Quotes on Work, Education, Productivity

[Daniel E.]

Dear College: Your Enrollment Process Sucks. Said Every Student Every Where. The Story of a First-Generation College Student.

I applied to only one college over 20 years ago. The college came to my high school and, after a brief interview and transcript review, I was told I would probably be accepted.

www.linkedin.com

Research indicates that 72% of students who do not re-enroll give customer service as the reason. (Neal A. Raisman, The Business of Higher Education)

Similarly:

6 Types of People We have to Stop Taking for Granted

Because if we don't, there is a big price to pay.

www.inc.com

Most businesses put more effort into chasing new customers rather than acknowledging existing customers.

 

[Daniel E.]

How Much Do Things Really Cost?

True Price, a Dutch nonprofit, aims to help us grasp the real costs of consumption.

www.newyorker.com

Human rights and the natural world should not be violated for the production of cheap goods.

 

[Daniel E.]

The Emotion Missing From the Workplace

Sadness is a central part of our lives, yet it’s typically ignored at work, hurting employees and managers alike.

www.theatlantic.com

Sadness is a central part of our lives, yet it’s typically ignored at work, hurting employees and managers alike.

 

[Daniel E.]

“Over the years we learned that if we asked people to rely on logic and common sense instead of on formal policies, most of the time we would get better results, and at lower cost.”

– Patty McCord, Chief Talent Officer, Netflix

 

[Daniel E.]

“The way I think about culture is that modern humans have radically changed the way that they work and the way that they live. Companies need to change the way they manage and lead to match the way that modern humans actually work and live.”

– Brian Halligan, CEO, Hubspot

 

[Daniel E.]

How the American middle class has changed in the past five decades

The share of adults who live in middle-class households fell from 61% in 1971 to 50% in 2021, according to a new analysis.

www.pewresearch.org

 

[Daniel E.]

Be more productive: A neuroscientist explains how to get more done in less time

There are all sorts of productivity myths out there – but are there any that actually work?

www.sciencefocus.com

"Nobody is going to know the best way to boost your own productivity better than you."

 

[Daniel E.]

A neuroscientist debunks the most annoyingly common productivity myths

How much truth is behind the productivity myths touted by influencers, and do we all need to be setting our alarms for 4am?

www.sciencefocus.com

The simple yet persistent idea that ‘happiness = productivity’ overlooks considerable evidence to the contrary. For instance, other studies reveal that persistently happy employees can have negative effects on productivity in the workplace. They go to pieces quicker during difficult periods, are more easily exhausted (constant happiness is draining), and can even be more selfish...

Fear, anger, stress and envy have been shown to make people more productive in various situations.

As well as this, compelling people to be happy, whether via advice on how to be productive or employers insisting on ‘service with a smile’, often backfires. Studies reveal that if people believe they must be happy, it’s harder for them to achieve that. It’s like your hobby becoming your job; you stop enjoying it.

This feeds into the whole ‘Toxic Positivity’ issue of insisting that people must be happy at all times, and it’s entirely their responsibility to be so (because we can all choose our emotional state, apparently). This can quickly lead to the exact opposite outcome.

Even if being happy does make you more productive, efforts to force this outcome can easily backfire.

 

[Daniel E.]

“Writing is nature's way of showing you how sloppy your thinking is.”

"To think, you have to write. If you're thinking without writing, you only think you're thinking. […] Everyone thinks they think. If you don't write down your thoughts, you are fooling yourself."

~ Leslie Lamport

Similarly, in computer science terms:

"Turing machines are incredibly more powerful than Finite Automata. Yet the only difference between a FA and a TM is that the TM, unlike the FA, has paper and pencil. Think about it. It tells you something about the power of writing."

~ Manuel Blum

 

[Daniel E.]

"You're never going to learn something as profoundly as when it's purely out of curiosity."

~ Christopher Nolan

 

[Daniel E.]

Handling Angry Clients

Identify the source of a client’s frustration before engaging and finding potential solutions.

todaysveterinarynurse.com

Always remember to respond to your client’s complaints to let them know they have been heard. If they feel ignored, their feelings will intensify.

 

[Daniel E.]

How to Really Make Money as a Book Author (Even If You Don't Sell a Single Copy)

Average book authors don't make a lot of money. But you can, even if you gave away all your books.

www.inc.com

You'll make money as an author, not from the sales of your book, but from the relationships you create with your books.

 

[Daniel E.]

"The pandemic has made us a little angrier, a little more cynical overall, and people just aren’t putting up with things they consider annoying as much anymore."

– Adrian Gostick

 

[Daniel E.]

They Never Got To WFH

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Veronica wasn’t sure how the new disease she’d heard about on the news would affect her. It seemed unreal. She and h…

fivethirtyeight.com

“The pandemic has been horrible, but there’s a couple of good things in terms of flexibility and women in the workplace. … [Low-paid women] haven’t been able to take advantage of any of that. They have absorbed all of the regular negativity of the pandemic and had none of the upside to it.”

~ Betsy Fischer Martin, Women & Politics Institute

 

[Daniel E.]

"When you have clear research questions, the paper writes itself."

~ Dora Farkas, PhD

 

[Daniel E.]

"No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars."

~ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

 

[Daniel E.]

"A self-transcendent purpose for learning fosters academic self-regulation."

~ David S. Yeager et al

 

[Daniel E.]

from the book:

Amazon product

 

[Daniel E.]

“The fact that compulsive drives for success will arise only in a competitive culture does not make them any less neurotic.”

“The central inner conflict is one between the constructive forces of the real self and the obstructive forces of the pride system, between healthy growth and the drive to prove in actuality the perfection of the idealized self.”

― Karen Horney, Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Towards Self-Realization

 

[Daniel E.]

Why Being A Jack Of All Trades Is Essential For Success

"Jack of all trades" has become somewhat of an insult, but it didn’t begin as one. Far from letting it deter their path, some entrepreneurs swear that being a jack of all trades is necessary.

www.forbes.com

The full phrase is “a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” It was a compliment.