Gladwell is saying that it's not just being in the right place at the right time.
First of all, in the examples he's citing, we're talking about EXTREME success. His examples are people who were able to take advantage of seismic shifts in an industry or the creation of whole new industries. The people who were best positioned to succeed in these new environments were the people whose youthful obsessions gave them the status of grizzled veterans in a completely wide open field.
So Gladwell is saying that it's being it the right place, at the right time (the dawn of a new industry or drastic change in an existing one), at the right age (early 20's), and with the skills of an expert, and you have to be lucky enough to be presented with an opportunity and smart enough to take it.
The key for me is that, except for the musicians, the people obsessively acquiring skills while they're young are doing it because they love it, not necessarily because they're planning to make a career out of it. Then the world shifts in their favor and they find themselves experts in a field that didn't really exist even five years previously. The flip side are kids who did something obsessively and gained skills, but they were skills the world already had in abundance or perhaps they were novel skills but the world simply didn't shift to their advantage.
The world is undergoing a seismic shift right now. I have the feeling that things are going to change dramatically over the next 5 years or so. What skills have the kids born in 1990 been obsessively acquiring? How will the world look when we emerge from the current economic crisis and what industries will be spawned or changed?
Over the past couple of years I've tracked the mileage I'm getting in my 2000 Corolla pretty closely. I've adopted several techniques that, with practice, have allowed me to boost mileage by about 25%.
1. Avoid using the heat and air conditioning. In the winter I park in the sun and in the summer I park in the shade and use a windshield sun reflector. As a result, the car is never either freezing cold or roasting hot when I get in it. In the winter I have a seat warmer that fits over the regular seat and plugs into the cigarette lighter. Uses very little juice and keeps my butt nice and toasty. I have a 10 minute commute, so it's almost pointless to use the heat or air since by the time the car starts to become comfortable, the trip is already over.
2. Maintain steady speed, accelerate and brake gradually. It takes more energy to change velocity quickly.
3. Maintain momentum. Keep your eyes ahead. If you're headed for a red light, slow down to give it more time to turn green. It takes a lot of energy to accelerate a car from a dead stop, so avoid stopping if possible (and legal).
4. Gravity is your friend. Put the car in neutral and coast.
5. Increase tire pressure. The manual suggests 28 psi, the tire says max pressure is 44 psi and I currently have my tires at 35 psi. The ride is a little rougher, but I can definitely coast for greater distances.
6. Turn off the engine. There are a couple of long lights on my route and I will simply turn the car off as I approach them to avoid having the car idling for a full minute or more. Once you adopt these techniques you learn how fast you have to be going at which points in order to coast for decent distances. On routes I'm very familiar with, I probably have my engine off 15% of the time. I don't turn the engine off at all if I'm not really familiar with where I'm going.
Using these techniques I've boosted my mileage from 34 to 43 MPG. I do not commute on the highway, so my first chance to try some of these techniques on the highway was a trip taken this summer and the results were better than 50 MPG. The car is rated 31/38.
Another change I made was to start working at home one day a week. The numbers work out as follows. I was driving 8000 miles per year (not a lot, I know) and I'm now driving about 7000. I was getting 34 MPG and I'm now getting 43. So I was buying about 235 gallons of gas per year and I'm now buying about 163, which is a 30% decrease. I used to fill up every 2 weeks. Now I fill up every 3 weeks. Each individual thing doesn't make a big difference, but when you put it all together, the difference is significant.
Describe the significant, tangible benefits of forcing children to sit in classrooms "learning" things they've already mastered. And I'm not talking about just high school students. What about the first grader who is ready for fifth grade math and fourth grade reading material but whose teacher isn't allowed to teach more advanced topics?
In your example above there is no benefit in having high school teachers "pay more attention" to very advanced students. That's why parents of gifted students want schools to dedicate more resources for their kids - to bring in teachers qualified to teach them more advanced material, to pay for programs that really challenge the kids, to pay for them to take college level classes.
If you're going to force the kid to be in school until a certain age and force the parents to pay for it, you are not allowed to just ignore a certain percentage of the kids because "they're really smart and will do just fine."
You can support your child's interests and pay extra for after school enrichment programs, but you're still forcing (as in "required by law") gifted kids to sit in classrooms all day where the subjects being taught may be things the kids mastered years ago.
My 7 year old could probably fit into a 5th grade math class just fine, but his assignments peaked at adding and subtracting single digit numbers. Why? The teacher was not allowed to teach him anything that would be covered in a later grade. So I can teach him basic algebra, multiplication, long division, fractions, percentages, and we can memorize the squares of the numbers between 1 and 40 just for fun, but that doesn't change the fact that he just spent 6 hours in a room being taught stuff he knew before he started kindergarten. I don't expect the school to do everything, but I expect them to do something. At least $45,000 of my tax dollars have gone to the town's school system over the past ten years, but when my son is old enough to start using this resource, we discover that it won't work for him. I didn't mind paying property taxes (70% of our tax bill goes to the school system) before we had kids and I wouldn't mind paying if I thought he were getting a decent education, but right now I'm paying for a system that can't teach my kid by design. And my only recourse seems to be to pay even more for private school. Coming up with the money means less time with the family, a dimished financial picture, and more stress. Meanwhile, the school still gets my tax dollars without the burden of having to deal with my kid, so their situation actually improves.
I have a son just finishing the first grade. Before he started kindergarten he could read, write, add and subtract any number, do some basic multiplication, and knew all the US states and capitals. When first grade started we were sent a list of all the things that would be covered during the year - he had already mastered most of them. We had him tested and the results were a 140 IQ, and where the scores were broken down by category he scored above the 99th percentile in all. Armed with all of this information, we went to his teacher and asked "what can you do for him?" The answer was that she could give him extra work but only more of the same. Why? The teacher is not allowed to teach the kids anything that will be taught in a later grade. She wasn't allowed to read Charlotte's Web to her class because it is part of the 4th grade curriculum. And even though my seven year old is ready for 5th grade math, she can't give him any assignments or class work that deal with those concepts because they will be covered in the 5th grade. All she can do is give him another sheet of single digit addition problems. Whee.
I think the public schools are designed to handle about 80% of kids. There's tons of resources available for kids in the bottom 10% who need help but next to nothing available for kids in the top 10%. People treat the gifted and the parents of the gifted like they won the lottery. Why should lottery winners get anything extra? They're going to be fine no matter what - they won the lottery! That may be so, but unless we figure out how to pay for private school, right now it looks like winning the lottery means my son spends the next 11 years being forced to sit in a classroom for 6 hours a day being "taught" concepts that he mastered years ago. He's so lucky.
