A simple logic question

Via Scoopinon   Article

A simple logic question that most Harvard students get wrong

“HARVARD STUDENTS GET near-perfect SAT scores (US college admission tests). These are smart, smart kids. So they shouldn’t have trouble with a simple logic question, right?

Try the following puzzle:

A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs one dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

.

.

Behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman explains why most people get this wrong:

A number came to your mind. The number, of course, is 10: 10¢. The distinctive mark of this easy puzzle is that it evokes an answer that is intuitive, appealing, and wrong. Do the math, and you will see. If the ball costs 10 ¢, then the total cost will be $1.20 (10¢ for the ball and $1.10 for the bat), not $1.10. The correct answer is 5¢. It is safe to assume that the intuitive answer also came to the mind of those who ended up with the correct number—they somehow managed to resist the intuition.

… This excerpt comes from Kahneman’s 2011 book, Thinking, Fast And Slow, which posits that we have an intuitive mental system and a logical mental system, and we often use the wrong one at the wrong time.”

- Gus Lubin

Never Trample on Big Dreams

By Adam Bryant via NYT Business Day   Article

A Good Mentor Never Tramples on Big Dreams

“Tony Tjan, chief executive and a founder of Cue Ball, a venture capital firm in Boston, suggests waiting 24 seconds, 24 minutes, then 24 hours before criticizing a new idea.

Q. What are some things that you’ve learned from mentors?

A. One was Jay Chiat, one of the founders of the Chiat/Day ad agency. He had this incredible capacity for optimism, particularly optimism during mentorship. He had this amazing ability to think of every reason why an idea might work before criticizing it and thinking why it might not work. When you’re a mentor, you’ve got to realize that people are often sharing their dreams, and I think it’s human nature to be a critic. We’re skeptics. As you get older and more experienced, wisdom is great, but you also have to be careful not to automatically impose your mental framework and your lessons.

I’ve translated it into a rule that I try to get people to follow, and I’m still working on this. When someone gives you an idea, try to wait just 24 seconds before criticizing it. If you can do that, wait 24 minutes. Then if you become a Zen master of optimism, you could wait a day, and spend that time thinking about why something actually might work. In venture capital, you’re at the intersection of human capital and their big ideas, their dreams. My favorite quote is from Eleanor Roosevelt: ‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.’”

“that, of course, is the problem”

By Margaret Heffernan in Inc.  Article

Petraeus & the Value of Failure

“If you have never failed at anything, then you haven’t been trying hard enough, aren’t very imaginative, or have had such extraordinarily good luck that you have come to believe you are invincible. And that, of course, is the problem. ”Success confers its own blindness” ….”

What Women Know about Leadership that Men Don’t

By Tony Schwartz from HBR Blog Network   Article

“No single challenge has been greater for me as a leader than learning how to take better care of the people I lead, and to create a safe, supportive space in which they can thrive. Like most men I know, I grew up with very little modeling around empathy — the ability to recognize, experience and be sensitive to what others are feeling.

Empathy proved especially difficult for me whenever I felt vulnerable. My instinctive response was to protect myself, most often with aggression. I equated aggression with safety, and vulnerability with weakness. Today, I recognize the opposite is often true. The more I acknowledge my own fears and uncertainties, the safer people feel with me and the more effectively they work. But even now, I’m amazed at how dense I can sometimes be.

An effective modern leader requires a blend of intellectual qualities — the ability to think analytically, strategically and creatively — and emotional ones, including self-awareness, empathy, and humility. In short, great leadership begins with being a whole human being.

I meet far more women with this blend of qualities than I do men, and especially so when it comes to emotional and social intelligence.

To a significant degree, that’s a reflection of limitations men almost inevitably develop in a culture that measures us by the ability to project strength and confidence, hide what we’re feeling (including from ourselves), and define who we are above all by our external accomplishments and our capacity to prevail over others.”

“the insult”

By Thomas Lifson in American Thinker blog   Article

“The Florida State Board of Education passed a plan that sets goals for students in math and reading based upon their race.

On Tuesday, the board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level. For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian kids to be proficient, whites at 86 percent, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent. It also measures by other groupings, such as poverty and disabilities, reported the Palm Beach Post.

The message sent to young people is clear:  blacks, Hispanics, and whites simply cannot be expected to perform at the level of Asians. There is a racial hierarchy of acceptable achievement proclaimed an official government body. Not since the days of segregation has a state officially proclaimed such a pernicious racial doctrine.”

