Category: Delicious Bookmarks

Seth’s Blog: The panic tax:

The answer to, “should we panic,” is always no. Always. Panic is expensive, panic compounds and panic doesn’t solve the problem.

Why Pi Matters – The New Yorker:

They’re calling this the Pi Day of the century: 3.14.15. Pi to five digits. A once-in-a-lifetime thing… Just stay off the streets at 9:26:53, when the time will approximate pi to ten places: 3.141592653.

Sometimes Life Sucks, So You Might As Well Do Something About It : The Art of Non-Conformity:

If you find yourself staring at a to-do list and aren’t sure what to tackle next, ask yourself: “What action will help someone?” Make this your mission, your job description, perhaps even your reason for existing.

When Musicians Unintentionally Steal – Pacific Standard:

There is, as it turns out, a known phenomenon, called cryptomnesia, where previously stored memories present themselves as original creations. We’ve all experienced something like this: You’re asked your opinion on a newsworthy subject and, perhaps unconsciously, find yourself parroting an op-ed you read earlier in the day.

For decades, it was assumed that these suppressed memories could only be recalled in alerted states of consciousness. That changed when, in 1965, Dr. F. Kräupl Taylor conducted some of the first research to explore the idea that these thoughts might be lying dormant, sometimes sneaking into our consciousness:

When an event consists of information about some original creation in the world of art, literature and thought, and the logical memory of the event has deteriorated to the point at which the information is no longer recognized as a memory, cryptomnesia may give rise to unintended plagiarism. This happens when the logical memory is activated fortuitously or by some mental scanning process so that the information appears in consciousness as a cryptomnesically unfamiliar train of thought whose originality and value is appreciated. The train of thought may then be proudly, though mistakenly, claimed as a personal creation.

Legally accurate protest chants against Citizens United – The Washington Post:

Corporate independent expenditures can be limited because of its interest in protecting dissenting shareholders from being compelled to fund corporate political speech!

Selfie Camera – Dilbert Comic Strip on 2015-01-22 | Dilbert by Scott Adams:

We all wanted flying cars, but what we got instead was inexpensive, pocket-sized supercomputers with instant access to all of the information in the world.

Rocky Balboa (2006) – Quotes – IMDb:

The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you’re hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!

The Under-appreciated Benefits of Creative Consistency:

what you do everyday matters more than what you plan to accomplish

Why Microsoft’s reorganization is a bad idea | stratechery by Ben Thompson:

DuPont, the famous chemical company, was actually built on gunpowder. Founded in the early 1800s, DuPont was a small family concern until the early 1900s, when Pierre DuPont modernized and organized the company around functions: primarily sales and manufacturing. The structure served DuPont well, particularly in World War I, when in response to overwhelming demand DuPont vertically integrated its supply chain, and grew to become one of the largest companies in the world.

After the war, DuPont needed to diversify, and paint, which involved a similar compound to gunpowder, was the area they chose to focus on. Yet, despite the fact DuPont was perhaps the most professionally run corporation in America, losses soared. Eventually, a disconnect between sales and manufacturing was identified as the root cause, and the cure was a new organization around two separate gunpowder and paint divisions.

And thus, the divisional structure was borne. It returned DuPont to profitability, and remains the model for nearly every corporation of significant size, except, notably, for Apple.

And now, Microsoft.

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Talk Video | TED.com:

Listen to politicians now, with their comprehensive 12-point plans. They’re not inspiring anybody. Because there are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority, but those who lead inspire us. Whether they’re individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves.