Cold Tea

Every now and then I make a cup of tea or coffee and then forget about it because I am doing something else. An hour or two later I see the cold cup sitting there looking forlorn. I wanted the drink which was why I made it. I just got distracted. I think that happens often. There is too much going on for us to remember all the things we want to do. We forget the things that matter to us. Sometimes we need a nudge. 

Books on accepting a little help
'Nudge' & 'The Checklist Manifesto'

There are two books I have been told are base reading for trying to understand the political conflict we find ourselves trying to get out of. 'Anarchy, State and Utopia' by Robert Nozick and 'A Theory of Justice' by John Rawls. It gets quite philosophical and I am not sure there is a right answer of how we can best get along. I have started with Nozick's book. Beyond knowing what the right thing to do is, politics seems to boil down to two questions.

1. What should you be able to force someone to do for their own good? (Paternalism)

2. What should you be able to force people to do for other people's good?

The world is too complex for us to work through all the possible solutions to any choice. Making imperfect decisions when we don't understand is what makes us human. Without any biases or blindspots, we wouldn't do anything. We would always come up with a reason why an action could go wrong. There are always tradeoffs. Irrational tastes, preferences and styles narrow down the huge debilitating world of choices. This is good.

But when our styles clash, we have to come up with new shared illogical biases. For most of our existence we just did our own thing in small groups. Very recently Monarchs, Dictators, Religious Leaders and Governments have been the ones who have got to make those choices for us. Slowly those got replaced with majorities who forgot minorities. Then those got replaced with Constitutions. You don't get to vote on freedom. But freedom without constraints isn't freedom. In our Utopia, it would be our flavour that got to answer those two tough political questions. Autonomy is delicious.

Sometimes outsourcing a little autonomy can make things even better. It doesn't have to a Government. We could create our own 'Council of Elders' from our friends and people we respect? One of the best bits of religion is the ability to go, for free, to someone who has your and your communities best interests at heart for instruction. They will have their own biases and blindspots, but these will help you narrow down your choices and act.

Whether it is a checklist, a phone reminder, a letter to yourself, or people you trust, perhaps it is good to have outside forces who can force you to do things?

I wouldn't mind voting for something that told me my tea was getting cold.

Craft the Mundane

Why don't I floss? I know I should and it really doesn't take that much time. Every time I sit in the oral hygienists chair I feel like a naughty schoolboy as I wait for the question as to whether I have sorted myself out. Sometimes it inspires a few days in advance of diligence. I used to wear contact lenses before I got my eyes zapped. I can remember the optician telling me to be diligent about cleaning the lenses before and after going in my eyes. He said five seconds was enough. Turns out five seconds is too much for a morning routine that is exactly that - a task.

Cooking. Cleaning. Admin. Anything that feels like it just needs to get done sucks energy out of you. The Yogis have a term for this feeling - Tamas. A heaviness or lethargy where you just can't be asked. It is that feeling when you have eaten something heavy. Sometimes we don't do things because it is hard to start (Inertia) and sometimes we don't do things because in reality we want something different from what we say we want (Revealed Preference). Sometimes we don't do things just because they slip our mind (Order v Spice). Other times, it might be something we want to do, can prioritise, and can probably start, but we just don't really feel up to. We have run out of energy.

It may be because you aren't getting enough exercise, sleep or good food, but I suspect the source has to do with time poverty and space. Someone asked me last night what I had learnt about happiness from my first six months of daily blogging and full time thinking on the subject. It is not my aim to come up with a 10 point plan to happiness, or a magic bullet. I think that happiness is something you practise rather than something you attain. Having said that, pushed to identify the most powerful thing to improve the quality of people's lives, it would be to ensure that there is some space. This assumes material needs are being met or close to being met, but as Maya Angelou said, 'We need much less than we think we need'. 

