Month: December 2011

Steve Jobs’s Vision for the World

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Today marks two months since the death of Steve Jobs. You’ve read incredible eulogies, countless personal remembrances, and perhaps have finished reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of the man. I wanted to share the video below, a brief 46-second clip featured in a recent PBS documentary. It vividly captures Steve Jobs’s spirit and his vision for the world:

When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is…and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact: and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

The above edited footage comes from a 1995 interview conducted by the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association, while Jobs was still at NeXT, without the dramatic music. See the full video here.

While I sympathize with Jobs’s vision, I must admit that I haven’t acted upon his message. Not yet. But I will.

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(via A Photo Editor and Brain Pickings)

Working Out at the Office

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This short piece in The New York Times makes me wonder if the practice of installing exercise equipment (and allowing workers to use it) at the office can become more prevalent.

First, a dire warning:

Every day, millions of American workers do something dangerous to their health: they sit down.

Sitting for long periods is hard on the body. It strains the back and causes the muscles to become slack. It slows the processes that metabolize calories, increasing the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

People might think they are protecting themselves from such problems if they exercise outside of working hours. And employers may pat themselves on the back if they offer their workers subsidized gym memberships. But regular exercise doesn’t entirely make up for the shutdown of chemical processes that occurs during long periods of sitting, research has shown.

The Times profiles Salo, a financial staffing firm in Minneapolis, which:

[E]ncourages walking meetings. In a conference room, Salo has set up four treadmill desks, where a height-adjustable working surface is placed above the treadmill track. The desks face one another, so that people can walk and take care of business at the same time.

The results seem impressive:

For six months, the activities of 18 employees — including Mr. Dexheimer — were monitored by a device on their belts. With the help of equipment like the treadmill desks and wireless headsets that permit walking while talking on the phone, the employees collectively lost more than 150 pounds, most of it in body fat. Their cholesterol and triglyceride levels also showed a collective decline. Mr. Dexheimer said he lost 25 pounds, and has kept the weight off.

How far do I have to walk to get my employer on board?

On Inspiration vs. Imitation

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Jessica Hische has a great post about inspiration vs. imitation. While the focus is on the design community, her advice is applicable to all kinds of creative work.

One advice that resonates is that you shouldn’t publish everything you create. Put only your best work online:

When you’re starting out and have a teeny portfolio of student work, it can be very very tempting to publish everything you’re working on, whether it’s practice or actual published work. It’s especially hard because, more often than not, the work you’re doing at your day job is less than inspiring when you are starting out. It will be really hard to resist showing off the illustration you created that was inspired heavily by one of your heroes, because in reality it is probably one of the nicest things you’ve made. But that’s the thing, every new thing you make will be (should be) the nicest thing you’ve made so far, because you’re learning and getting better with each and every new project. Resist posting the practice—the piece that you know is too close to its inspiration. Let that practice fuel original work and then publish to your heart’s content.

Some cool-headed advice on what to do if you find out your work has been ripped-off (published without permission, etc.):

Whenever I’m alerted of a possible rip-offer, I try my best to educate rather than chastise and gently nudge them to find their own voice. If you see someone ripping-off someone you know or admire, I suggest you do the same—initiate the conversation as a helpful and concerned new friend, not an angry enemy. Most of the time the offenders aren’t aware of how obvious their inspiration sources are. We’re all guilty of it when we’re starting out, but hopefully this article will remind some of you to keep that practice work out of your portfolio, which will keep the angry blog commenters off your back.

Read the full post to find Jessica’s thoughts on finding your own voice, training your eye, and diversifying your inspirations.

Why Do Nice Guys Finish Last?

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Jonah Lehrer has a post summarizing the research behind the infamous “nice guys finish last” proclamation:

In 1948, the legendary baseball manager Leo Durocher declared that “nice guys finish last.” Although Durocher would later deny the quote, his pithy line summarizes a popular and pessimistic take on human nature. When it comes to success, we assume that making it to the top requires ethical compromises. Perhaps we need to shout and scream like Steve Jobs, or cut legal corners like Gordon Gekko: the point is that those who win the game of life don’t obey the same rules as everyone else. And maybe that’s why they’re winning.

Well, it turns out Durocher and all those pessimists were right: nice guys really do finish last, or at least make significantly less money. According to a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Beth A. Livingston of Cornell, Timothy A. Judge of Notre Dame, and Charlice Hurst of the University of Western Ontario, levels of “agreeableness” are negatively correlated with the earnings of men.

Let’s begin by defining our terms. There are six facets to agreeableness: trust, straightforwardness, compliance, altruism, modesty and tender-mindedness. Those are all nice character traits, right? Why would someone lacking those traits have a competitive edge in the workplace?

To understand why niceness might be a disadvantage, it helps to understand the essence of disagreeableness. Because being disagreeable doesn’t mean you behave like Ari Gold. It doesn’t mean you are a sociopath or intentionally inflict pain on others. Instead, those on the disagreeable spectrum are generally pretty decent folks, described by their peers as mostly amiable. However, these disagreeable people do consistently exhibit one special trait: they are willing to “aggressively advocate for their position during conflicts.” While more agreeable people are quick to compromise for the good of the group – conflict is never fun – their disagreeable colleagues insist on holding firm. They don’t mind fighting for what they want.

So guys who are “agreeable” tend to lose in getting that pay raise or promotion. But it’s not all bad news:

A new study points out that kindness is the single most salient variable that women look for when choosing a significant other. (Not surprisingly, those looking for a quick fling care most about looks.) So being agreeable won’t make you rich. But it just might help you fall in love, which will make you much happier than a marginal boost in income.

That is interesting. So do nice guys finish last? In some aspects yes. But as the latest research goes to show, perhaps it balances out in the end.

The New York Times’ Ten Best Books of 2011

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The New York Times has unveiled their list of ten best books of 2011. Here’s the list, with five fiction books and five non-fiction books:

Fiction:

1) The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach.

2) 11/22/63 by Stephen King.

3) Swamplandia! by Karen Russell.

4) Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson.

5) The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht.

Non-fiction:

1) Arguably by Christopher Hitchens.

2) The Boy in the Moon by Ian Brown.

3) Malcolm X by Manning Marable.

4) Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

5) A World on Fire by Amanda Foreman.

I haven’t read any of the ten books in this list, though I previously mentioned that Stephen King’s 11/22/63 is on my radar. From the non-fiction titles, I probably will read Daniel Kahneman’s book first, as I am generally interested in psychology.

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A question for the reader: what are some books on your “Best Books of 2011” list?

The World’s Best Airport

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I’ve never been, but I’ve heard great things about Singapore’s Changi International Airport. This Wall Street Journal piece gives some details of the perks you can expect:

The airport offers amenities found elsewhere only in airlines’ fancy lounges for premium passengers. There are comfortable areas for sleeping or watching TV, premium bars, work desks and free Internet. A nap room is about $23 for three hours; a shower can be had for $6. If you want to put your feet in a tank with tiny fish that eat dead skin, that’s $17 for 20 minutes.

The pool is free to guests of the airport’s in-transit hotels; otherwise it’s about $11 a person. A bus tour of Singapore is offered free by the airport. The tour is arranged so that passengers don’t have to clear immigration—the airport retains passports so passengers don’t run off.

Simple steps matter, like minimizing annoying announcements and honking carts and instead playing soothing music to reduce stress. Placing rival currency-exchange booths and clothing stores side-by-side stimulates competition. Touch screens in bathrooms let travelers send text messages to supervisors when toilet paper runs out, for example.

Click through the article to see a video as well.