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  • Roy F Baumeister – Willpower: Self-control, decision fatigue, and energy

    It turns out, the ability to self-regulate (self-control), make decisions and take initiative all stem from the same, exhaustible, mental resource and takes a lot of physical energy to do. Like any mental resource, however, this one gets stronger with use. Thus, it is better to provide rules and structure for the young and old alike (even while knowing that the rules will be violated) because it helps the mind to become stronger at resisting impulses.

    Willpower: Self-control, decision fatigue, and energy (RSA)
    Roy F Baumeister – Willpower: Self-control, decision fatigue, and energy (TED)

    As a side note, scientists recently discovered that consuming familiar, favorite materials (i.e. TV shows or movies that we have already seen or books that we have previously read, and that we enjoy consuming repeatedly) will “recharge” our willpower quicker than it will naturally recharge by itself. The benefit, however, does not come from consuming new material even if from in a favorite collection (i.e. a new episode of your favorite TV show). The original article can be found here.

  • E.O. Wilson: Advice to young scientists

    A call for young scientists to hold true to their course as the world will need them as guides to the future. It is interesting to note that Wilson downplays the importance of math. He comments that while it is the language of science, one only needs a rudimentary understanding of the language to use it. Instead, it is critical to be able to dream in order to push science forward.

  • The Ambient Exchange of Knowledge

    Note: I wrote this back when I was an intern for a certain government research facility. I wrote it on the long the (2 hour) bus ride from “the site” and edited the next day on the same, long bus ride. I have included some additional thought in italics.

    Working for a government contractor (basically the government) has been an interesting experience. Of course there have the normal “we can’t do that” and “we have to submit the change for approval” (it took more than 5 months to get approval to change minor wording on a post-training survey) but there has also been an interesting transition as they have been cutting staff.

    The need and want to cut cost is present in every company I can think of and has the oblivious benefit of making the company more profitable. There is, however, an interesting and unfortunate side effect to these cost cutting efforts: innovation is stifled.

    Time and again, there is a clear pattern of disparate entities getting together and sparking evolutionary or revolutionary changes seemingly based on their proximity alone. (Duncan Hines revolutionary invention of cake mix came when a baking guy was having lunch with a powdered soap guy and they developed a method of creating the liquid mix and then spraying it onto screen for powdering like the soap guys did; Post-it notes’ evolutionary invention came about when one inventor created the weak, reusable glue and the other found a use for it; and many more, if you do some digging.) Ideas that otherwise would have taken a long time to come about, if they ever emerged. Which then confuses me as to why you would be stripping away most of the opportunities for new, innovative ideas by saddling down employees with so much work (by cutting down the help for those tasks) that they have no chance to interact with others. It would seem that instead of cutting everything down, companies should set more people free: free to interact with and learn about other departments, free to dream, free to bear those dreams into reality, free to create new revenue streams.

    But then, what do I know about “the real world,” I am just an intern who created a website in a week that took other departments several months to do.

    P.S. Can I mention that because the web programmer (namely me) was working with “the site” management while hanging out with the Training department instructors and cavorting with the PR people, he was able to completely redesign their daily internal publication in a way that greatly improved the appeal and readability of the content? How? By asking why people never read the publication. No magic, just someone who could do something being around people with good ideas.

  • “Heroes, Rogues, and Lovers: Testosterone and Behavior” by James McBride Dabbs with Mary Godwin Dabbs

    The Dabbs couple explore the profound and vast effects of testosterone on men and women from the youngest of ages (in utero) through mid-life. After childhood, they explore the three basic effects that are outlined in the title: creating heroes, rebel rousing and making lovers. While the presented research focuses on men, the Dabbs are frequently cite studies of women to establish a baseline of the norm before showing  how testosterone changed the default behavior. This book has greatly expanded my understanding of, and provided fascinating insight to, why both men and women behave the way they do.
    Interesting tidbit: Alfalfa and clover are estrogen rich and thus birth controlling plants. It is thought that the plants maintained this chemical feature to limit offspring of hungry animals and thus prevent overgrazing. Today, some million sheep go sterile each year in Australia alone from eating too much wild clover and alfalfa.

  • Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

    Today is the day that Guy Fawkes, and company, did not blow up the English parliament in 1605. You can read more about it on Wikipedia, here.

    Why should you care about Guy Fawkes day? The same reason why we celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. Namely, to have fun. In England, Guy Fawkes Day celebrations consist of making an effigy of Guy Fawkes and then burning it (well, they do more but those parts are not as fun). If we were really cool we would have fireworks to set off too.