Attention Spans, Gaming and Interactivity

For the gaming industry, there goes a popular saying, "A game has 15 minutes to hook a player in before they'll decide whether this is worth their time or not." While I personally invest about an hour, I believe this saying to be true.

Everything we interact with automatically receives a relevancy and judgmental check the moment we begin interacting with it. For instance, searching for a program that did a specific function on Google - if the result fails to provide the correct answer within 3-4 results, then either the user becomes frustrated and gives up, or the program doesn't exist. This mainly translates into the user giving up, finding a better alternative, and moving on.

This is exactly where trend hunters, interactivity experts, and marketing fall in. People need a sense of direction. Sometimes that direction can be taught. Sometimes it's innate. Combine both aspects of logic and culture and you create hype. Whether or not hype kills the product will fall onto the hands of the creator - which is the hard part - to create something new and innovative while simultaneous pleasing the market to which you are catering to.

Introducing The 60% Budget

I have never been much of a saver, but after a few months into the working world, I realized how much of a priority it should be. Income may not always be stable and unexpected things are surely going to happen. Hence, this is why I'll be following the 60% budgeting tip from Getting Rich Slowly. It's simple. It's quick. It's damn effective.

• 60% to Committed Expenses such as taxes, clothing, basic living expenses, insurance, charity (including tithe), and regular bills (including things like cable).
• 10% to Retirement.
• 10% to Irregular Expenses such as vacations, major repair bills, new appliances, etc.
• 10% to Long-Term Savings/Debt — money set aside for car purchases, home renovations, or to pay down substantial debt loads.
• 10% for Fun Money to be used for dining out, hobbies, indulgences, etc.

Student Loan Advice For New Graduates

Graduation is coming and soon you will need to pay back your Student Loans. Thankfully for you, Make Your Nut has compiled a lengthly post full of advice for you new grads.

The post is full of scary terms like Consolidation, Delinquency and Forebearance. Terrifying! The Department Of Education has some helpful information and tools concerning loan repayment, so check them out as well.

Advice for New Graduates: Student Loans [Make Your Nut]

Rapaying Loans: Editor's Picks [Department of Education]