scott’s thoughts

Every time I see this, my initial reaction is still, "That was totally Photoshopped..."

It goes on about 20 seconds too long, but - heck - I love Star Wars and I love my iPad so it works for me!

When it comes to hiring, though, principals tend to choose teachers who are strong on all four counts—even when they have no idea what teachers value-added scores might be.

I think it also suggests that having a sixth sense about teachers should be part of the job description for principals.

No surprise here.

If I knew more about the actual characters of Sex and the City, I would be able to make more parallels. I do know Miranda is your C-3PO. That's obvious. Beyond that, I'd just be guessing. Which I can do, legally, because I'm a blogger. Carrie is your Luke. Charlotte is Han Solo. Samantha is Chewbacca. All men are Darth Vader.

Many people with jobs have a fantasy about all the amazing things they would do if they didn't need to work. In reality, if they had the drive and commitment to do actually do those things, they wouldn't let a job get in the way.

As seen on 37Signals' Signal vs. Noise blog.

We have a biological drive. We eat when we’re hungry, drink when we’re thirsty, have sex to satisfy our carnal urges. We also have a second drive—we respond to rewards and punishments in our environment. But what we’ve forgotten—and what the science shows—is that we also have a third drive. We do things because they’re interesting, because they’re engaging, because they’re the right things to do, because they contribute to the world. The problem is that, especially in our organizations, we stop at that second drive. We think the only reason people do productive things is to snag a carrot or avoid a stick. But that’s just not true. Our third drive—our intrinsic motivation—can be even more powerful.

Proper introductions aren’t exactly a simple matter

I recently started following Dan Benjamin. Excellent blogger and prolific podcaster.

I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to come in and work with some of the most brilliant people in the world. We play in the best sandbox...