Note to Self

Don't miss the point:




Happy Father's Day!

If You Can Read This Message...

life_infographic (by loukaskk)

Via Hiten Shah

And the Winner Is...

NICK GIGLIA whose winning comment was the following:

I've dedicated my life to finding passion and meaning through work and entrepreneurship. I would love to read this book and benefit from someone else's perspective on these matters.

Great comment Nick. Hope you enjoy "Delivering Happiness" as much as I did.

For anyone else interest in the book, it's now available over at Amazon.

How to Balance the Budget

The CFRB recently put out a budget simulator that allows you to try and stabilize the budget (60% of GDP) by 2018. Pretty exciting stuff, right?

Well thanks to Ross Douthat, here's what it would take to achieve this goal:

1. means-testing Social Security and raising the retirement age to 68
2. keeping health care reform in place but slashing its insurance subsidies by 20 percent
3. increasing cost-sharing and premiums for Medicare and raising the retirement age to 67
4. passing tort reform
5. returning food stamp spending to 2008 levels
6. slashing subsidies for agriculture and biofuels
7. cutting the federal workforce by 5 percent across the board
8. cutting earmarks by 50 percent
9. converting the home-mortgage deduction to a smaller credit
10. replacing the tax deduction for employer-provided health care with a flat credit
11. increasing the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon
12. cutting foreign aid and military spending by $200 billion
13. drawing down troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan to 60,000 in 2016
14. taxing life insurance benefits
15. letting the Bush tax cuts expire for high earners and partially phasing them out for the middle class
16. eliminating the state and local tax deduction
17. and cutting out a lot of smaller things as well.

 Piece of cake...

Does Money Motivate Higher Performance?

From Dan Pink's "The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" . This may be one of the most interesting videos I've seen lately:




(h/t Brad Feld)

Two Years Old on Two Packs a Day

This is sad. Two years old, (two years!) and smoking forty cigarettes a day.

I'm dumbfounded.

Book Giveaway: "Delivering Happiness" by Tony Hsieh

From time to time having your own blog pays off in pretty cool (albeit mostly geeky) ways. One such occurrence took place about a month ago, when I was selected to receive an advanced copy of Tony Hsieh's (CEO of Zappo's) new book Delivering Happines: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose.

Now I'm probably like most of you guys in that I had only used Zappo's once before, and had honestly never heard of Tony Hsieh. In short, I didn't know what to expect from the book.

Well I read it over the weekend , and I have to say that it made a lifelong Zappo's customer out of me. In fact I almost bought a pair of shoes yesterday just because I liked the book so much. Andrea just laughed at me as I went on and on about this guy.

Anyways, I'm legally required to wait until June 7th for an actual review, so for now here's a couple reviews from famous people to further pique your interest:

–Tim Ferriss, Author of The 4-Hour Workweek

Tony Hsieh has done a huge amount of thinking about how to bring happiness to himself, to employees, and to customers, and in this fascinating (and often hilarious) account, he explains how he turns his beliefs into actions that really do deliver happiness.

–Anthony Robbins, Author of Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within


Delivering Happiness is a glimpse into the mind of one of the most remarkable business leaders of our time.  Like its author, the book is authentic, oddly original, doesn’t take itself too seriously—yet delivers a potent message.  Weaving together history, personal philosophy, and insights from one of the most intriguing companies in world, Delivering Happiness works on the mind, the heart, and the soul.  This book needs to be read by anyone who takes the happiness of other people seriously.

How to Win a Free Copy (w/ free shipping)*

(contest is now closed)

1. Leave a comment stating why I should send you the book no later than midnight June 6th (as many as you want).

2. Be sure to include some way for me to contact you.

That's it! I'll pick a # at random and that person will be notified on June 7th of their winnings. This blog averages 1 comment per post so the odds of winning are EXTREMELY high. So to the four of you who actually  leave comments, I say good luck!

Death Creates An Economy That Makes Life Precious

Came across an interview with Stanley Hauerwas, one of my brother-in-law's former professors at Duke Divinity School, on the subject of how his Christian faith had shaped his view of death.

The above quote might be one of the most beautiful phrases I've heard on this subject, and is the reason I posted it here. However equally as intriguing is his mention of the the phrase "save us from a sudden death" in the Book of Common Prayer, and how that differs from the modern desire to die in such a way that we avoid any knowledge of our death.

Hauerwas postulates a shift towards fearing death over fearing God, and ends the video with his view on what "a good death" looks like. Good stuff.



Reflections on Death from CPX on Vimeo.

Evening Links

Consumer credit making a comeback?

Unemployment and the Battle of the Sexes (h/t wonkbook)

Edward Glaeser on the the climate bill and the case for a carbon tax.

Election season: In China?:

For the voters, electing the Party secretary is like "selecting products they favor in the supermarket", said Chen Jian, a township government official, who was sent by Yongning to take part in the election of Houchong. "We candidates stand on the stage for them to compare and choose."

So thaaaat's how it works.

Did He Just Drop the P-Bomb?

I couldn't help it. This is gold. But also somewhat inappropriate, so be warned.

The reaction of the other two newscaster is classic, as is the perpetrator's complete unawareness of what he just said.




Am I wrong?