WOW: Multiply Excellence and Chutzpah

WOWOW: Dangerously Cosmopolitan

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.

Labels: chutzpah, education, excellence, google, hugh+macleod, insanity, learning, lifehacks, lifestyle, marketing, personal+development, productivity, seth+godin, success, vanity

WOWOW: Education × Curiosity

by Alexander Becker

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

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

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

... where independent travellers can share up-to-date information and recommendations with other independent travellers – organised in a practical way to help us planning our trips and discovering new destinations.
100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner --

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

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

Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.
Quantum Physics Revealed As Non-Mysterious --

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

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

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

Labels: business, chutzpah, curiosity, decisions, education, excellence, insanity, language, lifehacks, lifestyle, marketing, personal+development, productivity, quantum+physics, success, travel, vanity

WOWOW: Survive a Plane Crash while Refining Your Learning Skills

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.

Labels: art, business, chutzpah, disaster, education, excellence, insanity, lifehacks, lifestyle, memory, mnemonics, productivity, research, success, the+future, vanity

WOWOW: Functions, Wonders, and Phenomena

by Alexander Becker

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

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

But then the words "A Translation" appear on a black screen, and for the next five minutes, 27-year-old Amanda Baggs — who is autistic and doesn't speak — describes in vivid and articulate terms what's going on inside her head as she carries out these seemingly bizarre actions. In a synthesized voice generated by a software application, she explains that touching, tasting, and smelling allow her to have a "constant conversation" with her surroundings. These forms of nonverbal stimuli constitute her "native language," Baggs explains, and are no better or worse than spoken language. Yet her failure to speak is seen as a deficit, she says, while other people's failure to learn her language is seen as natural and acceptable.
Education 1: Evaluating web content --

This guide offers tips for evaluating the quality of content on the Web. In recent years, the Web has become a rich environment of Web pages, blogs, wikis, social networking sites, free research services, media types and more. It can be a challenge to figure out which content to trust. This guide will help you to identify the type of site you are visiting and to evaluate its content.
Education 2: Commonly overused words --

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

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

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

Nevermind.
Education 3: Handbook of Mathematical Functions --

An electronic copy of the tenth printing of this famous reference.
Copyright: Copyright this --

Intellectual property's social value may trump copyright law.
Architecture: 7 abandoned wonders of the European Union: From deserted castles to retrofuturistic factories --

The rich stories of individual European nations can be read in part through the amazing abandoned buildings found across the continent. It is truly remarkable how intact some of these structures are even after centuries.
The Mind: Top 10 strange phenomena of the mind --

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

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

Expect more than others think is possible. Always.

Labels: architecture, autism, business, chutzpah, copyright, decisions, education, excellence, insanity, ip, lifehacks, lifestyle, marketing, maths, personal+development, phenomena, success, vanity

WOWOW: The Artists Edition [Links of the Week]

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 --

Where problems go away with time.

Where problems are best ignored.

Where you have good back-up and support systems in place.

Where something more important comes up.

Where you are getting into a deal.

Where you are tired, hungry or angry.

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.

Labels: art, business, chutzpah, decisions, education, excellence, insanity, lifehacks, lifestyle, marketing, personal+development, procrastination, productivity, success, vanity

WOWOW: The Observer Edition [Links of the Week]

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.

Labels: business, chutzpah, decisions, education, excellence, lifehacks, lifestyle, marketing, nutrition, productivity, resolutions, self-education, success, tracking, universe, university, virtuosity

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

by Alexander Becker

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.

Labels: 48+laws+of+power, albert+einstein, business, decisions, education, lifehacks, lifestyle, marketing, motion+mountain, music, personal+branding, polymath, renaissance, success

11 Ways to Improve Clarity and Start Getting Results

by Alexander Becker

Once you have found your purpose in life, you will have more than enough to do in never enough time. Here are some ways to make your experience even more joyous:

List the top three objectives of your current endeavour. To do this, weigh the most important goals and assign them relative importances. You obviously have to decide which ones are not in the top three. Can you see where this is going? No two things are equally important.
Be sure and confident about what you are doing and why and pursue exactly one project, single-mindedly to the end, until completion. This means you have to make decisions. Do not stand in your own way. Concentrate all your efforts and energy on one target at a time.
Be able to present a written list, at any time, with your top priorities. Practice and pretend to be pitching your services and your goals every day.
Define your #1 goal, its #1 project and its respective #1 task and start working on it, once you understand that this is the only thing there is, right now.
Do not worry about the future. Stop worrying altogether. Apply your rage to the present moment. Transform rage into vigor. Do not fight the future and do not fight in the future. Be clear about the present, about this very moment.
Your rewards are nothing to worry about either, they will come to you when their time has arrived -- worrying will only delay them and prevent you from receiving what you deserve.
Realize that you do not have to suffer to achieve what you want. You decide whether suffering is part of your experience or not.
Drop any goal that isn't worth pursuing anymore; do not let your countless started, semi-finished, and never followed-up upon projects divert your focus. They are worth nothing and only add to your sense of failure. Get rid of the clutter.
Set up a hierachy of time and desire. You cannot have everything you dream of immediately. Even if you skip sleep and eating, you are not going to accelerate the pace with which your dreams are made real.
Set yourself up for success by accepting what you have, as the ground in which to plant the seeds. Do not resist the situation you're in for you set up your future failure as long as you fail to accept the present.
Do not break down and destroy your previous achievements in order to follow a new idea. Recognize the foundations that are laid out for you and your creation. Build on top of what you have -- whatever that may be.

