Simple Persuasive Questions

• Do you want...?
• Do you think...?
• Do you know...?
• Wouldn't you rather...?
• Would you like...?
• Could you...?
• Do you have...?
• Are you able to...?

Secular Morality from "The Science of Good and Evil" by Michael Shermer

The Ask First Principle:
- Is an action right or wrong? Ask first.

The Happiness Principle:
- It is a higher moral principle to always seek happiness with someone else's happiness in mind.
- Never seek happiness when it leads to someone else's unhappiness
- Follow the win-win principle
- Always seek gain through the gain of others, never seek gain through the forced or fraudulent loss of others.

The Liberty Principle:
- It is a higher moral principle to always seek liberty with someone else's liberty in mind.
- Never seek happiness when it leads to someone else's loss of liberty

The Moderation Principle:
When innocent people die, extremism in the defense of anything is no virtue, and moderation in the protection of everything is no vice.

Evolution of Gullibility

I am 1/2 atheist, 1/2 religious, and 1/2 bad mathematician.

...I have a question...Why do most religious people reject the process of human evolution from one-cell organisms?

I have discussed this with many devout people and they never even read the simple wikipedia entries detailing all the evidence we have.

Project Mismanagement

As Project Manager, the coding group tells you there is an 85% probability they will complete on-time. The testing group gives you an 80% number. The implementation group also gives an 80% chance of on-time completion. What is the completion number for the whole project?

Nope...it's not the average...82%. And it's not your own personal guesstimate.

The actual on-time completion probability is 54%. Why? Because in this situation probabilities are multiplied.

This is one reason so many projects are late and over-budget. Managers are blissfully unaware they are actually barely on-time and on-budget until it's too late.

What's the solution? I think we know.

Chains of Freedom

This is a stub for a story I will write someday about the army taking helicopter pilots hostage.

Honesty

My good deed for today...returned a cell phone left on table in library.

Why "Panning For Gold?"

• It's the better way to absorb information - critical thinking as opposed to being an information sponge ("Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking" by M. Neil Browne, and Stuart Keeley)
• I am starting to look at life as panning for gold