An excellent study conducted recently by the Wikimedia Foundation and UNU-Merit identified some interesting facts including that only 13% of the respondents were female Wikipedia contributors (meaning that they actually posted content). Speculation on the implications of this fact appeared throughout the blogosphere including this article by Ryan Tate which includes this passage:

MIT instructor and alumni Philip Greenspun has floated a theory as to why women are underrepresented in high-end scientific professions: Science is generally a terrible career choice, but it contains a dysfunctional status hierarchy that tends to appeal the male egos.

“A lot more men than women choose to do seemingly irrational things such as become petty criminals, fly homebuilt helicopters, play video games, and keep tropical fish as pets (98 percent of the attendees at the American Child Association convention that I last attended were male). Should we be surprised that it is mostly men who spend 10 years banging their heads against an equation-filled blackboard in hopes of landing a $35,000/year post-doc job? …Young men strive to achieve high status among their peer group. [Yet] men tend to lack perspective and are unable to step back and ask the question “is this peer group worth impressing?”…

So it is with Wikipedia. Why invest your free time wrangling with a politicized Wikipedia bureaucracy of infighting editors and bitter story subjects, all for the honor of creating a free resource for other people and paying out of your own pocket to go to high-level meetings for the Wikimedia elite? If you’re a man, for the honor of being near the “top” of something, no matter how fruitless.

To Greenspun’s point, there is a lot of work involved in contributing to Wikipedia. Not so much in actually making the edits, but in defending the changes against people with generally a lot more time to engage in an edit war. In essence, being right isn’t enough if you don’t want to put a lot of effort into convincing people that you are right.

From my personal example (the fact that the topic seems to be banal proves the point), I made an edit on the Frasier page a couple of years ago. It was in regards to a reference that John Mahoney who plays Martin Crane, like many of his colleagues previously appeared on Cheers. No surprise here, of course, the former was a spinoff of the latter and they shared not only the title character but also the same producers. Mahoney’s role on Cheers was a washed-up ad man hired by Rebecca Howe (who had a budget of $50) to write a jingle for the bar. He ended up playing the piano while he sang the jingle “Beer and Pretzels that’s our game…” Because of this someone had described him the character as a pianist. I changed the entry to describe him as an “ad man” because while pianist was correct, it wasn’t completely accurate (the post could have said he played a vertebrate which was equally true). In any case, an edit war occurred and I eventually lost interest. By the way, I checked before I wrote this post and (no thanks to me) the entry now reads the way it should…

Some cast members of Frasier appeared previously in minor roles on Cheers. John Mahoney, who played Martin Crane, appeared in an episode of Cheers, as Si Phlembeck, an over-the-hill advertising executive hired by Rebecca to write a jingle for the bar. In it, Grammer and Mahoney exchanged a few lines.

That episode ended up being incredibly valuable for Mahoney as it certainly led to his casting on Frasier and the ensuing vast riches. There is an interesting story behind how he got the role described here by the writer of the episode. I’d edit the Wikipedia entry to reflect the cool info, but once bitten, twice shy my friend.

Going around the twitter feeds this week is news about the first American rehab center for Internet addiction. My friend Anastasia at YPulse wrote an excellent article about the tragic death at the center. From her post:

But is teenagers’ desire to text their friends 24/7, check their Facebook messages or even play a new game for several hours an addiction? I remember speaking on a panel where someone made the analogy of kids who were so excited about the new Harry Potter book, they literally holed themselves up in their room for hours reading. Were these kids reading “addicts”? Teenagers’ heavy use of technology certainly might be irritating, especially to parents who would prefer to see their kids engaged in more physical, offline activities. But we also have to remember that the desire to stay connected to friends at all times is a natural part of adolescence and tapers off as we grow older, get jobs, start our own families, etc.

