This is the second paper written for my American Political Institutions course. Our readings for this week focused on Congressional policymaking, namely the logic behind it. The prevailing theory for explaining legislators’ actions centers on rational decisions aimed at securing re-election. Many factors play into the decision making process, including constituent needs, personal policy preferences, and party alignment. But they all are weighed in accordance with their ability to get the legislator re-elected.

Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution grants Congress the right to establish their own procedural rules. Combine this with self-interest and you can imagine a framework would evolve that maximizes positive perception while minimizing costs of legislative decisions. There are specific tactics legislators employ to prevent their constituents from discovering the true, almost always negative, effects of a policy decision. The goal of any of these tactics is to reduce the traceability back to a particular legislator to avoid electoral accountability. What my paper focuses on is how citizens could use the Internet to maximize traceability.

I remember reading this article a few years back about a grad student (at Maryland, coincidentally) whose purse was stolen and with it the only copy of her nearly-finished master’s thesis. I was then an undergrad, but the impression of caution it left on me stayed over the years. I vowed then, if ever I was to go to grad school, to use all my technical chops to ensure I’d never have to root through a dumpster for my livelihood.

Thanks to the ridiculous pace of technological development, there are now far more effective ways of protecting your data than a USB or jump drive. In addition, these technologies offer a higher level of convenience and anywhere-access to your data, even when you’re not on your own computer. One member of this new class of software is Windows Live Mesh. If you haven’t heard of it or discovered its magic, you’re missing out. Wait, wait…before you click back mumbling “Microsoft shill…”, hear me out. Live Mesh is a software+service tool available for PC and Mac that syncs files between all the devices added to your “mesh”. All you need is a Windows Live ID and you’re ready to go. Installing the software is simple, and configuring which folders sync where is all but brainless.

I use Live Mesh to keep my OneNote notebooks and course documents in sync across my main laptop and netbook, which I use to take notes in class. It’s so useful to go home and have all my materials available on my other computer without having to do a thing. Even when you can’t install the desktop software, say on a lab computer where you don’t have adequate permissions, there’s a web interface that lets you access all your sync’d files (you can disable this if you prefer not to store your documents in the cloud).

The service is currently in beta, but trust me when I say it’s not going anywhere. If you’re a student, the days of bulky USB key chains and e-mailing papers to yourself are over; this service will show its value immediately. For everyone else, give it a try–there are plenty of potential uses for this technology outside academia. It’s free, what’ve you got to lose?

There’s nothing quite as tantalizing as instant gratification. Whether by self-help books or weight-loss programs, we’re easily drawn into the elusive promise of big results from little effort. But we’ve come to dismiss those toothy-covered tomes and magic slimming pills as hype with no delivery. It was with that learned skepticism in mind that I approached Tim Ferriss’ article “How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes.” Grad school looming, a potential boost in reading speed seemed well worth a few lost minutes.

Indeed, it turned out that the tremor-inducing stack of papers eying me from my desk–and, I suppose, the infallible hope of immediate happiness–was what urged me on as I sat submerged in instructions with the likelihood of my gullibility crashing into and washing over me. My doubts be damned, I pulled out my trusty BIC pen and an undergraduate political science book, downloaded this neat timer app, and set to it. A half hour later, I emerged, results in hand.

My initial words-read-per-minute came in at an underwhelming 221, putting me squarely in that familiar range of the average American. After completing the drills (it took me more than twenty minutes since I repeated a couple tasks to get their timing right), I tested myself again and clocked in at 442 words-per-minute–a 100% increase! On top of that, I sufficiently retained what I read even though my speed had significantly increased. I didn’t achieve the 300% improvement heralded by the author, but I won’t turn my nose up at the doubling of my initial speed. I will readily admit, however, that I have doubts about the effectiveness of this approach when absorption, deep thinking and attention to detail are required. But, for now, I’m impressed and hope the change sticks as I tackle my coursework.

If you want to try this yourself, I’ll offer one piece of advice: Heed the big, capitalized reminders about ignoring comprehension. That uncomfortable feeling in your stomach will go away once you realize your newfound ability to re-read the same content multiple times in the same amount of time it took you to read it once before (repetition, repetition, repetition!).

Let me know if it works for you. I’d like more than just my results to validate this approach.

This is the writing sample I cooked up for my grad school application. I’m embarrassed to say, before this, I hadn’t written a research paper in many years. For my first go in a while, I did alright. It was a lot of fun to write and I learned a bunch about present media consumption on the Internet. I may update it, but that depends on time.

This is the statement of purpose I included in my grad school application to the University of Maryland. Like most of my writings, as soon as I submitted this I noticed fifty things I would have changed about it. C’est la vie.