July 2008

Learning Mastery 5 – Back to the Basics

by Vlad Dolezal on July 30, 2008

Hi! This is part of a series of posts on learning new skills quickly and effectively. You might also want to check out:

Enjoy!

“The only difference between an intermediate player and an expert in chess is in how well they apply the basics.”
- Alekhine

When the world’s best martial artists practice, they don’t practice flashy moves. They practice basic kicks and punches and holds. Over and over. They practice simple balance and good posture, and they practice moving faster and more precisely.

In the movie “Karate Kid”, the master teaches the kid only four basic moves (“Sand the floor. Paint the fence…”). The kid spends days practicing these simple moves, and then goes on to win a major karate tournament. (Yeah, I know it’s a movie. But it makes a good point.)

It’s not the flashy good-looking moves that win tournaments. It’s better mastery of the basics. (though I have to admit, a double-leg flying kick looks just awesome :) )

Back to the Basics

The slogan “back to the basics” has been cheapened over the years. In schools, some educators use it to push reforms that bring us back to times when kids had to memorize long passages of text without any idea of what they mean.

It’s not that “back to basics” is bad. But most people in education can’t even agree what the basics are, let alone how to teach them. What are the basics for reading? Phonics? (learning to pronounce different groups of letters). Or is it reading simple stories, and learning to pronounce words while reading them? In mathematics, should students memorize the multiplication table? Or is it more important (more “basic”) that they understand the mathematician’s mindset – curiosity, stretching principles to breaking point, basic proofs?

Before you can focus on the basics, you need to know what they are. If you want to get better at something you’re already good at, sit down and figure out what the basics are. If you’re learning a new skill, ask some experts. They will be glad you asked, because even experts sometimes get lost in the complicated stuff and forget the basics.

I’ll show you a few examples. These are skills where I’m reasonably good, and I think I know what the basics are.

Chess:

  • checkmates (if you’ve seen thousands of basic “chekmate in 2″ and “checkmate in 3″ problems, you will start to see them in the game. And you will start to see them several moves ahead – before your opponent is even aware of the threat. You can then use the threat to win some pieces.)
  • endgame (If you practice all the basic endgames, you can start to see them ahead. As in “Well, if I take this piece, it will lead to this forced exchange, and then I’ll end up with a rook and pawn against a rook. In this case it will be a draw, so I might be better off keeping things complicated.”)
  • mobility (letting your pieces have plenty of move options. At the beginning, this usually means fighting for the center of the board.)

Notice I don’t consider learning openings to be the basics. Mobility is the true basic principle behind most openings. Practicing mobility inside out will get you a much deeper understanding of openings – and it will let you play confidently in openings you don’t know.

Blogging:

  • use simple, direct sentences (“The boy kicked the ball.” instead of “The ball was kicked by the boy.”)
  • write as you speak
  • write about your passions

If you’re good at some skill, you can let the rest of us know what the basics are. Just leave a comment. I would especially like to know what the basics are in rock-climbing, dancing and programming.

Practicing the basics

Ben Seeley, a past world champion in Othello (the board game), was once telling me a story of a man he taught online. The man was a professional bridge and backgammon player, and was learning to play Othello for fun. He was getting angry because he kept losing, and couldn’t understand why.

Seeley talked to him and explained the basics. The man then practiced those, and started winning some games. Seeley had to leave for work.

When Seeley came back some 24 hours later, the man was still there, playing. Seeley says it was incredible how much his game has improved. The man had truly practiced the basics like no one else. He achieved a rating (a measure of skill online) in a single day that most people achieve in a few months.

Then he quit because he decided Othello was too easy for him.

Now, this man was a master learner. He really understood the value of the basics, and how to practice them. Most people (including me, and probably you) wouldn’t practice that diligently.

I’ll choose an example you will hopefully understand. Let’s say you were learning to play chess. A grandmaster would explain to you the basics of mobility (having plenty of options for your pieces), and that a simple way to achieve that is to take over the center of the board.

You would most likely practice the principle at the beginning of the game, fight for the center, and after the middle, you would switch to your usual ways of attacking the enemy king. That’s what a good learner would do, practice the basics.

But it’s not what a master learner would do. He would take the one principle, and practice it to its death. He would fight for the center with all his might, leaving everything else behind. He might leave his king almost unguarded. In some games, he would try sacrificing some pawns and even pieces to gain a hold of the middle of the board. He would reject simple easy ways to take pieces at the edges, and strengthen his hold of the middle instead.

In short, a master learner takes the principles to the absolute extreme.

Because you really need to push and overstep the boundaries to see how far the principle applies. If you just sort of apply the principle, and then switch to something else when it looks more convenient, you won’t find the boundaries. The goal isn’t to win the first couple of dozen games. The goal is to truly understand the basic principles inside out.

How to practice the basics

When you first learned to drive a car, you had to think about every detail. You had to focus on signalling correctly, looking in the mirror and so on. But after a while, you just started doing all those things automatically.

It’s the same with learning anything. At first you need to consciously focus on every detail, but soon bits get delegated to your subconscious and you do them automatically.

When you practice the basics, you improve the way you do them. More precisely. Faster.

Practicing the basics comes down to trying little tweaks. Let’s say you’re practicing your balance by walking on a narrow ledge. Try looking forward instead of at your feet. Try bending your knees a bit more. Try hunching over forward more, or leaning back. Try closing your eyes and keeping balance.

Notice what happens, then do your best at the end of the practice session.

Make sure you read my Learning Mastery 2 – Post Practice Improvement. There I describe exactly how to practice to make sure you grow your skills the fastest. It’s especially important when practicing the basics, because that’s a lot about committing new habits to your subconscious.

