Zoos and the Death Penalty

1.  Here’s a quote I found interesting:

I was in Africa last year and saw a lot of animals in the wild that I’d only seen in zoos before. It was remarkable how different they seemed. Particularly lions. Lions in the wild seem about ten times more alive. They’re like different animals. I suspect that working for oneself feels better to humans in much the same way that living in the wild must feel better to a wide-ranging predator like a lion. Life in a zoo is easier, but it isn’t the life they were designed for.

Paul Graham, “You Weren’t Meant to Have a Boss”

2.  Here’s a book title and description I found interesting:

The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America

Selling out in order to make big bucks used to be viewed with contempt, but, Brook argues, in today’s aggressive society, it has become ever more acceptable, even mundane. For many people the choice comes down to sticking to one’s ideological guns or living a comfortable life, but for “boomerang kids”–college grads so far in debt that they have to move back in with their folks–selling out is the only way to escape childhood. The rising sticker price of the American Dream, to use Brook’s catchy phrase, forces all sorts of compromises, like the anti-Bush activist who earns a very good living doing PR work for Bush supporters. But, Brook shows convincingly, falling into “the Trap” can take a serious toll on a person’s mental well-being. An exploration not only of the economics of compromise but also of the frustration that comes in the wake of putting material concerns ahead of personal beliefs.
David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

3.  John Allen Muhammad, the DC sniper from 2002, is scheduled to die by lethal injection tonight.

I’m pretty sure anyone who was in NOVA during the sniper attacks will tell you that it was a legitimately scary time period to be  in the DC Metro area.  I remember making the decision not to go out to public places while the attacks were going on, and zig-zagging in parking lots when I had no choice but to be out.  I remember looking out at the mall parking lot and seeing mothers zig-zag the path back to their cars, their children zig-zagging in tow.  Walking in jagged paths became society’s teddy bear; it made us all feel safer, but really did nothing to put anyone out of harms way.

I’ve never completely hashed out my thoughts on the death penalty.  I think the families of the victims are justified in their anger of having a loved one die so senselessly, at the whim of this self-righteous fool and the kid he brainwashed.  At the same time, I can also see the perspective of taking the “moral high ground,” where sayings like “two wrongs don’t make a right” come into play.  For every argument that exists about the overcrowding of prisons and the “cushy” (relative) existence of life-time inmates on taxpayer dime, there is a counter-argument against the “cruel and unusual” nature of being put to death.  Really, there are arguments everywhere.  I think anyone who thinks the issue is completely black and white lacks perspective.  As I grow older the only axiom of the universe that becomes clearer to me is that nothing is ever black and white.

The debate over the death penalty itself isn’t what interests me right now, but rather the people behind the debate.  So the brash, over-generalizing assumptions are:

• Republican = Conservative = Christian
• Democrat = Liberal = Non-Christian/Agnostic/Atheist

Yes, yes, I know.  It’s not always true, and I myself am a ragingly liberal Christian Democrat.  But if we have to speak in generalities, I think the assumptions are as correct as possible.

So why is it that the Republicans support the death penalty and the Democrats don’t?  Isn’t that extremely ironic?

I’m really not sure what the basis for the traditionally-liberal anti-death-penalty stance is, but I’ll offer some uninformed guesses.  Maybe it’s the whole “progressive society” thing, where the death penalty is not an adequate sign of social development from the “barbaric” methods of public beheadings and lashings that marked human history.  It could be more spiritual/cosmic, with the belief that since nobody can grant life, no group of people should have the power to determine when it should be taken away.  Maybe it’s a humane stance, where there’s an underlying belief in the humanity of us all, and that remorse and redemption from our darkest moments and decisions is never out of the question.  It could be a combination of these things.  One interesting commonality between them all, however, is that there’s a strong potential connection to the idea of the depravity of mankind, the redemption of that depravity, and resurrection of man.  Terminology sound familiar?

I’m not sure why or how execution became justified in the Bible Belt, but it seems to me like things are backwards.  Is it possible to believe all men are created in God’s image and yet sentence some to death?  Or is that just a load of Pharisee-esque bull-jive?

Here’s a quote from that article:

Cheryll Witz was one of several victims’ relatives who planned to watch the execution. Malvo confessed that, at Muhammad’s direction, he shot her father, Jerry Taylor, on a Tucson, Ariz., golf course in March 2002.

