• WOWOW: Embrace Novelty and Resubscribe

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Please resubscribe; no meat in the 21th century? Maths, again and again, more maths, novelty, creativity, and no reason to hide.

    • What the 21st Century Will Taste Like --

      So it really chilled me when he said, "America better prepare for some uncomfortable changes. Things might get really ugly."

    • 9 Mental Math Tricks --

      Math can be terrifying for many people. This list will hopefully improve your general knowledge of mathematical tricks and your speed when you need to do math in your head.

    • Project 10 to the 100 --

      May Those Who Help The Most Win

    • Novelty Makes Brains Creative --

      Discoveries by neuroscientists studying the brain say that novel experiences are key in increasing brain power and creativity. When the brain experiences, or imagines a familiar situation, it already has a shortcut to understanding -- it's got that categorized in a neat little mental box. Novelty, new experiences and stretches of the imagination keep the mind limber, and more creative.

    • Looking for a reason to hide --

      Inc. magazine reports that a huge percentage of companies in this year's Inc. 500 were founded within months of 9/11. Talk about uncertain times.

      But uncertain times, frozen liquidity, political change and poor astrological forecasts (not to mention chicken entrails) all lead to less competition, more available talent and a do-or-die attitude that causes real change to happen.

      If I wasn't already running my own business, today is the day I'd start one.

    OK. LETS DO THIS, THEN............

    Now, please resubscribe for a continuous stream of links to interesting and diverse material, under the working title --

    Are you a scientist, an artist, an athlete, or a businessman? All of these? Me too.

    Thanks for reading so far.

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  • WOWOW: There!

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Philippe Petit, Lego, Fructose, Third-World-Workouts, Chernobyl, and the 10 Skills you don't want to miss teaching your kids.

    • Inspiration: Philippe Petit, Man on Wire --

      In 1968 I was 18 years old and I saw an article about those towers. There was a photo of a model, and the article said that they would be built one day, and they would be the finest in the world. And here I was, a completely new self-taught wire walker, and I thought, "What a fabulous thing to transform the top of those towers to a theater for one morning." And that's how the idea came.

    • Toys: LEGO Mini Sport City 2008 --

      ... currently one of the most amazing LEGO productions ever in China. The theme of this city is the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Swimming Cube, Nest Sports Ground and Sport Village were built as a landmark of this LEGO city. 300,000 bricks and 4,500 mini-figures are used to construct a 3m x 8m artistic show.

    • HFCS: How High Fructose Corn Syrup Makes you Gain Weight --

      "The message from this study is powerful because body fat synthesis was measured immediately after the sweet drinks were consumed," Dr. Parks said. "The carbohydrates came into the body as sugars, the liver took the molecules apart like tinker toys, and put them back together to build fats. All this happened within four hours after the fructose drink. As a result, when the next meal was eaten, the lunch fat was more likely to be stored than burned."

    • Testosterone: The Evils of Fructose --

      Unlike glucose, fructose can only be metabolized in the liver, whereas glucose can be passed to other body tissues, like your muscles.

    • By any means necessary: Third World Workouts --

      In my world, the equipment is always there. You just have to teach yourself to recognize it. If you see something you can lift, push, pull, or throw, you can build a workout around it.

    • Foundations: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything --

      Success, however it's defined, takes action, and taking good and appropriate action takes skills. Some of these skills (not enough, though) are taught in school (not well enough, either), others are taught on the job, and still others we learn from general life experience.

      Public Speaking, Writing, Self-Management, Networking, Critical Thinking, Decision-Making, Math, Research, Relaxation, Basic Accounting.

    • Fungi: Deep in the radioactive bowels of the smashed Chernobyl reactor, a strange new lifeform is blooming --

      The exclusion zone is teeming with wildlife of all shapes and sizes, flourishing unhindered by human interference and seemingly unfazed by the ever-present radiation. Most remarkable, however, is not the life buzzing around the site, but what's blooming inside the perilous depths of the reactor.

    Let go.

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  • WOWOW: Cognition Nutrition

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Food for thought, very elaborate, circular visualizations, cable ties and ghost towns, Knol and as always, ... things to do before you die.

    • Cognition Nutrition --

      Children have a lot to contend with these days, not least a tendency for their pushy parents to force-feed them omega-3 oils at every opportunity. These are supposed to make children brainier, so they are being added to everything from bread, milk and pasta to baby formula and vitamin tablets. But omega-3 is just the tip of the nutritional iceberg; many nutrients have proven cognitive effects, and do so throughout a person's life, not merely when he is a child.

    • Circos: Visualizing the genome, among other things --

      Circos uses a circular composition of ideograms to mitigate the fact that some data, like combinations of intra- and inter-chromosomal relationships (alignments, duplications, assembly paired-ends, etc) are very difficult to organize when the underlying ideograms (or contigs) are arranged as lines. In many cases, it is impossible to keep the relationship lines from crossing other structures and this deteriorates the effectiveness of the graphic.

    • Art Students Build Massive Environment Using Only Cable Ties --

      Students at the Academy of Arts in Munich spent over 16,000 hours weaving together an impressive environmental installation made entirely out of cable ties. The space was made using 1.3 million ties and has the look of a highly advanced plastic spider web.

    • Knol is open to everyone --

      Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects. Today, we're making Knol available to everyone.

