The Stand-up Philosopher

An Exciting Project: 10 Million Words

For 2010, Tim Challies has embarked on what I consider to be an exciting challenge: 10 Million Words.

10 Million Words is a year-long project by Tim Challies to learn about life and culture through the lens of all of America's bestselling books.

Tim, a Canadian, will be reading all of the New York Times’ non-fiction bestselling books in 2010. He is doing this to:

America’s bestselling books tell us, I’m sure, who America is, who her people are, at this time and place. Surely they will give me a glimpse into the world’s most powerful, the world’s most fascinating nation.

So why am I doing it? That is a fair question and one that does not offend me in the least. There are a few answers. First, I love to read and this project gives me an opportunity to read a lot. That, as I see it, is a good thing. Second, it is a challenge and I like to face a good challenge. I expect this project to involve at least ten million words of reading–break that down and you’ll see that it comes to at least three books per week over the course of an entire year. Third, I am interested in the cultural and worldview implications of all of these books. They will provide, I’m sure, a snapshot of where America is at as she enters a new decade. And for me, as a Canadian who spends a fair amount of time wandering the United States and who has family living in the United States, this stands to be particularly interesting.

Tim’s project excites me, and I’d love to embark on a similar project, except that I read a little too slowly. I like to study ideas though. As I look back through history, I like to focus on what ideas had the most influence on a culture. Just as the enlightenment had a massive influence on America’s founders, Robespierre had an influence on the French Revolution.

I’m excited by Tim’s challenge and I’m eagerly following along by his RSS feed in Google Reader. I can’t wait to see what conclusions he is able to draw from studying the ideas behind a years worth of non-fiction bestsellers.

How To Achieve Your Goals: Write Them Every Day

Somewhere in the last two weeks, I came across a tip Brian Tracy put in his email about writing your goals down every day. I saved the email for later, and decided to follow the tip.

Somehow, my brain remembered it as “Write your top 10 goals down every morning”, so I began that day. I’ve had times in the past when I would read my goals out loud every morning, but I’ve never written them, with a pen, daily. I decided to give it a try.

So, every morning, I’d take out my Moleskine and write 10 goals. I somehow managed to get 10 goals out of my head and onto paper, and ran with them for now.

I discovered something interesting. As I wrote my goals out every morning, they began to refine themselves. I realized that 4 goals could be combined into 2 goals, making room for 2 more on my list of 10. I can’t say I’ve had that happen to me. At one point in the past, I set a goal, and after looking at it every day decided “nah, I don’t want to do that” and changed direction.

Then, yesterday, I reread the email from Brian Tracy. This is what the section ACTUALLY said:

Goal Setting
Every morning, take three to five minutes to write out your top goals in the present tense. Get a spiral notebook for this purpose. By writing out your ten goals at the beginning of each day, you will program them deep into your subconscious mind.

I’ve never been good with writing down a desired outcome in the present tense. It always felt kind of hokey to me. But, I have nothing to lose right now. I’d like to see a change of direction in at least one area of my life, specifically, the area of my life that brings in the money. I’m at a low point right now. It’s a long story, and if you’ve followed my last few weeks of entries, you realize that I need to erect some boundaries in what I share with other people. Go ahead and read my back entries through November, then keep going. These blog posts don’t read themselves.

OK, writing goals in the present tense. I decided to try it because I have nothing to lose. I wrote all 10 of my goals in the present tense, as if they already happened (i.e. “I own an iPad”). Just kidding on that one, but you should get the point.

Something strange happened: I looked at my goals in a different light. I reworded a couple of them, but I was forced to consider if more of my goals were really where I wanted to end up. I also realized that looking at my goals in the present tense, 3 of them end up in the same place, so they’re really just the means to the end of a single goal.

