"In a seminal 2002 research paper, Romer captured the attention of football writers, sports nerds and even Coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots after he crunched the numbers and concluded that N.F.L. coaches made the wrong decision a shockingly large percentage of the time. Teams should try for a touchdown far more often than they actually do, he found."
- Louis Gray
from Bookmarklet
Has anyone ever analyzed Belichick's success with fourth down plays over the last few years? I'd be more interested in the totality of his decisions rather than the reaction to a single play.
- John E. Bredehoft
I'm guessing the Gray family will be signing up for an AT&T family plan very shortly!
- Jeff P. Henderson
You are so technologically p*wned in about 5 to 7 years.......s'okay though adults will be obsolete by 2027 anyway.
- suzanne
why kids always like the glowing things?
- testbeta
i think it is natural instinct of even an adult human or even animals and insects, do kids find colorful things interesting? we try to paint all their things and surroundings, have seen even kids' schools painted colorfully
- testbeta
my sister says wow what a wonderful set of dolls hahahahaha
- testbeta
Has anyone considered the fact that this may all be part of some massive cloning conspiracy by the Grays to create the most perfect, gorgeous and smartest (and deadliest) babies on the planet? We could in actual fact be watching some secret technology-weapon training session.. And knowing how smart Louis is, they could be doing it right in public, the last place we'd look. We're through the looking glass here people... Best I say no more unless they send... *thud*
- Johnny
won't the pubhubbubsubdubtublubzub guys be all like "Hey, screw RSSCloud, put our shit in instead!"?
- Mark
I don't think so. I think we all want realtime realtime. That would deprive us of realtime-ness and would be illogical and counter-productive and non-sensical. Could never happen.
- Dave Winer
Doesn't reader support Hubbub already anyway?
- Jalada
I hope they support both - regardless, it would be a huge win for real-time.
- Jesse Stay
I don't see it happening any time soon but it would be nice.
- Jason Williams
from iPhone
"At the time, psychologists assumed that children’s ability to wait depended on how badly they wanted the marshmallow. But it soon became obvious that every child craved the extra treat. What, then, determined self-control? Mischel’s conclusion, based on hundreds of hours of observation, was that the crucial skill was the “strategic allocation of attention.” Instead of getting obsessed with the marshmallow—the “hot stimulus”—the patient children distracted themselves by covering their eyes, pretending to play hide-and-seek underneath the desk, or singing songs from “Sesame Street.” Their desire wasn’t defeated—it was merely forgotten. “If you’re thinking about the marshmallow and how delicious it is, then you’re going to eat it,” Mischel says. “The key is to avoid thinking about it in the first place.” In adults, this skill is often referred to as metacognition, or thinking about thinking, and it’s what allows people to outsmart their shortcomings. (When Odysseus had himself tied to...
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- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
This is an interesting quote because it implies that "will power" is more about mental strategy, not some kind of mental strength for forcing yourself to do something. I have the same strategy with food -- I eat whatever I see, so in order to not eat something I just need to put it out of sight.
- Paul Buchheit
effectively "out of sight, out of mind"
- alphaxion
This is where the magic of science is: you spend time and resources to prove a proverb.
- .i.m.a.r.s.o.r.a.m.a.
"The child who could wait fifteen minutes had an S.A.T. score that was, on average, two hundred and ten points higher than that of the kid who could wait only thirty seconds."
- J.D. Deutschendorf
Sometimes I worry my metacognition is slowing me down because I'm spending less time just cogniting. (that oughtta be a word.) But no, in all seriousness, I think something, then realize the thought was there before I subvocalized it, and then I go in a circle several times subvocalizing those same thoughts as I examine the process of thinking. Frustrating!
- Andrew C (✓)
Some friends and I refer to this study often, pointing out when we've failed the marshmallow test. Staying up late is my most common mashmallow test failure (sacrificing morning time to enjoy a few more bleary hours NOW), but it's easy to spot this sort of behavior and fun to have a standard vocabulary to highlight its ubiquity.
- Seth
As a parent, I consciously used this strategy to distract my children whenever they got in mischief, behaved badly or acted out. As a grandparent, I often send a box of tricks, things like super balls, an "uno" deck, paints, a book, a yoyo or top, for my daughter to use with my grandchildren when they are driving her crazy and need to think about something other than running around screaming.