    • 10 Most Amazing Ghost Towns --

      The Kowloon Walled City was located just outside Hong Kong, China during British rule. A former watchpost to protect the area against pirates, it was occupied by Japan during World War II and subsequently taken over by squatters after Japan's surrender. Neither Britain nor China wanted responsibility for it, so it became its own lawless city.

      Its population flourished for decades, with residents building labyrinthine corridors above the street level, which was clogged with trash. The buildings grew so tall that sunlight couldn't reach the bottom levels and the entire city had to be illuminated with fluorescent lights.

    • Things to Do Before You Die ... Yes, I know, but you too know what and why --

      At least once in his life, a man should...

      There is no checklist. Nothing on this list is that automatic. Every element here is a matter of the choices you make, the chances you take, the courage you are willing to show. You can trick yourself into thinking bungee jumping somehow satisfies those criteria, but willfully falling off a crane in a mall parking lot is more or less a rite of passage by now, isn't it? Maybe you call that a big moment. The trick is choosing to experience them all that way.

    Once you participate in life, it really works. I'll see ya.

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  • WOWOW: Dangerously Cosmopolitan

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Writing better, whining and learning, and reinventing those corporations.

    • Kurt Vonnegut on Writing Better --

      1. Find a subject you care about
      2. Do not ramble, though
      3. Keep it simple
      4. Have guts to cut
      5. Sound like yourself
      6. Say what you mean
      7. Pity the readers

    • Should small businesses whine? --

      Thank you for your inquiry. To answer your question we are NOT an big company like Amazon we are actually a small company, That is why it does take us a little longer than others.

    • Anti-Hero of the Day: The Constantly Whining Business Man --

      In the end, the always whining business man is probably ignorant and incompetent. It's a matter of honor to stop complaining, otherwise quitting is an option to consider -- for vendors, employees, and ultimately, for the poor man himself.

    • Our Googley advice to students: Major in learning --

      Management guru Peter Drucker noted that companies attracting the best knowledge workers will "secure the single biggest factor for competitive advantage." We and other forward-looking companies put a lot of effort into hiring such people. What are we looking for?

      • ... analytical reasoning.
      • ... communication skills.
      • ... a willingness to experiment.
      • ... team players.
      • ... passion and leadership.

    • Learning? Try Polyhedral Maps --

      Intuitively, distortion in polyhedral maps is greater near vertices and edges, where the polyhedron is farther from the inscribed sphere; also, increasing the number of faces is likely to reduce distortion (after all, a sphere is equivalent to a polyhedron with infinitely many faces).

    • Corporate re-invention --

      How do large tech companies like Dell have to re-invent themselves in order to make the grade? To keep their ever-growing army of customers and shareholders relatively content?

    Cosmopolitan cosmopolites. Dangerous freedom. Play it where it lies is just that.

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  • WOWOW: Believing in the Improbable

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Bugs and books, naming names, and the improbable improbable from Kevin Kelly and Brian Eno.

    • Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol --

      Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'.

    • Books that changed my life --

      I don't mean merely great books, or memorable ones, or favorite ones. I mean books that altered your behavior, changed your mind, redirected the course of your life. Books as levers.

    • Unthinkable futures --

      Improbability is still a strong bias to overcome. Much that is happening today would have been dismissed as unbelievably bad science fiction only 15 years ago. The US with secret prisons torturing Muslims? Street sweepers in India with their own cell phones? Obesity a contagious disease? A trusted encyclopedia written by anyone? Yeah, right, give me a break.

      [...]

      This list of unthinkable futures -- probabilities we tend to dismiss without thinking -- was published 15 years ago in the Summer, 1993 issue of Whole Earth Review. Our intent was less to correctly predict the future (thus the silliness) and more to predict how unpredictable the actual future would be.

      Believing in the improbable is quickly becoming a survival skill.

      • A new profession -- cosmetic psychiatry -- is born. People visit "plastic psychiatrists" to get interesting neuroses and obsessions added into their makeup.
      • A new kind of holiday becomes popular: you are dropped by helicopter in an unknown place, with two weeks' supply of food and water. You are assured that you will not see anyone else in this time. There is a panic button just in case.
      • Seed companies start selling packets of unpredictable mutants produced by random genetic engineering programmes: "JUST PLANT 'EM AND SEE WHAT COMES UP!" Suburbia is covered with exotic new blooms and giant cucumbers.
      • The first Bio-Olympics, where athletes can have anything added to or subtracted from their bodies, take place in 2004.
      • A microbe engineered to eat oil slicks evolves a taste for rubber. [Ed.--See above.]
      • Traveling as a process enjoys a revival. People abandon the idea of "getting from A to B" and begin to develop (or re-discover) a culture of traveling: semi-nomadism. Lots of people acquire super new faxed-and-modemed versions of the mobile home. It becomes distinctly "lower-class" to live in a fixed location.

    • A two-part rule for naming your Startup --

      Our minds are built to make connections, mostly at a subconscious level. When a metaphor is detected, it triggers a process in our brains that associates the metaphor with the next object or reference. This naming system forces the mind to take the cognitive step of associating the metaphor to the product it represents, thus forming a positive association to the brand. And once your brain has woven the connection, it sticks, so there’s a great chance your company name won’t be forgotten.

