The Effectiveness of Prizes as Catalysts of Innovation
In many fields there is a huge disparity—order of magnitude or more—between the productivity of the top performers and the median performers. The structure of the corporation, having co-evolved with the industrial revolution for harnessing workers to build railroads or textiles, is fundamentally limited in its ability to reward employees in creative endeavors in proportion to their contribution, or even measure it. Academia is a little better due to the precedence of fame over monetary reward, but has its own problems.
Posted: June 7th, 2011
at 11:25am by mnp
Categories: competitions,development,innovation
Comments: No comments
Mind Crunch : 6.7.11 : Elevator Economics
Do you get annoyed when someone boards the elevator with you only to ride up one floor? The stairs are right there, could they not just walk up a single flight? Well, consider this. Someone boards the elevator on the first floor with a 3rd floor destination, but instead of getting off at floor 2 and walking the last flight of stairs, they ride all the way to 3.
Did You Know? (Wikipedia Edition)
Interesting observations about the English Wikipedia:
Almost half of all the text added gets reverted.
Over three quarters of contributions from registered users are from someone who’s had a contribution reverted.
Half of the top 50 contributors (by amount contributed) are bots. via
Rebooting the Cosmos: Is the Universe the Ultimate Computer?
Posted: June 6th, 2011
at 11:19am by mnp
Categories: computers,science,development,space
Comments: No comments
The Saxifrage School
Imagine a freshman English class set in the back room of your neighborhood bar, or a philosophy lecture reverberating inside a church footsteps from home.
Picture dual majors that require proficiency not only in literature but also in renovating a house.
If this sounds like an unusual notion of a four-year college, that’s only the start.
North Side resident Timothy Cook and a group of his peers say the traditional college experience doesn’t guarantee that students will acquire the balance of physical and intellectual skills they need to lead self-sufficient lives.
And besides, the whole thing costs too darn much.
So they have set out on a quest that, depending on your level of optimism, is either a model for the future or nothing short of a pipe dream.
This group that has almost no capital — let alone experience in such an endeavor — wants to create its own stripped-down version of college.
The Saxifrage School, as it is called, would have no sports teams, no dorms, and no classroom buildings or traditional campus. Instead, classes would be clustered in a yet-to-be determined neighborhood where faculty would hold court in cafes, libraries and other available spaces. Students would have to learn Spanish, in addition to pursuing two starkly different programs of study: one academic, the other technical.
The annual price would be $5,000 in tuition plus a $1,500 administrative fee, a rate intended to help students avoid crushing debt. (Source)
Posted: June 6th, 2011
at 11:19am by mnp
Categories: mnp is for the children,development,education,innovation
Comments: No comments
Who is Brian Johnson?
Take a journey back to a time to before CGI, when pyrotechnics and model-making were the chief tools in science fiction’s special effects. From Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to Gerry Anderson’s UFO and Space: 1999, one man was central in setting the standard for the Star Wars enterprise to come… (Source)
We Need More Developers
Something about our society is not creating enough developers. We have a glut of MBAs, accountants and lawyers (yours truly included). Where are all the good techies? Truth is being a developer has not been a focus of our society for very long. Even today I doubt many parents are thrilled when their kids come home declaring their desire to be a Python developer. I think we need an all out campaign to make writing code the next great occupation in America.