We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Garbage in, garbage out Fact One: preposterous surveys cost the British economy £1.38 billion
Fact Two: prior to the invention of Twitter, no one employed in British offices knew how to waste time that should be spent working, as no one was surfing the internet, flirting with co-workers, staring out the window at that hottie over there with the short skirt and high leather boots, photocopying their bums, telling jokes, gossiping…
Fact Three: 97.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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“More than half of office workers use sites like Twitter and Facebook for personal use during the working day, and admit wasting an average of 40 minutes a week each.”
40 minutes a week? That’s 8 minutes a day. My employees waste more time than that wandering the hall; hell, I do myself. That number is nonsensical; the cost calculation meaningless; and the conclusion simply foolish. People find a myriad of ways to waste time; we always have. (The very best way of all is to get a government job.) There’s no substantive difference between tweeting and gossiping around the water cooler.
Vic Reeve’s research found that 88.2% of statistics were made up on the spot, not 97.4%!
I think the twittering probably helps people become better at writing and improves the work they do.
Vic Reeve is a fool, everyone knows it is 97.4%
An old joke: If statistics proves anything, it is that sitting in the front row of a burlesque house causes baldness.
Whaza “burlesque house” ? Look it up.
Hamilton County, People’s State of Ohio, is said to have installed cams in the 911 (emergency phone) room. Seems that operators fall asleep.
Obviously, they don’t pay them enough to afford the latest electronic gimcracks that would keep them awake
I believe that I have tracked this Great Idea back to its originator:
“Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that.”
– Homer Simpson
“I think the twittering probably helps people become better at writing”
WTF? Have you ever actually read something compressed into 140 characters? You probably think that texting improves writing skill, too.
If that’s an improvement your standards must be really low!
Standards ?
Everything is become a creeping lack of standard measurement or comparison. One big kettle of fish.
Last upon a time, they rule heavily ever after.
Oh boy, I’ve attracted a shoe troll…
I somehow doubt the wasted time is lost productivity. I’m not going to suddenly become more productive if my boss watches over my shoulder all day making sure that *every* *last* *minute* is spent doing what he would call work.
I need my Twittering, Facbooking, Samizdata-ing down-time to get important background processing done.
See the Hacker FAQ section 2.
97.4% is SO last year. The latest figure is 98.1%