with solutions
on how to save the journalism industry.
Here is a piece I wrote on December 8, 2008 entitled, "How To Save The New York Times":
http://www.newglobalorder.org/2008/12/how-to-save-new-york-times.html
Though I am deeply honored to read some of my ideas expanded upon and published by two financial experts in the New York Times (within just two shy months of me submitting this "How To Save The New York Times" op-ed material to the NY Times President, Publisher, & Editor), I am a tad disheartened that I never received any legitimate response or follow-up from the NY Times regarding my material.
Of course, it probably goes without saying
that I never received any citation in this Op-Ed article
and never received any compensation from the NY Times for sharing my ideas.
By DAVID SWENSEN and MICHAEL SCHMIDT
Published: January 27, 2009
"Although the problems that the newspaper industry faces are well known, no one has offered a satisfactory solution. But there is an option that might not only save newspapers but also make them stronger: Turn them into nonprofit, endowed institutions — like colleges and universities. Endowments would enhance newspapers’ autonomy while shielding them from the economic forces that are now tearing them down."
[...]
"By endowing our most valued sources of news we would free them from the strictures of an obsolete business model and offer them a permanent place in society, like that of America’s colleges and universities. Endowments would transform newspapers into unshakable fixtures of American life, with greater stability and enhanced independence that would allow them to serve the public good more effectively."
---
To give a little background on this for those who may not already know,
I spend a lot of time trying to come up with solutions
on how to save the journalism industry.
Here is a piece I wrote on December 8, 2008 entitled, "How To Save The New York Times":
http://www.newglobalorder.org/2008/12/how-to-save-new-york-times.html
Though I am deeply honored to read some of my ideas expanded upon and published by two financial experts in the New York Times (within just two shy months of me submitting this "How To Save The New York Times" op-ed material to the NY Times President, Publisher, & Editor), I am a tad disheartened that I never received any legitimate response or follow-up from the NY Times regarding my material.
Of course, it probably goes without saying
that I never received any citation in this Op-Ed article
and never received any compensation from the NY Times for sharing my ideas.
2.09.2009
Albert Einstein Quotes
"Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment - an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections."
-Albert Einstein, Autobiographical Notes, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."
-Albert Einstein, letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, professor emeritus of philosophy at the College of the City of New York, March 19, 1940. Einstein is defending the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a teaching position.
"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."
-Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions (1954)
-Albert Einstein, Autobiographical Notes, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."
-Albert Einstein, letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, professor emeritus of philosophy at the College of the City of New York, March 19, 1940. Einstein is defending the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a teaching position.
"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."
-Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions (1954)
2.03.2009
"The Internship"
"Listen kid, we know that you're the best candidate for this position. There's no question about it. It's just that, well, I'm gonna be completely honest with you kid - you deserve at least that much..
It's just that we're total whores for money, all the managers here. Every single one of us would suck a dick hard for a million bucks you see, but within reason of course. Know what I mean?
The truth is that every single one of us managers here, we've all got these rich friends of ours who have these spoiled kids that are essentially unemployable. Most of them are actually total dumbshits, but their parents are willing to pay us thousands upon thousands of their hardly earned trust-fund dollars to make it look as though their kids have real work experience on paper, for simply making our coffees and stroking our massively undeserved egos for a couple of months at a time.
As I'm sure you already know, our company is more than likely collapsing, and we really have no choice but to stoop to any low humanly possible to protect our seven-figure salaries by slashing costs, even if that means charging our interns to work for us.
We know that you're the best candidate, but to be honest, you'll never have any chance in this market because you're poor, and quite frankly, that's the way we think it should be in this world run by whores. You know, real whores for money and power - pigs, swine like us - the plutocracy.
Now if you had a nice pair of tits and low enough self-esteem to suck my dick every morning for nothing in return, then I might be willing to give you a chance, but in this market, no, you'd never have any chance at all even though you're the absolute best candidate for this position.
See kid, your problem is that you're too good. When you're a privileged and powerful imbecile such as myself, nothing intimidates or threatens you more than a poor, talented young man like yourself with exceptional leadership abilities. Every single supervisor here, including myself, is afraid that you will take their job away from them, because none of them are nearly as talented, hard-working, or capable as you are. We'd much rather give this internship as well as any possible future promotions to some bumbling idiot who represents no threat to our authority or egos - a real go-getter who will do or say absolutely anything that we tell him to do or say without question, whatsoever. That's just how prostitution - I mean capitalism - works. We want somebody who we can pin the blame on whenever we fuck up real bad, as we usually do, so that we can continue to collect our seemingly undeserved multi-million dollar bonuses as well as travel to exotic places on our personal jets. Jet fuel isn't cheap you know, especially nowadays.