There is another way that runs parallel: see and set your goals as plans to improve your current experience of the present, whatever their outcome may be, regardless of the time it takes to successfully complete them, if they are ever going to be completed, that is.

Labels: clarity, discipline, education, goals, gtd, how+to, inspiration, lifehacks, lists, mind, motivation, personal+development, practice, productivity, tips, willpower, wow

Understand Pain to Train More Efficiently

by Alexander Becker

It doesn't have to hurt in order to work, especially not on an everyday basis, but an always and infinitely comfortable workout is no guarantee for success either. There is no reason to run away from the slightest air of pain, as much as you don't need to run away from hunger. Enjoy your pain as long as it lasts.

Have you ever trained to accomplish full splits? This hurts and it has to.

You can choose from three different kinds of pain.

First, there is the pain of muscles that are brought to their maximum in a controlled training situation. Your workout is breaking up the muscle fibers which subsequently heal and grow bigger and stronger as a result. You want that pain.

Then there is the pain of injury: it hurts and at the same moment you know that you should stop your workout immediately. You certainly don't want it but you need that pain in order to prevent further serious damage to muscles, joints, or ligaments.

Another form of pain, the most stressful and the most desirable one, while at the same time the hardest, is the pain of endurance, where the mind offers to shut down the muscles long before they are technically due. Your body would thankfully give in. It is an art in itself to signal the mind that you understand that there is still a long way to go -- sometimes literally, think marathon -- and that the body is physically capable of working the load. You convince the mind that its efforts in telling you to stop will be ignored.

The pain stays the same, whether you run the double or the quadruple distance, the trick is to surrender to the continuous pain and to proceed anyway. The reward is a solemn state, which is achieved when this royal pain is conquered with marathons for example, with wall chairs, with willpower plus discipline. Nothing more.

It is this pain that you don't really want nor need, in fact it is -- to a certain extent -- a game that your mind is playing with you. The more you resist and endure, the more your mind will respect you and finally cooperate with you in your effort to excel.

You need willpower to successfully finish heavy, painful workouts, you are even able to overcome the pain of injury with sheer willpower -- take care though -- but in order to conquer the pain of endurance you have to combine willpower and discipline. This is where real training with massive results begins.

Pain is weakness leaving the body. Mental weakness, that is.

Labels: discipline, education, endurance, exercises, fitness, health, how+to, inspiration, lifehacks, marathon, mind, motivation, pain, personal+development, sports, theory, tips, training, willpower, wow

Reality Check: The Implications of Elite Training

by Alexander Becker

Is it possible to be in top physical and mental condition while at the same time participating in life with all its seductions, influences, and an environment that is, if not negative by definition, at least neutral, neutral as opposed to the maximum goals and achievements that are so not-average and pursued while training for life?

Coming out of a controlled environment, mind and body, discipline and willpower are finally allowed to show what they are really able to achieve.

Yet it seems that only in a controlled environment, it is possible to train and prepare yourself for heights formerly unknown. This creates a dual environment problem, where you train for the outside world but not within that world. I'd love to promote training for the real world in the real world but it doesn't work this way.

You train with amazing results, you eat perfectly healthy, your thinking is positive and untainted, only to emerge from your laboratory immediately starting to effectively de-train your mind and your body. Life is cyclic.

I'm still striving to attain the heights of the monk, always, and continuously, although I do not recommend living completely ascetic. Life has to be instinctual -- to a certain degree at least -- it encompasses ups and downs, exceptions, successes and failures.

After a certain point, after accomplishing your goals for yourself, to go even further, to reach for the next impossible, the unreasonable, you have to decide whether to drop everything incompatible or accept satisfaction with what you have within easy reach.

This is what is meant when the best is being defined as the enemy of mere good.

WOW! You look like you're not from this world is not an exaggeration but a perfect truth.

We're talking about the training of elite athletes here, with goals hard to attain, training levels hard to maintain, and rewards hard to believe but why not adopt some of the methods and include them in your everyday mindset.

Labels: athletes, conditioning, education, elite, fitness, goals, health, how+to, integrity, lifehacks, motivation, practice, productivity, reality, sports, training, wow

WOW: Multiply Excellence and Chutzpah

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WOWOW: Dangerously Cosmopolitan

WOWOW: Education × Curiosity

WOWOW: Survive a Plane Crash while Refining Your Learning Skills

WOWOW: Functions, Wonders, and Phenomena

WOWOW: The Artists Edition [Links of the Week]

Insanity

Art

Education

Procrastination

WOWOW: The Observer Edition [Links of the Week]

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

11 Ways to Improve Clarity and Start Getting Results

Understand Pain to Train More Efficiently

Reality Check: The Implications of Elite Training

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