Elle

I think one reason (aside from religion and cultural tradition) that women generally regard keeping and giving their viriginity as a value is because they are especially vulnerable the first time, not knowing what the experience is going to be like. A virgin is taking many (hopefully controlled) risks such as pregnancy and exposure to disease, and they are also opening themselves up to insecuries (...will he like what I look like naked? ...will I satisfy him? ...will he still respect me in the morning?). When I was as young as 15 my girlfriends and I had many conversations about what we wanted out of loosing our viriginity. Many young women I know put a great deal of thought into making sure their first time is with the right person in the right setting. I don't have the impression this is as common for young men, but I'm not sure.

This year my parents gave me their piano, which I grew up playing. I haven't really played consistently since I moved out their house, so having it in mine will reunite me with my favorite creative outlet.

Kevin and I will be there. This is the first cruise for both of us, and a second honeymoon of sorts (we were married in August but didn't take a full honeymoon because the local weather was so beautiful). Afriend gave me a tip. You can set up your own excursions privately. For example, see http://grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com. You'll find lots of these if you Google "cruise excursions".

It seems like the answer to this question should lie with the goal behind having an argument. Usually when I am arguing with someone it is because I want to convince them of something. It is unlikely I am going to convince someone in the process of offending them. With that goal in mind I usually choose to mind my manners, because it seems like as soon as social graces break down so does the conversation. If you do care about convincing the person you are arguing with of something you are presenting you have the responsibility of showing them that there is something in it for them. If you become rude they might decide that you are not worth dealing or that there is no value in continuing the debate and then your ultimate goal - of convincing them - will be thwarted when they end the conversation.

Sigh... I just defended Bill Gates yesterday for seemingly the thousandth time. He should still be defended as a businessman, innovator, and creator of great wealth. In fact, I wouldn't condemn his charity work (private acts of generosity, afterall, should replace the need for government coercion in a rationally governed nation) if it wasn't giving him such a platform to spew altruistic garbage. If only he could see that his greatest achievement has done more to alleviate the "awful inequities in the world" than his philanthropy and poor philosophy ever will.

What is the goal in creating this new concept of "Reasonism"? It seems like this is more likely to confuse people than to serve as a conceptual (and verbal) placeholder for something that actually exists as a characteristic of a philosophy. Lumping together a bunch of philosophies can be dangerous in that grouping them by a non-essential can give credence to those that do not deserve it. Hegel and Kant use their own version of logic - but that does not mean we should create a concept of Logicism and lump them in with Aristotle and Ayn Rand. That begin said, I think you observation that there are a specific group of philosophers with many similarities is certainly interesting and valuable as you work to integrate the whole of the arc of philosophy - but I don't think it requires the introduction of a new concept in order to do so.

Justin, I have been thinking about this for awhile, mainly because I find myself a bit mystified by your condemning response and then I had a bit of an "aha!" moment. I should have used the word efficiency instead of productivity, because I am talking about efficiency and using the word productivity is much less precise and is confusing the issue. My original question, how to measure my productivity, was the one I was trying to figure out at the time. How to measure my overall output (When there is no P&L behind it) and create a useful, consistent, objectve scale to calculate impact of various projects. But the only reason I wanted to measure that is because ultimately I wanted to determine, and show my boss, how effective or ineffective I have been at meeting the goals we set regarding operational efficiency (which it is my job to maximize and which is the over-arching goal of all my projects). It's wonderful when your input is time ($) and your output is... more time ($$)!! I forwarded your website to our sales manager. Cheers, Danielle

Based on the very little I know of your situation, this sounds like the road to burn out to me. What motivates you to stay?

Hello Everyone, Kevin and I are happy and very excited to announce our engagement to be married! Yesterday, I awoke to any empty bed and wondered where in the house Kevin had fallen asleep (this time). In the kitchen I found a note that was the beginning of a six hour scavenger hunt through the greater Seattle area, visiting various places that have special meaning for our relationship and finding a new clue at each location. The search ended on Bainbridge Island, at Fort Ward State Park, where I used to play as a kid and had taken Kevin to once before. I found him sitting on top of a large rock on the beach. We sat there together, all alone watching the waves and sailboats - and he asked me if I would spend the rest of my life with him, would I marry him? Of course, I said yes. We drove to my parent's house to announce the news and then to a bed and breakfast for the night to enjoy our own private celebration. It has been a memorable weekend! As to the ring, Kevin had managed to trick me into believing it wasn't going to be ready for a number of months, but I was shocked to discover he had it with him and it was complete. The proposal, ring, and most importantly the vision of our life together as husband and wife - are wonderful. We are proud to share our joy with all of you!! We have not yet set a date for our wedding but intend to be married either locally in late August or abroad in early November. All the Best, Danielle & Kevin