- Phil Boiarski
OK, that makes sense, but let's flip this on its head - How do you instead keep your mind on something and prevent yourself from getting distracted? You can't distract yourself from your distractions. Andrew C, the word you're looking for is cogitating.
- Mr. Gunn
Mr Gunn, thanks. Though I think 'cogniting' is a touch funnier.
- Andrew C (✓)
Some chimpanzees use this strategy as well, though not all of them.
- Björn Brembs
i think bhudda had some theory on this too...:/
- Paul Moss
Today my 4yo daughter was having trouble waiting for a treat, so I told her (and my wife) about reading this article last night. I talked about the ability to distract - and I thought I was doing a pretty good job of explaining it in 4yo terms. When I was done with my paraphrase/lesson, I asked her if she understood. "Uh-huh," she said. Then after a few moments, she asked if we could stop and get some marshmallows on the way home. All I could do is laugh!
- Gary Walter (gwalter)
I read a different writeup of this experiment a couple years ago, when our daughter was about 1 year old. Its something that can be taught, and encouraged. She's now very good at distracting herself from something which she knows she shouldn't do or would get into trouble over. She's not easily distracted in general: she can focus quite well on something she wants to do (and is allowed to do).
- DGentry
"I'm a Republican so I'm not allowed to see it." *sighs* I just love that the kid used the word allowed, since that is exactly what it is. because ignorance and blind following has worked so so well through history. I mean we all know that intelligent discussion, debate and general patriotism fail all the time.
- Rachel Lea Fox
like totaly great...ahm like really.
- Chris Hofmann
This reminds me of something I thought Paul wrote up as a blog post, but I can't find. That question is "what if you could change not just the way things are, but the way they have always been?" Apparently the internet is really doing that, if people who can't remember the times before exagerate how long it has been true.
- Clare Dibble
After thinking about this and rereading a bunch of Paul's blog, I'm pretty sure that how and why we travel is going to look very different in 20 years. Not in the flying car sense but in the commuting and being together sense.
- Clare Dibble
From that post of Paul's: "As you consider this, you may begin to sense gaps in your reality. If certainty is gone, then nothing is definitely impossible." One thing I find interesting is that the more education I have gotten, the less certain I am about anything. In graduate school, you finally learn that many of the fundamental concepts of science that you learn as fact in high school and college are actually highly disputed. An example from linguistics: "how do you define what a word is?"
- Robert Felty
Some things become more uncertain, but in other areas, your confidence becomes strengthened, e.g. some branches of mathematics and their applications. I'd say it's impossible to compress all possible strings in a given axiom system, or crack a one-time-pad used correctly. I've also become more and more "certain" as I get older than I'm an agnostic leaning atheist. :)
- Ray Cromwell
So its just the web interface thats down?
- BRҰANSAҰS
Yea but I want to check on my latest mail at least before starting to use workarounds!
- Manuel Mas
I do use the GMail task list exclusively, Sofia. I don't do paper very well, so an online list has saved me several times. Louis - what are you using if you don't use G Tasks?
- Victoria Plautia
Ya I couldn't get gmail to work through igoogle but gtalk seems to work.
- BRҰANSAҰS
I've got Lightning and Provider for Google Calendar installed in Thunderbird, I hardly use the web interface.
- Willem (@wim66) ☠
Manuel, it's easy for me, since it's right in my inbox... I don't really need anything too powerful for what I need to keep track of. Definitely parts of it do suck, tho :-). It's not very maniputable.
- Victoria Plautia
Yea it needs more options such as time setting for tasks.
- Manuel Mas
Agreed. I also switched to Friendfeed when Gmail went down. For tasks, I prefer RTM (also accessible through Gmail [when it's up] as a custom gadget).
- Rebeca
I want send my friend a movie, of course FF does not allow such kind attachment.
- 落后青年李三海
you can also get your tasks in Google Calendar... just click the "Tasks" link on the left
- Trevor
uhm, me! I need it. My entire work life is stored in our corporate gmail. but, i did take the opportunity to redesign something that's been bugging me. :)
- Jenna Bilotta
Jenna, shouldn't y'all be using something like Wave to give you a bit more collaboration power?
