Dream small to win big!
First, to give credit where credit's due, this idea behind this post is my sister's. Many people struggle with (day)dreaming and lack of motivation (procrastination). As you probably know, we dream between 6 and 9 hours every day. What you might have not known is that we spend about 47% of our waking ours daydreaming - imagining our self appearing in some fantasy scenario, having skills, strengths or lifestyle that is in our opinion very hard or impossible to achieve (side note: our dreams tend to repeat themselves; we usually daydream about the same few topics e.g. achieving extraordinary success in business/ sports, having a perfect partner etc.). The question is, why do we turn some dreams into goals [...]
Few thoughts about work
Just because you can do something well, it doesn't mean you should (the difference between efficiency vs. effectiveness!). Doing something long doesn't make it important. Doing something long doesn't make you an expert. Number of different iterations does.
Thinking in bets
Some short takeaways from the book Thinking in bets by Annie Duke: Would your belief in something stand up to the question, “Wanna bet?” If you had to gamble significant money on that belief, would you still feel 100% about it? Or maybe more honestly 60%? When a decision doesn’t work out, don't treat that result as if it were an inevitable consequence rather than a probabilistic one. Don't focus only on the poor outcome. A great decision is the result of a good process - not that it has a great outcome.
Self-made
Though I sometimes like to think I am self-made, the truth is, I would have never made it this far without these individuals: Parents (obviously): They never doubted in my abilities and always compared me to the best in the field. They demanded the highest levels of work ethic and persistence. Though we were well off, I have yet to meet a person that was brought up in more frugal conditions. Positive impact: I developed self-confidence, frugality, persistence, hard work. Jan Podbevšek: we were schoolmates in high school. We hit it off even better once I started working and started thinking about the deeper questions. As a philosophy graduate he's well read and open to experimentation. Positive impact: I [...]
You manipulator!
I was talking to a friend, explaining how I was persuading a person to do something that will be in my interest. My friend replied: So you manipulated that person? At the time I didn't know how to reply. I knew that didn't have the slightest feeling of doing something wrong when I was trying to persuade the other person. Still, I was somehow uneasy with the possibility that I was manipulating a person. Yesterday I listened to a great podcast by Seth Godin in which he nicely explained that manipulation is only a subcategory of persuasion (marketing). Persuasion is only manipulation when the addressed person wouldn't have made the decision would he know the same facts that you do. [...]
What is good? What is bad?
Chinese proverb: Once upon a time, there was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically, “you must be so sad.” “We’ll see,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it two other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed! “Not only did your horse return, but you received two more. What great fortune you have!” “We’ll see,” answered the farmer. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “Now your son cannot help you with your [...]
