Friday, August 30, 2013

Sharing your flaws at work

I have learned that if you talk about your flaws at work, a co-worker might pick up on it and share it with a performance manager.

This isn't a bad thing per-say but what started with a small flaw can soon grows to be more than that (according to people who haven't seen it first hand in you).

Restrain yourself from sharing your flaws with those who doesn't necessary have your best interests in mind. Keep it for you and your mentor.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The cure for boredom is curiosity


Entertainment is pleasure and pleasure only brings an increased hunger for more pleasure meaning that the mind requires more and more from entertainment in order to be entertained.
Entertainment is to the mind what junk food is to the body. Too much of it and it becomes slow and unable to produce for long periods of time.

Curiosity helps keeping the mind sharp and is also very fulfilling.

Friday, August 23, 2013

If Inspiring someone doesn't work ... Force them

“A Man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” -Benjamin Franklin

If a business doesn't know how to inspire their employees, they will usually end up forcing (or "heavily encourage") them to do it instead. Does forcing someone create a feeling of loyalty or resentment?

To inspire someone, you first need to know them personally. What inspire "person A" won't necessarily work for "person B" which can be a challenge for bigger business. If you don't have time to know someone personally, you don't have time to inspire them.

The book "Personality PLUS" by Florence Littauer is a good start to figure out how to motivate people.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Conditional Happiness doesn't work

"Happiness is produce, not by objects but by ideas, thoughts, and attitudes which can be developed and constructed by the individual's own activities, irrespective of the environment." -Matthew N. Chappell

Happiness isn't conditional. Happiness doesn't lie in the future but the present-It's a mental state. Saying "I will be happy when I get a raise" will cause disappointment. How many times did you get a raise? 2-3 times? Should you only be happy for 2-3 days in your life?

"If you are to be happy at all, you must be happy-period! not happy 'because of.'" -Maxwell Maltz

Life is a series of problems and your attitude will determine your happiness through them. The person who says "but I just don't feel it" doesn't understand that he's not letting himself be happy.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Do this, do that ... Now set a goal for yourself

It is common practice for a business to request their employees to set goals for themselves and it's often source of headache from both the employee, who struggle with goals, and the business that doesn't know how to inspire their employees.
The reason why people struggle with setting goals for themselves is because they're thought what to do and not how to think. If you train a dog how to fetch a ball, you can't just suddenly ask of him to fetch the newspaper. He needs to be thought how to fetch the newspaper as well.

While humans aren't dogs, the same principle applies. If you tell someone what to do all the time, you can't just suddenly ask of him to "think of a goal"... He hasn't been thought how to.

Many business have libraries with many books that will help the employee improve his technical skills but what most of those libraries lacks are books on how to think.

If a business want their employees to think then they have to provide some tools to teach them how to.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Imagination can also be practice

"Research Quarterly reports an experiments on the effects of mental practice on improving skill in sinking basketball free throws.

One group of students actually practiced throwing the ball every day for 20 days, and were scored on the first and last days.
A third group was scored on the first day, then spent 20 minutes a day, imagining that they were throwing the ball at the goal. When they missed they would imagine that they corrected their aim accordingly.

The first group, which actually practice 20 minutes every day, improved in scoring 24 per cent.

-P35 of "Psycho-Cybernetics" by author Maxwell Maltz

This study shows how strong imagination is. Thinking does make it so. Practice in your mind as well as for real.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

The brain activity in digital form

In the 1960s, scientist believed that the thought process of the brain could be easily reproduced using computers but it's only recently that one of the fastest computer in the world was able to accomplish this feat.

It took the Japaneses "K computer" (82,944 processors) super computer 40 minute to duplicate 1 sec of brain activity.

This is getting us a step closer to AI technology.

Back to Top