At work: To "improve security and enhance employee safety" my employer installed turnstiles at the building entrances that open when you wave your ID badge at it. It's basically to prevent "tailgating" (unauthorized person(s) entering behind authorized ones) by requiring that people go through one at a time and requires that each person has a valid ID badge. The security theater aspect is that there is no check to ensure that the badge being used actually belongs to the person using it. I also have to use the badge to open doors. Between the front door and my desk I have to use my security badge 4 times (door, turnstile, door, door) and the first three readers are within 20 feet of each other. I feel safer!
At home: We live in the suburbs on a busy street near the center of town. Our dog just died and we're planning to get a new one at the end of the summer after vacations are over and we're back on a routine and able to devote the time to train the dog. My wife announced that she doesn't feel safe without a dog and wants to install an alarm system. We've lived here for over 9 years wihout any incident, we're ten feet from the second busiest street in town, we're at an intersection, and there are street lights. We are a terrible target. An alarm system won't make us any safer because we're already very safe, but it will make my wife feel safer. Pure security theater.
In my view alarm systems (home and car) can actually make people less safe because the best way to get around the alarm is to commit the crime while the owner is present.
I've often had the same sort of idea - if a cow can take grass, water and energy and make steaks, why shouldn't we be able to do the same thing? Recently, however, I've decided that even if they figured out how to do it tomorrow, it would not be to our benefit. It would end up being like baby formula - a product that's been around for decades, keeps getting tweaked to add this or that nutrient or remove or reduce undesirable components, yet still can't compare to breast milk. Or it will end up being like margarine, touted for decades as healthier than butter until they discovered that trans fats in the margarine were much worse for you than the saturated fats in the butter.
If they could grow meat, they would be unable to resist the temptation to fiddle with it. Rather that simply duplicate the meat from a grass fed, non-corn finished animal, they would reduce the cholesterol, boost the omega-3's (or whatever omega is good for you right now), add beta-carotene, and fortify it with vitamin C and calcium ("a full day's supply in every burger"). Then, ten years later, there will be a report that eating too much factory meat causes liver failure. The food scientists will tweak the recipe, declare it safe and healthy and we're off to the races again.
I do think they'll figure out how to do it (the cow can do it, after all). I just think the food industry has a very consistent record that demonstrates their inability to improve on or even match what mother nature can do, despite all their claims that they can.
My torrent use is up dramatically over the past 6 months or so and it's because of Miro. And except for a couple of shows that our DVR "forgot" to record, everything I've downloaded has been legal. So it is possible for bittorent use to increase dramatically without being the result of piracy.
I once replaced an old 1978 model refrigerator with a newer, late 90's (at the time) model and saw my electric bill drop by 20%. The old monster must have been drawing a TON of power.
My parents said recently that their electric bill had gone into the $250/month range during a time when they didn't use heat or air conditioning and they don't have an electric hot water heater. Where was it going? They had been running a dehumidifier in their basement - another appliance that uses a lot of electricity.
The people dismissing the guy's 90/yr savings are missing the small point that he only did this for his home office - basically one room. What about the rest of the house? I changed 8 lightbulbs, made sure the PC is off at night and try to keep the lights off when not needed and my usage dropped 20%. At the rate I'm paying, this has translated into $400 in 2 years. I reduced my gas consumption by changing my driving habits to increase my mileage and reduce the amount I drive. I save about 70 gallons per year as a result (I only drive about 8000 miles and drive a high mileage car, so there was not a whole lot of opportunity here). I am now tackling the big fish: home heating. I live in a large, 200 year old house and I spend a lot of money generating heat and trying to keep it in the house. Added insulation, sealing cracks, and heating via south facing windows and sunlight have helped reduce consumption noticably, but I'll be make more changes with the goal of reducing oil use by 25-30%. So I'm saving about 200/yr on electricity, 200/yr on gasoline and so far about $250/yr on home heating for a total savings of $650 or so per year with more to come.
None of what I've done has had any effect on our lifestyle. The thermostat is set at the same temperature, but less heat leaks out of the house. We still use the same amount of light, but we use more efficient bulbs and try to make sure the lights are off if we're not using them. And we still use our computers, but we make sure they're not humming away at night while we're sleeping.
Is it still true that the XO laptops will acquired by governments in large lots (500,000+)? If so, MS doesn't have to convince a bazillion individuals to pay the MS tax on their XO, they just have to convince the government in question to pay the tax. Would Negroponte agree to have an MS OS installed? He might if orders for 10 million units came in with the condition that barebones XP be installed. How could MS convince these governments to pay? By donating software/hardware/etc. to the developing government, something the OLPC program can't do.
I wouldn't be surprised if they worked out a "pay over time" licensing fee ($5 per year per PC for 5 years, or whatever). In year 1 the developing country can either pay 100 million for 1 million laptops, or they can pay 105 million for the same laptops with a different operating system AND they get some free hardware and software to help run the government. Of course, in year 2 they have to pay another 5 million in fees and whatever else for upgrades and/or support contracts, etc. on the "free" hardware and software, but that's a whole year away. If things get bad they can just ask for a little more in international aid. I'm sure Microsoft would put in a good word for them.
Even at significantly reduced prices selling software is like printing money because the incremental cost is so low. The OLPC program has the potential to reach millions of young users. Developing countries develop and young users grow up. Microsoft would be stupid not to try to reach these potential customers.
There is a raw material shortage that is keeping prices high. In response, a lot of companies are building/expanding facilities to produce more silicon for the solar and tech industries. I think this is going to flip the supply/demand situation and cause the price of the raw material to plummet in 2009 or so. Maybe that's when I'll buy my panels.
It is definitely going to add value to your house. Picture two houses of the same size in the same neighborhood. If you buy House A, it will cost you $100 per month for electricity and $2,000 per year for heat and hot water. House B, on the other hand, has been retrofitted with a solar array and a solar hot water system and total annual expense for all utilities is $600. The difference is $2600/yr or $217/mo. What is the present value of an income stream that would pay $217 per month over the next 10 years? $20,000 (ish). In other words, if you took 20k, invest it at 6% today and withdraw $217 per month, it would last about 10 years. You can therefore argue that home improvements that put a similar amount in the homeowner's pocket increase the value of the house by about $20,000.
If the owner of House B spent $70,000 on those improvements, he didn't make out very well. If he spent 30,000, however, he did just fine - 2/3 of his investment has turned into home equity (better than a lot of home improvements) and if energy prices rise or the improvements continue to function well past 10 years, he makes out extremely well over the long haul.
