20 Uncommon Lessons from My Weekend with Warren Buffett (career & life advice most don’t talk about “Take a job that you love. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don’t like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn’t that a little like saving up sex for your old age?” The Power of Continued Education On Friday night I walked into the Omaha Marriott to check in for the weekend. The first person I said hello to was Bill Gates (yes that Bill Gates). He didn’t exactly respond to me by first name, but the brief exchange (and shot of adrenaline that came with it) reminded me of the potential of the weekend ahead. When in Omaha you never know what’s going to happen. The next day I spent over eight hours with Warren Buffett. What I learned blew my mind… As it always does. I wish it were just the two of us, but there were actually about 35,000 other passionate Buffett fanatics who joined me to learn from the most wealthy investor of the modern world. Without it I never would have started my investment fund nearly 5 years ago. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
You're Distracted. This Professor Can Help. - Technology By Marc Parry Seattle Matthew Ryan Williams for The Chronicle Before each class session, David Levy leads his students in a few minutes of meditation. To complete her homework assignment, Meran Hill needed total concentration. Then she plunged into the task: Spend 15 minutes doing e-mail. Soon enough, though, a familiar craving bubbled up. As Ms. But the assignment had her trapped. The e-mail drill was one of numerous mind-training exercises in a unique class designed to raise students' awareness about how they use their digital tools. Their professor, David M. At its extreme, that debate plays out in the writing of authors whom the critic Adam Gopnik has dubbed the Never-Betters and the Better-Nevers. On college campuses, meanwhile, educators struggle to manage what the Stanford University multitasking researcher Clifford Nass describes as a radical shift in the nature of attention. Amid this scampering attention, some fear for the future of long-form reading. When I ask Mr. But Mr. Mr.
6 Small Things You Can Do When You Lack Discipline Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. One of the biggest problems people face is the lack of discipline — they have goals or habits they want to achieve, but lack that discipline needed to stick with it. Then we beat ourselves up about it. And that leads to more failure, because we’re forming a mindset that we don’t have the necessary discipline. Here’s what to do when you face a situation like this: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. —If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. The Collected Letters of Marissa Mayer and David Karp It seems like only yesterday I asked a Yahoo! intern to explain to me what a “Tumblr” was, but when I saw that dashboard, full of content being created and shared by demographics that weren’t even born when my company started, I knew that I wanted—no, needed—to acquire you. The results from my Yahoo! Internet search only confirmed what I knew in my heart: David Karp is one of the nicest, most empathetic people on the planet, and we would make great partners. Affectionately, Marissa Marissa, Am I just another start-up to add to your collection? Fuck no, David Oh David, you wound me! Marissa Lovely Marissa, I fear I have nothing to offer you. Regretfully, David My darling David, Don’t let these earthly considerations stand in the way of our relationship. Oh, I was looking at some of your photos online the other day. All my love, Marissa My beloved M., I cannot simply change who I am or what I do to win the approval of those around you! David My dearest, Lovingly, Marissa David,
What Are You Going to Do With That? - The Chronicle Review By William Deresiewicz The essay below is adapted from a talk delivered to a freshman class at Stanford University in May. The question my title poses, of course, is the one that is classically aimed at humanities majors. What practical value could there possibly be in studying literature or art or philosophy? So you must be wondering why I'm bothering to raise it here, at Stanford, this renowned citadel of science and technology. What doubt can there be that the world will offer you many opportunities to use your degree? But that's not the question I'm asking. We should start by talking about how you did, in fact, get here. Now there's nothing wrong with mastering skills, with wanting to do your best and to be the best. The problem with specialization is that it makes you into a specialist. Again, there's nothing wrong with being those things. And there's another problem. Or maybe you did always want to be a cardiac surgeon. It means not just going with the flow.
30 Templates & Vector Kits to Design Your Own Infographic Infographics are always fun to read. Making them, it’s something else. True, there are tools you can use to make infographics, or you can opt to create an infographic from scratch but often times there are workarounds that can help you with the ‘graphics’, so you can focus on the ‘info’. We’ve brought together 30 free infographic design elements, vectors and templates to help you with the presentation of your infographic. Recommended Reading: Data Visualization: 20+ Useful Tools And Resources Infographic banners. World Infographic. Information Technology infographic. Oil Theme Business Infographics. Year Infographic Elements. Elements of Food Infographic. Elements of Water Infographics Vector Set. Chart & Infographics Design Elements Vector 05. Retro infographic Elements. Infographic Vector Kit. Infographic Design Elements Vector. Economy Infographics Design Elements. World Maps & Statistics. Economy Infographics & Chart Design Elements. Business Data Elements 01. Retro Style Elements.
