My Public Island

I click “Form”, and about 10 hours later the print is done. (via...

Fri, 17 May 2013 20:30:47 -0400

I click “Form”, and about 10 hours later the print is done. (via Formlabs Form 1 Teardown « bunnie’s blog)

THIS IS (PROFOUND / WATER) (by David Foster Wallace...

Fri, 17 May 2013 20:06:32 -0400

THIS IS (PROFOUND / WATER) (by David Foster Wallace + SeeTheGlossary)

The value of being well educated and well adjusted: awareness, mindfulness and mindset.

—-

In 2005, author David Foster Wallace was asked to give the commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College. However, the resulting speech didn’t become widely known until 3 years later, after his tragic death. It is, without a doubt, some of the best life advice we’ve ever come across, and perhaps the most simple and elegant explanation of the real value of education.
We made this video, built around an abridged version of the original audio recording, with the hopes that the core message of the speech could reach a wider audience who might not have otherwise been interested. However, we encourage everyone to seek out the full speech (because, in this case, the book is definitely better than the movie).
-The Glossary

“Habit-forming drugs work in similar ways,” they wrote. “A...

Fri, 17 May 2013 02:38:24 -0400

“Habit-forming drugs work in similar ways,” they wrote. “A tranquilizer that leaves the body rapidly is much more likely to cause dependence than one that leaves the body slowly, precisely because the user is more aware that the drug’s effects are wearing off. Similarly, viewers’ vague learned sense that they will feel less relaxed if they stop viewing may be a significant factor in not turning the set off. Viewing begets more viewing.” (via Why You’re Addicted to TV - Newsweek and The Daily Beast)

Priceonomics Blog: Saving The World By Helping People Sell Their Crap

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:18:03 -0400

Priceonomics Blog: Saving The World By Helping People Sell Their Crap:

priceonomics:

The same gnawing uncertainty that keeps an amateur pilot from buying a plane without a logbook is the same uncertainty at work with every used iPhone, toaster, and bicycle. It’s why the value of a new car drops around 10% as soon as it is driven off the lot and why the market for used…

McKinsey shares four ways to grow the Korean middle...

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:13:00 -0400

McKinsey shares four ways to grow the Korean middle class:

Reduce housing payments.
End the education “arms race.”
Build up services and SMEs.
Create an entrepreneurial SME sector.

i.e. block wealthy property owners from scooping up all the apartments, raise taxes so the gov’t can take business from the private education sector, and stop the chaebol from eating SMEs…

In other news: Rich people tire of money, power and Samsung invents the bottomless rice bowl, gifts it to the North, “seo-bi-su”.

(via Beyond Korean style: Shaping a new growth formula | McKinsey & Company)

Priceonomics Blog: Why is Science Behind a Paywall?

Sat, 11 May 2013 20:13:36 -0400

Priceonomics Blog: Why is Science Behind a Paywall?:

priceonomics:

Scientists’ work follows a consistent pattern. They apply for grants, perform their research, and publish the results in a journal. The process is so routine it almost seems inevitable. But what if it’s not the best way to do science?

Although the act of publishing seems to entail…

if science evolved, it would flourish in communities like github, soundcloud, and tumblr.

how might we incentivize a more open and collaborative practice of research and discovery?

#shouldersofgiants

Priceonomics Blog: The Motivating Power Of Teams

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:12:38 -0400

Priceonomics Blog: The Motivating Power Of Teams:

priceonomics:

Grant’s research suggests that this desire to help co-workers is very powerful. Not everyone’s job will help save the world, but everyone can help a co-worker. In Grant’s words: “In corporate America, people do sometimes feel that the work they do isn’t meaningful. And contributing to co-workers can be a substitute for that.”

#truecost – I <3 Transparency (via Men’s Oxfords -...

Mon, 06 May 2013 19:05:35 -0400

#truecost – I <3 Transparency

(via Men’s Oxfords - Everlane)

The Secret to Focus

Mon, 06 May 2013 02:06:29 -0400

Evidently, guarding yourself from potential distractions help you focus your energy.

the study called the On High Alert group, improved their score on the task by 43 percent over the course of two trials. They even outperformed those who were left alone without interruption.

“Somehow, it seems, they marshaled extra brain power to steel themselves against interruption, or perhaps the potential for interruptions served as a kind of deadline that helped them focus even better.”

"People keep trying to describe bitcoin as an amazing store of value. Perhaps it is. But its real..."

Sun, 05 May 2013 12:57:02 -0400

“People keep trying to describe bitcoin as an amazing store of value. Perhaps it is. But its real value proposition is as a medium for transfer.”

- Let’s Cut Through the Bitcoin Hype: A Hacker-Entrepreneur’s Take | Wired Opinion | Wired.com

Audio

Fri, 03 May 2013 04:31:54 -0400

Life is too short for 6 second videos. (Unless they are useful.)