I long for an energy sipping or energy independent house. I currently live in 185 year old home and in spite of making a number of improvements that have cut electricity and fuel costs by 20% or better, I still spend something like $4,000 per year for heat, hw and electricity.
You're driving a V6, what did you expect? If you want better mileage on the highway, drop you speed to between 60 and 65. At 70mph, you dealing with a lot of air resistance.
I've thought for years that making MPG feedback mandatory would definitely improve peoples' real world MPG results.
I've been driving my '00 Corolla with an eye towards fuel efficiency since '05 when gas prices took off. I live and work in the suburbs, so most of the time I'm on roads where the speed limit is 45. If I'm careful, I can average 37 mpg without any highway driving. If I spend some time on a highway, the average for a tank easily goes over 40 - and this is a car that's rated 31/38. Getting good mileage has become a game (which my wife thinks is stupid, of course), but I'm having fun and saving money, so there.
The trick is to learn you most traveled routes like the back of your hand (e.g. If I get the car up to just over 45 at the top of this small rise, I can coast to the next stop sign that is 1/2 mile away), and use this knowledge to keep the car moving. Try to avoid stopping if you can (legally). If the light ahead is red, slow your approach to give it more time to turn green and to let other cars get moving so you don't have to come to a dead stop - it takes much less energy to accelerate from 20mph to 40 than 0 to 40.
We have been told that we are fighting a war (or "WAR" as you put it) for civilization. Other, more conservative individuals have decreed this a war of religions (Christianity vs. Islam). Fine. I have the following questions:
1. How do you win a war of civilizations if you first discard the most basic, defining elements of civilization in general (habeas corpus, the rule of law, due process), and the founding tenets and defining documents of your society in particular (people have rights by virtue of being people, warrants are required, no warrents issued without probable cause, etc.)?
2. How do you win a war of religions if you fight using methods that are regarded by every major religion as immoral? I am not a religious person, but I do try to live by the Golden Rule (treat others the way I want to be treated by them). A version of the Golden Rule can be found in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and others. If there is a universal concept that lies at the heart of how we define "morals" and "morality" that's it right there.
Right now, our leader is pretending to scratch his head over the Geneva Convention's ban on torture, saying that it's "unclear". It's not. We should treat prisoners the way we believe our soldiers should be treated, if captured. Torture (you can pretend it's "harsh interrogation", but it's torture) is wrong for many reasons. It's morally wrong, and if we are in part fighting to convince people that "our way" is better, "our way" shouldn't include immoral acts. It also violates the law (signed treaties are the "supreme law of the land"). It is true that the people we are fighting didn't sign the Geneva Conventions, but that doesn't negate the fact that WE did. Torture also doesn't work. You might get some good information, but you'll also get whatever information your victim thinks will get you to stop torturing him. It also endangers our soldiers in two ways: 1) if we torture prisoners, our current and future enemies will torture our soldiers in turn, and 2) an enemy who believes they will be treated well will surrender more easily while one who believes capture leads to torture and perhaps death will fight longer and harder. So torture makes our troops' job harder and automatically raises the stakes for them if they are captured. Nice job. Captured enemies are also eventually returned when the war is over. Japanese and German soldiers returned with stories of decent treatment which boosted our reputation and helped us win hearts and minds. Sixty years later both countries are strong allies. What stories will our current prisoners return to their families with? We've already seen the pictures.
I'm not saying we shouldn't fight. We must. Step one: obey the Constitution, step two: obey the law, step three: international coallition, step four: stop radicalizing the moderates, step four: gather intelligence (spies, surveillance, infiltration), step five: take appropriate action (arrest, assassinate, bomb). Treat the problem as a problem, but don't blow it completely out of proportion because that means the response will be completely out of proportion. Right now, the people in charge consider this to be the greatest treat our nation has ever faced and a battle of good vs. evil where the fate of civilization itself hangs in the balance. Seriously. A group of people of no particular nation, with a dispersed, decentralized army, no navy, no air force, and no industrial base a worse threat than the combined military/industrial might of the Axis or a nuclear armed Soviet Union? Really?
I've got more to say, but I'm almost out of time. I'll finish with this: If the terrorists set off a nuke in New York, a lot of people will die and it will be terrible, but we will not have been defeated and we will still be America. If, on the other hand, we are so afraid of the possibility of such an attack that we wall ourselves off from the rest of the world, allow the government to monitor our communications at will, restrict our movements, take awa
I don't know about that. I started turning my computer off at night and changed 8 high usage lights to compact fluorescents. Those lights were consuming a total of 650 watts and are now using only about 165. Just those changes have resulted in my electric usage dropping by 20%. And the decrease has been seen consistently for 10 months. Unfortunately, my electric rates went up by the same amount, so my useage is down but my bill is the same. Still, if I hadn't made the changes (which cost $50 and have zero impact on my life) I would be paying an additional $350/year for electricity.
I think the collaborative textbook idea is excellent, but I think a strong effort should be made to create basic high school texts before tackling college and graduate level material. School budgets in this country are stretched very thin and every book they don't have to buy is money that can be used for other things. Also, we need to do something to save our kids' backs. Last week I witnessed my 14 year old nephew heading off to school with twenty pounds of books in his backpack. At the end of the day I helped load his stuff into the car and it was even heavier. Wouldn't it be great if he could have two sets of books so he didn't have to transport them back and forth? If a book is lost or destroyed, he can download and print a new copy. In addition to the hardcopies, he could copy all his books to a memory card or thumb drive and read material in the car using a PSP or other preferred device.
And we're talking about basic material here - not up-to-the-minute, cutting edge stuff. Algebra hasn't changed in a while, neither has high school chemistry or early American history. My son is 5 now. I hope by the time he is in high school he won't be asked to carry more weight than a fully equipped Marine.
Funny, that was the first thing that went through my head, too. But I see from other comments that the closing process can involve tools inside the body.
Okay, then. How about we build the scanning equipment into the table? If nothing is detected, a telltale gives you a green light. If something is within a foot or so of the table (i.e. inside the patient) you get a red telltale. So surgery starts and the light goes red. When it's finished, you make sure the light is green.
Could multiple receivers built into the table allow for triangulation and tell the surgeon exactly where the signal is coming from?
I've seen some incredible "how'd they miss that" types of things that were left in by mistake.
I saw myself in the Hotel Rwanda example. That very movie sat on a shelf for a week and a half before we watched it. We knew it was going to be a tough one and wanted to wait until we were "ready" to watch it. Very good movie, by the way.
