Facebook and Job Hunting

I’m curious to hear your thoughts on whether employers should be able to peek at your Facebook page to help them decide whether to hire you. Apparently, Germany is moving against this policy. Should the U.S. do the same, or should job hunters be smarter about what they put on Facebook? (Or, should Facebook make clearer their privacy policy?)
-Pete

Transcendent

Rather than examine what texting, computerizing, and general electronic multi-tasking does to our brain, this article follows the researchers who study this sort of thing for a few days on a camping trip. What I got a kick out of was seeing the head of a lab for which I volunteered my brain when I was a graduate student at Johns Hopkins. I want to get in touch with him to get the free images of my brain that I never received (I did get about $20).

I don’t know if it’s much of a surprise that we think more clearly when less is going on around us, or when we are “in” nature. It does kind of surprise me to know that multi-tasking doesn’t really help us think better or more on our toes. What I think would be most interesting would be to examine the “why nature?” question. In other words, would we enjoy more clarity in an empty room, a quiet car, or on an airplane?

And if we were thinking our best in nature, would I be able to solve one of most unsolvable math and computer science proofs of all time – the P versus NP proof? Find more our here. If you can solve it, stop by the CBC and you will get a prize!
-Pete

Keeping Up With the Joneses

Don’t you hate it when you get hedonically adapted to your Ferrari after a couple of years? Or when the recessed lighting on your G5 jet doesn’t seem so rosy?

Maybe it’s no surprise that we suffer from this—hedonic adaptation—or losing interest in the stuff we’ve bought, but are we really going to stop buying those treats?

This article suggests that doing so may make us happier. Or rather, that spending on the vacation, golf lesson, or cooking class—purchases that are more experiential—will indeed make us happier. Evidently, little research has been done on the subject of which things you buy make you the happiest.

One of the effects of the recession has been this push towards purchasing experiences, or goods that foster an experience, and Wal-Mart and other retailers are taking notice. The implication for potential business professionals and marketing professionals seems evident, and I’d love to hear what you think.
-Pete