• WOWOW: Believing in the Improbable

    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

    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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  • Get Uncomfortable, Finally

    by Alexander Becker

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

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

    Unhappy Enough

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

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

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

    Your Mind is Playing Tricks on You

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

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

    Make it Worse

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

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

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

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

    Avoid Rationalizations

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

    Enjoy and embrace your discomfort and move now, finally.

    Set a Deadline

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

    The Process

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

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

    Are you uncomfortable enough?

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  • WOWOW: Information Superpower Vampires

    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: 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.

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  • Cascading Diet Recommendations

    by Alexander Becker

    Improving your health through your diet isn't an all-or-nothing game.

    The two general directions -- exercise × nutrition -- apparently weren't enough.

    Try it this time with some structured and even more importantly, cascading recommendations, meaning you start with the first and work up the ladder with each adhered-to point making your diet more and more healthy and your body more and more lean.

    Let's set up a baseline to work your way up from --

    Each one of the following nos works almost equally as a less. In other words, you don't have to go strict, instead you can go slower on these items and benefit as well -- albeit slower. It's a simple progression. Please note that, the higher on he list, the more important it is to say no rather than less.

    What to avoid

    1. Transfat; therefore no fried foods.
    2. (Even partly) hydrogenated fats; therefore no margarine, no peanut butter (except natural) -- eat regular butter if you like.
    3. Refined, white flour; that's no cake.
    4. Simple or added sugar; no candy, that is.

    What to eat

    The goal: Eat as much "whole and natural, fresh food" as you can.

    Note that this is no advice to go low-carb, eg. on a diet low in carbohydrates. In fact, it is nothing more than trying to get you to eat as healthy as possible.

    How much?

    As much as you want. Chances are you don't eat enough anyway.

    And no. A calorie is not a calorie. Or do you really think that a five-hundred-calorie cake is worth the same,