can you say: it's my fault? 2007-2-19 (73 words)

Joel Spolsky, Seven steps to remarkable customer service:

"Pretend you’re a puppeteer. The customer is yelling at the puppet. They’re not yelling at you. They’re angry with the puppet."

Genius and cognitive dissonance 2006-2-23 (341 words)

I've been working a lot with the ideas in Dick Richard's "Is Your Genius At Work". Just today something dawned on me. It explains why sometimes we are at a loss to explain the reactions we get.

the tenth purpose 2008-12-15 (173 words)

Questions asked:...

what we can't have 2007-11-22 (123 words)

What we (currently) can't have is often what we want the most. For example, I ran out of Coke, and for several reasons there's no way I will be getting any resupply soon. So now I sit here, feeling a bit low and trying to get into the groove.. and I think "a coke would boost me nicely now!" Yeah, right. Funny thing be, I know from long experience that it would not. It tends to make me tired and itchy mostly (sugar). I do get a buzz from enough of it, but it's not one that is conductive to concentrated work. And truth be told, when I have some around, I never seem to get this feeling od "if onl I had."

little things we like but don't need 2008-8-28 (231 words)

More musings and observations... A friend recently got a nice cigarette lighter by filling out a promational questionaire in a mall. On our way home in the car this lighter ended up in my hands, and I toyed around with it. It was a very solid feeling thing, one of those objects that just feel good and solid to play around with. In that car, I wanted one of these too. Not being a smoker, I had no reason to ask my friend if I could have this one, or if I could take one of those questionaires myself to get one... So here I was, wanting an object I had really no use for. In the end I just gave up this little gem that was not to be mine and handed it back to my friend - who had a real use for it anyway....

you can be what you want to be 2007-12-24 (335 words)

An often claimed allure of virtual worlds like Second Life is the "ability to be what pne choses." And on surface level I might agree to that. It is a promise the virtual world has for us. In my actual experience I see something else happen. It's something I've seen in many years of RPGing too (RolePlaying Games - both pen and paper based and live action)

because they don't exist, they cannot fail 2006-2-16 (104 words)

What Mark writes about his unfinished novels is so true about all the things "we want to do". "{B}ecause they are pure, sweet potential, they cannot be sullied by snarky comments from would-be critics. They cannot languish, unloved, in a pile of remaindered titles at Books-a-Million. In other words, because they don't exist, they cannot fail."

dreaming while awake 2005-10-20 (486 words)

A human being dreams about every 90 minutes during sleep. If those dream (REM) phases are disrupted, the human becomes ill very soon. But what happens during the day?

Are you going to do this anyway? 2006-9-29 (279 words)

We all have had the search for support. an new idea, a cool project. Something we'd like - or even need - help with. But sometimes it's not that easy to get people to help, to support. Even if the idea is very good. and it would vastly benefit them! what is it that makes people want to support one persona and not so much another?

hopelessly happy 2007-12-26 (297 words)

Hope is a major element of many belief systems. "To live in hope" is seen as something to aspire to, akin to "positive thinking." You may have guessed, I disagree, let me explain why.

the strata of intention 2007-4-14 (211 words)

"I intended to do XY" - that is what one might say. But is it what one actually intended? Maybe one actually believes it is... there is at least one layer of intention beneath that. Sometimes it is very insightful to dig beneath the surface intention behind vertain actions. If we take the unconscious mind into account, there are intentions we have that we might not even realize. What was the real reason for action XY? ...

info overload 2006-9-24 (18 words)

"But information overload isn't the problem. If it was, you'd walk into a library and die." - David Allen

intelligent praise 2006-12-2 (234 words)

I noticed I have a strange thing with praise. I like being praised, everyone does. Only my reaction if quite often "Yeah, right"... Maybe that's a sign of lacking self worth, not really believing I am any good at what I do. Then I dug deeper:...