Consider this scenario. You set a goal “I want a big house.” Now, look at it in the present tense: “I have a big house”. Think about it. “Uh-oh! I have a big house. Man, this thing takes a lot of time to clean, and it costs a fortune to air condition. I live in New Jersey, and the property taxes are astronomical! Did I really want a house this big?”

It’s hard to describe, but I guess I can say, looking at my goals in the present tense also showed me the consequences of those goals. It made me wonder if that is really where I wanted to end up after all.

I’m going to keep up with this exercise and see where it ends up. Hopefully, it ends up with my goals met.

What about you? What techniques do you use to set and meet your goals? Have you tried writing them every day in the present tense?

Tired of Printed Bibles? Try the iBible…

This is hilarious!

“…and a parental lock for the Song of Solomon and verses with ‘ass’ in them.”

What Exactly Is The Point To Small Talk?

Recently, in the middle of typing out a blog post, I had an epiphany. It was about small talk. I’d always known that when people ask you “How’s it going?”, they usually have no interest in how “it’s going” for you. They just want a generic answer from you.

It hadn’t actually occurred to me that any questions beyond “How’s it going?” fell under the same conditions.

I’ve started to wonder if I have Asperger’s syndrome in at least a small degree. Penelope Trunk has been writing about it lately. I’m not “that bad”, but I do tend to have a poor grasp of some social customs. Like, if you ask me how it’s going, I want to actually tell you how it’s going, even if it’s going bad. In my mind, if you didn’t want to hear it, you wouldn’t have asked.

I also wonder if my mom had some form of Asperger’s. She was far worse than me. Either I learned social interaction from her the wrong way, or we both had some form of Asperger’s. Not much I can do about it now.

Back to the point of this post, I have to wonder, what is the point to small talk? If we ask each other how we’re doing but we’re not supposed to care how each other are doing because we’re not really friends, then what’s the point?

Think about it: this could revolutionize church, the workplace, children’s activities, just about anything. I hope I never pull this off, but consider this scenario:

Casual acquaintance: Hey, how’s it going?

Me (or you): Look, you don’t really care how I’m doing, and I don’t really care how you’re doing. You’re just asking me for pointless small talk, not to build a relationship. Let’s just save ourselves the trouble.

That’s kind of ugly. I guess we’re all better off enduring the pointless small talk. But I still wonder what the point is.

Here’s what I’ll do to improve myself: rather than use small talk to run the conversation like I usually do, I will attempt to use each small talk to learn something about the person subjecting me to the pointless small talk.

What about you? Are you willing to either cut out the pointless small talk, or try to redirect it into something productive, like forming real relationships with other people?

So, What Do YOU Think of the iPad?

Today Apple announced the iPad,which has been referred to by fans as the Tablet for a while. I was getting sick of hearing about the Tablet. I was kind of hoping that it would turn out to be a figment of fans’ imaginations.

I watched the Gizmodo liveblog of the event this afternoon at work. I wasn’t interested in the Tablet, but I did want to know if the iPhone will see a software update anytime soon.

The name is cheesy. I saw Jason Dunn mention on Twitter that Apple must be moving into the feminine hygiene market now. I wanted to laugh, but there was too much activity around my cubicle again.

Through most of the event, I just couldn’t find anything to be impressed about. The iPad looks like an oversized iPhone. I already have an iPhone. But when they mentioned iWork, that got me interested. I do like the idea of being able to surf the Internet, check email, update Twitter, look at pictures, read books, and watch movies or listen to music on the go. That’s why I have an iPhone in the first place. I couldn’t make the intellectual leap as to why an iPhone that wouldn’t fit in my pocket would be a good idea.

Until I heard that you can actually work on the thing. I don’t do a lot of presentations. I’m hoping I can start doing some freelance writing soon, and the mobility and battery life are fairly attractive to me. It got me interested, anyway. I still think a MacBook Pro would be better for me.

As a technology blogger, I would be falling asleep at the switch if I didn’t offer a prediction. Here’s my prediction: this will be the last time Apple designs a product just because its fans and critics wouldn’t shut up about building a product.

