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Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:20:12 -0400

Now this is great genius language. rehearsingmyrole: From a...

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:06:16 -0400

Now this is great genius language.

rehearsingmyrole:

From a very olde Real Simple Magazine.

(artist Monica Sheehan)

When we talk about creating new realities at work, a popular...

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:02:51 -0400

When we talk about creating new realities at work, a popular example people come up with is bottled water. Who would’ve thought to make money off of bottling tap water? As I watched “Cupcake Wars” today I realized the cupcake bakery is a completely new concept in my lifetime. The thought that a cupcake costs $3.50 - 5.00 and comes in hundreds of flavors is breakthrough. And we can thank entrepreneur, Candace Nelson, for that. I’m not sure those elementary school from-the-mix cupcakes will make the cut by the time I have children.

Well, this article about the market frightens me

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 22:53:10 -0400

Well, this article about the market frightens me

If you're under 30 and contributing to a 401(k), you should love days like this.

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:28:42 -0400

I LOVE THIS. If you can say anything at all, why not be saying...

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:44:16 -0400

I LOVE THIS. If you can say anything at all, why not be saying yes all the time? If you don’t try something, you never know if it’s going to be great.

moneyisnotimportant:

workisnotajob:

Say YES! to new things and people.

The more you open your eyes, heart and mind and the more you share your work and step outside to explore the more opportunities will come your way.

This just might be my favorite piece by workisnotajob!

BRYCE DOT VC: The Best Way to Compete is Not to Compete at All

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:40:49 -0400

BRYCE DOT VC: The Best Way to Compete is Not to Compete at All:

brycedotvc:

The rise of the iPad became that much more interesting this week as sales numbers from Apple’s quarterly earnings poured in.There’s been plenty of clear and concise analysis done over the last few days, so I will stay way from that.

But, I do want to highlight one theme we’ve touched on here…

The Borders Story

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:20:00 -0400

The Borders Story:

This fits so well into Gap International’s reality-possibility matrix. They were high in reality, and as their reality shrunk and newer forms of media competed with them in their market, they tried and tried to get back to high reality. However, they stuck to the same models; they stuck to what they knew. They never thought outside of their automatic principles and strategies.

Thinking outside of your automatic state is necessary when you’re in crisis mode. And this story proves that.

I have a degree in the humanities (linguistics) and I job I love...

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:29:00 -0400

I have a degree in the humanities (linguistics) and I job I love and I can afford to pay my rent. Hm… maybe this whole humanities majors don’t make money is just a mold to break out of.

Someone on Friday asked how I could get so excited about ideas...

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:25:32 -0400

Someone on Friday asked how I could get so excited about ideas all the time. I responded (in front of about 50 people at a company I have only been at for a month) that “caffeine helps”. Guess there is some logic behind that thinking!

What are you playing for?

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:15:00 -0400

What are you playing for?:

This is a great question posed by Andy Hooper at Gap International. Really, it doesn’t matter what you’re playing, with whom you’re playing, or even how you’re playing, until you establish what it is you want.

What is that yearning you’ve always had?

What’s that dream that you never thought you could accomplish?

Why are you playing this game?

Once you establish that, then you can move onto how you’re going to get there.

Innovation at the start - Google's science competition

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:00:35 -0400

Innovation at the start - Google's science competition:

This NYTimes science write-up of Google’s first adolescent science competition was so compelling. One, because I myself was a teenage scientist, doing lab work at Columbia University during high school, and two, because well, science is cool. Science is so cool that kids should like it and realize it’s not just breast cancer research and cells, but it’s also creating new products like the tie written about in this article, researching food science and marinades for carcinogens and even turning spinach blue so kids will eat it more. Science is essentially another word for innovation and encompasses the idea that anything can be studied, and through being studied, can be transformed and improved.

"I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big."

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:27:56 -0400

“I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.”

- Donald Trump

Perfect snack to have in my desk for mid-afternoon...

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:25:05 -0400

Perfect snack to have in my desk for mid-afternoon cravings?

blogilates:

Why Almonds are Amazing

THEY’VE GOT…

* protein and fiber to fill

* vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant

* magnesium, a mineral your body needs to:

—> produce energy

—> build and maintain muscle tissue

—> regulate blood sugar (helps to curb cravings which will in turn prevent overeating and eventually weight gain)

AND!

