Critical Thinking Blog: All Opinions Are Not Equal

You Really Don't Want That Job

2012-05-31T16:34:00.002-05:00

Recently, I was talking to a friend of my mine who works as a professional political blogger - about his ideal long-term career goals.

I was surprised he didn't mention any sort of political office - even as a pie-in-the-sky fantasy job. So, I asked him why?

He replied, "Dude, those jobs are awful. They're no fun at all. The campaign is ok. But the day-to-day...if you want to do it right...reading thousand-page bills, taking angry phone calls... it's the worst job ever."

And it made me wonder if the jobs we all think we want aren't nearly as romantic as we'd hope. The fantasy of the chase might get us through the day. But, good God, if we were to actually catch these new careers?

When it comes down to it, I think I just want to be paid a whole lot more money and worshiped for my current work, without any new real responsibility.

The Secret to Having No Regrets

2012-05-30T11:38:00.000-05:00

The easiest way to make decisions you'll never regret - is to simply decide not to regret the foolish things you've already done and will continue to do.

Of course, that level of self-deceit can be difficult.

You better decide to not regret that, too.

How a 20-Year Old's Design Fair Helped me Realize I'm Still Needed

2012-05-29T11:00:00.000-05:00

I recently attended my friend's student design gallery, and was floored by the talent of these 20-year olds.

To the point of fear, in fact. That if this was the future, I'm falling behind.

But, then I started talking to them about their work.

One student had designed a 12x3 flipbook-style calendar. The imagery was amazing.

I opened it up to January, and the calendar snapped back closed because of the size and weight distribution. I asked him how you're supposed to hang it? He said, "Oh, I don't know. I just wanted to do something different."

Another student won an award for her beautifully designed wine bottle, branded "Lonely Housewife".

No one will buy wine that labels them as a stay-at-home boozer. No one will buy a calendar that doesn't work.

These kids are phenomenally talented. I can't do what they can.

But they still need me...for now.

4 New Rules for Staffing Your Business

2012-05-24T15:17:00.001-05:00

1) Hire less people.
2) Hire only great people.
3) Give the people you hire highly strategic roles.
4) Outsource the busy work.

Way better output. Way less $ to get there.

"Entertaining" Means Being Others-Focused

2012-05-23T12:14:00.000-05:00

I recently had a friend visit, and offered him something to drink. He asked for a soda.

Embarrassed, I told him we didn't have any. We don't carry soda in our refrigerator, because we don't drink it.

But, my diabetic grandparents kept Coke in theirs. Why? For me.

I'm still learning.

Do You Have the Same Diet as a Poor Person?

2012-05-22T11:15:00.002-05:00

Do You Have the Same Diet as a Poor Person?

Soda? Burgers? Fries? Pizza? Ice Cream? Cookies? Chips?

You live in a better house. You drive a better car. You wear nicer clothes.

And yet, you eat like a poor person?

I Will Not Volunteer My Opinion Unless Asked: Challenge Results

2012-05-21T09:07:00.004-05:00

Final update on my For one week, I will not volunteer my opinion on ANYTHING unless I am EXPLICITLY asked for it." challenge.

VICTORIES:

"I believe in democracy and free speech and all that, but..."

Before I had even heard the rest, I had made up my mind to remain silent.

An argument arose concerning whether it was possible to "spam" e-mail your friends.

I stayed out of it.

RESULTS:

My ideal end-game for this week long challenge was delusional - I was hoping by the end of the week to be explicitly asked for my opinion on something.

It never happened.

I did get a "You've been awful quiet this week, Eric." But that's it.

And honestly, that's really good feedback to get. Because it means I had merely been noise. That those around me had not been waiting with baited breath for me to make my decrees. So what a waste of time to act like it.

I'm going to try to stick to this silence. And I'll let you know if this actually ends up increasing my respect/authority over time.

It reminds me of my grandfather. He wouldn't say much. But when he did, it was something that mattered.

