Teddy Roosevelt’s 10 Rules For Reading

Teddy Roosevelt’s 10 Rules For Reading

February 28, 2014 by Shane Parrish

“A book must be interesting to the particular reader at that particular time.”

Theodore Roosevelt was perhaps the most well-read president. On a normal day he’d read a book before breakfast with another two later in the day. This puts my reading habits to shame. Over his life, he read thousands of books. Read more of this post

Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

February 27, 2014 by Shane Parrish

“It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I’m right.” — Molière

“Why is it so fun to be right?”

That’s the opening line from Kathryn Schulz’ excellent book Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error.

As pleasures go, it is, after all, a second-order one at best. Unlike many of life’s other delights—chocolate, surfing, kissing—it does not enjoy any mainline access to our biochemistry: to our appetites, our adrenal glands, our limbic systems, our swoony hearts. And yet, the thrill of being right is undeniable, universal, and (perhaps most oddly) almost entirely undiscriminating. Read more of this post

“The human mind is a lot like the human egg, and the human egg has a shut-off device. When one sperm gets in, it shuts down so the next one can’t get in.” – Charlie Munger

Falsification

February 24, 2014 by Shane Parrish

“The human mind is a lot like the human egg, and the human egg has a shut-off device. When one sperm gets in, it shuts down so the next one can’t get in.” — Charlie Munger

Sir Karl Popper wrote that the nature of scientific thought is that we could never be sure of anything. The only way to test the validity of any theory was to prove it wrong, a process he labelled falsification. And it turns out we’re quite bad at falsification. When it comes to testing a theory we don’t instinctively try to find evidence we’re wrong. It’s much easier and more mentally satisfying to find information that proves our intuition. This is known as the confirmation bias. Read more of this post

Anne Lamott: Some Instructions on Writing and Life; good writing is about telling the truth

Anne Lamott: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

February 26, 2014 by Shane Parrish

That tweet from Kathryn Schulz set off my quest to find Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. If you’ve ever wondered how I find things, this is a perfect example. Read more of this post

Bridging the Cultural Gulf In China

Bridging the Cultural Gulf In China

by Kunal Sinha | Feb 28, 2014

As the volume of Sino-Indian trade rises steadily, more and more business travellers struggle to bridge the cultural gulf. We tell you how to get around it Read more of this post

Embracing Intelligent Failure

Embracing Intelligent Failure

by Theodore Forbath | Feb 26, 2014

Leaders can reinforce acceptance of failure by publically celebrating projects that didn’t quite meet expected results, but that were successful in providing new learning Read more of this post

What Faces Can’t Tell Us: To figure out what someone is feeling, you need more than just his expression

What Faces Can’t Tell Us

FEB. 28, 2014

By LISA FELDMAN BARRETT

CAN you detect someone’s emotional state just by looking at his face?

It sure seems like it. In everyday life, you can often “read” what someone is feeling with the quickest of glances. Hundreds of scientific studies support the idea that the face is a kind of emotional beacon, clearly and universally signaling the full array of human sentiments, from fear and anger to joy and surprise. Read more of this post

The Downside of Inciting Envy: Fomenting bitterness over income differences may be powerful politics, but it injures our nation

The Downside of Inciting Envy

MARCH 1, 2014

Arthur C. Brooks

THE Irish singer Bono once described a difference between America and his native land. “In the United States,” he explained, “you look at the guy that lives in the mansion on the hill, and you think, you know, one day, if I work really hard, I could live in that mansion. In Ireland, people look up at the guy in the mansion on the hill and go, one day, I’m going to get that bastard.” Read more of this post

NYU announces new entrepreneurship “eLab” to bring the university together

NYU announces new entrepreneurship “eLab” to bring the university together

BY CALE GUTHRIE WEISSMAN 
ON MARCH 1, 2014

This weekend NYU students and alumni are trekking to Greenwich Village from near and far to attend the third annual NYU Entrepreneurs Festival. This two-day event brings together hopeful entrepreneurial minds with older, more-vetted business people, all of whom are at least tangentially affiliated with the Manhattan empire that is known as New York University. Read more of this post

On the importance of keeping investors out of the newsroom, and not treating your readers like fools

On the importance of keeping investors out of the newsroom, and not treating your readers like fools

BY PAUL CARR 
ON MARCH 1, 2014

Mr. Greenwald is a very popular guy on Twitter, with about 320,000 followers. And he has earned a reputation for bullying people who don’t share his views, frequently using his megaphone to launch unfair and frequently dishonest personal attacks. It will be interesting to see if he keeps this up at the $50 million news venture he’s starting that’s being bankrolled by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar. – Christian Science Monitor Read more of this post

With Mt.Gox In Flames, A Lesson: When Building A Company, First Do No Harm

With Mt.Gox In Flames, A Lesson: When Building A Company, First Do No Harm

Posted yesterday by Danny Crichton (@DannyCrichton)

The collapse of Mt.Gox this week has sent shockwaves through the early-adopting tech community. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins have been lost, and account holders are justifiably angry about their missing balances. It is easy to heap blame on Mt.Gox’s founders and call this a once-in-a-lifetime calamity, but the context behind the company’s demise is far more pernicious and occurs far more frequently than it should in the tech community. Read more of this post