Pop Culture

Interesting article by Jessica Stillman of Inc - Read it here.

I don't know about you but I don't remeber the last time I worked less than 50 or even 60 hours a week.  This is a good sanity check for us workaholics.  We live life once, let's make sure we learn to enjoy what we work so hard for.

For many in the entrepreneurship game, long hours are a badge of honor. Starting a business is tough, so all those late nights show how determined, hard working and serious about making your business work you are, right?

Wrong. According to a handful of studies, consistently clocking over 40 hours a week just makes you unproductive (and very, very tired).

That's bad news for most workers, who typically put in at least 55 hours a week, recently wrote Sara Robinson at Salon. Robinson's lengthy, but fascinating, article traces the origins of the idea of the 40-hour week and its downfall and is well worth a read in full. But the essential nugget of wisdom from her article is that working long hours for long periods is not only useless — it's actually harmful. She wrote: "The most essential thing to know about the 40-hour work-week is that, while it was the unions that pushed it, business leaders ultimately went along with it because their own data convinced them this was a solid, hard-nosed business decision…."

Evan Robinson, a software engineer with a long interest in programmer productivity (full disclosure: our shared last name is not a coincidence) summarized this history in a white paper he wrote for the International Game Developers’ Association in 2005. The original paper contains a wealth of links to studies conducted by businesses, universities, industry associations and the military that supported early-20th-century leaders as they embraced the short week. 'Throughout the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, these studies were apparently conducted by the hundreds,' writes Robinson; 'and by the 1960s, the benefits of the 40-hour week were accepted almost beyond question in corporate America. In 1962, the Chamber of Commerce even published a pamphlet extolling the productivity gains of reduced hours.'

What these studies showed, over and over, was that industrial workers have eight good, reliable hours a day in them. On average, you get no more widgets out of a 10-hour day than you do out of an eight-hour day.

Robinson does acknowledge that working overtime isn't always a bad idea. "Research by the Business Roundtable in the 1980s found that you could get short-term gains by going to 60- or 70-hour weeks very briefly — for example, pushing extra hard for a few weeks to meet a critical production deadline," she wrote. But Robinson stressed that "increasing a team’s hours in the office by 50 percent (from 40 to 60 hours) does not result in 50 percent more output...In fact, the numbers may typically be something closer to 25-30 percent more work in 50 percent more time."

The clear takeaway here is to stop staying at the office so late, but getting yourself to actually go home on time may be more difficult psychologically than you imagine.

As author Laura Vanderkam has pointed out, for many of us, there's actually a pretty strong correlation between how busy we are and how important we feel. "We live in a competitive society, and so by lamenting our overwork and sleep deprivation — even if that requires workweek inflation and claiming our worst nights are typical — we show that we are dedicated to our jobs and our families," she wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal.

Long hours, in other words, are often more about proving something to ourselves than actually getting stuff done.

I'm really on the fence with this and it seems like regulators already know where they want to take this. Are you aware of the consequences this has? Keep an eye for this as so called "regulators" always try to reach for more than they should at our expense and to somebody's gain.

When it comes to privacy, the Internet has long been something of a Wild West but that that is starting to change, with regulators in Europe and the United States beginning to pull in the reins.

On both sides of the Atlantic, officials are scrutinizing how companies such as Facebook and Google handle users' personal data, as they draw up plans to protect surfers while ensuring the growth of rapidly expanding social media, search engine and other Web-based businesses.

In the first sign of where Europe may be headed with its privacy regulations, the European Union announced this week that social networking sites and search engines could face court action if they fail to obey new EU data privacy rules.

Under proposals to be fleshed out in the coming months and that will update 16-year-old data-protection laws, the European Commission wants to force companies holding data to allow users to withdraw it from websites, calling it the "right to be forgotten."

Companies would also have to provide more information on what data they have collected from people and why.

"Any company operating in the EU market or any online product that is targeted at EU consumers must comply with EU rules," Viviane Reding, the European commissioner in charge of justice issues, said in a speech this week.

"To enforce EU law, national privacy watchdogs will be endowed with powers to investigate and engage in legal proceedings against non-EU data controllers," she added.

Reding said that EU-based privacy watchdogs should even be given powers to enforce compliance outside Europe, which could include access to U.S.-based servers and other data sources.

While privacy campaigners and Internet users may be pleased to hear what Reding has to say, her words will cause concern in parts of the United States, where many of the biggest and most successful search engines and social media companies are based.

Europe and the United States have traditionally differed on privacy issues, with the EU taking a stronger regulatory approach and U.S. officials more mindful of the need to balance entrepreneurship and business demands with data protection.

But in recent weeks, as U.S. privacy experts have visited Brussels to try to close the gaps between the two regulatory frameworks, officials have emphasized how closely they are working together to come up with a common set of standards.

"I think our baseline understanding of the rules is very similar," said Fiona Alexander of the U.S. Department of Commerce, who was in Brussels this month to meet EU regulators. "The implementation in the past may have been different."

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

The EU and U.S. already agree on some general concepts, such as the idea that privacy safeguards need to be designed into Web products from the start. They also both want to require Web browsers to offer a "do not track" option to users.

But differences remain on specifics and philosophy.

EU officials are adamant that companies should obtain explicit permission from users before every use of their data -- such as through a pop-up consent box -- while that is not something U.S. regulators are pushing for, EU officials say.

The right to be forgotten is also a concept that goes against the grain for U.S. regulators, who favor a broader definition of freedom of information.

In a sign of where Europe is going and how complex applying the law could become, Spanish data protection authorities ordered Google in January to remove links to more than 80 news articles mentioning people by name, saying it violated privacy.

The case has been referred to Europe's highest court.

Some companies, such as Microsoft, support the effort by the European Union and the United States to align their policies, saying it will result in clearer, more uniform rules.

"Companies need solid, clear rules to be able to continue to invest and to be competitive," said John Vassallo, Microsoft's vice president of EU affairs. "Now, there are too many competing rules."

But even within individual EU countries, privacy rules vary so much that lawyers say it would be almost impossible for a multinational company to be compliant in all 27 EU countries.

That suggests that Reding and her EU regulatory team will have their work cut out if they are to draw up a clear and workable policy in the months ahead, and one that fits well with the rules U.S. regulators are also drawing up.

Do we have the Right to be Forgotten? The internet has made the world a much smaller and more connected planet. Google has been around for 15 years and they have made the subject of Privacy Rights an interesting one. As consumers we must also be careful of regulation as regulation goes both ways. A legal challenge has risen in Madrid, Spain....

MADRID – Their ranks include a plastic surgeon, a prison guard and a high school principal. All are Spanish, but have little else in common except this: They want old Internet references about them that pop up in Google searches wiped away.

In a case that Google Inc. and privacy experts call a first of its kind, Spain's Data Protection Agency has ordered the search engine giant to remove links to material on about 90 people. The information was published years or even decades ago but is available to anyone via simple searches.

Scores of Spaniards lay claim to a "Right to be Forgotten" because public information once hard to get is now so easy to find on the Internet. Google has decided to challenge the orders and has appealed five cases so far this year to the National Court.

Some of the information is embarrassing, some seems downright banal. A few cases involve lawsuits that found life online through news reports, but whose dismissals were ignored by media and never appeared on the Internet. Others concern administrative decisions published in official regional gazettes.

In all cases, the plaintiffs petitioned the agency individually to get information about them taken down.

And while Spain is backing the individuals suing to get links taken down, experts say a victory for the plaintiffs could create a troubling precedent by restricting access to public information.

The issue isn't a new one for Google, whose search engine has become a widely used tool for learning about the backgrounds about potential mates, neighbors and co-workers. What it shows can affect romantic relationships, friendships and careers.

For that reason, Google regularly receives pleas asking that it remove links to embarrassing information from its search index or least ensure the material is buried in the back pages of its results. The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., almost always refuses in order to preserve the integrity of its index.

A final decision on Spain's case could take months or even years because appeals can be made to higher courts. Still, the ongoing fight in Spain is likely to gain more prominence because the European Commission this year is expected to craft controversial legislation to give people more power to delete personal information they previously posted online.

"This is just the beginning, this right to be forgotten, but it's going to be much more important in the future," said Artemi Rallo, director of the Spanish Data Protection Agency. "Google is just 15 years old, the Internet is barely a generation old and they are beginning to detect problems that affect privacy. More and more people are going to see things on the Internet that they don't want to be there."

Many details about the Spaniards taking on Google via the government are shrouded in secrecy to protect the privacy of the plaintiffs.

This is interesting. Before Steve Jobs was with Apple, he worked at Atari and was assigned to design a prototype for for a single player Pong game called Breakout. Breakout was a game where you had to use a ball to deplete a wall of bricks without missing the ball on its rebound. Sound familiar? Of course, it's BrickBreaker. BrickBreaker has been preloaded on BlackBerry as far back as some of the first color screen devices.

It's hard to trace the origins of BrickBreaker and which device was the first to load it, but we remember it being on a 7100 and possibly the 7510 in 2004 when RIM had only around 2 million subscribers. Today, there are over 50 million BlackBerrys sold, and BrickBreaker has been installed on probably an equal number of devices.

This makes Steve Jobs the creator of the most popular BlackBerry game and maybe the second most popular mobile game in history. The only mobile game with more installs is probably Snake, which became a standard install on Nokia devices in 1998. While everyone is giving RIM flack for copying Apple, it must suck to know that the first and most popular BlackBerry game was created by Steve Jobs.

Like it or not, social networking is here to stay and is getting further ingrained in your lives. I'm seeing more instances where people are negatively affected by their posts on sites like Facebook. Facebook was one of the safe havens (my opinion) on the internet where we can express our thoughts to our chosen network. Some people use social networks to share random thoughts and others share their deep seeded beliefs. But what happens when your posts reach much farther than your network? 

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A bank worker was fired for her Facebook post comparing her £7-an-hour wage to Lloyds boss's £4,000-an-hour salary. The new Lloyds chief was set for a £13.5million pay package this year. A bank worker got the sack after she criticised her boss's £4,000-an-hour salary on Facebook. Stephanie Bon, 37, from Colchester, Essex, was working as a £7-an-hour as an HR assistant for Lloyds Banking Group when she heard about her new chief executive's mammoth salary. Miss Bon went on Facebook and posted 'LBG's new CEO gets £4,000 an hour. I get £7. That's fair.' But after her bosses heard about the comment she was marched from the offices and fired. 'That's fair': Lloyds bank worker Stephanie Bon, right, was sacked after she criticised chief executive António Horta-Osório's pay deal on Facebook Last week it was revealed that the taxpayer-owned bank offered António Horta-Osório as much as £13.5million in salary, bonuses and other benefits this year to poach him from Spanish bank Santander.

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I realize this is not a US company but it's disturbing none the less. I hope the victim sues the company and wins in order to set a precedent against this type of corporate behavior. Heck, If I was a lawyer, I'd do it for free. Has anybody seen or heard of this on US soil?

I have two examples, one is from the Washington Post and the second is my personal experience.

At the Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and peoples priorities.

My personal story isn't quite as dramatic but it's worth pointing out. I'm fortunate to live on Oahu, in a great neighborhood, with an great view. Not much to complain about, but yet I have taken it for granted. Last month I made a trip out to Asia and there was the initial culture shock, then I eventually grew to love most places I visited. I felt that they were farther ahead than the US as far as technology, infrastructure, and future potential. They were clearly moving up where I feel the US is stagnant. I loved the food, people, sights, and my wife loved their malls.

After three weeks of exploring and cultural adjustments we head back home. At the moment I got off the plane and walked to baggage claim and onto the taxi area, my eyes suddenly realized that I really did live in paradise... and I'm still at the airport. The ride home with minimal traffic and eventually coming home to see what I've worked hard for and my immediate surroundings was a real wake up call. I took so much for granted! But it took a trip to a foreign land that I initially felt was so much better to realize that I had it good.

The lesson here is for all of us to appreciate our immediate world. Look around and be thankful for everything you have and appreciate it. It's a great feeling.

Back to the Washington Post - The questions raised: in a common place and environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

We all know the answer. Count your blessings, you are very fortunate.

If you prefer Video format, scroll down to the video links below.

I've studied and been fascinated with NLP. A blog specific to NLP by Richard Bandler and John Grinder is somewhere in my mind finding it's way to my keyboard.  

One of the findings of NLP is the connection between our eye movements and it's correlation with specific processes in the brain. This system works well unless you're like me and you've study this and test yourself and others on a daily basis. Nowadays, I know where my eyes go when I'm talking to people. Even knowing these facts, I find that when I am just going with the flow of a conversation, my eyes are on autopilot and they rarely lie.

So here's a basic though not a definitive guide to spotting a lie. This is not an exact science because a knowledgeable practitioner can easily manipulate this. However, this can make for fun experiments when talking to strangers, friends, coworkers, interviewees, your boss, significant other, and so on.

The following are some general patterns that you can use when talking to someone. It shows the various directions of eye movements of a person and explains what is usually going on in their mind at that moment. It illustrates that a glance to the observer's left usually reveals a creative process -- when someone is "making up" facts or lying. A glance to the observer's right reveals that the subject is remembering facts.

Here is a more detailed explanation of this method:

Up and to the Left: Indicates a visually constructed image. If you asked someone to "Imagine a Red Velvet Cheesecake with a whipped cream topping", this would be the direction their eyes move. In their mind they are "Visually Constructing" the Red Velvet Cheesecake.

Up and to the Right: Indicates a Visually Remembered Images. If you asked someone to "What color shirt did you wear yesterday?", this would be the direction their eyes move. In their mind they are "Visually Remembering" the color.

To the Left: Indicates an Auditory Construct thought. If you asked someone to "Try and create the sound of a speeding train in your head", this would be the direction their eyes move. In their mind they are imagining and creating the sound of a speeding train.

To the Right: Indicates an Auditory Memory. If you asked someone to "Remember the Marine Corps Hymn", this would be the direction their eyes move in while remembering the hymn.

Down and to the Left: Indicates a Feeling / Kinesthetic / Sensory impression that is being created. If you asked someone to "Can you remember the taste of chocolate?", this would be the direction their eyes move in while they recall a smell, feeling, or taste of eating chocolate.

Down and To the Right: Indicates an Internal Dialog. This is the direction of someone's eyes as they "talk to themselves."

How to use this information to detect a lie?

Let's say that you have a friend who owes you some money. You have heard that they just got paid and you want to suggest that they pay you back. You try to be polite and ask them, "Did you get paid yet?" They answer, "Gee, not yet. The boss said maybe next week." and look to their right (your left). This would indicate that they are constructing or "making up" what their boss said. They are telling a lie.

Police often ask a suspect to describe someone in detail. If the suspect looks to their right (your left) they are generally constructing or "making up" the visual description. If they look to their left (your right) they are generally recalling the details from their visual memory.

So, in general, a glance to your left when observing a person indicates that they are creating or "lying" while a glance to your right signifies that they are remembering an actual event, or being "truthful."

But there's more to the story...

Another thing that forensic interrogators look for is the use of contractions -- words like isn't, doesn't, weren't, etc. These are usually used by people telling the truth. On the other hand, people who say is not, does not, were not, etc. are often lying.

They also look for the reactions and facial expressions that accompany what the person is talking about. If someone says "I'm so sad that it happened!" but there is a delay in their expression of sadness, they are probably not being honest. The example is often given of someone who receives a present that they don't like. They often respond with "Wow. It's beautiful, I love it!" and then, some few seconds later, they smile and appear to look happy. Truthful emotions are spontaneous and instantaneous.

Another method used by professionals is to change the subject. A person who has been telling lies about a particular event will welcome the change of topic and will be visibly relaxed. An innocent suspect or a person who has been telling the truth will usually want to continue the dialog and will find the change of topic puzzling and attempt to regain focus on the topic.

Body language is also a good thing to observe. Liars usually do not use their hands. They often fold their arms together in front of them or position items such as books, cups or other things between themselves and the person asking the questions. Sometimes they touch their mouth or nose alot.

Some investigators say that long and detailed answers to otherwise simple questions can indicate a lie. It's as if the more detail the person gives the more he tries to convince the questioner that he is being truthful. If they are confronted or accused of something, the liar will usually deny the accusation in a calm and emotionless manner instead of getting excited and saying things like "What? You think I did it?"

With careful video analysis, some investigators can observe rapid twitches in facial muscles that indicate a lie. Poker players, who want to leave with the most poker chips, often learn to "read" the facial expressions or "ticks" of other players to determine if they hold a good hand of cards or are just "bluffing."

