Category Archives: meaning

Some notes on life lessons …

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Got to thinking about a recent conversation with my wife about ‘what works in life.’

Between us we’ve done a bunch of life-trainings over the decades – est, Lifespring, Lifespring Leadership Program, Al-Anon, Verle Minto, Technologies for Creating, Busting Loose (taught seminars for 5  years), Unity Church, Science of Mind, … and we kind of came the to a discovery that it all boils down to a few principles or propositions:

  • Woody Allen said 80% of life is just showing up  (*)  so, show up for your life!
  • it really is your life; you really can ‘just make up’ a huge amount of it
  • and even ‘remake it’ on the fly if you really want to
  • think about ‘your word’ before, and as, you give it or declare it
  • then keep your word
  • if you can’t keep your word, know that you CAN renegotiate – but never just let it slip!

And three powerful questions for all kinds of situations (yes, the order is important):

  • In this particular situation, what is working?
  • In this particular situation, what is missing?
  • In this particular situation, what is next?

Interested in what you think …

(*)  Woody Allen full quote: “I made the statement years ago which is often quoted that 80 percent of life is showing up. People used to always say to me that they wanted to write a play, they wanted to write a movie, they wanted to write a novel, and the couple of people that did it were 80 percent of the way to having something happen. All the other people struck out without ever getting that pack. They couldn’t do it, that’s why they don’t accomplish a thing, they don’t do the thing, so once you do it, if you actually write your film script, or write your novel, you are more than half way towards something good happening. So that I was say my biggest life lesson that has worked. All others have failed me.”

Woody Allen WikiQuote link … cool.

Big Brains. Small Films. Benoît Mandelbrot, The Father of Fractals | IB

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Click here    to listen and watch this interview with Benoit B. Mandelbrot.

Mandelbrot From IBM on Nov 18, 2013

IBM and http://IBMblr.Tumblr.com celebrate the life of Benoit B. Mandelbrot, IBM Fellow Emeritus and Fractal Pioneer. In this final interview shot by filmmaker Erol Morris, Mandelbrot shares his love for mathematics and how it led him to his wondrous discovery of fractals. His work lives on today in many innovations in science, design, telecommunications, medicine, renewable energy, film (special effects), gaming (computer graphics) and more.

Learn more about fractals at http://IBMblr.tumblr.com/tagged/fractaland join the fractal frenzy with the IBMblr Fractalizer.

The 6 killer apps of prosperity – 2011 TED Talk

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The world is constantly changing, only now it’s changing ever more rapidly. This 21 minute talk can give you an idea as to how you, your children and grandchildren may be affected. Here’s a summary from the TED Talk page:

“Over the past few centuries, Western cultures have been very good at creating general prosperity for themselves. Historian Niall Ferguson asks: Why the West, and less so the rest? He suggests half a dozen big ideas from Western culture — call them the 6 killer apps — that promote wealth, stability and innovation. And in this new century, he says, these apps are all shareable.  (My underlining)

History is a curious thing, and Niall Ferguson investigates not only what happened but why. (Hint: Politics and money explain a lot.)”

View the talk here.

This talk has been viewed 993,860 times.

Financial Education Paradox?

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Great little article by economist David Laibson delves into, “Most Americans know they should save for retirement and pay off their debts. Yet they often don’t do those things. Why?”

And why it’s so difficult to consider and create effective “Financial Eduction” curricula and classes – and that’s frustrating because “finances” is such an integral part of everyone’s real-world experience!

His last couple of paragraphs, I believe, speaks volumes about what an effective education looks like:

What does this tell us about the best way to teach financial education? 

What this means is that you should get the financial education you need when you need it. If you enroll in a 401(k) plan today, you should take the 45-minute educational seminar on it during the enrollment process. The time to learn about credit cards, borrowing and compound interest is when students are 18 and starting adult life.

The human memory is so fallible. If I tell you something and expect you to remember it five years from now, that’s a big ask. So I would focus on teaching skills that translate immediately to practical application.

(My underlining – teach around ideas and stuff in a real-world-ish application context. Tie math and English and science into such things as, how do your folks buy and pay for your clothes, where in the world do they come from, what do your parents/guardians do for a living, how long do they have to work to pay for a pair of new shoes, why was a textbook written, by whom, how much does it cost, how much is that for the whole class, where does that money come from, …)

Read the whole article here.

Training versus learning or mastery

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Elias Canetti in his book, Crowds and Power, writes about the differences between training and learning or mastery. The discussion and distinctions seemed worth sharing here.

One trains a dog or a horse to perform a particular behavior with food and repetition.

One trains a child to perform a particular behavior with grades and repetition.

But neither the grade nor a successfully trained behavior demonstrates real mastery of a matter.

Training demonstrates varying degrees of ability to respond to externally generated commands. Mastery demonstrates an ability to operate successfully through a series of increasingly difficult and varied challenges or externally generated circumstances.

Here are some examples to illustrate:

  • spelling versus writing a short story or essay or play
  • 2+2=4 versus what is a ‘marginal tax rate’ or Return On Investment
  • naming colors versus exploring and creating an artistic painting
  • copying versus experimenting and inventing
  • practicing pitching versus playing an actual baseball game

Training as an end in itself only begins to prepare someone for the human game of life and all its challenges and possibilities.

Supporting an individual student to actually experience a level of mastery in response to externally generated circumstances supports them in continuing to approach their life with greater appreciation, creativity and satisfaction.

Without saying how to do that, it may still be worthwhile to both teacher and student to explore how to do that.

 

Research on Grit and Self-Control Recognized in “Genius Grant”

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JTF Grantee Awarded 2013 MacArthur Fellowship

As an associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Angela Duckworth’s work focuses on studying competencies beyond general intelligence and opportunity that predict academic and professional achievement. She is perhaps best known for her work surrounding the concepts of self-control and grit, and how those personality traits are better indicators of success than factors such as IQ and socioeconomic opportunity.

Click here to see 5 videos of Dr. Duckworth answering these 5 questions about her work and findings:

What is grit?

Are there virtues that are precursors or closely associated with grit?

What role does humility play, if any, in cultivating grit?

How has your personal story been a window into your research on grit?

What advice would you give to a parent who wanted to cultivate grit in their children?

Video: Why everything sucks; for parents & kiddo’s

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Hey, it’s summer, so here’s a 3:20 video for both parents and kids.

This is both light and funny – and heavy and serious – all at the same time. Three minutes and twenty seconds of some mentally challenging social and advertising observations.

It will probably enlarge your perspective … and change some of your decision-points.