http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/think-millennials-prefer-the-city-think-again/TOLD YA’.
Crows move to the city to increase choice of mates and choice of career, then move to the suburbs to build family and career. It’s basic economics. It’s too expensive in the city for the middle class, and too expensive in the suburbs for the lower class. That means cities are sink holes for the top and bottom.
Source date (UTC): 2015-03-22 02:14:00 UTC
http://www.dan.sperber.fr/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/MercierSperberWhydohumansreason.pdf”Reasoning can lead to poor outcomes not because humans are bad at it but because they systematically strive for arguments to justify their beliefs or their actions. This explains the confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and reason-based choice. These fundamental biases and flaws of human reasoning are well known. What the argumentative theory does is put them in a different perspective. Human reasoning is not a profoundly flawed general mechanism, it is a remarkably efficient specialized device (Mercier, submitted). It is not specialized for a specific domain of knowledge, but for a certain type of social and cognitive interaction. The task of finding persuasive reasons and accurately assessing others’ arguments, in which reasoning excels, is no small matter.”
http://www.dan.sperber.fr/…/MercierSperberWhydohumansreason…
Source date (UTC): 2015-03-15 17:04:00 UTC
http://www.aei.org/publication/american-exceptionalism-in-3-charts/Americans are more positive because we believe our lives are under our control. That belief is a self fulfilling prophecy.
Source date (UTC): 2015-03-13 14:16:00 UTC
–“I have discovered that I am emotionally and psychologically very sensitive to a variety of what for me are “hurtful” words that generate fear, anxiety, and depression whenever I hear them or the concepts and ideas behind them are discussed in any public forum or setting.
These are “trigger” words and ideas for me that I think must be banned from all public utterance, discussion and mention:
“Collectivism,” “socialism,” “interventionism,” “welfare statism,” “social justice,” “wealth redistribution,” “altruism,” “self-sacrifice” for the group, tribe, society, or nation,” “public interest,” “common good,” “general welfare,” as well as the display or verbal or written support for any symbol of emblem of any government and its agencies, departments or bureaus.
Only then will my emotional balance, self-esteem, and sense of not being oppressed, discriminated, or abused be assured.
I await recognition of my “trigger” words and ideas, and the appropriate actions being taken against all those who are insensitive and “hurtful” in their words and deeds against me.”–
Source date (UTC): 2015-03-11 01:14:00 UTC
Slept at the office, on the leather couch, after working eighteen hours. And feel awesome.
Living like I’m in my 20’s.
Friend from Seattle, Navin Mithel, told me a long time ago, that he never felt wealthier than when he was a waiter – with cash in his hands.
Why do we work to collect fixed assets and debt when the greatest joy is a backpack, a laptop, three changes of high quality clothes, an interesting business problem, good friends, and freedom? Nesting is for women.
The only security is whatever metal you can put in a safe deposit box anyway.
For me – aside from the laptop, clothes, backpack and cash – a Porsche that doesn’t attract attention, and a handgun for my pillow, and I’m pretty much satisfied.
oh… And women. Can’t forget god’s carrot for the mule.
Source date (UTC): 2015-03-09 03:31:00 UTC
MEIXNER ON MORALITY
(a bit of genius)
—“Assessment of another person’s morality is assessing how much the person’s reproductive strategy is compatible with your own.
Nothing more, nothing less. “Immoral” persons pursue reproductive strategies that are antagonistic to your own. It’s as simple as that.”— Johannes Meixner
Source date (UTC): 2015-03-08 15:34:00 UTC
CREATIVITY : ITS AUTISM – AND IT ISNT A DISEASE ITS AN ADAPTATION
New research provides the first physiological evidence that real-world creativity may be associated with a reduced ability to filter “irrelevant” sensory information.
The literary great Marcel Proust wore ear-stoppers because he was unable to filter out irrelevant noise — and lined his bedroom with cork to attenuate sound.
Now new Northwestern University research suggests why the inability to shut out competing sensory information while focusing on the creative project at hand might have been so acute for geniuses such as Proust, Franz Kafka, Charles Darwin, Anton Chekhov and many others.
The Northwestern research provides the first physiological evidence that real-world creativity may be associated with a reduced ability to filter “irrelevant” sensory information.
The research suggests that some people are more affected by the daily bombardment of sensory information — or have “leakier” sensory filters.
“Leaky” sensory gating, the propensity to filter out “irrelevant” sensory information, happens early, and involuntarily, in brain processing and may help people integrate ideas that are outside of the focus of attention, leading to creativity in the real world, said Darya Zabelina, lead author of the study, calling the finding “impressive.”
