Why Idleness Is the Best Investment You Can Make
In today’s Western culture, we mistake productivity for the appearance of productivity. The frantic attentiveness to smartphones which characterizes corporate ambition, for example, is a display of how hard someone is working, not an actual measure of their productivity.
via Why Idleness Is the Best Investment You Can Make | IdeaFeed | Big Think.
I am not doing very much today so that I can be more productive.
How to Rewire Your Brain For Success
In neuroscience, the previous prevailing belief had been that the adult human brain is essentially “hardwired,” so that by the time we reach adulthood we are stuck with what we have. Now we understand that the adult brain retains impressive powers of “neuroplasticity”—the ability to change its structure and function in response to experiences real or imagined.
via How to Rewire Your Brain For Success | Experts’ Corner | Big Think.
Luck v. Skill – Finding Success as an Expert Witness in Life Underwriting
Economist’s View: Luck vs. Skill.
Here’s a nice blog post to get your cognitive processes started on this fine Sunday morning. Success – luck or skills and hard work? This is a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. Unlike other missives I will purposely avoid politics. To me,the answer is quite simple.
Both.
I work hard and have worked hard for a very long time to achieve success. But at the same time, I recognize and appreciate how luck is as crucial a factor to success as skill and hard work. Think about it.
Ten Reasons Winners Keep Winning, Aside from Skill – Rosabeth Moss Kanter – Harvard Business Review
Winners gain ten important advantages as a result of victory — and that smart leaders can cultivate and build on these advantages to make the next success possible.
via Ten Reasons Winners Keep Winning, Aside from Skill – Rosabeth Moss Kanter – Harvard Business Review.
The War to Our South – Mexico Dissolves Their FBI And Moves To Legalize Drugs
President-elect Enrique Pena and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who won control of Mexico’s government on July 1st, moved to dissolve the Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI). Modeled after the United States FBI, the AFI was founded in 2001 to crack down on Mexico’s pervasive government corruption and drug trafficking. With rival drug cartels murdering between 47,500 to 67,000 Mexicans over the last six years, the move by the PRI represents the total surrender of Mexico’s sovereignty back to the money and violence of Mexico’s two main drug cartels, the Sinaloa Federation and Los Zetas. Coupled with the Obama Administration’s “Dreamer” Executive Order curtailing deportations of illegal aliens, a hands-off policy on both sides of the border foreshadows a huge increase in “narco-trafficking” violence and corruption flooding into the United States.
via Testosterone Pit – Home – Mexico Dissolves Their FBI And Moves To Legalize Drugs.
Gila Monster News – From Lizard to Laboratory… and Beyond
While studying the effects of exendin-4 on the pancreas, Dr. Egan and her colleagues found that it also seemed to have beneficial effects on the brain. Specifically, GLP-1 stimulates the growth of neurites (developing neurons) in cell culture, and both GLP-1 and exendin-4 protect mature neurons against cell death. In fact, research increasingly suggests that there may be a link between some neurodegenerative disorders and metabolic dysfunction. The hope is that drugs, such as exendin-4, that enhance metabolic function may also be useful in the treatment of neurologic disease.
Building on these findings, Dr. Egan and others in the NIA Intramural Research Program have tested exendin-4 in cellular and mouse models of several neurodegenerative diseases. The results are promising. For example, using a mouse model of Huntington’s disease, they found that exendin-4 reduces the accumulation of the mutant huntingtin protein, which is implicated in the disease’s onset and progression. The treatment also improved motor function and extended the survival time of the Huntington’s disease mice.
In other studies, investigators found that exendin-4 significantly reduced levels of amyloid beta protein (a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease) and its precursor molecule in mice models of the disorder. It also proved beneficial in cellular and animal models of another neurodegenerative disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
via National Institute on Aging | The Leader in Aging Research.
Why Firms Should Care About the Plight of Un-Free Agents
Can empathy increase business results? I think it probably can when it comes to contingent workers.Companies are turning increasing to contractors, temps and outsourced workers. Some of them are happily self-employed or untroubled to be working for a temporary staffing agency—high-skilled professionals especially seem to like independent contractor status. But a good portion of today’s free agents aren’t working that way voluntarily. They would prefer the steadier situation of regular employment. They may have been laid off during the downturn, or they may be straight out of college and eager to grasp the lowest rung of the career ladder. For these folks, temp or contractor work is a last resort rather than a first choice. They are more un-free than free agents. As such, they probably enter into work assignments with an engagement deficit. They may be determined to do a decent job, but by definition aren’t thrilled to be working as they are.
via Why Firms Should Care About the Plight of Un-Free Agents – Work In Progress Blog – Workforce.
Arms-Length Embrace – Work In Progress Blog – Workforce.
I agree with more empathy. I totally disagree with the notion that higher levels of empathy will reduce or eliminate the so-called issue of “engagement deficit”. You reduce or eliminate “engagement deficit” by hiring these individuals to regular jobs with benefits.
What ever happened to common sense? Are numbers more important than people? Never forget the simple fact people who get the work done create the numbers.
Ampyra (dalfampridine) – Seizure Risk for Multiple Sclerosis Patients
BACKGROUND: Ampyra was approved to improve walking in patients with MS. Seizures are a known side effect of Ampyra, and seizure risk increases with higher blood levels of the drug. Ampyra is eliminated from the body through the kidneys, and patients with kidney impairment may develop higher blood levels of the drug, thereby increasing their seizure risk.
A nice article on the topic.
By James Kwak
Usually the New York Times gives reasonably good financial advice—or, at least it avoids giving really bad advice. Today, however, Paul Sullivan’s column borders on the latter. The question is whether to take a pension payout as a lump sum or as an annuity (a guaranteed, fixed amount per year until you die).
Sullivan’s column isn’t all bad. He talks about the importance of being able to manage your money and the need to be comfortable with risk if you take the lump sum. He also points out the annuity (in this case, based on what GM workers are being offered) isn’t indexed to inflation, which is an important consideration. And he doesn’t come down on one side or the other, although he says he would take the lump sum because, he says, “I would rather control the money myself.”
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