generationbreakthrough.com

I tell my dog that he's a good boy about a million times a day. I think it makes him happier. But like my dog, whom I'm convinced is just a person in a fur suit, when real people still require that level of constant approval, they too might as well be domesticated house pets stuck on a short leash. The need for positive feedback, what I call "Good Dog Syndrome", can drastically hold us back from ever making any real progress.

“Are we too young to remember The Great Depression?”

Catherine Rampell asked this very intriguing question in the title of her NewYorkTimes.com article yesterday. Although her article didn’t say much, her poignant question sparked some great comments from others.

One commenter noted the VERY OLD Aesop’s Fable about “The Grasshopper And The Ants”, made into a Disney cartoon in 1934, and how it relates to the current economic crisis. I vaguely recalled watching this cartoon as a kid and found it on youtube to watch it again. The ants work hard all year to scrimp and save for the winter, while the grasshopper plays his fiddle all summer. Inevitably, come winter, the grasshopper is freezing and starving, and must knock on the ants’ door for help.