Maya Angelou

When you have space, you can enjoy things for their own sake rather than just trying to get them done. You can cook because cooking is fun rather than because you are hungry. You can make an event out of it. You can craft your morning routine so that music you like is playing, a breakfast you enjoy awaits, and even the flossing becomes an unrushed act of pleasure. This is a theory of course. I haven't reached that state where I look forward to making my bed or working my way through the mail shortly after it comes in.

It is an interesting question though. How can you take the mundane and craft it to be something you enjoy? First you need space.

Love it? Do it?

I wasn't a big reader growing up. I loved reading, but I wasn't a big reader. That doesn't really make much sense. I have often wondered why. The same can probably be said of sketching. I loved it but don't quite understand why I didn't have reams and reams of sketches from when I was growing up. Outside of active pursuits, I love it when my home is really tidy. A treat while living the bachelor life and working was to get someone to come do my ironing and tidying up a bit once a week. I loved coming home on Thursdays to a spotless home. The theory of 'revealed preference' suggests that I didn't like reading, I didn't actually enjoy sketching, and I prefer the freedom of tossing clothes on the floor and picking a clean cup rather than cleaning a dirty one to the beauty of a clean home.

Something has never felt right about that though. I really believe I am closer to the truth when I say I love reading, sketching and a clean home. Why I am also confused is that in many areas I am actually a very self-disciplined character. Closing in on 100 blog posts in 100 days may be testament to that. Although some friends accuse me of doing things because I love the stats rather than loving the thing. There are lots of pockets of things where I really have absolutely no excuse or desire not to do things that don't get done.

I have largely cracked the reading dilemma. At times I have cracked the sketching dilemma. The tidiness dilemma requires a house guest or visitor to inspire me to action, so is safely in the 'Unsolved Trev Problems' pile. I will touch on the reading issue because I think my barriers were very similar to other peoples.

1. Hard Work - Reading is actually hard work if you read slowly

When we read, we don't read like when we are a kid. We don't sound out each word. Gradually we start to 'chunk'. There was a meme that went around saying that as long as the first and last letters of a word were correct, we could read anything - an ability called Typoglycemia, although in looking this up on Wikipedia it appears that is being challenged. The point is that we do start to recognise rather than read words and groups of words that appear together often. This extends to phrases. Like having to work out fractions or multiply in your head, you can only do it if you do it often. I have an Actuary friend who admits to not being able to add a 10% tip in his head. For those who don't know what an actuary is, it doesn't matter, just know that that is a worry. Back to reading... the more you read, the easier it gets. This is true even if you are older. So part of the answer if you want to read more is... read more.

"I cdn'uolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg: the phaonmneel pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rseearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Scuh a cdonition is arppoiatrely cllaed Typoglycemia .

"Amzanig huh? Yaeh and you awlyas thguoht slpeling was ipmorantt."

2. Silly Rules - Reading just one book at a time, and always finishing it is a silly rule

I only ever read (past tense) one book at a time. Since I knew I didn't read that often, I always chose books that were supposed to be good. Often this meant books that were harder to read and so I got bored more quickly and put them down. I would get stuck on books. As an example, I read Mark Behr's 'The Smell of Apples' and really enjoyed it despite it being a dark book with a very disturbing twist. I quickly followed that up with another of his books 'Embrace'. This book was much longer and much darker. Slowly I read it less and less, and by definition I read less and less. By definition because another of my silly rules was that I would always finish a book. Many people have this rule and it really makes no sense. We don't have just one friend. We don't watch just one TV series. We don't enjoy just one sport. Why is it that reading gets lumped into this crazy category of one-at-a-time-ness? Different books suit different moods in the same way as friends, TV and sport. If you get bored reading one book, pick up another. When we were asked in our last year of school to discuss 5 books we had read recently, I had to extend back a few years to make up the number much to the disgust of my English teacher. It would take me a further decade till I broke that annual running rate.