    Where nothing is improbable, nothing is impossible either.

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  • WOWOW: Education × Curiosity

    edited 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.

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  • WOWOW: The Comfort Paradox

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Your too comfortable discomfort, your (Google) health, your habits and your finances.

    • Get uncomfortable, finally --

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

    • Are you a comfort junkie?

      Yep, being addicted to comfort can be somewhat problematic, if not catastrophic, for the wanna-be, modern-day success story. The truth is, if you’re not experiencing and dealing with pain, discomfort and fear on at least a semi-regular basis, you’re probably not learning, growing, changing, adapting and exploring your potential as you should be.

    • Google Health: A quick hands-on look --

      Google has also created specific in-depth pages for hundreds of health topics. When you enter a condition into your profile, there is a reference link to one of these pages where you can do more research. These are really helpful. They give a summary of the symptoms, treatment, causes, and prevention of different conditions; illustrations where appropriate, as well as links to related news, Google Groups, and search trends.

    • Can you become a creature of new habits?

      HABITS are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. “Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd,” William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word “habit” carries a negative connotation.

    • Five basics for building a solid financial future --

      The stark truth about managing our money these days is that we are mostly on our own.

    Once you solve the comfort paradox, everything changes. Have an uncomfortable enough week.

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  • Get Uncomfortable, Finally

    edited 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?

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  • WOWOW: Jazz and Entrepreneurship

    edited by Alexander Becker

    The right mix between laid-back and fighter-pilot focused; Jazz and the art of continually starting up.

    • 100 essential Jazz albums --

      These hundred titles are meant to provide a broad sampling of jazz classics and wonders across the music's century-long history. Early New Orleans jazz, swing, bebop, cool jazz, modal jazz, hard bop, free jazz, third stream, and fusion are all represented, though not equally.

    • 100 ways to be a better entrepreneur --

      Need help reenergizing your business? Out of creative ideas for reaching your business goals? We've compiled a list of the top 100 tips to improve your business. Consider it your checklist for maintaining a successful business.

    • How to start a startup --

      You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible. Most startups that fail do it because they fail at one of these. A startup that does all three will probably succeed.

    • Brand Tags --

      The basic idea of this site is that a brand exists entirely in people's heads. Therefore, whatever it is they say a brand is, is what it is.

    • Are You in Personal Branding Prison? --

      Too much personal branding can be damaging to a professional. If you brand yourself too strongly, you can’t take a break, because there’s no one else to fill your shoes. Without you, your business has no value.

    That said, mix right and mix wise, and have a successful week.

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  • WOWOW: Survive a Plane Crash while Refining Your Learning Skills

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Now that pseudo-productivity is declared dead, let's go back to the drawing board. Start with art, disaster prevention and recoevery, some interesting research projects, and the latest news on how your memory works.

    • The impossible art of Li Wei --

      Li Wei states that these images are not computer montages and works with the help of props such as mirror, metal wires, scaffolding and acrobatics.

    • How to survive an airplane crash --

      According to the statistics, two-thirds of the people involved in air crashes survive. Approximately one-third of the third who do die could have survived if they had known what to do and almost all of these died from smoke or fire. If it seems certain the plane is going to crash, here's what to do while the plane is going down.

    • 25 leading-edge IT research projects --

      While universities don't tend to shout as loudly about their latest tech innovations as do Google, Cisco and other big vendors, their results are no less impressive in what they could mean for faster, more secure and more useful networking. Here's a roundup, in no particular order, of some of the most amazing and colorful projects in the works.

    • The world in 2058 --

      The consensus view is that we'll muddle through many of the issues that vex us today -- including climate change and terror threats. And we'll hit upon so many medical and technological wonders that today's 50-year-olds will have a fair chance of finding out firsthand how the world will look in 2058.

    • Want to remember everything you'll ever learn? Surrender to this algorithm --

      ... there is an ideal moment to practice what you've learned. Practice too soon and you waste your time. Practice too late and you've forgotten the material and have to relearn it. The right time to practice is just at the moment you're about to forget. Unfortunately, this moment is different for every person and each bit of information. Imagine a pile of thousands of flash cards. Somewhere in this pile are the ones you should be practicing right now. Which are they?

    Make this week yours. Even art is not impossible.

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  • WOWOW: Picasso X Riemann X Kurzweil

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Kurzweil talking about going all the way, Riemann hunting maddeningly capricious primes, Picasso on yellow spots, while your kids get stronger and smarter throwing spears and breaking the DMCA.

    • Can the lifehacking concept help you live until the Singularity?

      If you want to lose weight, then forget the fad diets. Cut out all (there are no alternate interpretations to the world all) the crap in your diet, and don't put a time limit on it either. Don't decide to do it for a few weeks or "until I lose the weight" -- do it from now until the day you die. Exercise as much as you need to each day so you can burn more calories than you take in. There is utterly no point in going half-assed, other than to make it more difficult next time you try.

      Sounds familiar. Multiply Exercise and Nutrition --

      1. Eat as much unprocessed food as possible and cut everything processed or refined. Food is fuel.
      2. Move your body and your mind as much as you can in as many directions possible. Stagnation and inertia mean death.

    • Creeping up on Riemann --

      Prime numbers are maddeningly capricious. They clump together like buddies on some regions of the number line, but in other areas, nary a prime can be found. So number theorists can't even roughly predict where the next prime will occur. The distribution of primes is the great motivating question of number theory.