I didn't see my biggest problem discussed. My wife stays home with the kids and will, on occasion, watch a movie by herself. I then have to figure out how to watch the movie when my kids and my wife are either asleep or out of the house. That generally means watching it in multiple installments at 5:30 in the morning.
The longest we ever kept something was over a month and we sent it back without watching it.
Since they brought up the oil company analogy, let's offer the telcos the same deal that the oil companies get. The oil companies are not told how much to charge for the damn gas, but they are regulated. They are told to what standards fuel is to be formulated, how it is to be labeled, and how it is to be sold.
So any driver can pull into a gas station in any part of the country, fill their tank with regular unleaded and know:
They are getting 87 octane fuel that will run in their car The fuel has all required additives, etc. The price includes all taxes People buying gas are paying the same price regardless of the make of their car and how they choose to use their vehicle ("Ooh, Cadillac, add $0.40 per gallon." "Commercial vehicle, add $0.25").
Since the telcos want to be treated like the oil companies, let's offer them a similar deal. They can offer different octanes (dial up, dsl, cable, fiber) and they can charge whatever they want, but they will be regulated in other ways - namely that they are not to mess with the fundamental notion that a packet is a packet regarless of origin, destination or content.
The house should recognize the behavior patterns of the occupants and act accordingly. If the patterns change, the house should learn and adapt to the new patterns. If there are 4 people in the house and they're all in one room, turn off the lights and reduce the heat in other parts of the house. Bring bedrooms to comfortable temperatures (heat them up or cool them down, depending on the season) just prior to bedtime. Don't bother making/keeping hot water available during times of day it's not needed. Bring lights on automatically when someone enters a room, but at a low level. If the person stays in the room, gradually bring the lights up to full strength.
I want a web interface that would let me customize these features also. I'd like to be able to set max and min brightness on automatic lighting, appropriate heat levels, and I want to be able to customize each power outlet, so appliances, TVs and computers can be automatically shut off when not in use (i.e. the entertainment center's outlets are disabled between 11pm and 6am unless someone is detected in the room).
I would like all the appropriate wiring/infrastructure in place in case I wanted to add green energy sources like solar panels, solar hot water and/or a wind turbine.
I already have a media room for video games and DVDs but a dream media room would be one that could be used to play anything (DVD, HDDVD, HDTV, home network content, web based content, etc.) all magically tied together with an amazing UI that even my wife could use.
How do they know if they're measuring maturity or if they are seeing how the brain changes when a person has to adapt to significant new living conditions. Rather than just looking at 18 year old college students why not also look at:
14-15 year olds who have been sent off to boarding school.
Children of divorced parents who now move between two households and have to deal with step-families.
Children who have lost their parents and who are now being raised by relatives.
Saying that the brain changes when someone is put into a new situation where they are being forced to become more self-reliant is one thing, but labeling it "maturity" is a bit of a stretch. I know a fair number of pretty immature adults.
Hey, here's an idea - don't give someone the rights of an adult until their brain has gone through these changes! "No, I'm sorry, sir, the brain scan still indicates you are not ready to drink or vote. Shall we make an appointment for another scan next year?"
I'm in the US so my experiences may not translate directly to your situation, but here goes:
Learn how to cook - preparing meals yourself is cheaper than eating out or buying pre-packaged convenience foods from the market. I can do a chicken dinner (roast chicken w/gravy, rice, salad and veg) for 4 for $10 or $2.50 per person (about 1.45 GBP). Learn how to make a few basics - roast chicken, marinara sauce, eggs, soup, etc. You don't need a lot of equipment and most parents would love to help you equip a basic kitchen setup.
Shop the sales and buy in bulk if you have the storage space (if you've got a house, you've got the storage space). Pasta is cheap, usually about $1 per pound here, but it also can be found on sale from time to time for 50-60% off. When that happens, buy 10 pounds. It's not going to go bad, and you will eventually eat it all. Get a warehouse club membership (or use someone else's) to buy basics like paper towels, toilet paper, meat.
Plan your meals and the use of leftovers. Roast two chickens on Friday night, eat one, and on Saturday make chicken salad or chicken soup with the other. If you're tired of chicken, put it in the freezer, thaw the marinara sauce and make spagetti.
Turn the computers off. I have a computer that's on most of the day, but when I started making sure it was turned off at bedtime I noticed the difference on my electric bill immediately. I have a tiny Linksys NSLU2 file server that's on all the time, but it only draws 5 watts or so, and it's suitable for my 3 computer home network.
Use compact flourescents. My kitchen lights are on most of the day, as is the floor lamp in the living room. Before I swapped out the bulbs, I figured I was drawing over 600 watts per hour. Now that the flourescents are in, I'm drawing 150 watts per hour. Between making sure the computer was powered off at night, using the compact flourescents, and just trying to make sure lights are off if no one is in the room, my electric usage has dropped by 20% per month (which is good because rates went up significantly recently).
By shopping sales and bulk buying, doing some basic meal planning and cutting down on waste, I cut my grocery bill by 30% (I tracked it for a few months). And we are pretty much eating exactly the same stuff as before - we're just being smarter about when we buy and how we use it.
I have just over half a million in life insurance. Enough for my wife to pay off the house, fully fund our 2 kids' education and live with no decrease in living standard for 3-4 years. If she worked part time (she's a veterinarian and can make 40k/year working 20 hours/week), she might be able to stretch out the "leftover" money for a decade or more.
And yet, whenever we talk about it (usually around now when my company does the annual benefits enrollment and the insurance issue comes up) you would think I was leaving my wife destitute because she would still have to work for a living.
It doesn't help that her sister convinced her husband to maintain 5 million dollars worth of life insurance. She's made it very clear that if her husband dies, she has no intention of getting a job.
...or the next thing you know, he will declare "War on Hurricanes", appoint a Hurricane Czar, demand Congress pass his $50B spending bill without review, and immediately start construction on 40 new nuclear submarines to "keep the scourge of Hurricanes from our shores." Anyone criticizing the effort will be attacked ("Why do you want Americans to lose their homes, Congressman? Why do you want them to die?").
Remember, after Katrina everything is different. Now more than ever. We have to take the fight to the Hurricanes or risk facing them on American soil.
Oh, and you'll probably have to give up a few more of your rights. We'll let you know which ones.
Slashdot Mirror
Gladwell is saying that it's not just being in the right place at the right time.
