• WOWOW: Education × Curiosity

    by Alexander Becker

    Education × curiosity. Continuous education × insatiable curiosity. Learning is important, it is hard and you need it to maintain excellence. In this spirit, travel, language, and quantum physics, again.

    • 7 Websites You MUST Check Before You Go On A Vacation --

      Since there are different needs for everyone planning to go on a vacation, there are huge number of websites on the internet offering different solutions to those needs.

    • I wanna go there --

      ... where independent travellers can share up-to-date information and recommendations with other independent travellers – organised in a practical way to help us planning our trips and discovering new destinations.

    • 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner --

      Many people understand material much better when it is presented in one format, for example a lab experiment, than when it is presented in another, like an audio presentation. Determining how you best learn and using materials that cater to this style can be a great way to make school and the entire process of acquiring new information easier and much more intuitive.

    • Best Online Language Tools for Word Nerds --

      Beside the standard-issue dictionary and spellchecker offered by most word processors and operating systems, there are several web-based language tools at your disposal that can get you just the information you need.

    • Visuwords --

      Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

    • Quantum Physics Revealed As Non-Mysterious --

      Quantum physics shows that reality doesn't exist apart from our observation of it, or Science has disproved the idea of an objective reality, or even just Quantum physics is one of the great mysteries of modern science; no one understands how it works.

      There was a time, roughly the first half-century after quantum physics was invented, when this was more or less true. Certainly, when quantum physics was just being discovered, scientists were very confused indeed! But time passed, and science moved on. If you're confused about a phenomenon, that's a fact about your own state of mind, not a fact about the phenomenon itself -- there are mysterious questions, but not mysterious answers. Science eventually figured out what was going on, and why things looked so strange at first.

    There. More education to come. Much more. Be well, know where you are, know where you want to go, and enjoy everything in between. Everything.

    Related Items

    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    If you liked this post, please take the time to bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Thank you! You can also get free updates , send feedback, or browse the archives for more.

  • Get Uncomfortable, Finally

    by Alexander Becker

    The situation: Complacency. Complacency on even the lowest level: A feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.

    Homeostasis. The human body and the human mind resist change as hard as they can.

    Unhappy Enough

    You may be unhappy. You might be miserable. But are you unhappy enough, miserable enough to get you moving, finally?

    As long as it isn't that bad, there is no real reason for a change. After all, the change is endangering the status quo.

    The resolution: Get uncomfortable with the status quo. Escalate the status quo to the point where it gets really uncomfortable and you are ultimately required to get up and finally move.

    Your Mind is Playing Tricks on You

    Please note that you are already unhappy with your situation. Do you really think that an eventual change will make things worse? Could it be remotely possible that your mind is playing tricks on you, tricks to prevent change? Any change? Even the change to something better?

    Something better. That's what is almost guaranteed. What do you think is going to happen after a long stretch of discomfort? The mere change, change itself, will make you feel better, once you overcome the inertia that your mind builds up to save itself.

    Make it Worse

    How? Do something stupid. Something stupid that will turn out to be ultimately intelligent. Break that situation by doing something against your values that will literally make you want to run away. Of course, stay somewhat sensible but -- you have to break that situation by going just far enough for yourself. You don't want to destruct other people's life and lives when all you need to do is to break your own mindset. The usual disclaimer applies here.

    Drive that car into the ground, quit that job, and leave that relationship. Do you really think that anything will be worse that it is now? Make it worse now and expect nothing but the best in return.

    Again, the plan is not to blow up the situation in a negative way. I do not suggest to provoke getting fired for bad performance; instead, get fired for excellent work; get too big for your current situation.

    The decision is made. Right? That's the part where thinking can pause and step back for doing. Think up the plan to quit, to change the situation and then do without further thinking. Let go. Avoid rationalizations like the plague.

    Avoid Rationalizations

    I can't stress this enough: Fight rationalizations. Dismiss them once the decision is made. The beauty is that you don't know yet what is to come. The trick is to move on anyway. How? It doesn't matter. One thing is for sure, though: It will be better, especially since you don't know what it is. Don't you love surprises? I know that you don't, by the way, but you will love this one.

    Enjoy and embrace your discomfort and move now, finally.

    Set a Deadline

    Set up a deadline, a really outrageously tight, deadline. One that is so tight, it isn't possible to linearly achieve. Set a goal of quitting in 4 weeks, whatever it is. That said, what about tomorrow? Today?

