EZ Reads 6/3/11

Some thoughts going into Shabbos:

• Someone did a study of the 5 largest regrets people have on their deathbeds. It's an interesting read, if somewhat obvious. Excerpt:
  

  3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
  Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.
  We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

• Another interesting piece, if only to the extent to which it's true: What we expect is what we get, to the point that people who were told their jobs are good exercise would lose weight, while those who weren't  told wouldn't. To me, this simply proves that mind truly is over matter to a large extent: You can control far more of your life if you simply decide to.
• An interesting aside from Mark Suster's excellent entrepreneurial blog Both Sides of the Table, discussing Peter Thiel's offer to find 20 bright young entrepreneurs to pay them to drop out of college and pursue their own companies. (Why couldn't anyone do this 8 years ago?!) Excerpt y'all may appreciate if you know me:

  I don’t give a s*** whether you were graduated from college or not. If you’re excellent at what you do (coding, sales, marketing, leadership) and you can demonstrate that, I really don’t care if you went to or dropped out of college. At least not as an entrepreneur. Others might care so you should take that into consideration. I personally don’t. And I can attest to this because one of my leading developers at both of my startups never finished college. It never affected him when it was time to check in his code and I’d hire him again in a second.

• Need some extra motivation? How about an alarm clock which shreds your money?
• Finally, a great marriage proposal using a graffiti mural, in time lapse.
  

EZ Reads 4/12/11

Today was a good, busy day, with some exciting possibilities. This is opposed to my fantasy baseball team, which currently has a 1 in every hitting category, 5 guys on the DL (and another couple hurt), and is barely above the Mendoza line. Ugh.

• Scott Adams has a great piece in the Wall Street Journal on how to get a real education, with some fantastic, funny stories. Excerpt: (not the stories, read the whole article for those)
  

  Attract Luck. You can't manage luck directly, but you can manage your career in a way that makes it easier for luck to find you. To succeed, first you must do something. And if that doesn't work, which can be 90% of the time, do something else. Luck finds the doers. Readers of the Journal will find this point obvious. It's not obvious to a teenager.
  Conquer Fear. I took classes in public speaking in college and a few more during my corporate days. That training was marginally useful for learning how to mask nervousness in public. Then I took the Dale Carnegie course. It was life-changing. The Dale Carnegie method ignores speaking technique entirely and trains you instead to enjoy the experience of speaking to a crowd. Once you become relaxed in front of people, technique comes automatically. Over the years, I've given speeches to hundreds of audiences and enjoyed every minute on stage. But this isn't a plug for Dale Carnegie. The point is that people can be trained to replace fear and shyness with enthusiasm. Every entrepreneur can use that skill.
  Write Simply. I took a two-day class in business writing that taught me how to write direct sentences and to avoid extra words. Simplicity makes ideas powerful.

• On a related note, Lifehacker's piece on what lucky people do differently is entertaining and spot on. Ironically, despite being a rather large proponent of themes in both pieces, I've been rather unlucky in many ways, but I think those can be attributed to some really bad flukes (and people).
• Bad4Shidduchim on singles events dynamics.
• Interesting piece on Freakonomics discussing how fixing the typos and errors in online reviews boosts sales.
• A funny, clever video on Cross Currents called "Kiruv with Sechel" but which also is a great Pesach kashering primer.

EZ Reads 3/28/11

Woah, March is almost over?! It's been a busy month. Real writing will hopefully resume tomorrow... meanwhile here's some good reads from the past few days:

• I finally watched the amazing interview of 12-year old Tamar Fogel. It's mind-boggling how mature she is.
• The biggest buyers of Gemaros (Talmuds) worldwide are far and away...South Korean!?
• How perfectionism can lead to procrastination (and what to do about it). Who knew!?
• Justice and humanity and twisted irony - a Palestinian Arab attacks soldiers, and they stop him after he injures one... then fly the attacker and victim together to get treatment.
• R' Gil discusses how the Orthodox world mirrors the Evangelical Christian one in terms of divides, and questions what to learn from it.
• For all those who love sociology, the claims of a sociologist may impact one of the largest potential class actions in history. It's actually interesting, but I would think that even if it can be proven it shouldn't therefore make them guilty - I don't see how unconscious bias of the whole population would be fair to sue over. There would be no end to it.