      You may or may not understand the potential impact of the predictability of the distribution of primes, but one thing is for sure: It makes you think.

    • Picasso's Top 7 tips for creating an exciting life --

      • See the hidden beauty by not judging.
      • If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.
      • Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.
      • Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.

      The trick is to transform the yellow spot into a sun, then transform the sun back into a yellow spot. This makes you believe.

    • Five dangerous things you should let your kids do --

      1. Play with fire
      2. Own a pocket knife
      3. Throw a spear
      4. Deconstruct appliances
      5. Break the DMCA / Drive a car

      ... will make them stronger and smarter and actually safer.

    That said, have a great week and appreciate the yellow spots.

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  • WOWOW: April Fools, Cocaine, and Your Younger Self

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Once a year, everybody attempts to present his or her version of funny, true, or outrageous in order to gather valuable feedback and later on tell anybody that it was just kidding.

    Here goes --

    1. Cocaine? Just kidding; here is the real deal --

      The only thing that works is kaizen -- constant and never-ending improvement. There is no substitute, no shortcut, and definitely no magic pill nor powder.

    2. 34 tips for your younger self. No kidding there --

      • Don't stress about relationships. If it works, it works, if it doesn't, it doesn't.
      • Don't be afraid to ask people for things you want if the worst outcome is that they say no.
      • Do all the crazy stuff. Take the risks. They're totally worth it!

    3. AdSense for conversations. Hilarious. But... I'm just not sure whether they are kidding or not --

      Now, in just a few simple steps, you can begin displaying ads that are relevant to the topics you're discussing -- in an unobtrusive screen above your head.

      Anyone taking part in the conversation can hit the ad with their hand to immediately take advantage of the product or service being offered. With our new Teleportation Technology(TM), you'll be transported directly to the site where the service is available, or have the product appear instantaneously in your hands.

    As highlighted above: Do all the crazy stuff. Take the risks. They're totally worth it! Have a nice weekend and a great week.

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  • WOWOW: Managing Urgencies with Compounded Bodyweight

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Three things.

    1. Managing urgencies --

      You can have grand visions for remodeling your house or getting in shape, but if there's a fire in the kitchen, you drop everything and put it out. What choice do you have? The problem, of course, is that most organizations are on fire, most of the time.

      [...]

      I guess the trick is to make the long term items even more urgent than today's emergencies. Break them into steps and give them deadlines. Measure your people on what they did today in support of where you need to be next month.

      If you work in an urgent-only culture, the only solution is to make the right things urgent.

    2. The importance of bodyweight training --

      You should include a bodyweight exercise and a lifting exercise for every major pattern you train. Horizontal, vertical, push, pull... the whole deal. The major bodyweight exercises include the push-up, inverted row, pull-up, handstand push-up, squat, split squat (Bulgarian squat) or lunge, and calf raise.

    3. A slight edge... --

      There's an interesting fact about investing a penny, and doubling that investment every day. So -- day one -- you have one cent in the bank. Day two -- two cents. Day three -- four cents. Day four -- eight cents etc. By day 30 -- you'll have over $5 million saved (go ahead -- do the math). The idea is that major change starts with a small investment.

    Make the most out of it.

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  • WOWOW: Information Superpower Vampires

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Information-deficits, energy vampires and the one true mental superpower.

    Swimming Against the Stream

    Go on a high-information diet --

    Everyone seems to think that if they could just reduce the flow of information into their lives, everything would be all better. They could finally relax and take a minute to catch up.

    My advice is the opposite: you don’t need less information, you need more information. What you need less of is input — all the crap that flows at you masquerading as information.

    Listen: in order to be information, an input must make you better informed.

    By definition, you can’t have too much information; when an input, no matter how good, ceases to inform you, it is no longer information.

    Use news-fasting as an only temporary solution to increase productivity, for example --

    If you want results and you want them fast enough, you have to go extreme ways. Don't expect a balanced approach, we're going all out here. This is no moderate diet, no zone, this is the no-carb, guaranteed fat-loss, whatever-it-takes solution.

    It comes down to collecting news vs. gathering useful intelligence. You do not want to deprive youself of real information; see above.

    Even more important is the approach of doing the opposite of what everybody else is doing. Especially when it comes to "hacking life": Mass-hacking life anyone?

    Maintaining Precious Energy

    Protect yourself against energy vampires --

    • They are often bitter, angry and resentful... and they want you to share their pain.
    • They don't want solutions, they want pity.
    • They don't want constructive feedback, they want attention.
    • They don't want to take responsibility, they want to blame and vent.
    • They seem to revel in their own misery.

    [...]

    This sounds harsh, but some Vampires need to be avoided.

    Choose your friends and acquaintances wisely. Make sure you spend (lots of) time with people who will drag you up, not down. You need to keep your tank full.

    One Mental Superpower: Belief

    Nothing more, nothing less, and nothing esoteric.

    Mental superpowers: How to unleash the full potential of your mind --

    So, what is it that will unleash the superpowers of your mind? It is belief. You have to believe without doubt in the deepest recesses of your heart and mind that you can and will fulfill your desires. You have to believe so deeply that it creates a level of intensity in your thinking so that your desire becomes a burning obsession. You have to be able to visualize it and emotionalize it vividly. It has to consume you. You have to believe at the level where you know that you can overcome any obstacles that may arise. That you will pay any price. You will give and do whatever it takes to achieve your goal. When you believe like this, you invoke the superpowers of your mind and you will alter reality.

