Spontaneous Cooperation log - Spontaneous Cooperation

Best Cartoon!

2/22/2015

"Yes, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."
(A man and 3 children sit around a fire in a scorched wasteland)

That's the caption from what I think might be my favourite cartoon. It sums everything up, it's just perfect.

I came across it by reading an article about the challenges of balancing a drive for profit and not ruining society.
Check it out
Financial Inclusion: The Most Important Question for Business Leaders

If you love the cartoon as much as I do, consider the t-shirt.

Finding the elusive work-life balance

2/10/2015

An interesting radio program on the topic, and a book to put on my read list.

http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/features/2015/01/25/finding-the-elusive-work-life-balance/

http://thebestplacetoworkbook.com/

What would you measure if you wanted to know how the world is doing?

2/10/2015

What you measure?

Here's the article that asks
http://unreasonable.is/article/metrics-different-world-coming/

I'm still thinking about it...

13 Fascinating things you probably didn't know about online news

2/10/2015

A great insight into the media we've made for ourselves.
Our tendency to click on enticing headlines and their ability to track/profit from that is changing what we get.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/why-we-must-honour-our-treaties-with-canada-s-first-peoples-percy-jackson-homer-and-the-mighty-dead-arctic-beauty-listumentary-1.2905357/13-fascinating-things-you-probably-didn-t-know-about-online-news-1.2905358

Why Philanthropy is Stupid

2/10/2015

Ed Clark, rich guy Canadian says to rich buddies, 'you should donate lots of your money to the poor, I do...'

Is it me or is this stupid. Ok, it's good for the rich to help out, really good in some cases, but it's not fixing the inequality gap. Everyone seems to be blinded by the money to realize they aren't fixing the problem. The rich people are stealing from the poor every day and night of their working lives, so they can give some of it back to the poor, so their kids can have something to steal from the poor. Does that make sense?

To make money in business it is assumed that the business is providing a service to the community, the more you provide the more you make, so both benefit, no stealing from the poor necessary. But I think this is out of whack today. From what I see and read it seems like the competition to stay in business and get rich is pushing companies to move from providing a service to, provide a pretty good service and trick people out of their money any which way they can. Basically amuse and confuse everyone, sell them on promises of happiness that only last until we leave the store, ... aannnnnd they might as well destroy the commons in the process since that is more profitable, or at least has less upfront costs.

You've probably heard this argument before, and you probably think I'm going to say we need regulation or government to step in.
I don't.
I think we all just need help making decisions. If some of those decisions end up in electing people to pass laws to make it illegal to trick us so often then so be it. But it has to start with a systematic, simple, accessible way for us to make better decisions. Start with a wiki page, then have a few services for key things like wealth management, employment, relationship tips, then move into full on one on one services, and try to make the most of a sharing economy. This could be done by a for profit business, or at least using the same principles as one.

I don't know anyone doing this or thinking of doing this. If you do, let me know!

http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/wealth-having-it-all-and-wanting-more

My Challenge to You

2/9/2015

"My challenge to you is to write down what you do, how you are unique in doing it, and why it matters. Then take out every single bit of jargon and do it again. Does it inform what you need to do in order to make it true? If not, do it again with more specificity."

http://unreasonable.is/design-communication/

Life Changing Revelation Regarding How We Teach

2/9/2015

The guy from Khan academy recently wrote an article where he said he'll never tell his kids that they are smart, or something like that. He wasn't going to praise them/reward them in that way. He's going to praise them for their ability to work through the problem. I thought, sounds good, I'll kind of do that as well. I saw the TED talk where the personality trait which leads to success is grit. I get it. But then I saw this other TED talk. This lady Carol Dweck blew my mind with how life changing this can be. Teachers did this in like the worst schools in a certain area and then they became the best schools overnight! or somthing like that.

Then it reminded me from my parenting books that you shouldn't tell your kids that they are bad, you should tell them they are acting bad. Seems stupid right? Or at least pointless at first. But if you think about it in the first scenario there is nothing they can do about it, they are bad, in the second scenario they just need to act good going forward, easy peasy. They can still feel good about themselves and strive to be better. If they are bad then, screw it, might as well be bad.

This works for talking to adults as well, for you and them. Rather than really hate someone for being a terrible person, just realize that they are acting terrible and can change. Try to figure out their motivations and look for ways you can change the situation so they don't act so terrible. I think it's called negotiating.

#youcanlearnanything

Systems (routines) more effective than goals

2/9/2015

I think you need both, but this article points out that focusing on a routine or system rather than the goal can help you chip away at it with less stress and overcome procrastination.

http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/an-nearly-foolproof-way-to-achieve-every-goal-you-set-wed.html?utm_content=buffer40114&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer