Category: Delicious Bookmarks

Nashville police chief shares message, responds to questions:

While I don’t doubt that you sincerely believe that your thoughts represent the majority of citizens, I would ask you to consider the following before you chisel those thoughts in stone.

As imperfect humans, we have a tendency to limit our association with other persons to those persons who are most like us. Unfortunately, there is even more of a human tendency to stay within our comfort zone by further narrowing those associations to those persons who share our thoughts and opinions. By doing this we can avoid giving consideration to thoughts and ideas different than our own. This would make us uncomfortable. By considering only the thoughts and ideas we are in agreement with, we stay in our comfort zone. Our own biases get reinforced and reflected back at us leaving no room for any opinion but our own. By doing this, we often convince ourselves that the majority of the world shares opinion and that anyone with another opinion is, obviously, wrong.

It is only when we go outside that comfort zone, and subject ourselves to the discomfort of considering thoughts we don’t agree with, that we can make an informed judgment on any matter. We can still disagree and maintain our opinions, but we can now do so knowing that the issue has been given consideration from all four sides. Or, if we truly give fair consideration to all points of view, we may need to swallow our pride and amend our original thoughts.

And, it is only by giving consideration to the thoughts of all persons, even those that disagree with us, that we can have an understanding as to what constitutes a majority.

Beer delivered to your door in Pa.? Easy as LCB:

Happy new year, Pennsylvania beer drinkers: Getting your hands on a six pack or two will become as easy as ordering a pizza.    And this new convenience for consumers came about through a simple letter to the Liquor Control Board this fall.

Do Not Listen to the Crazy Man Telling You to Quit Your Job:

By ‘understand the business model,’ I mean you can (confidently) answer this question: What is the plan to bring in enough money to sustain the enterprise and permit it to grow?

The Road Not Taken – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler

Why we are unaware that we lack the skill to tell how unskilled and unaware we are – Boing Boing:

I was always more ignorant than I am now, even though I didn’t feel all that ignorant then. That means that it’s probably also true that right now I’m sitting here in a state of total ignorance concerning things that my future self wishes he could shout back at me through time. Yet here I sit, unaware. Nescient. The evidence gathered so far by psychologists and neuroscientists seems to suggest that each one of us has a relationship with our own ignorance, a dishonest, complicated relationship, and that dishonesty keeps us sane, happy, and willing to get out of bed in the morning.

Knowledge vs. Intelligence · An A List Apart Blog Post:

The difference between knowledge and intelligence is key here. Knowledge is the collection of skills and information a person has acquired through experience. Intelligence is the ability to apply knowledge. Just because someone lacks knowledge of a particular subject doesn’t mean they can’t apply their intelligence to help solve problems. Knowledge is wonderful, but it fades as techniques and technologies come and go. Intelligence sustains. Its borders extend beyond any technique or technology, and that makes all the difference.

Sacred Grounds – The New Yorker:

An obsession with brewing protocol is generally the mark of an amateur—that pitiable person who makes a simple thing complicated in the futile hope of feeling kinship with the professionals.

Your Money – Assessing the Damage Caused by Your Card Rewards – NYTimes.com:

“The marginal effect of my individual use… simply won’t impact the larger outcome,” [Dave Hanson, a Spokane, Wash., resident, [who] studied philosophy in graduate school at the University of Chicago and taught applied ethics at Gonzaga University], said. “The assumption that we ought to act in a way that we wish all of us would act ignores the fact that there is no mechanism by which we can ensure that we will all act that way. And we won’t.”

How hard to brew beer alone? : Homebrewing:

“Getting into homebrewing to save money on beer is like buying a fishing boat to save money on fish” — Denny Conn.