Friedbeef’s Tech

“The more options we have -> the more information and effort we have to go into evaluating them -> the more likely we are to be dissatisfied with the outcome. Why?

1) Most people hate making trade-offs and will often avoid making choices until they absolutely have to, so having an abundance of choices reminds us of this dilemma: that life is about making choices, yet we must make them within the vacuum of uncertainty and an unknown future.

2) Most people are bad at dealing with uncertainty, estimating odds and often don’t calculate probabilities properly because we have incomplete information. So trump this up to certain cognitive flaws in our human decision-making apparatus.

3) Our expectations get raised after spending time weighting the tradeoffs and understanding the choices, so we get disappointed when the outcome is not as perfect as we expect. The irony is that the outcome is almost always better, i.e. a better fitting pair of jeans, but our perceptions don’t see this rationally or objectively. As we know from countless studies, not to mention certain wisdoms found in traditions like Buddhism, our satisfaction is often function of when expectations match our perceived reality. In economist language, dissatisfaction occurs when the transaction costs of making the decision exceed the actual benefit. ” - Fuzzy Signal’s review of Barry Schwartz’s ‘Paradox of Choice’

Don’t fret - Find the Wikis that match your personal needs with minimal fuss: 

1. Just answer a few questions in the ’Wizard’ about your preferences and Wikimatrix will filter down services based on your choices.
2. Then just compare the Wikis of your choice in a comfortable side-by-side table. 
3. Works for platforms for blogging, forums and podcast catchers as well

Need to make an informed decision? - What more could you possibly ask for?

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“Research has concluded that managers and students find the techniques of mind mapping to be useful, being better able to retain information and ideas than by using traditional ‘linear’ note taking methods.” - via Wikipedia

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Everything you see here was built in a few minutes using bubbl.us… ‘Nuff said?

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…and feed him for a day, teach him to fish - you feed him for life.

That’s part of the philosophy behind Kiva.org - a site which helps entrepreneurs in 3rd world by helping them secure microloans to move their businesses forward.

“Microfinance is the supply of loans, savings, and other basic financial services to the poor. Why are they small? Someone who doesn’t have a lot of money isn’t likely to want to take out a $5,000 loan, or be able to open a savings account with an opening balance of $1,000. Hence – “micro” - via CGAP

Kiva partners with existing microfinance institutions who are experts in choosing qualified borrowers. Profiles and the needs of all borrowers are uploaded and you get to pick who you sponsor.

With endless good press, and solid partners behind it, it’s definitely a winning concept.

Since launching one year ago, Kiva.org has:

• Become the most trafficked website in microfinance with over 250,000 visitors
• Raised $430,000 in loans in $25 increments from more than 5,400 users
• Provided capital for 750 micro-enterprises in 12 developing countries
• Grew its partner network to 14 partners in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle east and Latin America
• Partnered with PayPal, an eBay company, to provide free payment processing on an ongoing basis-PayPal’s first such partnership
• Received invitations to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York and Global Microcredit Summit in Canada
• Achieved a 100% repayment rate on 28 completed loans thus far. Kiva expects the long term repayment rate to match the 97% microfinance industry average.
• Built a strong grassroots following in the blogosphere (+1,300 blogs including Daily Kos and Huffington Post), on campuses and on MySpace.

If you would like to know more ways to help the poor using the net - check out some older posts here and here.

Kiva - Loans that change lives. I’m in - why not you?

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