 

“don’t be short-changed by choosing personality over character”

From the “You’re Not the Boss of Me” blog   Article

Personality vs Character in Leadership

“Personality refers to our basic nature.  For instance, some of us are extraverted and some introverted.  Some of us are even-tempered, some hotheaded, and so on.  In short, personality mainly consists of those things we inherit genetically.  It dictates our personal preferences and choices. And, it drives our social interaction with others.

Character refers to how we choose to use our inheritance to make our way in the world.  Character is built over time. It comes from living, learning and making mistakes.  It shows up in the decisions we make and the risks we take.  Character measures and tests the strength of our will, our beliefs and our sense of justice.  And it is often a hard taskmaster.

It was W. Somerset Maugham who once said, “ When you choose your friends, don’t be short-changed by choosing personality over character”

I think the same could be said of leaders.  Sometimes, of course we don’t get to choose our leaders. And sometimes we don’t get the leaders we choose. However, we do get to choose the kind of leaders we are going to be. Will we ride on the coat tails of personality, going where the wind blows us?   Or, will we rely on the deep-seated beliefs that form our character to guide us, even if that road is harder… and even if it makes us unpopular?

To many people, the answer will seem obvious.  But, character can be difficult to discern.  It can go for a long time without being publically tested or uncovered and can often be eclipsed by the strength and easy attraction of a winning personality.”

Awesome

5 types of social media strategies

Source

Going Boss-free: Utopia or ‘Lord of the Flies’?

Published in Knowledge@Wharton   Article

“Recent articles in the business press have extolled the benefits of work environments where there are no bosses and no titles, where employees decide among themselves which projects to pursue and which people to hire and fire, and where each employee is responsible for deciding his or her own salary, raises and vacation days. … A bossless office “is a very democratic way of thinking about work,” says Wharton management professor Adam Cobb. “Everyone takes part in the decisions, so it’s not being directed from above. …”

Peer Pressure

On the other hand, Cobb says, an office with no boss or manager overseeing the work flow can be disastrous. He cites an academic paper from several years ago that examined the fate of a small company whose owners decided to try and stave off bankruptcy by letting the employees run the company. “Over time, the workers became more oppressed than when the bosses were there,” notes Cobb. “Everyone became a monitor, constantly checking up on their fellow employees, even setting up a board to track what time people came into work and when they left.” …

Thomas Davenport, a senior consultant with Towers Watson and co-author of a book titled, Manager Redefined: The Competitive Advantage in the Middle of Your Organization, says the model of being a boss these days is evolving into what he calls “offstage management.”The idea, he notes, is that “nobody comes to work in the 21^st century and says, ‘Please manage me.’ They say, ‘Create an environment where I can be successful.’”"

Let’s end the paradox of kindness

SmartBlog on Leadership   Article

“Employees complain in engagement surveys that their bosses don’t treat them with respect or as unique individuals. Yet on the flip side, research shows that bosses who treat people with kindness, respect and dignity are “seen as less powerful than other managers.”

What a dreadful paradox: We want to be treated with kindness yet don’t respect those who do so. What’s up with this?

In the workplace, kindness — being friendly, generous and considerate — is often dismissed as a weakness because of the negative stereotypes that cling to it: pushover, sucker, patsy or nice guy (or gal) who finishes last. Kindness isn’t typically rewarded at review time, given that most business performance is evaluated on what’s done rather than how it’s done.

Soft skills such as kindness lose their sizzle (if they ever had any) when compared with off-the-charts sales and other impressive bottom-line impacts delivered by the tough guys whose bad behavior often gets overlooked. …

So how does a character-based leader who wants to treat employees with dignity escape the paradox of the kindness hamster wheel? ….”

You Want A Friend? Buy a Dog!

Babbling VC   Article

“Business is called business for a reason. It’s hardly ever fair. Finally, if you don’t pay attention, it can take you out at the knees before you even know it. If you really want a friend, buy a dog because you aren’t going to find many true friends in the working world. …

Don’t get me wrong….you can find friends in the working world and many times, you’ll have no choice. This is fine as long as you understand that there are different dynamics at play when it comes to work verses a university environment for example. Competition and “getting ahead” change when it’s about money. Go ahead, be nice and learn to play “the game” of business which will regularly involve “social” events. Yet remember, these are “acquaintances” and not always friends. They may be using you to further their career or chances. You may simply be a pawn in their strategy. At the other end of the spectrum, you could just be a distraction. As long as you’re aware of it, not a big deal.”

“I wonder if this is a good time to get in”

Source

The Power of Pause

-

Who
can
wait
quietly
while
the
mud
settles?