3. Technology - The advent of Kindle and Audiobooks, and entertaining the Elephant

When you read a fantastic book, you can fall in love with the actual object of the book. The smell of the paper and all those cliched things people describe about loving reading. By breaking my one book rule, I started reading more and 'recognising words' so reading more easily and so by the time Kindles came I was ready for the clincher. I am a technophile so despite my 'but I the tactile object' feelings also being there, I was keen to try e-books. My first e-book, a Sony, didn't really get out of the gates because it was so difficult to purchase books. My second, a Kindle, was awesome. I have a standing bet with book-loving friends that I persuade to give the Kindle a try. If they read a full book on the Kindle and aren't converted, I will pay for the Kindle. I have a 100% success rate with this bet (so far). That same love of a book gets channeled into the love of the Kindle. You don't move on to another object though. It just gets more and more love. Jeff Bezos, the unusual businessman that he is, knows this and so has openly said Amazon's aim isn't to get ebooks onto the upgrade cycle. There is no reason you can't keep the same Kindle for years and years as it becomes your precious. The 'real books' you buy can then be for art and of a higher quality.

I was slower to adopt audiobooks, and still prefer reading my Kindle when at home. That said, if you really want to make a big dent in your reading pile, there is no better way. It is physically tiring to sit for long periods of time reading. Your elephant gets bored. The same can be said for sitting at an office desk for hours on end. If you really want to concentrate, you have to give your elephant something to do. Audiobooks can let you go for a long walk while the narrator does the hard work and your elephant is content. I have found myself able to get through some really tough books, the kind where you read three pages and your head is spinning, by walking.

So just doing it till it gets easier, breaking some silly rules, and technology have unleashed my love of reading. That I didn't read wasn't a revealed preference. 

Onto solving some of my other weird dilemmas.

Dive In Durban Boy

Like a German spy in World War II who slips up with one word that blows their cover, you can spot a Durban boy (where I grew up) a mile away by the length of time it takes them to dive into a swimming pool when the water is even slightly cold.

Building yourself up to 'dive in' even when you have the intention of doing something sometimes takes a long time. Yes, there are those crazy Cape Town people who think cold water is the point, but a lot of the time it takes time to gain the courage. You dip your toes in. You convince yourself that you will warm up. You decide on a strategy of either doing nothing right up till the point that you dive in, or of slowly wading into the water taking the cold body bit by body bit at a time.

The uncertainty surrounding picking up a new skill or learning something new is 'cold'. Often there are competing sources of information, approaches, objectives, costs and so the uncertainty holds you back. Other times you know it is okay - you can see the benefits, you can see what you need to do, there are very limited downsides. You just need to dive in.

Even if you are a Durban Boy.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durban

with the wonderful warm water of the Indian Ocean

Before You Even Start

The reason I am so interested in the initial stages of learning is because that is before you have had any wins. There is a discrepancy between what people say they want to do, and what they do. Getting started seems to be the hardest part. I don't think confusion/hard work/learning ever disappears, but for the most part you are unsure of whether it is worth the effort because you aren't sure if you are capable or if you are just going to be wasting effort. Rather do nothing than try and figure out you can't do it. At least then you can think you might be able to do something rather than 'proving' you can't. 

Often there are tricks to make things easier, but the tricks require laying groundwork that seems just as intimidating. My approach to trying to learn more languages is to try learn some of these tricks via Fluent Forever. This is requiring learning IPA and watching and re watching the many helpful (but still initially challenging) videos Gabe Wyner has put together. Sal Khan of the Khan Academy started out by putting tutorials on YouTube for his cousins. They said they actually preferred these to him giving them lessons. Videos have a guilt free pause button and zero impatience. When someone is teaching you, you feel like you are wasting their time admitting you are lost. The same happens in business meetings. Perhaps there should be a little button in front of people to slide to their degree of 'lostness'. Or pre-recorded 'tutorials'. 

The truth is the initial stages of learning are very slow, and you feel rather incompetent. You haven't had the wins yet for it to feel fun. Perhaps that is why we learn better when there is external motivation. For languages, that is often a romantic interest. For Gabe Wyner, it was his love of opera. For me, I have made unsustained romantic stabs, but my primary motivator is that I feel cut off from most of the world by only speaking English. To really get to know someone and to understand other cultures, I think you need to speak their mother tongue. The world is full of flavour - I want to taste more.