Right now, you can try to figure out what the basics are for a skill you’re learning. Then, next time you practice, focus on that skill.

If you know what the basics are for rock-climbing, dancing or programming, please let me know in the comments. And if you’d like to know what the basics are for some other skill you’re learning, ask also in the comments. Another reader or I might know.

Happy learning!

Previous: Learning Mastery 4 – Teach it And Hypothesise

{ 18 comments }

Fish, don’t hunt

by Vlad Dolezal on July 26, 2008

A hunter was crawling through mud and old leaves in a forest. He was very close to catching a deer he had been tracking for hours. Then he finally saw it. It was drinking water from a river, completely unaware from him. He slowly got up, prepared his spear… and bam! The wind changed! The deer scented him. It broke into a run. The hunter threw his spear, but it missed, and he lost a whole day’s work.

A fisherman was sitting at the side of a lake, during a hot summer day. He had prepared three fishing rods earlier, and now he was just reading a book waiting for fish to catch. Then, suddenly, one rod twitched! He quickly grabbed it, and started fighting the fish. It was a big one. It took him over an hour, but finally he pulled it close, and started pulling it out of the water. Then, just as he almost had it out of the water, it managed a big twitch, slipped off the hook, and escaped. The fisherman sighed, put another bait on the rod, and sat down again. After another half an hour, a different fish caught one of his rods! This time, he successfully pulled it out and had delicious dinner.

The hunter focuses all his energy on one prey, and if he misses, he just wasted all his time. A fisherman, on the other hand, sets it up so that fish come to him! Then he can just relax and let the fish catch themselves, only popping in when a fish is ready to be pulled out of the water.

Fish, don’t hunt – at work

The obvious way to fish at work would be to grab a fishing rod, go to the marketing department, then spin the rod high above your head and try to catch that marketing executive you’ve been trying to get hold of. But that won’t be very effective, unless your goal is to get fired and have one day of fame in local newspapers. (Don’t even think of hunting the marketing exec. Yes, I know you want to, but don’t.)

A hunter spends all of his energy pursuing one prey. And he only hunts them one at a time. A fisherman, on the other hand, sets up his rods, and then he justs sit there comfortably and lets the fish come to him.

That’s why so many lifestyle gurus (like Tim Feris) recommend starting your own business. You create a product and advertising, automate everything, and then let the customers come to you. Choosing the right advertising lets the customers select themselves, instead of forcing you to hunt them down.

Now, if you love your job, by all means, stick with it! But if you feel ok-ish about your job, you might try change. Tim Ferris’ book Four Hour Work-Week is an excellent read on that.

Telemarketers are a great example of hunters. They spend lots of time and effort, and annoy a lot of people, only to close one sale. The perfect opposite, pure fishing, are pay-per-click ads, like google Adwords. They’re ignored by anyone not actively looking for your product. And you spend only a few cents for each customer.

Fish, don’t hunt – in dating

I actually first heard the words “Fish, don’t hunt!” from a guy called Craig, when he was talking about meeting women. He was basically saying that a lot of men spend all their resources pursuing one woman, buying her dinners and flowers, and only drive her away by coming on too strong. He said he prefers fishing – having lots of women in his life, meeting them for coffee or going out to town, and generally just having fun until he meets one he really likes.

Other people say they’ve had great experiences with online dating (I haven’t tried it myself yet). You write a profile, and then people screen you by that before deciding to contact you. And you can screen out other people by their profile before contacting them. (Don’t like smokers? Don’t contact them.) Fishing!

My personal experiences with “Fish, don’t hunt!”

When I was in high school, I had to write essays for my English teacher. Every now and then, I would just insert some humor in the writing, to make it more interesting to read (and make the writing more fun for myself). Invariably, the teacher marked me down, because it “wasn’t appropriate” etc. I let some friends read the essays, and they loved the fun bits.

Then I realized I was wasting energy there. Why should I do good writing for someone who doesn’t appreciate it? (hunting). I instead decided to take my writing to the internet, because you can always find fellow souls there. (Like websites dedicated to people who love chomping ice. That just makes me say wtf, but apparently some people are obsessed with it.)

And it was a great decision! I get to feel appreciated and give advice (I love doing that). And people get real value from reading my stuff. Pure fishing – only people who want to read my writing will.

Why fishing works

When you hunt, you try to control other people. Yes, you might be doing it in their best interest. But they don’t realize that. When you act like a hunter, they’re only going to feel forced into doing something they don’t want to.

You don’t control other people.

If you fish instead, you let them come to you. You wait until they realize that they want your product/advice/whatever and then you let them have it. Yes, you need to nudge them a bit so they realize they need it. Like putting a bit of bait on your fishing rods – offer some value to them so they realize you have more to offer.

Fishing requires preparation

A fisher doesn’t just drive to a lake, and then sit at the shore waiting for fish to jump into his arms. He asks around to find where the best fishing spots are, he brings his rods and bait, he sets it all up at the shore (or he sails into deeper waters, if necessary), and then he can sit around and let fish come to him.

Similarly, you won’t achieve anything just by sitting around, waiting for opportunities to come to you. You create your own opportunities.

Figure out where in your life you would like to fish instead of hunting. Then do some research. Find information from people who’ve successfully done it. Do the preparation. And then you can just sit back, relax, and drink soft drinks while making the loud “Aaaaah!” noise they make in commercials.

{ 4 comments }

Choice

by Vlad Dolezal on July 23, 2008

Today, I’ll write about something I’ve been very much interested in lately. Choice.

Choice sells

We’re human. We love to feel like we’re in control. Having some choice, however irrelevant, gives us that feeling.