That or it will be insanely successful and will revolutionize mobile computing.

Or a third option that I lack the imagination to see.

All I can say is I’m not that excited by it yet.

The Most Useless Career Advice

There’s a piece of career advice going around lately that I find useless. It’s comparable to frugality tips like “Just spend less than you make” or health tips like “Just burn more calories than you eat”.

It’s not that the advice isn’t sound in at least a few ways. It’s just that it’s what everybody says. To me, that makes it useless. It doesn’t add anything to the conversation. It sure as heck doesn’t add anything to my career.

The useless advice?

“If you have a job in this economy, just stay in it. You’re lucky to have it.”

Like I said, I hear it from everybody. I know it. Telling me (or anybody else) that piece of advice doesn’t help. I know that having a job, even a bad one, is a good thing in this economy.

Busy Is A Form Of Laziness?

I can't explain why, but the last week I've become obssessed with The Four Hour Work Week. If you haven't read the book, get it. I've listened to the audiobook 3 1/2 times in the last week. I guess I'm hoping something will click and I'll be on my way to not having to work in a cubicle and actually enjoying some time off.

This morning I was listening to the audiobook again while I was working on a requirements traceability matrix. Yeah, the audiobook was far more exciting than the work, but I did it to myself back in November.

While I was listening to the book, I heard something that made me jerk upright. I don't know if this was a qoute that Tim Ferriss wrote in the book himself or quoted somebody else. "Busy is a form of laziness."

We all know somebody who is always too busy to do something that should be important. I just ranted about a few such people last week, including one who's busyness got in the way of a job that should have been easy for me to get into.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Have you ever hidden behind being busy to avoid doing something important? Do you know someone who always seems to be busy but you can't figure out what they're actually doing?

Pareto Analysis

Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle? Pareto was an Italian economist who came up with an analysis stating that 20% of the people held 80% of the wealth.

Since then, the Pareto Principle has been applied in a lot of ways. I commonly hear about it in books and on websites related to lifehacking.

Since being removed from a position in November, I’ve finally reached a point of having to take a long, hard look at my life. Also, last week, I listened to The Four Hour Workweek 2 1/2 times, where I was reminded of the 80/20 principle.

Lately, as I look at my life, I realize that I’ve committed a drastic error. I’ve structured my life so that I’ve been really busy. I’ve had a huge backlog of things to do. But I committed the error in that my quest to be busy has left me doing things that didn’t make me effective.

I’ve reached a point of consuming information for the sake of consuming information. I have to spend a great deal of time each day consuming information. But how much of it is valuable? Very little.

So, I’m going to look at several of my information streams from this way: which 20% gives me 80% of my value? I’ll probably do the same thing with the podcasts I listen to. I’ve already streamlined both of these fire hoses in the past, but not far enough.

I have a rack full of magazines and newsletters that I’m hard pressed to find time to read. Don’t get me started on the eBooks I’ve downloaded.

And so, as I start to streamline my life in 2010, I’m going to trim some fat. I’m going to have to stop following several blogs and information sources, and I’m going to have to stop listening to several podcasts. I also have to decide which aspects of where I spend my time mean the most to me.

What about you? Do you have any excesses in your life that need to be dealt with? Where can you start?

Background Noise “May” Increase Stress Levels

From Lifehacker, and following a link to Scientific American, a study indicates that background noise may increase stress levels in some employees.

Though not definitive, recent research also suggests that noise-induced stress may decrease dopamine availability in the prefrontal cortex, where the hormone controls the flow of information from other parts of the body. Stress resulting from background noise, then, may decrease higher brain function, impairing learning and memory.

