Alla Gringaus

Information overload

Wikipedia and Emergence – Happy Birthday!

The State of Wikipedia

From Wikipedia: In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, EMERGENCE is the way complex systemsmultiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems. and patterns arise out of a

The early draft of Emergence book by Steven Johnson, the American Popular Science author, had subtitle: “Emergence: What the New Science Can Teach Us About Our Minds, Our Communities, and Ourselves.” changing it later to “Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software.” The book was published in 2001, and so the Wikipedia project, a free web-based, collaborative online reference. Both are Ten-Year Old Babies this year!

Wikipedia Brand via visual storytelling

http://www.thestateofwikipedia.com/media/wiki/img/infographic-lg.jpg

Brain Distracted

“In an early attempt at brain mapping, this etching of a symbolic head and phrenological chart aims to explain the functions designated to the different “organs” of the brain. The pictures represent specific attributes. For example, section 7, located above the ear, depicts a tiger killing a lamb, symbolizing destructiveness.” — Scientific American on Brain Mapping in 1845.

These days, being able to multi-task is the only way to cram all tasks you need to do. But we now have hundreds of TV and Radio channels, high-speed Internet, e-mail, e-readers, mobile devices, social networks we feel such a desperate need to belong to. We’re so connected that we’re beginning to feel rather disconnected. Do you feel inability to focus and concentrate? They say, reduce the amount of electronics and stop joining networks. Easy to say…

Seth Godin On Self-Esteem

Low self-esteem might be an issue as it often triggers the undesirable behaviors in people. People with higher self-esteem tend to show more initiative and appear to be significantly happier than others. Seth Godin wrote a post on his blog that happens to be so true – about the hiring and how this is important to pay attention not just to one’s professional skills but also evaluate the self-esteem levels.  Excellent observation .  I personally find it much harder to work with people who have lower self-esteem,  poor self-confidence and bunch of insecurities.  Developing these qualities have direct impact on productivity and are essential for those who strive to lead.

“If you want to hire people to do a job, to be cogs in the system and to do what they’re told, you might want to focus on people who don’t think very highly of themselves.

People with low self esteem might be more happy to be bossed around, timed, abused, misused and micromanaged, no?

And the converse is true as well. If you want to raise your game and build an organization filled with people who will change everything, the first thing to look for is someone who hasn’t been brainwashed into believing that they’re not capable of great work.

A harried teacher might find it easier to teach a class to obey first and think second, but is that sort of behavior valuable or scarce now?

Industries that need to subjugate women or demonstrate power over one class of person or another are always on the lookout for people they can diminish. Our task, then, is to find people we can encourage and nurture until they’re as impatient with average as we are.

The paradox is that the very people that are the easiest to categorize, to command and to dominate are the last people we want to work with.”

Bullying and Cyberbullying