Cog Value

There is a lot of stuff we don't know. One of the big ones is what things are worth. We know we have more needs and wants than there is stuff and time to go around. We know we would allocate it differently to everyone else if we were in charge. We know we can't keep everyone else's needs and wants in mind and prioritise. So the magic of the the invisible hand is that capitalism helps us discover that price. Sometimes it is surprising and inconsistent. Why do footballers, Britney Spears and Justin Bieber make so much when Olympic Athletes, Miles Davis and Orchestras struggle? Clearly the later are worth more! Not to you. That is why you spend your money elsewhere (... be honest though). Where the invisible hand doesn't work is when there is friction. I think this is part of the problem with income inequality. Workers who define themselves by a particular job and develop large barriers to exit don't necessarily earn what *they* are worth. They get paid their cog value. The price it would cost to find someone who can do the same job, not a share of the value they create. This may mean you get job security (assuming your job doesn't become redundant through creative destruction). The invisible hand is great at telling us what is valued. It is up to us to be flexible enough to take advantage of it. Don't define yourself by your job - or you become a cog.

Time Poverty

'I don't have the time'

This is a dangerous excuse. I have spent a lot of time debating this very common excuse for a variety of things. I have argued for Inertia while my buddy Stu has argued for Revealed Preference. Revealed Preference says that what you actually do says more about what is important to you than what you say you want to do. I have always thought that our short-term impulsive self just lacks the discipline and a catalyst to get cracking, i.e. Inertia. Both reasons aren't very forgiving.

Perhaps the truth is less harsh on those using the excuse. Perhaps we are so busy and have so many conflicting goals that we never really stop to breathe and decide what to do with our time. We end up going with the flow. One step on the path leads to another. We only have so much energy and so when the 'free time' arises, we don't use it as we would like. Not because we can't get started, or because we want to do nothing - but just because we are tired. We have chosen a path, and that unfortunately means other paths get excluded.

Whatever the reason is, I do find it interesting that we don't consider time a bigger part of wealth. A CEO earning bundles of cash is more than likely very time poor. That doesn't get considered when looking at measures of equality.

Arbitrary Rules

Arbitrary rules can be powerful. They help overcome Inertia.

Seth Godin writes a blog post every day. That is an arbitrary rule. Does it really matter if he misses a day? Probably not, but it forces him to write every day. Eventually it becomes a habit... so it doesn't feel like force.

I am writing far less regularly than I would like. I realised this. I also realised that I had still written at least one blog post a month for quite some time. Hardly enough to form a habit, so fair to say that it doesn't compare to Seth's rule - and so is more arbitrary. But it was enough to force me to write one yesterday.

I used to use arbitrary rules to help me get through my studies. If a subject took 300 hours, I would break it down into the hours necessary per week and then plan how many to do each week. I would try stick to that. Again, maybe that is not arbitrary as it let me get to the end without any panic. The arbitrary part was that I would break it down into segments - study for 50 minutes, 10 minute break, repeat.

Why 50, why 10? No particular reason. It just seemed to help me get through.

Now, if the arbitrary rule gets in the way of something that is not arbitrary. That can be a problem. But otherwise, if it helps you get off the couch...

Washing the Dishes

The perfect version of you all starts with washing the dishes.

Apparently. My mother, aunt and middle brother having been telling me this for more than 30 years. In a similar vein, Gretchen Rubin told me to make my bed. This weekend I read another 'one sitting book'* called The War of Art: Winning the inner creative battle, which seemed a drug free version of the movie Limitless. Both start with the protagonist washing the dishes.

The point isn't clean dishes. The point is getting beyond inertia. There are much bigger battles we all want to win to move closer to what we want to achieve. In The War of Art, Pressfield says:

"There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't, and the secret is this: It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write."

later he adds a quote by W.H.Murray:

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now."

