A month ago, I agreed to call a contractor and ask him if he was available to do some work in our house. I made the call. That week, I asked someone at work to do something. Also during that week, I called three landscapers to see if any of them would like to do […]
You Get What You Pay For
I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about how we create financial profit. Our conversation turned toward the idea of industries that profit from misfortune, or even create misfortune in order to make money. Healthcare: this is the largest expenditure in the 2019 U.S. budget. Total planned 2019 healthcare spending by the U.S. government […]
Hungry Children
I was travelling to visit my daughter at college this past weekend, and an article appeared in my news feed: “Colleges Should Not Have to Have Food Pantries” (The Nation). The article was about the growing problem of hunger and homelessness among college students. The article cited a recent survey (College and University Basic Needs […]
What the Devil Wears
Theresa and I watched “The Devil Wears Prada” last night. It is a movie starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, about a young woman who works for the editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine. Meryl Streep plays the editor-in-chief, and portrays a “win at all costs” mentality in the work force. The character played by Meryl […]
Choice Anxiety
Consumer researchers have done studies in supermarkets, and learned that the more choices are available for certain products, the fewer purchases consumers make. That seems counterintuitive. I would expect that more choices would equal more purchases, but it actually works the opposite way. As consumers, we say that we want more choices, but when it […]
The Days Between
The Grateful Dead wrote a song in 1993 called The Days Between. The song was written about a relationship that Jerry Garcia had with a woman when they were in their teens. They lost touch for 30 years or so, and then they rekindled their relationship in the early 1990s. The song is about the […]
Don’t Wait Until The Last Minute
When I was in college, there was a fellow who lived next door to me who had exceptional study habits. He would study rigorously, and he made it look easy. He organized his time, and he studied (almost) every night. He began studying for exams weeks in advance. He blocked his time into manageable periods, […]
Making Mistakes
I learned early in life that making mistakes was a bad thing. I learned that making mistakes meant failure, and that mistakes should be avoided at all costs. I learned that lesson so well that I became afraid to try new things. Why try something new, if I was going to be bad (fail) at […]
Give Me A Choice
I don’t like to be told what to do. I don’t react well when someone points a finger at me and orders me to do something. My first reaction is either “no” or “why?” My sense is that this is a universal reaction. The people I know react badly to orders. On the other hand, […]
