Ben Casnocha: The Blog

Happiness and the Role of Introspection

Interesting post and link to a NYT article on happiness, depression, and introspection.

Link: Marginal Revolution: Don't Think Too Much About Your Year to Come.

Timothy Wilson writes:

    In one study, mildly depressed college students were asked to spend eight minutes thinking about themselves or to spend the same amount of time thinking about mundane topics like "clouds forming in the sky."

    People in the first group focused on the negative things in their lives and sunk into a worse mood. People in the other group actually felt better afterward, possibly because their negative self-focus was "turned off" by the distraction task...

    What can we do to improve ourselves and feel happier? Numerous social psychological studies have confirmed Aristotle's observation that "We become just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled by exercising self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage." If we are dissatisfied with some aspect of our lives, one of the best approaches is to act more like the person we want to be, rather than sitting around analyzing ourselves.

    Social psychologist Daniel Batson and colleagues at the University of Kansas found that participants who were given an opportunity to do a favor for another person ended up viewing themselves as kind, considerate people - unless, that is, they were asked to reflect on why they had done the favor. People in that group tended in the end to not view themselves as being especially kind.

White House Celebrates Fifth Straight Year Without Oral Sex

A joyous time for all Americans!

Link: White House Celebrates Fifth Straight Year Without Oral Sex | The Onion - America's Finest News Source.

WASHINGTON, DC—With 2005 drawing to a close, the White House held a special ceremony in the East Room Saturday to commemorate its fifth year without any sort of oral-genital contact within its historic confines. "This administration has upheld its promise to restore dignity to the White House," President Bush said. "I can assure that no one—including myself, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, 'Scooter' Libby, or Condi Rice—has been the recipient, or provider, of the kind of unnatural, depraved, and frankly gross sexual act that, not too long ago, disgraced this office in the eyes of the world." Bush was then joined on stage by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Tom DeLay to cut a perfectly square, frostingless vanilla cake made especially for the occasion.

If You Work Hard, Do You "Deserve" a Reward?

Ever since I've evolved to like the life of the mind more than the life of the athlete, I've worked to keep my basketball career intellectually stimulating. One key component of this is my role as captain.

Last season things were going terribly and a lot of people had their own personal gripes/complaints/questions about a whole host of things. I found myself fielding late night calls from guys wondering why they weren't getting playing time, and secondarily, what I thought about the team's prospects going forward.

I have serious reservations about the college process, but the one good thing that comes out of it is it ensures that most students will work really really hard during high school and then "fail" by not getting into their #1 choice. For overachievers, this is a critical experience, because our whole life you're indoctrinated with a falsehood: "Work hard, and you can do anything." (And I posit it's SO much better to fail NOW than endure the mid-life crisis that David Brooks anticipates will happen to my generation in a big way.)

In basketball, it's the same way. People assume that if you put in the time and effort, there should be a personal reward (playing time - it's hard to look beyond yourself, no matter how well the team does). I was trying to articulate this to a teammate a week ago. Even at the high school basketball level, four years of blood, sweat, and tears doesn't guarantee shit. It should guarantee an opportunity to prove yourself, but after that, it's about putting the most competitive 5 on the court.

Learning by Watching a Conversation Evolve

I've been in San Diego the past couple days for a basketball tournament, and besides playing ball and working on my tan, I've had a number of extremely interesting conversations with my friends on a multitude of topics. Most of my friends know that I'm bound to steer a conversation into one of the many waters which interest me (what are we doing on this planet, race/gender/sexuality, psych, etc). My friends are very accomplished academically (my private high school has more National Merit Scholar semi finalists than every other Bay Area private school combined) but sometimes haven't thought as much some of these more abstract/professional topics as I have. This being said, I still learn a ton from them.

Last night we were at a Mexican place for dinner, and I heard across the table two guys debating whether "outsourcing" is good or bad. I was shocked that they brought this up, and naturally intrigued as someone who is a practitioner and supporter. Most of my buddies have seen "outsourcing" on a newspaper headline or heard about it in the '04 election, and while most of them were completely off (in my opinion) on what outsourcing actually is, they all agreed on one thing: outsourcing is bad. Whoa! Eventually, they came to a distinction between cultural globalization and economic globalization. They were staunchly against the fact that local cultures are being homogenized, but started to see why capitalism and free trade calls for outsourcing.

It was hard to restrain myself from jumping feet first into the conversation, especially since I love conversations and I love arguments (I learn well this way), but my experience last night taught me that there's much to be gained from sitting quietly, observing how people form an initial opinion, and then change that opinion in accordance with a more refined perspective.

Now, back to sun, basketball, reading, and most important, more conversations about genetics (is there a gay gene?), gangsta culture, and the relationship btwn religion and evolution.

No Better Way to Master an Idea Than to Write About It

Scott Rosenberg turned me on to this article which is awesome. When people ask me why I blog, one thing I say is "it clarifies my thinking." I will now say: "When I write, I figure out what I think." And I'm glad to see the author - Robert Frank of Cornell - even applies this to economics. Because I love economics "in its natural state" but not all that ugly algebra!