The problem is that once we begin using this label, even casually, it carries the social stigma of being labeled an “addict” as well as potential treatment models that may be highly inappropriate (China’s being the most extreme). Can you imagine teen texters sitting in a 12-step group being forced to talk about being powerless over their desire to respond to their BFF’s messages? I’m not denying that too much tech may be an issue for some teens (hurting grades, impacting their physical and mental health) that parents and mental health professionals should be addressing. But can we do it without using the label of addiction?

There are, of course, conflicting opinions about whether Internet Addiction Disorder is an actual true affliction or simply a manifestation of existing conditions. For example, if a youth was predisposed to addictive behavior, video games can offer an outlet. Similarly, I doubt there were any gambling addicts in my peer group when I was a teenager. Whereas today, the immediate and constant availability of online poker offers an opportunity that simply wasn’t there before (any tech-savvy teenager can get around age controls). See this article for a deeply personal story about poker addiction. The availability of online pornography has had lasting effects on the sexual landscape of today’s youth (See Ariel Levy’s book Female Chauvinist Pigs for a deep analysis on the issue). Thoughtful parenting strategies can help here of course, but technology just makes the job more complicated.

For each of these superhits (JK has over 18 million hits) there are, of course, thousands of brilliant (or at least enormously time-consuming) efforts that warrant a happy face sticker from the Wikinomics team.

As I brought up in a blog post a couple of years ago, a classic Weird Al video has found not just new life on Youtube, but has spawned some competitors including the all-Lego version below. Watch it and consider how much time it took and how much attention to detail. I’m not saying that it helped jrdmovimkr meet some ladies, but it got him some page views.

Another example I find fascinating is Monty Python’s Camelot song. Watch the original here, another Lego version here, and a Star Trek mashup below.

Speaking of Star Trek, fan fiction (Editor’s note: probably best not to provide a link) has provided a fertile platform for some web hi-jinks. Fans of Hogwarts should check out the Potter Puppet Pals.

This video has been viewed 66 million times – how do you like them apples, Jill and Kevin?

A lot of people run into these etiquette errors as they are getting used to a new social network. I have a presentation that I’ve delivered several times (often for fifty bucks and bus fare) where I describe LinkedIn as a Grey Flannel Suit and Facebook as a Hawaiian Shirt. It’s good to have both in your wardrobe, but if you show up at a board meeting in a Hawaiian Shirt you look like a goof and if you show up on a boathouse roof in a Grey Flannel Suit you look like an ass.

How one uses the status update is important here. Since LinkedIn should be your grey suit, unless for some reason you want a nutty online professional persona, it should only refer to a new accomplishment, position, or company or a request for work-related information or a decision. A lot of young people, consider status updates on Facebook to be lame, but those old people that showed up late on the scene to ruin it (like me and many of my friends) use it as an opportunity to be provocative or to try and show off their (Editor’s Note: should we qualify this?) sense of humour. The whole point of Twitter is frequent updates, but as Mark suggests, if you are reviewing your cat’s moods too often, most people will quickly vote with their feet (and unfollow button). Like most people, I ignore Plaxo’s plaintive and earnest pleas for an update. And Bebo? To paraphrase favorite philosophers, “what the fruck is Bebo.”

There are a lot of services that enable immediate updates across multiple platforms. I wouldn’t recommend any of them though since they can’t automatically determine whether a message is appropriate for a medium. In fact, it probably can’t even use contractions. What annoys you the most about status updates?

Because of its nature of individual matchups between the pitcher and the batter, baseball lends itself to the collection of stats. Bill James and his band of sabremetricians help to collect detailed information about each player.  As the group would tell you, three of the most “traditional” baseball stats, batting average (treats a single and a grand slam as equals) and wins (can you team hit at all?) are useless. Total Average was the rage in the 1970s (it was updated after base stealers received too much of a premium because hitting a single and getting caught stealing means you did your team no better than if you struck out), fielding percentage (penalizes a shortstop for booting a ball that a fatter guy wouldn’t have reached).
Still, we are just talking about offensive contributions. The Times article describes how technology can enhance statistics even more.  From the article:

Which shortstops reach the hard-hit grounders up the middle? Which base runners take the fastest path from first base to third? Which right fielders charge the ball quickest and then throw the ball hardest and most accurately? Although the game will continue to answer to forces like wind, glaring sun and the occasional gnat swarm, a good deal of time-honored guesswork will give way to more definite measurements — continuing the trend of baseball front offices trading some traditional game-watching scouts for video and statistical analysts.

