Personal vs. Professional

Social Media is in the news, big time. Celebrities like Oprah are driving people to Twitter, users revolted (and organized) against Facebook using the same service. The Presidential Election was arguably won by a clever implementation of Social Media marketing tactics that enabled the execution of a national grassroots campaign strategy.

Experts advise that professional people stand up and lay claim to their brand, take control of it, and make it work in their favor. It's who you are and you shouldn't be afraid to let everyone know.

Or should you?

Occasionally the local news shares a story that strikes fear into the heart of Internet users everywhere. Someone found something online and did something horrible with it. This raises seemingly significant privacy concerns from claiming your Firstname Lastname as your brand. Who can see the information? What would they do with it? Can it be exploited? How do I balance claiming my identity with preserving my privacy?

My approach to the problem is to separate my personal and professional life - essentially separating my brands. Separation of brands creates a small headache in information management, but I'm willing to give up some ease-of-use to both promote myself and preserve my privacy.

A good litmus test to see what information others can see is to perform a simple google search on your name. First, Last, initials. Once you know what information is available, you can take steps to control it.

The Dangers of Omniscience

Last year I traveled to Cupertino, California to attend a training course called Crucial Conversations. It was a fascinating course that helped me understand how to identify conversations where much is at stake and emotions are high.

One of the authors of the book on which the course is based, Kerry Patterson, provides a semi-monthly newsletter where he provides a humorous, real-life example of well executed communication skills, or those same skills gone horribly wrong. Today, the article is titled Hidden Dangers.

He describes how smart people had, perhaps unknowingly, created dangerous situations: suicide doors, products made with toxic elements like mercury and thorium, home chemistry sets, and Howitzers - all of which the author personally experienced.

He then transitions to a danger we face today, perceived omniscience, or the idea that “I’m smart and right and you’re stupid and wrong.” No room for dialogue. From the article:

[W]e’re continually being exposed to the killing effects of assuming our own omniscience. Here’s how this ugly assumption works. People routinely talk about something as complicated as revamping the country’s massive healthcare system as if their view is remarkably simple, completely obvious, and held by all smart people. Of course, their opponents’ view is just plain stupid. So stupid in fact, that you can’t talk about it without rolling your eyes.

While Kerry has an interesting and profound thought, do we as smart, educated individuals really fall prey to this danger? Perhaps. But this danger isn't as prevalent at Kerry suggests - it's merely immediately present in the media, perpetuated by business models and revenue over a search for truth. How often do your conversations with those you disagree with follow the smart+right/stupid+wrong equation?

The problem with perceived omniscience is merely a symptom of a larger problem of improper media consumption - actively thinking about the information presented and applying it effectively to your life. Exacerbating the issue is the methodology of presentation: can you really get all the necessary facts to make an educated, informed decision with a 60-second spot?

Unfortunately, this is the way most outlets in the media choose to present the information they gather.

Linkedin

I just removed my personal site from my Linkedin profile. I figure Linkedin is a professional networking site, so my personal site should represent me professionally.

Hmmm...

Doesn't Anyone Speak Latin?

The plural of Prius is Priora.

Goodnight.

Broken Promises

Here's a broken promise from Obama. How does one dismiss something as important this? From the New York Times:

President Obama had harshly criticized the Bush administration’s treatment of detainees during the campaign, and has broken with the previous administration on such questions as whether to keep open the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. But a lawyer for the government, Douglas N. Letter, made the same state-secrets argument on Monday, startling several judges on the panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

“Is there anything material that has happened” that might have caused the Justice Department to shift its views, asked Judge Mary M. Schroeder, an appointee of President Jimmy Carter, coyly referring to the recent election.

“No, your honor,” Mr. Letter replied.

“The change in administration has no bearing?” she asked.

“No, your honor,” he said once more. The position he was taking in court on behalf of the government had been “thoroughly vetted with the appropriate officials within the new administration,” and “these are the authorized positions,” he said.

That produced an angry response from Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the plaintiffs in the case.

“This is not change,” he said in a statement. “This is definitely more of the same. Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama’s Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil liberties issue. If this is a harbinger of things to come, it will be a long and arduous road to give us back an America we can be proud of again.”

Laugh 'Till You Cry

You have to view this in full screen.

Politics

"I am a skeptic Global warming has become a new religion." - Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.

"Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly..As a scientist I remain skeptical." - Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology and formerly of NASA who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called "among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years."

Warming fears are the "worst scientific scandal in the history.When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists." - UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist.

"The IPCC has actually become a closed circuit; it doesn't listen to others. It doesn't have open minds. I am really amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given on scientifically incorrect conclusions by people who are not geologists," - Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia at Punjab University and a board member of the UN-supported International Year of the Planet.

"The models and forecasts of the UN IPCC "are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity." - Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico

"It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don't buy into anthropogenic global warming." - U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.

"Even doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapour and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will.". Geoffrey G. Duffy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Auckland, NZ.

"After reading [UN IPCC chairman] Pachauri's asinine comment [comparing skeptics to] Flat Earthers, it's hard to remain quiet." - Climate statistician Dr. William M. Briggs, who specializes in the statistics of forecast evaluation, serves on the American Meteorological Society's Probability and Statistics Committee and is an Associate Editor of Monthly Weather Review.

"For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?" - Geologist Dr. David Gee the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden.

"Gore prompted me to start delving into the science again and I quickly found myself solidly in the skeptic camp.Climate models can at best be useful for explaining climate changes after the fact." - Meteorologist Hajo Smit of Holland, who reversed his belief in man-made warming to become a skeptic, is a former member of the Dutch UN IPCC committee.

"Many [scientists] are now searching for a way to back out quietly (from promoting warming fears), without having their professional careers ruined." - Atmospheric physicist James A. Peden, formerly of the Space Research and Coordination Center in Pittsburgh.

"Creating an ideology pegged to carbon dioxide is a dangerous nonsense.The present alarm on climate change is an instrument of social control, a pretext for major businesses and political battle. It became an ideology, which is concerning." - Environmental Scientist Professor Delgado Domingos of Portugal, the founder of the Numerical Weather Forecast group, has more than 150 published articles.

"CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or another..Every scientist knows this, but it doesn't pay to say so.Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver's seat and developing nations walking barefoot." - Dr. Takeda Kunihiko, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan.

"The [global warming] scaremongering has its justification in the fact that it is something that generates funds." - Award-winning Paleontologist Dr. Eduardo Tonni, of the Committee for Scientific Research in Buenos Aires and head of the Paleontology Department at the University of La Plata.

Source: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2158072e-802a-23ad-45f0-274616db87e6

Have a Merry Christmas!