For example, take teleshopping – when they sell music, they always give you two choices – CDs or casettes. (recently, that choice has been replaced by CDs vs DVDs). Notice something? There’s still two choices. Whatever you think of that, teleshopping people are experts at marketing – they know why they do that.

Do you know the “I’m feeling lucky” button on google? Do you ever use it?

Apparently, less than 1 in 1000 searches use it. You might think that having a useless extra button would be bad, cluttering the interface. Surely google is aware of that?

Yeah. Google has done usability testing – and apparently users felt uneasy with the button removed. My theory is, it’s because of the illusion of choice. Having two search buttons makes you feel like you’re choosing, even though you’re really not.

One thing is really interesting though. Having too much choice is often even worse than having no choice at all. It somehow overloads your circuits – and leads to a deer-in-headlights reaction.

Too much choice

Researchers have done a study about choice. They took two groups of users. One of them had to choose from 5 things (I can’t remember what, I think it might have been yoghurts in supermarkets). The other group had to choose from something like 80. Later on they also had to rate their subjective satisfaction with their choice on a scale from 1 to 10.

The researchers found that having more choice leads to better choices… but less subjective satisfaction. Because you believe you could have chosen better.

If I had to pick between making a better choice, and being happier with the choice I make, I would choose happiness.

But I don’t think you need to have this dichotomy. The experiment the researchers did was a bit artificial, because the subjects only picked once, whereas in real life we make the same choices again and again. (Of course, if you apply this to buying a house, then it might be realistic.) In real life, you’ll be choosing yoghurt at the supermarket hundreds of times. Ideally you’ll spend some time the first two or three times, and after that just pick automatically (maybe revising your choice every couple of months). Then you can just be happy with your choice and stop worrying.

It’s kinda like The 70% Solution. You won’t know if you chose the best, but you will know you chose reasonably well, and can now focus on other, more important things.

Here’s another example where too much choice can suck:

A watch-making company hired a marketing expert to help them with magazine ads. The marketing expert created an ad featuring a single watch. The director didn’t like it and insisted that the expert creates an ad featuring nine of their watches.

The marketing expert suggested they try both of the ads and compare the results. They ran each of the ads for a week. The single-watch ad outsold the nine-watch one by six to one.

Too bad I wasn’t there. I would like to see how well a two-watch ad would work :) (somehow I think the single-watch ad would still fare better. After all, marketing experts know their stuff.)

I’ve also heard horror stories from customers of sandwich shops. Apparently, some shops have taken consumer choice to a ridiculous level – asking the customers over a dozen questions before just giving them the damn sandwich!

I could really feel the customer was overwhelmed. Basically he was saying – “hey, give me two or three basic questions, and be done with it”. I actually have a friend who does that. When he goes to such sandwich shop, he simply says “Make it the way you like it yourself.” And if the salesman asks any questions, my friend just answers “Do whatever you think is good.”

Denying choice

There’s something strangely comforting about having only a single choice. On that level, having a single terrible choice, or a single great choice are the same. In either case, you’re getting the best you possibly could without doing anything. (is this the ultimate in “less choice means worse results but higher satisfaction”?)

So some people use excuses like “God meant this to happen.” or “I was born this way.” or “I just don’t have it in me.” in order to avoid having to make a choice. They basically lie to themselves and get themselves stuck in a bad situation (dead-end job, or bad marriage, or an unhappy life) only because it provides them with the comfort of not having to make a choice.

The great philosopher Sartre (At least my teacher claimed he was great. To me he sounded like he would be great… at writing bedtime stories.) talked a lot about choice and freedom. He buried his point in writing more complicated than minotaur’s maze, but his point was basically this: “You are always free to choose, and if you’re denying it, you’re a dick.”

Now you might be sometimes tempted to deny you have a choice. I’ve done it myself a bunch of times. It’s comforting. It’s easy.

But there’s good news. You can achieve the same level of comfort without denying you have a choice. There’s a big difference between saying “I can’t quit my job” and “I could quit my job, but I choose not to”. But you can feel equally comfortable with both. (you can actually feel more comfortable with the second one.)

As long as you acknowledge you have a choice, pick your action (or decide not to act), and then move on and forget about it, you’re doing good.

Ok, let’s lighten up this heavy topic a bit :)

False restriction of choice

Scott Adams, the artist who draws Dilbert, said he was once approached by a reporter, when he was preparing for a speech about his comic. The reporter asked: “Would you like to do an interview before or after your speech?”

Heh :)

If you’ve read my article ***Ask the right questions***, you’ll immediately see the problem. This questions occupies your mind with whether to do the interview before or after the speech… completely ignoring the bigger question of whether you actually want to do the interview. Those evil tricky reporters :)

But Scott had heard this trick before, so he just answered “No, thanks.” So much for the reporter’s evil plot. Pwned.

Our choice

Let’s say you want to buy a sandwich. Your local sandwich shop gives you a simple choice – white bread or dark bread. You don’t really care one way or the other. You just pick white bread.

Then a friend comes along and says that says white bread sucks and you’re wrong to choose it, and he gives you some compelling reasons. If you had had no choice before (i.e. the shop offered only white bread), you might well agree with your friend. But since you chose white bread, you will probably now defend your choice.

When we choose something, it somehow becomes our choice. Suddenly we feel compelled to defend it in front of others. I think it has something to do with our ego. And the more we defend it, the more we like it, because we backward rationalize. “I must love that product, since I defend it in front of others so much.”