- Lao Tzu

Source

KFC tells Facebook fans to grab some chicken in wake of major quake

By Chris Matyszczyk   Article

“It’s possible that when you’re worried about a tsunami wiping away you and everything you hold dear, you’ll prefer a bucket of large extra crispy chunks as opposed to just a few crispy strips. Equally, it’s possible that the last thing on your mind would be, well, any kind of chicken at all.

KFC seems to have discovered the latter might be the case. As the Daily Mail reports it, some people were a little surprised in Thailand on Wednesday when, as they rushed home worried about a tsunami, KFC posted: “Let’s hurry home and follow the earthquake news. And don’t forget to order your favorite KFC menu.”

Why do cars have brakes?

By Sarah   Article

“Why do automobiles have brakes? To stop, right? To stop. That’s one answer. Is there another answer? I heard this on the radio recently, and I jotted it down in my mental notebook.

Cars have brakes so they can go fast. It’s the ability to stop quickly that allows us to travel at speeds much faster than if we didn’t have brakes. Without brakes, we’d all drive very, very slowly. Brakes give us flexibility in stopping when you want, where you want, and how you want.

Analogously, in your life it’s the very presence of boundaries that create new freedoms. Freedom isn’t free. Having a gas pedal isn’t what enables you to go fast. It’s having a gas pedal AND a brake pedal. Sometimes the short-term sacrifices in our lives are actually enabling us to achieve long-term goals. Your brakes are helping you go faster, even if it’s frustrating.

Also to note: how you answered this question clues you into how your brain operates when thinking about actions, functions, and relationships among systems. Thinking that brakes brake; and that’s all, is a limited view on the capability of a function in a system. Often, each action or movement has multiple effects in the system.”

Traveling light in a time of digital thievery

Levine Breaking news 2-12-12 http://www.lbnelert.com/

“When Kenneth G. Lieberthal, a China expert at the Brookings Institution, travels to that country, he follows a routine that seems straight from a spy film.  He leaves his cellphone and laptop at home and instead brings “loaner” devices, which he erases before he leaves the United States and wipes clean the minute he returns. In China, he disables Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, never lets his phone out of his sight and, in meetings, not only turns off his phone but also removes the battery, for fear his microphone could be turned on remotely. He connects to the Internet only through an encrypted, password-protected channel, and copies and pastes his password from a USB thumb drive. He never types in a password directly, because, he said, “the Chinese are very good at installing key-logging software on your laptop.”  What might have once sounded like the behavior of a paranoid is now standard operating procedure for officials at American government agencies, research groups and companies that do business in China and Russia — like Google, the State Department and the Internet security giant McAfee. Digital espionage in these countries, security experts say, is a real and growing threat — whether in pursuit of confidential government information or corporate trade secrets.”

Happy 2012 video

Sissel Kyrkjebø (Norwegian ; born 24 June 1969 in Bergen), also simply known as Sissel, is a Norwegian soprano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=x91rBzNKvlc&vq=large#t=160

Note: Be sure to “rewind” it from the beginning if necessary.

Three leadership lessons from Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

By Doug Dickerson  Article

“We all have natural gifts and abilities; embrace them. Rudolph was the object of scorn by the other reindeer who mistakenly thought that because he was different from the others, he didn’t have anything to contribute.

We all come in different shapes, sizes, and with unique giftedness. It is not in the similarities that we stand out, but in our differences. The gifts and talents you bring to the table of your business or organization may not look like anything else in your company, but that is your gift. As you embrace and celebrate those gifts, others will also come to appreciate what you have to offer.

We all face opposition; ignore it. Because his appearance was obviously different from others around him, Rudolph faced opposition. There will always be an element of people who oppose you not based on your appearance as in the story, but because you bring a different set of eyes to the problem, you bring a different attitude, and you bring an optimistic mindset to the challenges your company faces.

When you make up your mind that what causes you to stand out is what will propel you to the top, others will be faced with a challenge: go there with you or be left behind. But regardless of the opposition you face, never surrender your giftedness to opposition.

Your moment to shine will eventually come; welcome it. It is your faithfulness in the little things; day by day, that you prove yourself. Even though Rudolph faced opposition from the others, he didn’t allow their negativity to defeat him. In the moment of crisis when Santa needed a go-to Reindeer, Rudolph was ready. Armed with his natural giftedness and positive attitude, he navigated the team of fellow reindeer to a successful completion of the Christmas mission.

