Good Decisions. Bad Outcomes by Dan ariely

If you practice kicking a soccer ball with your eyes closed, it takes only a few tries to become quite good at predicting where the ball will end up. But when “random noise” is added to the situation—a dog chases the ball, a stiff breeze blows through, a neighbor passes by and kicks the ball—the results become quite unpredictable.

If you had to evaluate the kicker’s performance, would you punish him for not predicting that Fluffy would run off with the ball? Would you switch kickers in an attempt to find someone better able to predict Fluffy’s involvement?

That would be absurd. And yet it’s exactly how we reward and punish managers. Managers attempt to make sense of the environment and predict what will result from their decisions.

The problem is that there’s plenty of random noise in competitive strategic decisions. Predicting where the ball will go is equivalent to deciding whether to open a chain of seafood restaurants on the Gulf Coast. The dog running off with the ball is the BP oil spill. When the board reviews the manager’s performance, they’ll focus on the failed restaurants. The stock is down. The chain lost money. Since the manager’s compensation is tied to results, he’ll incur financial penalties. To save face and appear to be taking action, the board may even fire him—thus giving up on someone who may be a good manager but had bad luck.

The oil spill example is an extreme case. In the real world, the random noise is often more subtle and various—a hundred little things rather than one big thing. But the effect is the same. Rewarding and penalizing leaders based on outcomes overestimates how much variance people actually control. (This works both ways: Just as good managers can suffer from bad outcomes not of their own making, bad managers can be rewarded for good outcomes that occur in spite of their ineptitude.) In fact, the more unpredictable an environment becomes, the more an outcomes-based approach ends up rewarding or penalizing noise.

In the last year I’ve asked many board members how much of a company’s stock value they think should be attributed to the CEO’s strength, and the answer is surprising. They estimate that you’ll get about 10% more stock value, on average, from a good CEO than from a mediocre one. Implicit in that estimate is the understanding that many outcomes are outside a leader’s control.

We can’t entirely avoid outcome-based decisions. Still, we can reduce our reliance on stochastic outcomes. Here are four ways companies can create more-sound reward systems.

1. Change the mind-set. Publicly recognize that rewarding outcomes is a bad idea, particularly for companies that deal in complex and unpredictable environments.

2. Document crucial assumptions. Analyze a manager’s assumptions at the time when the decision takes place. If they are valid but circumstances change, don’t punish her, but don’t reward her, either.

3. Create a standard for good decision making. Making sound assumptions and being explicit about them should be the basic condition for getting a reward. Good decisions are forward-looking, take available information into account, consider all available options, and do not create conflicts of interests.

4. Reward good decisions at the time they’re made.Reinforce smart habits by breaking the link between rewards and outcomes.

Our focus on outcomes is understandable. When a company loses money, people demand that heads roll, even if the changes are more about assuaging shareholders than sound management. Moreover, measuring outcomes is relatively easy to do; decision-making–based reward systems will be more complex. But as I’ve I said before, “It’s hard” is a terrible reason not to do something. Especially when that something can help reward and retain the people best able to help you grow your business.

The Secret Powers of Time by Professor Philip Zimbardo

The strange new world of Nanoscience, narrated by Stephen Fry

To Sleep Less And Dream More by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

If for a moment God were to forget that I am a rag doll and granted me a piece of life, I probably wouldn't say everything that I think; rather, I would think about everything that I say.
I would value things, not for their worth but for what they mean. I would sleep less, dream more, understanding that for each minute we close our eyes, we lose sixty seconds of light.

I would walk when others hold back, I would wake when others sleep, I would listen when others talk.

And how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream!

If God were to give me a piece of life, I would dress simply, throw myself face first into the sun, baring not only my body but also my soul.

My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hate on ice, and wait for the sun to show. Over the stars I would paint with a Van Gogh dream a Benedetti poem, and a Serrat song would be the serenade I'd offer to the moon.

I would water roses with my tears, to feel the pain of their thorns and the red kiss of their petals... My God, if I had a piece of life... I wouldn't let a single day pass without telling the people I love that I love them.

I would convince each woman and each man that they are my favorites, and I would live in love with love.

I would show men how very wrong they are to think that they cease to be in love when they grow old, not knowing that they grow old when they cease to be in love!

To a child I shall give wings, but I shall let him learn to fly on his own. I would teach the old that death does not come with old age, but with forgetting.

So much have I learned from you, oh men ... I have learned that everyone wants to live at the top of the mountain, without knowing that real happiness is in how it is scaled.

I have learned that when a newborn child first squeezes his father's finger in his tiny fist, he has him trapped forever.

I have learned that a man has the right to look down on another only when he has to help the other get to his feet.

From you I have learned so many things, but in truth they won't be of much use, for when I keep them within this suitcase, unhappily shall I be dying

Via: DegreeSearch.org

Study Finds Adversity Does Make Us Stronger By LAURA LANDRO

Wall Street Journal -Study Finds Adversity Does Make Us Stronger

By LAURA LANDRO

Friedrich Nietzsche was right—sort of.

The German philosopher's oft-quoted adage,

"What does not destroy me, makes me stronger,"

was put to the test as part of a national study of the effects of adverse life events on mental health by researchers at the University at Buffalo-the State University of New York and the University of California, Irvine.

The study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that people who had experienced a few adverse events in their lives reported better mental health and well being than people with a history of frequent adversity and people with no history of misfortune.

The study, which included 2,398 participants ranging in age from 18 to 101, is part of a larger research effort started after Sept. 11, 2001 to test the notion of resilience—how successfully people adapt after exposure to stressful or potentially traumatic life events or circumstances.

In studies of human resilience over the last three decades, particular adverse events, including physical or sexual assault, the loss of a parent, homelessness and natural disasters, have generally been linked to poorer mental-health outcomes. Studies of people who suffer disability or unemployment have shown lower life satisfaction that lasted over at least several years. And more adversity has generally predicted worse outcomes.

But Mark Seery, a researcher at the Department of Psychology at the University at Buffalo who co-authored the new study, says many studies have focused on personal characteristics or social resources that promote resilience. But the potential benefits of exposure to some adversity, relative to no adversity, have received less attention, he says.

Dr. Seery says his study shows that, under the right conditions, experiencing some adversity may foster resilience. Participants were asked whether they had experienced each of 37 negative events and the ages at which they occurred. Subjects with a history of some lifetime adversity showed lower distress, fewer symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and higher life satisfaction. They also appeared to handle recent adverse events better than other participants. Dr. Seery says age, personality characteristics and social support systems had no measurable impact on the relationship between adversity and mental health.

"So much of the existing literature shows that having experience with a negative life event is bad, with negative effects on mental and physical health," says Dr. Seery. "But we've found that that is not the whole story, and that people are more resilient in general than we may think."

Adversity, Dr. Seery adds, can help people develop a "psychological immune system" to help them cope with the slings and arrows that life throws, while those with no experience of adversity may have a hard time dealing with tough times.

At the same time, higher levels of adversity, the study found, can overtax coping skills and support networks, creating feelings of hopelessness and loss of control, disrupting the development of toughness and taking a toll on mental health and well-being. Under those circumstances, Dr. Seery says, even the most minor hassles can seem overwhelming.

Dr. Seery says people who have experienced around two to four adverse events in their lifetimes appeared to be the best off. Recent events—within the last six to 18 months—signaled worse mental health on the whole, suggesting that it may take time for an experience of adversity to bolster resilience.

Ann Masten, an expert in resilience in young people at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, says that even if people are capable of adapting to adversity, it is still important to have community and social networks in place to help people deal with the aftermath of adverse events. "We do have enormous capacity for resilience, but that doesn't mean horrible experiences are good for you," says Dr. Masten. "We need to have a better understanding of how protective systems work and how to mobilize them when they aren't present."

About 53% of the adversity-study participants were female, and nearly 74% identified themselves as white, non-Hispanic.

Stormy road.. Yucatan Peninsula

The Strangest Secret Earl Nightingale Conant 1950

Life is a matter of choice...

120 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power

120 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power

Boost your Brain Power

Here are 120 things you can do starting today to help you think faster, improve memory, comprehend information better and unleash your brain’s full potential.

1. Solve puzzles and brainteasers.
2. Cultivate ambidexterity. Use your non-dominant hand to brush your teeth, comb your hair or use the mouse. Write with both hands simultaneously. Switch hands for knife and fork.
3. Embrace ambiguity. Learn to enjoy things like paradoxes and optical illusions.
4. Learn mind mapping.
5. Block one or more senses. Eat blindfolded, wear earplugs, shower with your eyes closed.
6. Develop comparative tasting. Learn to properly taste wine, chocolate, beer, cheese or anything else.
7. Find intersections between seemingly unrelated topics.
8. Learn to use different keyboard layouts. Try Colemak or Dvorak for a full mind twist!
9. Find novel uses for common objects. How many different uses can you find for a nail? 10? 100?
10. Reverse your assumptions.
11. Learn creativity techniques.
12. Go beyond the first, ‘right’ answer.
13. Transpose reality. Ask “What if?” questions.
14. SCAMPER!
15. Turn pictures or the desktop wallpaper upside down.
16. Become a critical thinker. Learn to spot common fallacies.
17. Learn logic. Solve logic puzzles.
18. Get familiar with the scientific method.
19. Draw. Doodle. You don’t need to be an artist.
20. Think positive.
21. Engage in arts — sculpt, paint, play music — or any other artistic endeavor.
22. Learn to juggle.
23. Eat ‘brain foods’.
24. Be slightly hungry.
25. Exercise!
26. Sit up straight.
27. Drink lots of water.
28. Deep-breathe.
29. Laugh!
30. Vary activities. Get a hobby.
31. Sleep well.
32. Power nap.
33. Listen to music.
34. Conquer procrastination.
35. Go technology-less.
36. Look for brain resources in the web.
37. Change clothes. Go barefoot.
38. Master self-talk.
39. Simplify!
40. Play chess or other board games. Play via Internet (particularly interesting is to play an ongoing game by e-mail).
41. Play ‘brain’ games. Sudoku, crossword puzzles or countless others.
42. Be childish!
43. Play video games.
44. Be humorous! Write or create a joke.
45. Create a List of 100.
46. Have an Idea Quota.
47. Capture every idea. Keep an idea bank.
48. Incubate ideas. Let ideas percolate. Return to them at regular intervals.
49. Engage in ‘theme observation’. Try to spot the color red as many times as possible in a day. Find cars of a particular make. Invent a theme and focus on it.
50. Keep a journal.
51. Learn a foreign language.
52. Eat at different restaurants – ethnic restaurants specially.
53. Learn how to program a computer.
54. Spell long words backwards. !gnignellahC
55. Change your environment. Change the placement of objects or furniture — or go somewhere else.
56. Write! Write a story, poetry, start a blog.
57. Learn sign language.
58. Learn a musical instrument.
59. Visit a museum.
60. Study how the brain works.
61. Learn to speed-read.
62. Find out your learning style.
63. Dump the calendar!
64. Try to mentally estimate the passage of time.
65. “Guesstimate”. Are there more leaves in the Amazon rainforest or neuron connections in your brain? (answer).
66. Make friends with math. Fight ‘innumeracy’.
67. Build a Memory Palace.
68. Learn a peg system for memory.
69. Have sex! (sorry, no links for this one! :) )
70. Memorize people’s names.
71. Meditate. Cultivate mindfulness and an empty mind.
72. Watch movies from different genres.
73. Turn off the TV.
74. Improve your concentration.
75. Get in touch with nature.
76. Do mental math.
77. Have a half-speed day.
78. Change the speed of certain activities. Go either super-slow or super-fast deliberately.
79. Do one thing at a time.
80. Be aware of cognitive biases.
81. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. How would different people think or solve your problems? How would a fool tackle it?
82. Adopt an attitude of contemplation.
83. Take time for solitude and relaxation.
84. Commit yourself to lifelong learning.
85. Travel abroad. Learn about different lifestyles.
86. Adopt a genius. (Leonardo is excellent company!)
87. Have a network of supportive friends.
88. Get competitive.
89. Don’t stick with only like-minded people. Have people around that disagree with you.
90. Brainstorm!
91. Change your perspective. Short/long-term, individual/collective.
92. Go to the root of the problems.
93. Collect quotes.
94. Change the media you’re working on. Use paper instead of the computer; voice recording instead of writing.
95. Read the classics.
96. Develop your reading skill. Reading effectively is a skill. Master it.
97. Summarize books.
98. Develop self-awareness.
99. Say your problems out loud.
100. Describe one experience in painstaking detail.
101. Learn Braille. You can start learning the floor numbers while going up or down the elevator.
102. Buy a piece of art that disturbs you. Stimulate your senses in thought-provoking ways.
103. Try different perfumes and scents.
104. Mix your senses. How much does the color pink weigh? How does lavender scent sound?
105. Debate! Defend an argument. Try taking the opposite side, too.
106. Use time boxing.
107. Allocate time for brain development.
108. Have your own mental sanctuary.
109. Be curious!
110. Challenge yourself.
111. Develop your visualization skills. Use it at least 5 minutes a day.
112. Take notes of your dreams. Keep a notebook by your bedside and record your dreams first thing in the morning or as you wake up from them.
113. Learn to lucid dream.
114. Keep a lexicon of interesting words. Invent your own words.
115. Find metaphors. Connect abstract and specific concepts.
116. Manage stress.
117. Get random input. Write about a random word in a magazine. Read random sites using StumbleUpon or Wikipedia.
118. Take different routes each day. Change the streets you follow to work, jog or go back home.
119. Install a different operating system on your computer.
120. Improve your vocabulary.
121. Deliver more than what’s expected.

