I recently did something a sane financial decision maker would recommend: I started saving money for the devices that I knew I may want this spring. Starting with some money I got when I walked in graduation last year, and for Christmas, I have amassed a bit of a warchest now that could finance a few devices. This is in stark contrast to my usual “I know I’ll have the money to cover this in the next month, so I’ll buy it now” theory of operation. However this has led me to some heavy decisions regarding geekly gadget purchases. I’ve figured it’s time to go with something new, and for a few months I thought that was the HTC HD2 when it hits T-Mobile. Now I’m not so sure. The point of this blog post is to look at the pros & cons of the three gadgets I’m considering, and then weigh them in terms of my life philosophy I’ve tried to implement over the past few years.

Jon’s Life Philosophy

This section is a bit long, but I think it’s important to include for two reasons. First, it’s the life view you can take when looking at the devices I’m deliberating. Second, it pushes my resolve to keep working on this life goal!

So sometime in 2007 I started listening more to Jimmy Buffett. A perennial favorite of my mother-in-law, I found that in the winter of 2007-08, Buffett’s music was the only thing that successfully kept me warm. One of my favorite songs in his catalog is One Particular Harbour which contains the following lyric:

I used to rule my world from a payphone. Ships out on the sea. But now times are rough, Oh, I’ve got too much stuff. I can’t explain the likes of me.

For whatever reason, this lyric struck a chord with me. For years my father had been talking about how things eventually own you, and that we underestimate the trade-off between material possessions and the flexibility to experience life as we wish. Looking around at a massive amount of stuff I had acquired, I began to wonder how much of it was what I owned, and how much of it owned me. So I started rather regular cleaning binges which I still do every month or so, continually going through subsets of my possessions and asking myself if I’ll ever need what I am keeping again. I estimate I’ve cut about 35%-40% of my personal “stuff” in the last 2 years, and my goal is to eventually get to the day where all of the stuff I keep in “storage” (e.g., not actively using on a daily basis) decreases to 1 closet full). I’m still a bit aways (currently at 2 closets and various spots both in NY and Ohio), but it’s something I’m striving for.

This reduction in “stuff” also filters down to my daily life. While my macbook pro has been an indispensable travel companion for me since getting it last summer, I don’t take it to work on a daily basis. My rationale is that since every file is replicated over all my laptops, why should I lug one machine to work when I already have another laptop there waiting for me. Once you stop carrying the laptop, you also stop carrying much of the bloat that goes with one, including chargers, cables, cases, bags, etc.. While these things do still come with me when I travel, they get to stay at home most of the week. In case you’re wondering, here is what I take to work on a daily basis:

• Cell phone & spare battery
• Headphones & iPod Touch (For reading & music)
• Vial of Advil & Claritan (For unexpected aches & allergy attacks!)
• Bluetooth Headset
• Pen or Sharpie fine-point
• Moleskine notebook (Which I started using to organize all my paper-based thoughts in one spot, rather than numerous scraps of paper I’d eventually lose or feel compelled to keep; Just like getting an expensive pen, I figure an expensive notebook will keep me committed to using it all the way through, rather than ditching it for scrap paper).
• Wallet & Money clip
• Keys
• Sunglasses

I try not to carry a bag, so most of the time the above things are either in a SCOTTEVEST, or in my gadget geek holster/utility belt (Which I figure I can get away with since most days I wear green or black BDU-style cargo pants). I can’t tell you how much this system has made my life better – I’m no longer lugging stuff around I don’t need, and I’m way more mobile at work to say, go straight from a meeting to the train without having to stop at my office.

Around the office I’ve also tried to implement my philosophy by only printing things out if absolutely necessary. If It can stay in electronic form, I keep it in that form. I’ve started doing things such as marking up PDF documents virtually instead of printing and scrawling notes in the margins.

Returning to the Gadgets at hand…

So the overall goal of this piece is to see what gadgets currently on the market would help me in my goal of stuff reduction, not hinder. So let’s look at the pros/cons for each of the three devices I’m considering:

HTC HD2

Pros: Pretty sweet device from the ones I’ve played with; premium interface and quick responsiveness; an OS I’m very comfortable with; Moderate hackability; T-Mobile 3G

Cons: Last iteration of a dying OS; Not that exciting of an experience; Not too different from the experience currently on my Touch Pro 2

Philosophy: Would probably not be a primary cell phone, as most of the apps I want are on Android now, not WinMo (Sadly), Would probably only want it to admire, not to actually use – which is way too materialistic for my “new” philosophy.

