h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Are you calling me rude? !

'if you feed poor school children every once in a while, they seem to pay a bit more attention than when they are counting their ribs'

- sounds rather like that experiment which was done with workers on a production line. They found giving them breaks improved their productivity. They found giving sustenance improved productivity. They found giving warm food improved it even more. With more breaks, they then became less productive. Interestingly, when they took all the improvements away (breaks and food), they became even more productiveT It is thought that this is because the workers thought they were a failure.

I'm well aware that you don't need a college degree to make big money. What i do believe, though, is that people who know what they want to do early on and are committed to doing it are much more likely to be *successful* in terms that the world recognises.

Think of the Harvard study (in 1952, I think) when only 3% of the students had written plans for what they wanted to do with their lives. Some years later, that 3% were earning as much as the other 97% put together.

I am always wary of studies.

I keep thinking of Dr. Semmelweis.
He told them to wash their hands in order to save lives.
They told him to mind his own business.

And Sister Kenny.
She said she had a way to make Polio victim's lives easier.
They told her to mind her own business.

"I'm well aware that you don't need a college degree to make big money. What i do believe, though, is that people who know what they want to do early on and are committed to doing it are much more likely to be *successful* in terms that the world recognises.

Think of the Harvard study (in 1952, I think) when only 3% of the students had written plans for what they wanted to do with their lives. Some years later, that 3% were earning as much as the other 97% put together"

Yes, but at what? What were they doing?

Ross Perot, a man that I have very little use for personally, became a millionaire by working outside the box. He took care of his employees and they took care of him.

Henry Ford, at one time, was so involved in his employees lives that he not only paid them, but he told them how to spend it. He not only taught many of his employees how to read, but he told them what to think, also.

There was a class at West Point, back in the teens, that is called the "Class that the Stars Fell On", 1911 or 1912 or something like that. More Generals came out of that bunch than any other class before or since. It didn't hurt that many of them were lifers who stuck it in the Army when smarter or more ambitious men went into civilian life. It also didn't hurt that when WWII rolled around, the Army had so many new divisions and battalions that it needed bodies to fill the top spots. To Eisenhower and Bradley's disgust, most of those fellows were REMFs who should never have been allowed near a sick kitten, let alone a squad, and yet they were participating in major landings and historic operations with nary a clue as to what was going on. Bradley spent half his time before D-day and after sending old or incompetent Generals home. Teddy Roosevelt, Jr. did him the favor of dying before he could be removed.

Success is relative.

Education and success often have the most relationship when people of the same academic achievement hire each other so they don't have to associate with others on the lower rung or the upper rung. Something to do with the Peter Principle, I think...

Either that or I am just blathering.

It's 9:37 AM and I've been up since 1:30.
Got the wife and the kid up and marginally fed and out. Now I've got to decide which chore I am going to avoid next.

I had a bad night too! I seemed to be awake every hour. Bleah!

I hadn't heard of Dr Semmelweis until you mentioned him.

http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r2k0306c.htm

Seems people did pay attention to him.

Likewise Sister Kenny:

http://www.ott.zynet.co.uk/polio/lincolnshire/library/drhenry/srkenny.html

Interesting what her patients said about her.

What were the Harvard 3% doing? No idea!

I agree with you that success is relative. I suspect that if I look at myself now with the eyes of myself as a child, I would see myself as relatively successful. In my own eyes, though, I don't. Mind you, as a child, what I wanted to be more than anything else in the world was a pilot. Then I was told by my teachers (and anyone else who cared to venture an opinion, including my parents) that I couldn't as I was the wrong sex. Pah! Then I wanted to be an interpreter. However, I either didn't have the talent, or the application, one or the other. Now I try to keep people safe.

So which chore did you avoid next?