What I learn today...

"The reason why rivers and seas receive the homage of a hundred mountain streams is that they keep..."

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:00:38 -0500

“The reason why rivers and seas receive the homage of a hundred mountain streams is that they keep below them. Thus they are able to reign over all the mountain streams.”

- Lao Tzu (spotted in the book How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie)

"Budo is supposed to enhance your life, not replace it."

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 21:57:38 -0500

“Budo is supposed to enhance your life, not replace it.”

- From Cook Ding’s Carryout. Get a taste of the carryout here.

A year of soft and hard

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 21:43:16 -0500

This year will be a year of soft and hard. Of understanding the need for hard to allow the soft to manifest. The need for the strong to amplify the ability to be flexible.

I borrowed this concept from the practical method where the aim is first to separate yin and yang in order for them to work together. More will be shared when I manage to accomplish this. Stay tuned!

"Today, we desperately need people who not only want to turn away from stimulation to think deeply..."

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 08:19:48 -0500

“Today, we desperately need people who not only want to turn away from stimulation to think deeply about problems, but have an innate passion to do so. We need noise-cancelers, not more noise.”

- Eddie Smith (via smarterthaniam)

"When you are tough on yourself, life is going to be infinitely easier for you."

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 01:19:00 -0500

“When you are tough on yourself, life is going to be infinitely easier for you.”

- Zig Ziglar

How bad your day is depends on how you see it.

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:00:14 -0500

Forty years ago, Richard Branson, who ultimately founded Virgin Air, found himself in a similar situation in an airport in the Caribbean. They had just canceled his flight, the only flight that day. Instead of freaking out about how essential the flight was, how badly his day was ruined, how his entire career was now in jeopardy, the young Branson walked across the airport to the charter desk and inquired about the cost of a chartering a flight out of Puerto Rico.

Then he borrowed a portable blackboard and wrote, “Seats to Virgin Islands, $39.” He went back to his gate, sold enough seats to his fellow passengers to completely cover his costs, and made it home on time. Not to mention planting the seeds for the airline he’d start decades later.

With a mindset like that, it is no surprise that he manage to build an empire.

(Excerpt from Linchpin by Seth Godin)

"My atoms came from those stars."

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 02:45:13 -0500

“My atoms came from those stars.”

- Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson

"Have the temerity to dream."

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 09:04:23 -0500

“Have the temerity to dream.”

- Seth Godin in Linchpin

Global is the path for me (too)

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 22:48:24 -0500

Thanks to a timely reminder from Derek Sivers, I’m also choosing the global path for a different reason - so that I can be location independent as I work, and ultimately I want to change the world (not just the next door neighbour).

You can’t even change your next door neighbour, and you want to change the world?!!

Well, I’ve come to understand that the world doesn’t need changing. It’s my perspective that needs changing. As I change my perspective, the world may or may not follow suit, but that’s ok. Because that’s what make this world interesting. Everyone has a different perspective. The unfortunate part is that most people are not aware of the lens that they are seeing the world, myself included.

I’m currently taking an online Coursera course in Astronomy. It introduces a concept known as the Celestial Sphere. It is a construct that astronomers use to perceive the universe relative to our location on Earth. I struggle to wrap this around my head because of the vivid imagination I need to have to build several moving parts in 3 dimensions in my head! And yet, I understand the importance of knowing this construct thoroughly before I can move on.

This is one perspective that is important to understand Astronomy. It is probably not the only one, but I’m sure it has survived so long because of its practical nature.

Why am I telling you about Astronomy?

Because I come to realise also that I have built many constructs to understand what’s going on around me. My plan is to understand them and use them to my advantage, rather than be slave to the very model I myself have constructed.

Will you care to join me?

Photo

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 12:00:15 -0500

My meditation practice has this effect.

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 08:35:06 -0500

My meditation practice has this effect.

"Some people use statistics the way a drunk uses a lamppost — more for support than for illumination."

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 10:21:03 -0500

“Some people use statistics the way a drunk uses a lamppost — more for support than for illumination.”

- David Ogilvy (via Jared Kim)

"A well-designed system is not simply a bag of features. A good system is designed to encourage a..."

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 12:00:21 -0500

“A well-designed system is not simply a bag of features. A good system is designed to encourage a particular way of thinking, with all features carefully and cohesively designed around that purpose.”

- Bret Victor (via smarterthaniam)

"If you view your work as something different than your real life, then you’ll be constantly trying..."

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 12:00:19 -0500

“If you view your work as something different than your real life, then you’ll be constantly trying to find balance, but if you view your work as an experience that leads to accomplishment, to be contrasted by other experiences that make up the sum of your life, then you are free to relish each experience, including your work. You will also take greater responsibility over your work, as it’s a meaningful part of your harmonious life and not just the time between your “real” life.”

- Shawn Adrian (via smarterthaniam)

Be stupid + do stupid = progress

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:03:17 -0500

The more difficult change that I face is normally a change in habit. “They” say, it takes at least 30 days of continous conscious effort to change a habit. Doesn’t sound that hard is it?

It is hard.

I recently discovered that it is not just the discipline of continuing something for 30 days that is hard. I find it harder to convince the intelligent me to dumb down.

The intelligent me is a very good salesman. He can convince me that I really need ice-cream on a very cold day. He can tell me things like:

why are you spending so much time on this?
this is not your purpose
it doesn’t even improve your well-being
so what if you can’t earn that amount of money?
so what if you spend those money on your indulgence?
so what if you’re fat? It’s all relative anyway.

And on and on, he will have the rebuttals ready for any counter arguments that crop up.

The trick, I realise, is not just to be a stupid me, I also need an extremely stupid method so that the stupid me can just follow without questioning.

This epiphany came to me while doing the basic exercises of the Practical Method. These exercises are so stupid that you can’t even go wrong, and yet, the focus of these exercises is so extreme that you end up training the one thing that you must train in order to progress.

I believe in focusing on “one thing well”. I was never a convert because I believe I can still do something else with my intellect (the intelligent me speaking here) while doing that one thing. I am moving closer to becoming a convert. I wish you would join me.

"You’ve got to think about the big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small..."

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 09:54:14 -0500

“You’ve got to think about the big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.”

- Alvin Toffler (via GTD Times)

"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that..."

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:00:32 -0400

“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house that you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.”

- Ellen Goodman

"If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito."

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:00:32 -0400

“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”

What is the best technology upgrade?

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:00:27 -0400

Patrick Rhone says:

I have come to believe that the best and most cost effective technology upgrade that one can make is to themselves. I’m not talking cyborg implants here. I’m speaking about knowledge. That is, increasing your skill, aptitude, and understanding when it comes to any device, application, or tool.

I’ll be busy planning my personal upgrade for the year 2013. If you have a suggestion, please tell me below, contact me or tweet me @shanglee.

How to get things done

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 12:00:25 -0400

Here is how David Allen does it:

Keep anything potentially meaningful out of your head, decide what it means and what you’re going to do about it, and park those results in some trusted place that some part of you knows you’ll look at the right time and the right place, and trust your intuitive judgments about what you do.

You can also read his book that started it all.