The New York Times posted an interesting article about another high school standard. The author attests that Gen Y readers don’t identify with Holden Caulfield. From the article:

The alienated teenager has lost much of his novelty, said Ariel Levenson, an English teacher at the Dalton School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Holden’s home turf. She added that even the students who liked the book tend to find the language — “phony,” “her hands were lousy with rocks,” the relentless “goddams” — grating and dated.

“Holden Caulfield is supposed to be this paradigmatic teenager we can all relate to, but we don’t really speak this way or talk about these things,” Ms. Levenson said, summarizing a typical response. At the public charter school where she used to teach, she said, “I had a lot of students comment, ‘I can’t really feel bad for this rich kid with a weekend free in New York City.’ ”

Julie Johnson, who taught Mr. Salinger’s novel over three decades at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill., cited similar reactions. “Holden’s passivity is especially galling and perplexing to many present-day students,” she wrote in an e-mail message. “In general, they do not have much sympathy for alienated antiheroes; they are more focused on distinguishing themselves in society as it is presently constituted than in trying to change it.”

In other news about Wikinomics and the Classics, this post brilliantly features customer reviews of products considered by all normal accounts to be spectacular. Some of my favourites:

The Godfather:

When’s an editor when you need one? This movie is so long that I played it on my TV, drove across the state, and when I came back, it was still playing. Since when is a movie this long? Movies are supposed to be 1:30-2:00 hours long. Plus this movie is as boring as a trip to the doctor’s. No good violence, no hot sex scenes, and furthermore, it stereotypes Italians. The only decent movie in this series is The Godfather III.

This is Spinal Tap:

If you’re going to make such an excellent documentary, why make it about about a band that nobody has ever heard of?

Getting similar behind-the-scenes footage on the Who, The Stones, or Genesis would have been a monumental achievment in documentary cinema.

But Spinal Pap?

The Princess Bride

I have no idea what this is. This can’t be a movie because movies are supposed to be good. The story is assanine and unbelievable. The title makes no sense. What exactly is a princess bride who is named after a buttercup. I was made to watch this movie in school and it was torture. Thank you.

Moby Dick

This book is HORRIBLE! Classic, my eye! I would love to know what’s so great about this book. I have seen better writing in a Hallmark card! Boring! Give me a good ole copy of Elvis and Me! A true story that really tugs at your heart strings! I sleep with that one under my pillow! Keep Moby Dick away from my bed!

Star Wars fans—and they are still legion, despite over 20 years of nonstop setbacks—fondly remember a sequence in The Empire Strikes Back on the planet Hoth, an arid wasteland characterized by deadly sub-freezing temperatures. In order to save Luke Skywalker from certain death, Hans Solo carves opens the dead carcass of a Tauntaun (described on the Star Wars “Wookieepedia” as an “omnivorous reptomammal” that the Rebel Alliance used for transport) with his Lightsaber and tucks his little buddy inside. Sure, it stinks to high heaven, but nestled under the Tauntaun’s thick skin and warm intestines, Luke is saved from a grim fate.

ThinkGeek’s April Fool’s joke was the unveiling of the Tauntaun sleeping bag, a plush replica of the beast featuring a “built-in embroidered Tauntaun head pillow,” “a glowing Lightsaber zipper pull,” and “the exact synthetic compounds needed to recreate Tauntaun fur.” Funny, right? Because who would want to sleep inside an animal’s, smelly intestines? Answer: The many, many people eager to fork out $39.99, that’s who!