I work in a cubicle farm. I hate it. Before I was fired, I worked in the corner cubicle right next to the hall and next to the conference room. There was so much traffic and noise it was a miracle that I got anything done at all. After being removed from that position in November, until today I was sitting in a cubicle with a printer. All day long, that printer would whir up, and people were standing behind me shuffling paper. I’m sure that some people don’t mind and would tell me to quit whining, but it put a lot of stress on me. On days when the printer was being used a lot, I was shaking by the time I went home. Sorry, those of you who love cubicles, I just can’t take having people standing behind me all day. It creeps me out and makes me really uncomfortable.

Finally, a computer came in so I got moved to a cubicle that doesn’t have a printer, but it’s still in a high traffic area, and people can still sneak up behind me. I’m going to have to get a mirror or something. And I’m going to have to start freelancing or get into an industry where professionals can have offices rather than work in noisy cubicle farms.

While I’m whining about cubicles, here’s a good one. Every office has that one butthole who likes to walk around, come up behind you while you’re deep in concentration on a task, and yell out “Hey, wake up over there!” Thanks, butthole, not only did you make me break my concentration, but now I have to worry about everybody thinking I’m sleeping at work. I hate you people. You know who you are.

Don’t Have Time, Eh?

I’ve had times in my life when I was really busy. I can’t say I’ve mastered dealing with being that busy, but I’ve learned a few things. I’ve learned enough about being “too busy” to have little patience with some people  who are “too busy” to do things that should be vital.

In about 2006, a friend of mine had a position open up that he thought I was more than qualified for. It was for a Systems Analyst. He worked for the government, and the position was with a contractor. I already worked for that company anyway, was qualified for the job, and it should have been very simple to get me down there.

Except for one thing…

The program manager in charge of the position was “too busy” to hire somebody, for an open position, that his customer was demanding be filled.  It seems like in that line of work, filling open positions should be a PRIMARY function of the job. I sent him a couple of emails introducing myself, indicating my interest in the position and my qualifications, and emphasizing that I ALREADY WORKED FOR THAT VERY COMPANY. He never replied. I attached a read receipt to one email. It apparently went unread. I wish I knew what this guy was doing.

Alas, Mr. “I have other things to do” did not fill the position with either me or anybody else, and it went to a subcontractor. That was during the one time in the last several years when I could have gotten out of New Jersey easily. Now, there’s no way. I’m stuck here for the time being. My friend told me later that program manager got fired for being a bonehead, but it was too late to get my resume to his replacement. I eventually left that company for my current one.

It’s one thing when you ask somebody to meet you for coffee, but they’re too busy. I can understand that. Too busy actually means “something else is more important to me to spend that period of time on.” But when it comes to work functions, then I get ticked.

“Hey, I sent you an email last week. I cannot move on this project until you answer it.”

“Oh, sorry, I’ve been too busy to check email.”

Right, if you’re too busy to check your work email, then obviously you don’t get notices for pointless meetings, so you should have time to check email. It’s a Catch-22.

Before I got fired, I needed to get an answer out of our vendor for something. I sent him email after email for more than a week, and left a bunch of phone messages, all of which went unanswered. I finally blocked out an entire morning and called him every 15 minutes until he answered the phone and I got my answer, which somebody else was breathing down the back of my neck for.

I’ve been listening to Tim Ferriss’ “The 4 Hour Work Week” over and over and over again on my iPhone. If only I could find a company that read that book and tried to follow its philosophy, rather than the “You’re not working unless you commute here and sit in a stuffy cubicle for 8 hours” philosophy. Think of how much time at work is just plain wasted on minutia and pointless bull that doesn’t even contribute to the bottom line. Much of the normal office workday is about working for the sake of working. You have to be there for 8 hours, so you might as well fill it.

I keep hearing about how Best Buy is testing a program to allow their corporate employees to work wherever and how long it takes to get their work done. If you can do your day’s work in 3 hours at 2 AM, then do it.

I wish I could find a way (without placing my family in financial jeopardy in the process) to get paid for results rather than time. Want more money, then produce more results. Make enough money to be comfortable in less time? Then enjoy the extra time you have.

