Or better yet - ask them about a mistake or accomplishment that you think might happen to you a year or two down the line. If/when it comes to that situation, if that person is your boss they will have a clear guideline for how to react... and probably one that you will like.

I am thankful that being thankful makes me more thankful. Wait, could I get into an endless happy feedback loop?

Not necessarily true. Many poor hold debt, not money. With inflation, their interest and principal payments stay constant, making their real debt lower.

"the Fed is [...] supressing interest rates and [...] punishing savers [...] who shun the stock markets"

Could that be because they want to motivate banks, companies and individuals to invest in stock markets instead of putting their money in term accounts, to create "more exits" that TFA is talking about?

That is not to say I disagree with most of what you say, but it's just to point out to some reasons that drive these decisions (although we may think they're dysfunctional).

When I read your post I realized that I would like to pay something between your suggested $1 and $10. And each time you give that choice to one of your customers they will pay less than what they're willing to, not more. If you're able to offer a "pay what you want" option (but require to pay at least $0.01) you can rest assured that many of your customers will go higher than the "pre-set" options you might offer them. Not a complete solution but at least my 2 cents.

I wonder what websites will do once almost everyone has Do Not Track enabled. If it's just a few nerds... let's stop tracking them if they insist. If it's everyone...?

"And when everyone is Super... no one will be!" ---The Incredibles

Gamification is an example of extrinsic motivation - the kind that gives you a substitute for the joy of work itself. It can be effective (in a similar way that money motivates people to do all kinds of jobs they hate) but it can be hardly a substitute for "intrinsic motivation" where you aim at making the actual work more interesting - in your example by making the training interesting and relevant to people, by avoiding all kinds of stress by submitting work in time, by giving people a greater variety of tasks, more responsibility - simply a more interesting job, not a more interesting badge.
The outcome may seem the same... until you remove the rewards - look for reference [11] in the Wikipedia entry. That's why intrinsically motivated people keep doing their jobs even though they are extremely badly paid (in my country, that would include e.g. pastors, teachers and even doctors).
In short - if you need "gamification" then in the first place you need to admit that the gamified job sucks.

I also think that companies these days are somewhat larger than they used to be. Just look at the likes of Apple, Exxon or the banking industry. So yes - I'd say one CEO today probably does the work of a couple of CEOs 30 years ago.

Playing well with others is not easy to test but it's possible - often tested in assessment centers, if you heard about exercises like "stranded on a deserted island" or "build a Lego bridge", plus being observed throughout a whole day of testing.

One question that no testing can answer, at least to my knowledge, is "is the candidate lazy"? :o)

Holding inventory has some costs that are not so obvious:

* Producing millions of units before you get the revenue from them costs a lot of money. Money is not free - it either comes with interest, or lost opportunities.
* Paying for warehousing capacity that you only use when you launch new products (whether it's central warehouses, retail stores, or partners' facilities).
* Production capacity and speed is limited. Not every supplier would be excited to get a contract for iPhone that uses tons of capacity over 3 months and leaves their production lines empty for the rest of the year.

Focusing on inventory minimization is called Just in Time, only it's most often used in industries other than electronics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_in_time_(business)

Let's see... something that reflects heat, and has other possible benefits against an abusive government... hmmmm...

Have you considered a tinfoil hat?