ThinkGeek is now trying to actually produce said device and is negotiating with LucasFilm for the rights. It should fit in well with their other products such as the Star Wars Cookbooks, the R2-D2 trashcan and the Darth Vader USB Hub. And nothing says joie de vivre like a Yoda plush backpack.

The best comment from A.V. Club is by “Hack”, who says “Wow, an idea that was too stupid to fail. Someone deserves to be fired, then receive a huge bonus.”

Joining me on stage were Webby-winning blogger Neil Pasricha of 1000awesomethings.com, founder of GovLoop.com (the online social network for the US government) Steve Ressler, word of mouth guru and social networker extraordinaire Sean Moffitt, Community Leader of the Globe & Mail Mathew Ingram, and Simon Pulsifer a leader of the Wikipedia community (he has made more than 1000, edits).

It was a wonderful discussion. For highlights, please visit #nGenInsight on Twitter.

A revolution is happening in government as the result of a new generation of government employees, the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, and the Obama administration’s focus on transparency, participation, and collaboration. This revolution is often called “Government 2.0” and GovLoop is at the center of this movement.

Since its launch, GovLoop members have written over 1,500 blogs, started 1,200 discussions, posted over 450 events, shared 4,000+ photos and created over 200 videos.

GovLoop members have already:
• Developed a burgeoning “Acquisition 2.0” movement to employ innovative acquisition methods
• Been the leading source of government input into the Obama Administration’s Open Government Memo
• Established a repository of best practices on items including Social Media Policies, Government Hiring and Government Twitter Use
• Launched a top-rated podcast “Gov 2.0 Radio” (http://gov20radio.com) with guests like Tim O’Reilly (founder of O’Reilly media, http://oreilly.com) and Craig Newmark (founder of Craig’s List, http://craigslist.com)
• Helped GovLoop.com win the prestigious Federal 100 award and stand as a finalist for the 2009 ACT Intergovernmental Solutions Award

It forces some attention grabbing too (follow me @doverd4s).

Anyway, here are some interesting things I’ve tweeted about:

Mass collaboration picked up some old school corner-cutting in Disney films.

If you haven’t seen Auto Tune, check out this video (scroll down).

Good article about old media and a sense of entitlement.

And…I promise to be around more.

The readers of the New York Times had a similar reaction to Jake DeSantis, a VP of AIG that provided his resignation letter as an op-ed piece. Now, the letter is well-written and some of his arguments are compelling — basic message is “a deal’s a deal and staff not responsible for the meltdown are being unfairly unpunished.”

The Times editors closed the comments section after accepting 917 entries. I think Mr. DeSantis was suprised that almost all of the commenters pretty much said “don`t let the door hit you on the way out.“ The few that were supportive, tending to agree on the macro level that the government shouldn`t get involved.

The public resignation letter, intended presumably to put a human face on those AIG staffers that were hurt by the meltdown instead fueled a mass collaboration of Mr. Pink sentiment.

Our friend Mathew Ingram pointed out this article that describes how Guitar Hero releases are a bright light in an otherwise dismal music industry. Aerosmith has made more money from the GH sequel than from any individual album release.

From the article:

[Aerosmith's success]… unscores a number of really interesting points. First off, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is nothing more than a “greatest hits” montage for the band, with a bunch of indy band songs sprinkled in for variety. Putting out the game cost Aerosmith nothing more than their signature, agreeing to allow Activision to use their music. Secondly, it proves the consumer is still interested in paying for music. They just don’t want to buy CDs or single tracks anymore. They want interactivity, add-ons, special content and video games. According Microsoft gaming chief Robbie Bach, more than 60 million tracks were downloaded for Rockband, Guitar Hero and Lips over Xbox Live in 2008.

Here are some quotes from professors in the article:

“Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark…Some assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.”

“I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C…That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.”

“Students often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in students that ‘if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.’ “

Quotes from students:

“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade…What else is there really than the effort that you put in?”

“If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?…If someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves. If your maximum effort can only be average in a teacher’s mind, then something is wrong.”