The initiative was inspired by the discovery that there is no better way to master an idea than to write about it. Although the human brain is remarkably flexible, learning theorists now recognize that it is far better able to absorb information in some forms than others. Thus, according to the psychologist Jerome Bruner, children "turn things into stories, and when they try to make sense of their life they use the storied version of their experience as the basis for further reflection." He went on, "If they don't catch something in a narrative structure, it doesn't get remembered very well, and it doesn't seem to be accessible for further kinds of mulling over." Even well into adulthood, we find it easier to process information in narrative form than in more abstract forms like equations and graphs. Most effective of all are narratives that we construct ourselves....Daniel Boorstin, the former librarian of Congress, used to rise at 5 each morning and write for two hours before going into the office. "I write to discover what I think," he explained. "After all, the bars aren't open that early." Mr. Boorstin's morning sessions were even more valuable than he realized. Writing not only clarifies what you already know; it is also an astonishingly effective way to learn something new.

Ghangsta Culture and Sowing the Seeds of Racism in School

Bob Herbert's column yesterday (TimesSelect only) is not new. Black intellectuals from time to time issue their regular condemnation of the state of ghetto culture. The rap music! The basketball shoes! The drugs and sex!

They're right, though. In my experience, my black high school friends who are fans of the ghetto culture truly dig it, and my white high school friends also dig it, but for different reasons. My white friends think it's cool and hip now, but know deep down that they'll soon outgrow it and start listening to rock n roll. This dynamic sows the seeds of racism, as the whites think they'll soon graduate to something more sophisticated, while blacks continue to revel in such "a dirty culture." This - along with affirmative action, which surrounds white kids in my private school with minority students who struggle way more academically, therefore affirming unborn stereotypes of innate academic inferiority - is why we still have racist adults.

It starts when you're in school.

Book Reviews: Money Makes the World Go Around and The Untied States of America

Books, books, books, books, books....

1. Money Makes the World Go Around by Barbara Garson. This is the story of "one investor tracking her cash through the global economy." She makes a deposit in a local bank, and then "follows" that capital as it travels the globe. She goes all over the world and interviews people who are impacted. The prose is vivid and jargon free. She's not gung ho about globalization or laizze faire capitalism. Indeed, a main goal for her in this book is to humanize the capital flow. The whole world financial system is infinitely interesting (and complicated). Hard money doesn't even really exist. "Offshore" bank accounts are really simply a ledger entry on a computer in the U.S.

2. The Untied States of America by Juan Enriquez. This was sent to me by Debra Bradley (thanks!). It's uniquely formatted - different fonts, typesets, margins, etc. His overarching point - if there is one - is that he United States may disintegrate into independent states. It's not as alarmist as it sounds, mostly because it's not a serious, scholarly work. Rather, it's chock-full of facts, data, quotes, and other staccato political points that makes for entertaining reading. If you're a fun facts politically-inclined guy, you'll like it. But don't expect serious intellectual discourse.

Job Candidates: Young Salesperson, Consumer Internet CEO, and London Job Opps

On the hiring front....

1. Email me if you know of a young, energetic person (maybe just out of college) who is interested in doing a lot of tele-sales for a fast-growing software company. Should be in the Bay Area (maybe SoCal).

2. My friend Auren Hoffman asked me to post this ad from KarmaOne - a consumer internet company in Bay Area is looking for a CEO. Details here.

3. My brother wants to work in London next year after graduating from Middlebury College this spring. He's an English major, econ minor, and pretty savvy with technology. Open to opps in law, creative arts, tech, etc. Email me if you know anyone out there who would be good to hook him up with.

Children Mutilate, Burn, and Torture Barbies

This is disturbing. It appears Barbie is "out" as a doll and in fact is so hated children routinely torture them. Why? Perhaps out of envy (Barbie is so perfect!), perhaps it reminds prepubecent girls of an adulthood they want to avoid. The researchers conclude that it really isn't that bad. After all, the girls are just being imaginative in disposing an excessive commodity, like one crushes cans for recycling.

For some reason I wouldn't place crushing cans for recycling in the same category as burning and torturing a barbie doll.

Link: Britain, UK news from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online.

BARBIE, that plastic icon of girlhood fantasy play, is routinely tortured by children, research has found.

The methods of mutilation are varied and creative, ranging from scalping to decapitation, burning, breaking and even microwaving, according to academics from the University of Bath.

The findings were revealed as part of an in-depth look by psychologists and management academics into the role of brands among 7 to 11-year-old schoolchildren.

When Barry Diller Calls, You Don't Say No

I was just speaking with an extremely successful entrepreneur friend. Barry Diller's assistant called the other day and said Mr. Diller wants to see him on Thursday in New York about his latest internet venture.

"Well, New York wasn't exactly on the calendar, but when Diller calls, you don't say no!"

Indeed.

Polyphasic Sleep - Several Short Naps Throughout the Day

I've been following Steve Pavlina's polyphasic sleep experiment with great interest. Polyphasic sleep, if you don't know, is basically taking several brief naps throughout the day instead of one "long nap" (ie sleep at night). Steve can now work 20 hour days with no side effects. This sounds like an awesome experiment to try for those who can completely control their own schedule. My sense is that it'd be particularly good for Silicon Valley folks, where people seem to work a lot at 2 AM anyways.

Link: Polyphasic Sleep Update - Day 60.

Today is the 60th day since beginning my polyphasic sleep experiment.  It’s hard to fathom that only 60 days have passed — it feels closer to 120 days.

Email of the Day

Hello:  My name is [name withheld], I am writing to you because I am hoping you can assist me to to reach out to young persons, particularly those considered to be of above average intelligence.   
My desire is simply to be of assistance. What I think I can offer is friendship and something I have felt I did not receive as much of as I had hoped while I grew up, guidance and good advice.

I admit to you Ben, I am writing at this moment because I feel moved.  I was doing some research and I came across the story of Philip Pauli who seems to be smart beyond his years. Curiosity led me to look into young people considered geniuses by society.

My thinking while I was doing this was, "These are the future leaders of society."  Then I began to notice something, story after story took a sad turn, depression and in many instances suicide led me to think these people are not receiving something desperately needed.

As I began to reflect on my own past, I had to face a harsh reality. I too was considered of above average intelligence, however, growing up in rural Oklahoma, I was generally belittled and outcast for it. I responded by overcompensating in other areas.  I do not recommend to others what I did, rather I would like to share my hindsight, and moreover simply support young people who may feel that intelligence is making them unhappy.

I'm getting up in years, and I don't think I can look myself in the mirror if I don't start doing more for others.

I have become a very happy and satisfied individual, I have traveled to India and to China, and met great and influential persons.

I'll bring this to a conclusion as I've gone on a bit, and I don't even know if you are interested.

Perhaps you can help me, If so, please contact me at . . .

Does Culture Affect Economics?

The debate over the role of culture in economics is most interesting. At first blush, when confronted with something like the Chicago school, I feel like all those "soft" factors are missing when trying to explain behavior and outcomes. There's a nice post at The New Economist and link to a great PDF research paper (reasonably accessible to the lay reader), linked below.

Although sociologists and anthropologists "have accumulated a wealth of field evidence on the impact of culture on economic behavior", in the last fifty years "most economists have been reluctant to rely on culture as a possible explanatory variable". So write Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales in a review article prepared for The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes? (PDF). The authors are "trying to convince the reader that cultural hypotheses can be rigorously tested and are economically important".

Study Shows the Superrich Are Not the Most Generous

At least on a percentage of income basis....I wonder what the psychology behind this is. Do all of us have in our heads some artificial number of how much is a right amount to give to charity each year, and then that never changes even as we work our way up the income ladder?

Link: Study Shows the Superrich Are Not the Most Generous - New York Times.

Working-age Americans who make $50,000 to $100,000 a year are two to six times more generous in the share of their investment assets that they give to charity than those Americans who make more than $10 million, a pioneering study of federal tax data shows.

Unbelievable Minor League Hockey Fight

In the latest edition of crazy/funny movies, my brother just sent me this unbelievable minor league hockey fight. These two guys skate to the middle of the rink, everyone clears out, and then they start throwing punches. What's incredible is the announcer: "And they connect! He throws a right! Right! Right! Right! Right!"

Case in point why I'll never play hockey.

My Blogroll: What Feeds I Monitor and Why

I subscribe to about 250 RSS feeds (that page has my full blogroll as of today) and try to have it clear each morning. Here are *most* of the feeds I subscribe to (in no particular order) which are updated fairly regularly. Enjoy! And let me know if there are others I should be reading.

I also read a lot of print (see my Information Diet). My RSS reader NetNewsWire almost always gets partial attention - I'll be listening to music, sitting in a class, doing email, etc. while skimming my reader. I will never stop and read a post carefully during my morning refresh. For things that look interesting or comment-worthy I open in my external browswer and read when I have time. Things I like I will tag in my del.icio.us account (which you can subscribe to here). Things I really like I will leave a comment. Things I really really like I will blog.

Entrepreneurship

1. Irving Wladawsky-Berger - Insights from leading IBM exec
2. Presentation Zen - awesome presentation tips
3. Larry Lessig - the world of IP
4. Matt Galloway
5. Marketing Playbook - accompanying blog from the same titled book
6. Never Eat Alone Blog - accompanying blog from same titled book
7. Burnham's Beat - good look at VC/stock world
8. Tim Wolters
9. Ross Mayfield
10. Matt Blumberg - some good book shorts
11. Craig Newmark - exceedingly kind
12. Chris Howard
13. Ryan McIntyre
14. Fred Wilson
15. Ed Sim - brief, ocassional, and smart insights
16. Jeff Nolan
17. Infectious Greed - a must read
18. 800 CEO Read - books for CEOs
19. Tom Peters - energizing
20. Slacker Manager
21. Jeff Clavier
22. Freakonomics offical blog
23. Creating Passioniate Users
24. John Battelle
25. Chris Selland
26. Chris Sacca
27. SiliconValleyWatcher.com
28. Ian Ybarra

