Reblogged from the-maddest-scientist
Things I Find Interesting.
I like stuff. A LOT of stuff.
I want this problem.
I have this problem. I write UNCONTROLLABLY once I start. It’s very hard for me to start writing - I do all of my thinking in my head for days, weeks, or even months beforehand. But once I start, there’s no stopping me. It is impossible for me not to be verbose.
I cannot write “a short message” to someone, and I always feel guilty for talking so much (Lisa is the current victim of this).
It REALLY depends on context for me. Like, I just wrote a short essay (1k-1500 words) on a stupid story for class and I didn’t particularly LIKE the topic, so I went over after editing, but it was only through having pre-written outlines of the basic essay structure with all the info from my instructor that got me through. I wouldn’t have gotten half as many words otherwise, it sucked. There were enough materials to draw from that it wasn’t too bad…
But give me a topic I want to write on, or have inspiration for, and BAM I have all the words in the world to spill into it, and my essays will wind up like twice as long as they need to be - which isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes instructors will take it poorly if you don’t follow the *exact* criteria they have set, and will drop you points if you need to take more time to get to a point because you have a well-thought and well-presented thesis/evidence/etc.
aaaaand there I go, see, right here, I had something to say and FWOO, there went the words. xD;;I don’t know, it just seems much easier to edit “down” by cutting out material than to edit “up” by trying to make ideas you’re just not having. I mean the few times in my life I’ve actually ended up over a word/page limit, I found that my essays only got stronger once I cut them down to the required length.
Is it really that hard to cut stuff out of an essay?
I want this problem.
I have this problem. I write UNCONTROLLABLY once I start. It’s very hard for me to start writing - I do all of my thinking in my head for days, weeks, or even months beforehand. But once I start, there’s no…
![thedailywhat:
Stereotype-Challenging Study of the Day: A British study billed as “the most comprehensive ever conducted on gender driving differences” has concluded that women are better at parking cars than men.
The study, which relied on surveillence camera footage of over 2,500 drivers across 700 parking garages, was devised by professional driving instructor Neil Beeson, and produced by car park firm NCP.
Among its findings: Women are better than men at tracking down spaces, lining up with the parking space, and reversing into spots “by the book.” Meanwhile, men are better at entering spaces while driving forward, and exhibit more confidence than their female counterparts, leading to quicker parking decisions.
“The results also appear to dispel the myth that men have better spatial awareness than women,” said Beeson. “It shows that us men need to give our partners more respect when it comes to parking. The facts don’t lie.”
[telegraph / photo: corbis.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyml27oEMY1qzpwi0o1_1280.jpg)
Stereotype-Challenging Study of the Day: A British study billed as “the most comprehensive ever conducted on gender driving differences” has concluded that women are better at parking cars than men.
The study, which relied on surveillence camera footage of over 2,500 drivers across 700 parking garages, was devised by professional driving instructor Neil Beeson, and produced by car park firm NCP.
Among its findings: Women are better than men at tracking down spaces, lining up with the parking space, and reversing into spots “by the book.” Meanwhile, men are better at entering spaces while driving forward, and exhibit more confidence than their female counterparts, leading to quicker parking decisions.
“The results also appear to dispel the myth that men have better spatial awareness than women,” said Beeson. “It shows that us men need to give our partners more respect when it comes to parking. The facts don’t lie.”
The idea that another universe may co-exist alongside our own in another dimension is no longer just in the realm of science fiction, but it’s something that’s being tested in various manners to see if it’s some sort of science fact. And neutrons may be one of the particles that we may be able to follow to some sort of parallel universe, those sneaky bastards.
The United States has fallen 27 places in the Press Freedom Index. The reason? The many arrests of journalists covering Occupy protests.
(via theangryfeminist)
Slo-Moe Thing of the Day: To promote its “zero microwaves” policy and prove that “microwaves ruin everything,” Moe’s Southwest Grill sticks a bunch of things that shouldn’t be inside microwaves inside a microwave and presses “start.”
[geekologie.]
Draco Malfoy: “Family Tree” (Character Study)
wow, this actually made me like draco for a second.
10 Misconceptions Rundown! C. G. P. Grey’s latest video.
So Hank and I run or help run several businesses at the moment: Vidcon, DFTBA Records, the juggernaut that is 2-D Glasses, ecogeek, vlogbrothers, scishow, and crashcourse, as well as administering the nonprofit Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck. These are not huge businesses or anything (and in some cases are not even profitable), but many of them have employees and revenue and function like any other business, so recently Hank and I have developed some Rules for Running a Business That Doesn’t Suck, which we thought we’d share.
Rule 1: Don’t be a dick. This is the governing law of the Internet, as created by the great Wil Wheaton, and we try to apply it to our businesses. Not being a dick mostly means treating your clients and customers respectfully, and focusing on creating value rather than creating profit, and generally being reasonably kind and personable when it comes to business relationships.
Rule 2: Increase Awesome or Decrease Suck. If an idea won’t increase world awesome or decrease worldsuck, we won’t do it. (And if we’re doing something that no longer feels like it is increasing awesome or decreasing suck, we stop doing it.)
Rule 3: Minimize lawyering. Hank and I tend to lose interest in any endeavor when a lot of lawyers become involved. Basically, if we require lawyers other than our cousin Mike or the people he works with, we don’t do it.
Rule 4: Employ more people per dollar of revenue than PepsiCo. This is very important to us. So one of the emerging metrics for a company’s “success” is revenue generated per employee. PepsiCo generates more than $196,728 in revenue per employee. (That may seem ludicrously high, but it’s much lower than many companies: Google generates $1,900,000 every year per employee.) The thinking goes that successful companies generate a lot of money per employee. Our thinking is that it is both good business and good citizenship to invest revenue in new employees.
Rule 5: Keep promises. We try to keep promises even when they are very inconvenient and expensive to keep, such as when Amazon Germany ships out a thousand unsigned preorders of your new book even though you signed more than enough copies for them to ship to their customers.
Rule 6: Pay tops out at 10x average worker pay. Pretty simple, really: The highest paid employees of a company shouldn’t make more than 10 times the average employee’s pay. (Current estimates in the US indicate CEOs make between 185 and 310 times more than the average worker.) Capping this at a multiple of ten means everyone is invested in seeing the company grow and succeed.
Rule 7: Have awesome customers. If you don’t like the people who watch and read and wear the stuff you make, then you will not have any fun. Speaking of which…
Rule 8: Have fun. Our grandfather wrote thousands of lists in his life—grocery lists, lists of business ideas, pros and cons of taking different jobs. Almost all of his lists ended “Have fun!” We think this is good advice.