I Will Not Volunteer My Opinion Unless Asked: Day 2 Results

2012-05-17T09:22:00.000-05:00

Update on my For one week, I will not volunteer my opinion on ANYTHING unless I am EXPLICITLY asked for it." challenge.

VICTORIES:

I was caught in a roundtable discussion about the best methods for introducing (forcing exposure upon) your kids to different activities (piano lessons, tee-ball, dance class).

This was easy to stay out of, because my daughter is still 0, and I haven't had to think about it yet.

Then, the topic shifted to how awful video games were for kids.

This was harder to stay out of, but I did.

I found out my friend started smoking again.

I didn't try talking him out of it. But honestly, it's 'cause I really don't care. He's awesome. When some people take up bad habits, I try talking them out of it, thinking that by correcting all of their flaws, they will somehow be transformed into a person I enjoy being around. But, this guy's already awesome.

FAILURES:

I'm a worship leader at my church, and we had practice last night. It's a fairly autocratic gig. You have to be the one to make the call. Perhaps that's where most of my tension in this experiment comes from. I'm used to those dictatorial parts of my world, and want to unleash this power upon the others.

For those of you who participating, any stories yet on your end? It's hard, isn't it?

I Will Not Volunteer My Opinion Unless Asked: Day 1 Results

2012-05-15T16:43:00.002-05:00

Update on my For one week, I will not volunteer my opinion on ANYTHING unless I am EXPLICITLY asked for it." challenge.

VICTORIES:

This was said in my presence.

"I don't just think the drunk driver should be held responsible. I think EVERYONE in the car should be held responsible."

And I didn't say a thing.

FAILURES:

I'm not sure what to do about meetings. I'm in the room. So, by default, I'm at least passively being asked for my opinion? To be short, some stuff was being decided on that was going to be decided on wrong, and I spoke up. But, I was super Socratic about it - they totally thought it was their idea...yes, I know this was cheating. I'm going to try avoid meetings the rest of the week.

For those of you who participating, any stories yet on your end? It's hard, isn't it?

I Will Not Volunteer My Opinion Unless Explicitly Asked: 1 Week Challenge

2012-05-14T09:00:00.003-05:00

Ok, late notice. But, I am issuing a week-long challenge.

"For one week, I will not volunteer my opinion on ANYTHING unless I am EXPLICITLY asked for it."

For me, this is going to be incredibly hard.

Because this is more than just not being the individual to raise the topic. But, this means not participating AT ALL unless specifically asked to.

There is an end-game I'm hoping comes out of this. But, we'll see at the end of the week if it happens.

Until then, I will be sharing the flawed logic that arises, how desperate I was to shout it down, and if I let anything slip.

Let me know if you're in.

The Practicality of Obama's Evolving Embrace of Gay Marriage

2012-05-10T09:04:00.002-05:00

He probably only loses a handful of voters - individuals from liberal churches that don't consider themselves THAT liberal.

And he gains millions of dollars from Melissa Etheridge for his campaign this Fall.

It was the smart decision.

Do you really care if he actually believes it?

The Creator Gets to Decide What Their Creation Is

2012-05-08T15:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's post spurred a couple of great offline conversations regarding the difference between art and pornography - specifically, who gets to decide. Here were our takeaways.

So recently, I had a little fun playing the role of 'subversive' in this political video.

For the most part, those who knew me understood what I was doing. While strangers who stumbled across this video mocked me in the comments as a nutball with a speech impediment.

The point being: the creator gets to decide what their creation is.

You can decide if it's funny. But you can't decide if it was supposed to be. Content can only be judged against the creator's intention.

And that was my point from yesterday. My realization that the ancient artists were indeed trying to mimic sexualized perfection. And with that knowledge, I now judge it as pornography, since that seems to be what they were going for.

Venus de Milo Pornography

2012-05-07T13:50:00.000-05:00

As a kid, I was embarrassed to walk through The Art Institute of Chicago.

