From Project Syndicate: Urbanization is blamed for a wide variety of modern social ills, ranging from crime and incivility to alienation and anomie. But, by infusing us with their unique spirit and identity, our cities may, in fact, help to empower humanity to face the most difficult challenges of the twenty-first century. What ‘unique spirit and identity’ might Lagos infuse us with?
Not quite my state of mind, but this will do: via xkcd. The alt text (to stave off miss.fab’s wrath): The worst resolution to the Valentine Prisoner’s dilemma, when YOU decide not to give your partner a present but your PARTNER decides to testify against you in the armed robbery case
Michael Schrage mulls over the ‘de-knighting’ of Fred Goodwin - the former RBS CEO who presided over its meteoric rise from a relatively small Scottish bank to at one stage the largest bank in the world - and argues the case for better designed incentive systems that reward decisions which are inherently sustainable rather than geared towards risky short term profit: …institutionalized imbalances in compensation encourage too many people to “game the system.” Traders are notorious for developing schemes that sync with how their compensation and bonuses will be paid out. Their defenders argue that consistent losers will, of course, get fired — so what’s the long-term point of clawbacks? But that ignores the (obvious) behavioral reality that traders who know that their greatest risk is losing their job — instead of their money — might be prone to making even larger bets to win comparably larger bonuses. The upside potential overwhelms the downside exposure. That’s a proven recipe for disaster. ...
Jonah Lehrer (The Frontal Cortex) reviews a paper by Bahns, Pickett and Crandall on the relationship between social ecology (the make up of a community and its characteristics) and how people initiate and maintain relationships. They surmise that a bigger pool only makes us more picky, and keener to gravitate to people similar to us (the so called Similarity-Attraction effect). The cliff notes version? When opportunity abounds, people are free to pursue more narrow selection criteria, but when fewer choices are available, they must find satisfaction using broader criteria. ...
Clayton M. Christensen over at the Harvard Business Review muses on life, purpose and defining the right long term metric for measuring success: I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success. ...
My interest in Def Poetry in the past has been limited to Bassey Ikpi. Thanks to a friend, I got forwarded a link to this video by Shihan.. My def poetry love just went up a notch… Found the full text here. Enjoy.
Arthur Ashe’s moving memoir ‘Days of Grace’ ends with a heartfelt letter to his (then) six year old daughter Camera in which he unpacks all the things he suspects his illness will deny him the opportunity of telling her in future. Covering a range of categories from the importance of family, racial discrimination, loss, marriage, money and even faith, it reads like a distillation of many years of living and learning. The section where he talks about faith and religion reads like a primer for a balanced, liberal, yet essentially Judeo-Christian worldview. Excerpts below: ...
How sad is it that I can totally relate with this sentiment? via xkcd
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems.. …so said Salman Rushdie. The corollary is that memory is deceptive, and nostalgia can skew our recollection of things so much that it becomes an alternate reality far removed from the cold, hard facts as they occurred. Sometimes clarity hits you suddenly like a blow to the solar plexus, at other times the bleeding obvious slowly becomes apparent. All told, some day a bloke has to decide – what’s important, what’s not, and what to leave to fight another day….
Nigeria turns 51, bloggers go on the charm offensive with 419 reasons to love the country. My moan from 2009 still stands regardless. The 216th Mersey side derby is ‘ruined by the referee’. The inevitable comments about ‘foreigners’ follow. More from The Good Men Project - traditional gender roles Amanda Knox walks free - justice or a travesty? For better, for worse, until two years doth us part? In her b(rea)st interest? The $1m dollar insured boobs Shell complicit in military excesses in the Niger Delta? What’s in a number? Nothing, says the Good men Project. How the discipline of blogging is a stepping stone to become a good writer. Giving women the visibility they deserve? Steve Jobs passes - TIME’s official obituary.