“I feel that if I do all of the readings and attend class regularly that I should be able to achieve a grade of at least a B.”

What are your thoughts on this? Have you experienced a similar disconnect in the workplace?

Mark’s other rules of engagement are as follows:

1. It can be an existing business or a start up.
2. It can not be a business that generates any revenue from advertising. Why ? Because I want this to be a business where you sell something and get paid for it. Thats the only way to get and stay profitable in such a short period of time.
3. It MUST BE CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days�
4. It must be profitable within 90 days.
5. Funding will be on a monthly basis. If you dont make your numbers, the funding stops
6. You must demonstrate as part of your plan that you sell your product or service for more than what it costs you to produce, fully encumbered
7. Everyone must work. The organization is completely flat. There are no employees reporting to managers. There is the founder/owners and everyone else
8.  You must post your business plan here, or you can post it on slideshare.com , scribd.com or google docs, all completely public for anyone to see and/or download
9. I make no promises that if your business is profitable, that I will invest more money. Once you get the initial funding you are on your own
10. I will make no promises that I will be available to offer help. If I want to , I will. If not, I wont.
11. If you do get money, it goes into a bank that I specify, and I have the ability to watch the funds flow and the opportunity to require that I cosign any outflows.
12. In your business plan , make sure to specify how much equity I will receive or how I will get a return on my money.
13. No mult-level marketing programs (added 2/10/09 1pm)

So far, he’s received more than 1,500 comments including quite a few promises of impending business plans.

I’ve relented though on the 25 Random things meme that is stampeding through Facebook right now. Mine are posted below. If you want to share yours with the Wikinomics community, cut and paste yours into the comments section.

1.       I only did one year of competitive improv, but probably learned more business skills during that time than any single course from my MBA. For my Facebook friends that are also clients, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m making stuff up when I’m delivering a presentation.

2.       I had a crush on Vicki Stubing from Love Boat. While that sounds creepy, it was completely age appropriate at the time. It makes my crushes on Dr. Melfi and Nicolette Grant seem a little childish.

3.       Somehow I brought two women (including my future wife) to my senior formal in undergrad. They ended up wandering through the staff kitchen of the London Radisson.

4.       I’ve completely planned out every step of my daughter’s academic career. She has no intention of following this (really cool) plan and is going to sabotage it at stage two when she’s in her interview for UTS. “Why do you want to attend our school?” “I don’t, my dad wants me to.”

5.       I tell people that I host monthly dinner parties for 12 (I do all the cooking), but in reality the frequency has slipped to more like quarterly. Still – it’s more dinner parties than you host.

6.       I’ve worked for the same organization for more than ten years although there have been seven company names. While I’m writing this list, I’m wearing an Alliance for Converging Technologies swatch.

7.       Working for a think tank for a decade has allowed me to meet a lot of really smart, interesting people. Too many to list here, but Rogow alone is worth the price of admission.

8.       I played a season of F level summer hockey on a team that only won one game. That game, though, we won 10-1 and Stephen J. Morrison and I combined for 11 points. After SJM tapped in his fourth goal, he made eye contact with me (to make sure I got the joke) and did a perfect impression of Bobby Orr humbly dropping his head and skating back to centre ice for the face-off.

9.       I’m undefeated at Cranium. It doesn’t take too many cocktails before I declare that I’m undefeatable.

10.   My favourite baseball player is Garth Iorg. While I only saw about 1% of his MLB games live, I witnessed 30% of his career homeruns.

11.   Probably the most fun I’ve had a concert was  Gowan at the Forum at Ontario Place in 1986. It was unironic fun.

12.   I’ve seen at least one Grey Cup in every current CFL city…plus Ottawa.

13.   I haven’t played Dungeons & Dragons in more than a quarter century but still remember minutiae like a two-handed sword causes 3-18 points of damage to a medium or large sized monster with a bonus of 6 points if you are a fighter with 18 (00) strength. Sadly, I didn’t need to Google to verify that’s correct.

