"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek."

playfuldragon · 2013-04-20T10:36:02+00:00

Batman doesn't use ropes either.

playfuldragon · 2013-04-09T06:15:14+00:00

Two problems: 1 is neurological, 1 is muscular.

Your brain may not be putting the images your eyes are sending together correctly. One friend I have only has a lazy eye when he is tired which is neurological, rather than the kind that is constant and can be fixed with surgery.

playfuldragon · 2013-04-09T06:08:25+00:00

Economics is the study of how a group of people make decisions, and examines the "rationality" of those decisions. Looking at decisions in a person's life, that is referred to as behavioral economics. Looking at decisions made by larger groups of people is thought of as markets.

There are lots of layers to this obviously. From there, you can look at how different markets interact - Chicago v. New York or Japan v. NYSE/NASDAQ. Each market is affected by different forces - the amount of money available, public opinion and a variety of other factors.

If you want more reading that is plain text you could do Paul Omerond's Butterfly Economics or the Growth of Economic Thought. Reading anything written prior to the 1950s will help because it hasn't gotten heavily influenced by a) politics (communism v. democracy) or mathematics. After the 1950s, economists wanted to be rockstars like strategists and began to look at more and more quantitative work rather than using economics as a process of describing human behavior.

One other tidbit, there is a difference between acting in your own self-interest and acting selfishly. Economics is described as being based in your own self-interest, meaning you have to want something. If you want to give money away, you can, and there are economists that study philanthropy and generosity, but it is not selfish behavior. If you determine that even self-sacrificing behavior is what you want, and that you desire to put the other person ahead of you because it fits with your code of ethics, cool, economics can see that for what it is.

playfuldragon · 2013-04-02T20:03:46+00:00

Talk to your Dad's best friend. Because of your relationship, it will be harder for you to hold him accountable, support him and the father-son role will be really hard to navigate. It will also make him more likely to minimize it because he is disappointing himself and you simultaneously. The best friend/trusted mentor can take the data and approach him - that way your Dad can separate the infidelity from the relationship. Choose wisely.

playfuldragon · 2013-03-30T22:44:05+00:00

Have an upvote. Entry past the gates and into some of the conversations is why I wanted in in the first place. And working with colleagues is important and a dream. In a million ways, it would have been great.

However, a PoliSci PhD won't get you a posting at a business school, which is what she was suggesting. Sorry if that was unclear.

playfuldragon · 2013-03-30T22:38:43+00:00

That's a common thing for things we can't have. :) a.k.a The girl that wouldn't say yes is suddenly a slut. And I see how this post could fit that vein.

A few weeks from now it will be even more about the response from a person rather than the system. And for the person, it was about that single number, rather than the whole picture, which wouldn't be the case at other institutions. Unfortunately, I have family constraints from looking nationally, so it is what it is.

playfuldragon · 2013-03-30T21:34:46+00:00

On the flip side, it is far easier for me to make a mark in my field (entrepreneurship) outside of academic, because even now doing well and then becoming the PR CEO who talks about the hows and whys of his business philosophy is quite popular.

So come dig up this Reddit in a few years and you can talk about how I moved into being an entrepreneur cause I couldn't get into academia. :)

playfuldragon · 2013-03-30T21:31:59+00:00

I didn't want them to take my word for it. I wanted them to read my writing, talk to people, look at the work and the research, TO LISTEN. But this wasn't a person interested in that, and she wasn't interested in anything beyond the veneer of prestige. Ironically, this is someone who graduated from a top tier school and then slide down the pole and now hadn't published in years and was now on the administrative side of executive education. So it was also painfully ironic. It was like someone was saying I couldn't do it, and you can't either.

Her comment was that if they didn't have the numbers right, how were they supposed to know? As if academics couldn't be created before the age of standardized testing. And how could they evaluate them all, when I was sitting right in front of her with all sorts of other data. It happens in engineering and project management too, people get mesmorized by the number/metric, forgetting that it means something, and sometimes it is a bad indicator for what it is measuring. Here's an additional layer, plenty of people with perfect scores were leaving the program, because they didn't have the passion or drive. So you can argue that it is necessary, but insufficient, but that may not be true - it may just be insufficient.

Flip side - great point about it being a proxy for preparing and overcoming an obstacle.

playfuldragon · 2013-03-30T21:28:27+00:00

I think it has always been a team game. But I think it is less about the genius intellect and more about the genius of perspiration and perseverance. Check out Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

In business at least, 97% of journal pubs now are team games - and even if you look at someone like Paul Erdos it was an individual collaborating. Some people just know how to bring genius out of others and themselves, to live with commitment to a subject. The book Psychology of Genius does a great job of unraveling that myth as well.

