A dichotomous mind

Taylor Swift reminds me of a fox..

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:29:00 -0700

So I started searching for foxes and to my surprise I found the Swift fox! How cute.

Posted via email from diulama’s posterous | Comment »

chirp : how does its body know the order of the...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:29:00 -0700

chirp : how does its body know the order of the rainbow

chirp : that is some good science

USC vs CAL

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:01:44 -0700

oon:

I was watching the USC/CAL game with a couple of my friends at Manny’s (formerly Raleigh’s) when my friend got into this heated argument with these two girls from USC. They were being obnoxious and bitchy, and if they were dudes, they would’ve got their ass kicked.

I missed the first half of the conversation, but from what my friend had told me, they kept bashing Cal, saying USC is better in every aspect. According to them, USC students are more socially adept, have better leadership skills, and can get better jobs. The audacity of these women to come to Berkeley territory and gloat about their school is fucking incredible.

Anyway, I only heard the latter half of the conversation and it went something like this:

Friend: Ok, let me ask you this, do you make 100k? Are you making a 100k right now?

USC girl: Well, we just started working…

Friend: So you don’t?

USC girl: I didn’t say that.

Friend: Well, let me tell you something. I do so shut the fuck up.

My friend was lying his ass off.

Instant Messaging Asthma

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:30:00 -0700

guy: why is continually earning less
guy: than ur peers
guy: some horrible injustice that needs to be righted?
guy: see thats the thing
guy: i love that our generation, for lack of a better description
guy: is idealistic
guy: and wants to do bold things
girl: yea
guy: but
guy: we also have this very
guy: disturbing
girl: ego?
guy: sense of entitlement
girl: yea
guy: yeah
guy: you and i
guy: are not entitled to anything

Seems like this’ll be confusing for most people

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:25:35 -0700

Seems like this’ll be confusing for most people

"We’re just fragile machines programmed with a false sense of our own importance. And every now..."

Thu, 21 May 2009 19:04:51 -0700

“We’re just fragile machines programmed with a false sense of our own importance. And every now and then the universe sends a reminder that we don’t really matter to it, hurtling us into confusion and a panic for answers that will allow us to resume our program again.”

7 meanings

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:12:48 -0700

I didn’t say she stole my money - someone else said it

I didn’t say she stole my money - I didn’t say it

I didn’t say she stole my money - I only implied it

I didn’t say she stole my money - I said someone did, not necessarily her

I didn’t say she stole my money - I considered it borrowed, even though she didn’t ask

I didn’t say she stole my money - only that she stole money

I didn’t say she stole my money - she stole stuff which cost me money to replace

-from badger7

Sorry if this is supposed to be more “professional,”...

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:17:00 -0700

Sorry if this is supposed to be more “professional,” but this is just so cool. (via chirp)

My friends say I should Tumblr more

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:54:55 -0700

And I will, armed with the iPhone Tumblr app.

A good explanation of the credit crisis

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:26:00 -0800

A good explanation of the credit crisis

The Social Swiss Army Knife for Websites

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:53:00 -0800

I’ve just installed a new widget on my blog, as you may be able to tell on the bottom right of the screen. This widget will provide my blog with social features (interacting more with my visitors), aggregating my identities (identities are other areas of the web that I “own” such as my Flickr account), and finally, a way for me to easily exchange traffic with websites that have relationships with this blog (through the Partners dialog box).

As you can tell from my blog right now, there aren’t too many articles. One of my main goals for setting up this domain was to aggregate all of my identities. For example, when you look at the top, you see my links to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Disqus profiles. However, I’ve noticed several shortcomings with this. First, the links are static. There’s no way to see what’s going on with those links without individually clicking and going towards the site. Second, the way to monitor incoming/outgoing traffic flow is primitive. Lastly, there’s no consistency. Although there are limitations, I want to give all of the sites I own a level of consistency (common information). This can be done with the widget. In any site that supports Javascript, I can bring my latest feeds and identities to it, as well as centralizing my identity.

For the social features, you can choose to follow me and all of my identities. When you follow a site, you are able to keep up with that identity’s latest activities. There’s a messaging system built in as well as some other features that are going to be implemented really soon.

When this website was created, I mainly wanted the domain to be found on Google, so whoever is looking me up will see this website. It looks like I was able to do that somehow, even though I barely wrote any articles up to this point. I’ve never posted this blog anywhere except for my Twitter account, since I don’t really use it, but now I may. And if I choose to do that, I can try to get more relevant traffic by choosing to become Partners with anyone who has also installed the widget. It’s in my best interest to get others to install this, so I can get a much better way to trade visitors. No blogger would want no visitors to their blog, and this way, I can “network” my site up. This is what I think “website networking” could be. A visitor to one website may be interested in the Partners because they may have directly similar and relevant content. If that’s true, then this could be really exciting. I look forward to seeing how this experiment will turn out.

Compensation

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:45:00 -0800

I just watched an TV show yesterday called High End Prostitution. It was a show detailing the practices of an exclusive call girl business where its clients include top professionals such as lawyers, doctors, and businessmen.

