As students struggle to determine how to invest their time wisely, one question dominates the conversation.
Do I make incremental improvement or do I start from the beginning?
In proper CYA fashion, it depends . . .
This course includes the essential elements of what my business school application candidates walk through on the way to writing killer applications – a blend of practical advising, passion building, and tactical implementation. I think it makes for stronger candidates and the MBA programs seem to agree**!
Excited about building a career you’re passionate about?
“It’s Easier To Make Something 10 Times Better Than To Make Something 10% Better” – Astro Teller, head of Google X My students who struggle the most start 30-60 points away from their target score. It seems so close. But the brutal truth is that most won’t make it. In the hordes of students I …
The most obvious expression of talent is that which is shown externally. A fast athlete,the top of the class, MacArthur grants . . . some talent is innate, the rest is cultivated. Can we do better cultivating the good stuff? That might depend – what is our definition of the good stuff? We fixate on …
Have you ever tried to figure out your health insurance benefits? What a confounding experience. I spent a little time today reviewing my coverage. As much as I’d like to claim it’s because I’m that organized, but really it’s just because my part time employer recently made benefits available to us. So, why not take …
Friday night my little sisters graduated from high school. Come Fall they are off to college. What better time to reflect on the changing values of a college education. Does it make sense to go to the best school you get into? Is it worth $100k, $200k in debt? It seems to depend on what …
So how is the Federal Government going to save me from myself today? Back to the topic of interns . . . which can mean SO many different things depending on the administration…. For the Obama administration it means legislation. In particular, enforcement of legislation against unpaid internships. Never mind that the Obama political campaign …
The Labor Department is out to protect you from yourself. Legislation prohibiting unpaid internships is officially in force. “If you’re a for-profit employer or you want to pursue an internship with for-profit employer, there aren’t going to be many circumstances where you can have an internship and not be paid and still be in compliance …
How great! Barbie is officially geeking out. The Wall Street Journal reports that Computer Scientist won the popular vote for What career would you like Barbie (sadly, WSJ changed paywall access, buggars) to have next. The vote ultimately split between the under tweens and the adults. Adults pushed for Computer Scientist and the little girls …
Continue ReadingHot Nerds – Barbie Dedicates Herself to Science
The best way to win? Be better. How much better? Soul crushingly better. Sound cruel? The Weekend Journal shared a great piece about the Superstar effect – how some stars are so much better than everyone else in the field that they literally crush their competition before the game/match/negotiation begins. Boris Spassky, Bobby Fishcher’s rival …
Continue ReadingCrush Your Competition – the Superstar Effect
Everyone’s favorite Intimidators The Weekend Journal recently published an article on one of my favorite topics – the Superstar Effect. They also kindly included a list of the most famous intimidators. Here is that list: Muhammad Ali – noting himself as the “greatest” and following it up with a nasty punch . . . very …
New article on the overview of color as a nonverbal influence.
Everyday you are bombarded with millions of images. Some perceived others not consciously perceived. Advertisers want our attention. As we get more and more images, our conscious brains – the part we think we control – ignore even more.
So now we ignore more than we see.
But if a tree falls in a forest and hits a mime, does anyone cry?*
Did you know . . . The fusiform facial area is a special area within the brain that processes facial images. This is apart from the processing of other spatial objects. The neurons literally light up in a different pattern depending on whether we are looking at a human face or a non-human object. It …
As I dig through journals for interesting tidbits I often find myself far afield from the original topic at hand, which is exactly what happened the other day. I was reading a piece on the influence the color of the box that holds your local traffic signal has on traffic flow – not the color …
Confession: as a teacher I have challenges with the different levels of students who cycle through my classroom. I am not unbiased, and yes, I take my students’ performance personally. But this is as it has been and should be…. Some students are bright, but it’s not just the ability level of the student it …
Lionel Tiger shares the history of monkeys and medal in his latest Op-Ed piece for the Wall Street Journal. He posits that there is a biological need for humans to have games such as the Olympics
Like our primate cousins, competition is in our blood.
Is this just more justification for what my less athletically-inclined friends call ‘testosterone-fueled’ children’s games?
Or is there a verifiable, quantifiable biological need?
I was fortunate to receive an advanced copy of Seth Godin’s latest, Linchpin. I had a very hard time writing an appropriate review on Amazon. What others reviewers are raving about is how this book is about doers . . . kind of, but not really. This book is about people who fancy themselves single-handedly …
If you get excited about numbers, today is a spetacular day. 010110 It is a rare opportunity to present the date in binary form (that’s not the actual binary date however). So just how rare is it? Have you figured out how many times in a century you can represent the date with 1s and …
What do you call it when a defender “bounces” a puck into his own goal? Ready? . . . Heart Breaking. Actually I can’t believe I have yet to find the term . . . surely there is a term for this phenomenon given what my beloved Robi had to say about it, “I hope …
Continue ReadingMastery – how to know when to get back to basics
Bringing Sexy Back – Time Management Lisa, assistant project manager at Paladin Principals, and I were talking about guys this afternoon and we discovered that we both find some of the same traits super sexy in men. What is that number one trait . . . #1 Time Management It’s not that we want our …