Recreational Shopping

Recreational shopping could lead to 'consuming crisis': Lots of interesting quotes and tidbits in this short article, but of course I was most into the bits about lifestyle expectations:

"The study also found that 37 per cent of Canadians worried that they wouldn't be able to sustain their current lifestyle in 10 years time, noting they expected to have to tighten their spending habits. Another 24 per cent predicted their lifestyle would be about the same, while 32 per cent said they expected to have more."

Reel Life Wisdom

I got a copy of Doug's (Proactive Living blog) new book before Christmas, Reel Life Wisdom, and I sure have been enjoying it. A simple concept, really -- a collection of inspirational movie quotes organized around important themes -- so you can pick it up any time and open it to something interesting. The supporting web site is turning into an impressive resource by itself, with tons of quotes, articles and mini film reviews accumulating in the archives.

Worldmapper

Worldmapper: Work

For the right kind of person, this site could suck hours and hours of time out of the day. I'm one of those. It's pretty simple -- you choose the measures (work, health, education, poverty, etc) you're interested in and then get to see maps of the world with the relative weight for those measures represented. Hundreds of them.

Thanks to elearnspace for the pointer...

Mind Over Money

Some fascinating concepts and studies in this fairly in-depth article -- Mind over money: Studies indicate cash affects our social interaction. I thought this closing quote from one of the authors of a cited study was most interesting:

"If it's more important to have self-motivation it might be good to have reminders of money," Vohs said. "If group harmony is important, it might be a good idea to keep the idea of money down. People will have to decide what goals are in the best interest."

Update: Another article about the same studies: Mere Thought of Money Makes People Selfish. A quote:

"In a series of nine experiments, researchers found that money enhanced people's motivation to achieve their own goals and degraded their behavior toward others. The concept of money, they suggest, makes a person feel more self-sufficient and thus more apt to stand alone.

The scientists said the study had nothing to do with making a person feel wealthy. When real or fake money, or even a photo of cash, was placed in sight of participants, they became selfish."

Feeling Stressed?

There's nothing too new in this article, but it's interesting to think about how our choices affect our stress levels. I wonder if we wrongly equate all stress with negative results and health problems -- of course those are valid concerns -- but when you set up your life to minimize all stress, you reduce opportunities for growth and challenge. Difficult, risky and uncomfortable experiences cause stress, but life would be pretty dull if you avoided anything that took you out of your comfort zone. Anyway, here's the article from CBC: Feeling stressed? You're not alone, new poll says.

Five Things You Didn't Know About Me

Doug at Proactive Living tagged me with the challenge to list five things you wouldn't know about me:

1. I've seen Metallica in concert...twice.
   
2. Instead of renting a car or cabbing it in Los Angeles this weekend, I bought a bicycle and put 50 miles on it...also took some photos along the way.
   
3. I raced competitive motocross (off-road motorcycles) for years, including events in arenas with 10,000 spectators watching...and won.
   
4. I've never really liked pets -- and sadly, I've noticed that this makes it difficult for pet owners to like me.
   
5. I have four active blogs (and several other lapsed ones): this one, my personal blog, my work/learning blog, and a song blog...all of which are in danger of lapsing. More if you count my Flickr photos or 43Things as other types of blogs.

Thanks for the tag, Doug -- I'm sometimes too serious over here, and this is a good reminder to be a real person behind the links and writing.

And now for my five tags, selected not because I necessarily think they will take the challenge, but because they have consistently challenged me to think. The common thread -- great writers tackling difficult material and really living it...then sharing what they're learning:

• Penelope, the Brazen Careerist
  
• Christian at think:lab (and his inspiring list)
  
• Chris at Parking Lot (and his excellent reply)
  
• Shamash at Shamash Says... (with yet another fantastic glimpse into her past)
  
• Jill at Legacy Matters (and her amazing response)

Note: I didn't tag my Vancouverite blog-friend Brian, but I loved his response to the tag as well. As if we've both seen Metallica twice! I'm just glad I didn't get shot at either time.

Disparity

40% of world's wealth owned by 1% of population...

Kelowna Real Estate

Some national recognition of the stupidity of the housing market where we live: Kelowna house prices move ahead of Calgary, Toronto. In Canada, only Vancouver remains more ridiculous.

Take Back Your Time Day

Bet you didn't know that today is Take Back Your Time Day:

"Overworked and time-starved Canadians and Americans need to take time Tuesday to cancel an appointment, play with their children, go for a walk or plant a tree, says a group promoting Take Back Your Time Day."

Update: I missed the CBC's In-Depth feature on the topic -- By the numbers: time poverty. Lots of fascinating stats about work and overwork, particularly in comparing the U.S., Canadian and European situations.

Work and Depression

CBC reports that 1 million Canadians are dissatisfied with their jobs, many depressed. Although that does sound like a bummer, does that mean that the other 90% of workers are pretty happy with their jobs?

Decision-Making Biases

I was fascinated by this Wikipedia list of decision-making and behavioral biases, with links to each one (including references!) like the
Planning Fallacy.

Update: Mutual Improvement deconstructed a suspect study connecting alcohol consumption and higher incomes with another list of cognitive biases taken from Wikipedia.

Update 2: I was looking through a list of del.ici.ous links on decision making and found this article: 10 reasons people make stupid decisions -- it's funny and references some solid background material.

More Happiness Research

A Jolly, Socratic Science takes a look at the best of happiness research and digs up this excellent presentation from Daniel Gilbert: How to Do Precisely the Right Thing at All Possible Times. The other item in the post was a link to How Not to Buy Happiness (pdf) by Robert Frank, which covers some very interesting territory:

"Considerable evidence suggests that if we use an increase in our incomes, as many of us do, simply to buy bigger houses and more expensive cars, then we do not end up any happier than before. But if we use an increase in our incomes to buy more of certain inconspicuous goods–such as freedom from a long commute or a stressful job–then the evidence paints a very different picture."

Aerons and Air Hockey

In Aerons and Air Hockey Kathy Sierra explains why cool workplaces matter, reminisces about the workspaces she's had that really worked, and gives everyone a peek at her new office -- a beautiful vintage Airstream trailer. Love it!

Consumer Life

I'm not a big fan of the title of CBC's Consumer Life section, but it's proven to be a great source of news about the choices people are making. The focus is particularly in how we spend our money, but covers safety, work issues, personal finance, housing market, and topics in those areas -- definitely worth following, and they even have an RSS feed to keep readers up to date.

Balancing Work and Aging Parents

Baby Boomers are having challenges balancing work with caring for their aging parents -- I'm seeing this coming up more lately as an issue for people I know in their 50s. The ones who have their own businesses seem to be in a much better position to make the adjustments they want/need to make.