Money and Finance
- Links
Barry Ritholtz talks with Howard Marks (LINK) Related book: The Most Important ThingLet’s Be Honest About Gold: It’s a Pet Rock - by Jason Zweig (LINK) Bill Miller: NYSE Trading Halt Symptomatic of Broader Problem (video) [H/T ValueWalk] (LINK)...
- Serving Life For This? - By Nicholas Kristof
So you’re a judge, and Sharanda P. Jones comes before you for sentencing for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. She’s a 32-year-old mom with a 9-year-old daughter and no prior arrests, but she has been caught up in a drug sweep that has led to...
- Start Me Up: Helping Youngsters To Sell Stakes In Their Future
Thanks to Will for passing this along. WHEN Matthew Kulp graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design last year, he became part of an intriguing financial experiment. To help pay back student loans and fund a new design company, Mr Kulp raised $38,500...
- Groceries Could Be Amazon’s Next Killer App — If It Can Solve The Math
This week, Amazon announced the expansion of its experiment in grocery delivery to Los Angeles. The bigger news, however, was the unveiling of a new version of the hugely popular Amazon Prime. While the regular Prime gets you unlimited two-day shipping...
- John Mauldin: The Answer We Don’t Want To Know
2012 will be the 11th time in my short life that I will be able to participate in the choosing of a president of the United States. While it may just be me, it seems like each and every election is cast as the most important election of our time and a...
Money and Finance
Can We Reverse The Stanford Prison Experiment?
Thanks to Andrew for passing this along.
When I met for lunch with Dr. Phil Zimbardo, the former president of the American Psychological Association, I knew him primarily as the mastermind behind The Stanford Prison Experiment. In the summer of 1971, Zimbardo took healthy Stanford students, gave them roles as either guards or inmates, and placed them in a makeshift prison in the basement of Stanford University. In just days, the prisoners demonstrated symptoms of depression and extreme stress and the guards had become sadistic. The experiment was stopped early. The lesson? As W. Edwards Deming wrote: "A bad system will defeat a good person, every time." But is the opposite true? I asked Zimbardo, "Can you reverse the Stanford Prison Experiment?"
He answered with a thought experiment referencing the infamous Milgram experiment (where subjects showed such obedience to people in authority that they administered what they believed were fatal electric shocks to patients). Zimbardo, who by an almost unimaginable coincidence went to high school with Stanley Milgram, wondered whether we could conduct a Reverse Milgram Experiment. Could we, through a series of small wins, architect a "slow ascent into goodness, step by step"? And could such an experiment be run at a societal level?
We actually already know the answer:
- Links
Barry Ritholtz talks with Howard Marks (LINK) Related book: The Most Important ThingLet’s Be Honest About Gold: It’s a Pet Rock - by Jason Zweig (LINK) Bill Miller: NYSE Trading Halt Symptomatic of Broader Problem (video) [H/T ValueWalk] (LINK)...
- Serving Life For This? - By Nicholas Kristof
So you’re a judge, and Sharanda P. Jones comes before you for sentencing for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. She’s a 32-year-old mom with a 9-year-old daughter and no prior arrests, but she has been caught up in a drug sweep that has led to...
- Start Me Up: Helping Youngsters To Sell Stakes In Their Future
Thanks to Will for passing this along. WHEN Matthew Kulp graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design last year, he became part of an intriguing financial experiment. To help pay back student loans and fund a new design company, Mr Kulp raised $38,500...
- Groceries Could Be Amazon’s Next Killer App — If It Can Solve The Math
This week, Amazon announced the expansion of its experiment in grocery delivery to Los Angeles. The bigger news, however, was the unveiling of a new version of the hugely popular Amazon Prime. While the regular Prime gets you unlimited two-day shipping...
- John Mauldin: The Answer We Don’t Want To Know
2012 will be the 11th time in my short life that I will be able to participate in the choosing of a president of the United States. While it may just be me, it seems like each and every election is cast as the most important election of our time and a...