"I proclaim to my own self: "Count your years and you'll be ashamed of wanting and working for exactly the same things as you wanted when you were a boy. …Look around for some enduring good instead. And nothing answers this description except what the spirit discovers for itself within itself. A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness. Even if some obstacle to this comes on the scene, its appearance is only to be compared to that of clouds which drift in front of the sun without ever defeating its light."
"There's a lot of work remaining to be done, and if you want to be successful you must devote all your waking hours and all your efforts to the task personally"
These two quotes are very strong quotes from Seneca that can be placed towards our everyday living and on our search for our vocational call. The first quote in my opinion, deals with our personal maturation. When we search for jobs we should look into something that is rather enduring job wise and personality wise. The second quote emphasizes the effort we must place on things we want to achieve but also including the personal effort involved.
My overall career choices would be the same regardless of my lifespan. If i lived to see 80 that would just provide me with more time to achieve my goals. If i only lived to 40, that would only make me cram my goals in a sense. Now if everyone lifespan was reduced to 40 or 50, than education would more than likely be pushed earlier and harder. This could possibly result most completing undergraduate school by 18. I personally believe if you have certain goals you wish to achieve you must do whatever to obtain it regardless of your lifespan. You have to strive to fullfil your goal because tomorrow is not guaranteed.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The video above, Daniel Pink talks about the basis/science of motivation. Pinks insist the typical reward and punishment approach of motivation does not work for our generation but rather harm us. Rewards have a tendency to narrow our focus, concentrate the mind. That's why they work in many basic reward cases. He also reiterates the right brain capabilites because left brain jobs are being constantly outsourced to other countries. Reward and punishment approach tends to destroy personal creativity. Pink informs us that the key to motivation is not based on rewrds nor punishments but rather more the drive within us on things that really matter. I have to agree with Pink on this. Our motivation should thrive on things that matters to us and not based on rewards because we perform poorer.
Bad Designs
Who loves cars? I do but one thing I would hate would be to spend a couple of million on a car and only for it to be shattered in complete pieces.
The Ferrari is commonly a two seater sports and luxury vehicle with speeds that are capable of topping about 300 mph. The car can go from o-62mph in about 4 seconds. The cost of the different versions of Ferrari range from $150,000 to $500,000 or more depending on location.
Heres the wonderful car destroyed in a car accident. Ferrari may be great in the speed of the cars and luxurious designs but their cars fail heavily in the safety department/ For the money you pay for this car, I would expect for the car to not be split in two .
One thing I absolutely hate is touching trash cans. One invention that was invented to prevent people from touching trash cans has became relative useless.
THe step pedal trash cans are nice for decoration but suck in quality. You are better off purchasing a rubbermaid trashcan with more space for trash and less money coming out of your pocket. From my own personal experience, these trash cans break easily and the lid eventually stops lifting up when you step on the pedal.
Good Design
Diversion Safes:
You see this coke liter
to the average eye you would only think its a bottle of coca-cola. In reality it is a safe spot.
Diversion safes like these come in many different forms and sizes of popular home products we use every day. The safes are used for a variety of reasons depending on your personal choices. I always felt it was unique how they create each item to weigh like the actual item.
CELL PHONES
Cell phones is one of the top inventions of technology. Many of us, like myself, can not live without our cell phones. Years ago, we did not have phones and over time we upgraded to house phones. The increase of times, led for the demand of more communication which led to beepers and cell phones.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
When choosing schools, what do we truly look for? Many students look more into the social atmosphere than analyzing actual benefits the school may provide to them as whole. Most schools, when deciding which students to pick they look at their left brain aptitudes or abilities, such as grades, SAT scores and other tests. On the other hand, R-directed people are more intune with the non-logic approach in a sense.
In elementary, I will admit most of my training as a child was very L-directed. They would always tell us to keep your grades up and score high on test and you will be successful. As many future students apply for schools now, schools are starting to look more at your community skills or other R-directed skills. In all honesty, as much as hated the rigurous education when i first entered Mercer, I can say now that it pays off for the best. Mercer is relatively easy to get in but its hard to stay. Most other schools professors tend to pacify you with information, but with Mercer professors you have to anaylze the depth of the information to truly understand the material.
This week we offered a plan to end welfare as we know it—a plan that will encourage personality and help strengthen our families through tougher child support, more education and training, and an absolute requirement to go to work after a period of time.” -Bill Clinton, radio address, 6/18/94
Friedman touches on the concept of good fat and bad fat in his book. Good fat is considered to be programs such a s social security. Examples of bad fat is welfare. TOday many people are abusing the system of welfare and are encouraging people to work less or not at all in some sense.
So i decided to talk about the abuse of welfare in our country. Initially welfare was initiated by President Roosevelt as a system that would helped financially challenged families or individuals.Eligibility is determined using gross and net income, size of the family, and any crisis situation such as medical emergencies, pregnancy, homelessness or unemployment. Previos research done on the abuse of welfare showed people tended to provide solely on welfare because the check was more than a regular minimum wage check.