Your moment of destiny will come one day and it will not always come in the manner in which you expected. Open your eyes to all the possibilities that your leadership can provide. As you show yourself faithful in the little things your big moment will come.

This Christmas season, celebrate your gift as a leader, rise above your opposition, and stand ready to embrace your destiny. As you do, you will have a greater understanding of just how special the season can be.”

Leadership lessons from Scrooge

By JIM GALLAGHER   Article

“Before we get too cheery, let’s hear some wisdom from a grouchy old cheapskate who took a dim view of the whole season.

“Don’t be cross, uncle,” said the nephew.

“What else can I be,” returned the uncle, “when I live in such a world of fools as this? … What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer … If I could work my will,” said Scrooge indignantly, “every idiot who goes about with merry Christmas on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!’

That exchange, of course, is from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, published in 1843. …

Scrooge was misunderstood. He was really ahead of his time; a 21st century CEO stuck in the horse-and-buggy era.

He knew how to control health care costs. Do you think Tiny Tim got his crutch through the Scrooge & Marley employee medical plan? Not a chance.

Corporate America has spent the last decade shifting the rising cost of health care from itself to its employees, an action quite Scroogy. The average employee lucky enough to have insurance pays 20 percent of the cost, up from 13 percent in 2001, according to Hewitt Associates.

Still, Scrooge knew how to motivate his workers. He made sure the help appreciated the cost of their employee benefits.

“You’ll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?” said Scrooge (to Cratchit on Christmas Eve.)

“If quite convenient, sir.”

“It’s not convenient,” said Scrooge, “and it’s not fair. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you’d think yourself ill-used, I’ll be bound?”

The clerk smiled faintly.

“And yet,” said Scrooge, “you don’t think me ill-used, when I pay a day’s wages for no work.”

The clerk observed that it was only once a year.

“A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!” said Scrooge, buttoning his great-coat to the chin. “But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next morning.”

Did you ever wonder where HR got the idea to send you those annual letters totaling up the cost to the company of your wages, health insurance, vacation, pension and such, making you look terribly expensive to keep around? Now you know.

When Cratchit would ask for a couple of lumps of coal to keep warm at his desk, Scrooge would threaten to fire him.

Good pay and earned loyalty may be fine employee motivators, but they’re awfully expensive. Guilt, fear and insecurity will do the trick in a pinch.

Lots of us are feeling a pinch these days. Quite a few of us, including me, took a pay cut rather than risk being cast out into a job market of 9.6 percent unemployment, where the loss of our employee health coverage could turn our kids into Tiny Tims.

Like a modern executive, Scrooge knew that corporations exist to return value to the shareholder — which in Scrooge’s case was himself.”

The top 20 most inspiring Steve Jobs quotes

TNW Blog   Article

 

“A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.

—Wired, February 1996

People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.

—Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, May 13–16, 1997

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown our your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

—Commencement address, Stanford University, June 12, 2005″

Life lessons from business

By Steve Roesler   Article

“Ten Life Lessons From Managing and Consulting

1. You can be in charge, but you’re never in control.

2. If you have a Powerpoint slide with a graph whose curve always points upward, you’re lying. Delete it.

3. If you look at people through your own eyes, you’ll judge them for who you think they are. If you look at them through God’s eyes, you’ll see them for who they can become.

4. You can’t be good at who you are until you stop trying to be all the things you are not.

5. Charge what you are worth. If you don’t, you’ll begin to resent your employer or client, even thoughyou decided to take the assignment.

6. You can’t control circumstances. You can control your response to them. Those who learn to respond thoughtfully and peacefully are the ones who are accorded trust and power.

7. Overt displays of position power show weakness.  Genuine humility shows power.

8. All groups aren’t “teams”. Often they are just collections of people who work really, really well together. Leave them alone.

9. No one can know how to be an effective leader until they’ve toiled as a dedicated follower.

10. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge applied with discernment.”

7 Laws of Technology

by Scott Brinker  Article

“1. Moore’s Law

The most famous technology law of all time: the performance of hardware doubles about every 2 years. … Witness the Osborne computer from 30 years ago next to a circa-2009 iPhone — the iPhone is 100 times faster and almost 500 times smaller. …

2. Wirth’s Law

The ironic corollary to Moore’s Law, Wirth’s Law states: software gets slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster. … This is why the latest version of Microsoft Office running on a new computer seems to run about the same speed as an older version of Office running on an older machine.  …

3. Brooks’ Law

A technology law that has been the bane of managers for decades, Brooks’ Law says: adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. … there are two reasons why this is generally true:

1. It takes some time for new people added to a project to become productive (“ramp up time“), which sucks time away from the existing team members to educate them.
2. Communication overhead increases as the number of people increases.