First of all, in the examples he's citing, we're talking about EXTREME success. His examples are people who were able to take advantage of seismic shifts in an industry or the creation of whole new industries. The people who were best positioned to succeed in these new environments were the people whose youthful obsessions gave them the status of grizzled veterans in a completely wide open field.
So Gladwell is saying that it's being it the right place, at the right time (the dawn of a new industry or drastic change in an existing one), at the right age (early 20's), and with the skills of an expert, and you have to be lucky enough to be presented with an opportunity and smart enough to take it.
The key for me is that, except for the musicians, the people obsessively acquiring skills while they're young are doing it because they love it, not necessarily because they're planning to make a career out of it. Then the world shifts in their favor and they find themselves experts in a field that didn't really exist even five years previously. The flip side are kids who did something obsessively and gained skills, but they were skills the world already had in abundance or perhaps they were novel skills but the world simply didn't shift to their advantage.
The world is undergoing a seismic shift right now. I have the feeling that things are going to change dramatically over the next 5 years or so. What skills have the kids born in 1990 been obsessively acquiring? How will the world look when we emerge from the current economic crisis and what industries will be spawned or changed?
DD
Over the past couple of years I've tracked the mileage I'm getting in my 2000 Corolla pretty closely. I've adopted several techniques that, with practice, have allowed me to boost mileage by about 25%.
1. Avoid using the heat and air conditioning. In the winter I park in the sun and in the summer I park in the shade and use a windshield sun reflector. As a result, the car is never either freezing cold or roasting hot when I get in it. In the winter I have a seat warmer that fits over the regular seat and plugs into the cigarette lighter. Uses very little juice and keeps my butt nice and toasty. I have a 10 minute commute, so it's almost pointless to use the heat or air since by the time the car starts to become comfortable, the trip is already over.
2. Maintain steady speed, accelerate and brake gradually. It takes more energy to change velocity quickly.
3. Maintain momentum. Keep your eyes ahead. If you're headed for a red light, slow down to give it more time to turn green. It takes a lot of energy to accelerate a car from a dead stop, so avoid stopping if possible (and legal).
4. Gravity is your friend. Put the car in neutral and coast.
5. Increase tire pressure. The manual suggests 28 psi, the tire says max pressure is 44 psi and I currently have my tires at 35 psi. The ride is a little rougher, but I can definitely coast for greater distances.
6. Turn off the engine. There are a couple of long lights on my route and I will simply turn the car off as I approach them to avoid having the car idling for a full minute or more. Once you adopt these techniques you learn how fast you have to be going at which points in order to coast for decent distances. On routes I'm very familiar with, I probably have my engine off 15% of the time. I don't turn the engine off at all if I'm not really familiar with where I'm going.
Using these techniques I've boosted my mileage from 34 to 43 MPG. I do not commute on the highway, so my first chance to try some of these techniques on the highway was a trip taken this summer and the results were better than 50 MPG. The car is rated 31/38.
Another change I made was to start working at home one day a week. The numbers work out as follows. I was driving 8000 miles per year (not a lot, I know) and I'm now driving about 7000. I was getting 34 MPG and I'm now getting 43. So I was buying about 235 gallons of gas per year and I'm now buying about 163, which is a 30% decrease. I used to fill up every 2 weeks. Now I fill up every 3 weeks. Each individual thing doesn't make a big difference, but when you put it all together, the difference is significant.
DD
Describe the significant, tangible benefits of forcing children to sit in classrooms "learning" things they've already mastered. And I'm not talking about just high school students. What about the first grader who is ready for fifth grade math and fourth grade reading material but whose teacher isn't allowed to teach more advanced topics?
In your example above there is no benefit in having high school teachers "pay more attention" to very advanced students. That's why parents of gifted students want schools to dedicate more resources for their kids - to bring in teachers qualified to teach them more advanced material, to pay for programs that really challenge the kids, to pay for them to take college level classes.
If you're going to force the kid to be in school until a certain age and force the parents to pay for it, you are not allowed to just ignore a certain percentage of the kids because "they're really smart and will do just fine."
You can support your child's interests and pay extra for after school enrichment programs, but you're still forcing (as in "required by law") gifted kids to sit in classrooms all day where the subjects being taught may be things the kids mastered years ago. My 7 year old could probably fit into a 5th grade math class just fine, but his assignments peaked at adding and subtracting single digit numbers. Why? The teacher was not allowed to teach him anything that would be covered in a later grade. So I can teach him basic algebra, multiplication, long division, fractions, percentages, and we can memorize the squares of the numbers between 1 and 40 just for fun, but that doesn't change the fact that he just spent 6 hours in a room being taught stuff he knew before he started kindergarten. I don't expect the school to do everything, but I expect them to do something. At least $45,000 of my tax dollars have gone to the town's school system over the past ten years, but when my son is old enough to start using this resource, we discover that it won't work for him. I didn't mind paying property taxes (70% of our tax bill goes to the school system) before we had kids and I wouldn't mind paying if I thought he were getting a decent education, but right now I'm paying for a system that can't teach my kid by design. And my only recourse seems to be to pay even more for private school. Coming up with the money means less time with the family, a dimished financial picture, and more stress. Meanwhile, the school still gets my tax dollars without the burden of having to deal with my kid, so their situation actually improves.
I have a son just finishing the first grade. Before he started kindergarten he could read, write, add and subtract any number, do some basic multiplication, and knew all the US states and capitals. When first grade started we were sent a list of all the things that would be covered during the year - he had already mastered most of them. We had him tested and the results were a 140 IQ, and where the scores were broken down by category he scored above the 99th percentile in all. Armed with all of this information, we went to his teacher and asked "what can you do for him?" The answer was that she could give him extra work but only more of the same. Why? The teacher is not allowed to teach the kids anything that will be taught in a later grade. She wasn't allowed to read Charlotte's Web to her class because it is part of the 4th grade curriculum. And even though my seven year old is ready for 5th grade math, she can't give him any assignments or class work that deal with those concepts because they will be covered in the 5th grade. All she can do is give him another sheet of single digit addition problems. Whee.
I think the public schools are designed to handle about 80% of kids. There's tons of resources available for kids in the bottom 10% who need help but next to nothing available for kids in the top 10%. People treat the gifted and the parents of the gifted like they won the lottery. Why should lottery winners get anything extra? They're going to be fine no matter what - they won the lottery! That may be so, but unless we figure out how to pay for private school, right now it looks like winning the lottery means my son spends the next 11 years being forced to sit in a classroom for 6 hours a day being "taught" concepts that he mastered years ago. He's so lucky.
