Raised By Turtles

Teaching Kids to Ski with the Tom Sawyer Method

25 Feb 2009 (updated 14 Nov, 2019)

A successful child ski lesson has at least three components: safety, fun and skills acquisition. In that order. When a parent entrusts us with a child, they have a reasonable expectation that we will take reasonable safety precautions. There are dangers inherent in skiing, of course, but we still place a first priority on safety. […]

Thunderbird Hangs Up When Accessing Gmail IMAP — Rebuild Index

13 Feb 2009 (updated 14 Nov, 2019)

Arrgghh! You try to access an IMAP account via Thunderbird and it just won’t work. Don’t despair!

Are you my friend? Social norms versus market norms

28 Jan 2009 (updated 14 Nov, 2019)

We are motivated to do good, even great, things for friendship (social norms) and we expect to pay for commercial goods (market norms), but when we mix these, bad things happen in our social lives and for companies that get this wrong.

The Contrast Principle and how much you’ll pay for anything

23 Jan 2009 (updated 14 Nov, 2019)

You weren’t planning to buy the premium edition, but somehow that’s what you came home with. How did they get you do to do that? Easy. The Contrast Principle

Don’t Blink (Does Logic Betray Us?)

20 Jan 2009 (updated 14 Nov, 2019)

If you have to make a snap decision to save your life, that’s one thing, but the hoopla around Malcom Gladwell’s book Blink got me thinking of the times when I’ve been told that you can’t always trust logic. Well, never trust someone who tells you that.

The Problem With Common Sense

15 Jan 2009 (updated 14 Nov, 2019)

Common sense keeps us from doing uncommonly stupid things. And uncommonly wonderful things.

Turtle Index: Carbon Footprints and Executive Pay (January 2009)

12 Jan 2009 (updated 14 Nov, 2019)

In the tradition of the Harper’s Index, a collection of juxtaposed facts on executive pay and the carbon footprint of using the internet.

Microsoft Word Index Entries Out of Order

7 Jan 2009 (updated 6 Aug, 2020)

If you’re Word 2000 index is out of alphabetical order, the culprit could be a semicolon in my the text of an index entry. If you do that, it throws a wrench in the works.

The Magic Word to Get What You Want

3 Jan 2009 (updated 14 Nov, 2019)

We all know one “magic word”. Please works well, but there’s another word that you must know if you want to get your way and must recognize if you want to be less susceptible to manipulation.

212: The Extra Degree of Bullshit (or Excellence is Asymptotic)

30 Dec 2008 (updated 17 Apr, 2020)

The 212:The Extra Degree metaphor is fundamentally broken in both its inspiration and its application. Excellence is typically not a state change achieved by just a bit more, but rather, something else entirely.

Personal Favorites

Improved Roads (thoughts on the loss of wild places)
A Theory of Dryer Crimes (fiction in which Jason turns out to be an asshole)
The Forgetoir (a new literary form to replace the memoir)
The Faithful Couple (a poem about long-term love)
Curriculum Vitae (a poem about learning to live)
Best Jeremiah Johnson Quotes (the only post to appear on both the "favorites" list and the "most popular" list, because JJ is a movie to live by)
Ice Cream For Dinner (imaginary high school graduation speech; my chance to tell young people to stop listening to the lies of their elders)
The Boy Behind the Couch (reading Susan Cain and my secret life as an introvert)
How To Tell Tom from Las Vegas (my friends get this, others may not)
Sarah's Watch (fiction fragment and experiment in writing with Hemingway App)
Learning to Read (and what makes a great reader).
You Can Always Yell Later (a life lesson from my mom on getting what you want and making the world better)
I’d Like to Add You to My Network. Some of these Linked in connection options are getting scary (humor, I think).
Six Essential Skills that Marketers Can Teach Academics (for scholars who write grants and apply for fellowships, please stop aiming the gun at your foot).