Author Archives: Jeremiah Stanghini

Jeremiah's primary aim is to provide readers with a new perspective. In the same vein as the "Blind Men and the Elephant," it can be difficult to know when one is looking at the big picture or if one is simply looking at a 'tusk' or a 'leg.' He writes on a variety of topics: psychology, business, science, entertainment, politics, history, etc.

Finding a Moment for Stillness, Peace, Quiet, Calm, or Silence

How often do you find yourself (or maybe your colleague) moving quickly from obligation to obligation without regard for a second to sit still? In our fast-paced lives, rarely do you see someone take the time for themselves. That is, rarely do people take time out of their lives for themselves.

While I think this is important to recognize, I also realize that the way that life is structured, it’s not easy to take time for yourself. There are always those 4 or 5 things at the bottom of the to-do list. Usually, things you’d like to do, like: play my guitar; hit the links; start writing my book; etc. I realize that it’s not easy. There’s so much going on in our lives that we often go from task to task, just trying to get it all done. I’ve already written about the importance of , but I think it’s equally important to take time between tasks.

What do I mean by that?

Take, for example, the person who just gets out of an important meeting at work and realizes that they are a few minutes late to pick-up their kid from daycare. They race from the elevator to their car and fly out of the parking garage, anxiously looking at the clock. They get to the daycare center and end up being a few minutes late (as predicted). However, this lateness isn’t an issue as there are other children who are awaiting rides. More importantly, our main character’s child, the one who needed to be picked up at “just the right time,” is busy engaged with one of their schoolmates.

There are a few things we could glean from this example, but I’m aiming for one: think about the time that our main character was “rushing” and thinking about “being late” to pick up their child. During this time, our main character’s physiology was reacting. The adrenal glands were pumping adrenaline into the veins (as the body does when it encounters stress). This increased stressful state, however, was completely unnecessary. There was no imminent danger on the way from work to the daycare center for our main character. Our main character would have arrived (at the same time) and without the added adrenaline coursing through their veins. Most notably, our main character would have arrived much more relaxed had they taken even a few seconds to sit still.

There are millions of examples of this happening everyday around the world. I would hazard a guess that they are on the decline. With the growing prevalence of meditation in the western world (), people are learning how to be relaxed. They are learning to take things a little slower and set aside some time in the day for themselves. I think this bodes well for those people who do so, but also for the rest of the people in the world. As we lower our , we are better equipped to deal with the stressors of our daily lives (without overreaction).

So, do yourself a favor and before you engage in your next activity/task, take a minute (or a few seconds) to clear your thoughts and clear your head. You’ll be surprised how useful you may find this.

What’s On My iPod: Lectures, In and Around Metro DC, Part 5

iPod, iPods, nano iPod, : Songs, LA to DC
: Lectures, LA to DC
: Podcasts, LA to DC
Part 4: Lectures/Podcasts, Ottawa to DC

In the first four parts of this series, I wrote about the various music, podcasts, or lectures that I listened to on my various road trips. Now that I’m in the DC area on a more permanent basis (completing an MBA), I’m not really in need of a vast sum of lectures/podcasts to listen to as I drive across the country (or between countries). As such, I’ve decided to continue this series and continue taking in extra information, while doing an assortment of activities (commuting, working out, etc.). As with the previous lectures, I’ve obtained all of these from iTunes U and highly recommend you check it out, if you haven’t already.

Making the Perfect Pitch – This was a short lecture (15 minutes) and it was provided by Cambridge University. They interviewed Dr. Darrin Disley, who gave some very poignant advice on the infamous “elevator pitch.” He explained the 9 C’s of elevator speeches, in the form of an elevator speech. The one thing that I pulled from this lecture (which happens to be one of the 9 C’s) is that the elevator pitch should be conversational. The purpose of the elevator pitch is to get the person you’re talking to interested in your pitch (not necessarily sell them on a business plan). The point is just to get the ball rolling.

The Art of the Short Sell – This was a lecture that James Chanos, founder and president of Kynikos Associates, gave to an audience at Yale University. Chanos talked about “10 Lessons From the Financial Crisis That Investors Will Soon Forget (If They Haven’t Already!)” As you can see from the powerpoint presentation, there is so much information in this lecture. The one takeaway for me is that financial history has a way of repeating itself. Chanos says, “Some other firm will be the AIG of the next crisis!”