This is why you’ll never make anyone choose differently by attacking their current choice. Once emotions get involved, no amount of reasoning will do you any good. I see this mistake a lot with Linux fans. They attack Windows all day long, making Windows users defend their choice of operating system.

if you’re not given any choice, on the other hand, you might well resent the product, because you feel you’re being forced. (We humans LOVE freedom. Or the illusion of it.) I believe this is a big reason for Linux enthusiasts loving Linux and hating Windows. They feel they’re forced to use Windows (e.g. at work). Then they choose to use Linux at home. They will go a long way to defend their views.

How you can use all this

Okay, I’ve dug into a lot of stuff in this article. Here’s a quick summary of how you can use all of it.

  • Acknowledge you have a choice
  • Make your choice, then forget about it. The biggest reason for unhappiness about choices is that people keep thinking “I should have chosen…”
  • Don’t attack other people’s choice. You’ll only make them defend it harder
  • If you try to convince others about something (for their own good, obviously), give them a simple two-option choice. And let me know how it goes :)

Long days and pleasant nights.

###

Thanks for all the responses to “What do YOU want from my blog?”

I found out I’m basically doing fine. I’m just going to continue putting more of me in future posts. It might be personal stories (like in The Greatest Life Lesson I Learned From Playing Poker), or weird opinions I have (like in Why Linux Doesn’t Spread), or just stuff I’m interested in (like this post).

On an unrelated note, I came across this article while browsing the internet: Why We Banned Legos. It’s a really cool discussion how one school saw what happens with some kids get to have lots of property (lego pieces), and get power over others.

It was also fun to read people’s responses at some social networking website (can’t remember which). Basically a lot of people got offended by the article because they felt like their beliefs in capitalism were attacked, and they were reading some communist propaganda. Hey, I live in a rich capitalist country, and I liked the article! It made me think a lot. Read it, you’ll like it.

And one more thing. Since I wrote the article on Lucid Dreaming, I’ve head several lucid dreams again. I’ve thought about lucid dreams a lot while I was writing the article, and apparently it brought them back :) . I had a great one just yesterday. If you’ve seen the TV show Heroes, there’s this guy who has telekinesis, and can move stuff with his mind. That’s what I did in the dream. I just lifted stuff (like cars) off the ground with a hand gesture and threw them around. Fun :D

{ 5 comments }

Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

by Vlad Dolezal on July 19, 2008

“If I’m not having fun, or learning anything, then I’d better be sleeping.”
- Dr. Paul Dobransky

The rain was pouring down as if a whole sea had evaporated then moved through the sky and decided to rain back down right in my city. I just came home from shopping, and the few minutes it took me to walk from the subway to my home got me pretty well drenched.

I had two choices. I could grab a quick hot shower, change into dry clothes, and enjoy listening to the rain. I kinda felt like doing that. Or, I could go back outside into the rain. I really felt like doing that.

For a few moments I struggled with thoughts like “Why the hell would I want to go outside?” and “What would people think if they saw me?”. Then I stopped myself. I realized all that’s just nonsense. And I told myself – “What the hell. I’m a man. I don’t need to have a REASON for what I do.“

So I went outside. The moment the rain hit me again, I felt fantastic. I walked to the park across the street, stood the grass, turned my head up and just enjoyed the rain splattering on my face. I opened my mouth and enjoyed catching the raindrops on my tongue. I felt fantastic.

Then I felt like taking off my shoes, so I did. I started running my feet through the grass, then running around barefoot, with rain pouring down all around me. I saw some people in raincoats walking a dog, and I just smiled to myself. I didn’t care what anybody thought about me. This was my reality. I felt like taking of my t-shirt and laying on the grass, but for some reason I didn’t. This “taking myself too seriously” is one hell of an ingrained habit. I also did some pushups in the grass and whatnot, did some more running around barefoot, and then finally went back home when I felt like it. Did I mention I felt fantastic?

You don’t need a conscious reason for doing what you want to do. You’re a grown man (or woman). You don’t need anyone’s permission. “Because I feel like it” is a good enough reason for you.

Now, I don’t do some things that I feel like doing, because I would overstep other people’s boundaries. I don’t play the piano at 2 in the morning, even though I’d like to sometimes. But there’s a difference between not doing something because you would harm other people, and not doing something because of what others might think about you. The former is good mature behavior. The latter is just letting other people’s opinion of you control you for no reason.

Now that I think of it, this might be slightly different for women. Women have a hard-wired biological need to belong. To be considered normal, or “part of the group”. Men don’t have that. Men instead have a biological need for freedom. So, if you’re a woman, this article isn’t really for you. If you’re a man – read on. (Update: As several women pointed out, I’ve been wrong in gender-stereotyping men as wild adventurers and women as calm and normal. Women are just as big freaks as we are :D . Cheers for enlightening me!)

Have fun

Ever watched children playing? They do all sorts of silly role-playing, they climb around in trees, they play some crazy games… and they absolutely don’t care what others think about that. After all, it’s okay for a child to be acting silly.

Well, it’s okay for you too. You create your own reality. You might want to read my guest article Whose reality are YOU living in? over at The positivity blog. In there I describe why I choose to be an optimist, and why it’s so awesome.

When you stop taking yourself too seriously, you can really have fun! Just get in touch with that creative I-don’t-care-what-others-think attitude. Just like a child, you simply do your own thing and enjoy it.

Whether I get out in the rain, get up to sing “I’m a Barbie Girl” at karaoke (I’m a man), or approach a group of strangers with a completely ridiculous “pick-up line”, I just stop caring what anybody thinks about me. It’s incredibly liberating, and great fun. And that’s what life is all about.

I touched on this a bit in my article Making work fun. There, again, I described how I sometimes make work fun for myself by spontaneously doing silly stuff. If you haven’t read it yet, do so. You’ll like it.