Because you couldn't turn a corner without a fat naked lady painting or sculpture jumping out at you.

And I remember my teacher saying something about artistic merit, and our evolving perceptions of beauty - and I simply rationalized this as yet another thing I didn't really understand.

But just last week, I learned an artist has decided to re-create the famous Venus de Milo statue (a topless and armless depiction of the Greek goddess Aphrodite), by updating it to our modern-day perceptions of beauty.

Because it turns out, that's what the Venus de Milo was originally designed to be. In fact, it turns out that's what ALL of these naked paintings and sculptures were intended to be.

Not creepy, fat "realistic" depictions of women. But incredibly sexualized depictions of the female form.

So, now I'm not sure why it's art and not pornography?

The Knowledge Economy: Rethinking Higher Education

2012-05-04T06:56:00.001-05:00

This week, we are discussing the entity of Higher Education. The costs, the curriculum, the desired outcomes, and the alternatives.

The moral of this week's story is that we are getting closer to the point where the self-determined individual can receive a world-class education, for free, online, from the comfort of their home/hut.

So, what does that mean for us as Americans? It means our head-start is over. Because currently, our wealth affords some us us the exclusive luxury of going on to these higher levels of education. And therefore, we're getting the higher-paid strategic jobs and outsourcing the manufacturing/labor overseas.

But, what if our respective levels of education are no longer unique?

What if 1 billion 22+ year olds soon have the equivalent of a highly advanced undergraduate education?

Then, what does your differentiation become? Who gets the great jobs? The Masters degrees? The PhDs?

Or the innately creative?

If I can train a bright 16-year old to take over a large portion of your current 8-hour work day, you're not going to have that job 10 years from now.

Everything's changing for the better. Everyone's getting smarter for free.

And it's going to be awesome.

In the future, the losers will not be the poor, but the apathetic.

Alternative Certification Badges: Rethinking Higher Education

2012-05-03T11:23:00.002-05:00

This week, we are discussing the entity of Higher Education. The costs, the curriculum, the desired outcomes, and the alternatives.

Yesterday, we explored some of the amazing, world-class, and very FREE educational resources sprouting up due to the wonders of technology - that could essentially replace, at the very least, the "liberal arts" part of a college education.

But, this only works if either:
A) Colleges recognize this alternative as official transfer credit, essentially halving one's out-of-pocket costs for a college education
OR
B) Human Resource managers stop caring whether or not you have a degree

But right now, having a bachelors degree is the single easiest assurance a company has that you'll be a productive fit. After all, you made it through college. Your degree is an field related to the skills we're looking for. You can't be a complete bozo?

But some of the free resources we went through yesterday aren't just "equivalent" to Gen Eds, but in many cases, are arguably superior to them? And if I'm a hiring manager, and see that a prospective employee enrolled in Khan Academy, I might actually prefer that individual? After all, they're intuitive, tech-savvy and resourceful. As long as I can prove they actually "attended".

Because at a traditional college, you are penalized if absent from class (your body if not your mind), and tested to measure some sort of knowledge retention (regurgitation).

But, the Khan Academy is doing that, too. They have implemented testing and "badge" certifications. Once you test proficient in all skills related to a particular subject, you receive a "Proficiency Badge" in Calculus I, Algebra I, Geometry I, etc. Mozilla is trying to help create a universal Open Badges System to mainstream this idea. Other institutions like Microsoft don't offer the education itself, but offer the certification test itself that you can prepare for in whatever way you desire.

For example, let's say someone learns graphic design on their own time. Through library books, and YouTube tutorials.

Two candidates walk in your office.

One has their degree in Graphic Design from Bradley University.

One has their Liberal Arts education Proficiency Certification from Khan Academy, Crash Course certifications in Color Theory, Typography, Logo Design and Digital Photography, and Adobe Master Certifications in InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, Premiere and AfterEffects.