Social Selling Software - InsideView.com

Dalai Lama’s 18 rules for living

Dalai Lama’s 18 rules for living

At the start of the new millennium the Dalai Lama apparently issued eighteen rules for living. Since word travels slowly in the digital age these have only just reached me. Here they are.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs:
1. Respect for self
2. Respect for others
3. Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

OwenKelly blog

Hamburgers America's Favorite Food

www.mint.com

Eleitor num boteco do Leblon by João Ubaldo Ribeiro

Eleitor num boteco do Leblon
João Ubaldo Ribeiro
O Estado de S.Paulo


-Cara, eu vou te contar, parece perseguição, caso pensado do destino contra mim.

- É verdade, o Flamengo...

- Dispenso insinuações. Se é para desacatar, pode dizer, que eu mudo de mesa, não tem nada a ver com o Flamengo.

- Que é que foi então, a Martinha casou de novo, você está de genro novo outra vez?

- Não, quanto a isso tudo bem. Ela casa de seis em seis meses, eu já acostumei, já tenho até uma rotina de conhecer genro novo que eu sigo automaticamente, só misturo os nomes de vez em quando, mas ela também mistura, ninguém liga, eles são modernos. Sem problema, nessa área eu não tenho mais problema, é coisa do passado. Não, cara, é esse segundo turno, esse segundo turno não tinha nada que pintar, cortou a minha legal mesmo. Não digo que seja um grande problema, mas é mais uma frustraçãozinha, eu já tinha entrado em outra e agora vou ter de adiar até o segundo turno. Eu queria já estar comemorando hoje, mas vou ter que esperar até o dia 31.

- Não, vai esperar até 1.º de novembro. A eleição é que é no dia 31, o resultado só deve sair em 1.º de novembro.

- Mas eu não queria comemorar resultado nenhum, não estou falando em resultado. Por mim, pode dar o resultado que der, é tudo mera formalidade, as tetas continuam as mesmas, só substituíram algumas bocas. Não comemoro resultado nenhum, eles que comemorem, chega de ser otário. Eles é que entram no bem-bom e eu é que vou ficar aqui feito um bobo alegre, comemorando? Não é nada disso, é que eu já tinha me programado todo para esse momento. Minha última eleição, a última vez em que eu tenho de passar por isso.

- Também não é tão dramático assim, votar hoje em dia é muito fácil, ninguém demora muito.

- Você não está sacando nada, a questão não é essa. É a humilhação, eu não quero é sofrer a humilhação outra vez.

- Você vai me desculpar, mas então não saquei mesmo. Eu não vejo humilhação nenhuma nas eleições.

- É uma questão de sensibilidade. Você não tem a mesma sensibilidade que eu, eu sou um cara muito sensível e meu pai sempre incutiu nos filhos o senso do ridículo, o velho sempre passou para nós um grande senso de ridículo. E talvez você nunca tenha parado para pensar. Acho que meu problema é esse, eu paro muito para pensar e também tenho muito senso de ridículo. Na última eleição, não sei se lhe contei, eu tive uma crise de riso na frente da urna que os mesários quase chamam uma ambulância, grande mico. Na hora eu ri, mas a lembrança é muito desagradável. No fim do ano eu emplaco setentinha, quer dizer, era votar agora e nunca mais. Aí vem esse segundo turno adiar minha festa e renovar a humilhação.

- Eu ainda não entendi que humilhação é essa.

