The Chimp Paradox by Dr Steve Peters

Most of us are aware that we have more than one personality.  In fact the older you get the more aware of it you become, and the more you accept it.  Part of me is calm, logical and assesses facts and evidence before coming to a decision.  Another part is on a permanent emotional roller coaster always ready to get excited about, well, more or less anything.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

 

Do you want to be world class at something?  Playing an instrument?  Computer programming?  Writing? If Charles Duhigg is right - and his argument is quite convincing - you can.  All you have to do is get into the right habits and then put in the hours.  How many hours?  About 10,000.  To save you the mental arithmetic that is about three and half years at eight hours a day.  Take weekends off and it is about five.

Aristotle's Three Components of Rhetoric

I have been listening to the excellent podcast series on critical thinking by Jonathan Haber.  I have no idea who he is but I can recommend the podcast.  I have a drive to work of about 30 minutes, and each episode fits that gap quite nicely, leaving me with a warm feeling of having learned something of value.  One of the things that came up was Aristotle's three modes of argumentation.  I have been using this concept quite a bit since I picked up on it and it is having some surprising benefits.

Don't Be Too Hard on Yourself - Lesson from the Fry Chronicles

Stephen Fry is a very successful man by any standards.  But reading the latest instalment of his autobiography gives you the chance to see how well he matches up to his own standards.  And the answer is pretty well.  But there is a paradox.  He is well aware of how well he has done, but he is also well aware of his own shortcomings.

Why Are Traffic Controllers Rude?

Here is a book waiting to be written.  'Hints, Euphemisms and Thoughtful Metaphors For Air Traffic Controllers.'  This would give tips to the people who make sure that aircraft take off and land safely to make sure that while they are doing it, they do it with good manners, politeness and decorum and show a polished and cultured face to the world.

Epictetus - Don't Let Them Grind You...

Epictetus - Stoic Philosopher of Roman Era (Thanks to Wikipedia for image)

Epictetus is the only philosopher  I can think of who started out as a slave.  His experience gave him a very special perspective on issues of free will and how much we are truly in charge of our own destiny.  He was also very clear on what actually matters.  His view was uncompromising.  The only thing of value is virtue.  Nothing else matters, except in so far as it contributes to the achievement of virtue.

The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris

I have been put off reading this book for quite a while because someone told me that Tim Ferris is not a particularly nice guy.  Well, it doesn't take long reading his book to realise that indeed he is not a particularly nice guy.  Early on he tells us a story about how he ruined some martial arts contest by gaming the rules.  It turned out that the framers of the rules of Chinese Kick Boxing had not taken into account someone like Tim Ferris.  By a bit of radical dehydration prior to the contest he managed to get into the wrong weight category, and so was able to literally punch above his weight.  Bully for Tim, who was doing it for a bet, rough on the enthusiasts who had trained properly for the big event in their sport.

How Planning Undermines What You Are Trying To Do

Planning is a great way to use your time more efficiently and enable you to get more done.  There is no doubt about that.  Dick Tracey says you save ten times the time you spend on planning.  (I am not sure where he gets that precise figure from, but it certainly fits in with my personal experience.)  But there is one huge drawback to planning that you absolutely have to be aware of, because if you aren't you will find that your planning will keep you busy but won't get much that matters done.

Time Management - Do not read blogs and above all do not write them.

Some serious time management advice from a blog post by Professor Serious.  The big thing with time management is to distinguish between what is important and what is urgent.  This is one of those things like walking a tight rope.  There is nothing conceptually difficult about it.  Actually doing it yourself though?  That is a different question.

Top Five Regrets of the Dying

The Guardian ran a post back in February that I have gone back to several times.  It was by a nurse who has kept note of all the regrets expressed by people who are dying.  It is a bit of mournful thing to consider, but on the other hand it is worth thinking what we are going to regret when we get to that stage.

Command of the Ocean by N.A.M.Rodger

I have been reading a book that details the rise to power of Britain's Royal Navy.  The story of how a fairly small island came to have such a large impact on the history of the world is an interesting one.  That I can expect a large number of people around the globe to be able to read this blog post written in English is one of those effects.   The efficiency of the navy was obviously a big part of it, and it isn't surprising to find that the British have been very proud of and confident in their naval achievements and abilities.

This book looks in a lot of detail at just how the navy managed to do what it did.  And like most success stories there is a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes.

