175 salad dressing options......

Malcolm Gladwell is a funny person as well as a great writer!!  He is much more famous than Dr. Howard Moskowitz, the scientist he talks about the whole presentation. Dr. Moskowitz did all the work, and reached the conclusions. But because of Gladwell's journalistic and presentational skills, more people have now heard of Dr. Moskowitz than ever would have.  By the way, Malcolm also grew up in small city Ontario (makes me proud just to know that), just like Gordon Lightfoot and me

.http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html

Malcolm talks about Moskowitz' discovery that there is no 'one best Pepsi sweetness', that our preferences are clustered, rather than universal, and that often our mind can't express our taste preferences (e.g., chunky tomato sauce) until we actually do the tasting.  As a result, there are now many kinds of  tomato sauce and mustards* on supermarket shelves, too the happiness of Americans everywhere.

But hold on a minute. What about the equally stimulating presentation by Barry Schwartz?

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

Barry makes the opposite argument, i.e. that having 175 salad dressing options in the supermarket (and too many other choices in picking jeans, stereo systems, a mate, a career, a pension plan) causes us to become paralyzed and unable to make key decisions. He further thinks that having all these choices, options, tastes and fits, actually makes us unhappy, because our expectations have risen to the extent that they cannot be fulfilled. Something like waiting for a Mr. Right who either doesn't exist, or is unlikely to pass by in one's lifetime.

It is titillating that these two talks, presented a year and a continent apart, should contain two such conflicting views.  Do I have to choose one over the other?  That might lead to paralysis of thought. They are both lovely.  Perhaps too much choice is daunting, perhaps too little is limiting. I've decided not to decide. Now is that a decision? You decide.

*By the way, if you do like mustard, you might enjoy the Commandments' rendition of  'mustard sally' .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpmVt9POOoU

Pause for a moment .....

Definitely worth watching for all us workaholics.

This is an enlightening talk out of Sydney by Nigel Marsh, who maintains that our employers (particularly the commercial companies) try to suck as much energy out of us as possible, leaving little for the most important things in our life, our family, our wellbeing, our inner selves, and sex. He describes spending an afternoon with his youngest child, only to learn that this was the happiest day of his son's life.

Indeed when we remember our fond family moments as children, it is the small things that stand out. Going for walks together, card games, fishing, golf, the beach, rather than spectacular events and shows.

As adults, it is too easy to get into the spiral of running after professional success. Money, gold cards on airlines, hobnobbing with rich and famous. Or, in the case of scientists, key speeches at major conferences, articles in Nature and Science, invitations from Harvard and Oxford.  

As someone who has been in this race for over thirty years, I have made my share of mistakes. Too much travel when my kids were growing up, for example. My now adult son recently told me that as a child he used to sleep with my t-shirt when I would fly (frequently) abroad.  Had I known, would I have done it differently?

As my colleague Dr. Cal Torneck (University of Toronto) once put it, "At the end of the day, it's family that counts".  "They're the ones who really miss you when you're dead and gone".  And I hasten to add, "No one has their CV on their tombstone."

Has anyone invited Paul Simon to speak at TED? They should. I am reminded of  some of his finest lines from Slip Sliding Away:

"And I know a father who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he'd done
He came a long way just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and he headed home again

God only knows, God makes his plan
The information's unavailable to the mortal man
We're workin' our jobs, collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway, when in fact we're slip sliding away"

 http://www.ted.com/talks/nigel_marsh_how_to_make_work_life_balance_work.html