Stop taking yourself too seriously

When I was a kid, I used to build sand forts at the beach. One of my favorite things to do was to build a protected area close to the sea (“I can’t let any water get in here”), and then build in front of that to make sure waves don’t reach it. I would start at low tide, and as the high tide came in, it would inevitably break through, no matter how huge walls I put up in front of the protected area. It was almost like a video game!

Then I went through a period of my life when I didn’t build anything at the beach. I thought things like “I’m too big for that” and “Nah, building sand forts is not for me”.  Of course, those were just excuses. The truth was, at some deep level I thought I didn’t have the permission to be doing that. That people would consider me a small kid (that’s a big issue for a teenager).

Later I realized it doesn’t matter what others think. Today, even though I’m a grown man, I have no trouble getting down on my knees and building stuff in the sand. And when I see nearby kids looking like “wtf is that old guy doing, building a sand fort?”, I just smile to myself. Because I do things that I feel like doing, instead of taking myself seriously.

So how do you get this care-free child-like attitude?

The few rules of thumb are:

  • stop caring what others (especially strangers) think
  • do silly stuff just because you feel like it
  • have fun

I’d also give you a few tricks or techniques… but thankfully that’s already been done. Check out Bill Beaty’s list. My highest recommendations (my favorite is “talking with an echo”). And, of course, you can do anything else you want. Just because you feel like it.

Cheers!

{ 33 comments }

What do YOU want from my blog?

by Vlad Dolezal on July 16, 2008

Hey! If you enjoy reading my blog, you’ve got a unique opportunity right now!

I’ve been blogging for you for a couple of months now, and it’s time to review the progress – let you decide what you want more of, and what you want less of.

You’ve seen me post silly and serious, profound and light-hearted, long and short. I’m pretty sure you like some of my posts better. Maybe you prefer reading short to-the-point posts that give you a quick explanation and ways to put it into practice. Or maybe you prefer longer posts where I dissect the topic from all sides, support it with a couple of stories, give you the bad points as well as the good, and then let you take action if you choose to. Or maybe you would like some “Top 10″ lists :p

Also, I’m pretty sure you prefer some topics to others. Maybe you’d like to know more about education and learning. Or hear more about my personal experiences. Or you would like to read more about blogging. Or maybe you’re a geek like me and would like to hear more about computers as well as personal growth.

It’s also pretty likely I missed out some topics you’d really like to know about, simply because they seem so obvious to me. Maybe I just naturally learned some skill at a young age, and don’t even consider it important to tell others, while you might be struggling with it.

In any case, now is your chance to let me know! Any thoughts on what you’d like to see on my blog in the future? Leave a comment or send me an email at vlad@anamazingmind.com

Oh yeah, I’ll be back with something good on Saturday. Just wait up.

{ 11 comments }

Ask The Right Questions

by Vlad Dolezal on July 9, 2008

“What is the meaning of life?”

That is just one of many, many questions that have nothing whatsoever to do with this article.

Ok, now how about these questions: “Why can’t I ever get this right?” “Why does this always happen to me?” “Why do I always screw this up?”

Do you know anyone who asks these questions? Or do you maybe even ask them yourself? Be honest. It doesn’t matter if you say them aloud or just think them silently. The effect is the same…

These questions are EVIL! They damage your productivity, your happiness and your success in life. After reading this article, you will know why, and how you can replace them with questions that empower you instead.

Your subconscious mind’s power

When you ask your subconscious mind to look for a creative solution to a problem, it will give you sooo many great answers! It’s amazing! Let’s say you decide to brainstorm ways to stop global warming. Your subconscious mind will probably hand you hundreds of answers, from the obvious (tax on greenhouse gases), to the downright crazy (build a huge reflective surface, then put it on a space ship, shoot it into space and place it between the Sun and the Earth. No more warmth from the Sun!)

Your subconscious mind is a top-grade targeting system. You give it instructions, and it will find anything that matches these instructions. It acts with surgical precision, but beware – It’s also completely cold and impersonal. It will find answers to any questions you ask, whether good for you or bad. Be very careful about what questions you ask.

If you ask “Why can’t I get this right?”, your mind will give you hundreds of reasons why you cannot get it right! That’s going to kill your motivation and chance to succeed right there.

But how about asking “How can I most easily do this right?”. Your mind will suddenly start sorting for all the ways you can accomplish your task. Obstacles will melt right in front of your eyes, and it will become easy.

Here are a couple of questions you want to avoid:

  • Why can’t I ever do this?
  • Why does this always happen to me?
  • Why do I always screw this up?
  • Are we there yet?
  • Are we there yet?
  • Are we th– ouch! What did you do that for?

And some questions you can ask instead

  • How can I most easily…?
  • What’s the simplest way to…?
  • What haven’t I thought of yet?
  • If there was a simple and elegant solution to this, what would it be?

These questions are incredibly powerful, because they leverage the basic nature of questions – when you ask any question, there are always some assumptions. For example, if you ask “Why is the sky blue?”, the assumption is “the sky is blue”. Your subconscious mind will never questions these assumptions – so you need to watch for them consciously.

If you ask “Why can’t I get this right”, the assumption is that you can’t get it right. No matter what answers your subconscious comes up with, they will always include that assumption. Uh oh.

But if you ask yourself “How can I most easily do this?”, you assume:

  • You can do it
  • There are several ways it can be done
  • It’s easy

That puts you in one helluva productive frame of mind!

Creativity through questions

“Most people look at things that are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?”
- George Bernard Shaw

The greatest inventors are always asking empowering questions. Everybody used to think that the Earth was the center of the universe, and that other planets travel around it along complicated epicycles attached to circles, and sub-epicycles attached to those, and whatnot. But Kepler looked at the tables of planetary positions and asked himself – “Is there a simple explanation?”. And he found one – Sun is the center of our solar system.