We are not as smart as we think we are

We are not as smart as we think we are

Most of us overestimate how intelligent we are.  And not just intelligence, we harbour the belief that we are more competent than we really are.  Or at least Americans do.  East Asians tend to underestimate theirs.  I have only read a survey of the research which doesn't mention Europeans.  My guess is that they are probably a little less confident than Americans, but they'd be closer to Americans than they are to Asians.  What does all this mean?

The Lean Start Up by Eric Ries

This is the ideal book to read if you are starting a software business with plenty of funding and want to get some ideas for how to organise your research and development.  Its claim to have more general applicability is not a strong one.  It is full of industry specific examples and acronyms.  You need to have a reasonable grasp of the computer industry's jargon as well.  Having said that I did persevere to the end.

My Biggest Problem at the Moment - Dithering

I have just made a last minute decision to skip a trade show I was booked up for and put in a day's work at my desk instead.  It made superb sense.  I might miss out on a few longer term things but I have a big meeting tomorrow where the short term stuff will be under some scrutiny.  I have had a couple of things outside my control that have derailed my work a little.  So here I am ready to get things back on track and with a load of extra hours I hadn't budgeted for earlier in the week.  So far, so good.

Zig Ziglar - Secrets of Closing the Sale

Zig Ziglar is good company and has a wealth of interesting and entertaining stories.  I listened to this book in audio format and once my British ears had got accustomed to Mr Ziglar's rather strong American accent I found myself entertained.  I am not so sure I learned that much.

10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

The most popular and the most controversial post Steve Pavlina ever wrote was his 10 arguments why you should never get a job.  This is a truly brilliant piece of writing and repays rereading a few times.  It was, he claims, a throw away piece never intended to be taken seriously.  I can well believe it.  It has a playful and devil may care feel about it that suggests it was written in a jokey fashion.   But humour and truth have a very close relationship, so even if it was intended to be a joke and can be read as one there is a hint of something in there that strikes a chord with a lot of people.

How To Get Rich by Felix Dennis

How to get rich books are rarely written by people who have got rich.  When they are, it is usually because they have got rich by selling books about getting rich.  (A similar principle is at work in people who sell products related to personal development.)   This book is unusual in having been written by a man who has indeed become fabulously rich, and has done so by starting and building businesses.  People in Britain might well have heard of him and will have quite likely have bought products that one of his company's has made.  So the eye catching title  has something behind it.

Deception Can Be Costly

Robert Trivers is one of the world's leading experts on self delusion.  (Or at least, that is what he likes to tell himself.)  In his new book "Deceit and Self-Deception: Fooling Yourself the Better to Fool Others" he highlights that homosexuals who try to keep their sexuality secret pay a heavy price for it in terms of their health.

How To Use Scheduling To Increase Your Motivation to Blog

A Good Schedule Can Increase Your Motivation to Blog

One of the advantages of my attempts to improve my typing speed is that I have generated quite a lot of blog posts that I might not otherwise have written.  I have two blogs - one is quite a popular beauty one that generates a small amount of money but more importantly makes me much better known in my business.  There is absolutely no substitute for people knowing your name when it comes to getting things done.  The other one is very much a labour of love.  It is about history and it positively costs me money to keep it going.  I just enjoy doing it and although I will never turn it into a source of income it makes me feel good doing it.

Avarice of Time

In Edward Gibbon's amazing work The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon describes the equally amazing emperor Julian the Apostate as exhibiting 'avarice of time'.  Julian only ruled for 19 months, but in that time he achieved a huge number of remarkable achievements.  He wrote a book , Against the Galileans, which was so influential it had to be banned by a later emperor.  That wasn't his only literary exercise.  He wrote quite a lot of other stuff too - I recommend his hymn to Cybele.  He attempted to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.  He overturned the empire's religion and prepared a huge invasion of Persia.   It was in the campaign against Persia that he was tragically killed.  The thing he really should have done was write a book revealing his secrets of time management.

Steve Pavlina - Domination and Submission workshop

Okay, it is obviously an April Fool's day joke.  And quite a funny one.  For people reading this long after the event and assuming it will get taken down relatively quickly Steve had a very convincing looking post where he advertised a workshop on domination and submission to teach people how to enjoy that particular form of sexual expression.  It was complete with venue, prices and the usual puff a personal development course advert would have.

Or at least I think it is.....

I think that the clever thing is that there is just enough doubt in your mind and it is played just straight enough for you to wonder whether it might, just might, actually be true.  I'll stick my neck out and say I am 95% sure it is a joke.  But 5% doubt is enough to make it really funny.  Well done Steve.  Nice work.

On the other hand, if it is true....

