I started “tweet”ing at the end of 2008. There is an entire vocabulary and etiquette associated with twitter. For example: DM - send a “direct message” to someone. RT - ReTweet what someone else just posted.
What is twitter? It’s a website where people update new information relevant to their fields ALL DAY LONG. People can post as may as tens of thoughts a day, every hour sometimes. Each thought is about the length of one sentence. For example: “Best time to be in finance, technology, and journalism: http://adjix.com/j8yw “
Other examples can be:
“Went to the movie Yes Man - great fun although expected it to be”
“Highly recommend this Top 20 list [and a link here]”
1. Denial
“I think Twitter sounds stupid.
Why would anyone care what people are doing right now?”
2. Presence
“I don’t get it, but I guess I should at least create an account.”
3. Dumping
“I use Twitter to send people links to my blog posts
and to send people my press releases.”
4. Conversing
“I don’t always post useful stuff, but I am using Twitter
to have authentic 1×1 conversations.”
5. Microblogging
“I use Twitter to post useful stuff that people read,
and I’m having authentic 1×1 conversations.”
Come join if you want! twitter.com/senia, and let me know in the comments below what your twitter account is, please! Like Facebook, this takes a bit of time when you start. Somehow it becomes rewarding very, very quickly!
I wonder if 2008 will be called the “Year of the Brain.” There were a lot of interesting results released. (For even more brain research, go to Sharpbrains.com).
WINE STUDY
The single most interesting IMHO is the wine study.
Price tag can change the way people experience wine, study shows
…According to researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology, if a person is told he or she is tasting two different wines—and that one costs $5 and the other $45 when they are, in fact, the same wine—the part of the brain that experiences pleasure will become more active when the drinker thinks he or she is enjoying the more expensive vintage.
A BUYING DECISION REALLY HURTS AND REALLY JOYS THE BRAIN
On the surface, this may not seem like a controversial finding. When a person is hooked up to an fMRI machine, and presented with a buying possibility, both pleasure and pain sensors activate in the brain. No big deal.
EXERCISE AND REGULAR BLOOD SUGAR HELP BRAIN STAY YOUNG Yesterday’s news. Regulating blood glucose improves memory. And a great way to regulate blood glucose is through exercise. Therefore exercising actually keeps your brain young.
Again, for much more in-depth info, check out Sharpbrains.com.
You can make a major difference in your industry now. Right now.
How do I know?
At the start of a DVD, the warning says the movie’s been formatted to fit your TV. Well - at my home - one person dislikes that announcement, and each time jokes, “How do they know the size of MY television?”
I do know about you and your industry. Why? Because:
It’s when things are bad and you keep going, then you can actually beat everyone, most importantly yourself. You could be in any company-cycle, and especially, you could have been at point A but point B is just an opportunity to get to a higher point D, and beyond. Yes, if you’re like most people, you are likely in your work and in your finances at a trough, at a point B if not C. BUT. That’s the time when you can be the differentiator. That’s right - it’s just like the Terminator, but it’s the Differentiator.
There’s a time for rigor and a time for mortis. You have a choice to put more effort in when it gets harder, or to say, “Man, it’s getting harder.” Be the little frog who turned the glass of milk into a glass of butter rather than the little frog who didn’t and drowned.
What is your decision-making style? Are you what’s called a maximizer or a satisficer? Answer these few questions YES or NO:
Items from the Maximization Scale
(These are 7 of 13 total questions on the Maximization Scale by Schwartz et al., 2002 - reference is in the comment section)
1) When I watch TV, I channel surf, often scanning through the
available options even while attempting to watch one
program.
2) When I am in the car listening to the radio, I often check other
stations to see if something better is playing, even if I’m
relatively satisfied with what I’m listening to.
3) No matter how satisfied I am with my job, it’s only right for
me to be on the lookout for better opportunities.
4) I often find it difficult to shop for a gift for a friend.
5) When shopping, I have a hard time finding clothing that I
really love.
6) No matter what I do, I have the highest standards for myself.
7) I never settle for second best.
Are YOU a Maximizer?
Now count up how many Yes’s you have. If you have 6 or 7 Yes’s, you are likely to be a maximizer. If you have 1 or 2 Yes’s, you are likely to be a satisficer. In between, you have some maximizer tendencies.
Maximizers look for the one best version of something - the best meal at a restaurant, the perfect movie night, the best school, the best gift, etc. Satisficers look for something that is good enough to meet their general criteria: a good meal, a good gift, etc. Here’s the problem with being a maximizer during the holidays. It can lead to the following says Barry Schwartz, author of the super-successful Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More. Maximizing behavior can lead to:
Stress
Decision Paralysis (”analysis paralysis”)
Regret
If You Want to Stop Being a Mazimizer
If you want to stop being a maximizer, you can take specific steps to create what I call “GOOD Constraints” and to limit your actions in certain areas. For example, shopping a large part of the day? Going store to store? Putting pressure on yourself to find a really good gift? Try these three actions:
Give yourself _ time to make the decision - 20 seconds, 5 minutes, 2 days - limit yourself. Specifically, giving yourself three hours to get all your presents may be plenty.
Know that “almost good enough” is good enough. (This is a major Barry Schwartz thought). Specifically, going to one store may be plenty.
Once you make the decision, look only at the benefits of that decision to avoid buyer’s remorse. Specifically, if you see a different sweater for your sister and you’ve already bought one, you don’t need to examine the new sweater.
If you want to read more about maximizing, please enjoy these articles on PPND:
Finally, here is a wonderful video on Choice on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (click the “Windows Media” or “Real Player” links at the top) . Barry Schwartz is featured in this video and so is the above “former maximizer”! Great video that explains this so well.
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p.s. The Story: I wrote all this up because I had a great time being on Live with Lisa Radio today, and telling Lisa about these techniques and also about the story of Barry Schwartz and his students. Barry started studyng maximizing and satisficing because he was finding that college students graduating from Swarthmore were taking jobs at Starbucks. Schwartz –> students –> Starbucks. After speaking informally with some students, Barry learned that they felt they had so many options (banking, consulting, start-ups) that they weren’t sure what the BEST option was, and they were delaying deciding by taking a job at Starbucks.
Hi, in one hour (at 11:30am ET (i.e. NY time)), you can listen to me on the wonderful LIVE WITH LISA RADIO program. We’ll be talking about positive psychology during the holidays!
Phil Maymin, an assistant professor of finance and risk engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, has crunched 50 years worth of stock-market data — along with more than 5,000 hit songs. And he says he’s found an inverse correlation between stock-market volatility and whether the hot music of the moment is frenetic or steady.
… What’s more, Maymin says that it appears as if musical tastes can predict future market volatility. A strategy based on predicting market volatility from past beat variance appears profitable, on average. “The model predicts that realized volatility next year will be lower than it was this year,” he says. Read more here.
There’s a time for rigor and a time for mortis. You have a choice to put more effort in when it gets harder, or to say, “Man, it’s getting harder.” Be the little frog who turned the glass of milk into a glass of butter rather than the little frog who didn’t and drowned.