14.   I don’t like musicals but have the score to Jesus Christ Superstar memorized.

15.   There’s probably a limit to how many times I’ll watch the The Shawshank Redemption, After Hours, Scent of a Woman, Pulp Fiction, Godfather, Godfather Part II, Harold & Kumar go to White Castle, and Midnight Run. I just don’t know that limit yet.

16.   I’m blessed to have many dear friends from high school. I especially love our little rituals like the mid-summer MT Productions party, the Champagne Weekend at Joy’s, Pagan Fest and the kid’s Christmas party at Julie’s House.

17.   The above friends are still a little baffled that I was able to marry someone as smart, good-looking and nice as Jenn. Frankly, I doubt they’d of given me two out of those three.

18.   My favourite non-fiction book is “A View from the Year 3000”. In order to qualify to read it, you must first read my third favourite non-fiction book “The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History” otherwise you will dismiss the former as the rant of a nut.

19.   My favourite website is www.1000awesomethings.com. I know the owner.

20.   I really miss the defunct discussion board at f*ckedcompany.com. They were the greatest group of sociopathic, mouth-breathing geeky trolls I’ve ever had the pleasure to know. Cupcakes sans Frontiers, I hardly knew ye.

21.   I haven’t bought a CD in more than ten years from an artist to whom I didn’t have a personal connection.

22.   I was once bitten by an emu. I deserved it.

23.   I introduced Dean Iacovelli, my freshman roommate, to Kurt Vonnegut about whom he did his Master’s thesis. I also introduced him to the woman who, shall we say, welcomed him into manhood.

24.   I’ve hired more than seventy interns over my career. Many of them still come to me for career advice.

25.   My favourite restaurant meal is the tasting menu at Aqua in San Francisco even though it includes a tiny piece of Chilean Sea Bass, which is technically an endangered species. I’ll save us all the indignity of making a thimbleful of Creamy Narwhal Soup joke.

It seems that an unpaid internship suddenly seems like a good deal. Charityfolks.com is auctioning off internships (they expect an internship at Elle magazine to command a bid of $50,000). Obviously, there is a lot of controversy about this announcement. Click here and here for active discussions.

Optimists claim that paying for an internship for your kid is a good investment. After all, a parent has already shelled out a whack of cash to pay for their education, why stop short of a final investment that will help them get a good job (eventually). Detractors point out that it is another example of how the rich get all the advantages and that companies are doing themselves no favour by hiring the highest bidder rather than the smartest or the most passionate.

Thanks to our friend Mathew Ingram for pointing this out. Posted on GigaPan – it is a panaromic shot made up of more than 200 separate images.

You can zoom right in and see individuals in the crowd (use the controls in the upper left of the screen –access via the link above). The artist explains how he did it on his blog.

My colleague Alan nicely captured the citizen reporting that happened around the Miracle on the Hudson. The aftermath makes a nice Wikinomics story as well.

Captain C.B. Sullenberger

He’s a star on Facebook; there are dozens of fan groups set up about him including this one with more than 300,000 members at time of posting and one nominating him for an award. 

His LinkedIn profile is a little light, but he has two posted recommendations. I’m thinking he’ll get some more shortly.

I came across an interesting article (props to Daniel Debow of Rypple) that goes against some of our research that asserts that gamers (specifically players of World of Warcraft) bring great value and advanced leadership into the workplace.

From the article:

“[The job recruiter] replied that employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players,” Tale wrote. Contary to the opinion that playing WoW teaches teamwork and leadership, these companies allegedly have a firm belief that “WoW players cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, etc.”

Our research shows that Gamers develop the following talent and skills that are leveraged in the workplace:

• Quickly integrate onto remote, virtual teams and understand the importance of relying on team members for success
• Use state of the art collaborative communication tools and learn to tailor communication style
• Demonstrate adaptability and nimbleness in responding to quickly changing circumstances
• Demonstrate willingness to take risks with a focus on creativity and innovation
• Desire to be measured and held accountable; seek transparency
• Use technology to make data-based decisions

Wikinomics readers, what is your experience? Is the value of gamers greater than the liabilities?