    The Process

    To sum it up, the steps are roughly as follows --

    1. You are comfortable and complacent.
    2. You set a ridicoulously tight deadline to end complacency.
    3. You get really uncomfortable with the little you have.
    4. You realize that it will be better.
    5. You fight rationalizations.
    6. Your mind is playing dirty tricks on you.
    7. You have your mind in check and your actions are pursuing the deadline.
    8. Quantum leaps happen.

    Are you uncomfortable enough?

    Related Items

    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    If you liked this post, please take the time to bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Thank you! You can also get free updates , send feedback, or browse the archives for more.

  • WOWOW: True Fans Want True Charisma

    by Alexander Becker

    True fans, true charisma, and true assholes, what's the difference anyway -- and the trouble with Steve Jobs.

    Kevin Kelly does it again, and it is amazingly, beautifully simple: You need 1000 true fans --

    A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author -- in other words, anyone producing works of art -- needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

    A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

    Ok? Here is the secret, from the angle of Bob Sutton's (no) asshole perspective --

    All accounts about Jobs make clear that he is not all asshole all the time -- that he uses nastiness strategically at times or sometimes simply loses his temper. As I show in the chapter on the virtues of assholes, if you want to be an effective asshole, you can't be all asshole all the time.

    ... it is interesting how often his anger seems to focus on two issues: aesthetics and ease of human use. Examples include his temper tantrum about the color that the vans were painted at NEXT, a story an engineer told me about how unhappy Jobs was with the color of the bolts inside a computer (he wanted the technicians and geeks who opened it up to be impressed with the beauty), and a story -- which is pure rumor -- that he fired someone from the Apple store because he didn't like the color and quality of the bags that she ordered.

    (...)

    I worry that, by glorifying Jobs, we are making the world safe for asshole infested organizations and fueling the belief that assholes make more effective leaders.

    The Fortune article: The trouble with Steve Jobs: Asshole, genius, or both?

    Jobs likes to make his own rules, whether the topic is computers, stock options, or even pancreatic cancer. The same traits that make him a great CEO drive him to put his company, and his investors, at risk.

    Finally, Steve Jobs speaks out himself --

    We had a big debate inside the company whether we could do that or not. And that was one where I had to adjudicate it and just say, We're going to do it. Let's try.

    This is exactly the point.

    What are you called when you're an asshole but no CEO? You're charismatic. When you're the CEO, it's all about charisma and unpopular decisions. As a leader, you're admired for making decisions, admired even for making unpopular decisions, admired as a martyr -- and ultimately, secretly, you're admired as an asshole -- because after all, it's your job, you have to do it.

    Just make sure that you act because you have to act like you have to act, that is, as long as you're being an asshole out of passion, charisma, or even chutzpah, your true fans will remain true fans and become even more fanatic. When it is fear that makes you act like an asshole, well, this is what you get: No fans, no charisma, no chutzpah, no passion, and certainly no reward.

    The more unique the vision, the more elaborate the idea, the farther ahead of the pack, the more charisma you need to just do it and to convince everybody else that you are right and that it works anyway. Again, the more charismatic, the more you polarize your peers.

    The trick is to appear as a total asshole not all the time and not no everybody at once but to try to appear civilized half the time or to half the people. This way, your reputation remains stable.

    One more thing: If you had a dream, would you want anyone -- except yourself -- to interfere, influence, or even taint the outcome of what you know would be the most beautiful thing in your life? Wouldn't you fight with everything you've got?

    I thought so.

    Chances are, that the asshole trait (or is it a gene?) makes any dream a little -- if not much -- more realistic.

    Have a great weekend and at least try not to abuse your peers too much. On the other hand, what are you waiting for? Make your dream come true already!

    Your true fans will take care of themselves.

    Related Items

    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    If you liked this post, please take the time to bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Thank you! You can also get free updates , send feedback, or browse the archives for more.

  • WOWOW: Functions, Wonders, and Phenomena

    by Alexander Becker

    Copyrights, more autism, evaluating web content, overused words, maths, castles, and various Déjàs.

    • Autism: The truth about autism: Scientists reconsider what they think they know --

      But then the words "A Translation" appear on a black screen, and for the next five minutes, 27-year-old Amanda Baggs — who is autistic and doesn't speak — describes in vivid and articulate terms what's going on inside her head as she carries out these seemingly bizarre actions. In a synthesized voice generated by a software application, she explains that touching, tasting, and smelling allow her to have a "constant conversation" with her surroundings. These forms of nonverbal stimuli constitute her "native language," Baggs explains, and are no better or worse than spoken language. Yet her failure to speak is seen as a deficit, she says, while other people's failure to learn her language is seen as natural and acceptable.