Now, I'm not sure what looks better. I think the first is still safer.

...but the second one is FREE.

Making College Free: Rethinking Higher Education

2012-05-01T13:26:00.002-05:00

This week, we are discussing the entity of Higher Education. The costs, the curriculum, the desired outcomes, and the alternatives.

MAKING COLLEGE FREE

There is a big political push right now saying Higher Education should be free. Ok, but does "free" mean the Federal Government subsidizes our tuition to traditional Universities, or does "free" mean free access to the education itself? Because, as a currently debt-laden nation, the latter seems more achievable? And here are a couple of my favorite options.

Khan Academy
Dedicated to providing a free world-class education to anyone, anywhere. This site currently has 3,100 lessons and counting, all produced by site founder, Salman Khan. Bill Gates' kids learn via the Khan Academy. This is the biggest non-profit stand-alone educational resource out there right now.

Crash Course
This new venture offers super high-quality and beautifully produced liberal arts overviews, currently only for the fields of "World History" and "Biology". But this is incredibly exciting. Let's say like-minded professors help create these full courses for 60 different fields, the wide spectrum of liberal arts "Gen Eds"...

Could these free options essentially replace one's first two years of college?

Sure...if schools begin to recognize them. But, that's a big "if". And that's where we'll start tomorrow.

Gen Eds: Rethinking Higher Education

2012-04-30T13:59:00.002-05:00

This week, we will discuss the entity of Higher Education. The costs, the curriculum, the desired outcomes, and the alternatives.

GEN ED REQUIREMENTS

My first semester of Freshman year, I enrolled in Pysch 104, more excited about this course than any other on my schedule.

In fact, I was confident I would end up minoring in Psychology. After all, as a marketing student, I wanted to better understand human behavior. The way the mind works. What motivates us. How we learn. Instead, I was given multiple choice tests on the different biological parts of the brain. Disenchanted, I never took another Psych course.

This course was also the entry point course for my friend Diana, a registered Psychology major.

Why were we both taking the same course? Why is the entry level course for a Psych major the same broad "liberal arts" version of Psychology the rest of us are assigned as a Gen Ed?

If our goal within a "liberal arts" education is to give non-majors a broad understanding of the inner-connectivity of all these different fields, shouldn't we design the course more broadly? Not merely boring foundational curriculum that assumes you'll be moving on to next-level stuff next semester?

Why was I memorizing brain parts with the one chance they had to open my mind to the science of Psychology?

Caine's Arcade and a Public School Takeaway

2012-04-27T09:03:00.002-05:00

Take 10 minutes today during your lunchbreak to watch this beautiful story of children's entrepreneurship.

There are a lot of great takeaways from this video. So, I'll give you a crazy one you probably didn't think of.

I want kids like Caine to be plucked away from the traditional public school system.

I understand the theory behind maintaining/improving our current public school system. That in a charter or private school environment, rich parents will all flock to the same schools. That the best teachers will then flock to these schools. And that the poor kids will be stuck in the poor schools with the worst teachers - permanently stuck in their lower-rung socio-economic world.

And so, if we maintain a system that spreads the wealth a little more evenly, it will give the poor kids a better shot.

It's absolutely true. But, there is a downside we have to acknowledge. By definition, spreading out the best teachers and the best resources will make the privileged kids' schools a little worse.

Is this fair? Maybe.

But, I want us to understand the downside. Because while every child has enormous potential, Caine is uniquely special. He could be Edison. And I don't want him in an avg. school. I want kids with Caine's potential to be plucked and groomed.

We used to do this. In the 60s, Kennedy said, "We're going to the moon." And we tried to find the geniuses who would help get us there. We took our perceived best and brightest out of high school and sent them to specialized schools.

It's a completely different way of looking at education. To some, it looks cruel. To me, it seems obvious.

So, I'm re-asking a question I've asked before.