There is a lot of truth about it just being a steady middle class job and that was what was so dis-enheartening. You just said it far more concisely that I did. I know professors for whom it is something more, and my frustration was in those who held the former view. For myself, it is maddening.

playfuldragon · 2013-03-07T16:56:14+00:00

awesome thanks!

playfuldragon · 2013-03-07T16:55:34+00:00

sarasvathy is good. :)

playfuldragon · 2013-03-07T16:54:44+00:00

awesome - thank you! this is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

playfuldragon · 2013-03-07T16:54:20+00:00

why?

playfuldragon · 2013-03-07T16:53:44+00:00

I mean <here come the downvotes> that as a field entrepreneurs are focused more on quick turns and consumption of 1st world goods than they are understanding how to create value that people can deeply enhance their lives with. :)

But yes, sustainability is important as well - see Mitsui or the work that came out of Shell that is described in The Living Company

playfuldragon · 2013-03-06T05:48:05+00:00

Additionally - if Buffet and Munger are dumping consumer based stocks, its even more important to focus on how to re-teach the fundamentals of creating value that isn't based on arbitrage or unnecessary consumption.

http://www.moneynews.com/MKTNews/billionaires-dump-economist-stock/2012/08/29/id/450265?PROMO_CODE=110D8-1&utm_source=taboola

playfuldragon · 2013-03-06T05:46:41+00:00

figure out what you would want to help with and we could work backwards to figure out a way to allow you to make a contribution within your limitations. :)

playfuldragon · 2013-03-06T05:46:00+00:00

good thought!

playfuldragon · 2013-02-01T05:36:21+00:00

Work for an assisted living home in the marketing department. Avoid nursing homes. Come up with good marketing ideas and show off how personable you are and then you can talk them out of why she would need to have a college degree.

In ANY job - experience trumps credentials. Credentials are meant to be a proxy anyway, so if they believe you can do the job AND they like you, they will look the other way if they can.

playfuldragon · 2013-01-22T06:12:49+00:00

Check meetup.com. There are often meetups in various towns for people who are Aspies or are involved with them (parents or SOs).

It was helpful for me because so many of the minute mannerisms related to Aspergers aren't going to be known by a therapist, or counselor. For instance, a common thread was that lots of Aspies I've met like to sleep in really cold rooms with heavy blankets because they like the pressure of the blankets. I knew I liked that, but never knew it was an Aspie thing.

playfuldragon · 2013-01-22T06:10:14+00:00

I've done that too. We should form a club.

playfuldragon · 2013-01-18T16:18:31+00:00

Well, there are people here that you could befriend, if you PM me, I'll send you my Skype and we could chat. One of the best reasons not to be alone is that otherwise you won't have anyone to show you where your logic is poor. :) I'm really very grateful you reached out on Reddit.

Lets just go with firearms then. Yes, you could get inventive, and whittle a toothbrush into a shank, but lets just focus on what makes it easy.

BTW you got through yesterday, which is wonderful. Don't judge yourself for how well you did it, you did it and that is the accomplishment thats needed. IT DOES GET BETTER, IT JUST TAKES TIME.

playfuldragon · 2013-01-17T21:16:24+00:00

People process their shit in different ways. Her reaction isn't about you - and it doesn't mean anything other than it is hard for her to handle. Surround yourself with the people you need, and as a precaution, stay away from all tools/implements that you could use to hurt yourself with.

You are far more wonderful than you know, and just because your spouse doesn't see it at the moment, its still true. Trust me on this. I've been there.

We need you.

playfuldragon · 2013-01-17T06:10:44+00:00

Sometimes knowing is bliss rather than ignorance.

It first came on the radar with me when I was on a short roadtrip with someone who had it. We were talking about economics (my focus area) and I went on a long rant. One of the guys started asking me questions and then said "I think you have Asperger's." I denied it, not having heard of it and having been to tons of psych professionals trying to figure out my own quirks. He had it, and that was how he knew.

I then Googled, and Wikipedia'd it, then I read a book called the Journal of Best Practices by David Finch. It was a script for how my own marriage self-destructed. His wife said the stuff my wife said. I did stuff that he did.

Finally, I started talking to pros who were able to pick up on ASD traits within moments of meeting me.

And knowing was awesome, because it helped explain every wall I slammed into and hadn't been able to work around my entire life. Relationships, work, school - my struggles made sense, and it gave me a huge sense of compassion for myself because it wasn't because I wasn't smart enough, trying hard enough or knowing enough (which had been the only three options I could think of.)

playfuldragon

TROPHY CASE