Current Affairs

1. Private Sector Development
2. Adam Smith Lives!
3. Coyote Blog - a conservative take on the world
4. Daniel Gross
5. Mark Schmitt
6. Newmark's Door - a nice, albeit conservative, look at economics and life
7. Becker-Posner Blog - free insights from famous intellectuals
8. The American Scene - solid insights from up and coming intellectual
9. Brad DeLong - famous liberal economist
10. Marginal Revolution
11. Arts and Letters Daily
12. Daniel Drezner - Chicago prof; great
13. Salon Globalization blog

Friends of Ben

1. Tony Gentile
2. Seth Godin -  Great insights
3. David Cowan
4. Chris Yeh - frequent commenter on this blog
5. Auren Hoffman
6. Andy Sack - will he re-join the 'sphere?
7. Jeff Maurone
8. Michael Simmons
9. Charles Hudson
10. Josh Kaufman
11. Seth Levine
12. Brad Feld
13. David Beisel
14. Amy Batchelor - writer
15. Renee Blodgett
16. Dan Saper
17. Ajay Juneja
18. Ramit Sethi
19. Rich Karlgaard - Forbes publisher

Science

1. Cognitive Daily
2. Intelligence Theories
3. Neurolearning Blog - one of my *favorite* feeds
4. Brain Waves
5. Minding the Planet - science far, far away
6. CogNews
7. Improbable Research - hilarious

Tech

1. TEDBlog - great ideas and news
2. MacTips
3. TechCrunch - essential reading for anyone following web 2.0
4. Open Loops
5. Paul Graham - the famous essayist...a bit overrated, if you ask me
6. Zach Lipton - friend and Firefox coder
7. Richard Kassissieh - tech in education
8. Social Software Weblog
9. Steven Johnson - the intersection of society and tech
10. Marc Canter
11. SalesForceWatch
12. Adam Bosworth
13. Dave McClure
14. Kevin Maney

Other

1. Happiness and Public Policy - the study of happiness
2. Lifehack - useful tips for everyday living
3. Steve Pavlina - personal development
4. Evelyn Rodriguez - beautiful words on life and marketing
5. Mark Cuban - basketball and entrepreneruship
6. Jeff Jarvis
7. Jay Rosen - journalism prof
8. Scott Rosenberg - most journalism
9. Ypulse - teen news
10. John Hope Bryant - inspiring

Christmas Music....I Mean "Holiday Music"

I love Christmas and the holiday season in general. You better believe that my x-mas playlist of 200 songs has been rocking loud since Thanksgiving. I'm glad it's become a virtual secular holiday!

This is a fun, informative article on the man who's made a killing off the Christmas music revolution. Heard of Mannheim Steamroller? He's sold more than 27 million albums, more than the Beach Boys, Eminem, REM, Stevie Wonder, or Frank Sinatra. I love profiles like this.

The best news is that he's bringing his acoustic ear and marketing savvy to Valentine's Day, July 4, and Halloween.

The Making of an Ice Princess

I enjoyed this well-written NYT Mag article on 16 year old ice skating prodigy Emily Hughes. First, I like reading about young people who are "professionalizing" at a very young age and how they deal with the pressure and how they go about their daily life. This girl seems pretty with it. The dad does say that the big question for his daugther and others is if they can find another passion in life AFTER ice skating and pursue it wit the same vigor. Second, this article revealed an interesting contradiction in the world if ice skating: these young girls endure tons of physical exertion (weight lifting etc) but then it's all covered up by a feminine cover with pretty dresses and slim bodies.

The December HBR Was Written for Me

The December issue of Harvard Business Review must have been written personally for me. Some great articles (subscribers only):

Incompetent and they don't even know it:

Incompetence, the study demonstrated, represents a dismaying troika of cluelessness: Incompetent people don’t perform up to speed, don’t recognize their lack of competence, and don’t recognize the competence of others. “The skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain,” the researchers conclude. In other words, if incompetents have people reporting to them, their poor judgment may damage careers besides their own. “Unskilled and Unaware of It” is online at www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf

Managing Authenticity:

This is something I take very seriously. The book Authentic Leadership sucked, but this article is plainly awesome! Leadership demands authenticity:

To attract followers, a leader has to be many things to many people. The trick is to pull that off while remaining true to yourself....Let us be absolutely clear: Authenticity is not the product of pure manipulation. It accurately reflects aspects of the leader’s inner self, so it can’t be an act. But great leaders seem to know which personality traits they should reveal to whom and when....Using your complex self (or, rather, selves) requires a degree of self-knowledge and the willingness and ability to share that self-knowledge with others, what we call self-disclosure....This does not necessarily mean helping these leaders develop more of what psychologist Dan Goleman calls emotional intelligence; rather, it means helping them to sharpen their skills in disclosing the emotional intelligence they already have so they can give better performances for their followers....Besides possessing self-knowledge and skills in self-disclosure, great leaders have to be able to recognize which aspects of their authentic selves particular groups of followers are looking for. Most great leaders have highly developed social antennae: They use a complex mix of cognitive and observational skills to recognize what followers are consciously—and unconsciously—signaling to them.

How to utilize good writers:

What’s more, good writers who are consulted early enough can improve the product development process and, potentially, products themselves....In addition, the writer’s act of mastering a product’s or a process’s complexities and then distilling those into simple, clear language for a lay (or expert) reader sometimes reveals flaws, contradictions, or unfulfilled product promises that developers are too close to the project to see. Questions from smart and skillful writers can cause engineers to reconsider a product design element after it has been finalized. When writers are brought in late, the result can be slipped manufacturing and shipping dates, cost overruns, and delayed or lost revenue.

Emotional Intelligence More Important Than IQ:

Considering the mountains of literature about emotional intelligence, you’d think corporate executives would be pretty smart about it. But our research shows that the message still isn’t getting through. During the past five years, we have measured emotional intelligence in more than 100,000 senior executives (including 1,000 CEOs), managers, and line employees across industries on six continents. For each respondent, we measured self-awareness, social-awareness, self-management, and relationship-management skills to yield a cumulative EQ (or “emotional intelligence quotient”) score on a 100-point scale...
 
Yet, for every job we’ve studied, emotional intelligence is a better predictor of performance than technical skill, experience, or intellect—confirming what psychologist Dan Goleman and others in the field of emotional intelligence have been saying for years.

 

Classes I'm Taking Next Semester

I'm fortunate to have been granted a reduced course load to pursue some independent studies and other projects.

1. Irish Writers - An English class with everything from Joyce to drama to short stories.
2. American Lives: Poverty in America - A History elective exploring life on the margins of America.
3. Microeconomics AP - It's about time I took a formal econ class!
4. Introduction to Calculus - Will prepare me for a college level calc class.
5. Indy Study: Problems of Philosophy - Working with a faculty member to take the MIT OpenCourseWare class Problems of Philosophy.
6. Indy Study: Software Engineering - I'm going to roll up my sleeves and become familiar on a coding level with PHP, mySQL, web servers, and hopefully some of the latest and greatest web 2.0 technologies too.

Of course, this is all as a second semester senior, baby!

How Am I Supposed to Answer This in 250 Words?

From a college app: "Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you."

The whole world! Exciting! Interesting! Mystifying!

Emotion and Passion in CEO Decision Making

I had a brief, interesting exchange w/ Dave Jilk on the role of emotion and passion in decision making, based on my post on Descartes' Error.

Most people agree that emotions are integral in decision making, but not always in a positive way.
When I talk about overly passionate or overly emotional decisionmaking negatively impacting the process, I'm thinking:

* I personally really like the guy, but know he'd be a terrible fit for my company. (Allowing the "liking" emotion to enter.)

* I'm really annoyed that his tie isn't pulled all the way up to his neck, and this annoyance distracts me from the big picture.

* I get really enamored with some detail that someone brings up in the meeting because it sounds sexy and exciting and big. But it's really not that important.

* I have an opinion because it would reaffirm my own self-worth or in some way make me feel good, even though it's not the most rational or best opinion.

Clearly some of these indicators, in aggregate, could point to something meaningful. And a gut sense should override everything.

When it comes to passion, I think you must be passionate, but sometimes the best way to express that passion is to look at a decision by repressing derailing emotions.

For Adults, The Cachet of Your Diploma Rises and Falls

Throughout the college process, I've never been terribly interested in the cachet associated with a college's name. I'm fortunate to be in a position where people can judge me by what I've done, not by what school I go to or will go to.

What's fascinating for me is hearing what adults - people in their 40's and 50's - think about how "good" certain schools are. The problem is a lot has changed - both the colleges and the process - since they were applying. So schools that were once "3rd tier" are now much much better. If you went to one of those 3rd tier schools 25 years ago, that school may very well be much better, earning you more points on the cachet scale right now.

If you're a graduate of schools like Duke, Middlebury, Macalester, USC, Washington U in St. Louis, Claremont McKenna, Tulane, Rice, Northwestern, etc. the stock in your diploma has risen to among the premier in the country (not like it matters!). With more and more people going to college, there is a new wave of top notch colleges, and it's making many older alumni around the country smile.

21,000 Miles In Three Days

I'm not sure where my fascination with business travel comes from, but nevertheless I loved Joe Sharkey's latest dispatch in the NYT. I think everyone admits that when they were in their 20's they flew all over the world just to accumulate miles...hey, if you got a comfortable seat and a good book, it's not so bad!

Link: Why I Looked a Mileage Run in the Eye and Blinked - New York Times.

