Every adult, as they watch this video, asks themselves what they would have done if they had been one of the children in this experiment. I can’t be sure, but here are my top choices:
I would have eaten the marshmallow.
I would have eaten the marshmallow while the experimenter was still in the room giving me instructions.
I would have thrown the marshmallow on the ground, stomped on it, and then sat there, glaring angrily at the two-way mirror.
I would have held off on eating the marshmallow, motivated purely by my plan to refuse the second marshmallow when it was offered.
I would have hidden the marshmallow, hoping to trick the experimenter into thinking that I had eaten it, and bravely foregoing the second marshmallow. Only I would know about my private marshmallow conspiracy.
I’m signed on to AIM, YIM, and gtalk pretty much every waking second. My friends, family, colleagues, collaborators, and business partners are all used to seeing me show up in their buddy lists every time they turn on their own computers.
So, when I block someone, they know.
I block many people, for short and long periods of time, on a regular basis, for a variety of reasons. Read the rest of this entry »
Short version: I’m trying to win a web traffic contest, and if I win, I’m giving away the $150 prize to one of the tweeters who helps me do it. If you don’t care about the explanation, you can just skip to the end of this post, where I have created a convenient 132-character tweet that you can just paste into Twitter, press enter, and you’re done. For those who want to understand why, read on.
A site called Small Biz Bee is holding a contest effective today and tomorrow. A series of hopefuls have written articles about small business. Each article has 24 hours from the time of its posting to accumulate unique pageviews. The one that has the most pageviews at the end of its period is the winner, and the author of the winning article is awarded $150.
My article went up today (12/03/09) at noon Pacific time, or 3pm Eastern time. So my article has until noon on Friday, 12/4/09, to accumulate enough pageviews to win. As I write this, that gives it about fifteen hours. Read the rest of this entry »
The shoot makes a lot of sense. The memorial in Berlin is a huge tourist destination, especially for American Jews (of which I am one), who like to tell each other that they went there. American Jews are also very fond of telling each other that they went to the Holocaust memorial in any city that has one, such as Jerusalem or Washington, D.C.
Going to Holocaust memorials, and talking about going to Holocaust memorials, carries with it a cultural currency. It’s a cool thing to do. It implies sophistication, education, and a progressive attitude. This is especially true of the memorial in Berlin, the existence of which implies that the world is not the same place it was just a few decades previous. If you are an American Jew, (or even an American non-Jew with Jewish friends), then you can’t travel to Berlin and not go to the Holocaust memorial. No doubt it’s a great place to run into Jewish friends, just like Chinese restaurants and movie theaters are in the Midwest on Christmas day. Read the rest of this entry »
5:00 pm. I get a phone call from a woman who posted an ad on Craig’s List last week, looking for someone to help her promote her new website. I’m excited that she responded to my resume.
5:30 pm. She’s telling me a long story about her traumatic time in the hospital and how it led her to a new outlook on life, and motivated her to start her own company.
5:45 pm. What she really wants, she says, is for her site to get a mention on the Today show. Do I think I can make that happen? Read the rest of this entry »
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