Self Delusion

Most of us delude ourselves

It is incredibly easy to delude oneself into thinking you are a lot better than you are.  There is a widely quoted study that showed that nearly everyone regards themselves as an above average driver. In fact very few of us regard ourselves as being below average on anything.

This has just been brought home to me when I looked at the statistics for this blog.  I am currently averaging close to zero page views per day.  In fact I am not far off an average of zero views per month.  Last year I managed to get less than 10 page views in the whole of a month.  By any objective standards this blog is a complete and utter failure.

And yet I am able to convince myself that it does have some value.  I by and large succeed in writing correctly constructed sentences and my spelling is pretty reasonable too.  So although it isn't one of the top blogs I can still convince myself that it does have something going for it.

I think that deluding ourselves is a deeply ingrained habit.  It is worth remembering when you read any kind of guru that their grasp of reality is not likely to be all that great.  They may well be sincere and honest, but they are quite likely to be living in the clouds.



Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_superiority#Driving_ability

How To Create Intimacy - Steve Pavlina Blog

Another long and unreadable blog post from Steve.  I struggled to get through it to be honest.  I am not sure how to summarise it other than to say that Steve's approach to relationships sounds pretty standard for a well balanced normal guy to me.  I'd give this one a skip frankly.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2012/03/how-to-create-intimacy/

Willpower Really Is The Thing

I enjoyed listening to Roy Baumeister's lecture to the London School of Economics on the subject of willpower.

In studies and experiments going back over 15 years he has shown that the two best predictors of success are intelligence and willpower.  Intelligence is innate and there is not much you can do about it.  Willpower on the other hand is a skill that can be practised, learned and improved.

Increasing My Typing Speed - Up to 37 wpm

The act of simply observing what I am doing and spotting where time is getting wasted is proving to be a very productive one.  Quite apart from anything else I am getting a lot more writing done.  I now have about a dozen and a half blog posts scheduled over my three blogs, which is a nice feeling.  But the most significant benefit I have found is that the activity I am working on is in fact improving.  My typing speed has gone up by about 20% on 14 days.

The Five Whys

I'm reading The Lean Start Up by Eric Reis at the moment. One of the things he talks about is something I have come across before when I worked for a while in Quality Assurance but hadn't really thought about for a long time.

Steve Pavlina - Switching Dimensions

I haven't set this blog up to knock Steve Pavlina, far from it.  I intend to tease out the useful stuff.  And I think there is a lot of useful stuff in there.  But I have to say that his latest blog post on Switching Dimensions really is the most impenetrable load of gobbledegook.   I think I have got it now, but it really took some effort and I don't think that effort was rewarded at all.

A To Do List or a Done List?

I don't think I'm alone in finding the compilation and following of To Do lists to be a bit of a challenge.  I struggle to find the motivation to work on my To Do list.  I have a tendency to write an item on it and then decide to do it, leaving my poor To Do list a bit like an abandoned girl at a dance.  And having written one I am adept at ignoring it.

Calorie Counting - Why It hasn't worked for me yet

I am half way through my six month plan to lose weight, and so far I have only lost a couple of pounds.  I am actually feeling pretty good and according to my wife I am also looking pretty good.  The only thing that is spoiling it is the reading on the scales and the fact that I still have some very tight fits into some of my trousers.

Closure of the Steve Pavlina Forum

This blog is supposed to be about a more rational take on the Steve Pavlina personal development approach.  Basically, I like to fillet out the good bits and drop all the crazy stuff.  I thought that it might be useful to share that kind of thing with other people.  I think that I might not need to do that so much any more.  It looks like Steve is moving a bit more mainstream himself.  This is most obvious in the closure of the forum that he ran linked to his blog.

Learning To Become An Expert Typist Update 1

I am trying to remember to consciously work on my typing speed.  A great tool to do this is a programme called Write Or Die.  (That link is worth following just for the hilarious tagline.) This enables you to set a goal for a piece of writing in terms of both time and number of words.

What Is The Best Way To Live Your Life?

What is the best approach to life on a day to day basis?  Should you wake up in the morning with a well thought out plan that allows you to get the most out of the hours you have available?  Should you concentrate on developing the habits that promise to turn you into the kind of person you really want to be?  Or you should approach the day with a free spirit and an open mind and let the opportunities that come up guide you, taking you to places you would never have dreamed of going?

Learning To Become An Expert Typist

I was listening to a podcast in the car this morning about memory. In it the speaker made a bit of a digression on the subject of learning skills.  We all know the saying that practice makes perfect.  Well as sayings go, it doesn't really hit the mark as perfect itself.