I am very interested in how goals can be achieved with high quality, focused and engaged participants. Games whether psychological, narrative or social are fascinating examples of this. Games are structured activities where a participant or participants pursue a goal or outcome. Doing great work is fun and can be gamelike. Some of the best start-up moments or breakthroughs I have →…read more
|
|||||
|
Sorry to any nihilists in the audience about the cheap paraphrasing of Nietzsche. Robert Cialdini is a power house in the sociology world for his publications and highly digestible books on persuasion and influence. He is now using his understanding of psychology to manipulate people into saving energy and he is doing it with a new start up called Opower. The idea →…read more Crowdsourcing, intrinsic motivation and positive externalities are powerful forces when combined. I am currently teaching some friends about the online world. My friends use Facebook, twitter etc. but don’t know how they work as media tools. Similar to the fact that watching TV doesn’t necessarily mean one understands the dynamics and mechanics of it is a marketing, social or psychological phenomenon. →…read more Checklists are not sexy, but their results are. I just finished the Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. I am sold and you should be as well. Checklists save lives, make money and make life less stressful. Outperformance seems to be associated with repeat process and efficient group communication. Checklists allow for managing individual and team processes for better outcomes. The book gives →…read more Bling a word which may have been created as early as the 50's or 60's could be described as "the sound a diamond makes when sunlight hits it." In the oughties this evocative term, bling described the social display of wealth among young urban youth or Donald Trump. The thesis being that by adorning oneself with the trappings of material wealth, →…read more Wow, This is a great article in the Atlantic about the group behaviour in rhesus Monkeys and potential analogs in those big bald chatty apes we know as Homo Sapiens Sapiens "elder wise human". The article hints about the functioning of a genetic variable and how it interacts within a social environment. Here is the teaser video which only hints at a small →…read more One of the most debilitating factors in economic development is corruption. Corruption not only soaks up the efficient allocation of resources, but also shrinks investment horizons to near zero. Why invest in education for your family or children if corruption means jobs are not based on merit. Why invest in building a home or business if they can be taken. Endemic →…read more Here is an interesting map from William Easterly's site AidWatch. It shows the distance from major cities as a function of geography and time. Most of us are a few hours away from each other.
A few things to consider when looking at a network diagram like this: People and things spread fast Twitter? Here is a video articulating in a funny way that Twitter has not only jumped the shark, but jumped the Fail Whale as well.
I would pose a counter argument to the Twitter fail whale, but first one has to understand what twitter is and what it does. Twitter is the technical expression →…read more |
|||||
|
Creative Commons; 2010 Designing Better Futures - rights of Attribution Required |
|||||
