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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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Posted on February 2, 2013 in Figure Stuff Out

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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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Posted on January 31, 2013 in Figure Stuff Out

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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.

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Posted on January 27, 2013 in Figure Stuff Out

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

Posted on January 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

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 →

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

Posted on January 19, 2013 | 1 comment

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 →

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

Posted on January 17, 2013 | 1 comment

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

The discussion continues below.
Continue reading →

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

Posted on January 15, 2013 | 3 comments

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 →

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Personality Matters

Posted on January 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

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 →

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Optimizing Your Failures

Posted on December 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

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 →

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Why Many Personal Projects Fail

Posted on December 23, 2012 | 1 comment

At least for me, keeping up New Years resolutions is like living through Ground Hog Day of recurrent failures. Continue reading →

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