Lecture, lecture hall, lecture hall students, students, lecturing, students learning, professor, professor lecture, lecture professor, professor lecturing,

The following lectures were part of a series called “Building a Business” and were hosted by Oxford University:

Negotiation Skills – This isn’t the first negotiation lecture I’ve listened to on the road. When the speaker began the lecture, I was surprised to recognize the activity from the first negotiation lecture I heard. There were minor changes, but it was essentially the same game. The main takeaways from this lecture how important creating value really is to the success of negotiations. Many people enter negotiations thinking that there is a ‘fixed pie’ that will be distributed between the parties. Instead, the two parties can, together, create value and in essence, add to the pie.

Managing People, Managing Teams – This lecture was given by Tim Cook, (not the new CEO of Apple), but the Tim Cook that is associated with Oxford University. Cook comes from a hard sciences background, so I thought it would be rather interesting to hear his take on managing people. He talked about transactional analysis and recommend Eric Berne’s book. I had already read it and would say that it’s one of the many methods out there for understanding human interaction. He also talked about some other skills that were important like interviewing and the relationship between managers (and the people they manage), as well as the people they interact with, but have no direct managerial “control” over, like politicians, accountants, etc.

Marketing: Creating and Keeping Customers – This lecture was given by Jonathan Reynolds, a professor at Oxford. Given my limited experience with the marketing literature, it was very informative to listen to this lecture by Reynolds. He covered a lot of ground from internet marketing to social media to e-commerce. Reynolds explores the ideas and principles that are paramount to the field of marketing. Of course, there are some overlaps with other fields (psychology), but marketing is a field steeped in intricacies and — since it is based on humans — continually evolving.

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Do Politics and Economics Mix in School Policy? – This lecture was given by Eric Hanushek and Michael Kirst and contained the perspectives of both politics (Kirst) and economics (Hanushek). students in class, students, class, classroom, teacher, blackboard, chalk, kids, grade school, It was put on courtesy of Stanford University and one of the speakers boasted that Stanford has one of the best institutions with regard to education policy research. One of the lines that struck me about this lecture was when one of the speakers proclaimed something to the effect that when it comes to education policy, everyone has an opinion. They spoke about some of the pitfalls to teacher’s unions (harder to reward excellent teachers, among other things), and they talked about the idea that education policy, for the most part, would be better served by being a local issue.

The Financial Crisis, the Recession, and the American Political Economy: A Systemic Perspective – This lecture, by far, had the longest introduction (to the speaker) of any of the previous lectures I’ve heard. It was given at MIT. Given the variety of work achieved by the speaker, Charles H. Ferguson, I understood why there was such a long intro. Moreover, when the speaker began, I didn’t realize that he was “the guy” who made the movie Inside Job. (Note: this lecture was given right around the time of the release of Inside Job, which of course, later went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary.) While there are many theories as to how/why things happened the way they did, (my two cents), I always find it fascinating to take in more perspectives. I don’t know that there is (or could be?) a singular answer as to why things happened.

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This rounds out the lectures I’ve been listening to since my last post. As always, if you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments section (or through some other form: Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

Are You Fully Present to What’s In Front of You?

How often is it that you are completely listening to what someone is telling you? How often is it that someone is completely listening to you? Could you tell? Do you know the difference?

We often think that we’re very good at multitasking, but . It’s not that we’re not good at multitasking, per se. It’s more that when we do multitask, our attention is split, and we don’t do the things that we’re doing as well as we could. In fact, splitting our attention can cause us to miss important information in one of the tasks. :

During a conference call with the executive committee of a nonprofit board on which I sit, I decided to send an email to a client.

I know, I know. You’d think I’d have learned.

Last week I wrote about the . Multitasking is dangerous. And so I proposed a way to stop.

But when I sent that email, I wasn’t in a car. I was safe at my desk. What could go wrong?

Well, I sent the client the message. Then I had to send him another one, this time with the attachment I had forgotten to append. Finally, my third email to him explained why that attachment wasn’t what he was expecting. When I eventually refocused on the call, I realized I hadn’t heard a question the Chair of the Board had asked me.

