Category: ideas

“Skill has been regulated to the margins in a culture that puts a higher value on conception – on self-expression, creativity, imagination – than on execution.”

“When someone asked what we should call that IBM-HP-EMC-Dell-Cisco merger, his response was wonderfully descriptive. He suggested calling we call the company Fucked By The Cloud.”

“Most of Henry’s navy comprised hired-in ships or privately owned merchant ships pressed into service, but the Holigost was one of the four ‘great ships’ commissioned by the king.”

“The seven-hour event, devoted to updating Wikipedia entries on topics of Latin American art and culture, included lunch and free child care. Attracting contributors ranging from educators and scholars to an engineer, a banker and a marketer, the gathering would have been unthinkable at a gatekeeper of authority, such as MoMA’s library, just a few years ago, several staff members agreed. But this is becoming the new normal at the museum.”

“Think of rivalry as a type of über competition driven by mutual obsession, with the rivals propelling each other to spiralling achievement, and investing more mental and emotional resources in each other than circumstances would ever dictate on their own.”

“At this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival, we asked a group of people who work in media, design, and the arts about how the creative process can lend itself to unlocking solutions. ‘Creativity is a problem-solving practice,’ says Anne Libera, director of comedy studies at Second City. ‘You have to risk, you have to fail – that’s how you know where the edge is.’ Other panelists include Tim Brown, Bran Ferren, JR, Maurice Ashley, Lil Buck, Kelly Leonard, and Jane Chu.” (video)

Mary Beard: “The truth is that Roman history offers very few direct lessons for us, and no simple list of dos and don’ts. … Ancient Rome still matters for very different reasons – mainly because Roman debates have given us a template and a language that continue to define the way we understand our own world and think about ourselves.”

Alva Noë: “The problem is that neuroscience has yet to frame an adequate conception of our nature. You look in vain in the writings of neuroscientists for satisfying accounts of experience or consciousness. For this reason, I believe, we can’t use neuroscience to explain art and its place in our lives. Indeed, if I am right, the order of explanation may go in the other direction: Art can help us frame a better picture of our human nature.”

First of all, they have to make sure they’re not getting pranked by some mischievous techies. If they decide the signals are real, there is an agreed-upon set of protocols – which may not actually work when the time comes.

“Participants became more confident in their own opinion after learning they were in the majority. But (they) then started doubting their own opinion significantly after the male holdout expressed anger.” In contrast, “when a female holdout expressed anger, participants became significantly more confident in their own opinion over the course of deliberation.”