Caffeine. Candy. Sex. Shopping. Smoking. Whether we realize it or not, all of us have strategies for self-medicating ourselves when we feel threatened or overwhelmed by tension or tiredness. But why does one person respond to pressure by going for a five-mile run, while another indulges in a five-hour drinking marathon? Why do some of […]
Archives for August 2014
The Rise of the Creative Class
– Richard Florida
August 20, 2014 By Leave a Comment
“Cities have realized that they can attract educated people and they don’t need good schools to do it.” The Creative Class is a posited socioeconomic class identified by American economist and social scientist Richard Florida, a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. According to Florida, the Creative Class are a […]
Growing a Business – Paul Hawken
August 19, 2014 By Leave a Comment
“Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.” Paul Hawken (born February 8, 1946, California) is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author. Hawken has written seven books. His 1975 The Magic of Find horn popularized the community of Find horn, an ecological spiritual center in Scotland. […]
What Sherlock Holmes Can Teach Us About Decision Making
– Maria Konnikova
August 18, 2014 By
“the most powerful mind is the quiet mind. It is the mind that is present, reflective, mindful of its thoughts and its state. It doesn’t often multitask, and when it does, it does so with a purpose.” Maria was born in Moscow, Russia and came to the United States when she was four years old. Her first […]
Avocados – some fun facts
August 17, 2014 By
Avocados are a fruit, not a vegetable. In Brazil avocados mixed in with ice cream is a very popular dessert. The avocado is also called an Alligator Pear because of its pear-like shape and it’s bumpy green skin. California produces about 90% of the national avocado crop in the Usa. To tell if […]
What’s wrong with what we eat
– Mark Bittman
August 16, 2014 By
From TED.com In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what’s wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk. Mark Bittman is a bestselling cookbook author, […]
Authentic Happiness
– Martin Seligman
August 13, 2014 By
“While you can’t control your experiences, you can control your explanations.” A national bestseller, Authentic Happiness launched the revolutionary new science of Positive Psychology—and sparked a coast-to-coast debate on the nature of real happiness. According to esteemed psychologist and bestselling author Martin Seligman, happiness is not the result of good genes or luck. Real, lasting happiness comes […]
The key to success? Grit!
– Angela Lee Duckworth
August 12, 2014 By
From TED.com Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success. At the […]
A Doctor’s Touch
– Abraham Verghese
August 11, 2014 By
From TED.com Modern medicine is in danger of losing a powerful, old-fashioned tool: human touch. Physician and writer Abraham Verghese describes our strange new world where patients are merely data points, and calls for a return to the traditional one-on-one physical exam. In our era of the patient-as-data-point, Abraham Verghese believes in the old-fashioned physical exam, […]
Built to Last:
Habits of Visionary Companies
– Jim Collins
August 10, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies and studied each in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day — as […]