Several weeks ago, I wrote a column describing my anxiety at finding myself considerably short of the 75,000 annual miles needed to requalify for top Platinum elite status next year on Continental Airlines, the domestic airline I fly most on business. Top-level status gets you a lot of perks, not the least of which is regular upgrades to first class from the cheap coach tickets I buy.

With the year running out, I consulted the mileage-run forum on Randy Petersen's Flyertalk.com Web site, and made contact with a young man who gives seminars on how to design mileage runs. For a fee of $34, this young man custom-designed for me a brilliant itinerary on Continental - 21,000 miles in three exhaustive days, Newark to Guam and back with connections through Houston and Tokyo. The total fare: $703.

Quote of the Day From Software Executive

"I frequently struggle with business issues because I don't find it very intellectually stimulating any more.  After a certain amount of experience/knowledge, everything in business is just applied psychology, which really doesn't interest me."

Thank goodness for the Silicon Valley Junto.

Book Review: Descartes' Error

I have long been one to insist that emotion clouds reason. That the best analysis comes from a clear, dispassionate look at the situation, evaluating pros and cons, and then making a swift decision. When my friend Rob Urstein, Asst. Dean at Stanford GSB, recommended Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain I was intrigued.

The book's premise is that contrary to popular belief emotion is essential to smart, rational decision making. It is heavy on neurobiology and evolutionary psychology, so I got lost in parts and it's a tough read for a someone not steeped in those disciplines. This being said, it does raise some important issues. He lays out several patients with neurological diseases or deficiencies - in particular, those areas which regulate emotion - and demonstrates their faulty decision making.

I'm not totally convinced by its thesis yet, but certainly good food for thought. I recommend it if you are engaged by neuroscience and decision making.

The Best Ideas of 2005

Pretty much all of yesterday's NYT Magazine section is a must-read, but all of you must read the fantastic listing and bite size commentaries on the Best Ideas of 2005. Tons of wacky, intriguing, and provocative ideas that shaped 2005. Thoroughly entertaining. Better read in print, but if you want online, you can check out this Introduction to the list. Great stuff.

While you're perusing the magazine, check out the Freakonomics column on whether fear of AIDS can prevent it and the Deborah Solomon interview w/ the guy who recently wrote a book compiling every major idea ever invented over the past 2 million years.

People Are Starting to Hear About Early Decisions

I didn't apply early, but some friends did. Emotions are running high. Some outcomes are shocking, some uplifting, some depressing. Big takeaway: crapshoot. I've heard about strong, solid kids who have impeccable integrity getting turned by the school that would be a great fit. I've heard about kids who have cheated their way through high school and getting into a "brand name." Ugh.

I Love Work, and I Love You Cliff Bar

Just got out of a four hour meeting and needed a Cliff Bar fast. After going through two Cliff Bars a day the last three days for a b-ball tournament, I thought today was going to be my off day. Alas, sitting at a table for four hours can be just as exhausting as running up and down a court!

Now to my 10 page paper on corruption in Africa, 6 page paper on higher education in Asia, 5 page paper on Love Medicine (I'll have to pull a thesis out of my ass - it sucked), a couple basketball games, a final exam, bunches of college applications, Christmas cards, book proposal mailing, meetings, calls, emails, meetings, calls, emails........

I love work, and I love you Cliff Bar.

Reason #401 That Will Ferrell is Hilarious

Anytime Will Ferrell impersonates George W. Bush, it's a must-see. The Gore v. Bush debate on SNL is a classic. This time, watch President Bush's take on global warming. I laughed uncontrollably. Great stuff.

hat tip: Feld Thoughts.

Innate Smarts Have Never Mattered Less and "Smart" is a Meaningless Word

Earlier I posted that curiosity quotient matters more than IQ. Recently I traded emails with Chris Yeh and Dave Jilk on this.

Raw intelligence has never mattered less. All the knowledge anyone needs to have is available at your fingertips. Students in India can take MIT classes, for example. Books are scanned and online. Moreover, with billions of capitalists being churned out in the east, hard and smart work will count for far more than raw intelligence. There's a whole other group of reasons that Daniel Goleman outlines when he succinctly proves that Emotional Intelligence is more important to life success than IQ.

Moreover, I think the word "smart" is the most overused person-description in the entrepreneurial lexicon. It conveys absolutely nothing to me. If you look at LinkedIn profiles, resumes, or blog posts about other people, you will always see "John Doe is super smart" or perhaps even the rarefied word "brilliant," which I thought was reserved for the truly extraordinary but is used so often that it again has lost its meaning.

Most everyone is "smart" in some sense. There are far more precise words that can better convey someone's cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Articulate? Organized? Empathetic? Thoughtful? Dynamic? Tireless worker?

I think we can assume that any knowledge worker who's competing has a baseline of general competence, which is what the "smart" catch-all refers to.

Let's get more precise.

Dynamically Generating Ads in Podcasts

Greg Galant of VentureVoice stopped by my school the other day for a quick chat. In addition to his podcasts with venture guys, he's got a good idea going in RadioTail for inserting  dynamically generated ads into podcasts. Most publishers would "hard code" ads into their shows. This makes a lot more sense.