Now whether these inspirational movies and books can get me to paint regularly, write more, read more, communicate better, be fitter, eat healthier, and love deeper... I don't know.

But... my dishes are clean.

* These are great. The other two I have read which I can recommend are 'Poke the Box' by Seth Godin, and 'The Great Stagnation' by Tyler Cowen. The idea is that most books have a core idea, but then often retell this idea in a variety of ways and add some fluff. 'One sitting books' are like long essays you can read in 2 hours and get straight to the heart of the issue.

Reverse Lent

While learning to live without certain things on which you are dependent makes sense. I never really bought into the idea of giving something up for 40 days, if the intention was to simply pick it up again at the end. Maybe it makes sense if you are trying to break an addiction, and the pause breaks the habit.

But... wouldn't it make more sense to instead of giving something up, to start doing something you would like to do, and try and do it consecutively for 40 days. Chances are that by the end of the 40 days it would have become a positive habit and there will be no desire to stop doing it?

Not that I am about to become a vegetarian, but I have heard one of the best ways to eat less meat (most of us tend to eat too much), is just to eat more veggies.

Anyway... I do realize that Lent is in fact a religious concept and is loaded with all sorts of things, but 2 non-religious friends and I have embarked on Reverse Lent. For the next 40 days, I am going to try and make sure I have a piece of fruit every day. Yes, I know I have tried this before. Yes, I know the idea of a fully grown adult not eating fruit is weird... But this post isn't about my bizarre idiosyncrasies...

It is about the idea of figure out something you want to do, and doing it. Then maybe by default, some of the things you want to cut out will simply fade away.

Got time?

I have written before on Inertia and Revealed Preference. The two are potential ways of responding to someone who answers a question as to why they aren't doing something with 'I don't have time'.

A more acceptable answer would likely be either, 'Sorry, there are other things I would rather do with my time' (Revealed Preference), or 'Sorry, I would like to but I am just to lazy or don't have enough motivation' (Inertia).

Revealed Preference in a sense says that what you do is what you want to do, with in the restraints of what you could do. So, if you have been meaning to go to coffee with a certain friend for months and months, and haven't... but could have, since you went to two or three movies, slept in late three Saturdays and just did nothing a lot of the time, Revealed Preference says that you actually just didn't want to go to coffee with the friend.

I think that Revealed Preference only really shows what your preferences are when you have no Inertia, and regularly review or look back on what choices you have made. More than likely you even need help or feedback. I may say that I did not go watch Rodger Federer play in the season ending O2 tournament in London, because I have consciously realised that I only have limited time during the week, and right now that is pretty much taken up between work, travel, yoga, and a few minutes spent learning German, reading or blogging. Sometimes it takes someone to call your bluff and say... I hear that you are really busy, but just make a plan. Make some time! To be honest, I didn't even think of going to the tennis because I was head down. I could have gone, and the occasional kick from a friend helps out.

Taking a few moments to look back and see if what you are doing, could be doing, and want to be doing are all in line is worth while. Sometimes it might be because you actually can't do everything, and you just need to admit that you would rather be doing something else. Sometimes, it is just Inertia, and that is something you can do something about.

Addictive Breakthroughs

When you come across Tim Ferris and other productivity gurus, they all tell stories of incredible feats of learning and doing. For most of us, the things they achieve seem completely out of this world.

I reckon it is addictive though. Most things we try, we just can't do. It is a real struggle. The body fights. The mind fights, and there are just a whole bunch of things that are far easier to do.

But... I reckon if the bug bites you were you start to see how if you fight through the inertia, and get to the point where you have a breakthrough, you will want it again.

It probably helps knowing what is possible. Just like all the other 100m athletes starting to run significantly faster now that Usain Bolt has smashed the world record and continues to do so at whim and by large margins.

I am never going to run the 100m in 9.58 seconds, but there are a bunch of things I would like to do one day.

