Category Archives: Figure Stuff Out

Thoughts and observations about everything in the kitchen sink from the meaning of life to deep-fried sushi.

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Why Everyone Should Chill Out

Any as­pect of life to which at­ten­tion is di­rected will loom large in a global eval­u­a­tion. This is the essence of the fo­cus­ing il­lu­sion, which can be de­scribed in a sin­gle sen­tence:

Noth­ing in life is as im­por­tant as you think it is when you are think­ing about it.

Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize-winning Economist, in Thinking, Fast and Slow

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Three Things Making Work Fulfilling

Those three things—au­ton­omy, com­plex­ity, and a con­nec­tion be­tween ef­fort and re­ward—are, most peo­ple agree, the three qual­i­ties that work has to have if it is to be sat­is­fy­ing. It is not how much money we make that ul­ti­mately makes us happy be­tween nine and five. It’s whether our work ful­fills us. If I of­fered you a choice be­tween being an ar­chi­tect for $75,000 a year and work­ing in a toll­booth every day for the rest of your life for $100,000 a year, which would you take?

Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

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Characterizing Resilience

“Resilient people […] possess three characteristics: a staunch acceptance of reality; a deep belief, often buttressed by strongly held values, that life is meaningful; and an uncanny ability to improvise.

 

You can bounce back from hardship with just one or two of these qualities, but you will only be truly resilient with all three.”

Diane L. Coutu, senior editor at Harvard Business Review, as cited.

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Experts Articulating Expertise

One problem with relying only on subject matter experts for course development is that experts can only articulate about 30 percent of their knowledge.

Ken Koedinger, Professor of Carnegie Mellon University, as cited.

This phenomenon is called the “curse of expertise,” and it shows up in all sorts of settings—not just the instructor who can’t communicate what she knows to her students, but also the parent helping with homework who can’t get a concept across to his child, the marketer or salesperson who misjudges what customers knows, and the manager who’s frustrated that his employees don’t “get it” more quickly.

Annie Murphy Paul, The Brilliant Report, as cited.

[Part 3/3] Reading through the Lens of Porter’s Five Forces

In a prior post I began to describe how Michael Porter’s Five Forces, a mainstay in corporate strategy, can be applied to analyze why my brother cannot seem to finish the Harry Potter series and why I have a mounting pile of books on my to-read list.  Then in a footnote I explained why corporate competition and personal activities are in many ways analogous.

The final part of the discussion follows. Continue reading

[Footnote] Reading through the Lens of Porter’s Five Forces

In a prior post I began to describe how Michael Porter’s Five Forces, a mainstay in corporate strategy, can be applied to analyze why my brother cannot seem to finish the Harry Potter series and why I have a mounting pile of books on my to-read list.

The analogy between organizational attention and reading works because our minds run on attention span a lot like how organizations run on currency and resources.
Continue reading

[Part 2/3] Reading through the Lens of Porter’s Five Forces

In this prior post I described how Substitution is a competitive force that applies to reading.

The discussion continues below.
Continue reading

[Part 1/3] Reading through the Lens of Porter’s Five Forces

My brother has been trying to finish a book for three years, and I have been trying to figure out why for two years and eleven months.  What is stopping you from finishing that great book sitting on the coffee table? Continue reading

Personality Matters

While applying for residency I sought interview advice from friends and mentors. The wisdom followed a general theme: be yourself. The simple advice turned into a prolonged learning experience. Interviewers tend to appreciate the outgoing, opinionated “myself” that greets them loudly with a big smile and a firm handshake.  The “myself” that prefers to ponder, daydream and speak softly probably would have fared poorly in the process. Being an extrovert – or at least resembling one – clearly mattered.  Continue reading

Optimizing Your Failures

Traditional wisdom teaches us to learn from our mistakes, “learn from your mistakes” “What doesn’t kill your makes you stronger.” The old sayings are incomplete, of course. Sometimes mistakes and misfortunes in life can also give us PTSD, lead to bodily harm, or change our lives forever (see: pretty much every book by Ian McEwan). Continue reading