Interesting Links for 08-02-2012

[andrewducker]

• Abu Qatada: out on bail, and rightfully so.
  (tags: terrorism uk law alquaeda AbuQata )
• How to stop Facebook or Google knowing too much about you.
  (tags: disinformation privacy google facebook )
• Breastfeeding women protest outside Facebook offices
  (tags: facebook breastfeeding )
• Fracture Putty can heal a broken bone in days
  (tags: stemcells medicine health )
• Reason #37 I'm glad I haven't bought Skyrim yet looks damn pretty.
  (tags: pretty computergames )
• Kitten tries to steal dog's tongue. Made of cuteness. More cute by same dog owner too.
  (tags: viaSkreidle video dog cat kittens cute )
• Why willpower matters – and how to get it
  (tags: psychology willpower )
• So what’s up with ACTA?
  (tags: law copyright )
• Why cancer is taking so long to cure, and what's being done about it now.
  (tags: research genetics medicine cancer )

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

The article on willpower is interesting, particularly the observed correlation between willpower as children and success in later life. This seems bloody obvious to me - kids that revise for exams are exercising their willpower by doing something unpleasant now in return for vague future returns; and kids that revise do better in their exams than kids who don't; and kids who do better in their exams ultimately get better jobs...

...except that is for those high intelligence / low willpower types who may well get good exam grades but who then end up in a succession of crap jobs by following the path of least resistance. And we all know some of those.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I'm somewhere in between. If I had the sort of willpower that made me work on the course I'm supposed to be writing instead of commenting on your livejournal, I'd have made partner by now, or at least director...

[andrewducker]

But would that make you any happier?

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

No, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't.

This is something I have thought about many times. I'm a senior manager now, but because of the very niche position I've manoeuvered myself into in the firm, I'm unlikely to get to director (which would be the next level up) or associate partner or partner.

However, were I more ambitious, there are certainly steps I could take to try to get back on that promotion path. I could go back to being client-facing. I could move to a different office (London perhaps, or Montvale, where our global audit methodology team is based, or Toronto, where our global quality and risk management people work).

Directors in most offices are paid quite a bit more than senior managers in Plymouth (our lowest paid UK office, mostly because of local wage rates being low). Partners own the firm and therefore take home a LOT more. But then living costs in Cornwall are low. If I worked in London, even if I was a partner, would I be able to afford a six-bedroomed house with a large garden and twenty mile views that was within a 35 minute drive of the office? No. But that's what I have now. Would I be able to afford a Porsche 911? Yes, and what's more it would be a new one, not an old one. But I wouldn't be able to drive it to work (no parking in Canary Wharf) and in fact I'd rarely be able to drive it on fun low-traffic roads. I wouldn't have time to play Skyrim or Football Manager in the evenings or even at weekends. I probably wouldn't have six cats. I might not have time (or energy) to write role-playing campaigns.

So, although I'm still in my 30s, I'm in the unusual position of probably living in the house I will retire in, being married to the woman I hope to retire with and with little hope of being promoted before I retire. And I'm happy.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, exactly. Any routes upwards would detract from the life you have, and the tradeoff isn't worth it to you.

[andrewducker]

Or who don't even get good exam results because they don't put the effort in. Like me, for instance :->

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

You do realise that people-like-you (happy, good job, no effort in exams) probably really annoy unhappy, hard-working types with crap jobs...?

[andrewducker]

Oh yes, I'm staggeringly lucky that I happen to have a hobby that people are willing to pay money for.

Of course, nowadays I do put in more effort than I used to, mostly because I'm now interested in people processes and systems, and want to make things work better. I wouldn't have got my recent promotion if I was slacking.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I hope the two of us don't sound smug here...

[andrewducker]

I don't think it's smug to be happy about doing well, so long as you're grateful for it and don't take it for granted.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

It's not so much being "smug to be happy about doing well" as being smug just to be happy. So many people I come across on livejournal are either unhappy or seem to enjoy being bitter. Some of them have very good reasons to be unhappy. Very, very good reasons. Others don't, and I'm sometimes tempted to show person A to person B and say "That's someone with a genuine reason to be unhappy. Think yourself lucky in comparison."

Of course I never do, partly because quite a lot of those person Bs may actually be person As who possibly don't have the nerve to say why they're truly unhappy.

I am happy, and I have good reason to be. I wonder how many other people are and what percentage of people who aren't are As, secret As or Bs.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

The other reason not to do that is because it is perfectly possible for people to be very aware of how lucky they are and yet still unhappy. Sometimes the only reason you need for being unhappy is your brain chemistry.

People who don't resist making comments like that are part of the reason why there are so many secret As. ETA: sorry, I think I may have got confused with your As and Bs, but you get the idea - when people feel their reasons for unhappiness are going to be compared to other peoples' that inhibits their sharing because most people are very aware that there are always other people worse off than themselves.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

All too true...