I just completed an introductory course in Yoga. I would not say I have had major breakthroughs, but after a 4 week course I can now touch the floor, do a fairly poor shoulder stand and last night and tonight for the first time managed to balance for about 1 second in 'The Crow' (although 1 second doesn't really count as balancing and I did 'take off' which I don't think is the intention). But, for me the touching of the floor is a breakthrough, and I am sufficiently hooked to push on.

I am also attempting to learn German with 20-30 minutes a night or so. I am using Rosetta Stone and while it is early days, I can already recommend it highly for whatever language you have been struggling to learn. Perhaps the breakthrough was learning that Jewelery is 'Schmuck' in German... makes sense to me.

Point being... I think once you get the bug of 'breakthroughs', perhaps that is what allows you to push on in other areas. Though some like Tim Ferris are probably a little more addicted that others.

Language and Lunges

I have written before about the process I undertook last year to learn to touch type, and how it started painfully slow at something like 12 words a minute, and then slowly progressed with occasional jumps. I found the whole thing interesting aside from gaining the skill in watching and willing my fingers to learn what they were supposed to do until the point where there was no thought required.

Two rather different things I am attempting now is Yoga and learning German.

Now I am not the most supple of people and currently can not touch my toes, without bending my legs, without a fair amount of discomfort, and definitely not even close early in the morning. I have a long way to go. But much like learning to touch type, I imagine that slowly but surely it will get there. The things that I now look at with awe will become more and more possible.

I have tried other languages before without much success. Other than Afrikaans, which I could get by in if I am being exceedingly kind to myself... I am basically a one trick pony (or donkey). I do believe that Rosetta Stone is going to help change that. I think I have learned more in its 'no translation' environment in the last few days than I learned in many many hours with audio tapes last year. I guess it is all about finding a way that the mind works and then going with it. Although before I get ahead of myself, in the section where I had to pronounce "Gro", it made me repeat it so many times because I was getting it wrong that I resorted to French. That was also wrong.

Trying to break through the inertia. Lets see how it goes.

Incentives and Demand

Stuart doesn't think the imposed discipline is a big reason for why people go to non-fancy universities. I don't think it is the primary reason, but I do think looking for ways to 'avoid disappointing other' or failing is a method people use to overcome inertia. There are cheaper ways. I have heard of a website, can't remember where or I would link, where they set up a market for incentive bets. So, basically, you bet say $100 that you will lose 10 kilos before the end of the year. If someone takes the bet, it gives you an incentive. Other ways may be to sign up for a course or an exam. You don't want the bad street cred of not passing or of not arriving. A way of keeping fit is to join a team, or find a jogging partner. If you don't pitch up you disappoint other people, that helps to overcome inertia. Guilt and pride can be used as powerful (if somewhat negative) motivating factors.

I agree that people should stop donating money to fancy universities. It would be better if there was a better spread. To a point. I would prefer to see a system that makes it easy for people to provide financing directly to deserving students of their choosing. I have heard of a website, again a poor memory prevents a link, that does a similar thing for entrepreneurs in developing countries. It allows people to post business plans, and people who want to donate money are able to give it directly to those who they think have the best business plans. Maybe a similar social network that allows people to give money to deserving students is a better way than giving money to fancy universities.

I am not okay with cynical class filters. I am just saying that maybe that is what exists. What I am against is using things like SATs, GMATs and other IQ tests to determine who gets in. I agree with Gladwell (Outliers: The Story of Success)who says that to do well you have to be smart enough, but you don't have to have the highest IQ. Beyond a certain point other skills matter more than IQ. If your IQ is higher than say 110 or 115, then there should just be a lottery for places. Finances should not be an issue in who gets a place. The most effective system would somehow select the people most like to contribute. Creating an effective system for that is the challenge.

Thinking about it more, I suspect the true value of actually going to university is the same as going to watch a sports match or music concert live. You are paying for the physical community of people. Yes, you can study by yourself and you can find some like minded/challenging/interesting people in other ways, but the concentration of lots of people who are excited about learning and intellectually curious is likely to be higher in a university. Plus the pressures of the professional world and concerns of a job on the side are somewhat removed.