Google Nexus One

Pros: Would jump my android-ness up a notch from the G1 (the current daily driver); has the apps I’m looking for; hot platform; great reviews.

Cons: Price is pretty steep; No physical keyboard

Philosophy: Might replace the need to take the iPod touch to work each day when the Kindle for Android is finally released. Could also use for music. Potentially could cut down on number of things I take to work daily.

Apple iPad

Pros: Cool device; Might further replace Paper in my life; Apps will probably be a huge deal once the device hits the market.

Cons: Price for the 3G model is pretty steep (largest of all) and I’d have a monthly bill for something that isn’t an essential device; No physical keyboard; First Gen-early adopter woes.

Philosophy: Might replace paper around the office, but would probably schlep it back and forth from home to office for no good reason. Can’t see the day I’d take a trip with just the iPad and Cell phone without the MBP in tow.

Sadly, I think I’ve reached my conclusion…

So the only thing that seems to fit with the life philosophy argument is the Nexus One, as it may allow me to cut down what I take on a daily basis to and from work. The iPad and HD2 do have extreme geek temptation to them, however, which is the sucky part. The geek in me really wants them, the rational decision-maker in me can’t justify them. Man, changing your life from a “buy it all” to “reduce, reduce, reduce” mode is a real pain sometimes. But I guess I should just rejoice in the following moments that make it all worthwhile:

• The person at the office who says “You don’t take a bag with you!?! Wow… wish I could do that”
• The periodic brisk-er than usual pace I can adopt to catch a train since I’m not weighed down as much.
• The satisfied mind feeling one gets from not losing things habitually; not having to move so many things when moving; and not worrying about possessions breaking that one does not own!

So after a few more days of deliberation, I’ll probably end up with the Nexus One, and save the rest of the money for something down the road. If you’ve got thoughts on this whole long rambling piece, or my life philosophy, feel free to post a comment!

I was on the phone today listening to a person tell me about a rough time they’d recently been having. Long before formally studying psychology I gained a reputation among friends as the person who would listen, and I’ll probably be listening long from now. The call today though was interesting in that, at a certain point, I made the observation that one shouldn’t give up all they had worked for simply because they were tired and times were rough. And since the person I was talking to shared the same religious beliefs that I do, I also made the observation that the Catholic view on suffering is that it is an ever present part of our world and not something that can be ignored.

Now whether you believe that suffering is inevitable or in a higher power is irrelevant to the rest of this post, as my message below simply boils down to the following observation on the human condition. Namely, the world often throws a myriad of challenges at us, and for some reason, we keep thinking that these challenges should go away or that things should “get easier”. And (some of us) are continually surprised when things don’t get easier as time goes on. Why is that?

While I can’t give you all the answers to our eternal optimism on the world, I can point out a few interesting things.

1. Life Milestones are set by humans, not nature, thus they have no special bearing on ease of life.

Very often while working toward one degree or another, I felt that my life would somehow be easier once I had achieved the goal. However as I worked my way through graduate school, I realized something: Human Determined Milestones are not discrete! Let me explain. When I was working toward my masters, I had two types of work I had to complete: Work for others (such as assignments, working on another’s research project, etc..) and work for myself (My own research, teaching prep, etc..). Traditionally one focuses much more on the work for oneself after the masters degree is completed – but unfortunately these two types of graduate work often overlap. Thus once I actually got my masters, I was already knee-deep in work for my PhD. Things didn’t get easier once the paper was in my hand – my challenges had already ramped up to the next level.

Similar things happen with other human milestones. The couple with communication problems may erroneously believe that things will get better once they move in together, not realizing that this milestone has no bearing on their communication abilities. Children often think that upon reaching a certain grade in school they will somehow be on “easy street” and that life will be all down hill (If you don’t believe me, find a high school senior and ask them about senioritis!). The plain truth is that life milestones that humans set don’t create an end and new beginning – they simply are markers along the same old road!