IN order to reduce, the abuse of welfare, many rules and regulations needs to be enforced and implemented. For example, people should be required to look for jobs and have copies of their bills and their gross monthly income sent to welfare offices. Also the amount of children should also be reported accurately and not falsely. One of my biggest peeves with people on the welfare system, is parents use the govermnet aided to buy cigarettes, drugs, luxury items and top notch electronics. None of the aid is used to provide for their children but only used for their selfish purposes.
In awake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster one predominantly known republican set out a stand for changes in welfare and as well as new plans. I feel this is quite an interesting video.
Learning is a primary process in achieving our goals. As time progresses, our technology becomes more advanced. The result of technology becoming more advance should infer to us that changes in how we learn should be advanced. Growing up, I always felt the best way for me to learn was to have a teacher who made the class fun and relatively interesting.
Friedman provides a very relevant point in the comparison of education in the U.S compared to other countries. He states that thirty-five years ago, if you had the choice between being born a B+ student in Brooklyn or a genius in Bangalore, India, you'd rather be born the B+ student in Brooklyn, because your life opportunities would be so much greater in Brooklyn, even as a B+ student. Today, you'd much rather be born a genius in Bangalore, because when the world is flat, and you can plug and play, collaborate and connect, just like you can from Brooklyn, your life chances and opportunities hold more potential than ever before.
Friedman suggests that we should be learning to learn is nothing new to those of us in education, but it does give it new weight, as he warns that "what we learn today in school will be outdated by tomorrow. In result, the most successful people in the flat world will be those who can adapt and learn quickly. The greater our curiosity and passion for learning, the greater chances we will have for success later in life."
Friedman speaks about drastic changes that have occurred in the last fifteen years or so -- events that have leveled the global playing field. He refers to ten "flatteners": things that have enabled us to connect with the rest of the world much more easily than ever before. Events such as the fall of the Berlin wall, Netscape going public, and the new world of "technologies on steroids" -- cell phones, wireless devices, always being connected, and so on -- have made our world a new place.
Employees from one organization are no longer working side-by-side inside the same building. Individuals from anywhere can compete with others from around the world. This convergence gives a new feel to how successful twenty-first-century businesses operate and how twenty-first-century learners can learn.
Friedman talks about the "untouchables" -- those people whose job won't be outsourced or merged. Those are entertainers, authors, great motivators, specialists, and so on. Another group of untouchables are our locals: the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker.
Besides the untouchables, Friedman suggests there will be eight types of jobs for the middle class that will be in demand for a long time to come. They include the great corroborators, the great leveragers, the great synthesizers, the passionate personalizers, the great localizers, the "green ones," the great explainers, and the great adapters. Those with these skills are less affected by changes in careers, new job requirements, and so on, because these are lifelong skills that don't become obsolete.
In conclusion, our future generations education shoudl be constantly updated. Even now as college students, we can take online classes and even labs from local schools and as well schools overseas. More technologically advanced classes could help spur some motivation for children to learn more.
So far from the reading of "The world is flat", my view of the working has not changed but rather it just reemphasized my current views. Currently the United States is facing a recession. Many jobs are requiring more skills than before. Not only that, but the employment rate is constanty increasing because many companies are moving some of their factories overseas for cheaper labor. As far as future seniors at Mercer and even other schools, competition for better educatoin would be higher then ever because of the higher level of competition for jobs.
I plan on going into the pharmaceutical field, either to be a pharmacist or pharmaceutical research. Many pharmacies have shortened their staffs because of the advancement of pharmacy technology. Some of the tools that took the place of many hard laborers was ScriptPro. ScriptPro is a machine which can hold up to 200 drugs, normally the top 200 drugs, and fills prescriptions and places labels on the vials.
Back home, one of our local hospitals uses Robot-Rx, which is similar to script pro but is a robot. I feel my future career would be more advanced then it has ever been. Primarily because the advance of technology, but the needs of pharmacy technicians and pharmacies may reduce. Yet today, many pharmacies are in need of pharmacist.
Friedman discusses how the flatteners have all had a combination to result in triple convergence, which create a more "flatter world".
The 1st convergence helps shows us how the ten flatteners came together in way in which all people could see some of the obvious changes in the millinium. For example, Friedman points out a perfect example about the changes in the operation of some of the major airlines. Today, when we go to airports, we don't have to go through all the hassle of purchasing tickets. The beginning of the millineum many people were becoming frequent users of computers. So airline companies implemented in e-tickets. Another good example is Minolta's scanning, emailing, printing, faxing and copying all from the same machine. This help proves that the ten flatterners created a new global field for collaboration.
The second convergence shows how work habits are constantly changing. During this period, different levels of business skills and different personel were formed.
In the third convergence,Friedman expresses how approximately 3 billion people entered the playing field, and were able to play with everybody else. These people was China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Central Asia. This led to cheaper labor and cheaper tools that would eventually flatten the world.