I think the number of people who like learning for learning's sake is very small, and if only those people went to university there would be lots of echos in very empty lecture halls. So maybe the signals is just a way of getting people who don't mind learning if it has some financial benefit in the door slightly increases the demand for learning. And that is probably a good thing.

Creativity Block

I got home today (3 apples down) really excited to start reading 'Out of our minds' by Ken Robinson.

His talk on TED is still my favourite and I have been looking forward to getting his books ever since I discovered that site courtesy of Presentation Zen.

I have had to force myself to put the book down so that I am not too stuffed tomorrow, and so I can vent some of the energy he has bubbling in me on this blog.

The start of the book is about how fast the world is changing and has changed. Our grandparents lives were not that different from their grandparents. Ours are world's apart from our parents childhoods and our children will struggle to imagine the world we grew up in. The big thing that he looks at is what this means for how we think about education and learning and what is important.

When last did you need to do mental maths in your head? We use excel to do vastly complicated calculations. Instead of walking to a stream, getting water and spending the day hand washing clothes, we pop them in the machine, grab a glass of wine and a book or watch a movie, then they are done. Tough life. The things we used to have to learn are not going to be what matters any more. The rate at which computers, technology and nanotechnology are advancing, we will barely recognise our own world even 10 or 20 years from now.

What you can't replace though is creativity... that is the the distinctly human illogical mindset that allows us to solve all sorts of problems without the computing power. We need to feed our creativity.

One of my favourite Robinson stories is of walking into a classroom of 5 year olds and asking how many can draw? All their hands go up. How many can write... maybe one or two. 10 years later, you go into a classroom of 15 year olds and ask those same students who can write and all their hands go up. Who can draw? Maybe one or two.

Rubbish.

We get taught to stop being creative because we are so scared of not being the best. Of not adding value. We don't do the things we enjoy. We make excuses and we delay acting. Inertia. Blocks. Barriers. Boundaries.

It's time that changed. That thing you used to enjoy doing. That thing that used to put you in your element, that made you smile... do it.

Exciting times.

It starts with an Apple

Me and messy fruit don't mix. Me and fruit in fact aren't the best of pals. In my fairly new found drive to beat inertia, I told myself 2009 would be different.

I am not one to make new years resolutions. I think that prevents you from starting something on the other 364 days of the year, and then being disappointed if you fail just afterwards. Nonetheless I told myself this year was the year I was going to conquer my illogical exclusion of fruit from my diet.

Today I had an apple. Now that sounds (an is) pathetic coming from a 29 year old, but it took some will power. It sat on my desk for an hour, and then in a surge I decided now was the time. I took a bite, and like every other apple I have eaten... I didn't dislike it. In fact, I liked it. Hence the acknowledgement that my fruitless diet is illogical. But... as I bit, some juice flew from my mouth.

Now anyone who knows me well would laugh if I tried to claim that I was obsessively tidy, so again I don't understand the reasoning why some juice makes me feel strange. Strange, because I can't put my finger on it. Now, bananas, I never had a problem with. They aren't messy you see.

Now, before you point your finger at me, laugh, shake your head and think, 'weirdo'... I am pretty sure there are completely illogical things you do that you want to change.

I guess we don't have to wait for New Years.

Let's see if tomorrow I can make it two days in a row. Hey, maybe next week I will even attempt some grapes! (ok, you are forgiven for thinking weirdo)

Exciting Times.

No Sugar

My office canteen serves a great meal, and each day there is a choice between a meat option and a vegetarian option.

Like cutting down on drinking coke (thanks to the sister-in-law), I am trying to cut down on the amount of meat I eat (thanks to my arch-enemy/sole blogging commenter).

So today I looked longingly at the Lamb Tikka Masala, I cried a little inside as I heard the words... `ratatouille please'... escape from my mouth. It's not that I don't like vegetables, because I do. It is just so hard when I know how much I like meat.

