Writely

Found an interesting document creation and collaboration service today called Writely.

Some people are going so far as to say that they'll be the death of Microsoft, but I wouldn't go THAT far... unless Google bought them. :D

Positive/Negative Ratios: 2.9 to 11.6

Came across an interesting entry in Fast Company Magazine's blog: Feedback and Forth.

Bottomline: people or teams who experience at least 2.9 times more positive experiences than negative experiences over any span of time is more likely to be a "flourishing" individual, partnership, or team.

The original full report is also publicly available.

Interestingly, too much positivity is also bad. At a positive-to-negative (P/N) ratio of more than 11.6, flourishing deteriorates.

Personalized Google Home Page

Google now allows you to personalize your home page, so that it displays snippets from news sources, your Gmail, any RSS feed, and a host of other information in interesting portlets.

People who prefer the look and simplicity of the "Classic Google" home page can still use it and not be bothered by the slightly more "cluttered" personalized Google portal.

Interestingly, a friend of mine uses the Philippine homepage of Google and it looks like the homepage personalization feature isn't available on that site yet.

The Power of Four

Tom Hanks gave the commencement address a few months ago at Vassar College for the graduates of class 2005.

Excerpt:

Help publicly. Help privately. Help in your actions by recycling and conserving and protecting, but help also in your attitude. Help make sense where sense has gone missing. Help bring reason and respect to discourse and debate. Help science to solve and faith to soothe. Help law bring justice, until justice is commonplace. Help and you will abolish apathy – the void that is so quickly filled by ignorance and evil.

Life outside of college is just like life in it: one nutty thing after another, some of them horrible, but all interspersed with enough beauty and goodness to keep you going. That’s your job, to keep going. Your duty is to help – without ceasing. The art you create can glorify it. The science you pursue can prove its value. The law you practice can pass on its benefits. The faith you embrace will make it the earthly manifestation of your God.

Blink

Finally got around to buying Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, entitled Blink.

I'd been wanting to read this book for a few months now, and while I'm not yet finished reading it (now on p.119), I've read enough to know that this book will make me wonder about my decision-making thought processes for the next month or so.

Hmm... did I just do a bit of thin-slicing when I said that? LOL.