At work: To "improve security and enhance employee safety" my employer installed turnstiles at the building entrances that open when you wave your ID badge at it. It's basically to prevent "tailgating" (unauthorized person(s) entering behind authorized ones) by requiring that people go through one at a time and requires that each person has a valid ID badge. The security theater aspect is that there is no check to ensure that the badge being used actually belongs to the person using it. I also have to use the badge to open doors. Between the front door and my desk I have to use my security badge 4 times (door, turnstile, door, door) and the first three readers are within 20 feet of each other. I feel safer!
At home: We live in the suburbs on a busy street near the center of town. Our dog just died and we're planning to get a new one at the end of the summer after vacations are over and we're back on a routine and able to devote the time to train the dog. My wife announced that she doesn't feel safe without a dog and wants to install an alarm system. We've lived here for over 9 years wihout any incident, we're ten feet from the second busiest street in town, we're at an intersection, and there are street lights. We are a terrible target. An alarm system won't make us any safer because we're already very safe, but it will make my wife feel safer. Pure security theater.
In my view alarm systems (home and car) can actually make people less safe because the best way to get around the alarm is to commit the crime while the owner is present.
DD
I want an electric bike! It been on my list for a year, but I just can't seem to pull the trigger.
What size hub motor?
What kind of mountain bike?
How did you get the batteries?
What kind of performance (speed, mileage) do you get?
Inquiring minds want to know!
I've often had the same sort of idea - if a cow can take grass, water and energy and make steaks, why shouldn't we be able to do the same thing? Recently, however, I've decided that even if they figured out how to do it tomorrow, it would not be to our benefit. It would end up being like baby formula - a product that's been around for decades, keeps getting tweaked to add this or that nutrient or remove or reduce undesirable components, yet still can't compare to breast milk. Or it will end up being like margarine, touted for decades as healthier than butter until they discovered that trans fats in the margarine were much worse for you than the saturated fats in the butter.
If they could grow meat, they would be unable to resist the temptation to fiddle with it. Rather that simply duplicate the meat from a grass fed, non-corn finished animal, they would reduce the cholesterol, boost the omega-3's (or whatever omega is good for you right now), add beta-carotene, and fortify it with vitamin C and calcium ("a full day's supply in every burger"). Then, ten years later, there will be a report that eating too much factory meat causes liver failure. The food scientists will tweak the recipe, declare it safe and healthy and we're off to the races again.
I do think they'll figure out how to do it (the cow can do it, after all). I just think the food industry has a very consistent record that demonstrates their inability to improve on or even match what mother nature can do, despite all their claims that they can.
DD
My torrent use is up dramatically over the past 6 months or so and it's because of Miro. And except for a couple of shows that our DVR "forgot" to record, everything I've downloaded has been legal. So it is possible for bittorent use to increase dramatically without being the result of piracy.
I once replaced an old 1978 model refrigerator with a newer, late 90's (at the time) model and saw my electric bill drop by 20%. The old monster must have been drawing a TON of power.
My parents said recently that their electric bill had gone into the $250/month range during a time when they didn't use heat or air conditioning and they don't have an electric hot water heater. Where was it going? They had been running a dehumidifier in their basement - another appliance that uses a lot of electricity.
The people dismissing the guy's 90/yr savings are missing the small point that he only did this for his home office - basically one room. What about the rest of the house? I changed 8 lightbulbs, made sure the PC is off at night and try to keep the lights off when not needed and my usage dropped 20%. At the rate I'm paying, this has translated into $400 in 2 years. I reduced my gas consumption by changing my driving habits to increase my mileage and reduce the amount I drive. I save about 70 gallons per year as a result (I only drive about 8000 miles and drive a high mileage car, so there was not a whole lot of opportunity here). I am now tackling the big fish: home heating. I live in a large, 200 year old house and I spend a lot of money generating heat and trying to keep it in the house. Added insulation, sealing cracks, and heating via south facing windows and sunlight have helped reduce consumption noticably, but I'll be make more changes with the goal of reducing oil use by 25-30%. So I'm saving about 200/yr on electricity, 200/yr on gasoline and so far about $250/yr on home heating for a total savings of $650 or so per year with more to come.
None of what I've done has had any effect on our lifestyle. The thermostat is set at the same temperature, but less heat leaks out of the house. We still use the same amount of light, but we use more efficient bulbs and try to make sure the lights are off if we're not using them. And we still use our computers, but we make sure they're not humming away at night while we're sleeping.
DD
Is it still true that the XO laptops will acquired by governments in large lots (500,000+)? If so, MS doesn't have to convince a bazillion individuals to pay the MS tax on their XO, they just have to convince the government in question to pay the tax. Would Negroponte agree to have an MS OS installed? He might if orders for 10 million units came in with the condition that barebones XP be installed. How could MS convince these governments to pay? By donating software/hardware/etc. to the developing government, something the OLPC program can't do.
I wouldn't be surprised if they worked out a "pay over time" licensing fee ($5 per year per PC for 5 years, or whatever). In year 1 the developing country can either pay 100 million for 1 million laptops, or they can pay 105 million for the same laptops with a different operating system AND they get some free hardware and software to help run the government. Of course, in year 2 they have to pay another 5 million in fees and whatever else for upgrades and/or support contracts, etc. on the "free" hardware and software, but that's a whole year away. If things get bad they can just ask for a little more in international aid. I'm sure Microsoft would put in a good word for them.
Even at significantly reduced prices selling software is like printing money because the incremental cost is so low. The OLPC program has the potential to reach millions of young users. Developing countries develop and young users grow up. Microsoft would be stupid not to try to reach these potential customers.
DD
There is a raw material shortage that is keeping prices high. In response, a lot of companies are building/expanding facilities to produce more silicon for the solar and tech industries. I think this is going to flip the supply/demand situation and cause the price of the raw material to plummet in 2009 or so. Maybe that's when I'll buy my panels.
DD
It is definitely going to add value to your house. Picture two houses of the same size in the same neighborhood. If you buy House A, it will cost you $100 per month for electricity and $2,000 per year for heat and hot water. House B, on the other hand, has been retrofitted with a solar array and a solar hot water system and total annual expense for all utilities is $600. The difference is $2600/yr or $217/mo. What is the present value of an income stream that would pay $217 per month over the next 10 years? $20,000 (ish). In other words, if you took 20k, invest it at 6% today and withdraw $217 per month, it would last about 10 years. You can therefore argue that home improvements that put a similar amount in the homeowner's pocket increase the value of the house by about $20,000.
