“Let me tell you why my tv series in the 90s was so good, besides just an inordinate amount of just pure good fortune. In most tv series, 50 percent of the time is spent working on the show, 50 percent of the time is spent dealing with personality, political, and hierarchical issues of making something. We spent 99 percent of our time writing. Me and Larry [David]. The two of us. The door was closed. It’s closed. Somebody calls. We’re not taking the call. We were gonna make this thing funny. That’s why the show was good.”

Cal explores this concept of extended periods of concentration and focus as the main raw ingredient of creativity and insight in his book Deep Work.
His thoughts about how modern organizations and society overall values the products of ‘deep work’ and yet do nothing to foster it, sometimes even working against it, is best explained through his ‘Attention Capital Theory‘:

In modern knowledge work, the primary capital resource is human brains; or, more specifically, these brains’ ability to create new value through sustained attention. At the moment, most individuals and organizations are terrible at optimizing this resource, prioritizing instead the convenience and flexibility of persistent, unstructured messaging (e.g., email and IM). I predict that as this sector evolves, we’ll get better at optimizing attention capital, and accordingly leave behind our current culture of communication overload.

For me, what’s interesting about Seinfeld’s quote and this attention capital theory is how so much of all this is down to simple prioritization.

Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David prioritized the writing, and the majority of their time, creativity and ‘mind share’ was devoted to the writing; making it as funny, tight and sharp as possible. I picture them repeatedly scrapping pages of ‘pretty good’ ideas and jokes because they were too ‘meh’, and they only wanted gold! You can’t prioritize and execute like that with a 45 minute deadline looming, or constant distractions in the form of phone calls, slack messages and FB messenger pings. You can only work like that when you prioritize the work over the other things, enough that you close the door on the rest and don’t open it until it’s done.

Photo Credit: @chuck4x5 Flickr via Compfight cc

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

I came across a super interesting article about privacy and why it matters today, but even better was the hackernews comment thread that accompanied it where someone shared the poem above, entitled “First they came” and written by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) in reference to the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis’ rise to power and subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

The “I have nothing to hide” argument is not really working any more, and seems to follow that string of peculiar human logic where we know something is fishy, but ignore it because diving down that rabbit hole seems too much like hard work (or, in this case, too much like “lack of zero-thought convenience”).

Check out prism-break.org and privacytols.io for lists of tools that can help you to regain your online privacy

#staywoke

It’s a financial experts answer to the question: What is the best route (or tips) for a 25 year old who is focused on becoming financially free?

I’m re-posting this because it’s poignant and simple, while still being a powerful reminder of how we can really create (financial) wealth. Here it is in it’s entirety:

The only way to get rich rapidly is to understand the principle of leverage.

Financial leverage works this way. You spot widgets for sale in bulk for only a dollar. You know where you can sell them for two dollars. You’ve got a hundred dollars, so you buy a hundred and make back $200. If you had borrowed $100 from your banker, paying back $110, you could’ve bought two hundred and made $300 for your total outlay of $100 plus $10 in interest, quite a bit better return on your investment.

Leveraging your time works this way. I hired a window washer for my store for the customary $20 out of petty cash. It took only twenty minutes to complete the job, so that represented a lot more than the $7/hour I paid my sales clerks, but the idea was, he provided his own tools and supplies which he had to lug around and spend time selling his services.

The next time he came to wash my windows, he was in a suit. He took the $20 bill and left his associate behind to do the work. As I walked around downtown, I could see as many as three of his associates working at one time. Let’s say there were just three. How does this work?

Working for himself, if he really humped it he could land twelve jobs on a good day, or $240 [=$600 in 2014]. By hiring workers and focusing on sales himself, they could each handle fifteen or more jobs a day. He’s paying them $7/hour or about $4 per job, which means he’s clearing $16 per job for himself, or $720 a day, cash [=$1800 in 2014].

What do you do with all that money when savings isn’t paying? Buy things that will appreciate in value. When you can leverage your time and your money and then put your money to work, you are on the road to riches. Many people make the mistake of looking for a high rung to catch onto, a position worthy of their education and experience. Something as humble as window washing, leveraged, is a surer road to financial security.

– SOURCE

Header Photo Credit: Mukumbura via Compfight cc

“You are the sovereign authority for your life. You are the ruler who makes the decisions regarding how you will act, what information you will accept. You do it anyway — but if you recognize that you do it, you can gain much greater control over your future.”

~ Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

“Would you spend a year in jail if you received 1 million dollars when you got out?” He asked me.

My response came with no hesitation, as if the answer was organic, from the soul: “You damn right I would!”

This answer seemed to make my old friend mad; I have a tattoo on my back that reads “freedom” in Thai and he couldn’t understand how I claimed to represent a concept that I’d be willing to give up so haphazardly.

My friends frustrations went unanswered as I began imagining how much of a cakewalk one year in prison could be.

I’d make a bunch of progress on my reading list, with no distractions like game consoles and new Medium articles to distract from the more difficult books to get through like War & Peace.