    That's it. Keep and defend your energy as good as you can, make use of the one true superpower, finally, avoid collecting news or raw information but instead actually employ real intelligence. And have a nice weekend.

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  • WOWOW: True Fans Want True Charisma

    edited 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.

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  • WOWOW: Functions, Wonders, and Phenomena

    edited 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.

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  • Intensity and Excess, Forever?

    edited 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.

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  • WOWOW: The Artists Edition [Links of the Week]

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Something for my beloved artists -- papercuts, teaching effectively, and procrastinating successfully. Also for the attention-span impaired; then again, we're not after sheer count of items.

    Insanity

    Many, no doubt, are well disposed, but sluggish by constitution and by habit, and they cannot conceive of a man who is actuated by higher motives than they are, accordingly they pronounce this man insane, for they know that they could never act as he does, as long as they are themselves. --Henry David Thoreau

    Art

    The papercuts of Peter Callesen -- Strange and beautiful.

    Education

    The movie director’s guide to effective teaching --

    Research has shown that learning most frequently happens at the start and at the end of a message. Your message could be a presentation, advertisement or a lecture, it doesn't matter -- people remember the beginning and ending more than the middle. It's called the primacy-recency principle and was first studied in the 1920's. Movie directors understand this to well -- that's why in most movies something big usually happens within the first couple minutes and the best song is left until the end. They want you to remember the start of the movie and feel good at the end. We can apply this concept and provide a better learning experience for your audience.

    Procrastination

    Seven ways to procrastinate for better results --

    1. Where problems go away with time.
    2. Where problems are best ignored.
    3. Where you have good back-up and support systems in place.
    4. Where something more important comes up.
    5. Where you are getting into a deal.
    6. Where you are tired, hungry or angry.
    7. Where people are on your back because you are known to be a doer.

    As always, creating a significant difference between work and play heightens the sensations of both. Feel, appreciate, and enjoy your weekend and your week.

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

    edited 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.

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

    edited 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.

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  • WOWOW: The Observer Edition [Links of the Week]

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Food or fuel? The universe and your own university, more resolutions and the observer question.

    • Pick up these 20 foods to snack on for enhanced productivity --

      Most people eat to lose weight, get healthy and build muscle. There are some people, however, who snack correctly in order to enhance their productivity.

      ... to the tune of the previous "food is fuel" recommendation --

    • Accurately monitoring the progress of your resolutions helps to keep them and you on track: 5% down, 95% to go --

      Today is January 22nd. That means 21 days (3 weeks) have already passed in 2008. That's a little over 5% of the year gone already. So let's do a quick "goal review" or a resolution recall. Are you 5% towards your goals?

      The point is - you need to constantly assess where you are in relation to your desired outcomes.

      • Are you on track?
      • Are you headed in the right direction?
      • Have you even moved off the starting line?

      There is still time to reload your resolutions and start all over.

    • Knowledge is still king: How to set up your personal university --

      No, you don't need to rent a campus, hire professors and start charging tuition. Setting up a personal university means taking your self-education as seriously as any schooling you manage pay for. While regular university is expensive and stops when you get a degree, your personal university continues indefinitely and can be run for free.

      Please consider the necessity to authenticate the authority of any expert, yourself included.

    • A great way to put things in perspective, especially You, is a look at the universe within 1 billion light years and the neighbouring superclusters --

      Galaxies and clusters of galaxies are not uniformly distributed in the Universe, instead they collect into vast clusters and sheets and walls of galaxies interspersed with large voids in which very few galaxies seem to exist. The map above shows many of these superclusters including the Virgo supercluster -- the fairly minor supercluster of which our galaxy is just a minor member. The entire map is approximately 7 percent of the diameter of the entire visible Universe. Individual galaxies are far too small to appear on this map, each point represents a group of galaxies.

      Make sure to zoom in...

    • Finally, the question of the week: The key to innovation: Becoming an observer --

      We all need to innovate to stand out from the crowd. But what is the key to innovation? The answer, or at least an important answer, is becoming an observer. By observing how we and other people do things, we will spot opportunities for improvements. The more we observe, the more opportunities we will find. We can then work to provide solutions for some of the problems. By becoming a good observer, we will recognize the problems before many people do and have first-mover advantage.

      ... this is, obviously, correct. It is valuable information for anybody at least remotely concerned with observing.

      What people are yet to realize is that most things you cannot learn, either you are an observer or you are not. Yes, you can learn anything and everything, I know, but when it comes to competition day, the born observer, the naturally talented observer will have the divine advantage.

      Build your skills and to get started, study as broad as possible but make sure to not neglect finding out what you are best at.

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  • WOWOW: The Inspiration Edition [Links of the Week]

    edited by Alexander Becker

    High speed links: Inspiration and creativity, assholes (ooooh sorry -- not really), pirates, and chutzpah, again.

    • Working In Close

      And, sorry, all those romantic notions you have of absinthe spoons, manic episodes and Kerouac-like rambling on a long roll of butcher paper really aren't operative. Creative work is mostly showing up every day and enduring a million tiny failures as you feel your way to something a bit new.

