Thursday, October 31, 2013

Daily Links 10-31-13

Catching up with the Robertsons, don't follow your passion, why introverts make good leaders, plus a couple of bonus Halloween links in today's post.

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Leave it to Si Robertson to succinctly state what is wrong with the world: "It ain't gun control we need; it's sin control." He made this statement in a lengthy profile of the Robertson clan of Duck Dynasty fame that appears in the current issue of Men's Journal. The whole article is worth reading. (Hat tip: The Blaze)

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Darius Rucker first hit it big as frontman for Hootie and the Blowfish. But he's gone on to have a successful career in country music, too. The video below is a perfect example of his music. Be sure to watch carefully for some special cameos (and make sure to watch all the way to the end).



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Dilbert creator Scott Adams has some advice on how to be successful: don't follow your passion:

For most people, it's easy to be passionate about things that are working out, and that distorts our impression of the importance of passion. I've been involved in several dozen business ventures over the course of my life, and each one made me excited at the start. You might even call it passion. 
The ones that didn't work out—and that would be most of them—slowly drained my passion as they failed. The few that worked became more exciting as they succeeded. For example, when I invested in a restaurant with an operating partner, my passion was sky high. And on day one, when there was a line of customers down the block, I was even more passionate. In later years, as the business got pummeled, my passion evolved into frustration and annoyance. 
On the other hand, Dilbert started out as just one of many get-rich schemes I was willing to try. When it started to look as if it might be a success, my passion for cartooning increased because I realized it could be my golden ticket. In hindsight, it looks as if the projects that I was most passionate about were also the ones that worked. But objectively, my passion level moved with my success. Success caused passion more than passion caused success.

Hat tip: Lifehacker

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Readers can save the world! Not really, but reading is good for you according to our friends to the north.

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Four things introverts do that make them effective leaders. This is an interesting read. (Hat tip Adrian Warnock)

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Five myths of leadership. I have to admit I have heard every single one of these and thought they were all true. (Hat tip Vicki Whiting)

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It can now be revealed that Disney's Imagineers tested the Haunted Mansion special effects on the night cleaning crew:


Hat tip: Neatorama

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Today marks the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast. You can listen to the entire broadcast here. Welles' sign-off was priceless:

"This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that “The War of The Worlds” has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre’s own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo! Starting now, we couldn’t soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night …so we did the best next thing. We annihiliated the world before your very ears, and utterly destroyed the Columbia Broadcasting System. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn’t mean it, and that both institutions are still open for business. So goodbye everybody, and remember the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody’s there, that was no Martian …it’s Halloween!"

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