• WOWOW: Education × Curiosity

    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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  • Get Uncomfortable, Finally

    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: Functions, Wonders, and Phenomena

    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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  • What is your Default Mode?

    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?

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

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

    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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  • Multiply Exercise and Nutrition to Look Even Better in 2008

    It's not rocket science. You know what to do. You know what you should be doing.

    Health and fitness is a great foundation for any lifestyle and you can start right now. If you think there is nothing you can improve, your nutrition and your exercise regimen, you can always refine.

    It is not about whether or not you exercise and watch your nutrition, of course you do, right?

    Executive Summary: Exercise × Nutrition

    Pay attention to exercise and nutrition and you will look good and be healthy. There isn't much more to get started and eventually end up leaner and healthier.

    Consider -- and follow -- these two very simple recommendations --

    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.

    Fat Loss

    With spring coming soon and after just another year and just another month of feasting, the fat loss issue comes up.

    Let's start with four rules from Christopher Mohr from T-Nation's 2008 Fat Loss Roundtable, Part I --

    1. Eat a fruit and/or at least one vegetable with every single meal.
    2. Plan ahead. Don't go to work without any food at all, then wonder why you opted for fast food at noon, hit the vending machine at 3 PM, and are famished on the way home so you decided to order a pizza to pick up for dinner.
    3. Define your goals and write them daily. If you don't know what you're working toward, you're going to continue to struggle.
    4. Move more! I'm all about complexes, interval training, large body movements like deadlifts, etc. but what about the other 160-plus hours during the week when you're not at the gym? Walk more. Get on a bike and use that as your transportation. Use the stairs instead of the elevator.

    ... and continue with Mike Roussell's 6 Pillars of Naked Nutrition from The 2008 Fat Loss Roundtable, Part II --

    1. Eat five to six times a day.
    2. Limit your consumption of sugars and processed foods.
    3. Eat fruits and vegetables throughout the day.
    4. Drink more water and cut out calorie-containing beverages (beer, soda, etc.).
    5. Focus on consuming lean proteins throughout the day.
    6. Save starch containing foods until after a workout or for breakfast.

    Skinny Fat

    Misguided diets or radical diet attempts often lead to a skinny-fat look. Try to eat more and get lean --

    Don't you think it's about time to eat in order to get healthy and lean?

    Complacency

    Do you think it's enough? How do you know? There are at least 5 reasons to get even leaner --

    Something that gets infinitely harder, the closer you come to reaching the absolute goal, is the ideal feat to fight for. If it was easy, anybody would do it and succeed. Competition is the ultimate comparison. There is only one first place.

    Time

    You say you're short on time? Try something like the 4 minute-workout --

    The X-minute workout, a running gag among fitness professionals, can still be employed effectively, especially as an addition to a well balanced schedule involving resistance training, intervals, and aerobic work.

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  • Reload Your (Abandoned) Resolutions

    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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  • WOWOW: The Motion Mountain Edition [Links of the Week]

    Renaissance, polymath questions of the week, music lessons, free content, and free links.

    How do objects and images move? How can animals move? What is motion? How does a rainbow form? Is levitation possible? Do time machines exist? What does 'quantum' mean? What is the maximum force value found in nature? Is 'empty space' really empty? Is the universe a set? Which problems in physics are still unsolved?

    A free physics textbook that tells the story of how it became possible, after 2500 years of exploration, to answer such questions. The book is written for the curious: it is entertaining, surprising and challenging on every page. With little mathematics, starting from observations of everyday life, the text explores the most fascinating parts of mechanics, thermodynamics, special and general relativity, electrodynamics, quantum theory and modern attempts at unification. The essence of these fields is summarized in the most simple terms. For example, the text presents modern physics as consequence of the notions of minimum entropy, maximum speed, maximum force, minimum change of charge and minimum action.

    Speaking of renaissance men --

    Ten Things I Learned from Einstein

    6. Where you are now doesn't predict where you will be in the future.

    plus ...

    10 Golden Lessons from Albert Einstein

    9. You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.

    Learn the rules of your game and start playing it best. Keep competing like your life depended on it. And after a while you will have no one else but you to compete against. At that point, better your best.

    ... gives us 20 Einstein nuggets to take note of.

    WOW is about being extraordinary, or in Seth's words, remarkable. I'm still not ignoring the music industry --

    Seth's Music Lessons

    People pay a premium for a story, every time.

    This isn't about having a great idea (it almost never is). The great ideas are out there, for free, on your neighborhood blog. Nope, this is about taking initiative and making things happen.

    While we're here, it is the permission model again --

    Free Without Exploitation

    While your business model might depend on and benefit from giving away free information and ideas, it should never be free at the expense of your business. Your advice has value but only to the level you allow it.

    Oh yeah... one more thing. The most stunning thing you can do these days is posting a link to some book on Amazon and omit your referer id. Yes. Linking to a book solely for the content.

    The 48 Laws of Power. Choose one --

    Law 3

    Conceal your Intentions

    Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.

    Law 17

    Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability

    Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people's actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off-balance, and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves. Taken to an extreme, this strategy can intimidate and terrorize.

    Press on. Happy weekend and do everything you can, whatever it takes.

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