I am suprised to see how many high school and college drop-outs are on the forum. EVW mentioned that dropping out, on its own, is not an accomplishment and I absolutely agree. The accomplishment is in recognizing what it is that you want and going after that value instead, and breaking away from a path you were on that may have felt like a comfortable and safe one. A few people asked for my story, and it is this: I started college in the Fall of 2003 at a local community college. I was supported by my parents and they told me they would only continue to support me if I would attend college. I was working at McDonald's at the time and also for the family business and I liked it a lot and didn't want to quit either job. I had no idea what I wanted to do career wise or what major I wanted to pursue so I felt it would be better for me to select a less expensive school until I had things sorted out, to avoid getting into debt or costing them a lot of money. My parents agreed to pay my tuition up front. I attended school for the first year and did alright, averaging around a 3.0 GPA. My third quarter was particularly remarkable for me and I got a 3.6 However, by the second year I was ready for something more challenging and I wanted to get out of the military town I was living in. I moved back to my home town of Bainbridge Island and rented a condo , and for the first time I was financially self-sufficient. I was working two jobs and starting a website development business on the side so work would often get prioritized over school - work was just more fun. Spring quarter I of 2005 I decided to take the quarter off to take an internship with a larger corporation, since I felt I had worked many jobs and wanted exposure to what that was like. I was set on getting a business degree by this point and thought a good internship on my resume would help me get into the University of Washington. I interviewed for the summer internship and convinced them to hire me ASAP and I completed a 3 month interview and was offered a full time job. I took it, not knowing how long I would stick around but loving it. Here I am, 2 years later, and I have my own intern working for me on cutting edge projects and things that will impact a multi million dollar branch and I have a hard time imaging going back to school. I feel like I am getting more of a business education here than I could possibly get from school. Sales, project management, process management, quality, accounting, transportation, software development, you name it - I'm getting my hands in it. Still, I was worried that I might be missing out on something so I registered for the first of the accounting course in the series last quarter - but, as I had expected, when it came down to deciding to go to class or do something for work, I chose work every time without any guilt. I read a lot and have a rich life full of interesting people and experiences so while I might struggle to impress certain people, I feel like I will be able to be successful without obtaining a degree. If I had time, I would like to audit classes because I do think having a teacher can make a great deal of difference when it comes to organizing large amounts of complex information. I think choosing to advance my career, which was the real purpose of going to college in the first place, is one of the best choices I've ever made.

Are there any college drop outs on this forum? I'd love to hear your story.

Oops, I accidentally hit post (3 times apparently) while I was still putting my thoughts together. Here is the rest. Projects and tasks are not the same thing. Keeping good relations with customers isn't even a project, it is more of an iniative that could have many different projects under its umbrella such as developing customer satisfaction metrics, creating a training program for customer service reps, etc. A task is just one step whose completion will move you incrementally closer to the goal - which is the completion of a a project, but a task is at a lower level of abstraction than a project, and a project is at a lower level of abstraction than an initiative. Tasks are simple - they are black and white - done, or not done. Projects and initiatives can get a bit more grey if one isn't very careful because it can become very difficult to determine when something is done. A project is simply a collection of tasks, and an iniatives is simply a collection of projects. While this is simple enough, it is certainly not easy to determine whether the right tasks and projects have been completed, in order to make the judgement that something is done or not. With each level of abstraction there is a different context you are dealing with and you have to be able to operate in all of these levels, and move between them seamlessly, while keeping in context with what each level requires. For example, in my work I am responsible for understanding the company's overall goals and direction, developing a set of initiatives I define and own, managing projects to move the branch towards those initiatives, and tasks to move those projects towards completion, and even subtasks required to complete the main tasks. Each of those things is at a lower level of abstraction than the previous one - and as I move towards tasks and subtasks I am moving towards the tactical and away from the strategic, as far as my actions are concerned. Of course, I can maintain an overall view of this hierarchy as I am working on tactical things (tasks) to remind me of why they are important in the big picture, and when I am making strategic decisions and planning I must also keep the tasks in mind in order to keep my projects and ideas grounded in reality. There is still an important differentiate between the strategic and the tactical, especially when one is trying to figure out how to allocate productive time. How much time should I be spending thinking, reading, planning, writing? (Strategic) How much time should I be spending coding, emailing, talking, meeting? (Tactical) And of course some writing is tactical and some meetings are strategic - so what is really essential to whether something is strategic or tactical is the content of the action, not the action itself. Just as an update, I answered my original question about measuring productivity by taking the montly P&L and making some calculations about time savings to particular groups - based on their profit contribution and my projects impact to their productivity - and my boss was very pleased. When I said "measure", I meant objectively measure with numbers. I am confident that I can get a realistic general "feel" for how I am doing with productivity improvements, but even soft things like customer satisfaction should be given objective metrics and I've found that people don't trust "feel" around here (which is great).

It occured to me today that I had things to share and open discussion about that affect my industry in relation to some new regulations rolled out by the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) but I wasn't sure where to put them. The conversation didn't fit into Law, or Economics - but also was not related to career. I would love to be able to see sections with trades on -software development -engineering -architecture -design etc. Maybe there is not much other demand for this, but I would be interested.

My favorite is a French 75. This drink is served chilled, up. The recipe: 1 1/2 oz. Gin 2 tbsp. superfine Sugar 1 1/2 oz. Lemon juice 4 oz. chilled Champagne twist of orange one maraschino cherry (to play with)

Eliminating duties on goods imported into the U.S. would significantly impact the cost of goods to consumers, probably even more than the directly quantifiable cost savings per product, but also in terms of network effect savings from not having to pay duty statements (time value of money principle would be operating here). Additionally, it would radically change the way Customs entry is made by Customs brokers in the U.S. (one of the fastest growing service jobs in the U.S. today). I'm currently studying for the U.S. Customs Brokerage Exam and so much of the valuation portion of brokerage classification would be elimated with duties it is amazing! Regarding the fact you mentioned about Wal Mart's contribution to the average household income - I don't doubt it!