Right speech and "the surprisingly large cost of telling small lies"

Some really nice thoughts in this blog post by Rebekah Campbell on telling little white lies and the consequences they have on you and those around you:

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/the-surprisingly-large-cost-of-telling-small-lies

Like Ms Campbell, I also have been reading and listening to Buddhist philosophy over the years, especially from Zencast and Audio Dharma.

What really resonated with me about her post was the idea that telling little lies can erode the trust of people around you (of course), and also pull you out of the present moment into offshoot micro-worlds where the lies hold true (nice).

"Peter maintains that telling lies is the No. 1 reason entrepreneurs fail. Not because telling lies makes you a bad person but because the act of lying plucks you from the present, preventing you from facing what is really going on in your world. Every time you overreport a metric, underreport a cost, are less than honest with a client or a member of your team, you create a false reality and you start living in it."

The concept of right speech is a core virtue of the Noble Eightfold Path, and it's nice to hear stories illustrating where it's made a difference in people's lives.

How has telling the truth affected your life?

Credits:
Photo CC-BY Julian Povey

Thoughts on the EU/US free trade agreement TTIP?

We got an email this morning calling to our attention the negotiations for a free-trade agreement between the EU and the US (called the Translatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or TTIP).

I started reading up on it and was wondering what your thoughts are on this?

Here is the official EU trade commission webpage on TTIP:
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ttip/

Here is an editorial on it in the Zeit:
http://www.zeit.de/2013/50/handelsabkommen-europa-usa (German)

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zeit.de%2F2013%2F50%2Fhandelsabkommen-europa-usa (Google Translated)

And here is Occupy London's take on it, including leaked documents on some of the provisions in the proposed trade agreement:
http://occupylondon.org.uk/stop-ttip/

As a proponent of open source and open gov, I wish there were more public debate and public negotiation of these agreements that have such a great impact on our lives.

But like most international trade agreements, secrecy is the modus operandi and this one is being done behind closed doors.

Any thoughts on the pros vs the cons based on what we know?

Location-based happiness. Literally!

I have to admit that I am an Ingress player. I've been fascinated by location-based interactions for years. But when I came across this idea, I just had to share it.

These happiness circles have been popping up in NYC and are compelling busy New Yorkers to stop, smile, and think about happiness.

This street art by an artist who goes by the moniker Mazeking is pure genius!

Check out the original post at http://designgood.com/the-mazeking/.

The product designer's dilemma

A friend of mine shared this on Facebook and it seemed too perfect not to reshare. :D

"Not OK, Glass" (MIT Tech Review)

A recent article on Technology Review highlights research by computer scientists at Indiana University that helps you mark places as off limit for lifeblogging and photo sharing.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/523941/not-ok-glass/

Interesting to explore when sharing becomes over-sharing, and when meaningful sharing becomes meaningless sharing.