EZ Reads 2/21/11

Happy Presidents' Day!

• RafiG discusses R' Ginzberg's piece in the 5TJT on blog commenters and in particular on anonymity. I've long felt that while there's a purpose and reason in rare cases for someone to be anonymous, we'd all be better off if people decloaked and stood behind their statements. Anonymous commenting allows people to say things that not only would they not be comfortable saying under their name, but things they simply shouldn't be saying.
• Via Neil Harris, this Aish video is quite good. I like the subtitle: The only failure is not trying.
• Batya talks about the NCSY Ben Zakkai Dinner, where Serach's aunt and uncle David & Vivian Luchins were honored along with old family friends Zeev and Rivka Leff.
• 10 good tips for Microsoft Word (Gizmodo). I'll admit to only knowing 3-4 of these beforehand.
• How to complain to get what you want (Lifehacker). I've always found that coming in prepared is the key; when you have all the data and just coolly explain what the issue is, you'll usually get a positive response, though usually you'll have to ask for a supervisor. Note that the first person is almost always there to take your info and try to convince you you're wrong, and has no clue or ability to help, so just ask for their supervisor calmly and explain the issue to them.
• Here's links to starting your own society, with the basics of everything. Pretty cool. It's intended for third world countries to assist them in developing rapidly.

EZ Reads 2/18/11

Today's links are mostly fun as opposed to serious, so have a good time and a great Shabbos!

• R' Gil caps the symposium he's held on his blog about the ethics of brain death and organ donation with Part X and gives a closing statement. Excerpt:

  This symposium was not a dialogue. Such a conversation is extremely desirable. Until that happens, the warnings offered by many participants to proceed with respect and caution are worth heeding. ... Until we are able to listen to each other, we will never be able to talk. We did not solve this dilemma here but we can at least leave knowing where the problem lies.

• R' Moshe Grylak in Mishpacha (hat tip: Chana):

  We met in a certain shul. And this is what he reported: “What can I tell you? I’m a kollel man, I learn well; I even enjoy my learning, and I stick to a regular schedule. But I’ll be honest with you — I don’t believe in G‑d. Everything I do is just a sham.”

• Chana writes a difficult piece on Why We Cut.
• Via Diana, there are some nice pictures as CrownHeights.info highlights Cleveland's Friendship Circle which held a dinner for 120+ people for the volunteer-based organization, which works with children with special needs.
• Via Ariella, Divrei Chaim rants about ads promoting luxurious trips... to kevarim.
• Really cool: Wires transform objects from inanimate to hilarious pieces of art.
• Doghouse (cartoon) explains how to explain things to teens these days.
• Why patience matters when selling something online (Lifehacker).
• And finally, xkcd does it again in Let Go (wish I could do what he does in the scroll over text):
  

EZ Reads 2/17/11

There was just about nothing that looked very interesting today until an hour ago or so, and now there's a whole bunch; gotta love the blogosphere. Here's some good stuff:

• My favorite blog Lifehacker posted a while ago How to Hack Your Brain. As one commenter put it, "Your personality and identity ARE significantly more malleable than you realize." Some of the tips are quite good and have worked for myself or others I know.
• They also are asking people What Made You Laugh Today - apparently, it's useful psychologically to pause during your day (great or horrible) and think about what made you laugh recently. Interesting. 
• As someone who had a similar note left on our car recently, after someone smashed our bumper and drove away, I know what this is like. Sick.
• Chana is happy that Mishpacha has a very good piece on self-injury, an excerpt of which is available online.
• What the Jeff Koons lawsuit (which had no merit) teaches us about the chilling effect of copyright law - and lawsuits. (Freakonomics)
• Really? Holy dove drives yeshiva wild:

  Several weeks ago, during a Torah lesson in the Jerusalem yeshiva, a white dove entered the house of study, sat on the window sill and flew out at the end of the lesson.
  The following days, the bird would arrive at the yeshiva and stand in the corner for the entire lesson – prompting the excited yeshiva students to view it as a sign from God.
  They created a "studying circle" around the bird and began reading Talmud verses and begging forgiveness from the soul which they believed "wandered" into the dove.