Situations like these happen all the time. Except, like the author alludes to, they don’t always happen from they “safety” of one’s office. I’ve written about , but I didn’t broach the subject of texting while driving. As I make my way around Metro DC, I’m surprised by the frequency with which I peer over at the drivers around me to find someone with one hand on their phone (texting) and the other hand on the wheel…while simultaneously splitting one eye on the road and one eye on the phone. Now, I don’t mind so much, if someone’s texting (at a stop light, but there are perils to that, too), but while driving down the road!? Really, is your message that important? Is it worth… your life?

Initially, I led off the post talking about being present (or having someone being present) to what’s happening in the now. Specifically, I’m talking about being in a meeting, maybe on a date, or just simply having a conversation. Isn’t the conversation much more engaging when someone’s giving you their full attention. When you’re giving someone your full attention? Maybe you pick up on some subtle cues (that you usually miss). Cues that are communicated only when one’s attention is fully engaged in the other person.

It’s these instances – when there is complete  – can the best of what’s possible emerge.

Usain Bolt False Start: Evidence for Heightened Awareness?

The are nearly over, but not without a little bit of controversy. Particularly, in the men’s 100m final that is. I’ve embedded a short 2-minute clip of the false start.

After watching the video, it’d be pretty hard not to agree with the decision that did false start (and based on the , should be disqualified). While some people , some other people took a little closer look at the footage of the race. In fact, some people don’t think that Bolt was the first one who moved! Take a look:

You might find it a little difficult to see on the video (on the TV), but what this fellow is saying seems to be accurate to me. You can watch the actual footage from the race () and pay close attention to the 0:13 mark. You can see the runner on the (left-side of the screen) flinch before Bolt false starts.

You can read about the running implications on some of the articles I’ve linked to earlier in this post or even in the video of the fellow attempting to exonerate Bolt. I’m more interested in the implications of this for heightened awareness.

There’s a concept in psychology that’s known as “.” There are other “colloquial” terms for this concept. : “on the ball; in the moment; present; in the zone; wired in; in the groove; keeping your head in the game.” Flow is often something associated with sports, but it is a concept that can be transferred to any human activity where one “is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.” Music is often cited in flow studies, along with religious/spiritual experience. Gamers and coders often describe experiences that could be considered “flow.”

I can’t say this with certainty, but in my review of the literature, I haven’t come across a journal article on flow that specifically studies the body. Most flow studies I have read focus on the brain (of course, a part of the body) and what’s going on in the mind. This is logical given the definition we cited earlier. However, when I first saw the Usain Bolt video, the first thing I thought of was flow. Usain Bolt is a rather gifted athlete and many gifted athletes, whether they know it or not, participate in their sport, while in a state of flow.

I suspect that when humans experience a state of flow, not only are they in an energized focus (mentally), but physically, too. And when this physical focus arises, I would bet that their senses are heightened. Baseball players who are on a hot streak (at the plate) often talk about being able to see the ball really well. Almost as if the ball is slowing down when it gets to them. We could say that this is a heightened sense of awareness. In a way, it (sounds) like they are able to slow down time. In essence, this could be as a result of their heightened awareness.

Because of Usain Bolt’s chosen sport of sprinting, there is a hyper-focus on quick movements, especially at the starter’s block. The runner’s have to wait for the sound that signals the start of the race and then go! As humans are complex systems, it is unreasonable to expect that runner’s rely solely on their auditory ability to know when to go. In fact, I would almost guarantee that runners also take in visual cues from their neighboring runners. “If the person next to me goes, then I better start running.” Of course, this is not something that is taking place cognitively. That is, the runner isn’t consciously deliberating as to when to go because of when the person next to him goes.” This is something that has to take place in the subconscious.

One more piece to add to this is the body. I mentioned this briefly earlier, but then went on to talk about the visual cues. Not only are we (as humans) taking in information through our eyes and ears, but it could also be said that we also take in information through our body. (Some may argue that this information is actually entering through our eyes/ears, but just at a level that is immeasurable with the current scientific tools, but I digress.) Taking in information through our body — through sensing the space around us. For a tangible example, you could think of a blind person. Yes, they rely on their ears to help them navigate the world, but there’s also an intangible that allows them to know what’s around.