- É uma questão de sensibilidade mesmo. A você pode não afetar, a mim afeta muito. Em primeiro lugar, eleição é somente para carimbar o visto para eles se locupletarem nossa custa, não importa que papo mandem para cima da gente, tem que prestar atenção no que eles fazem, não no que eles dizem.

- Está certo que muitos deles sejam assim, mas não todos. Ainda há uns caras sérios por aí.

- Quem, os da esquerda?

- Não necessariamente, não é isso que eu quero dizer.

- Eu explico a diferença entre a esquerda e a direita. A turma da esquerda mete a mão esquerda no pirão, a da direita mete a mão direita e a do centro deve meter as duas, ou então o bocão logo direto. A função do eleitor é somente carimbar a autorização. E o comparecimento é obrigatório, tem que tomar parte na presepada, mesmo que não queira. Nem a liberdade de se recusar a fazer papel de besta o sujeito tem, é muita humilhação.

- Não concordo, você está sendo radical.

- Para que serve o título de eleitor? Você tem que ter o título, tem que mostrar nas repartições que nem o CPF. É para isso que o título serve, para mostrar que você tem título. Você parou para pensar nisso direito, não é humilhação? Os caras te obrigam a entrar numa fila e encarar burocracia para tirar um documento cuja única finalidade é mostrar que você tem esse documento. É como ganhar um diploma de diplomado. Atenção, cidadão, o título de eleitor é um elemento importante de sua cidadania e será exigido para tudo, só não será aceito para votar. Para votar, será aceito qualquer documento, menos o título de eleitor, e você acha que não estão curtindo com a cara da gente?

- Realmente acabou dando nessa confusão, mas é uma coisa que pode ser corrigida, é um pormenor sem importância. Claro que não vai ficar assim, eu tenho certeza de que vão consertar isso, devem bolar um título novo, com a fotografia do eleitor.

- Ah, devem. Vão fazer até melhor, eles não vão deixar passar essa. Vai sair um kit-eleitor, com um exemplar da Constituição, um CD com os hinos brasileiros e o título de eleitor, tudo obrigatoriamente comprado na mão de um único fornecedor. E, enquanto isso, o que eu faço com o título velho?

- Bem, há uma boa resposta para isso.

- Eu sei. E deve ser isso mesmo que eles estão querendo nos dizer, eles humilham.

The Cost of Calories

Via: WeightLoss.org

Martial Art- Japan kyudo archery

- Japan kyudo archery
Cargado por okculuksporu. - Videos de deportes, baloncesto, béisbol, wrestling y lucha libre.

10 lessons of a web start up by Evan Williams.

10 lessons of a web start up

Evan Williams

#1: Be Narrow
Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful. Most companies start out trying to do too many things, which makes life difficult and turns you into a me-too. Focusing on a small niche has so many advantages: With much less work, you can be the best at what you do. Small things, like a microscopic world, almost always turn out to be bigger than you think when you zoom in. You can much more easily position and market yourself when more focused. And when it comes to partnering, or being acquired, there's less chance for conflict. This is all so logical and, yet, there's a resistance to focusing. I think it comes from a fear of being trivial. Just remember: If you get to be #1 in your category, but your category is too small, then you can broaden your scope—and you can do so with leverage.





#2: Be Different
Ideas are in the air. There are lots of people thinking about—and probably working on—the same thing you are. And one of them is Google. Deal with it. How? First of all, realize that no sufficiently interesting space will be limited to one player. In a sense, competition actually is good—especially to legitimize new markets. Second, see #1—the specialist will almost always kick the generalist's ass. Third, consider doing something that's not so cutting edge. Many highly successful companies—the aforementioned big G being one—have thrived by taking on areas that everyone thought were done and redoing them right. Also? Get a good, non-generic name. Easier said than done, granted. But the most common mistake in naming is trying to be too descriptive, which leads to lots of hard-to-distinguish names. How many blogging companies have "blog" in their name, RSS companies "feed," or podcasting companies "pod" or "cast"? Rarely are they the ones that stand out.





#3: Be Casual
We're moving into what I call the era of the "Casual Web" (and casual content creation). This is much bigger than the hobbyist web or the professional web. Why? Because people have lives. And now, people with lives also have broadband. If you want to hit the really big home runs, create services that fit in with—and, indeed, help—people's everyday lives without requiring lots of commitment or identity change. Flickr enables personal publishing among millions of folks who would never consider themselves personal publishers—they're just sharing pictures with friends and family, a casual activity. Casual games are huge. Skype enables casual conversations.





#4: Be Picky
Another perennial business rule, and it applies to everything you do: features, employees, investors, partners, press opportunities. Startups are often too eager to accept people or ideas into their world. You can almost always afford to wait if something doesn't feel just right, and false negatives are usually better than false positives. One of Google's biggest strengths—and sources of frustration for outsiders—was their willingness to say no to opportunities, easy money, potential employees, and deals.





#5: Be User-Centric
User experience is everything. It always has been, but it's still undervalued and under-invested in. If you don't know user-centered design, study it. Hire people who know it. Obsess over it. Live and breathe it. Get your whole company on board. Better to iterate a hundred times to get the right feature right than to add a hundred more. The point of Ajax is that it can make a site more responsive, not that it's sexy. Tags can make things easier to find and classify, but maybe not in your application. The point of an API is so developers can add value for users, not to impress the geeks. Don't get sidetracked by technologies or the blog-worthiness of your next feature. Always focus on the user and all will be well.





#6: Be Self-Centered
Great products almost always come from someone scratching their own itch. Create something you want to exist in the world. Be a user of your own product. Hire people who are users of your product. Make it better based on your own desires. (But don't trick yourself into thinking you are your user, when it comes to usability.) Another aspect of this is to not get seduced into doing deals with big companies at the expense or your users or at the expense of making your product better. When you're small and they're big, it's hard to say no, but see #4.





