John Cleese On Creativity
Very interesting John Cleese video on creativity. Here’s some notes:
- There’s a part of our mind that helps us be more creative.
- The most dangerous thing when writing is to be interrupted.
Do You Love What You Do?
An amazing video, this. I encourage you to full-screen it in HD… because you will be different afterwards.
Moshe Feldenkrais Quote
“If you know what you’re doing, you can do what you want.”
~ Moshe Feldenkrais
Articulate: True Things About Experiences
Often times, when you’re in the middle of some experience or situation, you don’t know how to speak truthfully about what’s going on. You’re just in the middle of the situation, and won’t have any wisdom or insight to the what’s, why’s, and how’s until you come through the other side.
Experiences Are Atmospheres
I think some experiences are like being in a kind of environment or landscape… a space with weather and terrain. (more…)
I Just Realized I’m Average
The Enneagram tells you what you’re like by helping you understand your personality type. I’ve said before I think this book is unbelievably awesome.
One of the reasons I love it is because it can help you understand if you’re operating in the healthy, average, or unhealthy level of your personality type. Then it gives you some ideas about how to move towards being more healthy.
Well, my friends, I just found out that I’m definitely operating in the “Average” level. Here’s a paragraph that pretty succinctly sums up some shit i’m feeling.
I’ve got to break out of this… more to come.
My Evernote Workflow – Do More With Less
I’ve been using Evernote for a while to keep track of ideas and notes, but it got a bit unwieldy. I had different notebooks within the app, different tags, and shit that has been growing weeds for a few years.
I looked into things like Notational Velocity but I liked Evernote’s image and iphone stuff a bit more than the very cool and minimal route. (I take a lot of pictures of whiteboards, Evernote helps me search through the text therein… sometimes).
PS. there’s a video at the end of this post… so, there’s that, you know, if you like that sort of thing.
So I came up with a bit of a quick fix and i’ve been using it for the past 4 months. I love it. You’d like to hear it? It goes like this: (more…)
Viktor Frankl – Why To Believe In Others (video)
Viktor Frankl wrote Man’s Search For Meaning, an incredible book. Simply incredible (more on the book below). Here is a video of Frankl speaking at a conference in Toronto in 1972. It’s simple and humble, but when he made his point it was a paradigm shift for me.
Man’s Search For Meaning
From Amazon.com:
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. The book begins with a lengthy, austere, and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl’s imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live. The second part of the book, called “Logotherapy in a Nutshell,”describes the psychotherapeutic method that Frankl pioneered as a result of his experiences in the concentration camps. Freud believed that sexual instincts and urges were the driving force of humanity’s life; Frankl, by contrast, believes that man’s deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Frankl’s logotherapy, therefore, is much more compatible with Western religions than Freudian psychotherapy. This is a fascinating, sophisticated, and very human book. At times, Frankl’s personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power. “Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is,”Frankl writes. “After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.”
TED Talk: How Great Leaders Inspire… hint “why?”
This is an interesting presentation… feels a little too ethereal in some parts, but the main point I think stands:
If your business will be successful with the masses, it must be successful with the early adopters… In order to be successful with the early adopters, you must sell them the why not the what
I also like his little concentric circle thingy…
Simon Sinek on early adopters
If your business will be successful with the masses, it must be successful with the early adopters… In order to be successful with the early adopters, you must sell them the why not the what
Sprint – A model of and argument for doing shit quick
I’ve got an idea percolating here. It sprouted from four things:
- A conversation my friend Zach and I had where told me the story of a guy he knows who’s super health-nutty… This guy did lots of research and came to the conclusion that the human body was made for sprints, not long distance running.
- This problem I have at work where there are times of looooooong mediocre-ness and short bursts of ass kicking productivity.
- Espresso. A small shot packing big impact… on your brain, on your energy, on your motivation, and possibly on your guts.
- Smoke breaks. I don’t smoke, so I don’t get them.
What if you sprinted at work? What if you had a long day of short sprints broken up with varying breaks? What if you could dive into something completely, abandoned, for 25 minutes straight? (more…)