Mastery: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Making my way through "Mastery" by Greene. He, in turn quotes Emerson:

A (wo)man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages.  Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his.  In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to use with a certain alienated majesty.

Stoicism

Feeling the need for some philosophy after delving into the sociopathic world of "high finance" in the book "The Big Short."
So some philosophy light.

"As the Stoic philosopher Epictetus taught: “Where is the good? In the will. Where is the evil? In the will.”"

The Resistance

Love this photo

"The Work

Your work is to create art that changes things, ro expose your insight and humanity in such a way you’re truly indispensable.

Using resistance as a weather vane

Whenever you feel the resistance, the stall, the fear and the pull, you know you’re onto something. Wherever the resistance is coming from, that’s where you head.  The closer you get to achieving the breakthrough your genius has in mind, the stronger the wind will blow.

The resistance will help you find the things you most need to do.

The Paradox of the Safety Zone

Resistance wants you to curl up in a corner, avoid all threats, take no risks and hide

The more you hide the riskier it is. Need to make a commotion.

Lizard brain wants to keep you safe, invisible, unchanged"

Thing is, in Vipassana meditation, the teaching is to tune in to your body to determine your course of action.  So this is sort of the opposite.  Tune in to the feeling, and if it feels difficult, do it.  Hmmmm. Paradox.

Just try

Mother Theresa
"God doesn't require you succeed, he only requires that you try."

The Process of Genius

From Scientific American Mind,
Creativity as described by psychilogist Donald Campbell, emerges through a process or procedure he termed blind variation and selective retention (BSVR).  A creator must try out ideas that might fail before hitting on a breakthrough... The blindness of BVSR merely means that ideas are produced withough foresight into their eventual utility. Two common phenomnea characterize BVSR thinking:superfluity and backtracking.  Creating a variety of ideas, and returning to previous approaches after blindly goin ooff in the wrong direction.  BVSR can help us make sense of crtain quirks of the creative geniuses. Although they devote considerable time to achieving expertise, they also pursue other hobbies.  Their openess to new ideas and their breadth of interests infuse them with seemingly irrelevant stumulation that can enrich blind variations.

"As 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said "Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no on else can see."

My "Standing Desk"

Much has been written lately about the importance of standing as much as you can, or at least minimize sitting.  This prompted a visit to Ikea, but I couldn't find anything suitable for home.  So I improvized with an ironing board on blocks.  It has the advantage of being collapsible for when company is over. This barely qualifies as a home project, but posted under this label anyway...

The Power of Less: Starting Small

Like the stripes. Not my total favorite, but getting there.

Leo Babauta
Start new habits in small increments. Why?
Narrows your focus
It keeps your energy and enthusiasm going for longer
It's easier to handle
You ensure success
Gradual change is longer-lasting

Some suggestions
Waking early: start by waking fifteen inutes earlier instead of an hour or two
Productivity: start by trying to focus on the task at hand for five to ten minutes at a time
A major project: Start with just one small task from the the project, instead of trying to tackle everything at one, then go to the next small task and so on
Decluttering: STart with just one drawer instead of trying to declutter your entire office or home.

The Power of Less: Possible Goals

LOVE this study. Want.

Here are some of Leo Babauta's suggestions for goals to try to accomplish one at a time (30 days each)
1. Set your 3 Most Important Tasks each morning
2. Single task. When you work on a task, don't switch to other tasks.
3. Process your in-box to empty
4. Check e-mail just twice a day
5. Exercise five to ten minutes a day (for me an hour would be a better goal.)
6. Work while disconnected, with no distractions.
7. Follow a morning routine
8. Eat more fruits and veggies evry day.
9. Keep your desk decluttered (ha..)
10. Declutter your house 15 minutes a day (love that idea.)
11.Stick to 5 sentence limit for email. (Doesn't apply to me too much.)
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Tips for Making Data Memorable

We offered 6 principles for making your data memorable.
1. Simplicity. Become a master at exclusion. Find the essential core of what you are presenting.
2. Unexpectedness. Keep your audience’s attention by presenting the data in a striking way.
3. Concreteness. Cut the vague corporate-speak. Use concrete language and data, examples and images.
4. Credibility. Back up your arguments with carefully-chosen numbers.
5. Emotions. Your community is a group of real people with real experiences and feelings.
6. Stories. We never forget stories. Don’t just measure relationships; describe them.
From radian6  www.radian6.com

Winners are good at losing

From Seth Godin's "linchpin"
Make your own map.  If you're following the manual instead of writing the manual, you're facing resistance.
You become a winner because you're good at losing. The hard part about losing is that you might give up. Don't.

Notebooks

Seems "writing it down" has a lot of traction among idea experts.  From Vera John-Steiner author of "Notebooks of the Mind"
Notebooks are a crucial link between inner world of mind and outer world.
You can express yourself freely in a non-linear fashion
  1 Find the best time for you, a.m. or p.m. to make notebook entries or at any time
  2. Generate first, then organize, avoid the critic!
  3. Use your notebook to record ideas at any time

3 ways of generating ideas
  Word association
   Analogical thinking  
   Fantastical storytelling 
 

Idea generation from Edward De Bono

From "6 Thinking Hats."
The process of dfining and solving problems from diverse angles
1. Maintain a notebook. (In my case, that's the easy part, it's finding it againg that's tough...)
2. Practice ideaphoria
3. Discern patterns
4. Express ideas visually
5. Explore roads not taken

Einstein

from Einstein

Curiosity
Concentration
Perseverance
Self Criticism

Reread

from Schopenhauer
"Any book which is at all important should be reread immediately."

Eat That Frog

Summary Learn to Work on the Most Important Task first
1. Set the table.  Figure out exactly what you want. Write out goals and objectives before you begin.
2. Plan in advance.  Think on paper.
3. Apply 80/20 rule.  Concentrate on top 20%
4. Consider the consequences.
5. Practice ABCDE.  Organize by value and priority so you are sure to focus on most valuable priorities.
6. Focus on key results areas.  Focus on results that you HAVE to get to do job well.
7. Practice the law of forces efficiency.  Never enough time to do everything, but always enough time to do the important things.  What are they?
8. Prepare thoroughly before you begin.  Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.
9. Improve your skills.
10. Leverage your special talents and throw whole heart into doing those.
11. Determine your key constraints.  Determine the bottle necks and choke points and focus on alleviating them.
12. Take "one oil barrel at a time."  Complete one step at atime.
13. Put pressure on yourself. Imagine you had to leave town for a month and had to get everything done.
14. Maximize your personal power.  Identify when you are most efficient and structure your day around that.
15. Motivate yourself into action.  Be your own cheerleader.  Focus on the solution, not the problem. Always be optimistic.
16.  Practice creative procrastination. Deliberately put off low value tasks so you can do the tasks that really count.
17. Do the most difficult task first. The one task that could make the most difference to your life and work and focus on it until it's complete.
18. Slice and dice the task.  Take large tasks and divide them into small components and work from there
and do one small task to get started.
19. Create large blocks of time
20. Create a sense of urgency.
21.  Single hand every task.  Work without stopping until task complete.
Practice these everyday until a habit.