Disappearing again for a bit, so...

...Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays to all :-)



though considering where I am, this is FAR more appropriate:

Links I liked

1. If you've ever been unhappy at work and considering quitting, read this post. It also has the best resignation letter ever.

2. Being a geek myself (and sometimes described as "Vulcan", if you are a Trekkie), I'd highly recommend reading this bit on the top ten mistakes people make when managing geeks. In fact, its so popular (and sanctioned) that its been voluntarily translated into 10 different languages, including Persian and Danish

3. An award-winning toilet made from horse-dung. Would you use it?? I would! Truly amazing what good design mixed with decent engineering can do. Here's another example of good design, good idea, and good engineering.

4.  Love reading while taking a dump?? Here's an innovative new dual purpose toilet book...literally!

5. Do our things make us happy?? Happiness Objectified...a must read on a survey done. 

happiness vs success

photo source: https://jspivey.wikispaces.com/file/view/inequality_flyer.png

I came a quote by Bertrand Russell recently that really made me ponder:

"If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years."

So true, and so sad. One of my old grad school professors had a theory that explained the cause of unhappiness, that was based on a series of surveys he had done. He believed that unhappiness came from inequality; that people felt most unhappy when there was great inequality in their community, particularly when they were lower down in society. Yet, given the chance and the choice, most of these same people chose to be on top thereby perpetuating the issue further.

My prof then ran the survey across a few campuses in Boston. His questions gauged how much people were willing to give up in order to create a sense of equality. Eg: if the company was doing well thanks to the surveyee's effort, would he/she take a salary cut so that everyone else could get a raise thereby closing the gap between the two groups?? He asked the question AFTER explaining his theory of happiness. He found that the Harvard students were the strongest propagators of inequality; MIT students on the other hand preferred equality. Can't say I'm too surprised. I've met and worked with both sides...not too surprisingly, the Harvard people get further ahead in the business world. BUT, in the world of personal relationships and happiness, I wonder if MIT alums rate higher... I actually think so based on the few I know; particularly from the business schools.

just something to think about...

Mike Rowe speaks about the lessons from his life.

I don't have TV or cable; but when I go over to other people's houses who have it, I love to watch the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel. One of my favorite shows is Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. Mike recently gave this STELLAR talk about the lessons he has learned from his work. He talks about how practical field experience trumps academic/theoretical research (one of my pet peeves), about the happiest people he has met, about bottom-up innovation, and hard work.

I was totally blown away. The first half will make you squirm, but there's genius in what he is saying. Watch it!

TED FAQ III: presenting at TED and other questions

(photo credit: Erik Hersman)

Q. Did you give a TED talk? When can we see it?

The short answer is, yes, I did give a talk at TED. I doubt you will see it (thank god!) because I don't remember saying anything intelligent.

Just to give you some perspective, there are three speaker platforms at TED. The main TED stage (where the important invited speakers speak!), the TED University stage (where audience members apply to speak), and the TEDFellows stage (where the TEDFellows presented). Only the best talks make it onto TED.com.

Minutes are a way of gauging your importance at TED. The more minutes you get, the more important your speech is perceived to be. The main stage speakers largely get 18 mins, with intermittent 3-5 min speakers. The TED University speakers get anywhere from 3-6 mins; and the TEDFellows get 3 mins.

So I gave a 3-min speech on the TEDFellows stage.


Q. What was your talk about??

It was entitled "What I learned about happiness." For weeks, I thought about all the topics that were most important to me, and I realized that most of my life has been in the quest for fulfillment and happiness. So in 3-mins I spelled out my biggest lesson about it. It wasn't rocket science, and everyone already knows about what I had to say.

I'm proud to say that I put a graph in my talk, making it a technical talk about happiness. :-) (see picture above!)


Q. Did all the Fellows speak about random things?

Nope. Most Fellows were smarter than me, doing exciting work, and presented about their work.


Q. What was it like to give your talk?

Even though it was a small room, with a small audience, I was extremely nervous. I practiced for days, late into the night and several times the next morning in the shower. (I can speak for my roommate too, who was equally nervous and doing the same thing!).

Three minutes go by VERY quickly. There is a giant red clock counting down your seconds and its all you see when you are up there. When your time is up, it starts blinking wildly. I don't remember what I said for the entire 2:59 of my talk. What I do remember is that the second I saw the blinking light, I forgot what I had to say and walked off the stage. The audience was nice enough to call me back and ask me to finish because I left them hanging (!!)

It was horrible. Thankfully its a blur!

GDP and Happiness

Does happiness have anything to do with wealth (photo source: Gerard Boragay)

There is a fascinating discussion going on about the relationship between GDP and Happiness on the New York Times Freakonomics blog. I highly encourage everyone to follow it, particularly if you are interested in whether material wealth really increases happiness. So here's the basic gist:

Arguably the most important finding from the emerging economics of happiness has been the Easterlin Paradox.

What is this paradox? It is the juxtaposition of three observations:

1) Within a society, rich people tend to be much happier than poor people.
2) But, rich societies tend not to be happier than poor societies (or not by much).
3) As countries get richer, they do not get happier.

But then the author presents his own research and what his outcomes suggest. Apparently...

There is no Easterlin Paradox.

The facts about income and happiness turn out to be much simpler than first realized:

1) Rich people are happier than poor people.
2) Richer countries are happier than poorer countries.
3) As countries get richer, they tend to get happier.

Moreover, each of these facts seems to suggest a roughly similar relationship between income and happiness.

What explains these new findings? [read the rest...]

Of course he goes on to explain that most of it has to do with the flawed data set and resulting analysis.

Personally, I believe in some way that rich people are happier than poor people, but not for reasons that have anything to do with wealth. A significant number of the richest people in the world today (eg. Gates, Mittal, Buffett, Oprah, the google guys, etc) made their own wealth. Most of them came from average, if not lower than average circumstances and went on to make millions. The key to their wealth has been that they all LOVE their jobs. They all LOVE what they do. Their jobs got them wealth and they worked more (though I am pretty sure that if you took their wealth away or paid them nothing, they'd still do their jobs...the google guys are perfect examples). This has created a reinforcing loop of happiness and wealth. But more importantly, because they love what they do, they live more fulfilled lives and are happier. I can't say the same of the poor, who often take the jobs for the financial incentives or provide the best security. It doesn't matter how hard they work, but life continues to be an endlessly unfufilling struggle.

My point in this opinion piece is (and this goes with all the stuff about finding a job), do what you love (make enough to survive, but try to do what you love). Even in the worst case scenario, you might be poor...but a side of you will feel fulfilled, rich, and happy. This I say from multiple years of experience.

Take a lesson from the babe!