    • Education 1: Evaluating web content --

      This guide offers tips for evaluating the quality of content on the Web. In recent years, the Web has become a rich environment of Web pages, blogs, wikis, social networking sites, free research services, media types and more. It can be a challenge to figure out which content to trust. This guide will help you to identify the type of site you are visiting and to evaluate its content.

    • Education 2: Commonly overused words --

      When you write, use the most precise word for your meaning, not the word that comes to mind first. Consult this thesaurus to find alternatives for some commonly overused words.

      Overused? I thought we were making use of keywords... Here are the alternatives for --

      Excellent: superior, remarkable, splendid, unsurpassed, superb, magnificent.

      Nevermind.

    • Education 3: Handbook of Mathematical Functions --

      An electronic copy of the tenth printing of this famous reference.

    • Copyright: Copyright this --

      Intellectual property's social value may trump copyright law.

    • Architecture: 7 abandoned wonders of the European Union: From deserted castles to retrofuturistic factories --

      The rich stories of individual European nations can be read in part through the amazing abandoned buildings found across the continent. It is truly remarkable how intact some of these structures are even after centuries.

    • The Mind: Top 10 strange phenomena of the mind --

      We have all some experience of a feeling, that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time – of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances -- of our knowing perfectly what will be said next, as if we suddenly remember it! --Charles Dickens

    • Your Life: It's march folks, how about reloading some abandoned resolutions --

      By now, most resolutions have been abandoned and life goes on. Let's see if we can reanimate one of them. Actually, the calendar year is just another occasion. You can just as well start on any given day and work the plan.

    Expect more than others think is possible. Always.

    Related Items

    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    If you liked this post, please take the time to bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Thank you! You can also get free updates , send feedback, or browse the archives for more.

  • Intensity and Excess, Forever?

    by Alexander Becker

    Intensity vs. forever, that is.

    I don't want to be with you forever -- do you know why? Well, first, forever is quite a long time, where some of us, at least temporarily, might get bored or boring, second, almost nothing is forever; and this comes from the guy who once invented forever...

    What I do want is being with you right now, in person, in practice, as intense as it gets, forever is just theory and you nor I can't hold that kind of intensity for this long.

    That is quality over quantity. Let's try to take quality over quantity as often as possible. The result is even more quality.

    You can't endure and enjoy excess forever either.

    Right now

    The rest of time -- beyond now -- isn't supposed to be out of the mind at all. We are still responsible for our future and since we strive to have many more moments of intensity and excess to come, we'd do best to behave as sustaining and responsible as we possibly can.

    Self-destruction is not the most elegant way to appreciate excess, intensity, and that moment.

    Sure, it is not going to be the last moment but if it was, it would be great nonetheless. And since it is not the last moment, you just have to repeat it. Again.

    And again.

    What about that kind of forever?

    A series of nows instead of a extended then.

    A repetition of quality moments, as long as it lasts.

    Related Items

    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    If you liked this post, please take the time to bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Thank you! You can also get free updates , send feedback, or browse the archives for more.

  • What is your Default Mode?

    by Alexander Becker

    What is your default mode, how do you act when it's over, when you're done? Finally idle again? How does it feel?

    You're idle, in between projects or right after a show. You've just completed the big project. That is exactly where the potential to do something really stupid is the greatest.

    The best way to prevent a potentially negative aftermath to any accomplishment is to set up some idle-time protocol.

    Raw idleness tends to be -- especially between bouts of higher achievement -- relatively negative. You can't be high all the time. Also, to really feel the high, you need, by definition and for comparison, the corresponding low. What follows is, that the higher the high, the lower the low.

    Try to establish a baseline or maintenance program that will prepare you for the next project, restore your physical and mental energy and backup your intellectual resources. Start immediately upon exhaustion to appreciate and use the void, as long as it lasts.

    This void, this emptiness does indeed exist and it infects potentially anyone. Creating some routines prevents the "hole" that opens up after finishing any kind of creative work from becoming all too deep.

    My protocol, for example, consists of a strict diet, exercises and -- to contain and to enforce -- discipline. Whenever I become idle, which isn't all too often but especially at the crossroads between projects, before and after, I quite literally fall back into a set of default habits of eating cleanly, exercising hard and absolutely regular, and so on...

