Up There

UP THERE from Jon on Vimeo.

Take away

• Don't be afraid to start from the bottom
• Be in it for the long haul

Why shouldn't it be hard work?

Talk by Seth Godin

Points to take away: (and gracias to the person who did the transcript)

• There is no competence shortage. And if all you have is competence to offer, why on earth will we pay you extra?
• when you get to work, pretty much the only skill you use that you learned at school is compliance [M: decent schools teach how to learn, how to think and how to question under all the trigonometry & stuff you probably never use again. If all you want from life is 'do a job', you may never use these, otherwise I disagree with this point]
• there are some people if you give them a mile, they’re going to take an inch. If you give people this opportunity to do that art, to make that change happen, to have an impact, they’ll figure out how to minimize it
• once you decide to break rules, then you can make intelligent choices about which rules to break. But if you’ve made the decision that your job is to follow rules, you don’t get to have the choice
• if you win the race to the bottom, that’s where you’re stuck. Whereas if you race to the top, you might now win but it’s okay because you’re getting closer all the time
• If we can shift the fear to the fear of not doing art, to the fear of not standing up to the fear of not running to the top, then guess what – the lizard becomes your friend.
• We’re talking about winning one of the biggest games ever. We’re talking about having you impact on whatever universe you live in ... Why shouldn’t that be hard?

What motivates people?

Via http://sciblogs.co.nz/code-for-life/2010/05/18/career-motivations-video/

x-posted

How do you move a mountain?

One rock at a time.

But as this Web Worker Daily post notes, moving the rocks is easier than figuring out what rocks you want to move in the first place.

Once you actually step up and move that first rock, moving the next one is really easy. In fact it can be hard to stop. On a domestic scale I experience this in spring-cleaning and gardening frenzies.

It's often said the hardest thing to do is start. Chris Guillebeau mentioned that today

The reasons we fail to begin are frequently cited as: time, money, or something else external. The reasons we actually fail to begin are often: fear, inertia, or something else internal. It’s socially acceptable to blame our indecisiveness on a lack of resources. Everyone understands when you say you’re waiting for a change in situation before beginning. But in fact, it’s relatively easy to deal with the lack of resources. What’s harder is taking the first, critical steps toward overcoming the internal obstacles.

Starting is hard. Deciding what to start is harder. Doing is easy.

x-posted

What are you doing? - Gabrielle Bouliane

It's cancer again. People with definitively limited time have such a focus. I don't think I'd trade though.

RIP, thanks.

Something happier next time, I promise.

The book The Last Lecture

Last night I settled down and made my way through the very easy ~200 pages. If you've seen both Randy's lectures then the book is really supplementary material - an alternative version containing basically the same information presented in a different medium, one which allowed more than the hour provided for the lecture.

I do believe it is best to watch the video first.

At the end of course there is a website - something I ought to have looked up earlier. thelastlecture.com contains bonus material, the full list of acknowledgements, and links to more video than I have collected here including the 10-minute version of the Last Lecture on Oprah.

One thing I especially liked about the book itself - I have the hardcover - is the way textures are done on the dustjacket. The cord itself is embossed to be slightly raised and the photo 'clipped' to the back is slightly raised and has a much smoother surface than the rest of the cover, making just holding the book a unusally tactile experience.

Two new points I took away from the book:

• Engineering (life) isn't about perfect solutions, it's about doing the best you can with limited resources.
• Time is like money, you get the most out of when it is explicitly managed.

Randy Paush on time management

The last* in the series, from Randy, a later lecture given at the University of Virginia. The irony of how long it has taken me to get around to this is not lost.

Randy takes a little while to actually get into the talk. After that it's pretty solid. There's likely not a lot you haven't heard before, but it's nicely collected in one place and presented with his usual panache.

*I purchased the book of The Last Lecture today. I'll probably post a review.

Points to take away

• Do the important, not urgent stuff before the not important, urgent stuff. That stops it becoming important, urgent stuff, which is where the stress comes in.
• Be prepared to change your plans, it's OK, but you can't change your plan if you didn't have one to start with.
• Delegate, including to technology. You don't need to waste brainpower remembering where you need to be next Thursday, your calendar can do that.
• Time is all we really have, and you never know how much you have left so make it count. You can never get it back.

Nearly there...

Remembering Dr Randy Paush - a memorial service. Worth watching just to contrast Don Martinelli with the string of computer scientists.

Point to take away:

• You can do more than you think.

What Teachers Make

Slight divergence because I'm having trouble finding the hour & 1/2 to watch the next video (Randy Pausch's lecture on time management beckons).

Not thematically unrelated though. Via Seth Godin, this time.

More from Randy Pausch

After a while trawling youtube I think this will be a 4 or 5 part series. In this post I wrap up some of the interviews from after he became a celebrity. I've just linked to most of them, but one or two are embedded. Links will open in new windows.

For more, just search youtube.

Diane Sawyer interview with Randy Pausch part 1:

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

 

Good Morning America, May 19, 2008

Interviewed by TIME

 

Addressing Congress:

Achieving your childhood dreams

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

Points to take away:

• "Brick Walls" are there to stop the people who don't want something enough - other people
• helping other people achieve their dreams can be just as rewarding as achieving your own

There are a lot of related videos on Youtube - interviews, follow ups and other recorded lectures presented by Randy, and I'll be working through those over the next little while.

Douglas Adams on Lemurs, the mating habits of the Kakapo,

Douglas Adams on Lemurs, the mating habits of the Kakapo, sundry other critters and our place in the world. Filmed in 2001 at the University of California

via http://www.ted.com/talks/douglas_adams_parrots_the_universe_and_everything.html

Point to take away:

• Just because we seem to fit into the world so well, doesn't mean it was made for us

We spend all our lives learning to be unhappy

Starting with the presentation which sparked the inspiration for this series, via the Chief Happiness Officer's blog - Dr. Srikumar S. Rao's presentation on finding happiness.

Points to take away

• the if - then mental model is broken
• invest in the process, not the outcome
• choose the journey you are on