Category Archives: Links

The happiest districts are among the most affluent in the nation. Six of the top 10 are affluent and physically magnificent California communities. The least happy districts are mainly places of extreme disadvantage, inner-city neighborhoods in Detroit, Cleveland, South Philly, the Bronx, or Appalachia.

There are a couple of slight anomalies – wealthy Grosse Point, Michigan, is lumped together with poor inner-city Detroit neighborhoods (wonder why that would be?), and given the devastation of greater Detroit it’s not surprising that even the rich would be less happy then elsewhere. And hipster Williamsburg is lumped together with Bed-Stuy: But, then again, whoever said hipsters were happy…

Via The Creative Class.

The same concept of using “white space” can be applied to our careers. As young professionals, it’s so easy to open our mouths as a way to overcompensate for our lack of experience or to fill the silence with rhetoric. Consider your favorite leaders: they choose their words carefully. Sometimes they nod and think rather than speak. Great public speakers have learned to master (and rely on) white space.

Via Ms. Career Girl.

photo via WeHeartIt.

As all my friends have coupled up, life is dramatically different. In short, my girlfriends and I got a little boring, we rarely have girls’ nights anymore and worse yet, they went and chose partners that aren’t all that compatible with my boyfriend and I. Sometimes it’s awkward to hang out with other couples and Ryan and I have only found a few couples that we genuinely enjoy going on a night on the town with.

The dynamics are complicated. The females need to get along and the males need to get along so that even though you’re going out as a couple, you get in your girl and guy time accordingly.

I don’t own an SUV or a dog, but I would love a dog if I had a dog-walker for the Winter months… I was surprised to learn that a dog could be just as bad an SUV according to some new research. Either way, SUVs still suck.

New Scientist took a look at the relative carbon impact of owning a dog (or cat, or hamster) and owning an SUV like a Toyota Land Cruiser. The results, plotted in the chart above, may surprise you. Take a look at the original article to see if you agree with the methodology, or if you can even put an environmental price on your furkid.

Photo by The Sartorialist.

Are we still having this conversation about jeans at work? Give me a break. Let’s be honest. It’s less about jeans and more about style. And even more than that, the issue is if women can wear jeans at work. Because men have been doing it forever. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The thing most power-jeans looks have in common is that the denim is dark and plain, and worn with the executive uniform: dark jacket, crisp buttoned shirt, good shoes. It’s as though the pants say, ‘I’m cool,’ and the rest of the outfit says, “I know how to conform.”

Jeans can suggest a leader is modern and confident, innovative, and willing to roll up those sleeves and work.

Via WeHeartIt. 

My loneliness has definitely increased since my last job. I’m much happier, but I don’t interact with as many people daily. Maybe I should blog more? The New York Times reports that may not be such a bad idea:

Hundreds of daily updates come from friends on Facebook and Twitter, but do people actually feel closer to each other? It turns out the size of the average American’s social circle is smaller today than 20 years ago, as measured by the number of self-reported confidants in a person’s life. Yet contrary to popular opinion, use of cellphones and the Internet is not to blame, according to a new study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

My favorite thoughts from a recent interview with LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman:

When you pursue an academic path, you basically write books that only 50 people will read. I wanted to have a much broader impact on the world, which you can do through software entrepreneurship. If you can create a piece of software that improves people’s lives, it’s infinitely replicable…

But one thing I learned in ’97, when I thought the right time to found a company was during a swing-up, is that it’s much better to start during an economic downturn. Partnerships are easier; hiring is easier; and the competition starts later…

One of my theses is that every individual is now a small business; how you manage your own personal career is the exact way you manage a small business.

I am not funny. Maybe sometimes I am. I try to be. I often laugh at my own jokes. All good reasons why I found it fascinating to take a peek into the delightful and devious minds behind The Onion in a recent NY times article.

The Onion newspaper was originally founded right here in Madison, Wisconsin, and I occasionally wheeze past the offices that still remain here on my even more-so occasional runs. And back when I had a different job and no car, a co-worker would drive me home and I would make wild faces and gestures towards the Onion conference room window every evening around 5.