None of this makes any sense

brianconnor: A mysterious person transformed books into...

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:22:48 -0500

Doyle's The Lost World

Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner

A mysterious person transformed books into sculptures and left them anonymously in public libraries in Edinburgh. Shown above: Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World & James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Read more about this story here.

LinkedIn Shouldn't Be Sexy. And That Will Keep it Afloat

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:16:40 -0500

Unfortunately, many business people think that everything has to be just like that other really exciting and sexy thing in order to survive. However, this just isn’t true. This chase-your-competitor mentality only leads companies to veer away from their true brand and into the territory of a prostitute, selling whatever feature they think is sexiest at the time. Even if your competitors aren’t sexy, making yourself sexier isn’t necessarily the best move - especially if being sexy is against H.R. policy.

Jim Edwards at Business Insider wrote a short article decrying the boring and unsexy appeal of LinkedIn. If you’d like to go read it first, I’ll wait.

Edwards believes that even though LinkedIn seems to have a strong business model, it seems to be less volatile than it’s social media peers and that it consistently creates products relevant to its core offering, it just doesn’t have that short skirt and heels that everyone on the Internet loves.

Social media need to have sex appeal in order to cement their brands in the minds of consumers.

Ohhh, so only the sexy brands are the ones that last for ever? I’m sorry, Edwards, but you’re off the mark here.

The sexy brands are the ones that actually get so easily replaced by another sexy brand. The brands that get cemented into the mind of consumers have connected with consumers at a deep emotional level. Sexy is the mistress who is volatile, crazy and can get you into deep water. Your wife is the one who means a lot more to you. And don’t get me wrong, we all love it when our wives our sexy. But every spouse out there would be lying if they said their significant other was sexy in EVERY WAY. Heaven knows my sweat pants from college are not my wife’s turn-on, yet she’s with me still. Mowing the lawn is not sexy either but you know what, sometimes it works for her.

So being sexy is the last of LinkedIn’s problems. LinkedIn is a site for professional use. It’s not social media the way social media was originally defined - an online orgy of thought, fame and photo-tagging. In the world of social media, LinkedIn is where your Facebook profile goes to work. And if you show up drunk at work with your Go-Go boots, you may run into some problems. The same goes for LinkedIn. Don’t become what you’re not. Otherwise, you might get written up by H.R. and abandoned by everyone who knows the role you play in their life.

There is a shift in thought among business persons that they can create consumers from thin air....

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:33:21 -0500

There is a shift in thought among business persons that they can create consumers from thin air. That the right message, product, or tactic will act like a magic spell and completely shift the loyalties, desires and behaviors of an individual in a flash. It seems in today’s society, products have suddenly come to think they are gods breathing life into men instead of simply an apple hanging from the tree.

Jonah Syndrome - or what the hell am I doing? I need to get off my ass.

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 23:47:00 -0400

Along with the concept of desacralizing, Maslow introduced the notion of the Jonah complex. In this syndrome, a person, like the prophet Jonah in the Bible, avoids the deeper pursuits of which he or she is capable. It is a pattern of running away from one’s calling. Such a person prefers to stay on the surface of life, and he or she pays a huge price in the sense of subsequent meaninglessness, unfulfillment, and guilt.

Maslow has suggested that one characteristic of the self-actualizing personality is the ability to resacralize people and things, to bring the sense of the sacred back into experience. The self-actualizing person has learned to be awe-inspired, to marvel at the beauty, mystery and infinite complexity of life, to include an appreciation of the cosmic and the spiritual as well as the material.

This is from the textbook “Beneath the Mask” by Christopher F. Monte and Robert N. Sollod.

Shifting Incentives in Congress

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:59:33 -0400

So, I saw this being reposted Facebook. I’ve edited it a bit to make it feel like less of a chain letter (it used to ask you to pass it on to 20 people, etc etc) but there’s an interesting idea here.

In an interview on CNBC, Warren Buffett says, ”I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.”

The Facebook post then went on to describe other laws that came to be rather quickly:

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971…before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land…all because of public pressure.

It then offered this plan, which is not Buffett’s (I assume - as the CNBC article does not mention any of the below) but it’s interesting. It’s as follows:

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term’s, then go home and back to work.

