Month: May 2017

Overachieving Ivy League students are learning the wrong lesson about what it takes to be successful — Quartz

I later learned that the quality I was observing was a form of grit: The ability to keep going, no matter what, in the name of achievement. But we had not understood how to apply it properly.

Should we encourage our children to work hard? Absolutely. But young people need to learn that grit is only effective when coupled with restorative activities like sufficient sleep, exercise, a well-balanced diet, meditation, walks in nature, and time off. Research shows that these basic yet essential self-care habits result in greater focus and productivity, not to mention increased creativity, better decision-making, and stronger emotional intelligence.

Source: Overachieving Ivy League students are learning the wrong lesson about what it takes to be successful — Quartz

Section 8 Vouchers Help The Poor — But Only If Housing Is Available : NPR

RE:

In Dallas and other tight rental markets, Section 8 voucher holders can’t find the homes they need, while developers face resistance from wealthier neighborhoods when trying to build new housing.

Source: Section 8 Vouchers Help The Poor — But Only If Housing Is Available : NPR

 

Question paraphrased from comments:

What would be the libertarian answer to people in neighborhoods that actively attempt to block development of lower cost housing within their neighborhoods? When resident groups and local officials actively participate in efforts to keep low income housing out, and when developers are uninterested in building low-profit units (as is frequent in other cases), how should markets address the issue of affordable housing? How does the free market get past these barriers, given the barriers are not just economic, but sociological as well?

Continue reading Section 8 Vouchers Help The Poor — But Only If Housing Is Available : NPR

America has become so anti-innovation – it’s economic suicide | Technology | The Guardian

Contrary to popular belief, entrepreneurs typically make terrible innovators. Left to its own devices, the private sector is far more likely to impede technological progress than to advance it. That’s because real innovation is very expensive to produce: it involves pouring extravagant sums of money into research projects that may fail, or at the very least may never yield a commercially viable product. In other words, it requires a lot of risk – something that, mythmaking aside, capitalist firms have little appetite for.

Source: America has become so anti-innovation – it’s economic suicide | Technology | The Guardian

Sally Yates’ Testimony and the Legal Fight Over the Travel Ban – The Atlantic

Each time those in power brush aside that “archaic” Constitution, those pernickety procedures, those effete unwritten norms, those annoying statutes, that carping acting attorney general, those obdurate bureaucrats, those so-called judges, those whining lawyers, those ungrateful citizens, those undeserving aliens, they bring the nation closer not just to injustice but to catastrophe.

Source: Sally Yates’ Testimony and the Legal Fight Over the Travel Ban – The Atlantic by Garrett Epps