4. Hofstadter’s Law

Related to Brooks’ Law is the lovely paradox of Hofstadter’s Law: it always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law. It’s a recursive statement on the difficulty of accurately estimating the time to complete tasks of any substantial complexity. …

5. Segal’s Law

Short but sweet, Segal’s Law is relevant for anyone involved in marketing measurement (i.e., everyone in marketing): a man with a watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never sure. If you’ve ever spent time trying to get two different web analytics packages to report the same numbers, you already have a deep appreciation for this law. …

6. Conway’s Law

Conway’s Law is my favorite: any piece of software reflects the organizational structure that produced it. … software — and other complex systems, such as web sites and marketing operations processes — reflect both the structure and culture of the organizations that create them. This is why there is so much opportunity for differentiation for innovative products and services, even in crowded markets. For example, personal finance was a pretty mature category when Mint.com launched in 2007. Yet their fresh ideas, intuitive UX design, and simple workflow won them millions of users….

7. Metcalfe’s Law

Saving the best for last, Metcalfe’s Law states: the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users. Robert Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet, first formulated this law to characterize the benefits of having compatible communications devices — e.g., computer networks, fax machines, etc. — adopted by a growing number of people.

This exponential increase in value emerges because of the number of pair connections within a group of N people is equal to (N)(N-1)/2 — which is approximately N². Or, put more simply, a network’s value grows exponentially. At least up to any human limit to take advantage of these interconnections.”

What can we really learn from Steve Jobs?

Source: “This picture of Steve Jobs was taken by TMZ– two days after he resigned as the head honcho of Apple. In his resignation letter, Jobs said, the day finally came when he could no longer perform his duties.”

From Hogafish blog   Article

“I think the most important lessons we can learn from Jobs are not about computers or even about the logistics of managing a company, they are about having a mindset that gives rise to innovation. He said in a commencement address at Stanford University:

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something you lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

What I find most interesting is the part about not having anything to lose because at one point, it seemed like his vision actually did cause him to lose everything – when he was fired from Apple in 1985. Getting the boot from the company he spent ten years building from scratch seems like a huge thing to lose – and it was for him at the time – but during his hiatus from Apple, he started Pixar and a company called Next, which ended up developing much of the foundational technology for Apple’s current systems.

Cliché statements like “follow your heart” and “live each day as if it is your last” are always floating around, but how often do people truly live by them? People tend to disavow their ideas because they’re afraid of what they could lose by following through with them. But if today really was your last day on earth would you rather be stuck doing something tolerable yet safe or would you rather be pursuing an idea you were excited about?”

 

Strategies are contingencies

By Dan Rockwell   Article

 

Seven Ways to Find Order in Chaos

“If duress, stress, and pressure represent the dark side of opportunity, today’s world offers great opportunity. Dr. Justin Menkes said of today’s business environment, “strategies are contingencies.”

How can leaders bring out the best in themselves and others when the world’s in constant flux? Dr. Menkes’ book, Better Under Pressure, explains three capacities every leader needs to thrive in a world of contingencies.

Realistic Optimism: an awareness of actual circumstances coupled with a sense of urgency.

Subservience to Purpose: people with this trait see their professional goal as so profound in importance that their lives become measured in value by how much they contribute to furthering that goal. What is more, they must be pursuing a professional goal in order to feel a purpose for living.

During our conversation Dr. Menkes said, “If you have firewalls to control your people and time card to keep track of time, you’ve already lost the battle.”

You need higher purpose to control behaviors and energize efforts. ….”

Forecasting Your Future

by FFF Team  Article

“We don’t know what the future holds for us in most regards.  We can plan and speculate.  We can work hard, take risks, and rebound positively from setbacks.  Yet there are so many variables and factors we cannot control, that the probability of our predictions being accurate is low.  However, there are two factors we can control.  Our character and how we demonstrate our character in our daily lives.  We have that ability. …

Life is full of temptations, which continually present us with choices.  Temptations to cut honesty corners.  Temptations to take shortcuts or make short-sighted decisions.  Temptations to put our self interest ahead of the greater good.   Temptations to compromise what we want most for what we want at the moment.  Temptations to prove we are right instead of solving problems or doing the right thing.  Temptations to sacrifice relationships for the sake of making a point.  Our choices, especially when we encounter these temptations, reflect our character and who we truly are.”