Tying this into the race that we have witnessed: Yohan Blake flinches (ever so slightly) and I would argue that Usain Bolt, as a result of being in a state of flow, and with a heightened sense of awareness, noticed this movement, and consequently, began the race.

What if Women Ruled the World?

So what if women ruled the world?

Really, I want you to think about it. What if women ruled the world? How would our world be different? (I’ll wait.)

Some of the things that came to mind might have been the various representations of women ruling the world that you saw on TV (or in a movie) or maybe you read about it in a book. Most of these, in my experience, are not what I would call “accurate” representations of how women would rule the world. They usually have women ruling the world, but they are playing a much more masculine role. If women ruled the world, do you really think they’d rule it like men have?

Women, typically, have more than their male counterparts. Of course, an integrated human would have both Yin energy and Yang energy, but like I said, typically, women are known for having more Yin energy. Because of this, I wouldn’t expect women to be overtly aggressive. That’s not to say they can’t be, but typically, women are going to be a bit more passive. Now, this is often seen as a negative quality (in general), but I think that this has only happened because men have “ruled the world.”  Because we’ve had men at the top, because men are typically the leader, the qualities present in men have been the qualities held in esteem.

One of the books I hold in high regard, , brings to light a different story of history (in a few chapters). That is, the authors review some of the important points in history and highlight some of the information that isn’t usually mentioned. As an aside, they raise an interesting perspective on evolution. More importantly to our topic of women ruling the world, they wrote about the beginnings of the United States of America. They wrote about how the  came to write the and how they came to write the . Of course, these authors weren’t there when these documents were forming, so their opinions (however based in ‘fact,’) cannot be assumed to be factual. I only say this because I’m sure there are lots of opinions about how such important documents as these came to be and I didn’t want to claim that the perspective I’m offering is the only one.

As I said, in this book, the authors talk about how these important American documents were formed. More than that, they talk about how the Founding Fathers interacted with the Native Americans and, in fact, how they [Founding Fathers] learned from them [Native Americans]. According to these authors, the two documents I referred to were influenced by what the Founding Fathers witnessed in the Native Americans. That is, how they interacted within their culture — with the land, with the people, and with the animals. It is a fascinating read, but the point I wanted to make with raising this book was that in the early Native American culture, women made the decision as to whether or not they went to war with a neighboring tribe. Let me say that again: women made the decision to go to war. Women. And the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were based on what the Founding Fathers witnessed in the Native American society.

Can you imagine what the world would look like today had women be the ultimate decision-makers with regard to going to war with a neighboring country? Do you think that the US would have been in as many wars as it has in the last 50 years had a council of women, , be the ones who made the final decision?

Remembering What’s Important to You: Lessons from Hurricane Irene

With much of the for the potential effects of , I can’t help but think of what an opportunity this could be for many people. I keep hearing the figure being quoted as how many that are potentially affected by this storm. That’s just about 20% of the population of the US (think: 1 in 5 Americans). That’s a lot of people. I would call this an opportunity for some because of the chance these people will be given to reflect on what’s important to them. Let me explain.

Many people go about their daily schedule without much thought for what happens outside of this schedule. This is not to say that there’s anything wrong with this, but just to say that this is common for most people. They get up in the morning, go to work, come home, , go to bed, and repeat. Unless there is something that shakes up this routine, many people will continue on in this way for a long time. Layman’s terms of says that an object in motion tends to remain in motion. In this instance, the object is the person fulfilling the routine. Unless something interferes with this “motion,” the motion will continue.

The prevailing opinions about events like these tend to revolve around words like . While this viewpoint is understandable, I would hasten and suggest reading the wise words of “” My point in raising the idea that an event like Hurricane Irene can be seen as an opportunity for some is that this shake-up, this wrench in their otherwise “object in motion,” could allow someone to see that they aren’t necessarily doing what it is that they want to be doing. Maybe they’re working at a job that they aren’t passionate about. Maybe they don’t know what their passion is. Maybe they aren’t spending enough time with their spouse and kids. Maybe they don’t have a spouse and want one. Maybe they wish they could have travelled to Europe, Asia, South America, or Africa. Maybe they wish they could have travelled to (or within) North America.

