To Be More Creative, Schedule Your Work at 80% Capacity : The Art of Non-Conformity

This is an idea that has been used in other companies as well. Google has a "20% time" policy in place which essentially allows employees to do whatever they want with 20% of their time at work. Many of Google's best apps have resulted from this non-directed creative work time.

The wonderful book Scarcity also describes the economic and psychological impacts of not scheduling "slack" into your schedule. When you are pressed for time and experience scarcity throughout day, you actually think and perform worse. This has been shown in several studies and I highly recommend the book, which goes into detail on the research. It could be an awesome summer read.

To Be More Creative, Schedule Your Work at 80% Capacity : The Art of Non-Conformity

When Josh and Colby started Jolby & Friends, they were leaving a larger advertising agency. At that agency they would collaborate on work together, but always after hours. As they took the plunge to start their own business they knew that they wanted to have the ability (and their employees to have the ability) to be able to work on things in the studio they were passionate about. 

Therefore, Jolby & Friends runs on 80% capacity. What this allows us to do is go after clients that may not have the largest budgets, create work for art shows, and build out other internal passion projects (like this one, for example). 

What this doesn’t allow for is people taking extra long coffee breaks, playing foosball, working on freelance work or anything of that sort. The idea isn’t for people to have to only work 32 hours but rather enable our staff to be able to create work that in a larger agency they wouldn’t have the opportunity to do. This practice often influences our client work and allows us to always be learning and pushing our current skill sets. 

Lastly, it allows us to be the heroes. When a client calls and says “Is there anyway you can do this for me in a week?” the answer is often replied with a smile and “no problem.”
This isn’t always the case, though. For every upside there’s obviously a downside. One issue we often encounter is contractors and vendors not being able to budget their time as efficiently as we do. We actively work on this by explaining our process in detail as well as showing the upsides to some of our processes. 

The whole idea is based around a simple idea to create a creative environment in which our staff is comfortable, focussed, and—most importantly—excited about what they’re doing.

Get Off The Computer And Complete This Italian Teacher's Summer Assignment. You Won't Regret It.

Get Off The Computer And Complete This Italian Teacher's Summer Assignment. You Won't Regret It.

1. Sometimes, in the morning, go take a walk along the seashore completely alone: look at the way sunlight is reflected on the water and think about the things you love the most in your life; be happy.

2. Try to use some of the new words we learned together this year: the more things you manage to say, the more things you’ll manage to think; and the more things you think, the freer you’ll be.

3. Read as much as you possibly can. But not because you have to. Read because summers inspire adventures and dreams, and when you read you’ll feel like swallows in flight. Read because it’s the best form of rebellion you have (for advice on what to read, come see me).

4. Avoid things, situations and people who make you feel negative or empty: seek out stimulating situations and the companionship of friends who enrich you, who understand you and appreciate you for who you are.

5. If you feel sad or afraid, don’t worry: summer, like every marvelous thing in life, can throw the soul into confusion. Try keeping a diary as a way to talk about how you feel (in September, if you’d like, we’ll read it together).

6. Dance, shamelessly. On a dance floor near your house, or alone in your room. Summer is dance, and it’s foolish not to take part.

7. At least once, watch the sunrise. Stay silent and breathe. Close your eyes, be thankful.

8. Play a lot of sports.

9. If you meet someone you find enchanting, tell him or her as sincerely and gracefully as you can. It doesn’t matter if she or he doesn’t understand. If they don’t, she or he wasn’t meant to be; otherwise, summer 2015 will be a golden time together (if this doesn’t work out, go back to point number 8).

10. Review your notes from our class: Compare the things we read and learned to the things that happen to you.

11. Be as happy as sunlight, as untamable as the sea.

12. Don’t swear. Always be well-mannered and kind.

13. Watch films with heartbreaking dialogue (in English if you can), in order to improve your language skills and your ability to dream. Don’t let the movie end with the final credits: live it again while you’re living and experiencing your summer.

14. In sparkling sunlight or hot summer nights, dream about how your life could and should be. During the summer, always do everything you can to avoid giving up, and everything you can to pursue your dream.

15. Be good.

Prize-winning DP students at Young Researchers competition | IB Community Blog

Some IB students in Norway recently won a handful of research competitions using the extended essays they finished for the Diploma Program. They didn't actually do any extra work; they simply submitted what they had already completed. Pretty cool way to rack up some extra honors as you apply to university.