You see kid, how it works in the real world is that people like me don't get into our positions of power by being nice guys or making the right decisions or hiring the right people or being honest. No sir, we get to our positions of power by lying, cheating, stealing, and killing our way to the top. We get into our positions of power by sabotaging our more capable co-workers by any and all means necessary. It's a dog-eat-dog world kid, and that idealistic disposition of yours will get you nowhere fast. Hell, I used to be an idealist myself when I was your age, but then I had a family and joined the military - which got me over my 'freethinking' real fast. Having to kill dozens of crying children who are running towards you - children who may or may not be bearing grenades - will teach you a thing or two about 'fairness' real quick.
It's a dog-eat-dog world kid, and unless you're extremely rich or willing to play dirty - then you're never gonna make it in this industry. Ever.
Now go away kid, I've got an important meeting with the mayor."
It's just that we're total whores for money, all the managers here. Every single one of us would suck a dick hard for a million bucks you see, but within reason of course. Know what I mean?
The truth is that every single one of us managers here, we've all got these rich friends of ours who have these spoiled kids that are essentially unemployable. Most of them are actually total dumbshits, but their parents are willing to pay us thousands upon thousands of their hardly earned trust-fund dollars to make it look as though their kids have real work experience on paper, for simply making our coffees and stroking our massively undeserved egos for a couple of months at a time.
As I'm sure you already know, our company is more than likely collapsing, and we really have no choice but to stoop to any low humanly possible to protect our seven-figure salaries by slashing costs, even if that means charging our interns to work for us.
We know that you're the best candidate, but to be honest, you'll never have any chance in this market because you're poor, and quite frankly, that's the way we think it should be in this world run by whores. You know, real whores for money and power - pigs, swine like us - the plutocracy.
Now if you had a nice pair of tits and low enough self-esteem to suck my dick every morning for nothing in return, then I might be willing to give you a chance, but in this market, no, you'd never have any chance at all even though you're the absolute best candidate for this position.
See kid, your problem is that you're too good. When you're a privileged and powerful imbecile such as myself, nothing intimidates or threatens you more than a poor, talented young man like yourself with exceptional leadership abilities. Every single supervisor here, including myself, is afraid that you will take their job away from them, because none of them are nearly as talented, hard-working, or capable as you are. We'd much rather give this internship as well as any possible future promotions to some bumbling idiot who represents no threat to our authority or egos - a real go-getter who will do or say absolutely anything that we tell him to do or say without question, whatsoever. That's just how prostitution - I mean capitalism - works. We want somebody who we can pin the blame on whenever we fuck up real bad, as we usually do, so that we can continue to collect our seemingly undeserved multi-million dollar bonuses as well as travel to exotic places on our personal jets. Jet fuel isn't cheap you know, especially nowadays.
You see kid, how it works in the real world is that people like me don't get into our positions of power by being nice guys or making the right decisions or hiring the right people or being honest. No sir, we get to our positions of power by lying, cheating, stealing, and killing our way to the top. We get into our positions of power by sabotaging our more capable co-workers by any and all means necessary. It's a dog-eat-dog world kid, and that idealistic disposition of yours will get you nowhere fast. Hell, I used to be an idealist myself when I was your age, but then I had a family and joined the military - which got me over my 'freethinking' real fast. Having to kill dozens of crying children who are running towards you - children who may or may not be bearing grenades - will teach you a thing or two about 'fairness' real quick.
It's a dog-eat-dog world kid, and unless you're extremely rich or willing to play dirty - then you're never gonna make it in this industry. Ever.
Now go away kid, I've got an important meeting with the mayor."
2.02.2009
Angry Journalist #7977
dear newspapers:
fuck you. and your low-paying jobs. and your constant layoffs. and your inability to innovate. and your inept managers. and your broke business model. and your spirit-breaking, soul-sucking demands.
i hate you.
***
(I have no clue who wrote this but I feel your pain, hang in there fella! Hope you feel better!)
fuck you. and your low-paying jobs. and your constant layoffs. and your inability to innovate. and your inept managers. and your broke business model. and your spirit-breaking, soul-sucking demands.
i hate you.
***
(I have no clue who wrote this but I feel your pain, hang in there fella! Hope you feel better!)
Paying To Work: Worse Than Unpaid Internships
From Do You Want An Internship? It'll Cost You
By SUE SHELLENBARGER, JANUARY 28, 2009..
"Faced with a dismal market for college summer internships, a growing number of anxious parents are pitching in to help -- by buying their kids a foot in the door.
Some are paying for-profit companies to place their college students in internships that are mostly unpaid. Others are hiring marketing consultants to create direct-mail campaigns promoting their children's workplace potential. Still other parents are buying internships outright in online charity auctions.
Even as the economy slows, internship-placement programs are seeing demand rise by 15% to 25% over a year ago. Critics of the programs say they deepen the divide between the haves and have-nots by giving students from more affluent families an advantage."
***
plutocracy |ploōˈtäkrəsē|
noun (pl. -cies)
government by the wealthy.
• a country or society governed in this way.
• an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth.