There are any number of things that could be realized as a result of an act of nature such as this one. Not everyone has the willpower to take a break (or ) from their routine to see the things that they wish they were including in their lives. Maybe it’s the of an event like Irene that some people need to be able to see the things that they’re missing out on in their life. While it may not seem like it at first, this is wonderful! Remember that there are those of us who, even when the wrench obstructs our object in motion, will condemn the wrench for wrecking our routine rather than take a step back to examine what the wrench’s purpose might be.

The News Will Happen With Or Without You

Times Square, New York, NYC, Manhattan, downtown new york, ny, There are many people (myself included, sometimes) who get caught up in the news. “Did you hear what happened? No what happened?” In the age of , the way in which the news in conveyed can be very compelling. Meaning, it’s not necessarily the content that’s attracting us, but the vessel by which it is delivered. Because of this compelling nature, we can sometimes (myself included), be so compelled as to follow the news — religiously.

I have nothing against the “news” as factual messages being conveyed, but I do think that sometimes, one can take their knowing the news a little bit too seriously. What do I mean by this? Have you ever met someone who couldn’t go 2 hours without getting their update from CNN, FOX News, or MSNBC? Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with people wanting to be informed, in fact, I’d encourage it, to a point, of course. (See my post about for more on that.) Staying informed can be an important way to know what’s going on in the community, the state/province, the country, and the world.

Do you ever get the sense that sometimes, these people (or you?) feel that if you don’t follow the news, something really big might happen and you’ll miss it? While that might happen, when “big” things happen, you don’t necessarily need a news outlet to tell you about it. Yes, if you were watching the news, you’d know the second it happens, but nowadays (with everyone following the news by the second), they are bound to bring it up in conversation. “Hey, did you hear about the tsunami in Japan?” “Did you hear about the earthquake in Virginia?” These types of things get talked about.

Unless it’s your job, (and maybe even if it is your job), I’d bet that you probably could use a break from the news. About a month ago, I wrote a post asking, “” I wrote that post particularly for those of us that have a habit of staying very connected to our electronic devices. I’d encourage you to go back to that post and substitute electronic devices for news. The same basic message still applies. Taking a vacation from the news is sometimes just as important as taking a vacation from your electronics (and usually goes hand-in-hand).

Taking this break from the news may just clarify for you what type of news you want to be consuming. You may find that after taking a break from the news, you really don’t want to get Google! News updates for every time an article is written about Sarah Palin or every time someone mentions the US Department of Defense. You may find that you want to start reading more positive news sources like . Most importantly, I hope that by taking a break from the news that you realize — it never ends. The spigot of the news is a powerful force… a never-ending source.

What’s On My iPod: Lectures/Podcasts From A Road Trip, Ottawa to DC, Part 4

: Songs, LA to DC
: Lectures, LA to DC
: Podcasts, LA to DC

In the first three parts of this series, I wrote about what was on my iPod for the trip from LA to DC (by car). More recently, I drove from Ottawa to DC, which allowed me to listen to a number of new podcasts and lectures. In this post, I’ll go over the lectures/podcasts and some of the knowledge I gleaned from them.

I had two podcasts. One of them was from the :

Chicago Booth Podcast: Should Executive Pay Be Regulated? (12/02/2009) – I thought I would start with one of the most interesting tracks I listened to on the trip. Given that I’m about to start an MBA, I thought it would be prudent of me to learn about this topic (executive pay). I will say, I was quite surprised to hear the statistics that the speaker, , offered on the topic. While he raised the point about athletes who make (equal or more) money than the CEOs, the surprising fact was that executive pay (now) is actually down in relation to executive pay from the ’80s. And maybe more poignant, executives make less money than athletes and entertainers.

