Ideas

Category: Social

  • Civility

    “There were times, and this was one of them, when Rebecca quietly yearned for twentieth-century definitions of civility, when commonly shared air was meant to be filled with words generally agreed to be suitable for all. But in the years after Rebecca’s travels through the silent world, the exodus of its former citizens was nearly complete – the only people who remained were the ones who could not afford to leave. Each person now lived in his own handpicked society with its own rules for behavior, and so the world they left behind had no rules at all. If you entered a public space without the electronic means to escape elsewhere while machines ferried your body from one place to another, then you knew what you were getting into.”

    Version Control by Dexter Palmer

  • Cobalt

    “The eldest, Peter, wore blue jeans, plastic slippers, and a red shirt with the letters AIG stitched on the front. Imagine that on a remote hill deep in the Congo’s mining provinces, a child can be found digging for cobalt, wearing a muddy shirt with the logo of the behemoth American financial services company that had to be bailed out for $180 billion during the 2008 financial crisis. Imagine what even 1 percent of that money could do in a place like this, if it were spent on the people who needed it, not stolen by those who exploited them.”

    Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara

  • Labor Laws

    In the United States, the labor laws are very much in favor of the employer rather than the employee. In fact, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranks the United States as having the absolute weakest laws protecting workers from dismissal in over seventy countries worldwide. Pennsylvania is, like all states but Montana, an “employment-at-will” state, meaning that an employer can fire someone with or without cause. In direct contrast, in the European Union (EU), companies cannot fire people “at will”; the EU commission states quite clearly that employers cannot fire their employees simply for the “wish of the employer.” Yet, in the United States, there are very limited protections to the “at will” rule.

    The Tolls of Uncertainty, How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America, Sarah Damaske

  • On Confidence (3/3)

    “Confidence is not the belief that we won’t meet obstacles. It is the recognition that difficulties are an inescapable part of all worthwhile contributions. We must ensure we have plenty of narratives to hand that normalise the role of pain, anxiety and disappointment in even the best and most successful lives.”

    – The School of Life, Confidence – The Battle Against Timidity

  • On Confidence (2/3)

    “The topic of confidence is too often neglected by serious people: we spend so much time acquiring technical skills, and so little time practicing the one virtue that will make those skills effective in the world.”

    – The School of Life, Confidence – The Battle Against Timidity

  • On Confidence (1/3)

    “One of the greatest sources of despair is the belief that things should have been easier than they have turned out to be. We give up not simply because events are difficult, but because we hadn’t expected them to be so. The capacity to remain confident is, to a significant extent, a matter of internalizing a correct narrative about what difficulties it is normal to encounter.”

    – The School of Life, Confidence – The Battle Against Timidity

  • Communication Breakdown

    “Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself …” – Carl Jung

  • Sometimes, but not always …

    This is so hard for me
    To find the words to say
    My thoughts are standing still

    Captive inside of me
    All emotions start to hide
    And nothing’s getting through

    Watch me
    Fading
    I’m losing
    All my instincts
    Falling into darkness

    Tear down these walls for me
    Stop me from going under
    You are the only one who knows
    I’m holding back

    It’s not too late for me
    To keep from sinking further
    I’m trying to find my way out
    Tear down these walls for me now

    So much uncertainty
    I don’t like this feeling
    I’m sinking like a stone

    Each time I try to speak
    There’s a voice I’m hearing
    And it changes everything

    Watch me
    Crawl from
    The wreckage
    Of my silence
    Conversation
    Failing

    Tear down these walls for me
    Stop me from going under
    You are the only one who knows
    I’m holding back

    It’s not too late for me
    To keep from sinking further
    I’m trying to find my way out
    Tear down these walls

    Every time you choose to turn away
    Is it worth the price you pay
    Is there someone who will wait for you
    One more time
    One more time

    Watch me
    Fading
    I’m losing
    All my instincts
    Falling into darkness

    Tear down these walls for me
    Stop me from going under
    You are the only one who knows
    I’m holding back

    It’s not too late for me
    To keep from sinking further
    I’m trying to find my way out
    Tear down these walls for me now

    Tear down these walls for me
    It’s not too late for me
    Tear down these walls for me

    – “These Walls,” Dream Theater

  • The Explosion.

    “[…] Don’t try to do, just do. If you live this life without trying, it’s good.  If you try too hard, it won’t be any good.  It just has to be done, period – like an explosion.”

    – Ray Bradbury

     

  • Delicious Library.

    I finally decided to take inventory of all of my books using the latest version of Delicious Library.  it’s a great program and adding books is easily done through text entry or via a digital camera (which is used to scan the ISBN barcode).

    Using this program allows me to obtain an immediate glance at my entire library without having to scan the physical shelves in my home.  You can also export your entire library to various social media book sites including GoodReads.