#7: Be Greedy
It's always good to have options. One of the best ways to do that is to have income. While it's true that traffic is now again actually worth something, the give-everything-away-and-make-it-up-on-volume strategy stamps an expiration date on your company's ass. In other words, design something to charge for into your product and start taking money within 6 months (and do it with PayPal). Done right, charging money can actually accelerate growth, not impede it, because then you have something to fuel marketing costs with. More importantly, having money coming in the door puts you in a much more powerful position when it comes to your next round of funding or acquisition talks. In fact, consider whether you need to have a free version at all. The TypePad approach—taking the high-end position in the market—makes for a great business model in the right market. Less support. Less scalability concerns. Less abuse. And much higher margins.





#8: Be Tiny
It's standard web startup wisdom by now that with the substantially lower costs to starting something on the web, the difficulty of IPOs, and the willingness of the big guys to shell out for small teams doing innovative stuff, the most likely end game if you're successful is acquisition. Acquisitions are much easier if they're small. And small acquisitions are possible if valuations are kept low from the get go. And keeping valuations low is possible because it doesn't cost much to start something anymore (especially if you keep the scope narrow). Besides the obvious techniques, one way to do this is to use turnkey services to lower your overhead—Administaff, ServerBeach, web apps, maybe even Elance.





#9: Be Agile
You know that old saw about a plane flying from California to Hawaii being off course 99% of the time—but constantly correcting? The same is true of successful startups—except they may start out heading toward Alaska. Many dot-com bubble companies that died could have eventually been successful had they been able to adjust and change their plans instead of running as fast as they could until they burned out, based on their initial assumptions. Pyra was started to build a project-management app, not Blogger. Flickr's company was building a game. Ebay was going to sell auction software. Initial assumptions are almost always wrong. That's why the waterfall approach to building software is obsolete in favor agile techniques. The same philosophy should be applied to building a company.





#10: Be Balanced
What is a startup without bleary-eyed, junk-food-fueled, balls-to-the-wall days and sleepless, caffeine-fueled, relationship-stressing nights? Answer?: A lot more enjoyable place to work. Yes, high levels of commitment are crucial. And yes, crunch times come and sometimes require an inordinate, painful, apologies-to-the-SO amount of work. But it can't be all the time. Nature requires balance for health—as do the bodies and minds who work for you and, without which, your company will be worthless. There is no better way to maintain balance and lower your stress that I've found than David Allen's GTD process. Learn it. Live it. Make it a part of your company, and you'll have a secret weapon.





#11 (bonus!): Be Wary
Overgeneralized lists of business "rules" are not to be taken too literally. There are exceptions to everything.

For anyone under 50 reading this, I have some good news for you. 50 is pretty darned good!

25 Lessons I’ve Learned In 50 Years


1. 50 doesn’t feel like 50. It doesn’t feel like the age you imagined when you are in your 20’s or 30’s. For the most part, it feels the way you feel right now. But smarter and more confident. You also have more time and resources to enjoy life. So don’t fear it. Look forward to it.
2. Experience life before you settle down. Whatever it is you want to do or experience, do as much of it as you can before you have children. Especially travel. Live in a hovel and drive a beat-up Dodge Dart if you have to. But go have some really great, amazing, mind-blowing experiences.
3. Money and stuff are not all that important. Yes, you want enough to be comfortable and do the things you want to do. But accumulating for the sake of accumulating is so boring and empty. Feed the soul, not the ego.
4. Don’t try to impress people. That’s an act that brings nothing but a momentary ego boost. Be real with people instead. Connect with fewer people on a level that is deeper and more profound.
5. Let your kids fail. Your kids will be okay, even if you think they are headed for the juvie right now. Don’t come to their rescue all the time. Don’t manage every detail of their lives or over-schedule them with tao quan dao or viola lessons. Give them some boundaries, and then relax about them.
6. Bad things will happen. Part of living and getting older is experiencing upheavals in life. People lose jobs, get divorced, die. When you are younger, and things have gone pretty well, this can be shocking. The bad things won’t kill you. You will learn from them if you allow it.
7. Not much is worth fighting about. If you can avoid it, don’t fight. Step back from arguments with your spouse or family member or neighbor. When you feel anger surging up and you want to say that snarky thing on the tip of your tongue, just close your mouth and walk away. Let yourself calm down. You don’t have to be right or win the argument. It just doesn’t matter that much.
8. Little things stick with you. So pay attention to them. Like watching your child sleep. Preparing a meal with your family. Sharing a great laugh with an old friend. That is the real stuff life is made of.
9. Keep having fun. Fun is way underrated. With all of our responsibilities, fun seems like an indulgence. It shouldn’t be. It should be a requirement. Remember what you did to have fun when you were younger, and go do it again. Leave the house messy and the yard un-mowed for the weekend. You will remember the fun, not the clean house or yard. Make time for fun.
10. Make things simpler. Pick the five most important things in your life now, and focus on those things. Let the other stuff go. Let go of the activities, the events, the commitments, the shopping, the to-do lists. Stop the busyness and really enjoy the important things you have right now.
11. Keep your brain active. Don’t get into a mental rut. Do new things, learn new things, explore new ideas in all areas of your life. Keep challenging yourself and your mind. Be curious and interested in the world around you.
12. Hang out with younger people. Stay connected with what the generation behind you is doing and thinking. Establish friendships with them. You will benefit and learn from each other. Don’t act superior, because younger people may know a whole lot more than you do!
13. Keep exercising and eating healthy. You know this, but I’ll remind you anyway. The older you get, the more important a healthy lifestyle is. In my 20’s, I could shovel down a Wendy’s hamburger and fries every day and never see the difference. Now I just look at a hamburger and my butt gets bigger.
14. Manage aging, but why fight it? You can spend a fortune on face creams, plastic surgery, hair growth formulas, and botox, but eventually you realize you are fighting an uphill battle. Groom yourself nicely. Stay fit. Have unsightly things removed. But accept the beauty of aging. A striking mature man or woman is much more attractive than someone who looks overly taunt, tanned or top-heavy.
15. Everyone doesn’t have to like you and vice versa. One of my friends likes to say, “She’s not in my cluster.” Sometimes there are people in your life who are just not the right fit or who drain you dry. It is fine to back off from them or even let them go.
16. Marriages evolve and change. The feelings you had for the man or woman you married will mutate and evolve several times over the life of a marriage. Hopefully you will evolve in the same direction or at least embrace and accept the changes in the other person. It takes work, and sometimes it takes counseling. Don’t gloss over those changes or you may wake up next to a stranger one day.
17. Yes, you can still have great sex. When I was in my 20’s, I thought you stopped doing it when you were in your early 40’s. I assumed middle aged people would no longer want to disrobe in front of each other. I’m happy to inform you that this is not the case.
18. Tend to your friendships. Especially your oldest friendships. These are the people who know and love you best, in spite of your flaws. Treat them like the precious gems they are.
19. Stop worrying. Worry does absolutely nothing productive. In fact, it is counterproductive. The more you worry, the more you reinforce the problem or concern in your brain.
20. Everything is not always black or white. Life is often very ambiguous. Sometimes there isn’t a right or wrong decision or choice. Things are not always completely clear. You may not get THE answer, so you just have to wing it.
21. Take action on your dreams. If you’ve been putting things off — a new career, more education, the big trip — start taking action right now to make it happen. Don’t dream about it anymore. Start doing it.
22. Don’t dwell on your wounds. Everyone has something that has caused pain and has been limiting them in some way. If you need help to deal with it, then get it right away. Don’t let the past limit your future.
23. Embrace change. As uncomfortable as it is sometimes, change allows us to stretch and grow. New things feel awkward and scary at first, but those feelings go away, and you are left with something bigger and bolder in your life.
24. Be vulnerable. Allow yourself to feel, to be open and authentic. Tear down any emotional brick walls you have built around yourself and feel every exquisite emotion, both good and bad. This is real life. This is how you welcome new opportunities.
25. Count your blessings every day. I know, this is a refrigerator magnet line, but practice it daily anyway. There is so much good, so much beauty, so much love in your life. What more do you really need? You have so much right now, you just need to pause long enough to appreciate it.

