elstaffe > Recent Status Updates

Aw, that was really cute. ("Smile Number Seven" by Mitali Perkins)

"I understood Danielle perfectly. She is a typical member of my (American) tribe," (222) two books in six weeks with this nonsense

"For this reason, investing time in establishing trust will often save time (and many other resources) in the long run. And a similar way of thinking continues to exist in relationship-based cultures that are also blessed with solidly reliable legal structures, such as Japan and France." (185) wait, so it's not abt relationship-based cultures at all. Just say "majority brown and black third world countries", Meyer

"The only way you feel assured that you'll be paid in countries like Nigeria is the trust you have in the other person. ...
You believe you can do business with the shopkeeper because your relationship with him (direct or indirect) provides a safety net that replaces the role of the legal system in more developed countries." (185) I hope this is low context because otherwise it's just racist

"Having a signed agreement in a culture with a consistently reliable legal system makes it possible to do business easily with people you don't trust or even know." (184) a CULTURE with a legal system?? How is this on the culture

"Now imagine ... this time you are Nigerian and designing women's purses in Lagos. The legal system in Nigeria is less reliable than the one found in countries such as Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the United States. You can sign a contract, but there is no way of enforcing it if the payment doesn't come through." (184) boy oh boy

"There is, in fact, a very clear, practical benefit to investing in affective relationship building-especially when working in emerging markets." (284) this feels gross

"The further a culture falls toward the task-based end of the scale, the more people from that culture tend to separate affective and cognitive trust, and to rely mainly on cognitive trust for work relationships. The further a culture falls toward the relationship-based end of the scale, the more cognitive and affective trust are woven together in business." (170-171)

I appreciate the Inaccessible Rail as a name for a bird that a) lives on Inaccessible Island and b) is flightless

"Early European explorers who'd never seen a penguin before thought Magellanic penguins were a type of goose. Perhaps they'd never seen a goose before either." (57) I love this book a lot

"DID YOU KNOW? On average one dead body is pulled out of the Thames every week." Still???

"DID YOU KNOW?
The double-decker bus has been around for much longer than the motor car. The first buses were introduced in the 1820s, but the double-decker was invented in 1847 and was drawn by horses until it was fitted with motor engines in 1895." I did not know this. Very cool!

"The home of the Design Museum, this also used to be an old banana warehouse." I never pictured such a thing before

"Authors Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner later expanded on Lewin's model to explain how different cultures have different layers of information that they divulge publicly or reserve for private relationships. These models are frequently referred to as the peach and coconut models of personal interaction." (175)

"At the same time, countries in the southern hemisphere such as Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are growing in global weight." (171-172) I did a double take here and truly had to bring up a map, because I was doubting my own recollection, but no, Saudi Arabia is not, in fact, in the southern hemisphere (and only some of Indonesia is). Maybe she meant "Global South", but I don't know that that's right for Saudi Arabia...

"...applications-first thinkers like to receive practical examples up front; they will extract learning from these examples. In the same vein, applications-first learners are used to the 'case method,' whereby they first read a case study describing a real-life story about a business problem and its solution, and then induce general lessons from it." (102) so...just like this entire book

"If you have members from more than one high-context culture on your team, lay out the issue and have the team develop their own solutions, as Pedro did. Don't wait until problems arise. The best moment to develop the processes is when the team is forming, before miscommunication takes place." (57)

"Before people got wise and figured out that pinching pretty eggs straight from the nest of wild birds was not a good thing to do (and made it illegal), it was a popular hobby called oology—a great word because all the o's look like eggs. But at least all those stolen eggs aren't going to waste; they're kept in museums where scientists can study them." (30) all of them did?

"In the apothecaries' system of weight units, a pound is divided into 12 ounces, which each consist of 8 drams. A dram is then 3 scruples, each made from 20 grains. I hope that made sense. A grain is one 5,760th of a pound. But not a normal pound: this is a troy pound. Which is different from a normal pound. And people wonder why the metric system was invented." (78)

"Thankfully, this was way back in 2015, and in the years since then, people have become much better at spotting fake news online." (78) ow it hurts though

"I guess the idea is that the aircraft was lucky to survive a dangerous situation, so having a part of the plane should bring good luck. But then again, the vast majority of airplanes don't crash at all so, strictly speaking, this plane was bad luck. I bought a piece of the fuselage and attached it to my laptop, which does not seem to have crashed more, or less, than usual." (83) badumchhh

"Overnight, in November 1983, the index jumped from the incorrect 524.811 up to the newly recalculated
1098.892. That is an increase of 574.081 overnight* with no corresponding change in the market. I have no idea how stock traders respond to such an unexpected jump up; like some kind of anti-crash. I assume they jumped back in through windows and blew cocaine out of their
noses." (123)

"[caption] A laser ready to shoot financial data between cities. It holds the world record for the most boring laser ever." (134)

"Yet in the story of 'Deaf Dulac,' an American supervisor complains that his French subordinate lacks the sophistication to grasp his meaning, while the French manager seems happily oblivious to the message her boss is trying to convey." (8-9) a cultural consultant who uses Deaf as a nickname in this way, very cool, instills a lot of confidence in her cultural knowledge

"In reflecting on the story of my awkward engagement with
'Silent Bo,' it's natural to assume that something about Chen's personality, my personality, or the interaction between us might have led to the strained situation." (4) like you using a Jay and Silent Bob reference to talk about him?

" ...joy is what happens when you jump off the edge of what is known, into the adventure of what is true." (310) this is something that sounds good as you're reading it but falls apart if you stop for more than half a second to try to understand what it actually means. which feels like it shouldn't belong in a "science-based" book

"Because pleasure only happens in a context where your brain feels safe enough to be completely and entirely you, without shame or social performance or 'shoulds.'" (302) this feels like a "no true Scotsman" problem, but I suppose only if you try to reverse apply it

"Ser that brings you closer to your partner 'advances the plot,' as opposed to gratuitous sex, for no reason other than that you can.
To have more and better sex, give yourself a compelling reason to have sex, something important to move toward." (149) this makes this section sound more coherent than it was

"I've been discussing this idea of sex that advances the plot with my women friends, and every time, their eyes widen and they say something like, 'And after you're married, the story's over. Happy ending, no more plot. Oh.'
Which ... yeah. But it makes the solution obvious. Add more plot!" (136) and then... she proceeds to never come back to this

"The hrst good news is that sex you crave often isn't sex that feels good remember, liking and wanting are not the same thing. This is 'solace sex,' which is 'soothing but unerotic,' in contrast to 'sealed-off sex,' which is 'erotic but empty.' Solace sex can feel like a relief, because you're easing fear. But let's not mistake relief for pleasure." (236) neither of these options sound great, Nagoski