I’d develop those calisthenics skills I’ve always wanted, work 12 hours a day on hand stand push-ups and pray for access to a punching bag & skipping rope to make strides in my footwork. Daily meditation would be forced upon me. I’d come out mentally (and hopefully physically) stronger then ever! Plus a year is a long time to develop ideas that I’d then have $1mil to spend testing when I got out.

Of course there’s the 24/7 threat of harm and possibly death from other inmates (and guards?) who truly thrive on being locked up with borderline-psychopaths and navigating a testosterone fueled Darwinian playground, but who thinks of contrasting view points when justifying anything!?

This conversation made me rethink what freedom really is.

The recent events in Feguson exposing the genuine injustice and lack of real freedom for a large proportion of black people living in America gets my pulse rising in anger. “Freedom is a basic human right” I mutter to myself after angrily watching another video of police officers abusing their positions (and the trust of the very people who are supposed to have put them in those positions).

Is freedom something we all deserve from birth? Or do we have to earn it? Do we give it away without really realizing it and does anyone have the right to define freedom for us? To answer the question, we must truly understand what freedom really is.

3 Definitions of Freedom

‘MURICA!

Dictionary
The dictionary definition of freedom is “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.”

That’s open to interpretation depending on the angle you approach it from. Some would argue that complete freedom, of the type described above, leads to anarchy. A good analogy for this is the goldfish fable (best told on a very random reddit post):

“A goldfish bowl lies on the table. Observe what happens to the fish when we “free it” from its external restraints, of having to be bound to water.

Look at it. See how the fish flips and struggles, fighting for motion and direction. The gills stretch and quiver for the refreshment of oxygen. Note how its muscles convulse, as the fish battles against its slow and agonizing suffocation.

Before long, we see that it lies on the table—lifeless.

So I ask you again, What is “freedom”? Is this what freedom looks like? When the fish is “freed” from the constraints of inhabiting the water, its true freedom to move around and even breathe the breath of life itself is destroyed. The fish is not more free, it is less free, if it cannot honor the reality of its ordered nature.”

This is the justification that western society (through government, law and general acceptance by the people) uses in creating and enforcing restrictions: that freedom is not found in the absence of restrictions, but instead in finding the right restrictions that are conducive to human flourishing and the broader common good of the human race.

Harry Browne
One of my favorite books is Harry Browne’s How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World, which is packed full of excellent philosophical observations about the state of modern ‘freedom’.

Browne defines freedom as living your life as you want to live it. He highlights several ‘traps’ that get in the way of most people achieving freedom:

Hoping to be free, many people engage in continual social combat — joining movements, urging political action, writing letters to editors and Congressmen, trying to educate people. They hope that someday it will all prove to have been worthwhile.

But as the years go by they see little overall change. Small victories are won; defeats set them back. The world seems to continue on its path to wherever it’s going. Until they die, the hopeful remain just as enslaved as they’ve always been.

The plans, the movements, the crusades — none of these things has worked. And so the unfree man continues to dream, to condemn, and to remain where he is.

Check out this great summary of Harry Browne’s book for more insight into the ‘assumption’ traps that limit freedom.

My Own Definition
I define freedom as the absolute removal of limitations. This means that freedom must be directional, as removal of all limitations is physically impossible (gravity is a limitation, as is our genetic makeup).

The biggest difference in my outlook is that I see freedom as physical and entirely mental concept.

My civil freedom can be taken away if I’m put in jail, but my mental and spiritual freedom is still absolute. That’s why I could never join the army, step 1 of the army playbook seems to be to infiltrate the mental freedom of it’s soldiers and rebuild it with an externally defined framework. Maybe it works well for some, but a reality where I don’t fundamentally control my own mind is not much of a reality (you can switch out “join the army” with “watch TV”, “follow daily news” and “group thinking”).

The quote at the top of this article from Harry Browne’s book says it well, “You are the sovereign authority for your life” and further, your mind. Freedom is yours to define, ignore, outsource or embrace as you see fit. We all have freedom to define our own freedom.

“But whether or not you accept it, you are sovereign. You rule one life — and you rule it totally.

You decide which information you will accept or reject. You decide what your next action will be. You decide what moral code you’ll live by.

To be free, you have only to make the decision to be free. Freedom is waiting for you — anytime you’re ready for it.”

~ Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

Two of the better articles I’ve read over the past 6 months have been by my marketing idol Ryan Holiday and the very smart Matt Paulson, who both highlight the benefits of being a ferocious reader!

The Solutions Lie Within The Pages

Self-made millionaires understand that there’s a lot in the business world that they don’t know. They recognize that the world is constantly changing and there’s always new information to learn which could have a tangible impact upon their businesses. They know that there are critical pieces of information about their business and their industry that they don’t know that would be game-changing if they did know them. Unfortunately, people don’t know what they don’t know. So, they embark on a journey of life-long learning to become better entrepreneurs and more well-rounded people.

…Most of the content you will consume won’t lead to an immediate game-changing breakthrough in business, but every now and then, you’ll find a needle in a haystack and uncover something that will change the way that you do business for the better. I can think of dozens of things that I’ve learned and implemented as a result of books that I’ve read, podcasts that I’ve listened to and online courses that I’ve taken.

