Posts tagged: TED.com

Bill Gates says the American Education System is Screwed Up

Check out this speech that Bill Gates made at the TED conference in 2009.  Check it out from the 9:00 minute mark to the end. It’s only 10 minutes of your time, but it’s quite eye-opening. Over 30% of kids never finish highschool; over 50% for minority kids. Less than 25% of kids from low [...]

Saturday February 13th, 2010 in , , , , | Comments Off

Shoot the Frickin’ Mosquitoes with Frickin’ Laser Beams

This is an invention that would make Dr. Evil proud.  I’m pretty damn happy about it, too!  Are you tired of mosquitoes in the summer?  Well, if you were in a subtropical or tropical area where mosquitoes carry deadly diseases, you’d be more than just annoyed by the little buggers.  You’d want them to burn, [...]

Friday February 12th, 2010 in , , , , | Comments Off

Deep Lessons from the World of Pasta Sauce

When it comes to human behavior and human preferences, there is no one best way to do things.  Taylorism is fine and dandy for automatic production in factories, but as a framework for thinking about the world, “the one best way” is a sure way to business disaster (or at least sub-par performance) and an [...]

Saturday January 30th, 2010 in , , , , | Comments Off

Did You Know Addresses Don’t Work the Same Way Everywhere?

It’s really cool to find out that I’ve been using a basic assumption that I didn’t even know was there. There are some things that are so fundamental to the way that people where we grow up think that we don’t even realize that certain basic assumptions have been made.  It is not until we [...]

Saturday January 30th, 2010 in , , , , , | Comments Off

How you did in school is not a measure of intelligence

According to our education system, I’m smarter than a lot of other people.  I know it isn’t true, but I’m not going to turn down awards, scholarships, and ego boosts by giving an acceptance speech by saying it’s all bunk.  But it is. Our education system, as it is currently constructed, is a game.  If [...]

Saturday December 12th, 2009 in , , , , | Comments Off