The second podcast was from :

Nassim Taleb on Living with Black Swans (04/13/2011) – has written a number of articles and books, and is affiliated with some very prestigious institutions. He has so many important things to say, but I think the thing that I found the most transferable was the problem with specialization. He didn’t actually put it this way, but this is how I’m interpreting it. In particular, he talks about how important it is to — in an effort to account for randomness and variability — diversify. If you’re investing, don’t invest in just one company. Don’t invest in just one industry. Don’t invest in just one kind of investment. Or… we could relate it to business, specifically, I’m reminded of the book , by Kevin Maney. In Maney’s book, among other things, he talks about those times within an industry where companies are “blind-sided” by some sort of innovation (example: think about cameras 20 years ago and now how cell phones have revolutionized the way we take pictures). Taleb would argue the importance of guarding against a , which from our example, would be cell phones with cameras.

The remaining 6 tracks were all lectures I downloaded through . If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend it! The first lecture I listened to came courtesy of the  called:

What’s the Point of Economics? – The text from the website: “Evan Davis, BBC Today presenter, outlines five things everyone should know about economics, Mike Kitson looks at the relevance of economics to everyday life and Professor Willy Brown describes the growing impact of the minimum wage over its first ten years.”

There were two lectures I listened to that came from a class at  on Game Theory. I didn’t have the time to listen to every lecture from the course, so I picked two of the higher rated lectures:

02 – Putting Yourselves Into Other People’s Shoes and 03 – Iterative Deletion and the Median-Voter Theorem – I found these lectures highly informative. The first (or should I say second?) lecture gave a really good example of how important it is to put yourself into other people’s shoes. This example is related to how another person would approach a game (the same one that you’re playing) and exemplifies the importance of knowing your “opponent.” Like in one of the podcast, this lesson is very transferable to other parts of life. In the second (or third) lecture,  does a great job of explaining the median-voter theorem, and more importantly, uses the example of political positions to make the theorem more accessible to the students.

The last three lectures I listened to all came from :

Hire the Right People, Carlos Brito – This was an interesting talk, especially because it came from someone I usually wouldn’t necessarily voluntarily hear from. is the CEO of Anheuser-Busch and he has some intriguing ideas that he has put into practice in many of his offices. He thinks that separate offices foster LESS work. In fact, he talks about how, in his experience, having no walls has actually made work easier and motivated people to do more work. It’s his opinion that offices are for people who want to hide and do no work. With the open concept office, he explains how meetings are much “shorter;” 2- or 5-minute meetings can happen much quicker without having to “schedule” everything.

Dave Blakely on Fostering Innovation – From the description of this lecture’s : “In this talk, Dave Blakely presents a set of principles for successful innovation, regardless of an organization’s size, type or location. The heart of any innovation agenda is a carefully chosen interdisciplinary team, typically including members with backgrounds in technology, business, and other relevant industry-specific knowledge. Creative leaps can be inspired by empathetic human research, and insights are distilled in synthesis sessions. Techniques such as brainstorming can help teams to direct their creativity, and prototypes can be used to improve visualization and mitigate risk.”

Changing Behavior and Changing Policies –  runs the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University. To get a better idea of Fogg’s perspective on behavior, I would say (listen to this talk, as it’s only 20 minutes or so), or check out his site: .

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I don’t have any “planned” long trips on the horizon, but I am considering integrating podcasts and iTunes U lectures to daily life. If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them in the comments, via email, or even on .

Twitter: Who I’m Following, Part 4

This is a continuation of the post I did the other day (Part 3) of the updated list of people I’m following on Twitter. You can find Part 1 () and Part 2 ().

: The profile claims that they tweet “amazing facts from the people at mental_floss magazine.” I wholeheartedly agree with that claim.

: From the about him: “In 2010, the Boston Globe called him ‘probably the nation’s leading environmentalist’ and Time magazine described him as ‘the world’s best green journalist.'”

: I first learned of these guys from watching the documentary, “.” From the about them: “The Yes Men primarily aim to raise awareness about what they consider problematic social issues.”

: I follow this particular Twitter feed because it usually has some sort of quirky or funny thing to say about politics or the news. If it’s not something “funny,” it’s usually some kind of cool fact (similar to .

: If you haven’t read or , I highly recommend it. My contained a video with the authors of these two books. This Twitter accounts posts updates to the .

