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this question s up when the authors of the millionaire next door discuss the concept of “economic outpatient care“. simply put, economic outpatient care, is the *help* parents tend to give, in the form of economic ts, to their children - in the hopes that such ts will help the children aculate more wealth and make them financially independent.

the authors then report that small children who are helped by cash ts from their parents early on, grow into s who are financially less responsible than those who do not receive cash ts. moreover, when they grow up, these children (the ones who received cash ts) usually display a lack of initiative, low productivity, high consumption, and typically tend to develop a dependency on the cash ts from their parents.

when it s to children (although you can extend it to children of any age), this is what the millionaire next door says:

the more dollars children receive, the fewer dollars they aculate, while those who are given fewer dollars aculate more.

this is a statistically proven relationship. yet many parents still think that their wealth can automatically transform their children into economically productive s. they are wrong. discipline and initiative can’t be purchased like automoles or clothing off a rack.

it may seem counterintuitive at first, but it bes clearer if you think in terms of motivation. once you start getting money without doing anything, where would be the motivation to work hard for it? if your depleting savings are immediately replenished by a healthy donations, where would be the motivation for the developt of frugality and sensible spending hats?

this reminds me of a dog story that happened a few years ago. a family we knew had this particularly vicious dog that had a hat of barking nonstop at people who knocked on their door. one day, when we visited them, the dog started barking like crazy - so, the dog’s owners asked me to feed some scuits to the dog to make it stop barking!! to me that didn’t make any sense at all - it was like rewarding the dog for barking. once the dog realizes that it gets a treat for bad behavior, where is the motivation to stop barking? needless to say, the dog still barks at people who knock.

anyways, enough digression. the point is that undue financial ts may reduce the motivation for your children to be economically productive. it makes them think that they are financially fit - which in turn makes them spend more. so, giving them more free money may in fact make your children poorer in the long run.

the book points out four specific characteristics of children who receive economic sidies from their parents:

• economic ts lead to greater consumption and less savings.

• children who receive ts tend to view their parents’ wealth as their own.

• usage of credit is greater among children who receive economic ts.

• those who receive financial ts tend to invest much less than those who don’t .

think about this the next time you pull out your wallet to bail your children out of financial difficulties. this doesn’t mean that you should never help your children at all - it means that you should make sure that you challenge/encourage your children enough to think/work towards finding their own solutions to their financial problems. don’t let the smell of free money divert them into a complacent atude towards managing their money wisely.

towards ensuring that you raise your children into economically successful s, here are ten things that the book recomds:

1. never tell children that their parents are wealthy.
2. no matter how wealth you are, teach your children discipline and frugality.
3. ure that your children won’t realize you are affluent until after they have established a mature, disciplined, and lifestyle and profession.
4. minimize discussions of the items that each child and grandchild will inherit or receive as ts.
5. never give cash or other significant ts to your children as a part of a negotiation strategy.
6. stay out of your children’s family matters.
7. don’t try to compete with your children.
8. always remember that your children are individuals.
9. emphasize your children’s achievets, no matter how small, their or your symbols of sucess
10. tell your children that their are a lot of things more valuable than money.

filed under: software, internet

with a pionate seven-tenths of a percent of the worldwide market, opera software has released version 9.5 of its eponymous web browser.

opera 9.5 introduces synchronization of bookmarks with opera link, a new developer tool called opera dragonfly, improved fraud protection, and a significantly altered set of keyboard shortcuts.

the browser scores an 83 (out of a possible 100) on the acid3 test.

opera 9.5 is a free download, and is 15.6 mb.

castello di fumone. living room in fumone’s own castle with many a legend and ghost story to be had. the noble longhi de paolis family still lives in part of the castle.

on paidcontent, i came across the news that yahoo had joined cbs audience network and could now start promoting and distributing the “tiffany network's” content across its various properties. jupiterresearch has done in depth ysis around the internet television value chain and is a strong advocate of syndicating content.

however, as i read more of the story, i was intrigued by a quote from the head of cbs digital’s group, quincy smith:

“you can’t jam anything down people’s throats ... it’s up to the content now.”

there has been a g focus on content online and getting it in front of large audience (yahoo!, aol, myspace, etc), but i’m not sure the payoff is happening. so i started to look at some numbers. i decided to look at two of cbs current partners, msn and aol. on aol, the latest episode of “how i met your mother” had been viewed around 1100 times. msn didn’t list views, but uming those two properties have similar audience sizes, it should be in the same ballpark.

i’m sure we can all do the math on even 3000 views at a $50 cpm; it is not going to be showing up on cbs bottom line. of course, the math gets very interesting if any of those 3000 viewers then started watching “how i met your mother” on broadcast after watching it online for the first time. but perhaps, most noteworthy from my mini metric investigation, a clip on youtube from the same episode had done over 12,000 views.

plenty of lessons to learn in video from this simple exercise: short form, programming & promotion, scale, and the power of youtube. a topic will be exploring in our upcoming report “competing with youtube.”

kind of the who cares story of the day, as i didn’t even know vin diesel was still relevant, but anyways, those children movies he did must have planted a seed, literally, with vin diesel. that seed was then transfered to his model girlfriend, paloma jiez. and then came the baby. congrats vin, the world needs more of your genes.

people says, vin diesel and his girlfriend, model paloma jiez, have quietly be parents of a baby girl, his rep tells people.
diesel, 40, and jiez weld their first child on april 2.

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this kitten knows what it takes to make one purr.

runtime: 3 min 53 sec

we are jetting off again! this time, we’re flying across the strait to taipei for the 2008 computex trade show. actually, we can’t really fly from shanghai to taipei. the taiwan governt doesn’t allow direct flights between the two cities. we have to fly to hong kong first and then fly to taipei. if taiwan allowed direct flights, the journey would take only two hours. however, since they don’t, it takes half a day.

second ggest it show in the world

computex is the second ggest it show in the world. it’s also the most fun of all the shows i attend. it’s unlike any show in north america. the culture is different, the language is different and even the parties are different. because of incredible growth, computex is spreaded across two convention centers this year. it will be interesting to see the mad traffic jams this will create. there will be shuttle buses to take attendees from one convention center to the other. because taipei is a wimax enabled city, the buses will have laptops in them so we can experience the city wide wifi.

stephen fung and michael kwan are already in taipei. ed lau will be joining us later tonight at the gigabyte party. computex officially opens tomorrow. expect to see a lot of fun posts this week.

mike fleeman / people.com:
anne heche reaches a settlet in her divorce  —  anne heche reached a settlet friday in her contentious divorce from coley laffoon, agreeing to pay her ex-husband a $275,000 lump sum and $3,700 per month in child support for their 6-year-old son, court papers show.