Unfortunately, as often happens with bad ideas that make some people a lot of money, the idea caught on and has even become the conventional wisdom. . . . “Maximizing shareholder value” turned out to be the disease of which it purported to be the cure. Between 1960 and 1980, CEO compensation per dollar of [...]

It matters not how far you strayso long as you can lead others there

If you pay people to complete puzzles instead of paying them for being smart, they lose interest in the game. If you pay children to draw, fun becomes work. Payment on top of compliments and other praise and feeling good about personal achievement are powerful motivators, but only if they are unexpected. Only then can [...]

[A]rousal of the amygdala causes a partial shutdown of the frontal cortex, so that it becomes possible to engage only in instinctive or well-learned behaviour. In the case of Air France 447, it appears that Bonin, in his panic, completely forgot one of the most basic tenets of flight training: when at risk of a [...]

The historical cycle seems to be: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more. – Industrial Management in a Republicby Henning W. Prentis [found at [...]

Awful Library Books presented what can only be the definitive Cold War propaganda authored by the US Army for the US Army. (That’s saying a lot if you’re familiar with FM 3-05.70 “Survival”) Presenting: Department of the Army Pamphlet No. 20-613: Russian Phrase Book (1962). Here’s how a hypothetical conversation between a Russian* and a [...]

ZBM2 Place a competent operator on this circuit. – Z code

Reason is obviously not a powerful motivator in the general population – evidence includes: Petroleum is a non-renewable resource, vehicle fuel is made from petroleum, the price of petroleum will only increase over time as supply dwindles, and vehicle resale value depreciates very quickly: therefore fuel economy should be a determining factor in vehicle selection [...]

Everything is [a] chance to get people to do, or think, what you want them to do or think. – What’s in it for me? at Dave Trott’s Blog … because that is how you make a buck.

If you understand something in only one way, then you don’t really understand it at all. The secret of what anything means to us depends on how we’ve connected it to all the other things we know. – Marvin Minsky“Will Robots Inherit The Earth?”Scientific American, October 1994 Understanding a system requires that one know how [...]