For World Travelers and Wannabes :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to these photos. They were sent to me by email, and I wanted to share through social media.  Enjoy! Airport in the Maldives is located on an artificial island in the middle of the Indian Ocean..  Balloons in Cappadocia. The border between Belgium and the Netherlands in a café. Favelas of Brazil. The boundary between wealth and poverty. In the Chinese province of Shandong is a bridge across the Gulf of Jiaozhou. The bridge length over 36 km is calculated for eight car lanes, and is the longest sea bridge in the world. The world’s highest chained carousel, located in Vienna, at a height of 117 meters.  Balcony of floor 103 in Chicago.  From the outside it looks like this.  In northwestern Montana, USA. The water is so transparent that it seems that this is a quite shallow lake. In fact, it’s very deep. Morning Glory – kind of clouds observed in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia.   Desert with Phacelia (Scorpion Weed). Flowering once in several years.  Dubai. The view from the skyscraper BurjKhalifa. The height of buildings is 828 m (163 floors). And this is the view down. Emerald Lake in the crater of an extinct volcano. Tongariro National Park – New Zealand. Family photo. Paris computer games store. In fact, the floor is absolutely flat.  Haus Rizzi – Germany. Lost paradise in the Indian Ocean. Isle of Lamu. Banpo Bridge in Seoul, South Korea. This is a unique geological phenomenon known as Danxia landform. These phenomena can be observed in several places in China. This example is located in Zhangye, Province of Gansu. The color is the result of an accumulation for millions of years of red sandstone and other rocks.  Lighthouse guard in Mare, France must be one of the most courageous people on the planet!  Not everyone will have a smoke in such weather, and in such a place!  Skyscraper-Crescent Crescent Moon Tower (Dubai). Office of Selgas Cano in Madrid. Gibraltar Airport is one of the most extraordinary airports around the world. These trees grow in the forest near Gryfino, Poland. The cause of the curvature is unknown. The river above the river: Magdeburg Water Bridge, Germany. Lena Pillars. Russia, the Lena River. In the resort town of Skagen you can watch an amazing natural phenomenon. This city is the northernmost point of Denmark, where the Baltic and North Seas meet. The two opposing tides in this place can not merge because they have different densities. Day and night. The monument in Kaunas, Lithuania. Twice a year in the Gulf of Mexico rays migrate. About 10 thousand stingrays swim from the Yucatan Peninsula to Florida in the spring and back in the fall. Photo of storm in Montana, USA, 2010.

Celebrities in Higher Education

In May, economist Walter Williams gave the commencement address to six hundred some Grove City graduates. Their families and friends came with great expectations to hear a compelling charge and inspiring message. In 2011, Laura Bush, former first lady, came to speak. She has far more name recognition than Walter Williams. So the 2012 graduates were somewhat biased against Williams, on the grounds that he is not important enough.

On graduation day, many graduates were quite disappointed. The title of the talk is "Morality and Capitalism". They accused the speech of being a dense economics lecture. They wanted something relevant to their lives and applicable to the end of their time at Grove City. Students berated Williams merely because the speech had content. It seems they only wanted fluff and feel-good material.          Having read a transcript of the speech, I agree that it is packed with substance. It is an economics lesson, full of relevant examples and descriptive explanations. The address was not designed to be empowering or inspirational. Rather it was delivered as a lecture, to educate the students.

I am ashamed of the quality of the graduates, in their responses to the speech. They admitted to nodding off through the middle and being bored and uninterested. If they cannot give their attention for a single lecture, then I have little hope they earned an education at Grove City. If they are so unaccustomed to listening to lectures, then what have they learned in class? The skills of perusing Facebook without the professor noticing?

Secondly, these students have bought the party line, that education is entertainment. Neil Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death, in which he demonstrates that the televization of education has robbed students of learning. They are accustomed to being entertained, even in the History Channel. History Channel editors know that they can quickly lose their viewers to more entertaining shows, so they make their "lessons" as dramatic and engaging as possible. Students now expect education to entertain. The idea of a dense or substantive lecture bores them. The thought of a speaker without fame and honor is abhorring.

I venture to guess that they would have preferred a celebrity to Walter Williams. A light, inspiring talk by a pop culture icon would be "more fun" than economics. And this, dear friends, is the sad state of education and society in the United States today.

To see the speech for yourself: http://www.gcc.edu/2012_Commencement_Address.php

Wanted: Creativity in the Workplace

Students are wiser than high paying corporations. The office hours of 9am to 5pm fail to account for what is best for human productivity. Sitting at a desk for eight or more hours in a day saps energy and hinders effective task completion.

Students complete their work at all hours of the night and day. They maximize their most productive hours and capitalize on high motivation levels. Without pressures of deadlines or other constraints, motivation wanes and students procrastinate. Why should employees be any different?

Requiring a certain set of hours is less effective than assigning tasks and deadlines. Imagine if professors required a log of X hours spent in the library researching a topic. This incentivizes low productivity and no output. Athletes in study hall have the incentive to waste the time.

A task-oriented business world recognizes the basic human desires and incentives. High-performing employees are rewarded with an early end to the day. Low-performers are penalized by having to work more hours to complete same tasks. Yet their inefficiency only would hurt themselves, not their employers.

The human body is not made to work long periods of work, such as eight or more hours in the same location behind the same desk at the same computer. Efficiency is increased with regular and punctuated breaks. They provide a chance for the worker to rest his brain and stretch his body. The 9am to 5pm tradition must be made passe.

Think of an office at Friday, mid-afternoon, when people start counting down until they can leave. Those last few hours rapidly diminish in productivity. Everyone knows that the office is closing soon, but most are required to stay until the end of the day. Their incentives to stay focused have already left for the weekend. The business loses out on their time.

Offices tend to stifle creativity. The same professional (read: boring) setting, the same computer screens and the same environment hinders innovation. Artists of all types seek imaginative environments that stimulate creative ideas. Businesses desire innovation and creativity, but most workplaces are designed in a one-size-fits-all manner.

The Google offices have implemented these ideas by providing Legos, Buckyballs, Rubik's cubes, recreation areas, and colorful walls, chairs and bean bags. They recognize the correlation between imaginative environments and increased creativity. Plus it makes for a happier and friendlier office space.

Students naturally seek work locations that best fit their needs. Some have a favorite desk at the library; others go to a different part of the library every time. Some work at a desk; others in a large, comfy chair. Some prefer to work in a cafe or the student union; others seek a solitary location. They are productive in different settings.

Creativity makes the world go round. It's time for the business world to allow people the freedom to work at their own pace and let their creative ideas flourish.