Law of Diminishing Returns by Celes

Law of Diminishing Returns

Wikepedia Law of Diminishing Return

When I studied economics in junior college, I learned about the law of diminishing returns, referring to a phenomenon encountered in labor and production. If you studied economics before, that wouldn’t be new to you.

Let’s say you have a plot of land growing maize. You want to use fertilizer to get the maximum yield (other conditions such as sunlight, water and oxygen are already in place). Fertilizer is the input, and yield is the return. However to do that, you need to understand two principles:

(1) Every additional unit of fertilizer generates a different increase in yield. The first few units probably gives a burst in yield compared to without fertilizer. After that, adding more fertilizer will still give more yield, but at a decreasing rate.

(2) There is an optimal point where adding X amount of fertilizer which will give you maximum yield. This is known as the point of diminishing returns. Any additional fertilizer beyond that will lead to a smaller increase in yield which does not justify the cost of buying more fertilizer. This is where the law of diminishing returns kicked in. The law refers to how every additional unit of input you put in leads to lesser and lesser additional output.

law-of-diminishing-returns

(3) If you continue to keep adding beyond that the point of diminishing returns, you will reach a stage where not only does your output not increase, your overall output decreases! In the case of the fertilizers, your overall yield will decrease because your crops get damaged or even killed.

Here’s another example – If you run a big restaurant and only have a cook, you are only going to get Y amount of cooked meals. Adding more cooks will definitely result in higher supply of cooked meals – initially. After that, you will reach a point where your additional output per new cook decreases instead even though the new cooks you are hiring have the exact same level of expertise as the existing ones. That’s because there is a limited number of kitchen supplies (pots, pans, stove, etc) which they can use.

If you continue to keep hiring beyond that point, you will hit a stage where overall output decreases with every new cook! That’s because everyone is going to start jostling and competing for kitchen supplies inside the kitchen, which results in a chaotic situation and affects the work of existing cooks. Cooking will less effective than if there are lesser cooks. This is also what they mean when they say ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’. ;)
Law of Diminishing Returns in Our Life

So how does this apply to the domain of personal growth? Everywhere! :D If you look closely, you can see this law in effect in different areas, probably more than you are normally aware of:

* Learning curve: After working at a new workplace for a period of time, your learning curve starts to slow down
* Daily work: After spending X amount of time at a certain task, your level of output decreases
* Recreation: After playing games/watching shows/engaging in your hobby for X number of hours, your enjoyment level decreases
* Sleep: After sleeping for X amount of hours, the amount you get rejuvenated by becomes smaller
* Exercise: After exercising for X amount of time, the amount of exercise you can do becomes lesser
* Friends: After spending X amount of time with your friends consecutively, your additional utility you get from hanging out decreases
* Eating: After eating X amount of food, your satisfaction of the additional food becomes lesser
* And many, many more

The ability to recognize the point of diminishing returns and cut off further activity from that point onwards can result in a huge benefits. These benefits can manifest in the form of increased productivity, fulfillment, happiness and vitality, depending on what area you are using it in.

If you are not conscious of the point of diminishing returns, you will fall into the trap of investing more input then your return is worth. That results in ineffective usage of your energy. This is something neurotic perfectionists are often guilty of. They keep hammering at a task, refusing to let go of it even till the last minute, because they want to beat them into perfection. In trying to fulfill their satisfaction of having a ‘perfect’ or near perfect outcome, they jeopardize the bigger picture. The effort they invested in trying to get the last few nuggets of output in place could have been more effectively spent in generating a lot more output in tasks. This is why quitting to win is so important.

