I’m breaking a rule with this one, which is posting about politics, but given the historic nature of this election, even the most apolitical person like myself can’t just simply ignore it.
This is a must read by Scott Berkun about how to really make a good, informed, and intelligent choice when voting for a President. From scottberkun.com:
The 30 minute prep for picking a good president
Here it is. In 30 minutes you too can have a solid grounding on what makes for a good president, and have everything necessary to make a choice truly in the best interest of the United States.
- Read the Constitution (10 minutes). It’s probably been years since you have, if you ever did. This is the engine the president helps run – how can you pick a president if you don’t understand what they’re running? Essential reading. Should be included in every ballot.
- Skim the Bill of Rights + Amendments (5 minutes). These are the rules the President and government are obligated to play by and protect. Also essential.
- Read the job specs for the Presidency (5 minutes). Written by former editor and chief of Time Magazine, outlines 30 attributes we should be looking for.
- Study the qualities that bear on presidential performance. Princeton professor Greenstein’s short, and excellent, essay.(5 minutes)
- Make a position and issue list. Half the list should include your top issues and concerns for the next year, and half should include issues and concerns you imagine over the next ten years.
- Make a scorecard. With the above, you’re now informed about the history of good presidency. Make your own list of ten attributes, and use it to score the candidates.
This should be printed in large quantities and shared with everyone you encounter.
It used to be that when you graduated high school, you lost contact with friends. That was the pre Facebook and the pre MySpace days. Now, you may never lose them. In the latest issue of Wired, Scott Brown writes why this is a problem. From the article:
It has been argued that this Infinite Friendspace is an unalloyed good. But while this plays nicely into our sentimental ideal of lifelong friendship, it’s having at least three catastrophic effects. First, it encourages hoarding. We squirrel away Friends the way our grandparents used to save nickels—obsessively, desperately, as if we’ll run out of them some day. (Of course, they lived through the Depression. And we lived through—what, exactly? Middle school? 90210? The Electric Slide?) Humans are natural pack rats, and given the chance we’ll stockpile anything of nominal value. Friends are the currency of the socially networked world; therefore, it follows that more equals better. But the more Friends you have, the less they’re worth—and, more to the point, the less human they are. People become mere collectibles, like Garbage Pail Kids. And call me a buzz kill, but I don’t want to be anyone’s Potty Scotty.
