morale

In five minutes, please walk away from your computer, take out your moral compass, and ask it for an update. Then, please tweet the results.

Yes, after the powerful and persuasive arguments of M'lady Greenfield of England--she who declared that Facebook was making us infantile--we now have further cause to worry about ourselves and our children.

Scientists at the University of Southern California have broken away from their task of finding the next 20 or so great football talents for the university to conduct research suggesting that Twitter may take the nerve endings out of our sense of … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Media companies should see Google not as an enemy but as an ally that's trying to make advertising work on the Internet, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Wednesday.

Google has a financial incentive to make sure advertising can support companies that supply high-quality content, Schmidt said during an on-stage interview here with Ken Auletta, The New Yorker's media reporter. But Schmidt said there's another dimension to Google's motivation, too, one not often figuring prominently in business affairs.

"It's a huge moral imperative to help here," Schmidt said of publishers' problems making advertising … Read more

My recent post on dysfunctional workplaces sparked a moral dilemma, of sorts. It goes like this:

You have a choice. On the one hand, you can spend your career playing it safe, hanging back, being a yes man (or woman), and making sure your ass is always covered. We'll call that the "safe path." Or you can take risks, be passionate about what you believe in, speak up, stand up for what's right, and possibly commit political suicide in the process. We'll call that the "risky path."

Which path do you choose?

I, for one, chose the risky path, and it worked pretty well for me. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I didn't so much choose it as it chose me. That path always felt like it was part of me, in my blood. I could no more play it safe than I could change the color of my eyes from brown to green.

Let's assume that, unlike me, you have a choice. As much as I would like to influence that choice by telling you mine was the better way, I can't. The truth is that I have no idea.

For all I know some people aren't meant to rattle cages, challenge the status quo, throw caution to the wind. They either can't or don't wish to live their lives on a razor's edge. … Read more