    • Are You A Certified Asshole?

      I'm sure that none of you need to take this test, but you might know someone who does.

    • The Pirate's Dilemma

      The Pirate's Dilemma tells the story of how youth culture drives innovation and is changing the way the world works. It offers understanding and insight for a time when piracy is just another business model, the remix is our most powerful marketing tool and anyone with a computer is capable of reaching more people than a multi-national corporation.

    • The Danger of Free

      Again: Nothing is for free.

    • The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

      Chutzpah -- Or khutspe. Nerve, extreme arrogance, brazen presumption. In English, chutzpah often connotes courage or confidence, but among Yiddish speakers, it is not a compliment.

      Yiddish speakers, on the other hand, get the meaning immediately.

    Until next week, stay safe, work hard and don't forget the balancing play hard

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  • Reload Your (Abandoned) Resolutions

    edited by Alexander Becker

    One goal, three to-dos, and a trick, each day.

    Or...

    1000 tasks and a gun to your head.

    This post is not too late. Quite the opposite is true. 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.

    I read so many make-2008-the-best-year-ever articles (no links here) these days by everyone remotely concerned with hacking life... yet it is so easy.

    One Goal

    Did you achieve your primary 2007 goal?

    Did you set a primary 2007 goal in the first place?

    We all know the distinction between urgent and important -- have-to-do and should-be-doing.

    I want you to pick one goal for this year. One primary goal and only one that has absolute priority in 2008. Choose wisely because you will have to stick to it.

    Obviously, we're looking at the should-be-doing stuff. What is it that you know you should be doing but for whatever reason you never really started. Pick an important goal that will advance you and you life towards the fulfillment of your dreams -- or one of your dreams for now.

    Now, list your potential should-be-working-on goals and sort them and make one a priority. Make one of them your resolution. Everything else is and remains secondary for the current year.

    Three To-Dos

    Alright. So you've set your goal. What now? Of course, you already expect the answer: To-dos. Please note that you will have lots of unrelated to-dos of the have-to-do variety each and every day so we are going to add just three more to-dos -- the voluntary ones, you know, the sexy ones -- and we resolve to set them every night for the following day and we further resolve to execute, to really do them -- whatever it takes.

    Make small, small, small to-dos at first. The smaller the better. Set up three babysteps for each day and do what it takes. The trick is do make the tasks worthy, manageable and doable because we resolve and make a contract with ourselves that we are not going to break. Again, plan small tasks, three of them and do them.

    The Trick

    To make it even easier for you, set your list of three up for the next day and what you don't manage to do; cross it off the list anyway. It's gone. No second chances. No 2 items today and 4 tomorrow. If you don't do it today you're not allowed to try again tomorrow. Realize that you will lose your task when you don't do it today.

    Since all your tasks are important -- otherwise they wouldn't be scheduled for an important goal -- you definitely don't want to miss even one of them. Three tasks a day are hard enough to determine, don't spoil them without a reason -- and there is no reason.

    Imagine today as your last day and it'll become even easier to get up and just do it.

    That's why we start with small tasks. The point is to not break your contract. Don't be afraid to plan ridiculously easy tasks, remember, as long as you move, you will eventually arrive.

    That's it. Choose one priority goal. There can only be one priority. Test it and make sure you have what it takes to stick to it.

    Start and set three to-dos for each day. Start small but steady.

    Remember, it is not important to achieve something big every day. What is important though is persistence, that you do something -- three things -- every day. Think up three pathetically easy to achieve tasks and just do them and see your motivation ask for more...

    1000 Steps are Enough

    Don't overdo it. Sometimes it feels like three is not enough. Don't think about it. It is enough. In fact it is 3 × 365: A good thousand tasks. Instead of asking for more tasks, make them bigger.

    1000 steps should be sufficient. The beauty is that you don't even have to come up with a thousand tasks. Once the goal is clear, improvise and play it where it lies.

    Did I already mention to progress slowly? There is no going back. If you expect the next day to be packed with urgent have-to-dos, schedule three lightweight items that reward your mind instead of stressing you even more.

    A Variant

    Sometimes it is hard to find three tasks for that one goal on a given day. This is where your other, non-priority goals come into play. You still have to do three tasks each day but you advance your secondary goals as well. This requires you to at least determine and tackle one task for your primary goal; allocate the remainder for that day to other should-be doings. This leaves you with still three important steps each day and one excuse less in case you lag behind your scheduling skills.

    Summary

    Commit to your resolution in writing and post it where you can see it.

    1. Determine and remember your one goal. What should you be doing?
    2. Schedule three to-dos every night. Easy or hard but three.
    3. Yesterday's to-dos are not allowed to be finished today. If you didn't do it, it's gone, no matter how precious, important, or beautiful it was supposed to be. If it was that important, you'd better done it.

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  • Happy New Year 2008

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Two insights from 2007 --

    1. Nothing is set in stone. Even the things that are set in stone are not irreversible.
    2. Do not keep anything you don't need. Storing and holding on to things is often more expensive than re-acquiring them.

    2008. Excellence × Chutzpah.

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  • Tales of Virtuosity: Excellence at its Best

    edited by Alexander Becker

    What moves you the most? What makes you believe? Hope? What makes you shiver?

