Phil Greenspun wrote a satirical posting on why it’s ok not to care about other people troubles. His self amused argument is that in the Modern world such work can be left to specialists. Modern, aka Urban, life is all about residing in numerous communities. If you buy into my two part model of communities [...]
To the untravelled, territory other than their own familiar heath is invariably fascinating. Next to love, it is the one thing which solaces and delights. Things new are too important to be neglected, and mind, which is a mere reflection of sensory impressions, succumbs to the flood of objects. Thus lovers are forgotten, sorrows laid [...]
The library’s copy of Paradox of Choice has gotten around to me. I’m bummed that I didn’t learn very much. I guess, I know too much about modern marketing. Good news, there is one very amusing item, a joke, about half way through. But first, a story. In the 1950s Herb Simon at CMU passed [...]
“… what matters is the work itself — the work that is produced, but also the act of work: the task itself…” – here
Wonderful and amusing BBC discussion of complaining as a cultural aspect in a British bank. (Click on the Listen again link.) One thing I find amusing about this was that the researcher was an American. My impression has always been that the British have raised complaining into a national art form, a sport. This sport [...]
Affecting story, touching, common. Read it. Note: some people in the comments would rather not know. Shame.
There is an amazing moral dilemma hidden in the text of Richard Layard’s lectures on economics and happiness. If you are evil, he outlines a reasonably simple reciepe you can use to make a large groups of people unhappy. The trick is to engineer a change in their model of their rank. This is easier [...]
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