Which Shreddies do you like better, the old squares or the new diamonds?
Intangible value, or How to make people who hate potatoes, desperately want it
Meet Anna Lee Fisher — the first mother in space.
She’s beautiful.
This is the “Welcome” message at Apple.
Powerful. Very, very powerful.
Source: asimpleguyblog.blogspot.in
A woman tries to get all she can out of a man, and a man tries to get all he can into a woman.
For the Aristotle fans…
“Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives’ mouths.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society
No one’s perfect, not even Aristotle.
Source: helpmehelpus
Don’t assume a linear relationship.
That was me paraphrasing the ever insightful John D.Cook. Assuming a linear relationship has many times caused well-intentioned actions lead to disastrous results.
John gives an example: just because moderate exercise is good for us does not mean extreme doses of exercise is extremely good for us. It’s not a linear relationship and someone who is very enthusiastic might actually hurt themselves while, ironically, doing healthy things. I know this first hand and that’s part of the reason why this makes so much sense to me.
While it’s not exactly new insight, it reinforces something that we often tend to overlook - always be conscious of the assumptions you make and adjust accordingly.
Taste
Two people.
Same place, same time, same scene, same phone(camera), same service, same filters, same subject.
Look at the difference.
Taste is innate.
Where Does Your Strength End? Extended Cognition and Granted Power : Max Cho
Very insightful post by Max Cho on some things to ponder before judging the abilities of others (in situations like hiring/firing people, choosing friends, co-founders, team mates etc…).
The gist is that in-born ability can be amplified by using tools — we can run at 12 kmph but using a tool like a bicycle we can easily double our speed to 24 kmph — so it’s time we took into account not just a person’s in-born ability but also the person’s ability to amplify. Someone who’s a slow runner at only 8 kmph max but can cycle at 45kmph is much more valuable than someone who’s a fast runner at 18 kmph but can only cycle to a max of 40 kmph, because the first person has better ability to amplify his/her natural abilities through superior usage of tools (the bicycle).
Max Cho sums it up here:
Inherent power has its place: on the field, on the silver screen. But it’s not obvious to me why we inflict it on people in job interviews and tests unless it directly correlates and predicts extended power.
This gets even more interesting now that we’re in an age where we live amidst people who can even “hear” colors via mechanical augmentation. This kind of immense power that lies at our disposal via amplification of our natural abilities using tools puts strain on conventional thinking related to what we call “gifted” people.
Never forget the big picture, that’s what makes you a genius
Max Cho’s blog is a must-read for any budding intellectual and one of the links he shared was this insightful illustration by Matt Might emphasizing how we increasingly lose focus of the big picture called “The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D”. It applies to all of us, not just Ph.Ds as we all work on specializing in our interest areas and we keep losing focus of the big picture. This is the hallmark of a “Genius” - the ability to focus on something and then instantly, and at will, zoom back out and look at how the tiny little detail he was focussing on fits into the big picture, zoom back in, make adjustments and zoom back out again until everything is just right.
The insight that “Genius” is the ability to switch between the detail view and the big picture at will, is actually not that new. Steve Jobs shared this same insight way back in 1983 when he was merely 26 years old while addressing the Academy of Achievement at Stanford. This is what he said:
“Have you ever thought about what it is to be intelligent? ‘Cause you meet your friend and he’s pretty dumb and you think you’re smarter and you wonder what the difference is [audience laughs]… I’ve thought about this a little bit myself and one of the things is… it seems to me… a lot of it’s memory, but a lot of it’s the ability to, sort of, zoom out like you’re in a city and you can look at the whole thing from about the 80th floor down at the city and while other people are trying to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B reading these stupid little maps, you can just see it all out in front of you, you can see the whole thing, and you can make connections that… just seem obvious, ‘cause you can see the whole thing… that’s why bright people feel guilty a lot ‘cause they come up with stuff that they just say ‘hey, look at this!’ and other people give him these dumb awards, and they feel… funny. [audience laughter and applause]”.
Steve nailed it decades ago, but Matt’s illustration is another powerful, visual reminder of the importance of never losing sight of the big picture.
I’ve found that it is the humble who are the most stubborn of all.
- Me (@vjk2005).
Most famous examples would be Gandhi and MLK, but I first realized this from interactions with everyday people as well as from introspection/self-reflection and later found parallels among famous people.
Note: ‘Stubborn’ and ‘humble’ are used here without any slants to either negative or positive. Humble means ‘modest’ and stubborn means ‘will not yield easily’.
