It seems the number of advertised “work from home” “opportunities has gone ever higher since the advent of prolific social networking. A not insignificant portion of these opportunities really are legitimate – 31, Avon, Mary Kay … – but a lot of them at the very least feel scammy. The good ones tell you everything you …
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Category:commentary
after “the cloud”
Cloud computing has been hyped for the last decade+. For those few of you haven’t heard of it and understand it, cloud computing is a computing-as-a-utility concept wherein compute (and storage) happens on systems which you may not own. That’s it. So – now that we’ve been offloading our storage, computing, and other tasks to …
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zombies and vampires
Many people recently have asked me why I like [some] zombie and vampire stories (and, more generally, why they’re so popular right now), and after taking the time to think carefully on the topic and explain it to them in person, I thought I’d do my 3 readers a favor and write it out here …
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crush your enemy totally – law 15 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 15 All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. (Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihiliation. The enemy …
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pose as a friend, work as a spy – law 14 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 14 Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself. In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for …
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when asking for help, appeal to people’s self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude – law 13 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 13 If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and empathize it out of all …
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use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim – law 12 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 12 One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift – a Trojan horse …
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learn to keep people dependent on you – law 11 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 11 To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you. –{{Robert Greene}}, {{The 48 …
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infection: avoid the unhappy and unlucky – law 10 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 10 You can die from someone else’s misery – emotional states are as infectious as diseases. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead. …
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win through your actions, never through argument – law 9 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 9 Any momentary triumph you think you have gained through argument is really a Pyrrhic victory: The resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. …
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make other people come to you – use bait if necessary – law 8 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 8 When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with fabulous gains – then attack. You hold the cards. –{{Robert Greene}}, {{The 48 Laws of Power}} (review)
the art of the essay
Paul Graham is one of my favorite essayists. The following are some excerpts from his excellent 2004 essay, “The Age of the Essay“. The most obvious difference between real essays and the things one has to write in school is that real essays are not exclusively about English literature. Certainly schools should teach students how …
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delivering solutions – “shipping is a feature!”
Back in 2009, {{Joel Spolsky}} wrote an article called The Duct Tape Programmer. Of everything he has written, I think this is the very pinnacle, and it is summed in one simple sentence in the middle: “Shipping is a feature.” I’ve referenced this article twice before (in Feb and Sep of ’11). Why is this …
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get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit – law 7 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 7 Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only wil such assitance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what …
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gardening efficiently – for fun and profit
I have gardened off and on for most of my life. Back in the 1980s, there was a show called “Square Foot Gardening” on PBS hosted by Mel Bartholomew. Now there is a website. When we lived in Albany, we purchased the book {{Square Foot Gardening}} (which has been updated and simplified even further by …
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don’t implement your scheduler in a pure queue design
Recently came across a seriously funky issue with one of HP’s products (don’t laugh – I know there’s loads of funkiness in HP tools). HP Cloud Service Automation (3.1) allows you to schedule requests in the future. It also allows you schedule end dates for subscriptions. That’s neat. Here’s the problem: if you delete a …
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reference materials
I learned recently that my wonderful wife was never taught how to use a dictionary, thesaurus, almanac, or encyclopedia as a child in school. Not all of that can be because she went to public school whereas I was homeschooled. Nor can it merely be that she grew up in KY and I in NY. …
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court attention at all costs – law 6 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 6 Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all costs. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious than the bland and timid masses. –{{Robert Greene}}, …
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creating vs consuming
One of the biggest issues facing Western societies is that they are all consumption-oriented. Not enough time is spent creating – all [most] people want to do is consume: entertainment, food, money, fun… We all want shortcuts. We all want to be at the level where we don’t have to think to accomplish work. We …
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so much depends on reputation – guard it with your life – law 5 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 5 Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes …
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organizational knowledge capture, retention, and dissemination
Knowledge capture, retention, and dissemination has been an interest of mine for a long time. I have written about various aspects of it before. The most vital commodity any organization has is the knowledge of its members – it does not matter if it is a historical society, company, church, or school: the organizational knowledge …
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redecentralizing school
I have a very long–term interest in education. As I look at the current public education “system” in the US, I can see a variety of major problems. The biggest problem, endemic of any system built around the premise that the only people who should be together all day long should all be “similar”. Somewhere …
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decentralizing email
After several years of pushing all of my personal email into Gmail, I’ve decided that relying [almost] exclusively on one provider is just not the best idea ever. Google is great. But, as with any cloud service, exclusively relying on just one provider is not the best. Going forward, I am going to be relying …
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passive income is not a business plan
Shortcuts. Shortcuts are great. But only when you know the long way. Without hard work, the short cut will seem hard. Passive income seems to fall into this category. Some people think panhandling is a form of passive income. It’s not. The panhandler works for his money – he talks to people, shakes a cup, whatever: he …
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always say less than necessary – law 4 – #48laws by robert greene
Law 4 When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original it you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you …
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