“He basically watched my dad breathe his last breath,” Witz said. “Why shouldn’t I watch his last breath?”

I can’t put any value on this statement, because I have no idea what she’s been through.  The grass is always greener on the other side.  Maybe there’s closure in it for her, I don’t know.  But to me it’s not so much that “two wrongs don’t make a right,” but “one sickening act is enough.”

Outdated

But awesome.

Red, white and blue version?

And as long as we’re being political,

Monday

and

Calvin, you are a genius.

The Stifler Generation

1. Happy almost-Halloween.

This is the scariest she gets.

2. So I was in B&N today getting my Starbucks fix and I came across the Oct 24-30th issue of The Economist, entitled “The odd couple: A 14-page special report on China and America.”  Interesting timing.  The headings for the articles seem to indicate that every single one of my questions are directly addressed within, so I bought it.  I haven’t read it yet, but it was a pleasant surprise to stumble upon.

3. Here’s an interesting book that I’ve been seeing on a lot of bookstore tables:

• The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30)

Now that’s an eye-catching title.  I don’t really anticipate buying or reading this book, but it’s not because I don’t agree with the author.  It’s actually the opposite; the guy is preaching to the choir.

Well, that’s not entirely true.  I wouldn’t necessarily call my generation the “dumbest” generation, but rather the “laziest” or “most apathetic” generation.  If we’re strictly talking intelligence, I’m pretty sure every generation throughout history is about as equally dumb/smart as every other generation.  Yes, we spend our time surfing Facebook and watching Youtube, but teenagers and 20-somethings of every era have found completely un-enriching methods to spend their time.  Sitting in a college dorm room in the 70s, smoking weed and listening to Beatles albums doesn’t make you any more intelligent than someone sitting in a dorm room in 2009, smoking weed and watching Lady Gaga music videos on the internet.  Uh… well, at least in principle.

But it is true that the majority of college students, even at a school as full of itself as UVA*, don’t seem to care about anything legitimate.  And yes, I am judging what is legitimate and what is not.  History, politics, math, science, the arts, engineering, business, law… legitimate.  Keg stands, not.  I’ve had two opportunities to observe this idea first hand, and it’s been the same in both places.  I once alluded to the fact that the media expects college students to be “a generation of Stifler’s,” and it’s really unfortunate how many people buy into this expectation.  Why is the default college experience a blurred four years of hangovers, sex and failing grades? (And on a semi-unrelated note, if colleges really gave a shit about underage drinking, would “Greek life” even exist?)

And then the system bails everyone out.  Nobody really cares if you graduate with any discernible skills, INCLUDING the ability to learn/understand/produce new ideas, which is clear in my major.  There are really great aspects to the Systems curriculum here, but there are some overwhelming systemic failures.  We emphasize group work to emulate real-world projects, but for every group of five students, two students actually know the material well enough to produce something of value.   For every two students who learn something in any given class, there are three students coasting on the coattails of the hard work of others and being saved by the grade curve.  Sit them down with a prof at the end of the year and actually ask them if they understand how the material is applied and you’d be left with blank stares.  After all, it’s difficult to pay attention during lecture when you’re hungover from the night before.  On a Tuesday.

I don’t think technology is the culprit.  I actually think technology has the opposite effect, and opens up avenues for learning new things in ways that were never available before in history.  If we’re the laziest generation, it’s because we’re the most spoiled generation.  We don’t give a shit about anything because we’ve never been forced to consider our own future stability.

I think the label of “white collar’ is a relatively modern phenomenon, attributed mostly to the generation of our parents and a result of the innovations that technology brought upon the business world from the 70s-onward.  So our parents, as children, lived in greater proportions in a more industrial, working class family situation, where they witnessed first hand the value of hard work and maybe even financial hardship.  So they grew up with something to work for and values to emulate, with strong personal investments in their future success.  Unfortunately, they ultimately used their hard-earned success to buy Blackberrys for their 18 year old college freshman daughters.

The other scenario is for children of immigrant parents, which has its differences but shares a similar underlying logic.  Many of our parents who immigrated here came with no language, no formal education and from similarly humble beginnings, and so they had no choice but to work hard and earn their financial success.  From a Korean perspective, now that they’ve built their self-employed liquor store/dry cleaners/supply store from the ground up, they indulge in luxuries they never had, and bestow similar luxuries on their children.  That’s fine, they earned that right.  The problem with our generation is that instead of emulating these values, we sit back and reap the benefits without recognizing the sacrifice, which is why there are so many NOVA Korean high school kids skipping 4th period English to drive their BMWs to Annandale to go play Starcraft.

It’s sad, really.  Earlier today (also in B&N) I read an article entitled “Brave Thinkers” in The Atlantic and it was really inspiring.  These were some of my favorites: Thorkil Sonne, Paul Polak, Danny Day and Alex de Waal.  I feel like there’s so much that we could do — real, positive innovation and change — that we’re completely missing out on because we’re spoiled and lazy (and as a result, dumb).  Seize the day, generation Y.  Seize the freaking day.

*Penn was definitely pretentious, but I think UVA’s mentality is really even more elitist than Penn.  Our professors really like to remind us that we’re the “smartest students that the country has to offer,” and students engage in the same crap: talking down on neighboring schools, or about how US News ranked UVA’s undergraduate business school over Wharton.  Who gives a shit about the US News and World Report?  Does that get you a job, provide you with the ability to think critically or give you any skills?  Give me a break.

Sex, Condoms and Abortion

As a disclaimer, I don’t anticipate writing about these types of topics regularly. Er… but then again, I can’t really say I won’t, either.  Regardless, the overarching questions here intrigue me more than the subject matter.  Whatever makes you think in life is worth thinking about, I say.

That is definitely the most provocative title I’ve ever had on a blog post.  Hubba hubba.

So given that my worldview/life experience has been crafted extensively by the Christian experience, I think that I take a lot of things as inherent “truths” that aren’t inherently true for a lot of other people.  I find that idea interesting.  I’m not talking about God specifically here, or anything really related to my ever changing views on Christianity and religion, but the fact that I believe a God exists means I live (potentially) in a completely, 180-degree reality from someone who does not.  It can really change all of the fundamental assumptions one holds about life, love, purpose, relationships, science, etc.

I feel like there are a lot of Christians out there that feel strongly about being pro-life (anti-abortion), which is a massively loaded argument for a ton of reasons.  But when it comes to sex, while premarital sex is also one of those ‘red-zone’ topics, it’s nowhere near as stigmatized.  I feel like it can even become this unenviable yet accepted inevitability of intimate human relations, because to some degree everyone can empathize with hormonal impulse.  I mean, there are regional Christian men’s conferences dedicated to this exact issue.  What if you really love him/her, and want to be with him/her for the long term, and are not simply using him/her to satisfy an impulsive physical desire?  Does that justifiably frame premarital sex against the “use-em-and-lose-em” model of the secular world?  If it sounds like I’m adding judgmental value to this, it’s unintentional.  This is also a really loaded topic.

For the Christians out there of the more ardent variety, what I’m talking about might be completely ridiculous.  That’s fine, and I can relate to your thinking to some degree, but that’s what I was alluding to in the first paragraph.  “The Bible explicitly says pre-marital sex is a sin, and that’s that.”  True, but that does not change the fact that a huge number of very devout Christian couples really struggle with it, and “fall” pretty often for reasons that don’t include not taking Christianity seriously.

So when these people do have sex, presumably they’re using condoms.  I’ve thought about the debate over abortion, and recently I had the thought that although I’m not some Puritan from the hills of Pennsylvania, I don’t really see the difference between using contraception and getting an abortion — assuming you’ve made the decision to have sex.  If a pro-life couple is having sex with a condom, they’re essentially saying that they don’t want to conceive.  In that small chance that the condom fails and pregnancy occurs, what difference is having an abortion?  Aren’t they essentially the same concept, but at two different time periods?  Is it hypocritical to be pro-life and have sex with contraception?

Again, no value added.  And re-reading this, I know this post was all over the place logically, and that I’ve  implicitly made the assumption that the Christian perspective is to be pro-life.  I have my own thoughts on that, but it’s not something I really care to get into right now so I’ll leave it alone.  Any thoughts?

This Bread is Bananas

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

I would say props to Gwen Stefani, but she has proven how big of a tool she has become for releasing that garbage on the radio.  So no props for you, Ms. Stefani.  No banana bread, either.

