links for 2010-08-09

• Why setting goals can backfire – The Boston Globe
  The argument is not that goal setting doesn't work – it does, just not always in the way we intend. "It can focus attention too much, or on the wrong things; it can lead to crazy behaviors to get people to achieve them," says Adam Galinsky, a professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and coauthor of "Goals Gone Wild," a paper in the current issue of a leading management journal…
  Today, as the economic situation upends millions of lives, it is also forcing the reexamination of millions of goals – not only the revenue targets of battered firms, but the career aims of workers and students, and even the ambitions of the newly installed administration. And while it never feels good to give up on a goal, it may be a good time to ask which of the goals we had set for ourselves were things we really needed to achieve, and which were things we only thought we should – and what the difference has been costing us.
  (tags: goals psychology management business productivity motivation)
• RainyMood.com
  Get the mood just right for working, sleeping & writing!
  (tags: music sleep inspiration productivity sound rain audio sounds media)
• Anis Shivani: The 15 Most Overrated Contemporary American Writers (PHOTOS)
  If we don't understand bad writing, we can't understand good writing. Bad writing is characterized by obfuscation, showboating, narcissism, lack of a moral core, and style over substance. Good writing is exactly the opposite. Bad writing draws attention to the writer himself. These writers have betrayed the legacy of modernism, not to mention postmodernism. They are uneasy with mortality. On the great issues of the day they are silent (especially when they seem to address them, like William T. Vollmann). They desire to be politically irrelevant, and they have succeeded. They are the unreadable Booth Tarkingtons, Joseph Hergesheimers, and John Herseys of our time, earnestly bringing up the rear.
  (tags: writing books culture publishing literature)
• Jabberwock: Joining the dots for children's literature
  Delhi-dwellers interested in children’s writing, do mark your calendars for Jumpstart: Join the Dots, a two-day event being organised by the German Book Office at the Indira Gandhi National Centre on August 20-21. There will be panel discussions, workshops and presentations, and the speakers will include authors, illustrators and library experts from Asia and Europe. The programme schedule has a strong variety of topics, from a discussion on the special challenges facing translators of children’s stories (a field in which cultural differences can be especially tricky to negotiate) to lighter sessions such as “Draw me a story”, featuring the German illustrator Ole Konnecke and others.
  (tags: children kids books writing reading jai_arjun friends delhi india)
• How to Spend Your Way to Happiness | Psychology Today
  giving money away increases neural activity in the brain’s reward centers, and does so especially when the giving is voluntary. So if you wanna be happy, it seems, spend your money in ways that brings you closer to others. Like taking a vacation in Vancouver with your wife and child.
  (tags: happiness money wealth)