I’d imagine that how these very successful men were raised had a lot to do with their seeking out of women at this stage of their lives. In the show, it mentioned that a lot of men weren’t paying just for sex, but also for a confidante— a stranger to reveal their secrets to — as well as a break from the stress they encounter. The narrator of the show likened it to “mini-vacations.”

I wonder if these men were unsuccessful with women in their early lives. Perhaps they were the studious type, the unpopular but top students in the class. Maybe they never really got a chance to experience things and now that they get a chance to since they are finally successful and wealthy. Perhaps they didn’t choose their wives but rather just accepted whoever was nice enough to come to them, which may lead to an unsatisfied marriage, and a desire to search for more. If this is true, then I feel it’s important for parents to also stress developing social skills while people are young.

Brainstorming

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:52:19 -0700

This is adapted from an article that I’ve read, “The Perfect Brainstorm.”

Sharpen the focus. Start with a clear problem statement at is at the right level of specificity. Take extra care to not already do part of the brainstorming by creating a solution in the problem statement. An example would be to have an open ended topic such as “ways to help drinks cold in the living room” as opposed to “insulating sleeves for cups.”
Playful rules. Try to get as many ideas in as possible, without being overburdened by the seriousness of critiques.
Number your ideas. This is good both as a motivational tool (let’s try to get a hundred) and also allows for easy reference to ideas that have been mentioned.
Build and jump. Know when to let certain ideas “build” and when to “jump” completely. Build when there is momentum behind ideas, jump when you notice the momentum is dying off.
The Space Remembers. Write down the flow of ideas so that your entire group can see them. Although there are a bunch of emerging technologies available, one of the simplest things is just to use a whiteboard and marker. Utilize people’s spatial memory. When you write things in a certain area of the room, you can physically jump back to different areas and that will cue the group’s memory.
Stretch your mental muscles. If you feel like your group may be a little rusty, it’s worth spending time warming up. For example, in researching how new technology can be applied to toys, it was found that the people who actually went to a toy store far outperformed people who listened to talks, did readings, and obviously people who did nothing to prepare.
Get physical. Sketching, bringing physical models, and even using your body to act things out can be found to be pretty helpful towards brainstorming.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:39:00 -0700

Svalbard Global Seed Vault - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On negotiation

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:15:48 -0700

Negotiation is a widely used skill. I’ve encountered various articles on negotiation and they might be useful to know and to practice. These are notes that I’ve summarized from various articles.

6 Habits of Merely Effective Negotiators
Mistakes:

1) Neglecting the other side’s problems

2) Letting price bulldoze other interests
There are potential joint gains to be realized, most people don’t see it and instead see a fixed pie chart. People need to realize negotiations are 50% emotion, 50% economics.

$100 study. This involved two people, one person who can set the terms of how much they want to share and the other person who can agree or disagree. If they disagree, no one gets the money. Most people wouldn’t accept a split unless they get at least 35-40%, and would rather walk away with nothing.

3) Letting positions drive out interest
Get past the position.. see what’s really motivating someone to take a certain stance or to make a certain decision. These are the interests, the motivating factors.

4) Searching too hard for common ground
An overlooked source of value is often the differences between negotiating parties.

5) Neglecting BATNAs
Having a “best alternative to a negotiated agreement” is useful to provide leverage and help with planning.
Roger Fisher: “Which would you prefer to have: A gun or a terrific job offer from a desirable employer who is also a serious competitor of your company?

6) Failing to correct for skewed vision
People tend to be biased towards ourselves. (Role biases)
Ways to combat this: Have people on your own side prepare cases for the opposite.

Negotiation Analysis: An Introduction

BANTAs
Carefully consider this, making sure that it really is the “best.”
Try to imagine creative alternatives and weighing their relative value.

Say you’re negotiating a deal, you’re willing to sell something for $10 mil. Say the buyer is willing to offer up to $13 mil. Then, the value created is $3 mil.

Test the zone of possible agreement. (ZOPA) Figure out how companies view their alternatives and how they view your own.

Learn to identify who the influential players are. Can the other party negotiating with you be able to give you a binding commitment? Or does it have to go through corporate review?

Learn to understand interests of parties. Avoid thinking “selling for highest possible price.” Learn deal structuring.

Negotiators must manage the tension between creating and claiming value

Value is generated by capitalizing on differences. Goes to the point where one’s well being cannot be improved until it hurts the other, this point is called “pareto optimal”

Four page guide to negotiation

Prepare yourself before a meeting- get the right attitude and gather information on what your interests are and what the other party might be.

Become a bit clinical, detached, even selfless.

Position vs Interest

Position - stances
Interests - reasons behind stances

Don’t make a counter-offer to a ridiculous initial proposal. Better to say, no thanks.

“To move matters along, ask a question”
Dig hard for interests.

As soon as the framework for possible agreement emerges, nudge in that direction. Remind the other side this particular issue has been settled, refuse to reopen it, move on to what’s still open.

Don’t hurry them, or yourself, otherwise they might blow up over a small point.

If you think you’re in accord, suggest “have we got a deal?”

“A diplomat is a man who says you have an open mind, instead of telling you that you have a...

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:02:53 -0700

“A diplomat is a man who says you have an open mind, instead of telling you that you have a hole in the head”