Imagine you are playing roulette in Vegas [basically a game where you spin this thing and a ball lands either in red or black with about equal odds for either]. Red has appeared the last 7 times. Do you put all your life savings on black? I mean, its got to come up next right? What are the chances of red again? After all, the odds of red appearing 8 times in a row is about 0.4% - Very freaking low!

Your answers to the above questions should be firm and resounding no, no, and 50% (damn close at least).  Why!?

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Believe it or not (please do), the adage, “timing is everything” can not only be applied to interviewing and performance reviews but also very practically (and easily) used to your advantage.

What are we talking about?

In the study of organizational behavior (basically psychology for the workplace) the “Primacy Effect” and the “recency effect” tell us that …

People tend to remember and favor events that were either the first or the last to happen.

Here’s a wordier definition for you nerds out there:

Primacy effect: is a cognitive bias that results from disproportionate weight on initial stimuli or observations.

Recency effect: is a cognitive bias that results from disproportionate weight on recent stimuli or observations.

Taking this one step further- one can infer that people, things and events in the middle are often forgotten. Basically, don’t be the gooch. Egh.

Like many business concepts, the concept is simple and even obvious but often neglected or not acted upon. How can we work this to our advantage?

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Apple’s at it again…

Nice little update on Google’s Chrome browser. I like it a lot actually.

10 reasons target is better than sex

Great way to save some dough in these harsh economic times

Great letter. This situation has me SOOOO ANGRY!!!

Such a shame when you mess up something like this and piss off paying customers rather than the actual people stealing your game.

I simply cannot believe they are still trying…. I guess competition is healthy for everyone…………..

Big MS and Jerry’s new commercial is a little strange, but I’m not sure if this analysis is warranted….

Apparently this injury is costing fantasy football players who’ve picked ol’ Tom to lose a combined total of 150,000,000 to their friends. Sorry Chris

Not even Gamestop is immune to whistleblowers!

A great, concise explanation of why exactly gas prices are so damn high… WSF –

This has definitely begun to be more prevalent in my everyday speech.

I really need to know what those words are…

This looks absolutely amazing

Read the first quote. HAHA!

Whether you are just out of school or have already been working for a few years, you’ll always want to be confident in your interviewing skills. The reason I say this is mainly because interviewing is nothing less than a gateway to scoring that great job you’re trying to …score land.

Basically, you are judged as a person, against peers, on both your ability and your potential to perform at a task (under pressure) in a matter of maybe 30 minutes to an hour. This is the most cost effective way for an employer to filter through many candidates and pick someone they can feel confident about. Nail that shit.

1. Know your audience! - The best way to really F* up an interview is to start talking about something that the interviewer doesn’t care about. You are saying

I’m about to start talking about something you don’t care about for a few minutes, so feel free to start nodding your head and pretend to listen!

Knowing your audience means 3 things. Know who you are interviewing with, know their business, know yourself and know the position you are going for.

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We are strong believers in investing here at E.M. We think it is an absolutely MUST-DO for differentiating yourself (in a good way) from the average American/human being, whose life is riddled with debt. That’s why occasionally, we’ll be giving you primers on investing concepts and why you should care.

We will make sense of the basic concepts and contemporary news and try to keep it high level so you don’t have to be some sort of “financial lord voldermort” to understand it while still being able to make use of it in your everday life. Honestly, we go nuts for this shit, and here’s why:

1. Investing will make you money – This may be the single most no-brainer thing I’ve ever said…but it is more than true. Investing, in any form should be a part of your financial life. If you are in debt, you should GET OUT of debt quickly, so you can start investing. A vast majority of America will spend the vast majority of their adult lives working for their precious dollars. Investing is the way that you can get that money to work for you. Investing is what will pay the down payments for your house(s). Investments are what you’ll cash in on to pay for your kid’s college education. Investments are what you’ll be living off of when you decide to finally stop working. Investing will bring that day closer. :)  Investing is what will get you that money to help you accomplish whatever selfish, selfless, philanthropically, or bizarre dreams you wish to fulfill in your lifetime.  Investing is important.

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Here at EvadingMediocrity, we’re all about doin’ a damn good job at work and having a little something on the side to so that you’re continually challenged and doing more than your average dude. Well, here’s a list of things you DON’T want to do in your day job either because they hurt you professionally, limit your growth and learning, or are just plain dumb.

1. Be the guy that does little things well -  A lot of young professionals, at early stages in their careers, are often put in positions or given responsibilities that can be described as “monkey work”. Although there’s absolutely nothing wrong with becoming proficient at these tasks (as boring as they may be) for the sake of understanding the business and being close to the actual work, you never want to get too good at these kind of tasks/work. You always want to focus on the bigger picture, the greater strategy, the business objectives and how yours (and everyone else’s) work fits together. These are the kind of traits that are sought when manager’s promote people. Afterall, if you get too good at the little things, why move you?

2. Talk about how busy you are all the time. – Why? Because everyone else is too. There is an obvious difference between pushing back if you are truly overloaded and bragging about how much work you do, how sleepy you are, or how late you stayed. Trust me, unless you are getting just godly amounts of useful stuff done, no one is impressed. Pretty soon people might think you are overcompensating for something…

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I suppose not everyone in the world yet is sure of what a “reader” or “RSS Feed” is, but damnit – get with the times! (If you already know, just go ahead and skip this post entirely).

For the rest of you, I’m about to teach you how to use an incredibly useful tool that will allow you to really “tune in” to the world(s) you are interested in.

First! Check out this video to avoid reading the paragraph below:

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Some picture dumps today to go with your links!

Guess we know how this restuarant feels about the bailout bill.

Sigh…..

Classic!

25 of the world’s most valuable digital startups - Lots of recognizable names in there. Facebook at #1…

Don’t ever listen to internet rumors…especially concerning publicly traded companies.

Here is the definition of “Golden parachute” AKA “the reason all taxpayers should be really mad.”

Short day today. Have a great weekend!

Welcome to EvadingMediocrity. In this blog we’ll be sharing with you our experiences and insights both personally and professionally in hopes that you will take some of this [goldmine of valuable] information and avoid the trap/nightmare of becoming just another “average joe” – not that anything’s explicitly wrong with that - but honestly, who wants to aim for average?