Tuesday, August 14, 2007


COLUMBUS, Ohio - Professor Steven Reiss says there's nothing wrong with workaholics, non-curious schoolchildren and timid people.


Reiss, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University, has spent five years developing and testing a new theory of human motivation. The result of his research is published in the new book Who Am I? The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Action and Define Our Personalities (Tarcher/Putnam, 2000).

After conducting studies involving more than 6,000 people, Reiss has found that 16 basic desires guide nearly all meaningful behavior. The desires are power, independence, curiosity, acceptance, order, saving, honor, idealism, social contact, family, status, vengeance, romance, eating, physical exercise, and tranquility.


Reiss said at least 14 of the 16 basic desires seem to have a genetic basis. Only the desires for idealism and acceptance don't appear to have a genetic component. "Most of these desires are similar to those seen in animals, and seem to have some survival value," Reiss said. "This indicates they are genetic in origin."

The research is bound to be controversial with many researchers who have tried to reduce all human behavior to just one or two basic desires - such as pleasure, pain or survival - or who say that that there are some desires that all people share equally, Reiss said. But in looking at how people differ in these 16 desires, Reiss said he concluded that "we are individuals to a much greater extent than psychologists have previously realized."

For example, Reiss said our educational system is built on the premise that all children are naturally curious (curiosity is one of the 16 basic desires) and have the same potential desire for learning. But Reiss found that people can differ quite a bit in their maximum potential to enjoy learning.

"Not everyone is naturally curious," Reiss said. "A child may be very smart, but still not be interested in school. But our educational system cannot deal with the idea that there is someone who cannot enjoy learning and never will. Educators are making a mistake when they think all children were born with more or less equal potential to enjoy learning."

Reiss said parents of non-curious children should realize they will never be able to change their child's fundamental nature. "It's OK to be non-curious. As long as the child is not flunking and is meeting some minimum standards, parents should ease up on their expectations. By pushing a non-curious child to be more curious, all a parent is doing is ruining their relationship."

The same goes for any fundamental desire, according to Reiss. Workaholics may work a lot, not because they have some void or problem in their life, but because they have a naturally strong desire for power and status.

In Who Am I?, Reiss uses the term "self-hugging" to describe the assumption that what is potentially best for me is potentially best for everyone. "Using self-hugging, we think that workaholics would be happier if they worked less, even though workaholics say they are happy as they are," he said.

The failure to understand individual differences causes problems in everything from marital relationships to co-worker interactions. "People know that other people have different values and pursuits, but they cannot understand how this can be. Self-huggers waste enormous effort trying to change people who do not want to be changed."

How did Reiss come up with the 16 basic desires? He and Susan Havercamp, a former graduate student, generated a list of more than 300 statements that refer to specific desires people might have. Subjects in their studies were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with statements such as "I love learning new skills," "I must avoid pain" and "I would rather lose my life than lose my honor." After testing more than 2,500 people, the researchers used a mathematical technique called factor analysis that grouped the responses into 15 fundamental desires. After testing about 3,500 more people a 16th desire (saving) emerged from the factor analysis.

Based on this work, the researchers developed a test, called the Reiss Profiles, that can measure individual differences in these 16 desires. Reiss said one key to the test is forcing people to think about priorities in their life. For example, if you ask people if sex is important to them, nearly 100 percent would agree. But, in determining people's desire for romance, the Reiss Profiles asks people if they agree to statements such as "I want all the sex I can get." "That's a very different, very direct question," Reiss said. "That's going to predict whether sex is going to play a more or less dominant role in a person's life. Sex may be pleasurable to everyone, but it isn't equally motivational. We want to find out what actually motivates people."

Reiss said the research presented in Who Am I? shows that psychologists cannot boil down human experience to just one or two basic desires that we all share equally. He noted that 2 trillion different profiles can be assessed by the Reiss Profiles. "Every person has a unique desire profile," he said.

By: Steven Reiss

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Free hosting at http://ww8.us

Launching a new free hosting for everybody soon. Probably be ready mid august this year (2007). Hopefully the server I'm using doesn't fuck me up like previous host I'd ever used. I have many interesting ideas for the site. So make sure to check it out. Oh yeah the web addy is http://ww8.us

Wednesday, July 11, 2007


Its been like forever since my last post.. Got really pissed off today.. 2 of my server just got burnt and they refuse to refund my money.. Hosting business really gives me a headache.. anyway.. I just launched 2 new websites of a client and coming up with a new financial site of my own.. grabed the $2.99 dot cn domain name offer and thought giving it a try. The website is http://bursa.cn/ (malaysian stock bourse service).

Surprisingly I got the top 10 yahoo rangking on the search keyword "Bursa Live Quotes" and giving me a high traffic to the site.. I have draft up a few ideas for the site and will be launch soon enough. Will update again soon.

Friday, March 16, 2007

The navbar always gets in the way every time I change the template, so im posting it for future reference.

remove Navbar -->

Monday, February 12, 2007

Putting adsense on OfficeLive.com websites

For those of you who is still wondering how the hell do I put adsense on OfficeLive.com website.. Belows are the steps that you need to do..

Step 1.
Setup your adsense code: It should be something like this:

google_ad_client = "pub-5896833397260482";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
google_ad_format = "728x90_as";
google_ad_type = "text_image";
google_ad_channel ="";
google_color_border = "F5F5F5";
google_color_bg = "F5F5F5";
google_color_link = "333333";
google_color_url = "999999";
google_color_text = "666666";
<script type="text/javascript"

Step 2.
Save it as an html file. Name it something like "google.htm". or anything you like.In your Office Live builder, go to "Documents" and upload your new html file.

Step 3.
In the browser go to http://yourofficelivewebsite.com/document/google.htm(or whatever name you used). And press ctrl -A to select all and ctrl - C to copy it to clipboard

Step 4.
Open Microsoft Frontpage or Dreamweaver.. and paste it.. Next click on the code tab and copy the html code betweens the html code "iframe".

Step 5.
In the OfficeLive Page Editor, open your web page for editing and select the area you want to put your ads into. Click on the module icon and select HTML.. Paste the "iframe" code on the popups window.. and save it..

Done.. the ads should be displayed like how it was suppose to be.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

Another interesting readings..







1. Income for dummies.










2. Limited experience.




3. Lifelong domestication.






4. Too many mouths to feed.





What a generous person you are!

5. Way too risky.




Does putting yourself in a position where someone else can turn off all your income just by saying two words (”You’re fired”) sound like a safe and secure situation to you? Does having only one income stream honestly sound more secure than having 10?


6. Having an evil bovine master.




Who’s your daddy?

7. Begging for money.




8. An inbred social life.



9. Loss of freedom.





10. Becoming a coward.




Still want a job?



Happily jobless



Here are some free resources to help you get started:





by Steve Pavlina

Friday, January 26, 2007


Im up to a new web developing project.. what a hectic week this week is.. again i got a pain in the ass client.. demand too many things for his websites.. and only pays a little.. (usd250.. for the whole package including domains n hosting).. I feel like Im doing a charity work.. Y I took the job .. hmm i dont know.. maybe out of pity :-(

http://MalaysianQatar.com .. go check it out if you want to..