Mark Sarney

Category: social science

  • Book review: Owning Our Future (by Marjorie Kelly)

    Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution by Marjorie Kelly My rating: 5 of 5 stars I’ve been a fan of Marjorie Kelly since I read The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy. This book, Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution, takes you on her mental journey from her thinking in Divine…

  • America to academics: Why don’t you make like a tree and get outta here

    Whenever the US government passes major legislation with overwhelming majorities in rapid fashion, and the President signs it enthusiastically, it means one of two things has happened. Either we’ve been attacked by Japan and it’s 1941. Or the country has collectively decided, policy-wise, that we think we heard once that chocolate cake is actually super nutritious,…

  • Policy wonk Jedi mind tricks

    Two months ago President Obama signed an executive order to encourage the use of evidence-based research in government policy. He also established a permanent Social and Behavioral Sciences Team to inject behavioral insights into a number of government programs. Or as they put it, “to design human-centered federal programs.” This is a big step for the social…

  • Vox has 26 signs that everything is awesomer than you thought

    For all of you smiling under a warm spring sun today, enjoying the blooming of blossoms and the greening of grass, here’s an extra happiness injection: it’s getting better. What is it? Life. This story from Vox is something that I have sat on until happier times thawed from winter. Vox, one of the best explainer journalism…

  • Got to give to live well?

    I’m intrigued by research of what drives success, happiness, productivity and overall well-being. Conventional wisdom usually turns out to be wrong in these areas (money can’t buy happiness may be often said but is little believed). Knowing what really drives positive outcomes often becomes an exercise in intuitive contrarianism. Any counter-intuitive man-bites-dog eureka claim in this area…

  • My newsletter may improve your memory

    UPDATE: I’m reposting this because I had problems with connecting to the various social media outlets. The Scoop, my newsletter, is now open to subscribers. The link should be right over on the right-hand side. It will include the news about all things having to with my writing projects. This is stuff for true fans: discounts and special…

  • So good you can’t ignore it

    I am a big fan of Cal Newport’s side job of researching better ways to study. I say side job because he is a computer science professor at Georgetown University. In addition to his blog, Study Hacks, he has published several books about performing efficiently in high school, college, and career. I recently finished his book So Good They…

  • Future forms of government?

    What? A representative, constitutional democracy may not be the last stop in improving self-governance? i09 has an article up about what future forms of government could be. Check it out. I’ll have more thoughts about this later.

  • The revolution may be forecasted

    Check out this Verge article about using algorithms to predict revolutions using Big Data. The forecast comes from WardLab. Check out the sources it references. Yes, they all may have their flaws and shortcomings, but the only way to get better at something is to keep doing and improving it. In case you haven’t noticed, I…

  • How to lose an argument in one sentence

    “You’re just saying that because you’re a ___” How many arguments have we heard poorly refuted with an ad hominem attack? The more touchy the subject, the more likely someone stoops to the ad hominem retort. And it seems like people are resorting to them more often. I’m beginning to thing this kind of thing is a…