» 8 Great Anti-Hacks to Fundamentally Change Your Life Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Clay Collins of Project Liberation and The Growing Life. Albert Einstein stated that “problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” Einstein, of course, was right. Sometimes our problems require more than life hacks, tips, tweaks, etc. Sometimes our lives don’t need optimization, they need to be fundamentally reconfigured. So What are Anti-Hacks? “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil for every one striking at the root.” – Henry David Thoreau Anti-hacks attempt to solve problems by approaching them at a higher level of thinking (the prefix “anti,” by the way, can mean “instead of” as in “anti-drug,” or “anti-folk”). A hack might help you optimize your car’s engine so you get better gas mileage, whereas an anti-hack might involve moving near your place of employment to so you can walk or bike to work. (By the way, creating a new word for an old idea can be a pretty pretentious thing. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
What Our Words Tell Us The database doesn’t tell you how the words were used; it just tells you how frequently they were used. Still, results can reveal interesting cultural shifts. For example, somebody typed the word “cocaine” into the search engine and found that the word was surprisingly common in the Victorian era. Then it gradually declined during the 20th century until around 1970, when usage skyrocketed. I’d like to tell a story about the last half-century, based on studies done with this search engine. The first element in this story is rising individualism. That is to say, over those 48 years, words and phrases like “personalized,” “self,” “standout,” “unique,” “I come first” and “I can do it myself” were used more frequently. The second element of the story is demoralization. The Kesebirs identified 50 words associated with moral virtue and found that 74 percent were used less frequently as the century progressed. Usage of humility words like “modesty” and “humbleness” dropped by 52 percent.
9 Things We Regret Not Doing in Our 20s Life is filled with regrets. Ask anyone around you what their regrets are and they usually have no difficulty coming up with many items on their “regret list.” And for some reason our twenties are ripe for a field of regrets. Perhaps it’s because as we get older we look back on that period of adulthood as the height of freedom and autonomy. As move into middle age, we look back and wish that we had made better choices and taken more opportunities. Here’s a list of things that we regret not doing in our 20s. Traveling more – I regret not travelling more, and so does nearly everyone that I have asked. Investing early – How many times have we kicked ourselves for not starting our 401Ks in our twenties, for not putting our excess cash in long term investments, for not investing in our future early. Being more responsible with spending – In order to invest in our retirement or save for that down payment, we would have needed to make wiser financial spending choices.
David Byrne's Hand-Drawn Pencil Diagrams of the Human Condition by Maria Popova “Science’s job is to map our ignorance.” David Byrne may have authored both one of last year’s best albums and best music books, but he is also one of the sharpest thinkers of our time and a kind of visual philosopher. About a decade ago, Byrne began making “mental maps of imaginary territory” in a little notebook based on self-directed instructions to draw anything from a Venn diagram about relationships to an evolutionary tree of pleasure — part Wendy MacNaughton, part Julian Hibbard, yet wholly unlike anything else. In 2006, Byrne released Arboretum (UK; public library), a collection of these thoughtful, funny, cynical, poetic, and altogether brilliant pencil sketches — some very abstract, some very concrete — drawn in the style of evolutionary diagrams and mapping everything from the roots of philosophy to the tangles of romantic destiny to the ecosystem of the performing arts. Möbius Structure of Relationships Writing in the introductory essay simply titled “Why?
Shane Koyczan Shouts & Murmurs: Four Short Crushes Well, well, well. Just look at you, walking into this dreary bar and lighting the place up like the noonday sun at midnight, twirling a lock of your long auburn hair pensively as you search the room—for what? For a soul mate, perhaps? (I know, I know—I hate that phrase, too. Maybe that will end up being one of those things we both hate.) But I’m getting ahead of myself. Maybe when your gaze settles on me, and we lock eyes in that mutual Hitchcockian tunnel-vision effect where the camera is, like, pushing in at the same time it zooms out, or however they do that, you’ll come sit down next to me and we’ll— Now you’ve spotted the friends you came to meet. Maybe they’ll be my friends, too. Our friends. Your eyes just came to life like emeralds lit by subterranean torches, and as you move across the room toward your friends you shriek at them, “What the fuck is up, yo? You must be a regular here. (Duration of crush: seventeen seconds.) Oh my. Dare I try to catch up to you? Caught you!
Meltdown This next week and a half promises to be electrifying. We’re on the brink of an epic hurricane, a Presidential election, and either the most disappointing or the spookiest Halloween ever. But right now I’m going to talk about me, about MIT, and about why I haven’t talked to you in a month. Toward the end of September I became noticeably stressed out. I stopped talking to people, I stopped cleaning my room, and I got very lonely. “Cory,” I said to my boyfriend, “nobody loves me.” “Nonsense,” he replied, “I love you.” “I want to go home,” I said. Then I watched an episode of America’s Next Top Model and felt better. “Have I always been this crazy?” “Well,” he said, “you’ve always been a little crazy. That afternoon I went to S^3. I have a fantastic dean at S^3. The next week was my primary hell week of the term. After my final all-nighter I woke up to someone waddling down the alley below my window and swearing angrily. Friday evening I went to visit my high school friend Eric at Tufts.
30 Challenges for 30 Days Did you know that it takes 30 days to form a new habit? The first few days are similar as to how you would imagine the birth of a new river. Full of enthusiasm it gushes forth, only to be met by strong obstacles. The path is not clear yet, and your surroundings don’t agree. So, take a moment to reflect on the question ‘Who do I want to be in 5 years?’ Check out this short TED talk first to get inspired: Now pick one or more challenges and stick with them! However, be cautioned, picking too many challenges at the same time can easily result in a failure of all of them. #1 Write a I-Like-This-About-You note/text/email each day for someone (Easy) This is the perfect way to let someone else know you care. #2 Talk to one stranger each day (Hard) This is a great one to cure approaching anxiety. #3 Take one picture each day (Hard) This one gets harder nearing the end of the challenge because at one point you will run out of the easy shots. #5 Take a 30 minute walk each day (Easy) We recommend: