WebMD: Daily Mental Challenges Keep Brain in Tip-Top Shape. Use it or lose it.

Simply having more stuff than the next guy doesn’t do it. It’s what we do with it. Or more accurately, what we get from it. Reading Robert H. Frank’s report in MIT Press underscores just how precious our time is and how we spend it.

Clay Shirky wrote a piece back in December of 2002 that should be of interest to anyone working as part of a team:

First, the bad news. Working in groups is not like baking a pie — there is no recipe for getting it right every time. Groups are fantastically complex entities, and groups will sometimes fail no matter what you do.

The good news is that there are a number of things you can do to improve the odds of success. The literature is too large to summarize in any comprehensive way, but here are a dozen things I think I know about working in groups that may help you get more out of group work while you are here. Some of them are things you can do to prepare for group work, some of them are things the group can do together at the outset, and some of them are ongoing habits.

They are:

1. Embrace ego.
2. Use the group for having ideas, not just ratifying them.
3. Beware premature optimization.
4. Structure is not tyranny.
5. Decide how to decide.
6. Settle on social software.
7. Get it in writing.
8. Match roles and goals.
9. Talk about the relationship.
10. Accept inequality.
11. There is no substitute for time.
12. Have a drink. You’ve earned it.

Clay Shirky, December 2002

Go read the whole thing.

Read “Even The Rich Woman”, a dramatized version of Jesus, Judas, and the anointing at Bethany. As slacktivist says, “It’s about wealth, poverty, generosity, justice and, to borrow a phrase from Dallas Willard, how it’s important to try to do the right thing without hurting anybody.” Reading this makes me think I think I take too much after Judas.

Rafe Colburn shares on exploiting his compulsive video game behavior to fix bugs. I’ve been able to cleave all time consuming video games from my life, except one Jedi Knight Academy. It is far too easy to boot up and get into an online multiplayer frenzy with. There’s nothing like force pulling someone towards you and hacking off an arm! Far too many hours get poured into it. If I can only redirect the energy like Rafe…

Nicholas Avenell has recorded and linked for download a recording of his reading Shelley Power’s Mockingbird Wish. Is it all about us finding our own songs or having our voice criticized as beeing just like everone else’s? I liked this piece back when it was just a story. Have a listen to the MP3.

Over at Regent Business Review is a little article describing how in 15 simple steps.

He touched so many lives at so young an age. God bless him and his family.

I’m always a sucker for lists of interesting and inspirational quotes and this site has some great ones.

Two ways of measuring the demands of a job have defined industrial relations since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution – time and effort – but a third has emerged in the past few decades: emotional labour. It’s not just your physical stamina and analytical capabilities that are required to do a good job, but your personality and emotional skills as well. From a customer services representative in a call centre to a teacher or manager, the emotional demands of the job have immeasurably increased.

Interesting article in The Guardian.