BlackBerry Launches Its Latest Smartphone:

BlackBerry launches its latest smartphone:

I bet you didn’t even know Blackberry still existed. In an attempt to keep their business from spoiling completely, BlackBerry launched a new smartphone called the Z30. It has a touchscreen and a five inch display with a decent battery and processor. It was initially launched in Malaysia where they still hold some market share and will be sold in the U.K. and Middle East next week. There are no details yet available about a U.S. release. I doubt this going to help the failing company. I still think their best bet is to change their core product line to something else and completely transform the company, or sell. The latter option is the most likely scenario considering just two weeks ago BlackBerry announced the goal of selling the company by November. You can read about that proposed sale here.

An overview of Quantitative Easing and what happens if the Fed doesn't Taper:

What Happens if the Fed Doesn’t Taper?

Each month the Federal Reserve buys $85 Billion worth of bonds from commercial banks. This process is know as Quantitative Easing or QE for short and is designed to keep interest rate low for the public with the goal of having the public borrow money from the banks at low interest and spend it to stimulate growth in the economy. This bond buying program is designed to be gradually reduced once the economy is stable enough to grow on it’s own. This is knowing as “tapering”. Quantitative Easing is like training wheels for the economy, and the Fed is about to gradually take the training wheels off. The FOMC is expected to reduce the amount of bond purchases by $10-20 billion, but if it doesn’t it looks like bond yields would drop, equity markets would rally, and the dollar would also take a hit. For more information on Quantitative Easing, here are three myths about the bond buying program. 

Say Goodbye to the MBTI, the Bad Fad that Won't Die.

Say Goodbye to the MBTI, the Fad that Won’t Die:

Alliteration aside, this post made me supremely happy. I’ve long been voicing my opinion that the Myers-Briggs is a worthless assessment that seduces executives without an I/O Psychology background into thinking it has some value. I did however find this amusing. For the record, I’m a prototypical ENTJ which would be cool if I thought it could be used for anything.  The MBTI is based on the work of Carl Jung the disciple of Freud who came up with the collective unconscious (basically the idea featured in the movie Avatar that there is a greater collective knowledge generated over the history of the world and stored somewhere in the universe everyone has access to). He also believed himself to be an alchemist.

Anyways, the Myers-Briggs has poor reliability and validity (10 bonus points to any of my former students who  remember what these terms mean). Reliability is the concept that if you use the same test to measure the same thing over and over again, you’re going to get approximately the same result every time. If I measure the length of your arm three times in a row, I’m probably going to get the same length three times. That is a reliable test. I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs a few times and I’ve also been identified as an INTJ and an ESTJ in addition to the ENJT I get most often. Taking the same test multiple times and getting different results indicates poor reliability. The research on the Myers-Briggs supports my anecdotal evidence. 

Validity is the extent to which the test predicts meaningful outcomes. The Myers-Biggs, unlike most personality tests, largely is NOT related to job performance, which is the criterion we are most concerned with in I/O Psychology. 

I could continue with my rant and keep berating this old and worthless test, but Adam Grant is a much smarter man and better I/O Psychologist than I, so I encourage you to read his entire article linked to at the beginning of this post. Have you taken the Myers-Briggs? If so, what category did you fall into and what are your thoughts? Leave them in the comments section below. 

Ohio State Students Discover Stranger Living In Their Basement

Ohio State Students discover stranger living in their basement: This is extremely bizarre. A group of students living off campus unknowingly had another person living in their basement. Being college aged males, they thought nothing of it when their cupboards, oven, and microwave would be left open without reason and thought the strange locked door in the basement was a utility closet. They didn’t even ask a question when they saw a person in the house they didn’t know. Eventually they had the door broken down and discovered a young man living there. This may be the best case for elevating the admission criteria to The Ohio State University. Although, when I think about it, this may have happened at the house I lived at in college without us ever noticing.   

The Scientific Way To Mend A Broken Heart

 The Scientific Way To Mend A Broken Heart:

If you’ve ever experienced heartbreak, then you know that emotional pain can be so severe it resembles physical pain. That is because the human brain process emotional and physical pain in similar ways and in the same place since fMRI studies indicate that emotional and physical pain both activate the brain’s anterior cingulate cortex. Other research confirms that people who suffer from physical conditions such as chronic pain are also more likely to have emotional anxiety and feel social rejection more deeply. Furthermore over the counter pain killers have been shown to reduce emotional pain as well as physical pain. Other ways to reduce emotional pain include spending time with loved ones (including pets), participating in activities you like even if you don’t feel like it, forcing yourself to smile, and talking about the situation with others.

Paying Doctors For Performance Leads to Better Care

Study: Paying Doctors For Performance Leads to Better Care:

It isn’t surprising that pay for performance leads to better performance.  People respond to incentives. However, the issue is that people under normal circumstances will not pay more to go see a superior physician. The best predictor of which doctor an individual will see is not their performance or standard of care, but whether or not the doctor takes their insurance. More doctors and physicians than ever are leaving Medicare given the low reimbursement rates and mounting rules, in seek of better pay. The restrictions of government funded health care means that people will go to the providers that accept their insurance and not necessarily the best available.

What You Should Do On Your Lunch Break:

16 Things You Should Do On Your Lunch Break Today: Some I/O Psych Research:

Forbes has 16 recommendations for what you should be doing on your lunch break. Some of them are quite good. I like the suggestions of exercising, decompressing, making a plan, eating, socializing, and networking. The reason I like them is because they are supported by some research from I/O Psychology on the effects of different types of “breaks” when at work.