You too can use the same questions to solve your problems! Here’s what you can do right now:

Think of some area of your life where you have a problem to solve. It could be at work, or in arranging work-life balance, or anything else. Now ask yourself the questions:

  1. How can I most easily solve this?
  2. What haven’t I thought of yet?
  3. If there was a simple solution, what would it be?

Your mind will hand you lots of answers. If you don’t like them, keep asking until you’re satisfied. Don’t worry, devils in hell will be ice-skating before your mind runs out of creative solutions.

When you have the solution, write it down. Then, as soon as possible, take the next step – action!

So, what problem can you use this on right now?

{ 9 comments }

Making Work Fun (cure procrastination NOW!)

by Vlad Dolezal on July 5, 2008

One day, back when I still sometimes had to help clean around the house, I had to sweep the living room floor. Except I obviously didn’t feel like it. So I was like “I’ll just read a book for a bit, and then get to it.” After reading I thought “I’m feeling hungry. I’ll go buy some bread and eat. Then I’ll immediately get started on sweeping.” … “Ah, I’m feeling full right now. I’ll just pop online and play some bridge, then I’ll get to it.” and so on, and so on…

I stopped myself! I realized I was procrastinating because sweeping the floor was bloody boring! So I thought about how to make it fun for myself. And I came up with a solution – make it more challenging! So I stood on one leg, lifted the other one up while bending my body forward (forming a T-shape) and swept the floor like that, hopping around on one leg! (I also started talking in weird voices and eventually fell over from laughing at myself.)

The point is, we procrastinate about work. But we never procrastinate about fun! (Ah ha! Could this be the cure to all procrastination? Yes, it could!) How often do you say “Ah, I have to watch TV, but I don’t feel like it right now. I’ll go do some accounting first.”? Wait, don’t tell me! I’ll practice my psychic powers. Ugghhnnghhnngh… got it! The answer you’re thinking is… “never”!

(spooky, eh?)

By the way, when I say “work” in this article, I don’t mean what you do for a living. I use a broader definition. Fun is something you enjoy doing. Work is something you have to do. (feel free to quote me :) )

Why work isn’t fun

Interestingly, since work is something you have to do, and fun is something you enjoy doing, they’re mutually exclusive. You can’t have both. You either “have to” do something, or you enjoy doing it.

Yes, I’m sure you can think of many examples where you enjoy doing things you have to do. Bear with me. When you enjoy things like that, it usually means you found a way to put a unique twist on them. Like me sweeping the floor while being bent over and hopping around on one foot. I didn’t have to sweep the floor like that. That’s what made it fun!

Interestingly, it also works in reverse. The moment you turn something into what you “have to do”, it stops being fun. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I present you…

How to turn fun into work!

Do you find yourself having too much fun? Do friends and family despise you because you have fun while everyone’s working? Do you feel excluded when your peers complain about how daft and boring life is?

Don’t worry!

I have just the solution for you! With my new, revolutionary, patented turn-fun-into-workTM system, you can live the life required of you by society in the 21st century!

I know how you feel! I’ve been there. I used to have fun every day for a better part of my life. I even went through periods of time when I was having fun all the time. But now I’m over it! Thanks to turn-fun-into-workTM, I haven’t had a single bit of fun in over ten years!

So how do you go about it? Following is a list of techniques you can start using IMMEDIATELY to have less fun in your life:

1. Bribe yourself

Give yourself a reward every time you complete a given task! Let’s say you enjoy drawing. Give yourself a dollar every time you complete a drawing. Or even better. Pay yourself by the minute! You’ll stop caring about the process and instead only draw for the end result (money). You won’t believe how quickly this simple technique turns a fun activity into a tedious boring one!

(Serious side note: This is a huge effect in education. In my article about education, I discuss in detail how giving students grades slowly sucks away any willingness to learn they have. Read that section of the article, it’s very useful to know for life in general as well as education.)

2. Think negatively

Do you find that you just can’t help smiling when you wake up in the morning, the birds are singing and find it’s another beautiful sunny day? I’ve got just the solution for you!

Try this simple exercise. For the whole day, just keep saying “This f*cking sucks!” Like at the store. “Good morning.” “This f*cking sucks!” You won’t believe how fast you’ll stop having fun! (Yeah, that’s right, I said the f-word. And by “the f-word” I obviously mean fun. Don’t make me say it again!)

By the end of the day, you’ll feel like crawling into bed and never getting out again. And the next morning, you’ll slowly crawl out of bed, feeling like you were run over by a truck. You’ll curse the annoying birds and the sun in your eyes, then you’ll slowly walk towards the bathroom mumbling “This f*cking sucks!”

Congratulations! You have just made avoiding fun a whole lot easier for the whole day ahead!

3. Plan it

If there’s one thing that’s inherently evil (read – fun), it’s spontaneity. But don’t you worry! You can easily kill spontaneity… by planning it! You’ll never have spontaneous fun again! You’re safe!

Do you accidentally find yourself having fun when you spontaneously go bowling with friends? I can help you cure that! Simply plan every… minute… detail. Plan what are you going to wear. Plan what you’re going to drink. Plan what you’re going to say. If you get your friends to do the same, you’ll never be in danger of having fun again!

So there you go! Armed with the revolutionary turn-fun-into-workTM system, you’ll never have fun again! You can finally function in the western society without stirring any waves! And once you succeed in not having any fun, I have a great drink to sell you! It’s called Kool-Aid…

(end of sarcasm)

Making work fun and ending procrastination

So how do you make work fun? Well, first of all avoid the stuff mentioned above. You’ve got enough work already, you don’t need any more.