If the owner of House B spent $70,000 on those improvements, he didn't make out very well. If he spent 30,000, however, he did just fine - 2/3 of his investment has turned into home equity (better than a lot of home improvements) and if energy prices rise or the improvements continue to function well past 10 years, he makes out extremely well over the long haul.
I long for an energy sipping or energy independent house. I currently live in 185 year old home and in spite of making a number of improvements that have cut electricity and fuel costs by 20% or better, I still spend something like $4,000 per year for heat, hw and electricity.
DD
You're driving a V6, what did you expect? If you want better mileage on the highway, drop you speed to between 60 and 65. At 70mph, you dealing with a lot of air resistance.
I've thought for years that making MPG feedback mandatory would definitely improve peoples' real world MPG results.
I've been driving my '00 Corolla with an eye towards fuel efficiency since '05 when gas prices took off. I live and work in the suburbs, so most of the time I'm on roads where the speed limit is 45. If I'm careful, I can average 37 mpg without any highway driving. If I spend some time on a highway, the average for a tank easily goes over 40 - and this is a car that's rated 31/38. Getting good mileage has become a game (which my wife thinks is stupid, of course), but I'm having fun and saving money, so there.
The trick is to learn you most traveled routes like the back of your hand (e.g. If I get the car up to just over 45 at the top of this small rise, I can coast to the next stop sign that is 1/2 mile away), and use this knowledge to keep the car moving. Try to avoid stopping if you can (legally). If the light ahead is red, slow your approach to give it more time to turn green and to let other cars get moving so you don't have to come to a dead stop - it takes much less energy to accelerate from 20mph to 40 than 0 to 40.
DD
We have been told that we are fighting a war (or "WAR" as you put it) for civilization. Other, more conservative individuals have decreed this a war of religions (Christianity vs. Islam). Fine. I have the following questions:
1. How do you win a war of civilizations if you first discard the most basic, defining elements of civilization in general (habeas corpus, the rule of law, due process), and the founding tenets and defining documents of your society in particular (people have rights by virtue of being people, warrants are required, no warrents issued without probable cause, etc.)?
2. How do you win a war of religions if you fight using methods that are regarded by every major religion as immoral? I am not a religious person, but I do try to live by the Golden Rule (treat others the way I want to be treated by them). A version of the Golden Rule can be found in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and others. If there is a universal concept that lies at the heart of how we define "morals" and "morality" that's it right there.
Right now, our leader is pretending to scratch his head over the Geneva Convention's ban on torture, saying that it's "unclear". It's not. We should treat prisoners the way we believe our soldiers should be treated, if captured. Torture (you can pretend it's "harsh interrogation", but it's torture) is wrong for many reasons. It's morally wrong, and if we are in part fighting to convince people that "our way" is better, "our way" shouldn't include immoral acts. It also violates the law (signed treaties are the "supreme law of the land"). It is true that the people we are fighting didn't sign the Geneva Conventions, but that doesn't negate the fact that WE did. Torture also doesn't work. You might get some good information, but you'll also get whatever information your victim thinks will get you to stop torturing him. It also endangers our soldiers in two ways: 1) if we torture prisoners, our current and future enemies will torture our soldiers in turn, and 2) an enemy who believes they will be treated well will surrender more easily while one who believes capture leads to torture and perhaps death will fight longer and harder. So torture makes our troops' job harder and automatically raises the stakes for them if they are captured. Nice job. Captured enemies are also eventually returned when the war is over. Japanese and German soldiers returned with stories of decent treatment which boosted our reputation and helped us win hearts and minds. Sixty years later both countries are strong allies. What stories will our current prisoners return to their families with? We've already seen the pictures.
I'm not saying we shouldn't fight. We must. Step one: obey the Constitution, step two: obey the law, step three: international coallition, step four: stop radicalizing the moderates, step four: gather intelligence (spies, surveillance, infiltration), step five: take appropriate action (arrest, assassinate, bomb). Treat the problem as a problem, but don't blow it completely out of proportion because that means the response will be completely out of proportion. Right now, the people in charge consider this to be the greatest treat our nation has ever faced and a battle of good vs. evil where the fate of civilization itself hangs in the balance. Seriously. A group of people of no particular nation, with a dispersed, decentralized army, no navy, no air force, and no industrial base a worse threat than the combined military/industrial might of the Axis or a nuclear armed Soviet Union? Really?
I've got more to say, but I'm almost out of time. I'll finish with this: If the terrorists set off a nuke in New York, a lot of people will die and it will be terrible, but we will not have been defeated and we will still be America. If, on the other hand, we are so afraid of the possibility of such an attack that we wall ourselves off from the rest of the world, allow the government to monitor our communications at will, restrict our movements, take awa
I don't know about that. I started turning my computer off at night and changed 8 high usage lights to compact fluorescents. Those lights were consuming a total of 650 watts and are now using only about 165. Just those changes have resulted in my electric usage dropping by 20%. And the decrease has been seen consistently for 10 months. Unfortunately, my electric rates went up by the same amount, so my useage is down but my bill is the same. Still, if I hadn't made the changes (which cost $50 and have zero impact on my life) I would be paying an additional $350/year for electricity.
DD
I think the collaborative textbook idea is excellent, but I think a strong effort should be made to create basic high school texts before tackling college and graduate level material. School budgets in this country are stretched very thin and every book they don't have to buy is money that can be used for other things. Also, we need to do something to save our kids' backs. Last week I witnessed my 14 year old nephew heading off to school with twenty pounds of books in his backpack. At the end of the day I helped load his stuff into the car and it was even heavier. Wouldn't it be great if he could have two sets of books so he didn't have to transport them back and forth? If a book is lost or destroyed, he can download and print a new copy. In addition to the hardcopies, he could copy all his books to a memory card or thumb drive and read material in the car using a PSP or other preferred device.
And we're talking about basic material here - not up-to-the-minute, cutting edge stuff. Algebra hasn't changed in a while, neither has high school chemistry or early American history. My son is 5 now. I hope by the time he is in high school he won't be asked to carry more weight than a fully equipped Marine.
DD
Funny, that was the first thing that went through my head, too. But I see from other comments that the closing process can involve tools inside the body.
Okay, then. How about we build the scanning equipment into the table? If nothing is detected, a telltale gives you a green light. If something is within a foot or so of the table (i.e. inside the patient) you get a red telltale. So surgery starts and the light goes red. When it's finished, you make sure the light is green.
Could multiple receivers built into the table allow for triangulation and tell the surgeon exactly where the signal is coming from?
I've seen some incredible "how'd they miss that" types of things that were left in by mistake.