Is our educational system designed to help geniuses create the future, or to help the average kid follow instructions?

Placating the Stay at Home Mom

2012-04-26T11:37:00.004-05:00

When I was a kid, Danny Tanner (Bob Saget) hosted America's Funniest Home Videos.

And he would always interview the family of the winning video the at the end of the episode, and ask the parents what they did for a living.

Frequently, the wife would say, "I'm a stay at home mom."

And every time, Saget would quickly interject with, "And we all know there's nothing harder than that."

For some reason, I always thought this was a 'save' attempt. That everyone in the room knew this wasn't true. That the mother was partially embarrassed to admit she didn't have a real job.

Then, I had a child. And every day I'm home alone with her is the most isolating and exhausting experience of my week. Work is a vacation compared to it.

Yet, from the 'Ann Romney' gaffe from the other day, I realized that there truly is bias against the stay-at-home mom.

And I don't understand anyone who has had kids having it?

Earning the Respect of the Crazies

2012-04-24T11:08:00.001-05:00

I keep trying to win the respect of people I do not respect.

I do this purely for career reasons. But all too often, I take the results personally.

Now, if someone you respect has issues with you, that is a great indicator that it is time to stop and self-examine. You should take their criticism seriously.

...but crazy people are crazy. And expecting them to objectively appreciate you is a no-win game.

Important People Live Awful Lives

2012-04-23T10:09:00.001-05:00

Consider the most important individuals in modern history.

We remember these lives through an almost romantic lens, but imagine what it must have been like to actually live them?

Lincoln's life sucked. Overwhelming stress, despair and melancholy. With so much at stake, the gravity of your importance can simply be overwhelming.

And almost never do you get to experience the fruits of your labor. Rather, you are simply laying down your life as a foundation for the future to cross more smoothly.

Lives of importance are rarely grand in the experience. Yet, we think we want one?

Confusing Our Desire for Celebrity

2012-04-18T09:33:00.000-05:00

Even the shy among us enjoy feeling appreciated - important - may even relish a mere 15 minutes of fame.

But, I wonder if we've confused that innate desire? "Being important" as opposed to "Doing important things".

Were you to be cast in a reality television show, you may feel important. If the show were to be successful, you may in fact "be" important.

And all without doing anything of real importance.

This short-term celebrity might satiate our innate desire of importance, but wrongly so.

Your desire for importance is a good thing. But the desire is meant to provoke us into becoming an agent of restoration. Not mere celebrity.

Smart Fish in a Dumb Pond

2012-04-13T16:55:00.000-05:00

I say I want to move to a city where everyone is smarter than me.

Because I truly do believe in the Aristotelian practice of finding mentors - surrounding yourself with intellectual giants, and growing from their knowledge.

But, could my ego really handle this?

Or would I actually prefer becoming a big fish in a very small pond, and deluding myself into thinking I'm the king of the world?

Television News is Pornography

2012-04-12T10:54:00.000-05:00

I get that news is a business.

I get that I am more interested in the real-time coverage of a roadside bomb than the story about a new hospital wing being donated.

That I probably wouldn't watch the utopian news channel I could concoct in my head.

But that doesn't let you off the hook for being a willing part of that system. For claiming journalistic integrity in promoting, magnifying and shouting the worst in humanity night after night.

You create pornography. It does not fill, nor educate us. It tricks us into believing in an ever-worsening reality that does not exist.

Spotify Embed Feature is Only 1/2 Cool

2012-04-11T09:34:00.004-05:00

Spotify just got 1/2 step cooler. Give it a try with my embedded "Why Every President Sucked" album below.

1/2 of you probably think this is awesome. The ability to embed any song, album or playlist on Spotify - directly into your Website or blog.

But those are the 1/2 of you that already have Spotify running in the background.

For non-Spotify users, this embedded player does nothing and isn't useful at all. And that prevents this new innovation from being the "holy wow" of awesome I originally thought it may be.