2010, Goals, and Direction

This will be a quick post, as I have to get somewhere soon. As the new year dawns, it dawns as a year of uncertainty. There may be some serious changes on the horizon. Or not. I don’t know.

As I wrote about before, I was fired from my position in November. Since I’m a contractor, my company kept me on board in the hopes that they’ll have another position to fit me in. They’ve had me helping out on one project. I’m grateful to them for keeping me around. It shows class, and shows a company that values people. Also, I know the recruiting and hiring can be expensive. I have skills that might be useful to my company in another position. But, if another project doesn’t come up, I’ve got the life of the project I’m on. No telling how long that will be.

Why did I get fired? I screwed up. The best thing I can do is take responsibility for it. There are always at least two sides to every story, but as the side that was dismissed, I can only assume I was in the wrong. I committed to a deadline that turned out not to be reasonable. When asked about progress, I replied “Oh, everything’s fine. No problems.” I didn’t ask for help. Help was available, but everybody portrays themselves as being too busy to breath, so I was afraid to take away from anybody’s busy schedule to ask for help. When the deadline loomed, I kept up the “It’s fine” facade, secretly hoping that “one more week” would give me the time I needed to get it together.

A deadline that seemed reasonable 4 months earlier suddenly became impossible. Equipment that wasn’t delivered on time and documentation that was either nonexistent or incomplete combined with my lack of imagination set me further behind schedule. Then there were other job responsibilities to be attended to. So, I blew it.

Then, to make matters worse, I got ticked off and cc’ed the wrong person on an email where my frustration was on full display. That’s only happened once, but it was the wrong once. I think that’s what ultimately did it, but I was probably on the way out by then anyway.

So where to from here? I don’t know. I’m hoping that my company comes up with other work that I can do. If not, I guess I need to see what else is out there.

After 5 years of blogging, it’s apparent that nobody is going to pay me to blog here. So I’m considering something else. I’m considering changing the focus of my blog to building my brand. That’s about what I’ve been doing, but I need a better focus. Whatever I end up doing next, I’d like to find a way to point people to my blog as an example of why I’m an expert in something.

I’m just not sure what that something should be right now.

Happy New Year From Google

I was happy to check Google Reader today and find my wish list fulfilled. Now only does Google Reader show up on the iPhone more like on the desktop, but posts now show up from oldest to newest, rather than from newest to oldest. Thank you, Google.

If you're looking for an easy way to keep up with blogs, like mine, I highly recommend Google Reader. I've been using it for years.

For Such A Time As This

I had a thought recently. I was listening to one of the many podcasts I try to cram into a week. One of the guests claimed that he really should have lived during the American Revolution.

I can’t say, at least since my teen years, that I’ve ever thought I belonged somewhere else. At one point, probably because of a cheesy movie I rented one summer vacation before I had my driver’s license, that I might have enjoyed living in the 1950’s.

Not so anymore. I don’t claim any Biblical, like, Ester type prophesy about being born “for such a time as this”, but I definitely feel like I’m living in the correct era. Sure, we face all kinds of financial and political challenges that are, frankly, terrifying. But as an engineer and a computer geek, and as an amateur historian and philosopher, I think I’m living in the right time.

How ‘bout you? Do you belong in 2010? Or do you wish (or “feel like”) you should have lived in another time? Which time was it?

Excuse Me… Or Not

So, I’m up in my computer room with both of my boys. I burp. I hear Joshua say something like “Excuse you, Daddy”. Later on, I burp again, and hear the same thing.

It occurred to me that maybe this is the appropriate time to teach him about guy stuff. Oh, come on, you can’t tell me that you haven’t had at least one guy friend that, when you burped, tried to top it. It doesn’t matter how civilized you might be, we’ve all had a few friends that we were comfortable, not only in displaying our bodily functions in front of, but in trying to top them.