April 2009

Real Observations from my Reader Survey (seriously this time)

by Vlad Dolezal on April 29, 2009

Yeah, I know… it’s the third completely self-indulgent post in a row. Don’t worry, the next one will be aaallll about you :)

Today, I’ll sum up all the useful information I got from the survey, so you all know what’s going on! (Somehow, I personally find it a bit gutting if I fill in a survey for a blog I like, and then the author doesn’t ever mention the survey again.)

As with the not-so-serious observations from my reader survey, I will use bold type for the reader answers, and normal type for my own comments. Oh, and today, there’s plenty of pictures :D

Here we go!

Question 1: How did you first come across my blog?

survey1

Note that most of the “Other” category actually means “I don’t remember” (before I added that as an explicit option).

I found out that surprisingly many of you come from Google. I get by far the most hits from Google for “simple inventions”, and I don’t think the searchers are looking for what I cover in 7 Simple Inventions I Absolutely Love.

Question 2: In 1 or 2 sentences, why do you read my blog?

I got a ton of great responses to this question. Here are a few that are pretty representative of the whole:

You have a nice, friendly way of writing, and you choose some great topics.

It’s amusing and cheerful and fits in with how I see things.

It have many good tips on how to improve life.. and make it more effective..

It’s innovative and interesting. I’ve tried several pieces of advice and they worked :)

seeing life from another perspective is invigorating to the mind

Oh, and this one:

You have an eerie way of occasionally putting up content that is really pertinent to my life. In other words, I’m like “I really should learn underwater basket weaving,” and you’re blog the next day or two says “5 Simple Ways to Start Weaving Baskets–Underwater!”.

What a co-incidence, I was just… no, never mind.

Question 3: What topics would you like to see more of?

survey2

I’m glad the number 1 request is more crazy fun ideas, because that’s what I enjoy writing about the most :D

As for the other results, they’re roughly what I expected… except for learning. I’m surprised by the high demand for articles on learning, so I’ll definitely cook some up for you.

Question 4: What is the most important thing I can help people with?

There were a bunch of cool answers, so I want to share a few. Pause for a few seconds to think after you read each one:

getting out of the numbing daily routine and realizing that there are great things to be done with ones life

to accept and love themselves

Figuring out how the minds of women work :P

being themselves

Opening minds to possibilities that they never thought were there. The [7 Days] e-mails opened my eyes to ‘yes I can’ for the very first time.

To find themselfes.

A thread running through these responses is finding yourself, accepting yourself, and being yourself. I might do a post or two on those topics.

And then there was surprisingly many answers all along these lines:

Realizing how much potential they have. People can be amazing, they just need a little nudge in the right direction sometimes.

How to help themselves

Help them help themselves. They can read entire books about productivity, happiness, and any other subject imaginable, but it is useless unless they GET UP and do something about it NOW. Give them them the inspiration to do that.

I think your motivation email series is excellent. Why don’t you expand it and create a video series etc. So…I’d have to say motivating people to change, I could use tips from you on that

In other words, only you can help yourself. I can provide guidance, motivation and inspiration. But creating the changes is up to you.

I’d like to take this moment to tell you a little secret about my “7 Days” e-mail series.

Originally, it had nothing to do with procrastination. I actually set out to create a bunch of e-mails that would really help you change your own life by having you take small but meaningful action every day. I got inspired by going through a Tony Robbins program where he had me take consistent action 30 days in a row.

But then, for some reason, a few days before I launched it I decided that the idea wasn’t marketable enough. So I re-framed it as “overcoming procrastination”.

So even if you have no trouble with procrastination, my e-mail series 7 Days to Lasting Personal Growth is well worth checking out. Because not only do I cover 7 major topics of personal development (and tie them in to overcoming procrastination :p), but I also help you get started on your own personal development journey by giving you small action steps to take every day!