2. Natural Milestones are a b*tch…

So if you can’t depend on the milestones you create, what about the ones Mother Nature gives you? Well let’s think about that for a moment. When was the last time a natural milestone was something that brought you good things or made your life easier. Perhaps going in chronological order will be useful:

Puberty/Menarche: Oh baby, here’s a great thing to help you in life. Sure makes life easier being self-conscious about your body and having strange hormonal impulses, doesn’t it?

Age 20: From here on out, it’s physiologically down-hill: all systems within your body begin to experience problems. Hello aches, pains, strange sensations, and chronic back/foot/joint pain.

Age 35: OK, so the aches and pains are manageable, and if you’re in good shape, you don’t have them all that often at all. But you do now have higher infertility rates, which doesn’t make that whole “wait until I’m mature to have kids” thing all that easy. You’re probably better off though, because having a kid while still mentally a kid definitely wouldn’t have made things easier.

Age 50: Despite your best efforts, those aches and pains are present. Daily. Sorry.

Age 65: You’re an elder, and should be respected. People should try to make things easier for you. Too bad that the extra effort you need to put into living may require them to help. Life is still fulfilling, (hopefully) but probably not easier.

So the natural milestones are out. But maybe it’s not in the milestones, maybe it’s just having a realistic life outlook that will make things better right? Well, maybe not so much…

3. Clinically Depressed people have a more realistic view of the world than “healthy” people.

Wait, what?!? Yep, people who are clinically depressed actually have a more realistic view on how the world operates and their likelihoods to encounter problems in it. This can easily be interpreted as the inverse of my statement, namely “Healthy People Live In An Optimistic Dream World”. This may be why we expect things to get better – despite our experiences, we normally have some sort of mechanism that keeps us happy and well adjusted.

Now don’t get me wrong, you want to live in the optimistic dream world (as any depressed person will tell you), but perhaps this is the strongest reason why we expect things to get better when they probably won’t. If we expected things to stay the same or get worse, we’d be… depressed!

So here’s my advice: Be a realist, and understand that life challenges are normally. Developing good ways to work through them (as opposed to running from them or ignoring them) will make you much happier in the long run. So what ways have you developed to work through the rough times?

I

OK, so I came across a rather interesting story earlier this week on Consumerist that I thought I’d share in order to make the following point: Loss Prevention Employees (Or Asset Protection, or plain old Security) at large retailers are just for show. Here’s the story:

If you work at Best Buy, don’t tackle any knife-wielding shoplifters or you’ll be fired. That’s what happened to two Best Buy employees who chased a couple shoplifters who were fleeing with armloads of merchandise towards a waiting car. Read More

So those guys who give you dirty looks as you leave the store? That’s their only real job. See it breaks down something like this. If you’re in a store, and you’re doing bad things (e.g. shoplifting), they’ll most likely identify you before you ever get close to leaving (via all those nice cameras they have). However the law requires them to let you make an attempt to purchase things (Because hey, we all like to browse and put our prospective purchases down our pants instead of in a shopping cart). If you cut past the front checkout and head for the door, they have that little bit of time between checkout lanes and outside to grab you and escort you elsewhere.

And if they miss you in that time, they are supposed to let you go… this is company policy at ALL major retailers.

Why? Well say it’s raining outside and it’s dark. Jim A. Criminal waltzes out with a toaster (He’s good) worth $49.99, and Mark A. Bigguy runs after him determined to save the company $50 (And probably also wanting to pound some criminal skull, as most retail employees who “drink the koolaide” are fiercely loyal to their employer). Jim runs away, Mark follows, and unfortunately Elma R. TooOldToDrive hits one or both of them. They decide to sue BigBoxRetailer because if BigBox’s employee hadn’t been chasing the criminal, none of this would have happened. And thus BigBox suffers legal fees which, at their very least, are more than 10x what the loss originally would have been. This is the kind of stuff that keeps corporate lawyers up at night.

So really, Security personnel in stores are for show. They’re hoping you’ll see them in their fancy uniforms and think twice before you swipe that toaster (or xbox game, or refridgerator). And by and large, this policy seems to work (of course we have no idea how many people really are intimidated, but since BigBox’s keep doing it this way, one would assume it has to work).

And because of the above, I point out the following regarding those annoying checkpoint systems that seem to go off anytime that A) you’re carrying something conductive to them or B) your spaced-out checkout employee fails to adequately de-sensitize the sticker on your product. Here is Jon’s simple observation: Don’t Stop.