It’s intereting in that it completely re-works the incentives for congresspersons. To me, it feels like a pretty smart move in order to protect the people and improve our government. It might also inspire more people to run for government since it will feel less like an old boy’s club. I might also add that no government official should receive compensation of any kind from any corporation - and all incentives during and after their tenure for up to 10 years should be audited to guarantee it (or some other way of guaranteeing it). Also, I’d probably adopt something like this for all of government - not just congress.

The CNBC article than had an update:

UPDATE: An attorney in St. Louis, Jarrad Holst, points out by email that there is a way to enact Buffett’s idea without the cooperation of Congress. Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, a “Convention for proposing Amendments” is convened when called for by the legislatures of two-thirds of the states. A proposed amendment would then need to be ratified by the legislatures of three-quarters of the states. If that happens, and it is a very, very big if, Buffett’s deficit plan would become the law of the land. That process would, however, take more than five minutes.

Obviously there’s more to be done but it seems really intriguing. I also wonder if the Occupy Wall Street movement could be energized to make something like the above happen? Or another movement altogether?

What are your thoughts?

homedesigning: Supercool bed My dream bed

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:06:56 -0400

homedesigning:

Supercool bed

My dream bed

world-shaker: Alternatives to Traditional Homework (via So Much...

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:25:00 -0400

world-shaker:

Alternatives to Traditional Homework

(via So Much Homework | Connected Principals)

I think its time we finish the boat.

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:47:46 -0400

I think its time we finish the boat.:

psychotherapy:

“He’s been building that boat for seven years that I know of… Every time he gets it nearly finished he changes it and starts over again. I think he’s nuts. Seven years on a boat.”

Doc was sitting on the ground pulling off his rubber boots. “You don’t understand,” he said gently. “Henri loves boats but he’s afraid of the ocean.”

“What’s he want a boat for then?” Hazel demanded.

“He likes boats,” said Doc. “But suppose he finishes his boat. Once it’s finished people will say, ‘Why don’t you ever put it in the water?’ Then if he puts it in the water, he’ll have to go out in it, and he hates the water. So you see, he never finishes the boat - so he doesn’t ever have to launch it.”

- John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

RIP Steve Jobs

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:57:59 -0400

"The richer–that is, the more varied and complete–the individual’s emotional life, the less is he..."

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:42:51 -0400

“The richer–that is, the more varied and complete–the individual’s emotional life, the less is he driven to projection, and the more will he incline to identification. His outlet and satisfaction comes in identifying himself with the emotions of the other. On the other hand, the narrower and more restricted the individual’s emotional life, the more intense will be his fewer emotions, the less will he be inclined to, and capable of, identification–the lack of which he has to compensate for by projection. Projection thus proves to be a compensatory mechanism that adjusts for an inner lack. Identification, on the other hand, is an expression of abundance, of the desire for union, for alliance, for sharing.”

- Otto Frank, “Love, Guilt and the Denial of Feelings” (1927)

I just passed the halfway mark. Can you help me reach my goal of...

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:53:03 -0400

I just passed the halfway mark. Can you help me reach my goal of $5,000 in the next 10 days? (via Food For The Poor:)

Give and Get

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:23:00 -0400

From a psychological perspective, giving is perhaps one of the strangest things a person could do. Rationally, it makes little sense. If we are to protect our resource, ensure our survival, it makes the most sense to not give. Even the cliche is that rich people got that way by not giving much of it away.

But I believe there’s a different kind of wealth. You probably expect me to start talking about how great it feels to give and love and how that makes you feel wealthy. No. I’m not going there. I believe there’s a wealth in the stories we can tell. In the narratives we live. Giving isn’t just about moving your own resources to someone else. It’s about stories. When you give. You get stories.

For example, since its founding in 1982, Food For The Poor has distributed approximately 57,383 containers of aid to the poor. It has also built more than 73,605 housing units for people desperately in need of adequate shelter, and completed more than 1,188 water projects that provide lifesaving water and sanitation to hundreds of thousands of villagers in need. These are facts though. It’s not a story.

The story is that a young boy in Haiti should have been in school. He should have been learning and building a future for himself. Instead, at no fault of his own, he spent his days in a massive heap of garbage digging for anything that could be eaten, sold, or used in his family. Our lives tell stories. This boys story was set in a pile of garbage.

