Jason's Notes About Stuff

I’ve recently gone from a 5-year period without any cable television to a condo that has a tv in every room. When I’m eating, I’ll often turn it on for a half hour or so, possibly getting sucked in for an hour show.  I usually watch TBS, Discovery, Comedy Central, or Sci-Fi. I had forgotten what constant bombardment from commercials feels like.  The television is relentlessly telling me: Eat more cheap, yummy fast food!  $1 for burgers! $2.99 for a full, greasy meal complete with a 1 gallon soda! But you’re fat, so take diet pills, and join Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig to buy “magical” food that will effortlessly make you lose weight. You have to buy an American car or truck to make jobs and support the economy! 3 different companies have the absolute lowest car insurance rates.  And people saved an average of $400 by switching from any of them to another. Did you not pay your taxes?  Were you deemed ineligible for government benefits?  That’s not your fault!  Sue them! Y...

Something to think about from Tim Ferris' blog : "While many are wringing their hands, I recall the 1970s when we were suffering from an oil shock causing long lines at gas stations, rationing, and 55 MPH speed limits on Federal highways, a recession, very little venture capital ($50 million per year into VC firms), and, what President Jimmy Carter (wearing a sweater while addressing the Nation on TV because he had turned down the heat in the White House) called a “malaise”. It was during those times that two kids without any real college education, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs , started companies that did pretty well." Also of note: Google grew substantially during the 2001-2003 recession.

Every New Year’s people make resolutions to change.  Few resolutions last. In fact, research has shown that even if someone knows 100% for sure that their actions are endangering their life, only 10% would actually change their behaviour. Yes, you read that correctly -- in the face of death , 90% of people will choose to die , rather than change their long-term habits. Just about everyone in Western society knows that eating too much fat, salt, and sugar will kill them.  They know that smoking and heavy drinking will kill them.  This doesn’t seem to matter. As a result, 80% or more of the health care budget is spent on diseases that are completely preventable .  Have a look at the top five causes of death for developed countries: Heart disease Stroke Respiratory infection Lung cancer Car accident All of these are primarily behavioural.  Meanwhile, they are draining critical resources from our health care system that could be focused on emergencies and other unavoidable iss...

In the process of selling all of my furniture for the move to a furnished condo in Texas, I’ve learned something very interesting about pricing.  I had read about the effect before, but never experienced it so clearly. It seems that for a lot of items, their demand curve looks almost like a cliff, where demand is near zero until you cross a certain threshold, then increases quickly to infinite. For instance, I first posted some items on Kijiji at a high price since I wanted to continue using them right up until I moved.  I then dropped the price, bit by bit to gauge demand.  In every case, the first few drops did nothing and I had zero inquiries Then, all of the sudden, I would cross a threshold where the emails started flooding in -- sometimes only a few minutes after I posted. This is a really important lesson for anyone who sells a product or service.  If you price it just slightly too expensive you might sell nothing , whereas only a small price drop could sell out your entire in...

Dan Roam, aka. "the napkin guy" has a great recent post about proactive thinking about the big picture, instead of having simple knee-jerk reactions.  Why do all of the "solutions" to the various economic problems seem like band-aid approaches doomed to fail? "Wait a minute folks. What happens if we take just a couple minutes and look at the bigger picture? I'll bet a better set of solutions will appear." ... "It seems to me there is a lot more that makes sense when the pieces are looked at in concert rather than alone. All the sudden potential solutions that have a long-term impact emerge." See the full article at: http://digitalroam.typepad.com/digital_roam/2008/12/fixing-the-usa-or-tilting-at-windmills.html

Ontario is consider a ban on "electronic communication devices" for anyone driving a vehicle. As much as I appreciate the convenience of being able to make a quick call to a friend, numerous studies have shown that the risk of driving while talking on a cellphone is close to that of drinking and driving . Car accidents are the #1 non-medical cause of death in developed nations, so it only makes sense to try to make driving safer. Based on the statistics, and what I've seen on the road, I'd have to support a ban like this. Reported various places, including a detailed article in the Globe and Mail .

I signed up for Google's Gmail service in the early beta and was very happy to receive the nice, easy to remember jhanley alias. This has turned out to be a bit of a mixed blessing. As Gmail has become more popular, I've started receiving frequent emails for John Hanley, Jessica Hanley, Jane Hanley, Joe Hanley, and many more. And for the most part, these people are entering the wrong email address themselves! I've received funeral condolences , "pen pal" letters, very personal family information, personal financial information , login information for test scores, scads of logins for commercial sites. You name it, I've seen it. I try my best to contact someone to let them know they have the wrong address, but sometimes there's no return address. In that case, the best I can do is cancel the account/subscription and hope they'll get a clue. Please -- everyone -- take some time to learn what your email address is and try to enter it correctly! Oth...