There are two very different kinds of logic for making decisions. One is the logic of consequences. We’re great in business at changing behavior by changing consequences. If we want customers to buy more, we lower prices. If we want salespeople to sell more, we increase their bonuses.

But the second kind of logic is the logic of identity. Many of the most profound decisions we make in life are made because of identity, not consequences. When our newborn child cries at night, we don’t undertake a net present value analysis of how much more valuable an hour of sleep would be. We get up because we are a committed mother or father.

From Making the emotional case for change: An interview with Chip Heath, in McKinsey Quarterly

This is from Bruce Rector's Monday Morning Messages, and is something that really struck a chord with me:
Greatness, in the last analysis is largely bravery - courage in escaping from old ideas and old standards and respectable ways of doing things. This is one of the chief elements in what we vaguely call capacity. If you do not dare differ from your associates and teachers you will never be great or your life sublime. You may be the happier as a result, or you may be miserable. Each of us is great insofar as we perceive and act on the infinite possibilities which lie undiscovered and unrecognized about us.

James Harvey Robinson

I recently read the following comment on the transition from Ceylon to Sri Lanka on the Peace & Conflict Timeline (PACT) site:

It is interesting the role that language plays in discourse making or opinion making: “official name of the country is changed from Ceylon to Sri Lanka”. It is only in English that the country was ever known as Ceylon; not in Sinhala, and I assume not in Tamil. Since the days of the Ramayana the country was known as ‘Lanka’. Even the British accepted the name ‘Lanka’ in Sinhala; the colonial stamps have it as such and not as Ceylon in the Sinhala script. It would be worth checking if it applies for Tamil also. But to date the idea is that “the name was changed”. No one follows it up by saying the “English name for the country” or the English translation. I admit that ‘Sri’ was added. Consequently this is not a topic of discussion among Sinhala speakers as it is always referred to by the ‘unchanged name’.

Today I came across a quote from Mother Teresa:

"I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there."

Which reminded me of a story I got sometime back (purporting to be from Abdul Kalam, but I sincerely doubt he was called Bart!):

I remember my dad teaching me the power of language at a very young age. Not only did my dad understand that specific words affect our mental pictures, but he understood words are a powerful programming factor in lifelong success.

The ads on google mail quite often throw up some interesting links (like the one this post is about) and sometimes some quite random ones (for example, there's a guy who was advertising www.gihan.org, but he hadn't really gone beyond a "this site is under construction" kind of thing, and now go-daddy has taken the site offline)

Anyway, to quote Forbes' article,