My blog will likely run the gamut of topics, from uber nerdy technology-related things to unimpressive culinary achievements to emo entries about how I can’t get a date for the school dance.  This is mainly because my skills in life are predominantly sparse and shallow, which means I would never be able to write about one specific topic with a sustaining degree of expertise or insight.  But I do not fret, because even though I won’t be opening a restaurant any time soon, I can make some bomb-diggity-ass banana bread.  Belee dat.

Here’s the recipe I used, from [http://elise.com/recipes/archives/001465banana_bread.php]:
(My edits are in bold)

Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup) – 1/2 cup here was fine
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• A couple handfuls of craisins

Method

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Holla at some craisins. Pour mixture into a buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

And that’s all, folks.  Unfortunately, banana bread is about as sexy as I get in the kitchen.

If you want a real food blog, my friend Trish is Anthony Bourdain Jr.

Baby It’s Cold Outside

1.  I’m a big fan of Chrome (although it’s lame that there is no mac-compatible version yet) and use it excluslively when I’m running Windows 7 via Boot Camp.  One of the features I love is the fact that since it’s a google browser, google search is automatically integrated into the address bar, and it dynamically self-populates as you enter in search terms.  Firefox has their own cute little search box to the right of their address bar, which is nice, but it’s not as sexy.

Enter Firefox extension Omnibar.  Firefox add-on’s are the bomb diggity, if you use them wisely.

2. Semi-random questions that I want answered:

• Foreign Policy
  • What is the significance of the Chinese buying so many treasury bonds/stock in US companies?  How do they afford it in this global economy, and how will this affect the US (diplomatically, economically, and otherwise) 10-15 years from now?
  • What were the diplomatic ramifications of the Clinton visit to save the two reporters captured in North Korea?
    • I sort of doubt anybody could possibly know this other than people in really high places, but I wonder nonetheless.
  • What happens to countries who need aid in a global recession, when all of the countries who normally provide that aid must focus on their own economic issues?
  • I don’t fully understand why anybody would want to ally with NK.  A friend told me that China can’t afford North Korea to collapse, largely because a NK collapse would lead to a huge influx of refugees crossing the NK/China border and cause a significant amount of national instability.  Does China face significant pressure from other countries to drop those diplomatic relations, and if so, why doesn’t it seem to matter?
• Other
  • What are the health ramifications of being a competitive eater?  Kobayashi eats 60 hot dogs in one competition.  I’m guessing somewhere around 4 hot dogs has the recommended amount of daily sodium.  Thus, Kobayashi could very well be consuming 1500% of the daily recommended amount of sodium in one sitting.  This can’t be healthy.

3.  I’ve been reading a bit lately about coding and startups (until 4am and 3am on consecutive nights), and it’s been really interesting/inspiring.  Not because I’m seriously considering going down that path — at least right now — but I admire the qualities it takes to do so: functional intelligence, practical courage, being fed up with the cookie-cutter lifestyle the world presents you and a ton of hard work.  True, there is potentially a huge financial pay-off, but I don’t really care about that as much as the idea of working with highly-competent and driven friends while chasing a dream.  Trying to make a start-up work is similar to going on the road with a band; the odds are stacked against you, but ultimately if you make music people like to listen to, you’re going to be playing in front of somebody.

As for the coding part, I’ve decided to get good at it.  School has only taken me so far with coding, and it’s not far enough.

4.  If you look to the right, you’ll notice a new link on the sidebar.  I’ve entitled it “Things Worth Reading.”  There’s more explanation once you go there, although it’s pretty self-explanatory.

5.  I started using Evernote last night, and I couldn’t understand why it’d be useful at all until I started using it.  After <24 hours of playing with it, I feel like I’m on the cusp of something awesome.  And by awesome, I mean freaking awesome.

6.  I’m going to repost this from http://www.xanga.com/tkd, just because I want to give credit where credit is due:

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

eff

seriously. this generation is pretty pathetic. there are always exceptions to every rule, and always folks that go against the trend. but as a whole, seriously, WTF.

somehow this generation manages to simultaneously hate authority, but have such a powerful sense of entitlement and pathetically under-developed sense of initiative and responsibility it’s just maddening. like I-want-to-just-shake-you maddening.

blah blah blah I hate the way my boss/pastor/professor/senator/president does things. then do it yourself. or offer a solution. or try to help and get involved. but it’s so much easier to sit and complain. blah blah blah I’m supposed to do this assignment/project/task/job but they didn’t hold my hand enough. I don’t know what to do.