The law of diminishing returns is related to the 80-20 rule. With 80-20 rule, 20% of your effort usually leads to 80% of output. The law of diminishing returns kicks in beyond the 20th percentile. With every additional unit of effort after the 20th percentile (this figure is dependent on the situation nature), the amount of output you get in return is minimal.

How do you find the point of diminishing returns then? It’s easy when the task is something quantifiable (such as with money, weight loss, time, etc). However, it gets tricky if you are involving intangibles, such as amount of happiness, fulfillment, quality of written work, and so on.

There isn’t a hard and fast rule to identify this. Obviously, if there is a radar that goes off whenever we hit the point of diminishing returns, that’ll make things a lot simpler ;) My advice is to use your gut feeling. Get a good sense of when you think you are not getting your worth of returns for the effort you are putting in. The best way to develop your gut is (1) keep building up your experience (2) constantly evaluate and exercise your gut every step of the way.

The point of diminishing returns doesn’t remain there forever. With increased skill level through leveling up, it takes more input for you to hit the point where you are getting negative output. When I initially started off writing posts at my blog in Dec ’08, the quality of the writing started to decrease in the 3rd hour of writing or so. After 6 months of experience in writing, I can maintain the same quality of output even beyond the 4th hour. The point of diminishing returns has moved outwards since I’m now a more seasoned writer and I’m becoming more and more connected with my inner muse.
Be aware of diminishing returns in your life

Are there any areas in your life where the law of diminishing returns is in action? Here are some examples:

* Career:
o Are the additional hours you are spending at work justified with the additional work you finish?
o Are you past the point where you can learn and grow in your current role? Is it time to request promotion/advancement?
o Have you lost the passion for your work? Is it time to pursue something else you enjoy more?
* Relationships:
o Are you trying to keep up with so many friends that you are losing balance in your other priorities?
o Are you spending so much of your time with your partner that it has become an act of habit which does not result in increased fulfillment?
* Daily life:
o Are you sleeping more than necessary to become well-rested?
o Are you watching TV/playing games/engaging in recreation beyond what you really enjoy?
o Are you spending more time on facebook/twitter/social networking sites/forums than is necessary?

Exercise your gut and become conscious of the diminishing point. This will be an extremely important skill to use as you optimize your days and maximize not just your productivity, but also your happiness level.

Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It)

Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It)

Einstein's Secret to Jaw-Dropping Problem Solving

Einstein is quoted as having said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.

This quote does illustrate an important point: before jumping right into solving a problem, we should step back and invest time and effort to improve our understanding of it. Here are 10 strategies you can use to see problems from many different perspectives and master what is the most important step in problem solving: clearly defining the problem in the first place!
The Problem Is To Know What the Problem Is

The definition of the problem will be the focal point of all your problem-solving efforts. As such, it makes sense to devote as much attention and dedication to problem definition as possible. What usually happens is that as soon as we have a problem to work on we’re so eager to get to solutions that we neglect spending any time refining it.

What most of us don’t realize — and what supposedly Einstein might have been alluding to — is that the quality of the solutions we come up with will be in direct proportion to the quality of the description of the problem we’re trying to solve. Not only will your solutions be more abundant and of higher quality, but they’ll be achieved much, much more easily. Most importantly, you’ll have the confidence to be tackling a worthwhile problem.
Problem Definition Tools and Strategies

The good news is that getting different perspectives and angles in order to clearly define a problem is a skill that can be learned and developed. As such, there are many strategies you can use to perfect it. Here are the 10 most effective ones I know.
1. Rephrase the Problem

When a Toyota executive asked employees to brainstorm “ways to increase their productivity”, all he got back were blank stares. When he rephrased his request as “ways to make their jobs easier”, he could barely keep up with the amount of suggestions.

Words carry strong implicit meaning and, as such, play a major role in how we perceive a problem. In the example above, ‘be productive’ might seem like a sacrifice you’re doing for the company, while ‘make your job easier’ may be more like something you’re doing for your own benefit, but from which the company also benefits. In the end, the problem is still the same, but the feelings — and the points of view — associated with each of them are vastly different.

Play freely with the problem statement, rewording it several times. For a methodic approach, take single words and substitute variations. ‘Increase sales’? Try replacing ‘increase’ with ‘attract’, ‘develop’, ‘extend’, ‘repeat’ and see how your perception of the problem changes. A rich vocabulary plays an important role here, so you may want to use a thesaurus or develop your vocabulary.
2. Expose and Challenge Assumptions

Every problem — no matter how apparently simple it may be — comes with a long list of assumptions attached. Many of these assumptions may be inaccurate and could make your problem statement inadequate or even misguided.

The first step to get rid of bad assumptions is to make them explicit. Write a list and expose as many assumptions as you can — especially those that may seem the most obvious and ‘untouchable’.

That, in itself, brings more clarity to the problem at hand. But go further and test each assumption for validity: think in ways that they might not be valid and their consequences. What you will find may surprise you: that many of those bad assumptions are self-imposed — with just a bit of scrutiny you are able to safely drop them.

For example, suppose you’re about to enter the restaurant business. One of your assumptions might be ‘restaurants have a menu’. While such an assumption may seem true at first, try challenging it and maybe you’ll find some very interesting business models (such as one restaurant in which customers bring dish ideas for the chef to cook, for example).
3. Chunk Up

Each problem is a small piece of a greater problem. In the same way that you can explore a problem laterally — such as by playing with words or challenging assumptions — you can also explore it at different “altitudes”.