For example bribing yourself is a common tactic (like letting yourself have a cold beer when you’re finished writing an essay). But it’s disastrously counterproductive. You might get yourself to do the work this one time, but the next time you want to do the same task, you’ll only resist it harder.

Aaron Schwartz wrote a great article about procrastination called How to be more productive. He describes procrastination like an invisible force field surrounding a task. If you push harder, the force field only repels you stronger. That’s why advice like “just do it” or “try harder” is useless. To overcome procrastination, you need to be sneaky – walk around the force field, or dig under it.

It’s also why nagging is so ineffective. The more you remind someone of a task, the stronger the force field becomes.

Below are some of my favorite tactics for overcoming procrastination. You’ll outflank the force field and you’ll be doing the task you want before your brain even realizes it! Zero resistance!

1. Set yourself a different task

The biggest factor in booting up the force field is when someone (including you) sets you a task. Let’s say you need to get a 1000-word report done. You tell yourself you need to do it, you write it down, and you think about it. And the invisible force field only keeps growing stronger.

Stop! You can use this effect to your advantage! Set yourself a different task, for example oiling the squeaky bathroom door (note to self: aaargh!). Write it down. Repeat it to yourself. Tell others you need to get it done. Tell a friend or relative to keep reminding you of it.

Soon oiling the door will become the dominant task you’re procrastinating against. It will probably go something like this. “I need to get the door oiled. Wait, there’s a show on TV I really need to watch. I’ll do it after. (…) The show’s ended. I should get the door oiled. But wait, I’m feeling hungry, let me just get something to eat first. (…) I should get the door done now. But I don’t feel like it. Let me just write up this 1000-word report, and then I’ll do it.”

Bam! Problem solved!

You’ll procrastinate against this new task you set… by doing the task you wanted to get done in the first place. You basically replaced the force field around your 1000-word report with a stronger force field around oiling the bathroom door.

2. Be spontaneous and make it fun

This one’s a bit tricky. The whole point of work is that it’s something you need to get done. You can’t be spontaneous about the whole thing. But you can pick one aspect, make it fun, and go for it!

Like in the example with me swiping the living room floor while hopping around on one foot and talking in weird voices. That’s not something I planned three days in advance. I did it on the spur of the moment.

Or, another time, I was really procrastinating about writing a blog post. I sat around for hours struggling with writer’s block. Then I was like “Ah, whatever, I’ll write the post in iambic pentameter.” (here’s the result) I didn’t actually write the whole post like that, but it got me started.

That’s the great thing about spontaneously starting a task in a random way. You probably won’t finish the whole task like that. But it gets you started, and you can just keep going. You already bypassed the force field.

3. Do it for its own sake

This one doesn’t work every time (the previous two do!). But if it works, it’s really great in the long run. Try finding a way that you can enjoy the process in itself, not just the end result.

Maybe pay attention to the smallest details. Get absorbed in the process. Do it slowly and deliberately, while breathing deeply.

The trouble with work is that you’re usually focused on the end result. This prevents you from enjoying the process. But if you find a way to enjoy the process, you’re going to kill the procrastination right there. You’ll turn the task into fun – something you do for its own sake.

This advice is the exact opposite of bribing yourself. When you bribe yourself, you focus on the end result (e.g. drinking a cold beer as a reward), but you build aversion to the task. Here you actually get to like the task and look forward to it!

4. Sleep on it

This is the last resort, if everything else fails.

When you push yourself to do something, you pit your energy reserves (also called self-control in this context) against the strength of the force field. If you can’t find a way to walk around the force field or make it weaker, you’ll have to make your own energy levels stronger.

Positive life attitude does wonders. Unfortunately it’s not something you can change overnight. What you can do overnight is… sleep! You’ll wake up refreshed with more energy!

Battling the force field head-on drains you though. That’s why I always prefer to sneak around.

So there you go. Next time you’re procrastinating, just start jumping around on one foot, start singing, and remember how badly your bathroom door needs oiling (note to self: aaargh!). Until next time.

plop

Update: I now have a free 7-day e-mail course on Overcoming Procrastination available. It goes into a lot more depth on the different causes of procrastination (and gives you techniques to deal with each of them). And it gives you specific actions each day to get you moving and changing your life for the better! Check it out.

{ 9 comments }

Hypnosis, Meditation and Sensory Deprivation – (Six Incredibly Awesome Mind States You Can Experience)

by Vlad Dolezal on July 2, 2008

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! TV networks have interrupted their broadcast with a special report, international airports have closed down, politicians have stopped lying! (ok, the last bit isn’t true). That’s right! The final installment of my Incredibly Awesome Mind States series has arrived!

It’s delicious and nutritious and pretentious and a dozen other words ending in -ious that I just can’t think of right now. (ok, the third bit is true this time)

“But wait!” I hear you say! Isn’t this only the fourth installment? Aren’t there supposed to be six incredibly awesome mind states?

Oh yes! And you know how I resolve that paradox? No, it’s not magic – look, there’s nothing up my sleeves! I resolve the paradox like this: Today’s article contains not one, not two, not four, not five, not six… (etc. up to one hundred and thirty seven)… but, (you never would have guessed it), three incredibly awesome mind states!

I know, I know. I’m spoiling you. Up until now, I’ve been teasing you one by one. But now it’s time for the huge climax! Three incredibly awesome mind states in one post! Woohoo!

(okay, the real reason I packed the last three together is because they’re the ones I haven’t experienced yet – so I can’t say much about them. That’s why they fit in one article.)

Alright, enough teasing!

1. Hypnosis

Sure, today you can get hypnosis pre-packaged as an mp3, or you can do auto-hypnosis or whatever. But I’m talking about the old fashioned hypnosis, where you get up on stage and a hypnotist makes you do things.