The Image Culture

The New Atlantis has a print-length, excellent article on how our culture is becoming overwhelmingly image based. Its core question: "If we are indeed moving from the era of the printed word to an area dominated by the image, what impact will this have on culture, broadly speaking, and its instituations?"

It is not terribly upbeat, and maybe too cyncial at times, but it is provocative. One thing it puts into words that has always fascinated me is the shrinking space between "life as it is being lived and life as it is being displayed." That is, with digital cameras (and other democratizing technologies) you take a picture and then the child says "Let me see!"

Related Posts: Our Obession Over Memories and Visual Literacy in Business.

Is the Institution of "Family" Antiquated?

A friend recently told me: "If you think about it, everything that used to define a family is now gone. They just don't make sense." I'm sure there are better articles on this than the one below, but it got me thinking....

Link: The Good Enough Family.

In some countries, people still subscribe to ideologies which promote the family as a pillar of society, the basic cell of the national organism, a hothouse in which to breed children for the army, and so on. These collective ideologies call for personal contributions and sacrifices. They have a strong emotional dimension and provide impetus to a host of behavior patterns.

But the emotional investment in today's individualistic-capitalist ideologies is no smaller than it was in yesterday's nationalistic ones. True, technological developments rendered past thinking obsolete and dysfunctional but did not quench Man's thirst for guidance and a worldview.

Still, as technology evolved, it became more and more disruptive to the family. Increased mobility, a decentralization of information sources, the transfers of the traditional functions of the family to societal and private sector establishments, the increased incidence of interpersonal interactions, safer sex with lesser or no consequences – all fostered the disintegration of the traditional, extended and nuclear family.

Objectivism Continued: Dave Jilk Weighs In

I've exchanged 10 emails over the past two days with David Jilk, CEO of Xaffire. Our topic was Ayn Rand and objectivism, and it started from a detailed comment he left on my post.

At the end, he asked if I was going to update my post to note that I actually did believe in "objective reality" with restrictions. Unfortunately I'm not quite sure what I believe at the moment. It was a fun philosophical exchange that got me thinking in a new way (although admittedly once you start putting quotes around "is" I'm pretty lost!). I figured Dave would be knowledable, but I would have appreciated a heads up beforehand from my friends in Colorado that I was dealing with an extremely well written guy who would start quoting thinkers buried deep in the esoteric domain of philosophy!!

One thing that's still rattling around in my head is the notion of selflessness - a very bizarre concept if you consider it in terms of our genetic mandate.

Every couple weeks I'll have a big back and forth via email with someone based on a blog post and it almost always happens in private email. I buy into a lot of the hype around blogs, but I've never understood the supposed "conversation" that happens. In my view, trackbacks and comments are a clumsy way to faciliate an e-conversation. Blogs start conversations, but they're not good enough yet to sustain them. Email is still better. And that's a shame - because when more voices are heard, we all benefit.

On Editing My School Newspaper

A big activity this year for me that I haven't blogged about has been my school paper. I'm editor-in-chief, but we assembled a rock star team of really smart editors (all girls other than me, go figure) so I try to stay out the way. I think we've broken a number of records. Today, for example, we published a 24 page issue, probably the first time in history. The quality of the content is also better than it's ever been.

The issues one faces in running a small school newspaper are consistent with those in any organization. I've been particularly amused at the similarities of bug testing in software development and copy editing the paper: it's a real bitch to organize everyone's feedback. There are also interpersonal challenges, where sometime's personal pride comes before what's best for the organization. All stuff that gives a real intellectual high.

Great job guys on a terrific first semester.

Constant Travelers Wear Their All-Nighters as a Badge of Pride

There are maybe a FEW people for whom this makes sense. But I'm incredulous that people would go against consistent and irrefutable research about the effect of little sleep on performance. It's a marathon, folks.

Link: Constant Travelers Wear Their All-Nighters as a Badge of Pride - New York Times.

Mr. Stevens belongs to a hardy breed who set themselves apart by their embrace of sleepless nights. Most travelers view insomnia as an affliction: 41 percent of those questioned in January by the Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell/Yankelovich Partners National Business Travel Monitor said they did not get enough sleep on business trips, and 29 percent said they did not sleep well.

The mavericks, by contrast, not only welcome the condition, they nurture it and say they thrive on it.

Announcing the Silicon Valley Junto

I've mused before that a lot of Silicon Valley folk would like to exercise mental muscles outside their core domain of high tech/business. Most of us realize that breakthrough insights occur at the intersection of ideas, cultures, and disciplines. Further, most of us realize that it's important to be interesting, which means being able to hold a conversation on topics beyond the one little niche in which you work.

My friend Chris Yeh and I decided to do something about it. Drumroll please...

The Silicon Valley Junto (who-n-toe) will be a free quarterly discussion group/forum - "thoughtful conversations about topics that matter" - for business/hi-tech people to talk about about things they don't usually talk about. It will be a community of peers, not podiums.