    Fundamentals, Virtuosity, and Mastery

    Virtuosity is defined in gymnastics as "performing the common uncommonly well." Unlike risk and originality, virtuosity is elusive, supremely elusive. It is, however, readily recognized by audience as well as coach and athlete. But more importantly, more to my point, virtuosity is more than the requirement for that last tenth of a point; it is always the mark of true mastery (and of genius and beauty).

    Grace

    Seemingly effortless is leaving the possibility that we can help a little bit here and there. Is grace about moderation? Can we polarize even grace?

    1. Seemingly effortless beauty or charm of movement, form, or proportion.
    2. A characteristic or quality pleasing for its charm or refinement.

    Virtuosity

    Excellence. Absolute excellence in any given field. Virtuosity. I can't help but admire the signs of virtuosity. It's magic to me.

    The legendary Kolisch Quartet had the singular distinction of playing its entire repertoire from memory, including the impossibly complex modern works of Schoenberg, Webern, Bartok, and Berg. Eugene Lehner was the violinist for the quartet in the 1930s. Lehner's stories about their remarkable performances often included a hair-raising moment when one player or another had a memory slip. Although he relished the rapport that developed between them without the encumbrance of a music stand, he admits there was hardly a concert in which some mistake did not mar the performance. The alertness, presence. and attention required of the players in every performance is hard to fathom, but in one concert an event occured that surpassed their ordinary brinkmanship.

    In the middle of the slow movement of Beethoven's String Quartet op. 95,just before his big solo, Lehner suddenly had an inexplicable memory lapse, in a place where his memory had never failed him before. He literally blacked out. But the audience heard Opus 95 as it was meant to be played, the viola solo sounding in all its richness. Even the first violinist, Rudolph Kolisch, and cellist, Bennar Heifetz, both with their eyes closed and deeply absorbed in the music, were unaware that Lehner had dropped out. The second violinist, Felix Khuner, was playing Lehner's melody, coming in without missing a beat at the viola's designated entrance, teh notes perfectly in tune and voiced like a viola on an instrument tuned a fifth higher. Lehner was stunned, and offstage after the performance asked Khuner how he could have possibly known to play. Khuner answered with a shrug: I could see that your finger was poised over the wrong string, so I knew you must have forgotten what came next.

    From The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.

    Always look for tales of excellence, moments of excellence. Examples of virtuosity ignite and create sparks of inspiration like nothing else.

    Art is man's expression of his joy in labor. --Henry A. Kissinger

    Virtuosity is excellence at its best. Virtuosity doesn't need to be advertised nor marketed. It is obvious and only needs to be seen to be recognized as what it is. No need to brag, no need to bring out the stats, just show what you can and it will be evident.

    Humility

    While virtuosity is the highest form of excellence, what about chutzpah taken to the extreme? How's eccentricity as an elaborate form of high-end chutzpah? Again, at some point there is no need for audacity anymore. It is obvious then that what may look like audacity to some is just the way it works. That, in fact, is humility.

    To conclude, interestingly, both virtuosity and giga-chutzpah find their ultimate superlative in the unexpected -- humility. Humility is what ultimately remains and is a significant, characteristic marker of the truly best there is.

    Awe. Hair-raising.

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  • Opinionated? Hell Yeah!

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Chris Garrett asks whether your blog -- or mine, for that matter -- is opinionated.

    The answer is of course, hell yeah, is my blog opinionated!

    Let me give you an example: Chris Shugart at Testosterone Nation has that Phoenix Theory, where from its own ashes, the fiery bird is reborn. --

    The failure — the person who hasn't begun properly and hasn't set himself on fire — will find plenty of reasons to avoid the tough exercises and rationalize laziness.

    The phoenix — the angry person who has burned away all his previous excuses — will get mad at himself for slacking. He'll remind himself that he must earn his post-workout drink, and if he needs to, he'll slap himself across the face until he feels like getting into the squat rack.

    Think I'm kidding? This is how truly successful people push themselves. They're not hand-holders; they're ass-kickers... even if it's their own ass that needs kicking. They drive themselves, and usually not with positive affirmations.

    While the theory sounds familiar and I definitely subscribe to it, the opinionated part is yet to come. Here goes --

    Phoenix Theory goes against what most hand-holding motivational "gurus" preach. But I'm not a motivational guru; I'm an experimenter and an observer. I'm not interested in what works in corny "personal growth" books; I'm interested in what works in real life, in the field. And what works in the real world isn't always pretty. But the results are.

    That is pretty much the point where some ways have to part. Call it Elite, Machiavellian, Utilitarian, Biblical, even Cold-blooded, or Insane, I call it Excellence X Chutzpah, and it is always based on higher principles. I am always here to make you look good, whatever it takes.

    It is not for everybody. While everybody is invited to try, some are here to stay. That is my opinion.

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  • Get Anything You Want by Allowing Mutual Blackmailability

    edited by Alexander Becker

    What do the concepts of mutual blackmailability, guaranteed mutual destruction or mutually assured destruction, compound interest, and reciprocity have in common?

    Mutually Assured Destruction

    Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. It is based on the theory of deterrence according to which the deployment of strong weapons is essential to threaten the enemy in order to prevent the use of the very same weapons. The strategy is effectively a form of Nash equilibrium, in which both sides are attempting to avoid their worst possible outcome -- nuclear annihilation.