Here at the Wikinomics blog, we can give you some help when it comes to succeeding with some of the more popular resolutions, at least from a geek point of view:

1. I’m going to get more organized.

This one’s easy. Visit lifehacker. It’s loaded with tons of apps and tips including this one which protects you from nasty applications adding themselves to your start-up tray. Hey, Weatherbug…go away, I have a window in my office. Here’s one that helps you organize your gift wrapping. Lots of stuff here for Gmail, iPhones, Blackberries, etc.

2. I’m going to read more books.

Here are the Amazon.com editor’s picks for best books of 2008 as well as the top ten from the New York Times Book Review.

3. I’m going to learn a new language.

Ok, this one is mocked at Stuff White People Like, but it’s a perennial favourite. You might think “The Rosetta Stone packages look cool…they’re in all my magazines and at the airport, but golly, it’s expensive. Is there a better way?” Damn straight…search the podcast language instruction on iTunes. There are a bunch of free lessons available. If you go to the French Ecole, tell them Bonjour for me.

4. I’m going to get in shape.

Hey, Tubby…before you join a gym, remember that the regulars don’t like newcomers walking on the treadmills enjoying a high-calorie smoothie. Complete the program at hundredpushups.com first. If it’s all good, join the gym in March.

5. I’m so sick of my music. I need to upgrade.

Maybe. But, then again, there may be more hidden gems there than you thought. Activate Genius in iTunes. Pick a song in your library that you like, then hit the Genius icon. It will make you a new playlist. If Mr. Roboto is on said playlist, start over.

6. I’m going to cook more at home.

Tell you what. I love epicurious. Go by the fork ratings, and check out the suggestions in the comments section. I go on about that here.

7. I’m probably not going to do any of that stuff. Instead, I’ll flake out on the couch and eat Cheetos.

OK, well, then watch some new movies. Have you seen all the top films ranked by the users of the Internet Movie Database? Here’s one at #4 that I haven’t seen, although it stars Clint Eastwood who was in Million Dollar Baby with Morgan Freeman who was in Outbreak with Donald Sutherland who was in Animal House with Kevin Bacon.

But, if all else fails and you need to get rid of the Cheetos, here are some tips on flossing.

Jeff Gordinier, author of X Saves the World, which we’ve mentioned on the blog before, a couple of times, has an interesting way of testing whether one is, in fact, a member of the generation. He points out that unlike the Baby Boomers, there is no agreed upon start (or end) year for the Generation. He proposes a quiz to tell whether you are a member:

1. Do you want to change the world?

a. Yes, and I’m proud to say, we did it man. We changed the world, just look around you.

b. Yes, absolutely, and I promise to get back to doing that just as soon as interest rates return to where they are supposed to be.

c. Omigod, omigod, changing the world and helping people is, like, totally important to me! I worked in a soup kitchen once and it was so sad but the poor people there had so much dignity!

d. The way you phrase the question is so fucking cheesy and absurd that I am not even sure that I want to continue with this pointless exercise.

That’s the only question on the GXAT. I could tack on a bunch of stuff about John Hughes and George Stephanopoulos and the Austrian version of “Rock Me Amadeus,” but there is no need. We’re done. If you chose d, accept it: you’re an Xer, even if you happen to be eighty years old. As people like (Douglas, author of Generation X) Coupland have been pointing out for years now, X is more a sensibility than a rigidly confined demographic.

I have multiple version of Rock Me Amadeus in my iTunes, but not that really cool extended dance mix with Falco’ pretentious spoken work autobiography. If you like the answer to C, I can point you toward some blogs.

