Learning Macro-Economics Web 2.0 Style

I have started viewing webcasts on macro-economics from the University of California Berkeley. This is to get a better understanding of economics, which I realized was lacking in my interactions with Marginal Revolution and other venues. I get the basics of supply and demand but I want to get a greater understanding so that I can better understand the issues this weblog has been considering over the last few months. Economics is apparently still the most relevant topic for this weblog. It also helps to understand how what I do as a government agent fits, effectively or not, into the larger economy and how I might make my own paradigm changes to fit outside the government sector.

Cloud Computing

Still experimenting with how to use Web 2.0 and organize information in the most optimal manner. Cloud computing isn't part of the day-to-day web 2.0 that I have decided to learn and use. It is of interest though and it does define what the infrastructure of computing is likely to be in the future. My use of the word infrastructure here is more abstract than the hardware one might normally think of but it does seem there is a need for some concept of infrastructure even if it is just clouds, different types of clouds have different effects. It also serves as a likely metaphor for how the work process and work community will be organized. This combines Google's Notebook with Ask.com MyStuff creating a link to a folder with webpages on a particular topic and will be placed under Paradigm Pathways Web 2.0 Pathways

Lawless Laughter

"Laughter springs from the lawless part of our nature."

--Agnes Repplier,

Liberating Human Potential

TED | TEDBlog: Iqbal Quadir's new Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT.

This post from TEDBlog has been out for about two weeks, but I am putting it up any way because it deals with Iqbal Quadir's new Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT. The Center for Development is not new but obviously the money from the Dubai-based investment firm is. The Center will receive a $50 million structured gift from Legatum.

The newly named it would seem Legatum Center "will help MIT students start enterprises in developing countries, to foster organic and durable economic growth and more equitable societies",

"We will champion bottom-up economic growth, rather than the prevalent top-down, state-led, aid-funded projects that by and large have not worked"

Iqbal Quadir

Making It Up As You Go Along

NPR : Making It Up as I Go Along From NPR This I Believe

This comes from my youth and finds new meaning in my life now. Admittedly, I am not as ready as Alice is to make transitions, but I do recognize that the ability to do so is an important factor in making a paradigm shift. I do see some similarities with what I wrote about at Changing Plans Changing Life.

Alice Brock, owner of Alice's Restaurant — made famous in Arlo Guthrie's 1967 song and 1969 movie — stands outside of her restaurant in 1974. Courtesy of Alice Brock



I just barreled ahead, discovering all kinds of possibilities and making plenty of mistakes. And those are really great opportunities to learn. When something works, well, that's that. But when it doesn't, I have to think about why, and I have to come up with some other way that will make it work. Mistakes lead to discovery and that can produce delight, like cream of salt and pepper soup. I made it in a pinch once and believe me it's good. You should try it!

Recipe for Cream of Salt and Pepper Soup

One day, Alice Brock saw a tour bus coming up the drive to her restaurant and she suddenly remembered she was supposed to feed 40 people a full lunch. She didn't have any soup made, so she improvised this Cream of Salt and Pepper Soup on the spot. Brock says, "Soup is any kind of food cooked in enough liquid to make eating it impossible with a fork."

1. Sautee some onions in butter
2. Add chicken stock and heat
3. Just before serving, add fresh heavy cream
4. Add salt and pepper to taste

So Money (of any currency) Can Buy Happiness

I have run into this blog and specifically this post from The Happiness Project: how money CAN buy you happiness a few times during my recent web-wanderings. Two of those times are of particular note. The first time did not have anything to do with happiness but with connectivity or commonality. I share common interests with Ashotosh Tiwari the writer of the Nepal Times article, "It’s a blog world". Mr. Tiwari also uses Google Reader and reads marginalrevolution.com, which according to Mr. Tiwari, "is the destination if you want to learn why, among others, high brow game theorists were again awarded Nobel Prizes in economics". He also suggests that for advice on how to operate a business better, businesspundit.com , is "a useful hub of articles, blog rolls and links. With postings on topics such as “How not to run a meeting?” the site is packed with tips for hurried and harried managers". One that this site has visited in the past is blog.guykawasaki.com which "is billed as “a practical blog for non-practical people”." Another website that I may not share but others surely do is tompeters.com. Of course there are a couple which focus on Mr. Tiwari's part of the world Indianeconomy.org and chinalawblog.com , one core77.com/blog which focuses on design and zenhabits.net which provides, "workable suggestions to increase personal productivity at work and home." Finally he reads happiness-project.com which, "has test-driven both schmaltzy and serious happiness theories, and it offers advice on everything from avoiding office romances to filling up your life with simple acts of happiness." Mr. Tiwari recognizes that "Running a business is only a small slice of life. Being happily productive every day is what probably matters more to people". The post that was current on the day I visited Mr. Tiwari's article was The Happiness Project: how money CAN buy you happiness. The second time was while going through my recent web-wandering while working with the concept of achieving happiness through our choices in life especially at work. Arguably, Mr. Tiwari and I have a good deal in common, at least on the Internet, and at least in the human commonality of seeking happiness. The original discovery of Nepal It’s a blog world was through Marginal Revolution.

Dawn by Anita Campbell

An Inspirational Small Business Trends Movie

Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends wrote me some while ago that she " wrote for small business owners, not for individuals." However, it seems to me that she quite often provides her readers with resources that are valuable not only to the business entity but the individual as well. All individuals, not only those in business but employees, students, anybody participating in our society would gain benefits from seeing this movie. Now I am being unfair again because I can safely presume that Anita actually does not make a strict distinction between the small business and the individual that created it. However, do we apply that distinction between ourselves as an employee and individual or as a consumer and individual? I find this type of wisdom that people can use in their daily lives of running a means of bringing products or services of use to others of a far greater benefit than many of the touchy-feely affirmations prevalent on the Internet. It puts a lot of what I have been writing about for the last few months in a succinct, inspirational and accessible format.

Other short videos of an equally informative, interesting though perhaps not as inspirational level from past posts have been How to Be Creative and The Machine is Us/ing Us.