SUCK IT UP AND EFFING DO IT. YOUR GREAT GRANDPARENTS EFFING WASHED THEIR CLOTHES WITH ROCKS OR GOT ON A WAGON AND HEADED IN A GENERAL DIRECTION BEFORE SHOOTING BEARS, BUILDING A CABIN FROM SCRATCH AND STARVING WHEN THE CROPS DIDN’T GROW RIGHT. or they were slaves.

oh no my boss is mean. oh no I don’t know how to do this. oh no I can’t get a guy or girl that is good enough, but forget about working on becoming someone deserving of someone that good. I’m going to continue to be a slacker dancing on speakerboxes and clubbing into my late twenties and barfing in friends’ cars and making college students make sure I get home alright. and what is up with this crap on television. Beck, O’Reilly, Olbermann – you little shekkis. do you realize what you are doing? this is more than a paycheck or a time slot. it’s about the fate of a nation, the trust of a people and the future of the world. stop being so freaking petty and idiotic you muckracking sensationalist twobit hacks. have some effing dignity. all of you idiots quoting from twitter during the newscasts and showing youtube clips. and just because you have a platform, be it tv, radio (this means you imus and limbaugh) or print (yes, you maureen dowd) doesn’t mean you’re suddenly an authority on foreign policy or anything else you decide to talk about this week. so stop. seriously.

and you idiots on tv. don’t you realize reality tv is killing us? it. is. killing. us. monkey see monkey do. whether we want to or not what we are exposed to influences us in tiny ways, and it adds up. cue – more serial killers on tv and fiction, more in real life. etc. so when you script and show idiot teenagers talking back and cursing to parents on the disney channel and those asinine, neanderthal parents-choose-the-person-their-kid-will-date shows on mtv, you’re teaching a whole generation of kids that it’s okay to act that way. miley cyrus, I hate the fact that I even know you exist. that a precious few brain cells among the limited pool that I have are devoted to knowing your name and recognizing your picture when it somehow ends up on the front page of CNN. what. the. eff. and to the machine that made you, that shoves you down our throats and brainwashes us into thinking you are somehow relevant to the greater movements of our civilization, eff you too, you non contributing zeroes.

a few weeks ago, I caught the end of “America’s Best Dance Crew”, and saw a member of an all-girl dance crew crying as the team stood for elimination. weeping, she said into the mic, “nothing… in life… will ever… come close… to this.”

really? really? I’m pretty sure marriage, the birth of your child, and a whole slew of other things will probably make a measurable impact. yes, she was young and we all act stupid at that age. but every 29 year old sobbing because they get cut from “American Idol” or “So You Think You Can Dance” (or worse yet, those dating-elimination shows on VH1) is another reminder that this generation is about one thing: ME. MY problems, MY life, MY experiences. “it’s always been my dream since I was three to become a model” (overheard from tonight’s television by a Korean girl, no less). what are you really saying? “it’s always been my dream since I was a child to have people think I’m beautiful and awesome, and basically know that I’m better than everyone else.” this mantra of “follow your dream at all costs” is wrong. period. what does that do but encourage us to follow our basest instincts and most selfish desires? do what you love, but be a good person.

there have always been immature and idiotic people on this earth. Woodstock didn’t happen by itself. but eff you middle-aged executives who decide to put this trash on television and amplify a million-fold the detrimental and poisonous impact they normally have to those only in their immediate vicinity.

and Governor Sanford and Senator Vitter, for God’s sakes have some decency and resign. are you kidding? what will your children think when they’ve grown. jesters and circus acts play their role – Speidi and Paris Hilton have their purpose. but you are public representatives meant to lead this people to greatness. where is your dignity. you, and most of your peers in those hallowed chambers on Capitol Hill, are a bunch of clowns. you do a disservice to this country. “You lie!”

PS. John Edwards, you are an effing bastard. go into exile. or DIAF.

Before you ask, “who the hell is this guy to talk this way to anybody?!”… He’s the former founder/executive director from LiNK Global, and a TED Scholar.  Yes, that TED. And in his mid-twenties.  Sick.

I don’t know the guy personally, but some of my friends do.  And what he says is legit.  Effing legit.

