Every time there is mention in the news or in life about a charitable act, the main character tends to be either: 1. The Giver, who can be either a unimaginably generous or arrogantly patronizing. And probably, people will choose one of the two sides and debate over who’s right. 2. The Recipient, who can [...]
Tags:Giving Pledge·idiot reconnaissant·Leigh Anne Tuohy·The Blind Side
About a year ago, Peter Sagal did something he said he’d never done before and made a solicitation to his followers (of which I am unabashedly a member) to help support a very dear and very ill friend of his, Jo Carson. You can tell Peter genuinely felt the full range of emotions that one [...]
Tags:cancer·death·Jo Carson·Peter Sagal
Yesterday on the radio I heard that scientists from Harvard and UC San Diego showed that giving is infectious. In the game they arranged, if you were the only giver, you lost while everyone else gained a little. But if everyone gave, everyone gained a lot. Outcome of the study? When one person was generous, [...]
This is a compilation (under construction) of academic studies and experiments that have implications for philanthropy. Pick and choose whichever study you want to support the theory you’ve got and ignore the rest. (Please don’t actually do that. Thank you.) Neurobiology Jordan Grafman, Jorge Moll, Frank Krueger: “Human Fronto-Mesolimbic Networks Guide Decisions About Charitable Donation.“ [...]
Every time we face a problem or a situation or even hint of unpleasantness, we’ve got two good ways to respond: Act to change it. Accept it as it is. Action addresses the problem. Acceptance addresses how we feel about the problem. Action works through the problem externally. Acceptance works through the problem internally. Usually, [...]
Tags:acceptance·action
Most important announcement: My friend Tan is the winner of “Hamlet’s Blackberry”! Tan writes a lovely blog about being an environmentally-conscious parent that I urge y’all to go read pronto. Then you too will think of her when you clean your toilet. Second most important announcement: Good websites are not static. They are ever-shifting reflections [...]
I have no experience in publishing, writing sales, or crystal-ball reading. Therefore I am perfectly credentialed to predict the future of books. And it will be like this:
Data Analysis was my favorite class in business school. Two reasons why: 1. I’m a big dork. 2. I love when there is a Right Answer. It’s a messy, messy land we all live in. So it is exciting to say: This Is Correct. We celebrate not only solving the problem but the fact that [...]
