Sunday, June 29, 2014

Narrow Your Focus, Work Schedule

Work in Pulses: "...Don’t wake up and check your email, get to the office and check your email, and then check your email hourly throughout the day. Check your email in batches: late morning and late afternoon. Most importantly, make time to pause and think about what is most important to you. Narrow your focus and make 80% of your time on the three big things that are important to you. Let everything else fit in the 20% of time left. Let the truly sucky stuff fit in 5% of the time. If leisure is important to you and you can’t find time for it, schedule it in. When you wake up, do one thing that’s important to you right away." (read more at link above)






Sunday, June 22, 2014

Work, Rest, Sleep, Recovery

Work in Pulses: "Most important, the top violinists rested more — napping more during the day and sleeping longer at night. Sleep is actually more important than food. “Great performers,” Schwartz wrote in Be Excellent at Anything, “work more intensely than most of us do but also recover more deeply.”" (read more at link above)






Sunday, June 15, 2014

Guns, Violence, Gang Culture, Chicago

Is Gun Control an Attempt at Treating the Symptom instead of the "Gang Disease" --

The Arms Struggle in Chicago - NYTimes.com: "The city of Chicago, bedeviled by street gang violence, refuses to give in to ever more restrictive court rulings against enactment of sensible gun safety laws. The Supreme Court’s misguided 2010 decision ended the nearly 30-year-long ban on handguns in Chicago. In January, a federal judge ruled that the city’s ban on retail gun shops was unconstitutional..."

Witness describes fatal shooting of special ed teacher - chicagotribune.com: "....As she talked and laughed with co-workers inside late Thursday afternoon, a gang dispute erupted on the street. Bullets tore through a wall, one grazing Louis Hardy, 58, who dived to the floor before noticing Howard lying nearby with a gunshot to the head. “My mind is racing, I’m trying to decide how best I could help her,” Hardy recalled today. Howard's eyes were wide open, as if she were pleading for help. Hardy said he bent down and told her, “Hold on. Help is on the way.” Howard died minutes later...."

What kind of culture is gang culture? Depraved. Sociopathic.

So why does Chicago tolerate it?






Sunday, June 8, 2014

Professional Athletes, Bankruptcy, Financial Stress

Think your multi-million dollar draftee into the pros has it made? Better think again --

Congratulations, you were drafted! Prepare to go broke. | The Big Picture: "The data on professional athletes are startling: Shortly after they retire, nearly four of five NFL players are bankrupt or under financial stress, according to Sports Illustrated. Joblessness and divorce are the main reasons. It’s marginally better in the National Basketball Association, where after retirement nearly two of three players are broke within five years. Why does this happen? There are lessons here even for those investors who cannot hit a jump shot. Let’s look at the reasons so many athletes go broke.”"

read more at: Barry Ritholtz: Professional athletes need to learn to keep their finances in good shape
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/barry-ritholtz-professional-athletes-need-to-learn-to-keep-their-finances-in-good-shape/2014/05/30/fea8d312-e68d-11e3-afc6-a1dd9407abcf_story.html






Sunday, June 1, 2014

Surveillance, Business Model of the Internet, Bruce Schneier

Who is watching who?

Surveillance is the Business Model of the Internet: Bruce Schneier | SecurityWeek.Com: "“Surveillance is the business model of the Internet,” Schneier told attendees. “We build systems that spy on people in exchange for services. Corporations call it marketing." The data economy—the growth of mass data collection and tracking—is changing how power is perceived, Schneier said in his keynote speech. The Internet and technology has changed the impact a group can have on others, where dissidents can use the Internet to amplify their voices and extend their reach. Governments already have a lot of power to begin with, so when they take advantage of technology, their power is magnified, he said.
“That's how you get weird situations where Syrian dissidents use Facebook to organize, and the government uses Facebook to arrest its citizens,” Schneier said."






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