I asked Luke about the process of creating it. Here is his response:

So here goes: The idea to do the project came to me while thinking about the concept of having books collaboratively written in a Wiki while listening to the Audio version of Wikinomics on my iPod. The whole concept of loosening the reigns on Intellectual Property while still creating a platform to add further value (Peer Production as such) as an Open Source Publication was drifting through my mind. I have a partially completed book I was writing in 2007 about a part of my life’s travels and was thinking about publishing this on a Wiki and having the world at large completed the book with a prize for the person who came the closest to how it actually panned out. At the time I was also investigating the subliminal value of listening to Audio books while you sleep which you will be pleased to know I gave up after a week of waking up with dark rings under my eyes and snapping at people which is most unlike me. And so was born my little project to turn the already completed final chapter of the book Wikinomics into an Audio book.

It took roughly a month of working on it whenever I got the opportunity. I used Audacity which is a  free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. Believe you me the software did come with its fair share of typical glitches which meant a higher degree of expletives expressed while recording which further exacerbated the amount of editing it took to record the chapter. At the time of recording I was in the midst of listening to “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell also narrated by Malcolm Gladwell. He was so easy to listen to and the book was so powerful for me as a result of his manner that I felt inspiration to complete the project. I have the utmost regard for anyone who narrates a book as a result of now having done a part of it myself. Its hard work.

I hope that your audience enjoy the work I did. The proof is in the listening.

Luke is also the leader of the Wikinomics LinkedIn group. All Wikinomics fans are encouraged to join.

Here is an interesting study that proposes that children of helicopter parents will not become entrepreneurs because they haven’t learned “how to fail.” From the article:

What many developmental psychologists argue is that the ideal parenting strategy is to raise your kids in ways that make them “feel safe in taking risks.”  That might seem contradictory, but the idea is that kids need to know that they can take risks by exploring new things or people and that they will both reap the rewards of doing so and bear the costs of doing so, at least short of something catastrophic.  The idea of “feeling safe in taking risks” is what true psychological attachment is about, rather than the very mistaken notion of “attachment” that is in vogue with “attachment parenting,” which is just another name for the over-involved parenting that is the problem.

Thoughts?

A sample from the article:

Often, managers have a misplaced assumption that by shielding the employees from ‘truth’ they are protecting them, but the fact of the matter is that hiding realities demotivates talent today by making them feel excluded.

This generation has grown up with on-demand information and communication. They are known for their sense of entitlement. They believe they can make a difference. All through school, they have been treated as ‘young adults’, leading “saying no to plastic” campaigns; making posters against pollution and doing their bit to save the environment.

Rather than living in a house of wax that is afraid of melting in the heat of reality, Generation Y wants to know the truth, no matter how harsh it maybe – so that they can do something to change it, make a contribution to the solution.

This creates a sense of ownership and the change that happens thereafter will be driven grounds up, which will ensure that the process is sustainable and not just a flash in the pan.

It also gets back to a post that Dan Herman wrote — how will the Net Gen react to an economic downturn? Will workplace attitudes change? Will the younger members of the cohort be unable to be as educated as the older Net Gens as student loans become harder to get?

What makes it so effective? Here are some keys:

1. Fresh content. Neil posts a new “awesome thing” every weekday.

2. Good content. The site is funny and well-written. I’ve never seen a typo. Cool, interesting graphics are always included.

3. Original theme. He talks about regular things that happen to be cool, like playing old school video games, playing on old, dangerous playground equipment, and ordering off the menu at fast food restaurants.

4. Effective use of cross links. He generates traffic and appeals to readers by adding links to other sites with a similar sense of humour like Stuff White People Like, Passive Aggressive Notes, and Girls Eating Sandwiches. Go ahead, click on the last one. It is a collection of regular looking girls eating regular looking sandwiches. And you have no right to complain. Also, he links to Wikinomics, so that’s cool.

5. Effective use of digg. When Neil posted this plaintive plea to digg, his site really took off. Since then, whenever he has a post that he thinks is really good, he asks a dozen or so friends to digg it, which puts the post on the front page.

AWESOME!