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Not everyone has FriendFeed? And like Gmails grouping and power search. Well, I like FriendFeeds transparency. Oh gosh, I'm just glad they aren't mutually exclusive. To me they serve a different purpose.
- James Kuypers
Does anyone use a web based e-mail? I access my gmail on my desktop in Windows Live Mail, it comes to me, I don't go 'up there' to fetch it....
- Technogran
Why would anyone tie themselves to just one email client or to a single service provider?
- Bernie Goldbach
Higlet, have you ever seen Louis Gray sleep?
- Jesse Stay
Jesse: How to answer that question....OF COURSE NOT! He doesn't sleep and he recharges his batteries from the fires of the deepest volcanoes and the blood of unicorns!
- WoH: Professor MOTHRA
Sleep is unproductive and a waste of time.
- Louis Gray
Yeah, I do way better work than everyone else does at this time of night, of course the odds are much better also.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
"Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to you with hoops of steel." That's from Hamlet, and from memory, so I'm not sure how close I got...let me go see.
- Darren Barefoot
Well, not bad. The actual quote: "Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade."
- Darren Barefoot
Obviously I can't provide a lot of detailed plans and guarantees, but I can tell you that I'll do my personal best to ensure that the FriendFeed users and community are treated right. I love this product too, and don't want to see it disappear.
We love you guys and FriendFeed.. we are just a little hurt and worried.. just please give us details as soon as possible.
- Tim Hoeck
FriendFeed lets me use people as filters to turn data into information. Facebook doesn't. Until it does, please, Please, PLEASE keep FriendFeed as a destination alive.
- AJ Kohn
congrats guys! facebook needs what you got!
- Lorna Herf
I'm sorry that I haven't said more about this. As you can imagine, it has been an extraordinarily busy day (and I've barely slept in the past week).
- Paul Buchheit
I'll add my plea to the chorus: Please don't take FriendFeed away from us. And don't make us go to Facebook (because we won't). FriendFeed means a lot to a lot of people and the thought that it will dry up and blow away shortly is very disturbing.
- Lindsay
It's still great to hear from you Paul. Congrats on that new swimming pool full of cash. :D
- iTad
Simply glad you're here now. You've always been a very responsive and transparent team. As much as I cringe at the thought of FF going away, I *am* happy for you and the team.
- AJ Kohn
I request you make it to the next scheduled FFundercats podcast to talk to the community. This announcement deserves a live appearance to the community.
- Eric - seven eleven
Have been dealing unsucessfully with Twitter for two days, trying to get logged in...Their password reset page says"Snap we can't find you." I keep writing to Tech Support at Twitter and get their helpful auto-generated Twitter Trouble shooting email. My problem is not there. =( Hope FriendFeed does not get that blaise about helping users. @EV
- SashaKane
If FB can't keep the service running, would you consider open-sourcing the thing, so we can?
- Christopher Galtenberg
from iPhone
Hi Paul, thanks for the assurances. In the future, I would highly suggest that you make this sort of statement shortly after the initial merger release. Thanks again.
- Scoble, Alex Scoble
I would like to give you a hug right now Paul. However, that would be awkward and April might beat me up so I will just say thank you and press the like button.
- EricaJoy
Thank you for affirming that. Much appreciated.
- Karoli
A few more points that would be nice to have addressed soon. Ability to export data, tool to import friends to Facebook, and will ff.im urls continue to function?
- Mark Krynsky
Those that like friendfeed as is should be most pleased with this statement, as it probably means maintenance to keep the current system as is, without as much attention to new features. It's also good news for all those who like both friendfeed and facebook, as facebook will likely adopt the better features from friendfeed
- Ivan Kirigin
Thanks for making FriendFeed what it is, and lets hope it stays that way, though there's slim chance of that
- Aaman (Clone of FF)
Now that I think about it: are you kidding me? They've already stated that FriendFeed's going to be absorbed into Facebook. What kind of sleight-of-hand are you trying to pull now, Paul?
