2-8-14 Hodgepodge

Advice Generally and Specifically

Although I am not prone to offering others unsolicited advice myself, I have often been annoyed by others who do. So it was that the headline, "How I Learned to Stop Giving Advice", piqued my interest when it cropped up on an aggregation site I visit each day. I was also somewhat surprised to find myself learning from the piece. The following moment of self-awareness sets up the author's new tack, of instead relating personal experiences that might be relevant:

After 10 minutes of conversation I had the nerve to believe I had thought of something that had never occurred to them about their product or company. What an asshole. [emphasis removed]

I don't think that offering advice (that hasn't been asked for) is necessarily presumptuous if aimed at a general audience in a take-it-or-leave-it way, but I think the author's new approach to helping individuals is far superior, because it respects their judgement. The other person is better able to see for himself whether he needs the advice and isn't being put on the spot. That is, he isn't in the annoying position of having to either defend himself to the satisfaction of someone else (who already apparently doesn't care about his context) or having to politely cause the stranger/would-be helper/meddler to can it.

Weekend Reading

"Politics determines much of what passes for science today, since most research is supported by government grants." -- Michael Hurd, in "Don't Rush to Label People" at The Delaware Coast Press

"Whenever someone asks, 'What's wrong with me?' I always attempt to challenge that by replying, 'There's nothing wrong with you. There might be errors in some of your actions, thoughts, ideas or emotions. But errors can be identified, and they can be changed.'" -- Michael Hurd, in "So You Want to Be a Therapist" at The Delaware Wave

My Two Cents

In the first piece linked above, I found Michael Hurd's contrarian views on the subject of misphonia -- as well as his direct way of stating them -- quite refreshing. I am sick of hearing so many things that people do have some control over being labeled and treated like diseases.

Money Saved!

I never jumped on the tablet bandwagon, and yet I find myself ahead of the curve, convergence-wise:

So, how do tablets evolve from here? What we've seen Apple do is shrink the tablet and stretch the phone. Rumors abound that it will launch a five-inch phone later this year, which would follow in the path of successfully launched products from Samsung, HTC and dozens of other Asian phone manufacturers. Follow the trend to its logical conclusion, and it's quite possible that the two categories will merge this decade.

I'm not saying that tablets will disappear completely. Tim Cook believes that tablet growth will recover as enterprise adoption accelerates and CIOs become convinced of the merits of the platform. But it's also possible that tablets may simply evolve into single-purpose devices found in kitchens, schools and other situations where keyboards are cumbersome and large screens are preferred. [bold added]

When I bought my current smart phone a couple of months ago, I decided that its five inch screen pretty much obviated any need on my part to buy a tablet. At the same time, thanks to a relative, we have an old iPad lying around that we mainly use to entertain our daughter on trips. (I also have occasionally used it as a reader for PDF files.) Only recently did a new use for it come to mind: It would be a great dedicated nannycam receiver.

--CAV