Recent Things and Academic Things

1.  So big news: I have a job for next year.  That’s exciting.  I’ll be working in the energy/environmental practice of one of the companies I interned for, mostly as a programmer but also serving as a systems engineer, possibly a part-time writer, and likely as the young guy who gets the food for all of the bi-weekly departmental lunches.  I like my coworkers and the company a lot, and I think there’s a lot of room to contribute significantly while working on legitimate and fulfilling assignments.  And I will not be selling my soul/happiness/20s/livelihood for my paycheck.  Things are good in the employment department.

2.  <RANT>
My views on academia are well known and well chronicled, as years of blog posts filled with expletives and CAPS and exclamation points proves.  Yes, education is the silver bullet, no doubt about it, but the system of academia/employment is fraught with bullshit.  (There’s another one)  But it’s not meaningless bullshit, or self-afflicted bullshit on the part of students, but inevitable bullshit.  Inescapable bullshit.  Systemic bullshit.

Study what intrigues you, what truly captivates your mind and makes you think outside of the box and challenges you on deeply insightful level — and run the risk of unemployment upon graduation.  Otherwise, run to the land of pre-professional academic domination, where your only options are engineering, finance and accounting.

There are exceptions, of course.  For some people, programming languages are the most interesting things in the world, and others find fulfillment, financial stability and happiness pursuing  less “structured” fields.  There’s government, there’s policy, etc.  Many of those that ultimately go into law school have even experienced a good amount of freedom of choice within their undergraduate curricula.  But overall, it may sound terribly cynical, but I think what I say is legitimate.

Now that I’ve played the academic game for long enough, I’ve won the prize of employment.  I have been forced (and am even currently forced) to take classes that I don’t want to take that discuss topics that I don’t want/need to know.  School has served its utility and I should be able to move on.  The game should be over.  And yet I still have a 15 page paper on ramen noodles for my writing course due on Thursday.

Yes, ramen noodles.  15 pages.
Yes.
</RANT>

3.  There are moments here and there where school does provide a great insight or make me think on a deeper level, and those are the moments I cherish and appreciate.  Unfortunately they don’t occur that often, mostly due to the instructional defincies of many professors.  I blame them only because two of my professors last year, teaching two entirely different types of courses (one engineering and one writing), took potentially mind-numbing subjects and created an incredibly stimulating and thought-provoking learning environment.  I didn’t even mind the amount of work I had for each class because they were just so interesting.  My economics course is like that this semester, which is nice.

In other courses, I’m writing papers on ramen noodles.

4.  Here’s something interesting I learned from lecture today:

So there’s been a big issue in the past year with executives at financial companies getting huge contractual bonuses regardless of company performance, which in turn caused the White House to create the “Pay Czar,” who was in charge of keeping tabs on the bonus payments of executives within companies that received federal bailout money.   Now there are a lot of ideological issues with this type of position from a free-market, capitalist standpoint, but at the end of the day it is a bit ridiculous for any of these executives to be taking home $10 million annual bonuses when their shareholders are losing all of their savings.  So the proposal?  Instead of cash-based bonuses, provide bonuses centered around stock.  So now executives have a vested interest — their own pocketbooks — in not ruining the lives of millions of shareholders, and will be forced to take the future sustainability of present actions into account when making business decisions.

Cool, huh?

I think if I had been in Arts and Sciences I would’ve been an economics major.  The more I read about it, the more I think I’m just naturally wired to think like an economist.

On Authority and Empowerment (and even school)

“If you’re itching to make your life something amazing, consider spending less time daydreaming about defying the status quo and answering the critics of your decision, and spending more time gearing yourself up for the challenge of becoming so good that they can’t ignore you.”
[link]

… If you want to do something interesting and rewarding — be it writing a novel, becoming a professor, or growing a successful business — you have to first become exceptional. As Study Hacks readers know, I think Steve Martin put it best when he noted that the key to breaking into a competitive and desirable field is to “become so good, they can’t ignore you.”
[link]

One of my most vivid academic memories is listening to my 7th grade math teacher respond to our complaints about another teacher none of us liked:

“Do you all have A’s in the class?”
No, not all of us.
“Well, you can’t complain unless you have an A.”
Why?
“Because all of your complaints will seem like they’re coming from whining about your grade rather than any ineptitude by the teacher.”

Goals are nothing without credentials.
Passion is important, but you have to be able to prove performance.

Weekend

I can only speak from partial experience on this one, but I bet hospital stays and nursing homes stays are the same.