Moisms

How Will You Measure You Life?

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:36:00 -0400

These bits of excerpts were very inspiring:
http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/1

But instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.

If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you’ll find this predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification. If you look at personal lives through that lens, you’ll see the same stunning and sobering pattern: people allocating fewer and fewer resources to the things they would have once said mattered most.

One of the theories that gives great insight on the first question—how to be sure we find happiness in our careers—is from Frederick Herzberg, who asserts that the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements.

I asked all the students to describe the most humble person they knew. One characteristic of these humble people stood out: They had a high level of self-esteem. They knew who they were, and they felt good about who they were. We also decided that humility was defined not by self-deprecating behavior or attitudes but by the esteem with which you regard others. Good behavior flows naturally from that kind of humility. For example, you would never steal from someone, because you respect that person too much. You’d never lie to someone, either.

"One should not fear the unknown because it’s an unknown."

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:27:14 -0400

“One should not fear the unknown because it’s an unknown.”

- Mo

"Formerly, the fewest men wrote books that were most valuable. Now anybody writes and prints..."

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:21:07 -0400

“Formerly, the fewest men wrote books that were most valuable. Now anybody writes and prints anything he likes and poison people’s minds… Formerly, when people wanted to fight with one another, they measured between them their bodily strength; now it is possible to take away thousands of lives… Formerly, men worked in the open air only so much as they liked. Now thousands of workmen meet together and work in factories or mines. Their condition is worst that that of beasts. They are obliged to work, at the risk of their lives, at most dangerous occupations, for the sake of millionaires. Formerly, men were made slaves under physical compulsion, now they are enslaved by the temptation of money and of the luxuries that money can buy… What more need I say? All this you can ascertain… This civilization takes note neither of morality nor of religion… Civilization seeks to increase bodily comforts and it fails miserably even in doing so.”

- The Essential Gandhi

"No man knows himself or can describe himself with fidelity. But he can reveal himself. This is..."

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:49:38 -0400

“No man knows himself or can describe himself with fidelity. But he can reveal himself. This is especially true of Gandhi. He believed in revealing himself. He regarded secrecy as the enemy of freedom — not only the freedom of India but the freedom of man. He exposed even the innermost personal thoughts which individuals usually regard as private. In nearly a half-century of prolific writing, speaking, and subjecting his ideas to the test of actions, he painted a detailed self-portrait of his mind, heart, and soul.”

- Louis Fischer (taken from The Essential Gandhi)

"Listen to your heart, use your head, and don’t underestimate the power of passion!"

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:26:37 -0400

“Listen to your heart, use your head, and don’t underestimate the power of passion!”

- My Wife

An amazing video by Hans Rosling, great use of analog teaching...

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:07:21 -0400

An amazing video by Hans Rosling, great use of analog teaching techniques.

"Everyday should be the first day of the rest of your life."

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:07:17 -0400

“Everyday should be the first day of the rest of your life.”

- Mo

"Civilization is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span. The trend might be..."

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:04:39 -0400

“Civilization is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span. The trend might be coming from the acceleration of technology, the short-horizon perspective of market-driven economics, the next election perspective of democracies, or the distractions of personal multitasking. All are on the increase. Some sort of balancing corrective to the short-sightedness is needed — some mechanism or myth that encourages the long view and the taking of long-term responsibility, where “the long term” is measured at least in centuries.”

- The Clock of the Long Now

"I’m a very premium person to be with."

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:30:46 -0400

“I’m a very premium person to be with.”

- Jonathan Safran Foer in Everything is Illuminated

"Our job, as designers, is to ask, listen, and suggest solutions. The clients’ job is to..."

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:49:49 -0400

“

Our job, as designers, is to ask, listen, and suggest solutions. The clients’ job is to articulate needs, preferences, and desires. Together we test schemes and hypothesis to see whether they work for both parties. Conversations range widely, because design combines styles, personal expression, technology, cognition, aesthetics, functionality, and the satisfaction of human needs.

Each of us is a designer. Each of us makes countless design decisions every day — what to wear, how to do our hair, which ear to pierce and where to put the tattoo, how to arrange the dishes in the dishwasher, where to hang the picture on the wall, how to load the trunk of the car. Each design decision affects us. The ultimate result of a good design process is a well-mixed blend, a combined expression of clients and designers. To be good at being a client requires being good at communicating how you feel in a house or a landscape. To be good at being a designer requires good listening and asking skills and having the good luck to see our way to good solutions. When the process works well, it’s hard to look back and say what parts and which ideas came from whom. At the heart of the design process is trust — trust that a good solution will emerge from the collaboration, if given sufficient time and space.

”

- John Abrams in Companies We Keep

"As in any successful organization, we try to find the right people, inspire them, and trust them to..."

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:09:08 -0400

“As in any successful organization, we try to find the right people, inspire them, and trust them to do a great job. It can be difficult and frightening to let go, but the rewards are always greater than the risks. When we empower others, we build capacity that did not previously exist. For me the hardest part to learn has been that such empowerment must carry with it the understanding that they will do things their way, not my way, and to learn that this is okay, because there is always a collection of successful ways to do any one thing, not just one way. And the greatest reward is seeing that sometimes, when people do things their way, it turns out to be a better way, which is good for me, good for them, and most important, good for the company. Sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s disappointing. But it’s not the end of the world.”

- by John Abrams in Companies We Keep: Employee Ownership and the Business of Community and Place

"Secrets corrupt cultures. Secrets cause backstabbing and power plays. They signify disrespect. ..."

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 08:46:37 -0400

“Secrets corrupt cultures. Secrets cause backstabbing and power plays. They signify disrespect. Secrets can’t survive in an environment of total openness. It cuts off their air.”

- From Bill Witherspoon of The Sky Factory, in the June 2010 Inc’s article The Art of Work.

Design Thinking

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:44:33 -0400

From this article on Smashing Magazine:

Good design is the result of great thinking, as well as great ingredients.

I like to think, a lot. Does that mean I’m more adapt at designing? I do agree with the fact that you can’t design without thinking. Thinking about the audience, thinking about the message, thinking about the delivery, thinking about how it all comes together…

"Dependence actually looks like successful influence…at first. A large part of the population..."

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:32:01 -0400

“

Dependence actually looks like successful influence…at first. A large part of the population prefers not to think for themselves. Any person who tells a moving “I have the answer” story can usually build up a decent contingent of followers. But is that what you really want? Followers? In a hierarchical system and a predictable world the answer may be yes. However, in the real world, dependence on a “hero-leader” is disastrous. If you speak to a roomful of 400 people you want to inspire 400 creative ideas moving in the same direction, not 400 people asking “what do I do next?” Your stories will either focus your listeners on how smart you are or how smart they are.

A friend of mine who is a successful author, speaker, and seminar leader complains about how “people insist upon using the guru label with me.” Since influence requires good timing, I let it go. But I wanted to say, “Honey, if they are leaning too hard on your, you are probably inviting in in some way.” Anyone with a little charisma and a good story can encourage those susceptible to it to abdicate thinking. I see people fawning all over guru-types, in business, religion, politics, and the arts. And I watch the gurus preening themselves. Guruitis is very seductive. The danger of develping a cult of followers is that your success risks excluding the “thinking” public.

”

- From The Story Factor by Annette Simmons

Explain What it Means

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:08:01 -0400

From The Story Factor by Annette Simons:

In his book Culture Jam, Kalle Lasn says, “The most powerful narcotic in the world is the promise of belonging.” To that I would add, the promise of being “known” — not understood, not necessarily even valued — but simply to be acknowledged and seen. In our technological economy, human attention is the emerging scarce resource. People need it, crave it, and will pay for it with their cooperation. In today’s world almost anyone you want to influence is operating under a deficit of human attention. They are not getting enough time or attention from the people who are important to them or the people that they love. They have enough information. They have all the facts and statistics they could ever want. In fact, they are drowning in information. Depression is at epidemic levels because all of this information simply leaves us feeling incompetent and lost. We don’t need more information. We need to know what it means. We need a story that explains what it means and makes us feel like we fit in there somewhere.

When you tell a story that touches me, you give me the gift of human attention — they kind that connects me to you, that touches my heart and makes me feel more alive. Even a simple blueberry crisp story that helps you sell me a microwave makes me feel more alive than a bunch of “product features” because it is closer to a genuine human experience. We crave something that is real or at least feels real.

The revival of storytelling over the last few years is no fad. It is a demonstrable artifact of a profound cultural shift in our society. Becoming a better storyteller is not hopping on some psycho-babble bandwagon. To find you story is to join in a worldwide search for authenticity and those things that are truly important — a search for meaning. The more influential your stories become, the deeper they tap into that which is meaningful.

Tell Your Soul

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:37:26 -0500

From The Story Factor by Annette Simmons:

You will find that your best stories will be about things that happened to you. All choices are ultimately personal choices and if you want to influence people’s choices you will find that the most powerful form of influence is always personal. Don’t buy the BS that your issue “isn’t personal.” If it is important, it is personal. You don’t have to amputate part of your soul to be influential. In fact, your soul tells the most moving story of all. Go tell your story, the world needs it.

I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:58:22 -0500

I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.

Jamie Oliver 2010 TED

Volvo Chasing

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:06:34 -0500

A quote from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller:

If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn’t tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record on to think about the story you’d seen. The truth is, you wouldn’t remember that movie a week later, except you’d fee robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.

But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to feel meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either.

The question I want to ask myself is, is there some sort of Volvo I’m chasing? Maybe the Volvo is a metaphor that represents any meaningless objects that we feed we need so badly in our lives. If that’s the case, then am I wasting aways years of my life chasing after meaningless things and objects?

Rather than chasing after my own objects of Volvo, and living boring and shallow lives. How can I actually live a life that’s meaningful? A life that’s worthy to be told repeatedly as a story?

That’s it right there. How do I lead a life that’s worthy to be told repeatedly as a story? Maybe the first thing I should ask myself when I wake up is: “How can I create meaning today?”

10 Usability Heuristics

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:01:59 -0500

Rehashing the 10 heuristics guidelines for whatever that “something” that you’ll be building for other to use.

Visibility of system status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

Match between system and the real world: The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

User control and freedom: Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.

Consistency and standards: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.

Error prevention: Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.

Recognition rather than recall: Minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

Flexibility and efficiency of use: Accelerators — unseen by the novice user — may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.

Aesthetic and minimalist design: Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

Help and documentation: Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

Purge to free yourself

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:49:00 -0500

Purge to free yourself:

“More and more I heard the words: ‘Stop what you are doing now – all this luxury and consumerism – and start your real life’,” he said. “I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need.