(10+2)*5 2005-10-21 (112 words)

43 Folders has a nice procrastination hack: “(10+2)*5”. This might be a good start for my "use the time better" thingie.

fire and earth 2004-10-29 (1049 words)

My action need to follow my passion. I can't forcibly instill passion into my actions....

the problem with logic and arguments 2005-10-16 (121 words)

There are people that make very logical arguments in discussions and appear by all means to be logical persons - but with who you simply can't argue. Why is that?

good tools need skill 2006-1-1 (115 words)

The hi-res user experience: "[Learning] music changes music. Learning about wine changes wine. Learning about Buddhism changes Buddhism. And learning Excel changes Excel. If we want passionate users, we might not have to change our products--we have to change how our users experience them. And that change does not necessarily come from product design, development, and especially marketing. It comes from helping users learn."

Everyone is a rockstar in the making 2006-1-26 (88 words)

Vlad Spears on being an artist (or not): "[An] artist is only different from a non-artist in one way... the non-artist has not yet realized their own areas of artistry." Tell you what: in my personal opinion I can not draw. But that has never stopped me from doing it. I have always felt that is was by far more the urge that made an artist than the pure skill. Skill is important, it helps express an urge. But without urge skill is an empty thing.

Incremental Reading 2006-2-4 (236 words)

Here's a very interesting article describing a process for better learning of a large volume of material: 'SuperMemo: Incremental reading" The article relates to a Windows software called SuperMemo, but I find the basic priciples described appliable even without the software. I think this is a very fascinating process of learning:

Euphoria at 0.9Hz 2006-3-31 (646 words)

What might read like a weird title for a new track... might actually be that. But right here I just want to write about a cool little tool I found that creates binaureal tones. These are commonly used for brainwave entrainment. The theory is that if the brain is stimulated with a certain frequency (via sensory input, here audio), it will "entrain" or synchronize with those freqencies. As research has shown, certain states of consciousness (alertness, relaxation, deep sleep etc) have a typical dominant brainwave frequency. As these frequencies are in a range below audible sound (40Hz-0.5Hz), an amplitude modulation of a higher tone is used to create the stimulus....

A Muse In My Genius 2006-4-14 (332 words)

Ok, now he's cracked. Totally. Martin's been weird from time to time... but this? Whatever. Don't like it, don't read it. Allow me my part of weirdom. Heh :)

getting rid of small annoyances 2005-3-20 (190 words)

...can have dramatic effects on productivity......

facts and opinions 2006-12-17 (51 words)

In fact the interesting thing is that the really uninformed people often have no clue whatsoever what you are talking about, but they will have formed an instant opinion based on something they were reminded of when you spoke! (About which they also know next to nothing.)

questioning 2007-4-19 (138 words)

Dick Richards: Seven Reminders About Writing A Book

There are a lot of questions in even the shortest of sentences. If I remember to ask myself questions like that about every sentence, and then answer those that seem relevant and interesting, I have a book.

Dragon Zen 2007-7-8 (348 words)

Virtual worlds have one teaching aspect that I particularly notice. There is a certain disconnect between what we intend to do and what, and esp. when, it actually happens in the virtual world. Hardware and bandwidth limitations can make this lag quite noticeable and often frustrating. What is special to me about this effect is the fact that it's what I have learned to deal with all my life. Living as a visual person with a visual handicap has me in that exact situation most of the time. It taught me to step back a bit. To observe first and act second. To be patient. ...