DD
I saw myself in the Hotel Rwanda example. That very movie sat on a shelf for a week and a half before we watched it. We knew it was going to be a tough one and wanted to wait until we were "ready" to watch it. Very good movie, by the way.
I didn't see my biggest problem discussed. My wife stays home with the kids and will, on occasion, watch a movie by herself. I then have to figure out how to watch the movie when my kids and my wife are either asleep or out of the house. That generally means watching it in multiple installments at 5:30 in the morning.
The longest we ever kept something was over a month and we sent it back without watching it.
DD
Since they brought up the oil company analogy, let's offer the telcos the same deal that the oil companies get. The oil companies are not told how much to charge for the damn gas, but they are regulated. They are told to what standards fuel is to be formulated, how it is to be labeled, and how it is to be sold.
So any driver can pull into a gas station in any part of the country, fill their tank with regular unleaded and know:
They are getting 87 octane fuel that will run in their car
The fuel has all required additives, etc.
The price includes all taxes
People buying gas are paying the same price regardless of the make of their car and how they choose to use their vehicle ("Ooh, Cadillac, add $0.40 per gallon." "Commercial vehicle, add $0.25").
Since the telcos want to be treated like the oil companies, let's offer them a similar deal. They can offer different octanes (dial up, dsl, cable, fiber) and they can charge whatever they want, but they will be regulated in other ways - namely that they are not to mess with the fundamental notion that a packet is a packet regarless of origin, destination or content.
DD
The house should recognize the behavior patterns of the occupants and act accordingly. If the patterns change, the house should learn and adapt to the new patterns. If there are 4 people in the house and they're all in one room, turn off the lights and reduce the heat in other parts of the house. Bring bedrooms to comfortable temperatures (heat them up or cool them down, depending on the season) just prior to bedtime. Don't bother making/keeping hot water available during times of day it's not needed. Bring lights on automatically when someone enters a room, but at a low level. If the person stays in the room, gradually bring the lights up to full strength.
I want a web interface that would let me customize these features also. I'd like to be able to set max and min brightness on automatic lighting, appropriate heat levels, and I want to be able to customize each power outlet, so appliances, TVs and computers can be automatically shut off when not in use (i.e. the entertainment center's outlets are disabled between 11pm and 6am unless someone is detected in the room).
I would like all the appropriate wiring/infrastructure in place in case I wanted to add green energy sources like solar panels, solar hot water and/or a wind turbine.
I already have a media room for video games and DVDs but a dream media room would be one that could be used to play anything (DVD, HDDVD, HDTV, home network content, web based content, etc.) all magically tied together with an amazing UI that even my wife could use.
A greenhouse would be nice, too.
How do they know if they're measuring maturity or if they are seeing how the brain changes when a person has to adapt to significant new living conditions. Rather than just looking at 18 year old college students why not also look at:
14-15 year olds who have been sent off to boarding school.
Children of divorced parents who now move between two households and have to deal with step-families.
Children who have lost their parents and who are now being raised by relatives.
Saying that the brain changes when someone is put into a new situation where they are being forced to become more self-reliant is one thing, but labeling it "maturity" is a bit of a stretch. I know a fair number of pretty immature adults.
Hey, here's an idea - don't give someone the rights of an adult until their brain has gone through these changes! "No, I'm sorry, sir, the brain scan still indicates you are not ready to drink or vote. Shall we make an appointment for another scan next year?"
DD
I'm in the US so my experiences may not translate directly to your situation, but here goes:
Learn how to cook - preparing meals yourself is cheaper than eating out or buying pre-packaged convenience foods from the market. I can do a chicken dinner (roast chicken w/gravy, rice, salad and veg) for 4 for $10 or $2.50 per person (about 1.45 GBP). Learn how to make a few basics - roast chicken, marinara sauce, eggs, soup, etc. You don't need a lot of equipment and most parents would love to help you equip a basic kitchen setup.
Shop the sales and buy in bulk if you have the storage space (if you've got a house, you've got the storage space). Pasta is cheap, usually about $1 per pound here, but it also can be found on sale from time to time for 50-60% off. When that happens, buy 10 pounds. It's not going to go bad, and you will eventually eat it all. Get a warehouse club membership (or use someone else's) to buy basics like paper towels, toilet paper, meat.
Plan your meals and the use of leftovers. Roast two chickens on Friday night, eat one, and on Saturday make chicken salad or chicken soup with the other. If you're tired of chicken, put it in the freezer, thaw the marinara sauce and make spagetti.
Turn the computers off. I have a computer that's on most of the day, but when I started making sure it was turned off at bedtime I noticed the difference on my electric bill immediately. I have a tiny Linksys NSLU2 file server that's on all the time, but it only draws 5 watts or so, and it's suitable for my 3 computer home network.
Use compact flourescents. My kitchen lights are on most of the day, as is the floor lamp in the living room. Before I swapped out the bulbs, I figured I was drawing over 600 watts per hour. Now that the flourescents are in, I'm drawing 150 watts per hour. Between making sure the computer was powered off at night, using the compact flourescents, and just trying to make sure lights are off if no one is in the room, my electric usage has dropped by 20% per month (which is good because rates went up significantly recently).
By shopping sales and bulk buying, doing some basic meal planning and cutting down on waste, I cut my grocery bill by 30% (I tracked it for a few months). And we are pretty much eating exactly the same stuff as before - we're just being smarter about when we buy and how we use it.
DD
I have just over half a million in life insurance. Enough for my wife to pay off the house, fully fund our 2 kids' education and live with no decrease in living standard for 3-4 years. If she worked part time (she's a veterinarian and can make 40k/year working 20 hours/week), she might be able to stretch out the "leftover" money for a decade or more.
And yet, whenever we talk about it (usually around now when my company does the annual benefits enrollment and the insurance issue comes up) you would think I was leaving my wife destitute because she would still have to work for a living.
It doesn't help that her sister convinced her husband to maintain 5 million dollars worth of life insurance. She's made it very clear that if her husband dies, she has no intention of getting a job.
...or the next thing you know, he will declare "War on Hurricanes", appoint a Hurricane Czar, demand Congress pass his $50B spending bill without review, and immediately start construction on 40 new nuclear submarines to "keep the scourge of Hurricanes from our shores." Anyone criticizing the effort will be attacked ("Why do you want Americans to lose their homes, Congressman? Why do you want them to die?").
Remember, after Katrina everything is different. Now more than ever. We have to take the fight to the Hurricanes or risk facing them on American soil.
Oh, and you'll probably have to give up a few more of your rights. We'll let you know which ones.