    Intriguing, isn't it? Let's see what we can learn from the application -- or the non-application -- of a strategic doctrine.

    What at first sounds like a hack from the dark side, turns out to be the way it works on either side, day in, day out.

    Compond Self-Interest

    Here's the deal: I tell you my dirty secrets and you tell me yours. Then we ask one another for help on both our ways to the top. That's the power of compound self-interest.

    Compound interest, on one hand, is about interest which is added to the original principal. New interest is then calculated, not only on the principal, but also on the interest that has been added. Compound self-interest, on the other hand, is generated, the more the ties between the participants are strengthened, that is to say, the more they know and can possibly and potentially reveal about each other.

    Mutual Blackmailability

    It's a question of chutzpah: How much does it take to practically invite someone to blackmail you?

    Get to know your business partners beyond business and corporate structures, boundaries, and limitations. Share your weaknesses and you are going to share and enjoy your mutual sucesses even more. For one part bragging, add another part blackmailability -- potential humiliation. Trade as much of the latter as possible -- the more you invest, the more you receive in return -- and get anywhere you ever dreamed to be. And beyond.

    By now, you probably think something along the lines of: Funny, how my personal network, at least the part which bears real fruits, is built on these same, exact principles.... Me too. It's not only a strategic doctrine but it seems to be some kind of unwritten social rule. Everyone protects their investment. By everyone trying to avoid the worst possible outcome, new worlds are built.

    Reciprocity

    The trick is not to threaten with annihilation but instead to actively ask for help. Since rejection is not an option, favors are almost automatically granted and returned -- reciprocity is implicit and guaranteed.

    Here is the golden rule of reciprocity --

    ... thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Leviticus 19:18

    The key ingredient to reciprocity is to make people care about you. How? Have them invest their very reputation. Why would anyone do this? Give them an incentive. Your reputation.

    Now, tell me some more about yourself...

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  • Two Ways of Owning a Law

    edited by Alexander Becker

    The surprising difference between accepting a law and breaking it.

    There are laws for almost everything. And I am not talking about jurisdiction here. Not the social and societal restrictions and determinations of governmental authorities.

    Yet -- can every rule be bent and every law be broken?

    In science, there are a specific number of established scientific laws, or physical laws as they are sometimes called, that are considered absolute and inarguable facts of the physical world. Laws of science may, however, be disproved if new facts or evidence arise to contradict them. A "law" differs from those as hypotheses, theories, postulates, and principles, etc., in that a law is a general statement about nature that is considered proven beyond doubt.

    The laws of nature?

    The phrase Law of Nature has several meanings:

    • It can refer to a scientific generalization based upon empirical observation, i.e., a physical law.
    • It can refer any number of doctrines in moral, political and legal theory, also called natural law.

    The second law of thermodynamics --

    The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.

    The law of excluded middle --

    The law of the excluded middle states that every proposition is either true or false.

    Newton's first law: law of inertia --

    An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an external and unbalanced force. An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external and unbalanced force.

    Finally, what about laws, named after people in general?

    Social and societal restrictions can be bent and broken, laws of nature, laws that by definition do not provide exceptions or exemptions, are best accepted and not directly fought against. Not even resisted.

    OK, enough common sense, this is the idea: Two ways to make history --

    1. The one who discovers a law of nature gets his name tied to it;
    2. The one who discovers that -- a physical law in particular -- can be bent or broken, gains immortality.

    The former is a mere observer while the latter successfully resisted a law of nature. Obviously, the law in question becomes void and obsolete. Now, choose between the latter and the former's experience.

    Change the rules and make them yours. Bend them until they break. Any rule that can be broken is worthless anyway. As a rule at least.

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  • Defining Unknown Variables

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Let's take a look at the unknown and find a way to not only make it known, but even more, make it our very own.

    As long as you don't know the content of a variable, you can safely assume the most favorable one to match your expectations. Sure, you can always assume the worst in order to have the eventual outcome exceed you expectations but what for?

    What's the point in calculating with minimum positives and maximum negatives other than smaller rewards? Of course, you also minimize frustration, but at the same time, you keep the potential gains in check as well. You can easily maximize your results by fixing the unknowns on the positive side.

    Think communication. As long as you cannot be sure about an answer, you can as well assert that it is positive. Pretend the outcome to be good and it will be at least -- better.

    You don't know the answer? Even less, the answer is likely to be negative but isn't yet expressed? It is your chutzpah to assume and define the most positive reply possible. Thank your correspondent for their understanding and their help and move on. Build on top of that extorted outcome and everything down the road will be tangible and legitimate in its consequences.

    In short, once you inquire, do not waste time waiting for a reply, instead, act as if the answer was already received -- positively.

    ... expecting more than others think is possible...

    Expecting more, ultimately leads to more. This is one of the attributes of excellence. The self-fulfilling prophesy is about stating outcomes and determining variables, thus paving the paths for least resistance. A preconceived outcome is easier to realize than any alternative simply because the alternatives aren't made up yet. The more detailed your assumed variable, the closer to manifestation it is; it's just the easiest way possible, laid out, predigested, and formulated.

    When comparing the definite with the indefinite, the definite prevails because it just is. It is closer to being. Shape your dream and make it as definite as you can, for realization is just that.

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