Making complex things simple 2007-7-8 (512 words)

Here is some thoughts about another base tendency I have. I tend to reduce complexity to base elements. Filtering out the core message from complicated texts, finding good rules of thumb, all those have been typical of me when faced with a new topic. Maybe it's the way I can grasp a new field so quickly. Absorbing all available information, but always filtering out the core important aspects. Many people who get into a new field try to learn everything and all there is to know.... and soon get bogged down or overwhelmed by details. Rading everything there is to read about a subject is something I do too, but I give myself permission to forget the nittygritty details. It's an engeneering virtue my brother once told me about apparently: "You don't need to know everything. You need to know where to look it up."

re-connecting with my net 2006-10-3 (131 words)

This seems strange from a certain point of view. I just came home from a week of presentations, solicalizing, meatspace networking and conferencing. And here I am, re-connecting with my social network. All the while I am actually sitting all by myself in my appartment. It became very obvious to me that large parts of my social network are actually "virtual" for most of the time. Some of my closest contacts actually connect to me via IM or email. And even in the case of my wife and children, who I see regularly in realspace, I was reconncecting via Skype. And no, I don't need to go get myself a life. I have one very much thank you. Only it has choosen to express itself through other than traditional channels.

fear, panic, thresholds 2008-8-31 (898 words)

aMusing my genius: "Going back into the dark realms of my early memories as a little kid, much of the world seemed a deeply scary place to me."...

your body already knows the truth 2006-9-24 (296 words)

To find our real intention, wants, to make our best decisions, we usually trly heavily on our rationale. We do not trust our gut feeling as it is hard to define and grasp. It's a gut feeling after all.

seeking the truth - the one we like that is 2008-6-2 (96 words)

Many people "seek the truth," and very often others (outsiders, onlookers) will think that the truth the person is seeking... is staring them right in the eye. It often seems so obvious......

to whinge, or to observe small anoyances 2008-3-1 (250 words)

Know thyself - is a key message and skill on living a better personal life. Some time ago I started to pay far more attention to what Arnold Mindell calls 'flirts' abd 'bleeps' (Dreaming While Awake)... small notions and yet-unformed moods. The idea is that you recognize a mood change before it adversly affects you and your surrounding, by observinge the small things. To do so obviously also brings an awareness of small anoyances, and with it the urge to communicate them. Here's where things get tricky: not many people are prepared or expect you to openly state and want to discuss things like "The noise in this room makes listening to you hard" or "I feel stressed by talking about this topic over the phone."...

prose: When Depression Lifts 2008-1-5 (113 words)

Gone is the Pain, gone the Wallowing....

Arguments of the Mind 2006-2-2 (154 words)

Debbie Call talks about "Mindfrick" in her post entitled "Mind - Saboteur or Supporter?" What I found most interesting about this post is the way it demonstrates something I have said some time ago: logic (mind) is very often little more than a tool of emotion. And not a oposite of emotion.

leading from the inside out 2006-10-16 (243 words)

"If you have a vision, what do you really want the most? The vision to happen, or you to get credit for the idea?" That was part of a conversation I had way back in April at the 'GAME OF NOW" in Amsterdam. I was trying to describe my approach to ideas and ego. Trying to explain something that had happened to me time and time again: I would pitch an idea to team mates or superiors, with usually little impact. But six months later the same people would come along and say: "Listen to this idea I just had..." - You guessed, it was the very idea I had introduced some time ago. Obviously I had some ego-related reactions to this at first. But then the above question somehow popped into my mind. ...

witholding distressing truths may render change impossible 2006-7-18 (106 words)

Dick Richards has a short post about what makes - or hinders change.

listen to your voice 2006-2-15 (326 words)

Do you have a voice? Sure you do. But do you know how it sounds? Really know?

no instruction manual 2005-10-19 (25 words)

Just a quick link: Steve Pavlina has a very good post about Manifesting Intentions. I also very much like his metaphor of "no instruction manual"...

[magic happens (here)] 2005-2-12 (191 words)

the real trick is... 2005-3-4 (168 words)

... running really fast :) Curt Rosengren has a nice post about using MindMapping to deal with 'energy leak'.

How well do you know the back of your hand? 2006-10-5 (4 words)

Well, really. Do you?

What light you shed on it 2005-5-28 (269 words)

'All Marketers are Liars' says Seth Godin. As he states himself he does not intend to mean the tell the un-truth, but that they all - we all - tell stories to sell.