Go check out the Silicon Valley Junto web site, blog, and wiki for more information. The inaugural meeting is January 5 in the morning in Palo Alto/Menlo Park (will alternate btwn South Bay and SF). The topic is "Americanism as an Idea": What does it mean to be American, is the American dream as good as it gets, etc.

Why "Junto"?

In 1727, Benjamin Franklin convinced 12 of his friends to form a club dedicated to mutual improvement. Meeting one night a week, these young men discussed the topics of the day. Junto was a private forum for discussion and as a surreptitious instrument for leading public opinion. One of the functions of the group was to brainstorm publicly beneficial ideas. They recommended books, shopkeepers, and friends to each other. They fostered self-improvement through discussions on topics related to philosophy, morals, economics, and politics.

Why Just Business/Tech People?

We want everyone to speak the same language. Plus it will be a networking opportunity.

I'm really busy, do you think I really have time to talk about stuff not directly related to my work?

Yes. Exercising intellectual muscles that you may not have worked since college will not only be refreshing, but will expose you to new ideas that will help you in your work. Read The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures for more on this. Also see Jim Collins on why executives can increase their leadership capabilities by reading non-business books.

I don't live in the Silicon Valley. How can I partake?

Hopefully the conversation starts on the blogosphere, continues in-person, and then is continued online again. You can certainly participate in the 1st and 3rd parts of that cycle. Join in! Check out the Junto blog and send a trackback ping. What does being American mean to you?

Atlas Shrugged and Objectivism Continued

The more I read about objectivism and Ayn Rand - the latest being this London Review of Books overview of her works - the more I befuddled I become at how people are simply in love with her and her books. Out of the four basic principles of Objectivism, I happen to agree with two of them:

Politics: capitalism
Epistemology: reason

But not with:

Metaphysics: objective reality (I'm more of a relativist)
Ethics: self-interest (what??)

I reviewed Atlas Shrugged here. Sure - I love the emphasis on the mind and intellectualism...but not enough of it to make it my life philosophy.

Movie Review: American History X

I feel like I've thought about race every day for the past year. Everyday there's a little something which puts it on the radar screen. Maybe the racist joke by a friend which is hilarious but wrong. Maybe the not-so-subtle discrimination from which I benefit. Maybe the affirmative action from which I hurt. Or maybe it's movies like Crash, or American History X which I saw tonight.

After I posted about Crash a few weeks ago a friend recommended American History X. I only watch movies if it comes highly recommended (but it doesn't matter how much you recommend a TV show - I will never watch TV live). American History X shook me up like Crash did. This time it showed the extreme side of racism: neo-Nazis and how one man's prison time changed his outlook. What I liked about Crash was that you left feeling like the problem exists on a very everyday level, on the corner of any street. American History X lets the viewer feel like it's a problem that only exists on the fringes, but it is instructive and moving nonetheless.

Amazing Christmas Lights Tied to MIDI Soundtrack

My brother (who's sent me all the other movies I've blogged) just emailed me this awe-inspiring movie of a house whose Christmas lights are tied to a MIDI board of music. Just go watch it. I love Christmas lights and Christmas music.

Link: CollegeHumor Movie: Amazing Christmas lights. Unless of course you live across the street.

White Kids Fitting Into Black Culture

My friend Ted Conrad sent me a great article in Salon by a mother of a black teenager who witnessed his foray into ghetto culture. One quote stuck out:

"Although black kids are rountinely expected to fit into white culture, the idea of a white kid becoming black seemed laughable to everyone but Joe's African American friends."

Last night at a basketball game the speakers were blasting rap music. We were playing an all-black team from Oakland. A friend said, "I wonder what they think when they walk in here and see a bunch of white kids warming up to all this rap." Our opponents showed up late. The one black guy on our team said, "Now y'all don't understand: there's time, and then there's black time. Black time is a half hour later." We all laughed, and the rest of us knew that if we had said it we'd be called a racist.

I think there are a lot of interesting cultural things related to this...

Just Like the Good Ole Days (Business Travel)

Rushing off to the airport after basketball practice Wednesday, taking a night flight to San Diego, speaking yesterday morning (mental health day from school), and then rushing back to SF brought fond memories of my freshman and sophomore years of high school. Then, I would spend 20-30 hours a week on my company. I travel much less now.

Business travel always brings its good and bad experiences. I love the fight for the exit row seat on Southwest. I hate flying when I'm congested and sick.

Yesterday morning was successful nonetheless, where my co-panelists and I articulated why it's imperative school districts implement technology to improve customer serivce and communication with parents and the community. Our session attracted overwhelming numbers. Some great buzz for our product eFM Education. Here's a pic of me pontificating...

BizWorld Rings Closing Bell at NYSE

Congratulations to my friends at the BizWorld Foundation for ringing the closing bell at the NYSE today. Pictured below is a student of the entrepreneurship curriculum doing the honors and my friend executive director Catherine Hutton to her right. Founder Tim Draper is behind her.