f2f2s |

God, I love this country.

1. There are 5,057 janitors in America with Ph.D.’s, other doctorates, or other professional degrees.

2. There are more tigers held by private individuals in America (5,000+) than there are alive in the wild (3,200). This does not include zoos.

Did I rip the majority of this blog post off from a TechDrawl post? Why yes, yes I did.

Will I apologize for it? Well, yeah, maybe. But that’s why I linked back to it!

Dave Walters put together a great post, but I’m afraid that some of you out there are missing out on all the good information over there. In case I’m right, here’s some information about a measure on the Georgia ballot in a couple weeks.

Amendment One “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to make Georgia more economically competitive by authorizing legislation to uphold reasonable competitive agreements? () YES () NO”

Beneath the clearly biased wording is actually a law allowing employers to restrict where you work after leaving. This isn’t just for full-time employees either. Independent contractors could lose their ability to work with other companies in the same industry, basically a death-knell for specialized contract workers.

It’s not a protection for business, it’s a special interest grab by lawyers who stand to make a lot of money litigating these cases that are currently thrown out of court and businesses who want to stifle competition.

If you’ve ever wanted to start a business, or even work in your same field but for a different company than employs you know, you need to vote ‘No’ on Amendment 1 in order to keep those hopes alive.

Below are some links from Dave’s post and quotes from the articles:

11Alive: Amendment One: “It’s a Damned Lie”

“Well known Atlanta labor attorney Ed Buckley has a strong opinion of Amendment One: ‘It’s a damned lie.’

Amendment One “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to make Georgia more economically competitive by authorizing legislation to uphold reasonable competitive agreements? () YES () NO”

Buckley says the wording on the ballot is deceptive and completely misleading. ‘The referendum says nothing about non-competitive agreements and says nothing about the impact on workers who will not be able to pursue their occupations if they quit or are laid off by their employer because they signed a form in order to get a job,’ Buckley said.”

Savannah Morning News: Amendment 1: No

“Georgia voters who foresee starting their own businesses or simply going to work for a different employer in their current fields should vote “No” on Amendment 1. If for no other reason, Georgians should object to this measure based on the fraudulent wording of the ballot item.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Amendment One: Making Georgia less competitive

“A 2009 study by the Harvard School of Business focused on Michigan, which in 1985 passed a law much like that now on the Georgia ballot. By tracking patents, the study found that job mobility for inventors in Michigan fell significantly once the law changed.”

In These Times: Big Business Backs Anti-Worker Amendment 1 in Georgia

“Amendment 1 is an attempted power grab by monied interests. It paradoxically proposes to make Georgia more competitive by stifling competition.”

Peach Pundit: Amendment #1

Comment: “The only purpose to a 2-year non-compete in such fields (or ANY field, really) is to trap workers in their jobs… taking an at-will relationship and making the at-will aspect entirely one-sided. The only two types of people who could conceivably support such a thing are: (1) business owners who know exactly what it means, or (2) fools.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Pro & Con: Shall voters change workplace noncompete agreements?

“The end result if Amendment 1 is approved? Overly broad non-compete agreements will dictate how and where many employees work. The economy loses because labor is prevented from flowing to the place where it is most productive. The gain? Our already clogged courts gain even more lawsuits, and our judges gain power to become activists who make up and insert completely new terms into contracts. Georgians should not surrender their rights to make way for this one-sided, pro-employer and anti-employee law at any time. But at a time when unemployment is at record levels it is especially wrongheaded.”

Charlton County Herald: Pay attention the constitutional amendments

“The Georgia Libertarian Party, which opposes the passage of Amendment 1, described it this way: ‘This amendment would stifle growth of the economy by providing a barrier to entry to smaller, more agile firms wishing to compete in the marketplace, should they choose to employ those previously employed by a firm in that industry. While employment contracts can be an important part of an employer-employee relationship, they should not be used to punish those who seek to grow the market outside the established firms.’”

Examiner.com: Could Amendment #1 on the Georgia ballot harm employees?

“The employee seems to become a pawn in that should they get laid off, fired, or just no longer wish to remain with a certain company, they could not pursue their current occupation with someone else. Once an amendment becomes part of the Constitution, it is near to impossible to rescind it.”

Here are two studies that show passage of noncompete legislation is harmful to a state’s economy:
University of Toronto (2008)
Harvard University (2009)

And a quote from Nick Masino, head of Partnership Gwinnett, who helped recruit companies like NCR to move operations to Georgia

http://twitter.com/NickMasino/status/26738490631

None of my Economic Development Prospects have been concerned with the ability to “uphold reasonable competitive agreements” Amendment 1

Over the next couple days you may see ridiculous advertisements that gloss over this ballot measure and extol its virtues while never telling you what it does. Now that you know, hopefully you won’t fall victim to it and start Georgia down the wrong path for economic growth.

