Timyeo's Blog

Stuck on Earth: iPad app

timyeo — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 04:21:48 +0000

Great design. Today, we travel with our minds before we travel with our feet. This app answers all of our travel motivations and by observing all of our online travel habits and elegantly surmising it in one app. Genius.

Some startling pictures of overcrowding as our world population hits 7 billion

timyeo — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 04:20:56 +0000

See the full gallery on Posterous

Article: DeLorean Time Machine on auction

timyeo — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:22:54 +0000

I dreamt about the DeLorean just a few nights ago..

DeLorean Time Machine
http://uncrate.com/stuff/delorean-time-machine/

Teens Respond to Pleasure, Not Pain: Parent Accordingly

timyeo — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:53:21 +0000

The idea of parenting, and raising the kid as right as I can, is daunting to me.

Corporal punishment, usually caning, was a big part of my childhood (I liked burning stuff up (: ). Truth be told, the thought of getting caned made me put down the matches a couple of times (though few). Other times, it made lighting up the liquid fuel all the more exciting.

This article explains why.

Excerpt:

Too much accelerator, not enough brake

During most of the teen years……Risky behaviors feel great and are experienced as more rewarding. Impulse control hasn’t yet caught up—nor have knowledge and judgment. Thus emotion says go, but wisdom hasn’t yet said stop.

How science changed my parenting

There are important take-home messages here for risktaking, social policy, and our understanding of teens that I will discuss in my next post.

But the first thing I took home from this reading had to do with my parenting. TEENS ARE MOTIVATED BY PLEASURE, NOT BY PAIN.

Thus telling a 13 year old that he will fail a test tomorrow if he doesn’t study isn’t that effective in inducing willing compliance. He knows that. But risk avoidance is not emotionally motivating. And that video game sure is.

Reminding a 13 year old how good it feels to accomplish something, how happy he’ll be when he does well, and how much more time he will have to play if he studies efficiently works a lot better. Those POSITIVE emotions activate their incentive processing center. And teens are VERY sensitive to pleasure.

So I tried it.

I stopped reminding my son of all the negative consequences of not doing what he was supposed to.

I consistently pointed out how good it felt to do the right thing. Every positive I could think of.

A week later, things are going great.

He’s less anxious. His work has improved. We’ve gotten along better. And he’s taking more responsibility for making good choices. Even choices he doesn’t like (like practicing his violin tonight because he wants a whole day of uninterrupted time on Saturday).

And you know what? I feel better too. I can be motivated by reward as well.

Come to think of it, I dare say this applies to adults as well.

Why We Crave the Food We Crave

timyeo — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:41:01 +0000

Excerpt:

“Once we have imprinted our minds with this association of pleasure and a specific sweet or salty indulgence, we have landed ourselves on a path of reoccurring cravings.

It’s also important to recognize that food is a primal activity. It has deep-seated meanings that may come from events in our childhood when a chocolate chip cookie was offered to you every time you were upset, for example. Craving foods can also have metaphorical meaning. For example, the expression “food is love.”

So, you are probably asking yourself “How do I conquer these cravings?”

- Allowing yourself a small portion of the craving culprit will give you the feeling of accomplishment and you’ll likely be satisfied without overindulge as may be the case if you try ignoring it for too long.

- Adding a few M&M’s to your yogurt for example will cater to your craving in a less regretful manner.

- Eat 3 square meals a day at regular intervals. If you put off eating lunch or breakfast, you may find yourself seeking a fast solution to hunger to get you through the rest of the work day and the cravings will kick in full strength.

- Keeping fruit on hand is a good alternative. There are many fruits that offer the sweetness you are seeking. A bite into a juicy apple may be all you need to get past the craving!

- Change things up! If your routine includes a trip to the vending machine on the way to your desk, try packing a small Ziploc bag of trail mix instead. A smell sending you into a frenzy? Try leaving the room and taking a breath of fresh air or otherwise occupying yourself to take your mind off of the craving.”

The First Rule of Consulting: “No matter how much you try, you can’t stop people from sticking beans up their nose” (Jared Spool)

timyeo — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:07:57 +0000

Jared has the best analogies to explain concepts.
read more: http://rachelbaker.me/the-first-rule-of-consulting/

Ride or Drive?: The Cost of Car Ownership vs Public Transport in Singapore

timyeo — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 07:30:39 +0000

It confirms something I’ve always suspected but never actually did the sums to prove.

Excerpt of summary:

	Car	Taxi	MRT	Bus
Daily	$84.30	$40	$3.20	$2.90
Monthly	$1855	$880	$70.40	$63.80
Yearly	$22,260	$10,560	$844.8	$765.60

Making a mobile usability testing sled the MacGyver way

timyeo — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:49:55 +0000

See the full gallery on Posterous

Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion

timyeo — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:12:05 +0000

Excerpt of my fav feature:

“1. Easily Add a Signature to a PDF Document in Preview

Preview has a lot of neat new features, but one of the best is its ability to digitally sign a document. You might think this happens with your finger and trackpad, but you’d be wrong—that wouldn’t include everybody. Instead, you sign a piece of paper and hold it up to your iSight/Facetime camera while Preview snaps a photo. It’ll then detect the signature and allow you to add it to your document. To do this, just open the PDF document you want to sign, click “Annotate” in the toolbar (if the annotations bar isn’t already showing), and then click the Signature drop-down menu. That will display two options. The first will let you take a photo of your signature with your Mac’s built-in camera and the second will allow you to manage the signatures you’ve already saved using this process. Pretty awesome.”

So what is it that you do?

timyeo — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 01:03:26 +0000

Excerpt:

“Occasionally I get emails from aspiring User Experience professionals asking a bunch of questions about the industry and how I got into it.

Over the years I’ve had people contacting me from around the world including the USA, Europe, The Philippines, India and New Zealand.

I thought it might be useful to share some of these questions and my answers with you as well…”

read more: http://www.zefamedia.com/usability/answers-to-those-questions/