    Debriefing; analyzing the finished project is often hard since it's all over and done and you can't change the outcome anyway, but it is an important conclusion of anything you worked so hard for. Just recount what you will be proud of and note what and how to improve when trying next time.

    Research, study, and refining skills are part of my strategy. The more unrelated the better, seemingly unrelated that is, inspiration comes best when the field of research seems way too remote.

    Enjoy the low and appreciate it, for the greater the difference, the more pronounced the reward will be. Live both the low and the high as deeply as you can. Just make sure and try to establish a default mode somewhere in the middle between high and low, defaulting to either high or low makes the respective opposite state unbearable.

    See also: Getting Past Done: What to Do After You’ve Finished a Big Project --

    Revise your resume or CV. How does your new perspective affect the way you describe what was important about your previous experiences?

    Related Items

    Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

    If you liked this post, please take the time to bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Thank you! You can also get free updates , send feedback, or browse the archives for more.

  • WOWOW: The Real Hacks Edition [Links of the Week]

    by Alexander Becker

    I'd like to focus on real hacks, not the kind you find filed and dug away under 50 more list-items to improve your shut-eye through extended boredom, so, sleep, progress, and how-to -- not.

    • Relax like a pro: 5 steps to hacking your sleep --

      For longer naps, test multiples of 90 minutes, which is called an "ultradian" rhythm in some papers, though the proper term should be "infradian" since it's less than 24 hours. Thomas Edison, despite his vocal disdain for sleep and claim to sleep only four hours per night, is reported to have taken two three-hour naps daily.

      Don't forget to factor in your time-to-sleep. It often takes me up to an hour to fall asleep, so I'll set my alarm for seven hours ((4 x 90 minutes) + 60-minute time-to-sleep).

      ... and it's even true: The 90-minute increments work like magic. I'm not exactly sure on how to factor in the time-to-fall-asleep though. I tend to count only true sleep time.

    • 4 ways to stay on track --

      The bottom-line is that no matter what speed bumps inevitably appear, there are a number of ways to stick to your training program. Cop-outs are unacceptable, excuses are even worse. Even if you don't know exactly what's going to be thrown at you, with just a little planning, you now know how to handle almost any less-than-perfect situation.

    • Everything does not require a 'How To' manual --

      There are many situations in life where following your inclinations, without the manual of instructions, is the best approach.

    • The above article is from "the linguist," who provides our educational food for this weekend, a method -- LingQ -- to learn nine languages, for now.

      Everyone learns to speak their native language. Why not use the same approach with a second language? Surround yourself with meaningful input that matters to you. Start at an easy level and work your way up.

    Have a nice weekend, change the world as much as you can and make sure to keep smiling along the way.

    Related Items

    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    If you liked this post, please take the time to bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Thank you! You can also get free updates , send feedback, or browse the archives for more.

  • The Best In The World: What's the Point?

    by Alexander Becker

    Once in a while the question comes up: Why?

    We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. --Chuck Palahniuk

    I hope this helps.

    Even more interesting is the point itself: Everybody is best-in-the-world at something. The trick is to find out what it is and to find it out in time. This brings up the next question: Why does it take so long for most people to find out what they are here for?

    Excellence × Chutzpah = Irresistible + Invincible

    Multiply excellence and chutzpah to achieve peak performance, become irresistible and invincible and look even better in business, fitness, on stage, and beyond.

    That's what it says, at least.

    • Why does anyone would not want to look better, in any sense of the word?
    • If it is possible to improve, would you? Would you want to?
    • The best in the world? Do you want to be the best at anything?

    It is not merely about "accomplishing something", not about "getting things done" and out of the way. The best way to get things out of the way is by getting them out of the way. What it is about is getting things done the best way possible, the most elegant, beautiful, effective, whatever, way there is...

    Accomplishing nothing but the best, whatever it takes. Yes, that's elite. That's real performance. Why not? Courage. Advocating insanity? Probably. Endurance? Doing things anyway. More and more. Faster.

    Maybe you need hardcore, dirty, hacks to get the best out of what you have.

    Attack common sense, because, by definition, common sense is average. Make decisions as fast as possible.

    Do everything as good as you can, if you know someone to do it better, get him to do it. Doing everything the best you can is not the same as doing everything the best way possible. That is what it is about. Exceed expectations.

    Doing the best you can might imply finding someone else to do and complete the job.

    Doing the best you can is always doing more than you are expected to do. It's a little more than you planned to do.

    Immortality is a collateral of best-in-the-world. You are not going to care, though.

    Related Items

    Labels: , , , , , , ,