* an interesting ability to block calories!

“Research indicates that the composition of their cell walls may help reduce the absorption of all of their fat, making them an extra-lean nut.” [Medical News Today]

HOW MUCH TO EAT?

* An ounce a day (about 23 almonds)

* That’s approximately 160 calories

* An empty Altoids tin will hold the perfect amount!

SOURCES:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/5037.php

http://www.livestrong.com/article/201319-which-nuts-help-you-lose-weight/

moneyisnotimportant: When change is on the horizon, you need to...

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:54:11 -0400

moneyisnotimportant:

When change is on the horizon, you need to re-evaluate what is a need vs. what is a want.

It sounds simple enough, but many people continue living their life with the hopes that it will all work itself out.

That’s how you end up with thousands of dollars in credit card debt.

A common maxiom maxiom: a word made from the combination of...

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:48:00 -0400

A common maxiom

maxiom: a word made from the combination of axiom and maxim. it’s what we live by. it’s a rule or command that’s gets out our best work. it’s the language of the genius that’s in all of us.

(c) Regina DePietro 2010. “La dame de fer” I...

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:43:00 -0400

I recently captured third place in a photography contest at my alma mater, the University of Chicago, with this photo, so I thought I’d share it. Said Dean Lewis Fortner, “We were all very taken with your tessellated presentation of a much-photographed icon, here shown as a ghostly smudge on a nearly monochromatic background. Well done!”

The Unselfish Gene

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:37:00 -0400

The Unselfish Gene:

My primate behavior professor, Dr. Dario Maestripieri, agrees that there is no such thing as true altruism. If you want more info, read his book, Macachiavellian Intelligence. Thoughts? Is it possible to teach the genius of being a selfless person?

In 1976, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins wrote in The Selfish Gene, “If you wish, as I do, to build a society in which individuals cooperate generously and unselfishly towards a common good, you can expect little help from biological nature. Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.” By 2006, the tide had started to turn. Harvard University mathematical biologist Martin Nowak could declare, in an overview of the evolution of cooperation in Science magazine, “Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of evolution is its ability to generate cooperation in a competitive world. Thus, we might add ‘natural cooperation’ as a third fundamental principle of evolution beside mutation and natural selection.”

Why is this deep-rooted belief about human selfishness beginning to change? To some extent, the answer is specific to evolutionary biology. But similar ideas challenging the notion that people are born selfish have surfaced in several other fields, such as psychology, sociology, political science, and experimental economics. Together, these ideas are tracing a new intellectual arc in the disciplines concerned with human action and motivation.

Caricatures as a pathway to studying how humans remember

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:30:46 -0400

Caricatures as a pathway to studying how humans remember:

As we go through our daily lives and witness events, there’s what exactly happened and then there’s how we interpret it. While what happened it unquestionable, there are - I dare say it - infinite ways to talk about what happened and explain it yourself and to others. And that’s because it goes through our brain, and we categorize the experience, analyze it, and add our own language and metaphors to the situation. It strikes me that caricatures are very similar. There’s what you are seeing and there’s how you interpet it. In this case, how you interpret it may say something about memory. This explains a lot about why we take our interpretations of events as truths, when really they are filtered and tainted by our own brain and perceptions.

Big social media brother?

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:24:00 -0400

Big *social media* brother?:

Well, not exactly. This new program SMISC will be designed to help the government use social media to track what’s going on in places the U.S. troops are deployed and is an innovative way to use the pervasive, yet elusive, marketing tool. One thing I was amazed about was the fact that NATO has already been paying keen attention to Twitter, using data from the micro-blogging service as an intel source to aid in bomb targeting decisions. Somehow an analogy to Walter Benjamin’s dispersal of art to the masses pops up. In this case, it’s intelligence to the masses. Who are the experts in intelligence anymore if it comes from a platform we can all easily use and understand?

One sad thing about this article: they won’t use their technology to find out the perfect algorithm to making something as viral as the critically acclaimed “Friday” by Rebecca Black.