If you feel you’re overwhelmed with details or looking at a problem too narrowly, look at it from a more general perspective. In order to make your problem more general, ask questions such as: “What’s this a part of?”, “What’s this an example of?” or “What’s the intention behind this?”.

For a detailed explanation of how this principle works, check the article Boost Your Brainstorm Effectiveness with the Why Habit.

Another approach that helps a lot in getting a more general view of a problem is replacing words in the problem statement with hypernyms. Hypernyms are words that have a broader meaning than the given word. (For example, a hypernym of ‘car’ is ‘vehicle’). A great, free tool for finding hypernyms for a given word is WordNet (just search for a word and click on the ‘S:’ label before the word definitions).
4. Chunk Down

If each problem is part of a greater problem, it also means that each problem is composed of many smaller problems. It turns out that decomposing a problem in many smaller problems — each of them more specific than the original — can also provide greater insights about it.

‘Chunking the problem down’ (making it more specific) is especially useful if you find the problem overwhelming or daunting.

Some of the typical questions you can ask to make a problem more specific are: “What are parts of this?” or “What are examples of this?”.

Just as in ‘chunking up’, word substitution can also come to great use here. The class of words that are useful here are hyponyms: words that are stricter in meaning than the given one. (E.g. two hyponyms of ‘car’ are ‘minivan’ and ‘limousine’). WordNet can also help you finding hyponyms.
5. Find Multiple Perspectives

Before rushing to solve a problem, always make sure you look at it from different perspectives. Looking at it with different eyes is a great way to have instant insight on new, overlooked directions.

For example, if you own a business and are trying to ‘increase sales’, try to view this problem from the point of view of, say, a customer. For example, from the customer’s viewpoint, this may be a matter of adding features to your product that one would be willing to pay more for.

Rewrite your problem statement many times, each time using one of these different perspectives. How would your competition see this problem? Your employees? Your mom?

Also, imagine how people in various roles would frame the problem. How would a politician see it? A college professor? A nun? Try to find the differences and similarities on how the different roles would deal with your problem.
6. Use Effective Language Constructs

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula for properly crafting the perfect problem statement, but there are some language constructs that always help making it more effective:

* Assume a myriad of solutions. An excellent way to start a problem statement is: “In what ways might I…”. This expression is much superior to “How can I…” as it hints that there’s a multitude of solutions, and not just one — or maybe none. As simple as this sounds, the feeling of expectancy helps your brain find solutions.
* Make it positive. Negative sentences require a lot more cognitive power to process and may slow you down — or even derail your train of thought. Positive statements also help you find the real goal behind the problem and, as such, are much more motivating.
For example: instead of finding ways to ‘quit smoking’, you may find that ‘increase your energy’, ‘live longer’ and others are much more worthwhile goals.
* Frame your problem in the form of a question. Our brain loves questions. If the question is powerful and engaging, our brains will do everything within their reach to answer it. We just can’t help it: Our brains will start working on the problem immediately and keep working in the background, even when we’re not aware of it.
* If you’re still stuck, consider using the following formula for phrasing your problem statement:
“In what ways (action) (object) (qualifier) (end result)?”
Example: In what ways might I package (action) my book (object) more attractively (qualifier) so people will buy more of it (end result)?

7. Make It Engaging

In addition to using effective language constructs, it’s important to come up with a problem statement that truly excites you so you’re in the best frame of mind for creatively tackling the problem. If the problem looks too dull for you, invest the time adding vigor to it while still keeping it genuine. Make it enticing. Your brain will thank (and reward) you later.

One thing is to ‘increase sales’ (boring), another one is ‘wow your customers’. One thing is ‘to create a personal development blog’, another completely different is to ‘empower readers to live fully’.
8. Reverse the Problem

One trick that usually helps when you’re stuck with a problem is turning it on its head.

If you want to win, find out what would make you lose. If you are struggling finding ways to ‘increase sales’, find ways to decrease them instead. Then, all you need to do is reverse your answers. ‘Make more sales calls’ may seem an evident way of increasing sales, but sometimes we only see these ‘obvious’ answers when we look at the problem from an opposite direction.

This seemingly convoluted method may not seem intuitive at first, but turning a problem on its head can uncover rather obvious solutions to the original problem.
9. Gather Facts

Investigate causes and circumstances of the problem. Probe details about it — such as its origins and causes. Especially if you have a problem that’s too vague, investigating facts is usually more productive than trying to solve it right away.

If, for example, the problem stated by your spouse is “You never listen to me”, the solution is not obvious. However, if the statement is “You don’t make enough eye contact when I’m talking to you,” then the solution is obvious and you can skip brainstorming altogether. (You’ll still need to work on the implementation, though!)

Ask yourself questions about the problem. What is not known about it? Can you draw a diagram of the problem? What are the problem boundaries? Be curious. Ask questions and gather facts. It is said that a well-defined problem is halfway to being solved: I would add that a perfectly-defined problem is not a problem anymore.
10. Problem-Solve Your Problem Statement

I know I risk getting into an infinite loop here, but as you may have noticed, getting the right perspective of a problem is, well, a problem in itself. As such, feel free to use any creative thinking technique you know to help. There are plenty to choose from:

You may want to give yourself an Idea Quota of problem statements. Or write a List of 100 problems to solve. SCAMPER your problem definition. These are just some of dozen techniques you can try.

Of course, how much effort you invest in defining the problem in contrast to how much effort you invest in solving your actual problem is a hard balance to achieve, though one which is attainable with practice.

Personally, I don’t think that 55 minutes of defining a problem versus 5 minutes acting on it is usually a good proportion. The point is that we must be aware of how important problem defining is and correct our tendency to spend too little time on it.

In fact, when you start paying more attention to how you define your problems, you’ll probably find that it is usually much harder than solving them. But you’ll also find that the payoff is well worth the effort.

Litemind

Exploring ways to use our minds efficiently.