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:14:07 -0400

Unlike previous Vines from brands, these are designed to be useful. The effort, called “Lowe’s Fix in Six,” offers simple, everyday improvements that consumers will want (hopefully) to share with others.

It’s better than 6 second selfies.

"[They] taunt us with clues about the potential future of our species…. [Their] raw brain power seems..."

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:37:59 -0400

““[They] taunt us with clues about the potential future of our species…. [Their] raw brain power seems to have more potential than the mammalian brain…. By all rights, [they] should be running the show and we should be their pets.””

- Octopus: The Footed Void by Caspar Henderson | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

Incredible Octopods. With 10 senses and 8 tongues, the search for non-human intelligent life begins in the sea.

Refreshingly direct. Be like Lee. Lean into your personal brand....

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:30:25 -0400

Refreshingly direct. Be like Lee. Lean into your personal brand. And don’t be afraid of having a little fun while you are it.

Epic and Honest Mobile Home Commercial (by RhettandLink)

"Herndon found some hidden errors in Reinhart and Rogoff’s data set, then calmly took the..."

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:42:42 -0400

“Herndon found some hidden errors in Reinhart and Rogoff’s data set, then calmly took the entire study out back and slaughtered it.”

- Grad Student Who Shook Global Austerity Movement — Daily Intelligencer

New levels of #amazing. 100 yards from a proper bathroom at...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 04:38:09 -0400

New levels of #amazing. 100 yards from a proper bathroom at Ikea, a mother instead chooses to use a nearby rubbish bin as a urinal for her son. #onlyinchina (at 宜家家居 | IKEA)

808 State Resident MR•CAR//\ACK Life/Death EP by mr. carmack

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 08:44:09 -0400

808 State Resident MR•CAR//\ACK Life/Death EP by mr. carmack

Peter Thiel's CS183: Startup - Class 1 Notes Essay

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 09:00:56 -0400

blakemasters:

Here is an essay version of my class notes from Class 1 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are my own. Credit for good stuff is Peter’s entirely.

CS183: Startup—Notes Essay—The Challenge of the Future

Purpose and Preamble

We might describe our world as having retail sanity, but wholesale madness. Details are well understood; the big picture remains unclear. A fundamental challenge—in business as in life—is to integrate the micro and macro such that all things make sense.

Humanities majors may well learn a great deal about the world. But they don’t really learn career skills through their studies. Engineering majors, conversely, learn in great technical detail. But they might not learn why, how, or where they should apply their skills in the workforce. The best students, workers, and thinkers will integrate these questions into a cohesive narrative. This course aims to facilitate that process.

I. The History of Technology

For most of recent human history—from the invention of the steam engine in the late 17^th century through about the late 1960’s or so— technological progress has been tremendous, perhaps even relentless. In most prior human societies, people made money by taking it from others. The industrial revolution wrought a paradigm shift in which people make money through trade, not plunder.

The importance of this shift is hard to overstate. Perhaps 100 billion people have ever lived on earth. Most of them lived in essentially stagnant societies; success involved claiming value, not creating it. So the massive technological acceleration of the past few hundred years is truly incredible.

The zenith of optimism about the future of technology might have been the 1960’s. People believed in the future. They thought about the future. Many were supremely confident that the next 50 years would be a half-century of unprecedented technological progress.

But with the exception of the computer industry, it wasn’t. Per capita incomes are still rising, but that rate is starkly decelerating. Median wages have been stagnant since 1973. People find themselves in an alarming Alice-in-Wonderland-style scenario in which they must run harder and harder—that is, work longer hours—just to stay in the same place. This deceleration is complex, and wage data alone don’t explain it. But they do support the general sense that the rapid progress of the last 200 years is slowing all too quickly.

Read More

"I like what Rob Brezsny said about “pro-noia” being the antidote for paranoia. So pronoia is..."

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 23:58:04 -0400

“I like what Rob Brezsny said about “pro-noia” being the antidote for paranoia. So pronoia is agreeing that the universe wants to interject blessing into our life in disguise, so we choose to explore the mystery of the situation at hand and figure out in what way the universe is trying to grow our soul. Whereas paranoia is the mindset that everyone is out to take a piece of you instead of realizing that each situation is an opportunity to learn about everything that is, you know?”

- Catching Up with Kai, the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker | VICE Australia / NZ Wisdom of the Home Free

"cartoon contest winners usually generate lots of captions. Studies of creativity have shown that..."

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 05:23:42 -0400

“cartoon contest winners usually generate lots of captions. Studies of creativity have shown that quantity breeds quality—what I call the productivity theory, because high productivity corresponds to high creativity.”

- Roger Ebert Wins the Cartoon Caption Contest : The New Yorker