: I mentioned the other day my inclination towards statistics (and even more so, statistics represented in a visual format). This Twitter account tweets the , which is a pictorial representation of a subject and statistics about said subject (the subject varies with each infographic, of course).

: From their profile on Twitter: “Consumer Reports is published by Consumers Union, the world’s largest independent consumer-product testing organization. Our mission: Test, inform, and protect.”

: This Twitter feed posts updates about green technology and the environment, as well as research and even advice from time-to-time.

: More of the same with regard to data and visual representations of said data. He wrote an excellent book called “Visualize This,” which you can read more about .

: Once again, more of the same with regard to data and visual representations of said data. There are some cool things that come from this Twitter feed.

: This is the Institute that is the director of, (whom I mentioned in ). From their Twitter profile: “Mobilizing the sciences, education and public policy to achieve a sustainable earth.”

: As with Conan, Fallon, and the other comedy-related people I’ve mentioned before, it’s important to laugh. I used to love watching Seinfeld (the show) and now I love following Seinfeld (the Twitter account) because he has some great one-liners.

: The official Twitter account of Twitter. There are some interesting things about Twitter that are tweeted now and again. For instance, did you know that ?

: Stangel is the head writer for the Late Show with David Letterman, and according to his profile, he was named one of Time’s 140 Feeds to Follow.

: This feed collects the best blog posts about peer-reviewed research around the internet. Since peer-reviewed research is wide-ranging, there are a variety of subjects that are tweeted about.

: Another data visualization Twitter feed. An interesting fact about this one: the person behind it is an Associate Professor at (a University in Belgium).

: A really smart person who tweets about everything from soccer to food to farmer’s markets and everything in between.

: I love statistics. This particular Twitter account offers up some stats that you probably wouldn’t have otherwise known.

: From its Twitter profile: “Allen McDuffee reports on the world according to think tanks.” I think (ha, no pun intended) that there can be important information gleaned from think tanks.

: Lawrence Lessig is the the founder of . He’s also a professor at Harvard and is quite the political activist.

: Paul Krugman is a professor of economics at Princeton University. He also writes for the New York Times. He also won a Nobel Prize in economics in 2008.

: Andrea Mitchell is the Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for NBC News. She also has a pulse on the happenings in Washington.

: The is an independent think tank and is one of three biggest firms in the UK. This is the organization that launched the .

: Fix Congress is part of the “political activism” from . While I might not necessarily agree with the “hows,” of this movement, I agree with the premise.

: Open Secrets is the website for the . The main thing I like about these guys is they write about who donates to which campaign (and how much).

: Joe Trippi has worked on numerous presidential campaigns and is the author of “.”

: The Twitter feed of the World Economic Forum. There is an annual meeting in (Davos, Switzerland) of business leaders and international leaders, among others, who come together to discuss issues facing the world.

: Alec J. Ross is the Secretary Clinton’s Senior Advisor for Innovation. He is affectionately known as Clinton’s “tech guru.”

: David Gregory is the former White House Chief Correspondent for NBC News and is now the host of one of the “.”

: Ed Miliband is the Leader of the Labour Party in the UK. I tend to lean towards liberal/progressive views, so I tend to be interested in parties in other countries who support these same ideologies.

: Luke Russert is following in the footsteps of his father, . He covers Capital Hill (in Washington) for NBC News.

: Chuck Todd is the Chief White House Correspondent for NBC News. From his Twitter profile: “And, yes, I tweet about sports too.”

: Andrew Ross Sorkin is a financial columnist for the New York Times and in 2009, he wrote the “tell-all” book about the financial collapse called, “.”

: Arianna Huffington is best known for being the co-founder of The Huffington Post. If you get the chance, I’d highly recommend reading her biography.

And there you have it. You’re up to date on the current list of who I’m following. Maybe in another month or so, I’ll do another post (if I’ve accumulated a bunch more people to follow). As always, feel free to follow @JStanghini!

Note: I wrote this post in advance, so look for and in Part 5 of this series.

Twitter: Who I’m Following, Part 3

Twitter logo, twitter, twitter emblem, new twitter, old twitter, logo for twitter, emblem for twitter,It’s been over a month and a half since I listed the people I’m following on Twitter in ( and ) and the number of people I’m following has nearly doubled (or maybe it has more than doubled?), so I thought I would do another post *new* listing the people I’m following.

: This is the organization by famous scientist, . Their website can be found at . I highly recommend checking out some of Nassim’s videos. He’s an uber-smart guy and has some fascinating ideas about the unification of all science and philosophy.

: The brilliance behind and more recently, . If you’re into efficiency, Ferriss is your guy. He has outlined some very interesting principles for reducing the amount of time you spent at work and for reducing the amount of time you need to spend at the gym (to get into better shape).

: Pink is a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton and a very smart guy. His book is a must-read for anyone who wants a better understand what motivates humans. He also writes entertaining , from time-to-time.

: I first learned of Michael Moore during my freshmen communications course. We were having a discussion about . Michael Moore is extremely liberal and it’s interesting to see how he criticizes even the Democrats.

: I really like this particular account because the news that is offered from it is (from what I’ve seen) relatively neutral. I’ve only ever seen “facts” tweeted from this account.

: I think it’s important to laugh and many of the tweets that I see from Conan are highly entertaining. I don’t watch his show, but it’s nice to get a dosage his comedy 140 characters at a time.

: This is the official White House Twitter account for the White House Press Secretary. This account doesn’t tweet very often, but when it does, there’s usually something important being said.

: This account publishes (once a day during weekdays), Harvard’s . I really like statistics and it’s even better when they are in this short snippet and easy to digest.

: Kaku is one of the co-founders of  (quantum science-y stuff). I’ve read a number of his books (they’re quite easy to read!) and I really liked his .

: This is the Twitter feed for Larry King. Larry posts some interesting things from time-to-time. He’s interviewed some of the most important people of the last half century, too, so I’d say he knows a thing or two about the world.

: I follow Jimmy Fallon for the same reason I follow Conan O’Brien – comedy. It’s important to laugh and Fallon has some great one-liners!

: Similar to the first person I followed (), this feed is the . This particular feed tweets some of the blog posts that are posted to the blog. It’s nice to have it in a Twitter feed rather than a newsletter or always having to check the site for updates.

: Somewhere along the way, I realized that there was more than one account for (). I noticed that they tweet slightly different things, so I now follow both.

: I really like some of the roles that Tom Hanks has played and I’ve also enjoyed watching interviews with him (to get a sense of the kind of person he is). As such, I now follow him.

: My favorite actress as a young boy. She has yet to tweet anything, but this is her verified account, so should she decide to tweet, I’ll know it!

: I follow Steve Martin for the same reasons I follow Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon — comedy!! Martin has a different sense of humor, but I still find it entertaining.

: I consider Lawrence O’Donnell to be a really smart guy. I don’t necessarily always catch his show (), but I think he presents an intelligent perspective on the things that are happening in the news.

: While he might come across a bit harsh, he offers very blunt coverage of what’s happening in the news. You could almost say he’s “rougher” version of or .

: Like the (), this Twitter feed is for when there is a new . I thought it would be wise to stay current with management tips seeing as though I’m about to begin an MBA program.

: I was reluctant to follow celebrities who had an enormous amount of followers (A. Kutcher has over 7 million as of this post), but I kept an eye on what Kutcher tweeted. It’s a nice blend of a variety of topics, so I’m in!

: Similar to (), Whoopi Goldberg is saying she won’t participate in Twitter very much, but is just putting up a Twitter account so that people don’t steal her ID. I’ve read some of her interviews and liked her stuff. Hopefully, she decides to engage with her followers and Twitter.

: Just like I’m following , Pew Research tweets all sorts of interesting (at least what I perceive as interesting) statistics.

: Matt Yglesias writes for a number of different blogs (and he posts links to them once written). He’s known as being a pretty loud voice from the liberal/progressive point of view (in the United States).

: This is one of the most reputable international publications. It has been around for over 150 years and publishes very important perspectives on a number of issues.

: I wrote about TEDTalks in , so you know how I feel about how important they are. This feed tweets when new TEDTalks are uploaded. If you like TEDTalks, this is a good account to follow.

I’m just about at 1000 words. Check back soon for Part 4 of “Who I’m Following.” In the meantime, feel free to .