Stever's blog

Nerdcore for life

har har har,

More nerdcore. I can’t explain the movement any better:

Six Thinking Hats

Here’s another idea brought forth by the “Six Thinking Hats” book:

Many people are stuck in a certain mode of thinking called “what is”. For example:
- “I hate my job”
- “I make no money”
- “I’m not successful”

These may be true facts. However, there is a certain OTHER mode of thinking called “what can be”. This involves a different way of looking at things. Instead of saying “this is fact”, it says “let’s design a way forward”. For instance:
I am fat and I can’t. . . say. . . run faster than the next guy is a “what is”.

I learned to ride a bicycle and now I can win the race is a “what can be”.

Bicycles are all around us, but many people don’t use them because they have trouble shifting the context of their thinking.

AIG

Here are the recipients of AIG’s “political contributions”:
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/recips.php?id=D000000123&type=P&state=&sort=A&cycle=2008

hmmmm. . .

US Treasuries

Hmmmm, let’s see. . .

2007 3 month treasury auction: 17.8 billion. . .
2008 3 month treasury auction: 98.1 billion. . .
Since January 1, 2009: Holy fuck. . . . . . . 322 billion!

http://mam.econoday.com/byshoweventfull.asp?fid=438556&cust=mam&year=2009

Does anyone want to hear about the next big bubble in the news? You’ll be hearing about it soon, it’s called “US Treasuries”. I wonder what’s going to happen when no one decides to buy US treasuries anymore. . .

Where does money come from?

Here is a simple philosophical question: where does money come from?

Let me summarize it in a few easy steps:
1) The government wakes up on day and decides they want to spend a lot of money (war in Iraq, bailouts, etc)
2) They make a fancy piece of paper with the words “US Treasury” on it.
3) They take this piece of paper to an entity called “The Federal Reserve”. The Federal Reserve then “buys” these treasuries. And when I say “buy”, I use this term very loosely. They basically increase a number in their computer account, call it “money”, then give it to the government.
4) The government takes this money and begins to spend it. It later falls in the hands of companies like AIG, Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, etc
5) The money in these bank accounts are now considered “reserves” which gives banks even MORE ability to lend even MORE money, often at the ratio of 9:1. So if a conglomerate deposits $1,000,000 in the bank account, the bank can now lend out $9,000,000

Now, any rational person would read this and think “the US monetary system can’t POSSIBLY work this way!!!”.

Congratulations. . . you’ve just attained enlightenment.

Pinocchio’s Paradox

Question. . .

What will happen to Pinnochio’s nose?

kill -9

He,

This is one of my favorite nerdcore rappers. Notice the damn nerd on the keyboards behind him. Directly from the album “So Much Drama in the Phd”:

Six Thinking Hats

Here’s a very good business book I read:

Six Thinking Hats

The book’s main argument is that a lot of conflict/ignorance/stupid behavior comes out of lack of perspective. The book draws an analogy of four different people at different sides of a house arguing over the intercom that the house looks like. They argue because each description is different, but they are all “right”. This book separates your line of thinking in six different perspectives or “thinking hats”.

From wikipedia:
* Neutrality (white hat) – considering purely what information is available, what are the facts?
* Feeling (red hat) – instinctive gut reaction or statements of emotional feeling (but not any justification)
* Negative judgement (black hat) – logic applied to identifying flaws or barriers, seeking mismatch
* Positive Judgement (yellow hat) – logic applied to identifying benefits, seeking harmony
* Creative thinking (green hat) – statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a thought goes
* Process control (blue hat) – thinking about thinking

It’s a quick read, 192 pages. Highly recommended.

Let’s do this

Let’s do this. . .