I can’t magically improve your life. Only you yourself can do that. But, as one reader put it, “helping you help yourself” is what I can do. And my “7 Days” e-mail series is all about that.

It’s free. Try it.

Question 5: Which of the following would you be interested in?

survey3

Quite a lot of readers left this answer blank. A lot of you simply enjoy reading, so I’m mainly going to keep writing. But I’ll throw in some videos and audio interviews too, because there’s clearly demand for that stuff.

Also, as one reader pointed out, my audio interviews suck, compared to my blog posts. That’s true, I’ve had 15 months’ practice blogging. But as I recently shared, one awesome attitude that transformed my life is applying everything I learn as soon as possible.

So I’m well aware that my audio and video at the moment is of less-than-stellar quality. That’s kind of the point :)

Question 6: Do you have any questions you would like me to answer in my future posts?

Quite a lot of you actually had no questions whatsoever. Then there were a bunch of good questions I will answer in future blog posts. And a few quick ones I can answer right now:

How did you come to be where you are? A little bit more about you. What are you studying?

I got up from my bed and walked to the chair, where I sat down. Hi, I’m Vlad. Right now I’m studying the reader responses to my survey.

(Or alternately: Hi, I’m Vlad, and I’m studying maths in Leeds, UK. I’m here because I wanted to study abroad, and UK seemed like the best choice. You can get a pretty good idea about my general interests from my blog. To find out more interesting details from my life, you can follow me on twitter: @VladDolezal.)

How to go from here to there..

That’s actually a pretty good question and might warrant a whole blog post, but I can give a quick answer here:

One thing I found very useful is writing down a general plan. First figure out where you are, and where you want to get. Then fill in the big milestones you need to reach to get there. Think like a painter – do the broad strokes first, fill in the details later.

For example, let’s say your goal is having $1 million. To reach that, you probably need to sell a good product to a large audience. To do that, you might need to start a company. Before you do that, you’ll need to assemble a “mastermind group” of like-minded individuals. Before you do that, you’ll need to figure out what your vision is – your unique contribution to the world. And so on.

Got the idea?

Also, if you want some help in figuring out your mission in life, check out Chris Guillebeau’s Brief Guide to World Domination. It’s a free pdf report -  just 29 pages, but packed chock-full of useful information. It’s been downloaded over 100,000 times already.

How do you find inspiration that meets the market? In other words, how do you make sure you are posting stuff that people are looking for (supply/demand) and keep it within your personal philosophy?

Good question. Actually, until now, I didn’t give that much thought to what others want. I know, how evil and selfish. The fact is, I simply figured out what stuff I enjoy, then wrote about it in a way I would personally enjoy reading.

But that’s changing with this survey, because now I’m trying to figure out exactly what you want :)

Or, to sum it up with a picture:

venndiagram11

I’m consistently moving from the light-blue section to the dark-blue.

will life ever be better than right now? :D

Yes! All you need to do is give me all your worldly possesions…

Is procrastinating bad?

Actually, it comes to how you define procrastination. The way I define it, it’s the ultimate evil, because it’s neither productive, nor fun, nor restful.

If you’re talking about hanging out, having fun, that kind of stuff – that’s very good indeed. I wouldn’t call it procrastination. (I might go into a bit more detail on how I think about procrastination some other time.)

What’s your web platform? Is hosted or you own computer used as server? What CMS do you use?

Not sure what you mean by web platform. I use bluehost for my web hosting. I use WordPress to manage my blog.

How can you make an unpleasant task more intrinsically motivating?

Make it fun. Basically, don’t take yourself too seriously. Put a unique twist on it. Go and watch how kids can have so much fun with anything, even sticks and pine cones. Then approach the unpleasant task with the same mindset – find a way to “play” with it.

Would you like to adopt a very stinky German Sheppard?

Errrr….

…

There were a ton more good questions, but we’d be here all day if I answered all of them. (About half of the questions were asked by a single person, too. (You know who you are.))

