“Men are less suited than women to the knowledge economy, which rewards supposedly female traits such as sensitivity, intuition, and a willingness to collaborate,” reports Peter Coy in Business Week. “Men have tended to do better in the hierarchies, following orders and relying on positional power.”
via Women will lead Generation Y – what will men do? | Modite.
I’m not sure I’m ready to embrace the conclusion of this article — that marriage is the solution for making men grow up in a world of gender equality.
A friend sent me a link to an article that applies game theory to dating. That was just silly (but funny). The book below on life and games is philosophical and seems to apply a game theory worldview to life:
Infinite games, on the other hand, do not have a knowable beginning or ending. They are played with the goal of continuing play. An infinite game continues play, for sake of play. If the game is approaching resolution because of the rules of play, the rules must be changed to allow continued play. The rules exist to ensure the game is infinite. The only known example is life. Beginning to participate in an infinite game may be involuntary, in that it doesn’t require conscious thought. Continuing participation in the current round of game-play is voluntary. “It is an invariable principle of all play, finite and infinite, that whoever plays, plays freely” p. 4.
Carse applies these to human endeavor further along in the book; he describes human pursuits as either dramatic requiring participation or theatrical participation is optional. Largely this depends on one’s point of view. If motherhood is a requirement and a duty, there are rules to be obeyed and goals to be achieved. This is motherhood as tragic drama. If motherhood is a choice and a process, it becomes ennobling theatre.
via Finite and Infinite Games – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
It looks like an interesting read. I’ve always liked the analogy, that much of what we do is play. But if that’s true, what is work?
Mmm.. I can’t wait to try this recipe from NPR. Did all the public radio listeners out there contribute to the pledge drive?
via NPR’s How Low Can You Go $10 Meals – Farfalle With Potatoes | Mamaliga.
A recent article in Neurology discusses the information revolution in medical education (yay, finally someone gets it!):
The democratization of knowledge. Additionally, traditional hierarchies may have less significance to today’s trainees due to the democratization of knowledge. With availability of information to all on a handheld device, medical students, residents, and even patients have as much data available on rounds as highly experienced clinicians. Rather than information flowing only downhill from attending to resident to medical student to patient, information may flow up the chain of command, as well.38 Everybody will need to adjust to the new possibilities this entails, but it is likely that the greatest challenge, as in most revolutions, will be for those who are accustomed to being at the top of the hierarchy. There is already evidence that competence declines with time after training; studies have provided evidence that there is an inverse relationship between time in practice and quality of care delivered,48 though some have questioned these findings.49 This decline with time could accelerate as the pace of scientific and technological change increases, further augmenting the differences between the generations. In the future, it is possible that each generation will offer complementary skills in educating the others to provide optimal care.
via Teaching the next generation of neurologists — Elkind 72 7: 657 — Neurology.
The conflict in the medical workplace that triggered this recent dialogue on professionalism is between the Baby Boomer Generation and Generation X. Baby boomers define professionalism predominantly in terms of hours worked and “complete” dedication to the job. Dedicated to life balance, Generation Xers do not aspire to be like baby boomers. They believe baby boomers are hypocritical and susceptible to early burnout. In fact, having been raised by absentee, workaholic baby boomers, their priorities are very different from their parents. Their focus on caring for themselves and their families is a positive attribute of Generation X.
via ScienceDirect – The American Journal of Medicine : Medical professionalism and the generation gap.
But what about Generation Y (or the Millennium generation)?
