Understanding how habits rule our lives

UNDERSTANDING HOW HABITS RULE OUR LIVES

IN AN EXCERPT FROM CHARLES DUHIGG’S THE POWER OF HABIT , THE JOURNALIST EXPLAINS HOW HABIT IS THE FOUNDATION FOR THE MOST SOPHISTICATED FIGHTING ORGANIZATIONS ON EARTH–AND EVERYTHING ELSE.

BY CHARLES DUHIGG

I first became interested in the science of habits eight years ago, as a newspaper reporter in Baghdad. The U.S. military, it occurred to me as I watched it in action, is one of the biggest habit-formation experiments in history. Basic training teaches soldiers carefully designed habits for how to shoot, think, and communicate under fire. On the battlefield, every command that’s issued draws on behaviors practiced to the point of automation. Read more of this post

Stallone: from ‘Rocky’ start to living legend; The Hollywood star opens his heart on stage in London at a one-night-only event

January 17, 2014 6:48 pm

Sylvester Stallone at the Palladium

Stallone: from ‘Rocky’ start to living legend

The Hollywood star opens his heart on stage in London at a one-night-only event

By Antonia Quirke

After last year’s sellout An Evening With Al Pacino, now a for-one-night-only event with Sylvester Stallone. How is a dismal, rain-soaked London to cope? In the Palladium, champagne is being knocked back like lemon cordial by glamorous forty-something women and black T-shirted male action fans during a montage of famous Stallone moments projected on to the massive screen behind: Sly wearing a glistening mullet, Sly considering his wounds in a jungle, Sly yelling “nobody is gonna hit as hard as life!” Read more of this post

A truly great book needs no introduction; Today’s authors waste readers’ time with the clutter of ‘front matter’

January 17, 2014 5:39 pm

A truly great book needs no introduction

By Christopher Caldwell

Today’s authors waste readers’ time with the clutter of ‘front matter’

The other day, I started Alex Ferguson’s autobiography three times. Not that I was distracted or that the life story of the long-time Manchester United manager failed to hold my interest. One cannot help starting the book three times because the book actually starts three times. In his “introduction” Sir Alex describes how “several years ago I began gathering my thoughts for this book . . .” A few pages later is a “preface” in which he begins at the beginning, the 1980s, when he “walked through that tunnel and on to the pitch for my first home game . . .” But then in chapter 1, a few pages on, we learn that those were actually false starts, and that Sir Alex really wants to get the story rolling with his final match last May. (“If I needed a result to epitomise what Manchester United were about it came to me in Game No. 1,500 …”) Read more of this post

3 Brilliant Negotiating Tips I Learned From Steve Jobs

3 Brilliant Negotiating Tips I Learned From Steve Jobs

PETER COHAN, INC.
JAN. 17, 2014, 3:08 PM 32,894 4

In June 2007, when Apple’s first iPhone was sold, cell phones were already a big market. But by 2009, Apple ended up with 30 percent of it.

How did Jobs convince AT&T to give Apple a groundbreaking deal in exchange for the exclusive right to service the iPhone in the U.S.? When he worked at telecommunications consulting firm Adventis, Raj Aggarwal met with Jobs twice a week for several months. Read more of this post

In his new book titled There is Always a Choice, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono admits that he and his family had almost fallen victim to witchcraft

SBY says black magic haunts him, family.

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Sat, January 18 2014, 1:04 PM

In his new book, published Friday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono admits that he and his family had almost fallen victim to witchcraft. In the book, titled There is Always a Choice, Yudhoyono tells the story of  how he and First Lady Ani Yudhoyono had to fight dark clouds hovering inside their house in Cikeas, Bogor, West Java. Yudhoyono wrote that during one Sunday morning prior to the 2009 election, his wife was reading a magazine in the living room while he was busy in the library.
“Suddenly, my wife screamed and called to me. I ran into the room to find out what happened. It turned out that there was this thick dark cloud hovering beneath the ceiling, trying to enter my bedroom,” wrote Yudhoyono. “I then asked everybody to pray to seek Allah’s help. I closed the door to my room but left others wide open. The revolving clouds eventually headed out of my house.” “Alhamdulillah. Praise the Lord. My family was safe. The incident was like footage in a typical horror movie. But this really was happening. It was real,” he said in a chapter titled “Threat to the President can reach the level of assassination”. Yudhoyono said that there were other incidents that he believed could not be explained logically, but he preferred to keep them closed to the public.