The triple convergence will eventually affect how individuals prepare themselves for work, how companies from various size compete and how countries reorganize their economies. It can also lead to a reshape in political issues.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
As the world “flattens”, there are numerous roles in which the government can partake in. Many people agree that competition will increase. Increased competition would lead to difficulty in taxing and polices in some experts views. Yet many feel that the government should use the same techniques as bigger corporations. Some of these tehchniques include but are not limited to the following: outsourcing, supply-chain, insourcing and an open source view towards political processes.
Looking at the bigger picture, we can expect for a flattened government to bring a variety of problems. Many government would focus on “high valued work” from o ther countries. David Rimmer suggests many governments will compete on the following 3 levels: tax rates, productivity of the workforce and the easiness of doing business. He suggests also that increasing the ease would decrease regulation and may improve provided services. Increasing the productivity of the workplace would require the government to find workers outside of their countries.
Nationality would matter at the beginning of the processes. While the world continues to flatten, the importance of nationality would increase, because countries would prefer countries that are willing to accept lower wages.
One problem, I have with the governments being flattened is the possible formation of a global government. Having a global government would unite all countries, in which many would lose their own individual culture values. More information on world government can be found at this website: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/world-government/
Thursday, September 17, 2009
There are many criticisms on Friedman's book "The World is Flat". Many criticisms are based on his writing style and his continuous repetitive metaphors he uses. Yet others are more on the defensive side because they disagree on the world being flat.
Ronald Aronica, one of the authors of The World is Flat? – A Critical Analysis of Thomas L. Friedman's New York Times Bestseller , insists that globalization is one of the best events since the industrial revolution. They believe that the world is not flat because of globalization.
Matt Taibbi, is one of the many critics who were focused more so ont he waste of metaphors and language of Friedman. Taibbi review was quite funny in my opinion. When you look at it, many of his opinions were truthful. I agree with Taibbi on the point that most of the book does repeat itself . Below is an excerpt from Friedman's book in which Taibbi disagress with.
As I left the Infosys campus that evening along the road back to Bangalore, I kept chewing on that phrase: "The playing field is being leveled."
What Nandan is saying, I thought, is that the playing field is being flattened... Flattened? Flattened? My God, he's telling me the world is flat
Taibbi explanation of the difference: The two concepts are completely different. Level is a qualitative idea that implies equality and competitive balance; flat is a physical, geographic concept that Friedman, remember, is openly contrastingironically, as it werewith Columbus's discovery that the world is round.
I disagree with Friedman's thoery that five Americas would be created due to the "flattening" of the earth. I feel that if anything it would make people globally more intouch with other cultures and technology.
I was not sure what to write for this blog. Then it hit me to write about uploading. When Friedman wrote this book, uploading was at a minimum. Today there are plenty of online sourches which frequently use uploading. Yet uploading can range from freeware, community forums, and blogging. Many of us youth use programs such as limewire to upload music, videos etc in which we share with others.
Uploading is one of Friedman's fourth flatteners. Uploading is refered to as anything which people can put online. Below i will give brief information on examples of uploading:
Wikipedia was founded by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales. The key concept for wikipedia was to make a free encylopedia that could be constantly edited. Currently wikipedia is one of the biggest encylopedia to this date.
According to wikipedia, open source software is defined as software in which users can use or improve and redistrubute the software. One open source website is http://sourceforge.net/
Overall uploading, can be be quite beneficial to the world as a whole. Some of the best software programs we commonly use today were based from open source software. For example, MIcrosoft is one of the most popluar computer operating systems that was built off other software.
Outsourcing refers to companies that contract with third party companies. Some companies outsource to minimize the cost of running their busienss. Common reasons for outsourcing include the following: tax benefits, reduction of marketing, quality improvement and reduction of costs. Many problems with outscoring deal with language skills of employess and as well as quality risk.
There are many beneifts to outsourcing, which are to save money and to expand their business opportunities.
Personally I do see the cons and pros of outsourcing. Yet at the same time, moving jobs overseas can effect the American economy. I would be more in agreeance with outsourcing if the companies would require their employees to have better English speaking abilities.
Have you ever called a credit card company or your computer company for customer service and when someone answers its not the voice you expect to hear? I have and one of the last things i want to hear while im upset about a certain product is someone who can not comprehend what im saying.
As you look around, have you noticed that most of your belongings are no longer American made. Years ago, we lived in a co untry that thrived in making quality products and as well American products. As years have gone by, many companies have closed many of their U.S factories and moved them to countries such as India and China. Listed below are common companies that are outsourcing:
1.)
I love macy's to death but its credit card company is based in a variety of non-english speaking countries.
2.)
Another outsource company is Nike. I am an avid Nike shoe buyer but I get so upset that the $100 shoe im wearing only cost $3 to make and about $10 to ship from countries such as Malaysia and China.
I plan on being a pharmacist and by doing some research, I learned that many pharmacies do outsource. Many of the pharmacies are outsourced for management by companies with very little background in medicine.