Then I get home to my brothers place, and ask him if he wants a cup of tea. Yes please... no sugar!

My other oldest brother drinks diet coke. My middle brother has no sugar in his tea. And I am trying to drink water instead of other drinks, and choose vegetables over meat more often.

What is the world coming to! Yup... the long term benefits will be there. But the little boy in me is sulking a little.

Haidt talks about reading Peter Singer's `Animal Ethics' and being intellectually convinced that he should become a vegetarian. But he didn't, instead he just felt a little guilty every time he ordered a hamburger. Then he saw a video of a slaughter house that disgusted him into not eating meat... briefly. As the memory of the video faded, so did the lure of meat become more convincing.

Hmmm, there are so many things where the long term goals of one approach far outweigh the short term benefits of the easy option...

But... we live in the short term.

And it is easy.

But... baby steps. I did eat the ratatouille... and not the curry, so that is a small victory. hmmmm.

I don't have time

I think modern technology scares a lot of people. Things like Facebook are great, but they do take up time. So does email and so does having a cell phone.

Being involved takes time. Maintaining relationships takes time. Work takes time. So does reading, eating, sleeping, driving to and from places, and doing things like shopping, housework and admin.

And yet... I still treat the excuse, `I don't have time' with a little skepticism. It is probably one of the things I hear most often given as a reason. I don't buy it. Of course, there are exceptions...

BUT

I think of myself as a fairly efficient person who does quite a lot. Yet, I waste a lot of time. I spend a lot of time doing nothing. Inertia I call it, Stuart calls it revealed preference.

If I took all the time I spent doing nothing, and how much pleasure I gained from that (doing nothing is extremely pleasurable sometimes)... I am sure I would be much happier having done something else with that time.

I think there are a few reasons we don't do stuff:

1) The process seems excessively daunting
2) We can't see the benefit before hand
3) Lack of knowledge (we think it is harder than it is)
4) Laziness
5) Lack of inspiration
6) You feel you will be judged harshly.

I don't think we are very rational in our deciding what we want to do with our time because we don't tend to have a big picture view of things.

When I suggest to people they should start a blog, the common response is `I don't have time'. The reason I don't buy it, is because I know how much time it takes to keep a blog. Very little. I probably spend less than 30 minutes a day reading blogs, and then writing in mine. And I post most days. Someone could write once a week and I just don't buy they don't have 30 minutes.

So... I don't think time is the reason. I think the real reason is a combo of fear of judgement (6) and being daunted (1).

If the one thing that new technology is able to instill in young kids is not being scared of failure, and trying things... well I look forward to seeing the amazing creativity that will come out of that.

Inertia

Here are a few things I would like to do or do more of but don't.

1) floss my teeth every night.
2) wash dishes after every meal.
3) eat fruit.
4) stretch.
5) read.
6) write.
7) call family members.
8) write emails/call friends that I can't get to see.
9) paint.
10) sketch.

Why don't I? I don't buy the idea of revealed preference. I don't not do those things because I don't want to... or because they necessarily take a huge effort. I am also not a lazy person by nature... but there are things I just don't do, even if the desire is there.

I think it is because we have a natural inertia. It is the people who are able to get over that inertia that manage to do the most.

But it is remarkably difficult to do.

I am feeling more and more convinced that we should however avoid the excuse... `I just didn't have the time'. It is a bit of a cliche that might end me up (not for the first time) on Stuart list of things that people say that should result in a death penalty, but... it is amazing how the busiest people always seem to be able to fit things in.

I reckon, not matter how busy you are, you always have 5 minutes. And it is amazing what you can do in 5 minutes.

Read a blogpost?
Send an email to a friend?
Call someone just to say hello?
Allow someone to bounce an idea off you?

No matter, how busy you are... I reckon you have 5 minutes. BUT, I don't think this means you don't want to do the thing that takes 5 minutes... I think we get beaten by inertia.