But the best stories have the most unexpected twists. Because of a gift made by a single donor, that boy and his family now live in one of the 73,000 homes Food for the Poor has built.

This is a story you could tell. A story you can relate to. You could talk about it among your family. Tell it to your friends. Explain it on Facebook or a blog or just write it down for your heirs to read about. Stories like these provide more than wealth, they make us immortal.

Of course, every story starts with a beginning. Yours could begin by supporting my family and I as we Walk for Hunger. Every bit counts:

http://tinyurl.com/alomaffp

Thanks

Kristian

PS. If that link doesn’t work, please try to copy and paste this one into your browser: http://support.foodforthepoor.org/site/TR?px=1920276&fr_id=2070&pg=personal

Jung Love: Sabina Spielrein, a forgotten pioneer of psychoanalysis (Telegraph)

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 10:18:27 -0400

Jung Love: Sabina Spielrein, a forgotten pioneer of psychoanalysis (Telegraph):

psychotherapy:

A new film starring Keira Knightley documents the torrid and ultimately tragic life of Sabina Spielrein, patient, pupil, rumoured lover of Carl Jung, and one of the forgotten pioneers of psychoanalysis.

michaeltalbot: chrisdwoo: allfinehere: SECRET STAIRCASE...

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 10:16:28 -0400

michaeltalbot:

chrisdwoo:

allfinehere:

SECRET STAIRCASE RECESSED BEDS BOOKS ALSO RECESSED BEDS ALL THE THINGS I WANT

SEXY!

2011: Not using a Kindle: Seriously?

;)

[I think I like the bed with storage space, and the “book nook” the best]

want all of this

Love Books

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:02:33 -0400

On most BluRay discs, there is a code that allows you to also download a digital copy of the movie to iTunes. Why have book publishers not followed suit? I love real books but I also love the convenience of my Kindle. Can I not just get a digital download of the book, too? Even if you charge me more, I’d probably still go for it. Also, since it’s obvious I’m only collecting books for books sake, how bout reinvesting in the art of binding? A book’s cover can be just as beautiful as the inside.

Super-sad-face wants you to support her daddy and help...

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:55:22 -0400

Super-sad-face wants you to support her daddy and help haiti. http://support.foodforthepoor.org/goto/krisaloma

Please note - no babies were injured in the making of this donation request, though maybe her feelings were hurt a little bit.

Help Me Reach 50% of My Goal!

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:41:20 -0400

Help Me Reach 50% of My Goal!:

Hi all-

Your support the last few days has been amazing. I’ve jumped up significantly but I still have a ways to go. If I can reach 50% by this weekend, I’ll do a little jig just for you. Give now if you can. A corporate donor is still matching the next $500 which means you could basically double your gift immediately. Thanks in advance!

PS. If there’s anything I could offer you for a donation, let me know. I’m taking ideas. Want me to do a presentation on the psychology of story telling at your organization? Want an Aloma Cookie or 12? How about a video of me breakdancing? I’ll do just about anything if the price is right.

Thanks,

Kristian

Double Your Money for Haiti!

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:14:17 -0400

Double Your Money for Haiti!:

Hi all-

I’ve just got word that a corporate donor will match the next $500 we can raise. That means I need your help. If you haven’t given, now would be the time to get the most out of your gift. And if you’ve already given (and can’t give any more) please help out by sharing with your friends who might be interested in giving.

Help me break past 50% this week and get well on my way to $5000!

A parting thought:
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
- Anne Frank

Thanks - you’re all amazing.

Kristian

I love this photo.

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 20:44:26 -0400

I love this photo.

Walk for Hunger - I need your support

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:38:02 -0400

My entire family is walking in an upcoming event for Food for the Poor called Walk for Hunger. My personal goal is to raise $5,000. So far, I’ve raised $177.
Obviously, I need your help. PLEASE HELP ME by visiting this link and giving now:
http://support.foodforthepoor.org/site/TR?px=1920276&fr_id=2070&pg=personal
The walk was established to bring awareness to the chronic malnutrition affecting the Caribbean and Latin America. The South Florida community made a tremendous impact for the poor last year with over 500 walkers raising enough funds to feed more than 2,000 children for an entire year.