Prize-winning DP students at Young Researchers competition | IB Community Blog

How do you use your research skills in life outside the classroom? 

I believe that research skills can be split into two categories: critical and analytical. Critical thinking skills allow me to intelligently question the validity of statements, sources and evidence, both inside and outside of research. Analytical thinking skills allow me to measure the importance of evidence, and extrapolate it to a conclusion. I would argue both skills are important in any context.

Red Nose Day - Jack Black and Felix

I don't actually know what Red Nose Day is, nor did I look at the website, but the video itself is quite powerful. There are terrible living conditions in much of the world with horrible experiences happening every day.

The boy's wish is to learn.

At a school like ours, we have every opportunity to learn, but I often see students not taking advantage of it. I see it as a moral obligation to learn the most we can in order to make the world a better place and help others like the boy in this video. We are quite fortunate and should take advantage of the privileges we have each day.

The Mutability of Wages - Paul Krugman

A great evaluation of supply-side policies that insist on lowering wages to increase production from Krugman.

The Mutability of Wages - NYTimes.com

Arindrajit Dube enlarges on my post about efficiency wages, pointing out that the same logic applies to firms that have monopsony power. That’s a very good point — and I think we’re circling in on an important part of the logic behind the “new view” on inequality policy, which says that policies to enhance worker bargaining power can have major effects on the distribution of market income. 

What’s going on here? Maybe two schematic pictures can help. 

The conventional view about the choices facing an employer looks something like this: 

 

The employer’s choice of wage to pay is pinned firmly in place by the invisible hand. It can’t pay less than the going market wage, or it won’t be able to attract any workers; it really, really doesn’t want to pay more than the going wage, because any wage increase translates dollar for dollar into lost profits. Minimum wages or a strong union can force the wage up all the same, but it takes a lot of political or institutional power. 

What Dube, I, and many others are suggesting is, however, that for quite a few employers — including large service-sector companies — the situation looks much more like this: 

 

There isn’t a sharply defined “going wage”, either because the firm has monopsony power — it can, in effect, choose the going wage in its local labor market — or because efficiency wage considerations lead it to pay more than the minimum, so that there are normally more applicants than places. And as I’ve drawn it, the top of the hill relating the wage rate to profits is fairly flat. In particular, the firm shouldn’t mind very much paying a somewhat higher wage, because this will produce offsetting benefits — a larger supply of labor if it has monoposony power, lower turnover or higher productivity if efficiency wages are an issue, maybe all of the above. 

The point is that under these circumstances it needn’t be all that hard to push up wages: the threat of union organizing or a consumer boycott, even moral suasion from the government might be enough. So the standard view that it’s very hard to change the distribution of market income, that policy must involve after-market taxes and transfers, may be quite wrong.

Must-Read: Paul Krugman: Why Am I A Keynesian? - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

Some more clear and concise thinking by Krugman for you. Keynesianism is not about big government, but effective government. When there is a demand-deficient recession, government spending is almost certainly the best call. When the economy is working at full employment and and there is a budget surplus, reducing government spending and allowing private consumption and investment to lead the way is the more responsible agenda.

Must-Read: Paul Krugman: Why Am I A Keynesian? - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

We are for effective government works, not a big government for its own sake: private where private belongs; government where it is needed; circumstances alter cases. We are for an informed public sphere, not one that thinks a bigger or more active government is always better: we want to see voters who understand the technocratic pluses and minuses support politicians who recognize them.

mainly macro: Why Sen is right about what is being done to Greece

I've copied the first paragraph of the below article into this post. It's an evaluation of the current situation in Greece and the EU from an Oxford economist named Simon Wren-Lewis.

mainly macro: Why Sen is right about what is being done to Greece

At first sight the negotiations between Greece and the Troika seem to be simply a battle about resources: how much of the pie that is Greek national income their creditors should receive. There have been many similar types of battle over the years - what makes this one unusual is that the creditors have a unique weapon on their side. With primary surplus approximately achieved, Greece’s bargaining position would normally be extremely strong. The Eurozone creditors would be desperate to salvage what they could from their foolish decision to effectively buy some privately owned Greek government debt. The only reason the Troika is able to call the shots is that it can threaten to eject Greece from the Eurozone. [1]