- Akiva
@EricaJoy: I have nothing against hugs. :)
- April Buchheit
Thanks, Paul. I've been getting more and more depressed thinking about the bad ways this could go. The reassurances help a bit, at least. In fact, just hearing you speak on the point is encouraging - the open lines of communication between the FriendFeed team and its users has always been one of the great things about FriendFeed that I'm afraid will be lost with the Facebook buyout. And yes, a FFundercats appearance would be a great idea.
- Jandy
I don't want to read too much into this reassurance but the "personal best" remark made me think like there is not a united FF anymore and that it's up to your personal efforts to prevent it from being eaten by FB :)
- Turker Keskinpala
you can sell the tech but the community can not be bought sold transferred or merged
- Robert Higgins
from m.ctor.org
Turker, I do believe that this deal was the right decision -- I'll write a bit more about that when I get a chance. I say that I'll do my "personal best" because I will -- it would be misleading to make promises on other's behalf :)
- Paul Buchheit
Paul: I'm hopeful that this will be the best for both Facebook and Friendfeed. What you and the staff at FF have done is amazing, with only 12 people! I love the service here. I also enjoy Facebook (one I ignore all quizzes and stupid apps), but in a different way. Hoping some coolness can be brought to both. Good luck to you and your team!
- Travis B. Hartwell
this echoes star wars galaxies, incredible unique community. but they upgraded it to be like world of warcraft. this is a replay of the devs soothing messages. the forums were livid the community evaporated.
- Robert Higgins
from m.ctor.org
When socialmedian was acquired by Xing they left it alone. I hope the same happens here. I'm sure you will do your best though!
- Michael Fidler
On behalf of the Dutch citizens our Queen wants to let you know: Thx Paul.
- Ton Zijp
Don't know what to say, so lets start with big congrats! from one hand, as an early member of Friendfeed I think we've created here a very cool, collaborative and tech-savvy/passionate community of great people that all probably wish to stick around as much as possible. From the other hand, I know how corporates work and it takes one small decision of share holders to close Friendfeed...
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- Nir Ben Yona
My first reaction is disappointment. I don't believe big corporations do better than small ones. Facebook is inferior to FriendFeed, although it's user base is much larger. Clearly FriendFeed won't survive in the long term, unless it is open sourced. Why not open up and embrace the wonders of the GPL instead of joining forces with the Walled Garden no #1? Facebook don't even operate with permalinks,.
- Morten Blaabjerg
Thanks for the explanation Paul. Of course, I congratulate you guys. I think anyone would do the same thing if they were in your shoes :)
- Turker Keskinpala
A big congrats for you guys.. However, I feel kind of sorrow :)
- Özkan Altuner
Thank you - but I would very much like our content to stay intact. :)
- Mona Nomura
Ryo: if you delete your account everything goes away. I totally disagree with you about Facebook, but that's OK.
- Robert Scoble
Good to hear. Unfortunately I think Facebook are going to download the brains of all FriendFeed staff then kill FF.
- Michael McGimpsey
but Paul it is going to disappear - Facebook bought FF not for the site but for you guys. So obviously once its integrated into Facebook, development on FF will stop
- Anthony Feint
If FriendFeed and all of it's functionality get integrated into Facebook I'm all for it.
- Hugh Isaacs II
Paul - that's great news. It surely can't cost a lot to keep this place running and it's a good place to try out ideas before they move to FB.
- Martin Bryant
what about improving the product and making sure it gets more users, not only supports those who stay?
- Ihar Mahaniok
Ihar - unlikely. Facebook bought FF for the developer talent, not for FriendFeed itself.
- Martin Bryant
from iPhone
Martin - I also think so, and it is most likely. But I could still have a hope
- Ihar Mahaniok
Paul, please - underpromise & overdeliver...they say it works.
- A. T.
FriendFeed is Dead! Long Live FriendFeed! (nice name for Facebook skunkworks) I'm sure everyone would love to see FriendFeed itself stay around, even if the innovations that happen are geared towards implementation at Facebook. Thanks for this note Paul! :)
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
There are a few promises and guarantees that you SHOULD be able to provide. Like, that our network of friends will remain intact and that the features that make this site great will remain. If you can't make those promises, then you shouldn't have done the deal. I sure do hope that the real-time search engine wasn't the centerpiece of this deal (it probably was), because that certainly...
