The Story of Stuff Project Biohack Yourself | Transcend Your Limits Vancouver, Canada We're holding the first Vancouver meetup on Sunday, July 31st starting at 3pm at the Commune Cafe on Seymour Street. We'll definitely be there from 3pm-6pm, but it'll end when it ends. I've recently moved to Vancouver from the San Francisco Bay Area, where I lived at the household that hosts the Tortuga/Mountain View meetup. The rationalist community in Silicon Valley is vibrant and growing, and I loved being part of it. As Cosmos wrote of the New York group: Before this community took off, I did not believe that life could be this much fun or that I could possibly achieve such a sustained level of happiness.Being rational in an irrational world is incredibly lonely. Activities of the rationalist community at Tortuga included meetups, hiking trips, guest speakers, transhumanist movies, skill-training sessions, parties and impromptu pillow fights. I'm anticipating holding weekly meetups. Feel free to bring friends, significant others, or anyone else who's interested in rationality.
First, Let's Fire All the Managers Management is the least efficient activity in your organization. Think of the countless hours that team leaders, department heads, and vice presidents devote to supervising the work of others. Most managers are hardworking; the problem doesn’t lie with them. A hierarchy of managers exacts a hefty tax on any organization. Second, the typical management hierarchy increases the risk of large, calamitous decisions. Third, a multitiered management structure means more approval layers and slower responses. Finally, there’s the cost of tyranny. Hierarchies Versus Markets No wonder economists have long celebrated the ability of markets to coordinate human activity with little or no top-down control. That’s why we need corporations and managers. Wouldn’t it be great if we could achieve high levels of coordination without a supervisory superstructure?
The Sword of Good ...fragments of a novel that would never be written... Captain Selena, late of the pirate ship Nemesis, quietly extended the very tip of her blade around the corner, staring at the tiny reflection on the metal. At once, but still silently, she pulled back the sword; and with her other hand made a complex gesture. The translation spell told Hirou that the handsigns meant: "Orcs. Seven." Dolf looked at Hirou. Hirou's mouth was very dry. Not for the first time, the thought occurred to Hirou that if he'd actually known he was going to be transported into a magical universe, informed he was the long-lost heir to the Throne of Bronze, handed the legendary Sword of Good, and told to fight evil, he would have spent less time reading fantasy novels. Dolf and Selena were looking at Hirou, as if waiting for something more. Oh. Hirou raised a finger and pointed it around the corner, trying to indicate that they should go ahead - Hirou breathed evenly, trying to still his trembling. "You're hurt!"
Stop Competing to Be the Best - Joan Magretta With Cyber Monday, the tablet wars kicked into full swing. Which one is the best? Is it the iPad? The Kindle? Who has the best technology? But if you want to win, says Michael Porter, this is absolutely the wrong way to think about competition. Consider a business as prosaic as seating for airport waiting areas. If there is no “best” airport seat, now think about all of the industries in the economy. Yet, it’s a pervasive idea. In war, there can be only one winner. Here’s the problem: When rivals all pursue the “one best way” to compete, they find themselves on a collision course, trapped in a destructive, zero-sum competition that no one can win. Instead, Porter urges a different kind of competition: compete to be unique. Grasp the true nature of business competition and you’ll see that the performing arts provide a better analogy than war or sports. What’s your organization’s underlying model of how competition works?