I’d love to experience that!

What’s it like? I’ve read Richard Feynman’s account in his book “But Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman”. He says you keep going along with the hypnotist because you’re interested in what’s going to happen next. You feel slightly fogged out but otherwise aware of what’s going on. You keep telling yourself that you could disobey him but you won’t. Which is just another way of saying that you can’t. (Feynman’s words)

He also describes what it was like when he did finally decide to disobey an order by the hypnotist:

(…) at the end he said that after I came out of hypnosis, instead of returning to my seat directly, which was the natural way to go, I would walk all the way around the room and go to my seat from the back.
All through the demonstration I was vaguely aware of what was going on, and cooperating with the things the hypnotist said, but this time I decided, “Damn it, enough is enough! I’m gonna go straight to my seat.”
When it was time to get up and go off the stage, I started to walk straight to my seat. But then an annoying feeling came over me: I felt so uncomfortable that I couldn’t continue. I walked all the way around the hall.

Funky!

Say whatever you say, but I’d love to experience hypnosis!

2. Meditation

I’ve been vaguely interested in meditation for some time. But recently I had my interest really spiked. At my Toastmasters club, when we had our last session before summer break, two of the members said one of their favorite things to do over summer is meditation. I was also browsing self-improvement blogs, and apparently one of the most popular posts at PickTheBrain is called How to Meditate.

So I was like “Booyah! I gotta get me some o’ dat shizznit!”

People who tried it say it’s a really interesting state of mind. An incredibly awesome one, if you will :)

After you’ve practiced concentration and learned to focus on one thing at a time, you can proceed to the next stage: no thought at all. Achieving a silent mind is difficult, but when you attain it the experience is powerful. A technique I advise is viewing your thoughts as separate from your self. When a thought appears, make a conscious decision to throw it out of your mind. Over time you realize that you are capable of allowing or rejecting thoughts. Your real I is not a collection of thoughts, but something far deeper. This is the most significant realization of meditation – that you do not have to be a slave to your thoughts

Hell, yeah! That’s nuts enough for me to try! Plus, it apparently improves concentration, has great benefits for your health and makes you happier. But let’s face it, that’s not why I would do it :) . I just enjoy the really weird stuff that’s beyond anything ordinary people would ever imagine, let alone experience. (Dare to join me? Try lucid dreaming.)

3. Sensory deprivation

Now this is a funky one! It also comes in two main flavors.

Firstly, you could try shutting down all your senses. Some folks specialize in providing this. They have these “isolation tanks”, which are basically just baths with a lid. They’re neutrally buoyant and the water is at body temperature so that you don’t feel anything. Once you close the lid it’s completely dark in there. You can’t hear anything except your own breath and heartbeat when you’re in there. You can’t really taste much since you’re not eating anything, and you probably won’t smell anything there. So there’s your five senses taken care of!

Okay, now why would people do this? Here’s a list of reasons why I would do it:

  1. It’s funky!
  2. When you cut off all outside stimuli, after a while you start seeing and feeling weird stuff
  3. Possible out-of-body experiences
  4. It’s funky!

Yeah, I know, out-of-body experience is way out in the left field, together with telepathy and UFO sightings. Hey, I’d just like to experience it myself to see what it’s like! And all the other weird stuff you start feeling when your senses are shut down is supposed to be a lot of fun too! Without consuming any illegal substances! In fact, sensory deprivation is apparently good for your health, since some alternative medicine folks use it as therapy.

Partial sensory deprivation

In one experiment, scientists put people in a completely dark, soundproofed room. They left them there for 24 hours.

(no, I can’t remember how they arranged toilet needs in the pitch dark)

The subject would first lie down and just relax. Then, after some time, they would grow restless. With no sights and no sounds, they would soon start feeling really spooky. They would start walking around aimlessly, apparently because movement at least makes you realize you’re there.

I can’t remember where I read about this experiment so I can’t quote exactly, but one subject described it roughly like this:

I had been in there for what felt like one day. Then two days, then three. When you are all alone, only with your thoughts, time passes incredibly slowly. I kept hoping it would finally be over, but the time just went on and on. I began to think they had forgotten all about me and I would just die in there.
After what felt like a week, suddenly a ray of light appeared. An experimenter opened the door to take me out. They turned the lights down to almost nothing in the corridor, but it felt incredibly bright after the long darkness. I almost fell at the experimenter’s feet and thanked him for rescuing me.
When I went out afterwards, everything seemed so wonderful. I saw every mundane object in a completely new light. I admired the colors, the way light reflected off shiny surfaces, the depth and beauty of everything around me. When you spend 24 hours without any eyesight, you really learn to appreciate what you have.

Booyah!

About 80% of all sensory input our brain processes is from our eyes. It makes sense that when we take that away, all sorts of funky stuff happens!

One restaurant used this with great success. They serve their foods in a cellar, in complete darkness. The waiters are blind people – they don’t have trouble navigating in pitch dark.

With your eyesight shorted out, and all distractions left behind, even the simplest food tastes absolutely amazing. (that’s what their customers say). Plus, it helps that the foods are named like “blue from the sky”, so you have no idea what you’re ordering :)

I would definitely like to try that once. Wait, now that I think of it – I can just get together some friends and we can do this ourselves! One would prepare some food, and the others would eat it with a blindfold over their eyes. Then we could change the chef, so everybody gets to enjoy it!

Thanks for making me think of that!

Anyway, this was it! TV broadcasts can continue, airplanes can fly again.
Vlad finished writing incredibly awesome mind states, and the world will never been the same.
(yes, this is why I’m a blogger and not a poet.)

{ 3 comments }