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- Brad Williamson
Paul you did such a nice job with friendfeed, and I so want to believe you, but I'm not sure I can. Not because of you, but because of your new employer. Because your new employer is no longer you, and while I have kind of come to trust you, I do not trust your new boss. Not at all. Please prove me wrong, if they'll let you.
- Jim #TeamMonique
Paul - thanks for that reassurance. PLEASE stick to that! I was in the middle of reading and participating in a lengthy discussion off of a Robert Scoble post yesterday ... then I came up for air and saw your news. Congratulations - I have no idea what that feels like or how pumped you must be. There are so many things FF does that I LOVE...I know you know that. Please Please PLease dont' go away! Thanks!
- Tobin Truog
First zombie/mafia request and we're all outta here....
- Fossil Huntress
+1 Fossil Huntress The partitioning of the networks between friendfeed and facebook was a major feature that many people made use of, lacking appropriate controls for who sees what. Merging the two groups of friends isn't going to work, at all.
- Mr. Gunn
we all know what needs to happen. the question is, where? ... FB needs, - apart from being/it is, a large, general, open application platform, - 1. Smart keyboard shortkatze - and Im a kbsCzar to go to, 2. Aggregating facilities, smart /RSS/ .. 3. Full blogging facilities, capabilities, not 140 chars. 4. Full real time comments facilities, capabilities. 5. Real time, live, but ALSO...
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- pb:
Thank you! I am sure you will do great things at FB. I just hope that the great app you built here isn't destroyed. I don't know of any other aggregation app that I can embed into my site like this one!
- beersage
Congratulations on your successes, best wishes for more. And thanks for continuing to look out for us loyal, addicted FFanatics!
- Rob Schieber
I hope it continues, i'm a new user and absolutely love it (wish i knew the value of it before)! Congrats!
- Luis D. Santos
and let me add second, obvious, "Facebook needs" - Friendfeed bookmarklet, and Friendfeed tools - widgets, embedding - real time and not - of posts, and groups ...to embedd, to inject oneself into this thing called Internet ..... so, if FB listens to FF engineering long enough, they are going to get it .. right
- pb:
Paul, what I am worried is not that you're brainwashed, but that there's simply no business need for Facebook to improve FriendFeed from now on, period.
- Ihar Mahaniok
I have confidence Paul. While some of the comments were probably uncalled for, covering an investment (of time and money) in these times to move on and hopefully provide even 'better stuff' makes sense to me. It's pretty obvious there are a LOT of people that don't want to 'lose' Friendfeed. (I wouldn't hold a town hall for a few weeks though :)
- Charlie Anzman
Congrats, Paul. It's sad that people have to make these uncalled for hatred comments about Facebook though. Why can't both sites work together. I think Facebook will do better with FF and vise versa. Take the good features of both services. Don't boycott FB, enjoy it. I'm sick of the negative comments going on, that's all. :(
- Molly Song ;)
Because I don't think Paul and the other FF developers would allow FB to do anything. I'm sorry, I am not going to think negative here like some here are. I guess I'm a fangirl for FB.
- Molly Song ;)
Finally something about the changes on the horizon that isn't all d0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0om and whining. Thank you, Paul! :D
- Christian (Simply X)
Paul, what about the content scam that FB T&C is, does it apply to Friendfeed now? Should we all start writing scripts to retroactively delete all content ever uploaded to Friendfeed? Elaborated a bit here - http://friendfeed.com/mbravo...
- Michael Bravo
We know you'll try your best, Paul. But sometimes, you just can't win the dark side...
- Winston Teo
Thanks Paul for all your efforts. Founders often want the best, but acquiring companies often have people with political/power issues or different/limited visions.
- Mitchell Tsai
*throws a sheep at Paul* is that a good thing?
- Yo. Shark Dog.
from iPod
yes, thank you, Sergeant Paul ... well, good to hear we go on ... because if not, how about starting www.anotherFeed.com ... or, www.Letsgofeed.com ...... anyway, lets boost blogging capabilities, post more than current amount of chars, lets have TOP POSTS / clicks count list at the head of each group, some stats, lets index group headers, lets have MORE keyboard shortcuts .. - now ......
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- pb: