Disqus - Latest Comments for Jason

Re: how your education and lifestyle keep you from changing

Jason — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:19:16 -0000

I have just come to your website after hearing the NPR piece you participated in recently. I'm glad I did! I thought I was the only one thinking that college is not the panacea being sold. IMHO, with the internet really starting to get useful, education is dropping in value greatly. Heck, MIT has tons of courses recorded and on line! But the fees at Universities are not dropping in value.

I think a cost-benefit analysis must be done before blindly signing up. Maybe if college were completely free of charge it would be worth the time and effort, for example. But not even in all cases.

As for the successful guy in the video. I'll need to learn more about him. Randomness plays a large role in our lives, and so it's a little hard to accept any guru's advice on how to succeed, but he seems interesting. Still, as Daniel Kahneman points out, "success=some talent + luck. Great success=some talent + a lot of luck"

Re: go to hell

Jason — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:01:00 -0000

Taleb mentions this idea in his book "The Black Swan". The idea being that you can take those pointless quarterly reviews, or whatever stupid thing the corporation requires for no good reason and slowly, calmly rip them to pieces in front of your boss. Either fire me or excempt me from this nonsense. How sweet that would be. Indeed, you must have the funds to back yourself up in case your boss choses the latter.

Re: how the bottom line is destroying companies

Jason — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:42:54 -0000

One benefit of large corporations is that it is possible to be completely ignored during the endless re-orgs and tinkerings. Neglect and freedom feel the same. Just keep your chute packed.