sword of good - Google Search ..fragments of a book that would never be written... Captain Selena, late of the pirate ship Nemesis, quietly extended the very tip of her blade around the corner, staring at the tiny reflection on the metal. At once, but still silently, she pulled back the sword; and with her other hand made a complex gesture. The translation spell told Hirou that the handsigns meant: "Orcs. Seven." Dolf looked at Hirou. Hirou's mouth was very dry. Not for the first time, the thought occurred to Hirou that if he'd actually known he was going to be transported into a magical universe, informed he was the long-lost heir to the Throne of Bronze, handed the legendary Sword of Good, and told to fight evil, he would have spent less time reading fantasy novels. Dolf and Selena were looking at Hirou, as if waiting for something more. Oh. Hirou raised a finger and pointed it around the corner, trying to indicate that they should go ahead - Acknowledgments:
La démocratie par tirage au sort Campagne présidentielle ou non, le couple démocratie-élections s'impose aujourd'hui comme une évidence. D'autres systèmes de sélection sont pourtant possibles, notamment le tirage au sort, comme le rappelle Jean-Paul Jouary, chroniqueur iconoclaste. Le suffrage par le sort est de la nature de la démocratie ; le suffrage par choix est de celle de l’aristocratie. – Montesquieu. Il peut paraître choquant aujourd’hui de se demander si suffrage universel et la démocratie sont identiques, tant le droit de vote a été difficile à acquérir, et tant il est évident que les peuples qui en sont privés sont pour cela même privés de démocratie. De fait, il n’est pas de démocratie sans que le peuple opère ses choix par le suffrage universel. Cela signifie-t-il pour autant que tout suffrage universel soit démocratique ? A lire sur ces questions : La démocratie anesthésiée, que Bernard Vasseur vient de publier aux Editions de l’Atelier.
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Chapter 1: A Day of Very Low Probability, a harry potter fanfic Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, and no one owns the methods of rationality. This fic is widely considered to have really hit its stride starting at around Chapter 5. If you still don't like it after Chapter 10, give up. Please visit HPMOR DOT COM for: Reviews make me happy. This is not a strict single-point-of-departure fic - there exists a primary point of departure, at some point in the past, but also other alterations. The text contains many clues: obvious clues, not-so-obvious clues, truly obscure hints which I was shocked to see some readers successfully decode, and massive evidence left out in plain sight. The pacing of the story is that of serial fiction, i.e., that of a TV show running for a predetermined number of seasons, whose episodes are individually plotted but with an overall arc building to a final conclusion. The story has been corrected to British English up to Ch. 17, and further Britpicking is currently in progress (see the /HPMOR subreddit). "Dad! "Ah..."
Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule July 2009 One reason programmers dislike meetings so much is that they're on a different type of schedule from other people. Meetings cost them more. There are two types of schedule, which I'll call the manager's schedule and the maker's schedule. When you use time that way, it's merely a practical problem to meet with someone. Most powerful people are on the manager's schedule. When you're operating on the maker's schedule, meetings are a disaster. For someone on the maker's schedule, having a meeting is like throwing an exception. I find one meeting can sometimes affect a whole day. Each type of schedule works fine by itself. Our case is an unusual one. I wouldn't be surprised if there start to be more companies like us. How do we manage to advise so many startups on the maker's schedule? When we were working on our own startup, back in the 90s, I evolved another trick for partitioning the day. Speculative meetings are terribly costly if you're on the maker's schedule, though. Related:
Cradle-to-cradle design Cradle to Cradle design (also referred to as Cradle to Cradle, C2C, cradle 2 cradle, or regenerative design) is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems. It models human industry on nature's processes viewing materials as nutrients circulating in healthy, safe metabolisms. It suggests that industry must protect and enrich ecosystems and nature's biological metabolism while also maintaining a safe, productive technical metabolism for the high-quality use and circulation of organic and technical nutrients.[1] Put simply, it is a holistic economic, industrial and social framework that seeks to create systems that are not only efficient but also essentially waste free.[2] The model in its broadest sense is not limited to industrial design and manufacturing; it can be applied to many aspects of human civilization such as urban environments, buildings, economics and social systems. Introduction[edit] Biological and Technical Cycles Biological and technical cycle Health[edit]
The Visual Thinking Revolution is Here! We are in the midst of a “Visual Thinking Revolution” and leaders in all types of organizations are embracing visual thinking as a literacy of the future. Source: MBA Career Service Professionals (click to enlarge) This revolution’s “tipping point” came earlier this year at the International Forum for Visual Practitioners annual conference, which drew 100 visual practitioners from across the globe. The panel I moderated with Business Models Inc. We live in an increasingly VUCA world. If you’re still not convinced that the Visual Thinking Revolution has arrived, what could be better proof than the Saturday Night Live parody of the visual thinking-inspired UPS commercial. Looking forward, we can expect that each of these emerging trends will only get stronger. At this time of year when we when we have made promises to do things differently— eat healthier, hit the gym more— how about also resolving to wield a marker in service of communicating new ideas and possibilities?