rantlust

Posted by riyer on March 19th 2007 in Education, Internet, Journalism, Productivity, Statistics, Women, World
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A few of my friends, my wife included, frequently bemoan the fact that the world as we know it is coming apart and things are getting worse every day. The daily onslaught of news on the human condition does not help alleviate this feeling for them.

Ever the optimist, I assert that on the whole this generation is doing better by itself and by its fellow man compared to any other generation in the past. Obviously I say this with no data, only as someone who is actively engaged in a grounds-up effort to provide opportunity to those who have none. Personal experience of being with some of these people gives me that optimism. Now it turns out that there is also data available to show that our lot is getting better, not worse.

Take a look at Gapminder They present human development data across the world in some very cool and innovative ways (Google has acquired their technology to make it available for free).

Go to the tools section and try out the GapMinder World, 2006 (the first one on the Tools page). You can change the X and Y axes (It defaults to Income v/s Life Expectancy but you can change them (e.g. you can compare Life Expectancy v/s Military Spending). It gives you a clear indicator on how things are changing around the world (except in Sub Saharan Africa where, due to the AIDS crisis, things have slipped back a bit).

BTW: It is also a fantastic way to get kids interested in statistics. Over the weekend my 6 y.o look at it over my shoulder and the next thing you know she spent more than an hour in front of the computer playing with the X and Y Axes. She kept telling me everything from “How Malawi compares with the United States in Child Mortality (I explained to her what that is)” , she was playing with Physicans per 1000 people etc, population growth over time etc.

I would also recommend the 1 hour Tech Talk they have posted (given at Google) and the video on Slums.

(Sorry, this post does not fit into any one category that we have - so I choose a few of them)

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Posted by anupcs on November 01st 2006 in Health & Fitness, Productivity, Science
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First came the Oxygen bars, now the rage seems to be the so-called Nap salons. Metronaps is one such company providing products and salons to help you take naps during work hours. They have salons in New York (for the partying Manhattanites) and Vancouver. As some fellow bloggers here on rantlust would attest, power naps are a good way to rejuvenate yourselves but paying someone to help you nap is something I am having trouble with.

A colleague has been encouraging me to try out the nap helper application, Pzizz. I have downloaded the trial version but am yet to take a nap. Being someone who can normally go to sleep with Judas Priest screaming for vengeance in the background, I don’t think I need this but hey, isn’t this just one more way to show corporate America that you care? Even the usually sane Merlin Mann of 43folders.com fame has bought into this.

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Posted by anupcs on May 31st 2006 in Health & Fitness, Productivity, Science
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Whenever someone asks me how I get the time to do all the stuff that I appear to be doing, my first answer is always that I sleep less than most people I know. I average around 5-6 hours daily. This is contrary to the widely accepted figure of 8 hours that the medicos advise you to do. I have been getting by with this much sleep for years without any problem. I rarely set an alarm and I wake up when my body tells me to.

The Economist has an article debunking the myth of 8 hours of work, 8 hours of play, and 8 hours of rest. The article mentions that everyone has their own “individual sleep need” which could be anywhere from 3 to 11 hours.

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Posted by anupcs on April 20th 2006 in Productivity
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I have used many different types of note taking over the years, whether it is meeting notes, classroom notes, or informational interview notes. Over the last few years, I have settled on an outline model with indents and bullets and at the end of the meetings or classes, I summarize it either by entering the relevant information onto a text file or to-do list. The problem with this method is that for longish meetings, you have to spend some amount of time in re-capturing this information.

After reading about Lifehacker’s recommendation on note taking recently, I have started using Method 1 in her post. In this method, developed by Michael Hyatt, she uses symbols in the margin to mark off different types of information gleaned from the meetings as follows…
(Read more…)

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