Now I know what you’re thinking: Why? After all, if you don’t steal something, it’s no big deal to let the security person go through your bags and check your receipt. And you’re partially right – if you don’t steal something you have nothing to worry about. Which is precisely why I point out that you can just keep going. You know you didn’t steal something, you also know the security person isn’t going to pursue you out to your car, and so why bother stopping and wasting your (and his/her) time with a stupid receipt check. After all, if they’re really concerned about you, they can go watch a tape that follows you the entire time you were in the store after you leave (And if you paid by credit card, they’d be able to identify you later with no problem). All that you do by waiting for them to check your receipt is waste time, and broadcast to the world that you may or may not be a criminal.

So there you have it, Loss Prevention, Asset Protection, or just plain old Security are in stores for 2 reasons: 1. to be a visible force to deter wimpy shoplifters, and 2. to notice people WAY before they ever get near the door and be prepared to grab them between the checkout lanes and the door. I don’t think they’re a bad idea in a BigBox to keep the prices down, I just think everyone should be aware of what they can and can’t do to you. After all, if you’re not a criminal, why feel like you’re being treated as such.

Oh, and it goes without saying that if you are a criminal, you annoy me way more than anyone else I’ve mentioned in this article – even Elma!

Karey & I were up in NYC today to drop off some things at Columbia. Saw this outside Uris Hall

One of the more interesting ad campaigns I

If you don’t know, and I wouldn’t doubt you if you said you didn’t, Ghost Hunters is a show on the SciFi channel that focuses on a group of individuals who seek to document evidence of paranormal activity. Karey enjoys watching the show religiously, and I enjoy watching it was well (I don’t particularly like the cast of the spin-off show, Ghost Hunters International, so I usually sit out for that show when it comes on). Anyway, the Ghost Hunters go about “hunting” a bit differently than other shows I’ve seen on the subject, which is why I’m posting on it. The investigators firmly believe a core tenant of good scientific investigation: The best way to prove the existence of something is to try your hardest to disprove it. The logic goes something like this: If you exhaust all “normal” explanations for what you observe, then your observations are likely to be paranormal. This type of thinking isn’t anything new, it’s actually derived from core tenants of the philosophy of science

I’m a ghost hunter – see, I found the picture of two real ghosts!

So here are some guys trying to prove the existence of something by working as hard as they can to disprove anything seemingly paranormal they find. If they capture something on film, they attempt to explain it or even replicate it. If they capture sounds which may be contaminated by still-living humans, they throw the evidence out. This is in stark contrast to many other paranormal advocates which do not use science at all in their investigations (fuzzy science doesn’t count).

I read about DeadAtYourAge.Com on Download Squad yesterday and decided to pay it a visit. It

Deadliest Catch starts up again tonight, and again I’ll be watching it. Karey & I realized a few years ago that the show really is essentially the same thing year after year. They go out, they fish for crabs, things break (both ships and people), good times, bad times, etc… It’s not like I think this year God himself will make a special guest appearence as the Relief Captain of the Cornelia Marie or that Time Bandit’s sauna will catch fire. But for some reason the show is addictive, which is why I’ll be watching it again.

Why not take the poll below and tell me why you think Deadliest Catch is so popular! (if you’re reading this on Facebook, head over to my website and vote!)

3 ‘phenomenal shots’ ended pirate hostage crisis – CNN.com

“The on-scene commander saw that one of the pirates still held that AK-47, was very, very concerned for the captain’s life — and he ordered the shots to be taken,” Gortney told CNN on Monday.Even with the small boat “moving up and down a couple of feet,” the SEALs hit their targets. “Remarkable marksmanship,” Gortney said.

I really hate to feel good about anyone dying, but I will admit to being a bit happy upon hearing that the three remaining pirates holding an American hostage were gunned down. I find myself wondering though – what does this tell the pirates.

Hopefully it tells them to stay away from boats flying under the American flag, which I would probably do if I were a pirate. After all, other countries seem content with paying ransoms while you wait it out. The actions taken by the SEALs should help dissuade pirates from going after Americans, but probably won’t dissuade them from going after anyone else.

In any event, it makes me proud to have two grandfathers who served in the Navy (making me an actual Son of a Son of a Sailor). And I remain proud to have two brother-in-laws serving in the Army (As you can imagine, I have tough decisions to make when cheering on a team during early December’s Army-Navy game!).