The researchers investigated specific neural markers of a very early form of attention, namely sensory gating, indexed by P50 ERP, the neurophysiological response that occurs 50 ms (milliseconds) after stimulus onset, and how it relates to two measures of creativity: divergent thinking and real-world creative achievement.
In the study, approximately 100 participants reported their achievements in creative domains via Creative Achievement Questionnaire, as well as performed a test of divergent thinking, generally considered to be a laboratory test of creative cognition. On this test participants were asked to provide as many answers as they could to several unlikely scenarios, within a limited amount of time. The number and the novelty of participants’ responses comprised the divergent thinking score. As a result, the researchers had two different measures of creativity: a number of peoples’ real-world creative achievements and a laboratory measure of divergent thinking.
Divergent thinking tests are timed laboratory measures of creative cognition, in which participants produce numerous responses within a limited time. In the study, divergent thinking correlated with academic test scores and selective sensory gating — an increased ability to filter compared to lower divergent thinkers.
In direct contrast, real-world creative achievement was associated with leaky sensory processing — or a reduced ability to screen or inhibit stimuli from conscious awareness. This shows that these creativity measures are sensitive to different forms of sensory gating. Divergent thinking does contribute to creativity, but appears to be separate from the process of creative thinking that is associated with the leaky sensory filter.
The study suggests that creative people with “leaky” sensory gating may have a propensity to deploy attention over a wider focus or a larger range of stimuli.
“If funneled in the right direction, these sensitivities can make life more rich and meaningful, giving experiences more subtlety,” said Zabelina, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at Northwestern.
But the downsides to such sensory distraction have been well noted by some of the world’s most creative thinkers.
One of the most influential novelists of the 20th century, Kafka once said, “I need solitude for my writing; not ‘like a hermit’ — that wouldn’t be enough — but like a dead man.” Darwin, Chekhov and Johan Goethe also strongly lamented the distracting nature of noise.
The study cannot yet determine whether reduced sensory gating is a stable trait, or if creative achievers can modulate their sensory processing depending on task demands.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Northwestern University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
Darya L. Zabelina, Daniel O’Leary, Narun Pornpattananangkul, Robin Nusslock, Mark Beeman. Creativity and sensory gating indexed by the P50: Selective versus leaky sensory gating in divergent thinkers and creative achievers.Neuropsychologia, 2015; 69: 77 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.01.034
Source date (UTC): 2015-03-08 00:56:00 UTC
–“The only reason you spend so much time constructing elaborate moral justifications is so that you will *feel* justified acting on your preferences. But people with contrary preferences wilI not be swayed by your justifications.”– Eli Harman
Source date (UTC): 2015-03-03 09:43:00 UTC
—“If you are a CEO, you will understand what it is to manage men. There is a burden in that charge. To relieve that burden, I have found the best control is finding someone to manage you and, in that respect, the best answer is a mother. All of my assistants are mother: each one. Without them I would sleep too late and work less than I should. I am grateful for them. One if them will see this, thank you.”— Don Finnegan
Thank you Mary, Shannon, Jill, Raluca, Aimee, Allora, Veronika and the others.
Source date (UTC): 2015-02-22 23:32:00 UTC
APPROACHES TO UNIVERSITY
My sister:
—“I get A’s. That’s what I do. If I don’t get an A, the professor did something wrong. Because I get A’s.”—
Hysterical. My sister is a Doolittle to her very core. lol. She gets A’s. I am very proud of her.
But she makes me laugh. She practices the opposite of my approach to university:
—“Dear professors: Your opinion matters very little to me, and your grade even less. I pay you to impart knowledge to me, not to certify that you have done so; and especially not to certify that you have imparted what you intended, rather than what I interpreted. This is because I am very suspicious of the quality of your goods and services. In many cases I am quite certain your goods and services are not only unwarrantied, but unwarrantable because they are defective. As such your approval, certification, and warranty are meaningless to me. I do not want your label on my knowledge, because it would suggest my knowledge was likewise defective”—
I told everyone at the time that I was in college that I looked at college as exchange on a good day, and rape on a bad one. I pay money for what they voluntarily impart to me, and if not voluntarily exchanged, then I take what I want wether they wish to impart it or not.
Hence why I don’t work in university.
I don’t seek approval. I seek conquest. I don’t seek to be educated, I seek to learn. I don’t seek to learn the scripture of the Cathedral, I seek to destroy it. The more dead the merrier a party we will have on their graves.
The body count is the score I seek to obtain.
Not a mere glyph of approval on paper.
Cry Havoc.
Punish the wicked.
Leave the world better for having lived in it.
Source date (UTC): 2015-02-22 10:24:00 UTC