61.5% of S’pore youth want to get out of S’pore

Survey: 61.5% of S’pore youth want to get out of S’pore

January 17th, 2014 |  Author: Editorial

Singapore Polytechnic (SP) released the findings of its Mass Media Research 2013 survey on Wednesday (15 Jan), which indicate that the top three aspirations of youth in Singapore are:

attain financial stability

strong family relationships

work-life balance

The Mass Media Research survey is an annual exercise that serves as a platform for SP’s Diploma in Media and Communication students to better understand current social issues and media trends. Past survey topics have included cyber-bullying, social media and citizen journalism. Read more of this post

Formula One Boss Bernie Ecclestone Cedes Powers; Tycoon Faces Trial in Germany on Charges of Bribery and Fraud

Formula One Boss Bernie Ecclestone Cedes Powers

Tycoon Faces Trial in Germany on Charges of Bribery and Fraud

WILLIAM BOSTON and JOSHUA ROBINSON

Updated Jan. 16, 2014 2:26 p.m. ETBERLIN— Bernie Ecclestone, the flamboyant tycoon who built Formula One racing into a global franchise, has stepped down from the racing circuit’s management board pending the outcome of a trial in Germany on charges of bribery and fraud. Read more of this post

Whitney Tilson Is Looking To Sell Value Investor Insight

Whitney Tilson Is Looking To Sell Value Investor Insight

by ValueWalk StaffJanuary 17, 2014
Value Investor Insight run by John Heins and Whitney Tilson is up for sale. See below for more details, which ValueWalk received via an email from Tilson.

As Value Investor Insight enters its 10^th year, my long-time partner and co-founder, John Heins, is contemplating a next stage of his career. This has prompted our contemplating a next stage in Value Investor Insight’s evolution as well. We’re exceedingly proud of VII (attached is our latest issue) and will ensure that it doesn’t miss a beat, but we’re starting to look for a partner or partners who might be interested in buying all or part of the business and taking over John’s full-time responsibility in running it. (My involvement in the day-to-day operation is almost nil, both because John does an exceptional job interviewing investors and producing the newsletter and because my energies are focused on being a money manager, not interviewing other ones!) The business is a beautiful, high-margin cash cow. If you or someone you know might have an interest in it, please let me know and I can give you further information.

Finding a mutual-fund manager who can beat the market is tough. Winners flame out. Losers revive. The resurgent losers flame out again

And the Next Star Fund Manager is …

We detail what makes one more likely to be a winner

JOE LIGHT

Updated Jan. 17, 2014 11:39 p.m. ET

Finding a mutual-fund manager who can beat the market is tough. Winners flame out. Losers revive. The resurgent losers flame out again. No wonder low-cost index-based exchange-traded funds and mutual funds—which seek only to mimic the return of a designated slice of the market—have eclipsed actively managed funds as the investment of choice for many people.

Read more of this post

Indian couple defy taboo in inter-caste love story

Indian couple defy taboo in inter-caste love story

Friday, January 17, 2014 – 03:02

AFP

NEW DELHI – When Tilakam, from one of India’s high social castes, married the love of her life in a simple ceremony 12 years ago, she feared outrage from relatives and ostracism. Read more of this post

Professor Puts Ideas in Practice as Reverse-Mortgage CEO

Professor Puts Ideas in Practice as Reverse-Mortgage CEO

Columbia Business School Professor Christopher Mayer says he’s so convinced that reverse mortgages can be a cornerstone of responsible retirement planning that he’s gone into the business.

The loans were criticized by regulators including the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after they were pitched to senior citizens needing quick cash under rules that allowed borrowers to take out and quickly spend most of their equity. Now, with new limits to curb up-front spending, they can help ensure retirees won’t outlive their assets, according to Mayer, who is teaching fewer classes at Columbia so he can be chief executive of a startup reverse-mortgage lender. Read more of this post

David Brooks Is Wrong About Inequality

David Brooks Is Wrong About Inequality

JOSH BARRO

JAN. 17, 2014, 4:24 PM 4,921 43

David Brooks has a column about inequality today and it’s wrong. But it’s wrong in a way that helps explain why conservatives have no idea how to talk about inequality.

Brooks offers two theories of what sort of problem inequality might be: That people at the top are accruing too much money, and that people at the bottom are getting left behind. Like most conservatives, he wants to focus on the second problem. Regarding the first, he attacks the “primitive zero-sum mentality” that holds “growing affluence for the rich must somehow be causing the immobility of the poor.” Read more of this post