Opinion

In this post I’m trying to get my arms around some VERY BIG concepts. Feel free to comment and disagree, but please realize that with 1,000 words to work with I can’t cover every perspective to the depth I might otherwise wish to. I’ll also acknowledge my bias towards formal education:  I have 9 years [...]

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We recently got an e-mail (summarized below) from a reader asking for advice about a situation with her parents. “My parents have worked hard their entire life but never saved a dime.  As they approached retirement, they worked as the resident managers for an apartment building.  They have very minimal savings, and the small amount [...]

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Some time ago Preet, Mike (& Mrs Pillars) and I got together for some yummy Thai food and adult beverages.  At one point I was expressing skeptism about something, and Preet wryly responded “Skeptical?  You?  No, never!”  While I’ll leave my own personal skepticism as an issue between myself and the team of psychologists in [...]

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We’re coming up on Valentine’s Day, when the young (and old)’s hearts and thoughts take a romantic turn. In this spirit, my posts for this week and next will all involve love and personal finance. If any other bloggers want to join in on the fun, please send me a link to your post at [...]

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I grew up with an older brother and part of that experience was learning how to deal with disagreements. One thing that I think we both discovered fairly early on is that threats are rarely a good way to get what you want. I’m amazed at how often people try to use them within an [...]

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My recent post about Working With Canadians generated some interest (and discussion), so I figured I’d move forward with a second post on a related subject. Much like the previous post, my goal isn’t to provide a perfect profile of every techie (generalizations, by their very nature, don’t hold for every member of a group).  [...]

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I’ve been planning a post on the concept of unintended consequences for the last two years.  I keep coming up with different perspectives on it, put off posting, and continually rework it.  I don’ t think there’s any way I’ll be able to do the idea justice in under 1000 words, so I going to [...]

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Stuff White People Like is an amusing blog that mocks the cultural norms of the “educated elite”, a group that often denies having any such norms (yet, we clearly do).  Similarly, Canadians both deny having a culture (some Canadians, without a trace of humour, claim they don’t have an accent) and hold particularly trivial things [...]

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When I was growing up, the 80′s cartoons each had standard issue goods guys and bad guys.  Autobots battled Decepticons, G.I. Joes battled Cobra, and He-Man battled Skeletor.  I think I outgrew cartoons (at least this style of animation) when the villains’ consistent focus on “evilness” began to ring false.  The most extreme case of [...]

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I mentioned in a recent post how stories influence public policy. Social supports are sold on the idea of a poor downtrodden individual who has a run of bad luck, and putting a system in place to catch them before they hit bottom. It may be a woman with children trying to escape a cycle [...]

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Mike and Trent are in Las Vegas and Mike has just lost a hand of blackjack after Trent advised him to double down. TRENT: I’m telling you, baby, you always double down on an eleven. MIKE: Yeah? Well obviously not always! TRENT: Always, baby. MIKE: I’m just saying, not in this particular case. TRENT: Always. [...]

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Bell and Rogers get a lot of bad press.  Ellen Roseman frequently posts problems customers have with both companies.  Some might argue that by virtue of their size, companies such as these will, by chance alone, have customers who accidentally get treated badly (unavoidable circumstances and all that).  That is, a small business with 400 [...]

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Sorry to our readers who got a VERY early edition of this post in their RSS feed.  Mr. Cheap accidentally hit “Publish” when he meant to hit “Save”. “Margaritaville” (originally airing March 25, 2009) was the 3rd episode of the 13th season of South Park and it provided an amusing perspective on the current financial [...]

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I was surprised that the part of my post about negotiation on Tuesday that drew the greatest number of comments was “It’s a really scummy thing when people do this to you, and it’s just as scummy if you do it to them” in relation to dirty tricks pulled by car dealers (and my advocating [...]

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My favourite Jerry Seinfeld joke is: “According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.” Like most people, I [...]

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Almost two years ago Promod Sharma at Riscario Insider wrote a post, partially in response to something I had written, about “Who can you trust?“.  Promod suggests referrals as a way to trust someone you start doing business with, and in the comments I mused about following the reasoning of people you first encounter, and [...]

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I went out for lunch with a couple of fellow grad students recently and our conversation reminded me of a topic I’ve been meaning to post on.  One of the students has been ranting for months about a change in policy with how TA work is handled which may affect the immigration process for international [...]

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If you haven’t already entered, definitely check out the Four Pillar’s Great Canadian Book Giveaway.  It’s possible to get two entries, so if any of the books look interesting, get your name in!  Contest runs until Saturday, Feb 7 at 8:00pm EST. My father generally doesn’t like change in his life.  We joke that if [...]

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This post will upset some readers. I won’t insist that readers promise not to be offended or anything like that, but if you’re not in the mood to read something that may get you worked up, you might want to skip today’s post. If you’re angry and don’t have the time to write a well [...]

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