A 2008 study investigated the hypothesis that while breaks at work are designed to help employees recover so they can be productive and avoid burnout throughout the day, some breaks further deplete a worker's cognitive resources depending on what the employee does during their break. Essentially the premise is that you want to do low effort (restful) activities like socializing or relaxing, and avoid high effort activities (chores) like working thorough the break or running errands. The research showed that employees who relaxed during their breaks were happier, less irritable, and smiled more after the break than people who did chores. Beyond that, people who did chores during their break demonstrated an increase in negative emotions. The takeaway here is that if you actually rest during your break, you’ll have more positive emotions and be better suited to take on challenges the rest of the day, whereas doing chores during your break engenders negative emotions and further diminishes your ability to be effective for the rest of the day. Think about that as you plan your afternoon lunch and breaks, but be sure not to think too hard. 

Citation: Trougakos, J. P., Beal, D. J., Green, S. G., & Weiss, H. M. (2008). Making the break count: An episodic examination of recovery activities, emotional experiences, and positive affective displays. Academy of Management Journal, 51(1), 131-146.

Mass Shootings by the Numbers:

Mass Shootings by the Numbers: There have been 41 mass shootings in the last 15 years and 10 over the last 19 months. These Infographics and maps show the data about where the the shootings took place and the demographics of the perpetrators. It looks like Colorado, Louisiana, and Alabama had the highest death by firearm rates. Of the 41 mass shootings, the perpetrator committed suicide in 23. The shooter is most likely to be a male between 20 and 40 with some form of mental illness and use a handgun during the attack. The event is most likely to occur at a school or a workplace. With this last piece of information in mind, if you didn’t read How To Survive A Shooting At Your Office: Run. Hide. Fight yesterday and watch the six-minute video, it may be worthwhile to do so. I’m not sure what explains the recent increase in frequency of these atrocities, but this should be a question at the forefront of current behavioral research.

The 9 habits of individuals building a successful future:

The 9 habits of individuals building a successful future:

1.     Save 20% of Your Money: This is prudent, but challenging advice especially for a young person with a significant amount of student loan debt.

2.     Exercise Daily: If you’re thinking about getting started in the northeast Ohio area, I suggest CrossFit Cadre. I’ve been meaning to take a rest day for a couple weeks now, but I just keep finding myself back at the gym. Having a good support system for your fitness routine makes you much more likely to stick with it. CrossFit works for me, but find an exercise routine that fits your schedule and makes you happy. That is the only way you’re going to stick with it.

3.     Eat Healthy: As I mentioned yesterday, I just started an 8 week challenge where I’ll be doing nothing but the Paleo Diet. After these 8 weeks, I plan to live a “Paleo Inspired” lifestyle. Basic guidelines to eating healthy: Avoid sugar and processed food, and eat lots of fruits, vegetables, and protein. Most things are okay in moderation.

4.     Plan Weekly and Daily: I use a to do list and keep my calendar detailed and built out. For me, a To Do list is a set of goals I have to accomplish. I am very goal oriented so I get an immense feeling of gratification and accomplishment when I can cross something off my To Do list. It also keeps me from forgetting things.

5.     Read For Pleasure: Do this every day. For starters, I encourage you to bookmark this blog to satisfy some of your daily reading. I also encourage you to always be reading a fiction or nonfiction book. I’m currently finishing up Michael Lewis’ The New New Thing and am looking forward to getting started on 4th and Goal by Monte Burke. Audiobooks count as reading (in my book at least).

6.     Brush and Floss: Just do it. You won’t like you’re dentist (or your gums) when he’s angry.

7.     Meditate: This is different for everyone. However you want to do it, take time to inwardly reflect. Think about your accomplishments and your goals, or just find your center and relax.

8.     Journal: Much of our lives are lived on social media, so for many people downloading an archive of your tweets or looking back through your Facebook timeline is like reading a diary. I encourage you to put down in print more than that. Writing helps to clarify thoughts and feelings and is a great way to track your life so you can look back from your 80s and reflect on how awesome you were in your 20s. On social media, we speak in hyperbole and portray an image of how we want to appear to others, an “ideal self” so to speak. When you’re journaling, you’re more likely to be candid and honest.

9.     Serve: You can accomplish this in a variety of ways. Supporting a charity, giving back to your community, and volunteering your time are all great options. You can serve at work too even if you’re not a hero like a policeman, fireman, nurse, doctor, or a member of our armed forces. As a leader, your job is to remove barriers for your team and put them in a position to be successful. Good leaders serve their organization and subordinates by putting them first and making decisions in their best interest.

JPMorgan agrees to $800M in London Whale fines and will admit wrongdoing:

JPMorgan agrees to $800M in London Whale fines and will admit wrongdoing: In April and May of 2012, JPMorgan incurred over $6B in trading losses as a result of poor trades by its London office. Trader Bruno Iksil nicknamed the “London Whale” working under Chief Investment Office Ina Drew bet big on some credit default swaps and lost in spectacular fashion. He then tried to cover up the magnitude of his losses, which only exacerbated the situation. The biggest part of this penalty imposed by regulators in the U.S. and U.K. is not the $800M fine, which will hardly affect the firm, but that JPM will have to admit wrong doing. This admission of guilt opens them up to private lawsuits to go along with the fines in addition to the $800M being levied by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the FBI investigation; it also damages their credibility. Last week, I posted about how important the “neither admit nor deny guilt” clause was in the SEC’s decision against Citigroup. JPM will not be able to get off so easy. If you missed it, definitely check out that post about Citigroup, it is relevant here.