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Biz Bits - December 2009

December 2009

Published in :: Business

HOLIDAY BONUSES

BRIGHTEN A WORKAHOLIC'S HOLIDAY WITH THESE NEW GADGETS.

MIMO 720-S USB MONITOR

When you're multitasking, your computer's desktop can become cluttered with windows. Throw some of those over to a second screen, and life gets a lot easier. This USB-powered, 7-inch monitor weighs less than a pound and pivots 90 degrees. $230; www.mimomonitors.com

MOTORMOUSE

This award-winning wireless mouse, shaped like a classic sports car, offers a way to indulge fantasies of speeding through the hills of Napa during those long nights at the office. It's got chrome alloy wheels, real rubber tires and its own "super glide" mouse pad. $47; www.motormouse.us.com

YUBZ TALK MOBILE ONLINE

With internet talk programs, long distance no longer costs a fortune, but those old phone receivers can feel more natural than talking into your computer. This retro-designed phone hooks up to any USB port, works with all VoIP programs and is easy to hold against your shoulder so you can type with both hands. $40; www.yubz.com

PONG

Being tied to a smartphone all day comes with a few concerns-some researchers believe the electromagnetic radiation the devices produce may be harmful. Pong, the first scientifically proven radiation reduction case for iPhones, has been tested by FCC-certified labs, and its "ladder" construction moves radiation through the case and away from the user. $60; www.pongresearch.com

THE CLOSING BELL BY JACK GUINAN

TOP FIVE - HOME RUNS

In many parts of the country, it's a great time to invest in a new home. According to Forbes.com, prices in these cities are likely to rise between 2009 and 2014:

SEATTLE 30.98%
SAN FRANCISCO 26.51%
PITTSBURGH 22.1%
BOSTON 20.44%
DETROIT 19.96%

A MATTER OF CHOICE

AN INVESTMENT EXPERT TEACHES THE VALUE OF SECOND-GUESSING YOURSELF

 

Go with your gut. Trust your instincts.

If it doesn't feel right, don't do it. People hear these kinds of instructions all the time, but Michael J. Mauboussin, author of Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition, doesn't buy these axioms.

"Good quality decision making is a rare thing," says Mauboussin, whose book outlines decision-making biases and the ways in which initial decisions can be faulty. "What seems to separate the people who are more successful in business and investing is not so much their analytical skills, but how they approach their problems."

MAUBOUSSIN OUTLINES THREE WAYS THAT YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR DECISION-MAKING CAPABILITIES:

KEEP A DECISION JOURNAL
"Every time you face a consequential decision-professional or personal-write down why you made the decision and what your rationale was. Humans have this tendency called 'hindsight bias,' which is that once we know the answer [to a problem] we tend to think we knew more about the event before it happened. The journal gives you concrete feedback in your own handwriting and helps you to calibrate and improve your decision making over time."

PERFORM A PREMORTEM
"Everyone is used to the idea of a postmortem, where you reflect back on a decision that went badly, then recreate the circumstances and try to figure out what went wrong. In a pre-mortem, you imagine a future decision and how the decision might go badly, and you look at what you can change beforehand."

QUESTION INCENTIVES
"Ask a very simple question when you're making a decision: What's motivating the people on the other side of this decision? What are the incentives for these people and are their incentives aligned with certain behaviors that may not be good for decision making?"

Published in :: Business

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