WTF?

The Fragile Generation – Reason.com

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Must read.  HT naked capitalism.

Source: The Fragile Generation – Reason.com

We’ve had the best of intentions, of course. But efforts to protect our children may be backfiring. When we raise kids unaccustomed to facing anything on their own, including risk, failure, and hurt feelings, our society and even our economy are threatened. Yet modern child-rearing practices and laws seem all but designed to cultivate this lack of preparedness. There’s the fear that everything children see, do, eat, hear, and lick could hurt them. And there’s a newer belief that has been spreading through higher education that words and ideas themselves can be traumatizing.

How did we come to think a generation of kids can’t handle the basic challenges of growing up?

A few years ago, Boston College psychology professor emeritus Peter Gray was invited by the head of counseling services at a major university to a conference on “the decline in resilience among students.” The organizer said that emergency counseling calls had doubled in the last five years. What’s more, callers were seeking help coping with everyday problems, such as arguments with a roommate. Two students had dialed in because they’d found a mouse in their apartment. They also called the police, who came and set a mousetrap. And that’s not to mention the sensitivity around grades. To some students, a B is the end of the world. (To some parents, too.)

To be or not to be (a tree)

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This post is neither an endorsement nor a specific request.  With all of the things I have to think about I now have to decide whether or not I want to be a tree after death.

Memo to Self and To Do List Adds

  1. Decide whether or not to become a tree.
  2. Revise will.
  3. Inform spouse and children of my wishes.
  4. Review advance health care directive to see if it includes watering instructions.

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? – The Atlantic

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Source: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? – The Atlantic

Step away from the phone slowly and keep your hands where I can see them.

Check out the following quote from a celebrity interview.

I heard you deleted the Internet from your phone. And that you deleted Twitter and Instagram and e-mail. No way that’s true, right?
It is! Whenever you check for a new post on Instagram or whenever you go on The New York Times to see if there’s a new thing, it’s not even about the content. It’s just about seeing a new thing. You get addicted to that feeling. You’re not going to be able to control yourself. So the only way to fight that is to take yourself out of the equation and remove all these things. What happens is, eventually you forget about it. You don’t care anymore. When I first took the browser off my phone, I’m like, [gasp] How am I gonna look stuff up? But most of the shit you look up, it’s not stuff you need to know. All those websites you read while you’re in a cab, you don’t need to look at any of that stuff. It’s better to just sit and be in your own head for a minute. I wanted to stop that thing where I get home and look at websites for an hour and a half, checking to see if there’s a new thing. And read a book instead. I’ve been doing it for a couple months, and it’s worked. I’m reading, like, three books right now. I’m putting something in my mind. It feels so much better than just reading the Internet and not remembering anything.

Orthorexia Nervosa: When ‘Healthy’ Eating Turns Dangerous

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The condition also overlaps with obsessive compulsive disorder, obsessive compulsive personality disorder, and somatoform disorders. During the session, two case reports were presented. The first patient was a 72-year-old white Buddhist nun who presented with extreme weight loss. “You get afraid of eating because you don’t know what it’ll do to you,” said the patient in a video clip. “Eventually I was afraid to do anything, so I did nothing.”

Source: Orthorexia Nervosa: When ‘Healthy’ Eating Turns Dangerous

Some time ago I developed a fear of what would happen to me if I stopped drinking alcohol.  So I did nothing.

IBM’s Remote Work Reversal Is A Losing Battle Against The New Normal

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In both a 2014 white paper by IBM’s Smarter Workplace Institute and in a conference panel the company hosted just weeks ago, its own experts suggested that remote workers tend to be happier, less stressed, more productive, more engaged with their jobs and teams, and believe that their companies are more innovative as a result of flexible work arrangements.

Source: IBM’s Remote Work Reversal Is A Losing Battle Against The New Normal

Memo to IBM:

Why?