I got turned on to the Zen Habits blog a couple months ago. It’s a consistently good read about ways to minimize distractions in your life and live in the moment.

Of course, I’m pretty terrible at implementing any of it, but at least I know it’s there when I need it!

That said, Leo, the guy who writes it, just put out a new book title Focus and is offering the electronic version for free. It’s 27 chapters of advice on how to simplify your life and focus on what it is you’re doing. Also, he’s got a version for $39.95 that comes with a lot of cool extras like How To videos, extra chapters written by other people, and audio interviews with Seth Godin, David Allen, and Dave Navarro (not Carmen Electra’s husband, unfortunately).

It’s free, so at least go check it out. I bet you’ll end up liking it.

I’m not sure why Facebook gets the kind of pass it does in the business world. I guess it’s because they’re the hot company, founded by a 20 year old, that is now one of the biggest sites on the net and just had a blockbuster movie come out about it.

Still though, if I were an investor, stories like this would make me sick.

“There’s no point right now in having a massive profit,” Zuckerberg said.

Really? Because by your own estimations you have 500 million users and a couple billion a year in revenue. If you aren’t turning profits right now, after 6 years of building this site, odds are you’re doing something wrong. Maybe someone can correct me, but I can’t think of a single successful company that had 500 million users and marginal profits. Even Google was making fat stacks of cash at that point.

I was doing a lot of research on Facebook’s rapid growth last year around this time. I probably read over 100 articles about the company and every bit of biographical information I could find about the important people involved. At the time I was sold on Facebook; sold on their leadership and their plan. Now, just a year later, I’m much less impressed.

They should be doing better than they are (or are letting on that they are), and people are giving them a pass. They seem to think that there’s some magical button Facebook can press and start making billions of dollars from advertisers. Well, they have ads already. Lots of them, in fact, that make lots of money. It’s not like they’re just sitting in Palo Alto waiting to start selling. I’m certainly not going to say that they’re advertising potential is tapped out, but it’s certainly not waiting to be unleashed like some people claim.

Zuckerberg also points out that much of their revenue right now is reinvested into the product. I can’t disagree with that, building a great product should be a top priority at every company. However, I worry that in this culture of hackers they are always going to want to play with new things. Always reinvesting and building something new is a ton of fun, I get that, but it doesn’t pay the bills. Facebook can’t let perfect be the enemy of good (and profit).

Of course Facebook isn’t going to fail. They’re going to make lots of money for lots of people and be around for a looooong while. I just don’t think they’ve got the right mindset right now.

Well, quit playing as my only source of income, at least. This Washington Post article about Steven Silverman (zugwat) is one of the best insights into the young poker player’s mind I’ve read.

He’s like a much better version of me in that he didn’t really like what he was doing (although he made a whole lot more money at it than I ever could’ve hoped for). He also has a really good grasp on reality for a 22 year old, which a lot of teenage poker millionaires are lacking. Quotes like this make me think he’s going to be pretty successful wherever he ends up.

“When poker’s the only thing in your life, your happiness is totally dependent on whether you’re winning or losing,” Silverman says, “which is basically out of your control.”

And don’t let the “OMG we need more hits!” title fool you. This kid ain’t broke.

You break my heart.

This is a big day for me; it’s my first triple book writeup! I’ve compromised by only putting the first book cover at the top, but in case you are like me and somehow managed to avoid this series for the past decade the first three books in the series are:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
and
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

On the off chance you’re like me and haven’t read these, I’m going to tell you that they actually are good, you should check them out, and don’t read the rest of this review because I’m going to spoil stuff and it’s better if you get to read them.

Here are some things I like:

-These books are very entertaining and easy to read. You aren’t going to have to do a whole lot of thinking, but J.K. Rowling does a really good job of getting you invested in the characters.
-Dumbledore, especially in the first book, has some really interesting lines if you are open to thinking a bit.

Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you

and

the trouble is, humans have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.

are just a couple examples.

And here are some things I don’t like:

- So far there’s been a little too much “Lord of the Rings” ripping off for me. Dobby is basically Gollum with a heart, Dumbledore and Gandalf comparisons are too many to make, and Harry’s interaction with the Dementors are way too similar to Frodo and the Nazgul.
- The “Back to the Future 2″ style plot in Prisoner of Azkaban where Harry and Hermione go back in time to free two wrongly accused characters.
- Hopefully this doesn’t continue, but the first 25-50 pages of the second and third books were almost strictly rehashing the first book. I know that people need to be caught up, but come on, this is ridiculous.

But now it’s time for me to return these 3 books to their rightful owner and get started finishing the series since I promised to go see the first installment of movie version of the 7th book when it comes out in November.