Facebook is a time-thief, right? Wrong. First of all, I want to say that if you want to check out Facebook, you should check out Facebook. But if Facebook’s purpose in your life is to serve as a distraction from your work, your purpose and your life, then you must learn to regain control. Overcome mere distraction. Stimulus without productivity – drug of the masses. Sometimes, solving this type of problem takes little more than …
Frictionless Blogging
I just came across a cool concept called frictionless blogging. Its about overcoming procrastination by just publishing up whatever skeleton-version of whatever work you’ve done, before working though any picky edits – or generally giving any chance for procrastination to arise. Once published, the knowledge that your content is now public – putting you at risk of looking like a real bozo for having published something so scrappy – apparently forces urgency, helping you overcome procrastination and get it …
My Vipassana Experience
Note: This post follows on from The Essence of Vipassana Vipassana’s Bizarre World of Dream-like Fancy Part way through my 10 day course in Vipassana meditation, I stepped out of my bedroom door and into world much more fanciful than anything in the dreams of my afternoon slumber. Outside, some of the roughly 25 men with whom I shared a residential annex independently and silently trolled about on afternoon walks. This period of our existance, …
The Essence of Vipassana
Its two months since I completed my first 10 day Vipassana meditation course. I first tried writing about it a month ago. I wrote a lot but didn’t get anywhere. The problem is that Vipassana is one of those things which can seem both terribly simple and awfully complex. Unfortunately, in trying to get my head around what I’d experienced during those 10 days, I burned myself up in the complexity. Whenever I tried to …
A Nightmare Tramp in the Tararuas
I didn’t expect to venture far into the Tararuas, so set out minimally prepared from Otaki Forks. A daypack with a cotton jersey, a windbreaker, a water bottle and my camera. No chocolate, no lollies, and not a shred of common sense. The plan was to make my way up to treeline. I got to Field Hut, which is just below treeline, in just under two hours. I gawked around inside the hut for a …
The Chinese Collectivism Myth
China is widely regarded as being a very collectivist society, often contrasted with western societies that are considered to be much more individualistic. This I consider to be a fallacy of spectacular proportions, and based on a very superficial understanding of the country. Just as Christopher Columbus visited the Americas and thought himself in have arrived in India, I speculate that some early anthropologist intending to visit China turned up in Japan or Korea, thought …
Restful Sleep
Sleeping pills are such an abomination that I’m surprised they’re in such widespread use. In my view, their efficacy is marred by the fact that what they are designed to do is completely wrong. Usually, when we can’t sleep, its not because our bodies don’t feel tired, it’s more often because our minds don’t feel tired, and dart from idea to idea, or from worry to worry. It’s the mind’s enthusiasm that undermines what we …
Creating a Muse: Step 1
The first step of building my muse? Working out what to sell. This can be a product or a service. Selling a service is usually a less scalable proposition, so I choose product. I then have a choice between physical and intangible products. As an inexperienced marketer, I feel I’d rather be in the business of selling physical products, as I believe the marketing process is simpler. That’s because in general, the benefits of physical …
Creating a Muse
Two years ago, I read the 4-Hour Workweek, and it motivated me to make an attempt at an online business. Unfortunately, I didn’t strike it rich or create some fabulous passive income. Instead, the result has been the type of failure that one self-justifies on reflection as a ‘learning experience.’ And its true that I’ve learnt a lot since my first attempt at a ‘muse’ (4-Hour Workweek terminology for a low-maintainence source of income). Recently, …
Numero Uno: The Lean Startup
So I finally went to the effort of getting a copy of Lean Startup. Its difficult to know what to expect with this type of book. Especially those written by web-type entrepreneurs who are skilled in the art of manufacturing positive feedback on the likes of Amazon. But so far so good. Having spent the last six months chipping away at the self-drive-holidays-for-Chinese business concept, many of Eric Ries’ observations on his own experience with …