DERIVATIVES
plutocratic |ˌploōtəˈkratik| adjective
plutocratically |ˌploōtəˈkratiklē| adverb
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Greek ploutokratia, from ploutos ‘wealth’ + kratos ‘strength, authority.’
USAGE See usage at aristocracy.
***
From Opportunity for Sale
Psst! Wanna buy an internship?
By Timothy Noah, Jan. 28, 2009..
"It's a huge misconception to say this is a program for rich kids," Eric Lochtefeld, CEO of University of Dreams, told the Journal. "The average student comes from the middle class, and their parents dig deep." To whatever extent that were true, inegalitarianism would shade into encyclopedia-salesman-style exploitation. The company "has begun funding scholarships and grants for low-income applicants," the Journal reports. But that merely lowers the price of opportunity. Whoever said a summer internship was something you had to pay for? The idea of getting a job is that they're supposed to pay you.
***
Why is this happening?
Is it merely the result of unregulated market trends
or could many people actually be losing their minds?
***
From Studies find mercury in much U.S. corn syrup
Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:15pm GMT..
"We went and looked at supermarket samples where high fructose corn syrup was the first or second ingredient on the label," he said. These 55 different foods included barbecue sauce, jam, yogurt and chocolate syrup.
"We found about one out of three had mercury above the detection limit," Wallinga said.
***
We already know that the mercury levels in fish are at an all time high
because of environmental deregulations under Bush.
Interesting how this story about mercury in common products such as soda pop
comes out just as soon as Bush leaves office..
Mercury poisoning can result in insanity
as well as a permanent reduction of your IQ,
depending on how much mercury you've been exposed to.
I would be willing to bet
that those who are paying money to work at for-profit companies
are actually exhibiting symptoms of mercury poisoning,
in addition to being filthy rich.
History has shown us beyond any reasonable doubt
that power coupled with insanity
can be a very destructive combination.
***
The government needs to intervene on this practice.
This practice of paying to work is much worse
than sweatshop slave labor or even prostitution.
What are your thoughts?
(You may need to have your mercury levels tested.)
By SUE SHELLENBARGER, JANUARY 28, 2009..
"Faced with a dismal market for college summer internships, a growing number of anxious parents are pitching in to help -- by buying their kids a foot in the door.
Some are paying for-profit companies to place their college students in internships that are mostly unpaid. Others are hiring marketing consultants to create direct-mail campaigns promoting their children's workplace potential. Still other parents are buying internships outright in online charity auctions.
Even as the economy slows, internship-placement programs are seeing demand rise by 15% to 25% over a year ago. Critics of the programs say they deepen the divide between the haves and have-nots by giving students from more affluent families an advantage."
***
plutocracy |ploōˈtäkrəsē|
noun (pl. -cies)
government by the wealthy.
• a country or society governed in this way.
• an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth.
DERIVATIVES
plutocratic |ˌploōtəˈkratik| adjective
plutocratically |ˌploōtəˈkratiklē| adverb
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Greek ploutokratia, from ploutos ‘wealth’ + kratos ‘strength, authority.’
USAGE See usage at aristocracy.
***
From Opportunity for Sale
Psst! Wanna buy an internship?
By Timothy Noah, Jan. 28, 2009..
"It's a huge misconception to say this is a program for rich kids," Eric Lochtefeld, CEO of University of Dreams, told the Journal. "The average student comes from the middle class, and their parents dig deep." To whatever extent that were true, inegalitarianism would shade into encyclopedia-salesman-style exploitation. The company "has begun funding scholarships and grants for low-income applicants," the Journal reports. But that merely lowers the price of opportunity. Whoever said a summer internship was something you had to pay for? The idea of getting a job is that they're supposed to pay you.
***
Why is this happening?
Is it merely the result of unregulated market trends
or could many people actually be losing their minds?
***
From Studies find mercury in much U.S. corn syrup
Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:15pm GMT..
"We went and looked at supermarket samples where high fructose corn syrup was the first or second ingredient on the label," he said. These 55 different foods included barbecue sauce, jam, yogurt and chocolate syrup.
"We found about one out of three had mercury above the detection limit," Wallinga said.
***
We already know that the mercury levels in fish are at an all time high
because of environmental deregulations under Bush.
Interesting how this story about mercury in common products such as soda pop
comes out just as soon as Bush leaves office..
Mercury poisoning can result in insanity
as well as a permanent reduction of your IQ,
depending on how much mercury you've been exposed to.
I would be willing to bet
that those who are paying money to work at for-profit companies
are actually exhibiting symptoms of mercury poisoning,
in addition to being filthy rich.
History has shown us beyond any reasonable doubt
that power coupled with insanity
can be a very destructive combination.
***
The government needs to intervene on this practice.
This practice of paying to work is much worse
than sweatshop slave labor or even prostitution.
What are your thoughts?
(You may need to have your mercury levels tested.)
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