To become adept at distinguishing lies, ask some neutral questions to establish the baseline of the subject. Watch their facial expressions and eye movements and test this method by asking questions and observing the pattern of shifts to left, right, up and down.

A word of caution: this method may be reversed in left-handed people. It also may not apply to people who have rehearsed their answers or who have taken drugs or consumed alcohol.

Some YouTube videos -

NLP Lie Detector Explained

NLP Eye Patterns

NLP According to Samuel Jackson

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you've seen the emergence of Location Technology. It's all around us, from our cellular phones, portable GPS, car based GPS, Apps, Games, and so on. What you may not realize is, Location Technology has been around for a long time.  

Here's a fun look at the History of Location Technology

I love to read books but no matter how much I read, I'm always amazed at how much our ancestor's were able to accomplish.  

Smoke Signals

Back... back in time, everyone from the American Indians to the Ancient Chinese used Smoke Signals to locate home and communicate signals to remote groups or individuals.

Celestial Navigation

I'm not a mathematician but I'm confident that many reading this can run circles around me when it comes to math. For centuries our ancestors used the stars and mathematics to determine coordinates based on the position or location of the stars and sun. I know I would've been lost for sure! In the mid 18th Century, clockmaker John Harrison invented a chronometer which allowed sailors to determine longitude by accurately tracking the time change between home and their current location

Homing Pigeons 

Certain types of Rock Pigeons were bred to be able to find their homes from extremely long distances. These were used for courier services and navigation for thousands of years.

Magnetic Compass

By using a magnet to point to the earths poles, this invention allowed navigators to finally determine their heading, in addition to latitude and eventually longitude.

Radio Triangulation

By measuring the strengths of radio signals, ships, aircraft, and military ground troops began to be able to estimate their coordinates from very long distances.  

Satellite GPS

There's a group of around 30 satellites that orbits the earth and is used to triangulate the position of the receiver. Nearby satellites send timestamped messages, and the receiver calculates the distance of each satellite based on the speed of the incoming messages compared to the time they were sent. The size of these receivers have shrank considerably since the 1960's when this technology was first deployed.

Automotive GPS Navigation

While many GPS receivers were used for military purposes since the 1960's, the automotive GPS nave unit became the first dedicated GPS device to gain traction among consumers. Initially mapless and slow, these devices now include very detailed maps with turn-by-turn directions and connectivity to additional services like real time traffic.

GPS Enabled SmartPhones 

Every smartphone on the market, be it the Blackberry, Android, iPhone, Windows, etc. have changed the apps industry by allowing third party software applications to take advantage of user location.

Today we have the ever evolving world of Location Based Applications, Gaming, and Social Networks. These apps are everywhere and most developers now have some location functionality to their product. The past 2-3 years, consumers have shifted from candy bar, texting focused phones, to full featured smartphones. These phones have taken over and are in the hands of millions of consumers. We've only touched the tip of the iceberg. The next decade will be an exciting time in technology and mobile electronics.

I’ve read some reviews about a book by Dr. Kevin Leman, called The Birth Order Book. It’s very interesting and here’s some food for thought. Did you know that approximately 80% of Harvard students are first borns or only children. One can argue that first borns cost so much to send to Harvard that parents run out of money for the rest of the children (:

According to Dr. Kevin Leman, author of The Birth Order Book, birth order matters. Here’s how his framework on how the different orders generally are, noting that not every characteristic applies to every child.

First Child: perfectionist, reliable, conscientious, a list maker, well organized, hard driving, a natural leader, critical, serious, scholarly, logical, doesn't like surprises, a techie.

Middle Child: mediator, compromising, diplomatic, avoids conflict, independent, loyal to peers, has many friends, a maverick, secretive, used to not having attention.

Youngest Child: manipulative, charming, blames others, attention seeker, tenacious, people person, natural salesperson, precocious, engaging, affectionate, loves surprises.

Only Child: little adult by age seven, very thorough, deliberate, high achiever, self-motivated, fearful, cautious, voracious reader, black-and-white thinker, talks in extremes, can't bear to fail, has very high expectations for self, more comfortable with people who are older or younger.

Interesting, isn't it? Well, is it accurate for you? Some of us can argue with some of this but it seems to have some truths. Check out his book at your local bookstore or Amazon.