If you’d like to have the same educational advantage that self-made millionaires do, the prescription is simple. Become a life-long learner.

—Matt Paulson on the benefits of being a life-long learner

What Matt is touching on in the above excerpt is that any situation/strategy/problem/solution/passing thought/stroke-of-genius that you could need for your life or business is within the pages of a book somewhere.

The answers to any question you could have are contained within a book – you just have to find them by “becoming a voracious consumer of content”.

How Do I Read More?

The challenge then becomes “if all of the solutions for my problems are contained within books, I simply need to figure out how to read more!”

Luckily, well-known book fiend and author Ryan Holiday has some solid advice for fitting more reading time into your life:

…where do you get the time to eat three meals a day? How do you have time to do all that sleeping? How do you manage to spend all those hours with your kids or wife or a girlfriend or boyfriend?

You don’t get that time anywhere, do you? You just make it because it’s really important. It’s a non-negotiable part of your life.

…The key to reading lots of book begins with stop thinking of it as some activity that you do. Reading must become as natural as eating and breathing to you. It’s not something you do because you feel like it, but because it’s a reflex, a default.

Carry a book with you at all times. Every time you get a second, crack it open.

…When you’re eating, read. When you’re on the train, in the waiting room, at the office–read. It’s work, really important work. Don’t let anyone ever let you feel like it’s not.

There’s some great (practical and mindset) advice in this article on reading more, I recommend checking it out. I’ll finish with this excerpt from the same post:

Perhaps the reason you having trouble is you forgot the purpose of reading. It’s not just for fun. Human beings have been recording their knowledge in book form for more than 5,000 years. That means that whatever you’re working on right now, whatever problem you’re struggling with, is probably addressed in some book somewhere by someone a lot smarter than you. Save yourself the trouble of learning from trial and error–find that point. Benefit from that perspective.

Photo Credit: Love is the key via Compfight cc

One of the sweetest moves I learned in basketball is the crossover. The crossover is a fundamental offensive maneuver where you change direction sharply while bouncing the ball.

There’s variations to the crossover, from viciously fast changes in direction, between (your own) legs crossovers, subtle head or hip shakes that mislead your defender and even fancy looking spins!

The goal of the crossover is always the same, create space!

Dwayne Wade, NBA player for Miami Heat explains that “[the crossover] is effective because it gives you space,”

“…I act like I’m going one direction, and then I bring it back real quick. Once I bring it back, that gives me the second to be able to go into my next move”

Crossovers ≠ “Game Changers”

Watching my weekly fix of T.G.I.M by Eric Thomas (a short and direct weekly motivational message delivered by a brother who approaches self improvement from a young perspective) my ears peaked when he talked about crossovers as an analogy for game changers in life that allow you to change direction and create space.

What’s so special about the crossover? The crossover allows you to change direction, or the crossover gives you space!

— Eric Thomas

For Eric Thomas, now a positive e-celebrity and very well known motivational speaker, reading was his crossover. Reading gave him the space within his life, the seconds he needed to briefly analyze his situation and make the changes he needed to.

Ankle Breakers

In basketball, this is a crossover dribble in which the sudden change of direction causes the defender guarding the ball-handler to fall down. The ball-handler then takes advantage of the fallen defender and drives past him to the basket.

—SportingCharts.com

To take the crossover analogy even further, an ankle breaker is where the change in direction is so sharp and well timed that the defenders legs give out on them and they fall over. Embarrassment for the defender and loud screams and laughter from those bearing witness to this maneuver ensues.

I think about what my crossovers and ankle breakers are. What tricks do I have up my sleeve to change direction and create space in life, love and business?

While reading and learning is powerful and a definite catalyst for a lot of the overarching changes in my life, I don’t believe that it’s my game changer. It’s my foundation, my bounce pass or 2 step layup, to keep with the basketball terminology.

Perception is my game changer

I believe that my internal self image, and image/projection of the world around me and the ability to change that quickly is my crossover; it is my tool for creating space and changing direction to get where I need to be.

In a movie I watched recently called Dom Hemingway, an old-school British gangster with a taste for mediocre poetry and drug/alcohol abuse gets out of jail and proceeds to head on a painful path to self-destruction. Near his lowest point, he downs a pint of beer and proclaims:

“A man with no options suddenly has all the options in the world”

I had to stop the movie and think about this line for a second. It reminded me of the movie fight club and the portrayed idea that once you loose everything, you can finally start really living.

My question is: why wait until you’re at your lowest point or you’ve lost everything? Why not start really living right now.

This doesn’t mean saying fuck you to your boss or blowing up relationships around you like a Bristol Beaufighter, it simply means making the decision in your mind that things are different.

Deciding that you are no longer the girl who does x, or the guy who accepts y. Setting boundaries, taking control of decisions and actions that you had previously allowed others or society to dictate. That is really living, to me.

As I proceed to grow and learn, I’m going to keep working on that crossover, keep sharpening that ability to change my thoughts whenever I decide. Maybe it will lead to an ankle breaker or two!