Question 7: Any other comments/feedback:

This section literally blew me away. Thanks a TON to everybody who left a positive comment :D

I got dozens of dozens great inspiring comments encouraging me to keep going. I think I’m going to assemble them all together, print them out on several sheets of paper, and just hang that right above my desk, so I can look at it every time I start to lose motivation.

Here’s just a very small selection:

Keep up the great work!

Great blog! Keep going!!

Keep up the good work…you really inspire me

Thanks, and keep on keepin’ on.

I don’t think you could fully appreciate the effect your blog has had on me and probably other people. I think this is such a beautiful thing – searching for ways to make your life better and then dedicating part of it to make others’ better too. I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but through your selflessness you’ve made at least one person in the world feel less alone – and that’s definitely worth something. Thank you, and keep it up, I hope more knowledge and good come your way.

Thanks for sharing your ideas :D

You rock!

…

Thanks! You guys rock too!

And that’s all for today. Again, thanks a ton to everybody who filled out the survey. I’ll be back with you on Saturday.

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Observations from my Reader Survey

by Vlad Dolezal on April 27, 2009

On Saturday, I posted a survey to get your feedback on my blog. I got a ton of awesome responses, so thanks a bunch to everybody who answered!

Today, I’m going to highlight some of the utterly and most completely super-important and significant things I learned from that survey.

I arranged these observations by question number. The reader responses are in bold type, while my comments are in normal type.

Read on to find out:

  • what do saddles for giraffes have to do with personal development
  • that my blog is kinda alright, and “not too bad”
  • The REAL reason people read my blog (2nd answer to question 2)

It doesn’t get more significant and life-changing than that!

Question 1: How did you first come across my blog?

Here’s a sampling of some responses I got:

I can’t remember.

I don’t remember.

I cant remember anymore sry

Sadly, I can’t remember. It could have been StumbleUpon, but I’m not sure.

Sorry, I don’t recall… it’s been quite a while now.

Clearly, what we can learn from this question is… I need to do some posts on improving memory! ;)

Question 2: In 1 or 2 sentences, why do you read my blog?

I somehow read the Linux stuff and the rest of your blog’s not too bad either (ok, most of it).

So we learn that my blog content is kinda alright, and “not too bad”! Sweet :D

drunk

[I honestly can't think of a witty response here, but it was too awesome not to share :D . So, whoever you are that posted this... you get a VladPoint!]

It offers a fresh perspective in a fun and simple way that doesn’t come off as a “I’m better than you and you should listen to all I say” tone.

I’M BETTER THAN YOU AND YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO EVERYTHING I SAY!

I just basicly think you are awesome, Vlad.

Uh oh, I think I have a stalker here.

It originally provided short, meaningful insight and some of the math things were interesting.

Phew, good thing I got rid of all the meaningful and interesting stuff!

Question 3: What topics would you like to see more of?

How to make saddles for giraffes, and tips on how to ride them.

Wow, what a co-incidence! I was just preparing a 12-post series on that topic! I find that riding giraffes is crucial in understanding the connection between using Linux and personal development…

Question 4: What is the most important thing I can help people with?

life

Ah, and here I was, thinking of helping people with death.

Question 6: Do you have any questions you would like me to answer in my future posts?

Gnome or KDE? and why?

Ah, yes, that’s the eternal question. Even Socrates said, “After 60 years of pondering, there is still one question I have no idea about. KDE or Gnome?”

And his apprentice answered “How about this one: ‘Vi or emacs?’”

And thus Socrates said unto him “Yeah, that one too, but it doesn’t sound as dramatic to say ‘After 60 years of pondering, there are still two questions… no wait, three… no, wait…’ ”

And the apprentice was enligtened.

Question 7: Any other comments/feedback:

(…) none of the options in (5) are very appealing, but maybe its just that i like to read (and not to listen)

Keep up the good work! -1 for Video/Audio things.

Maybe I’m weird, but I prefer text posts to audio or video.

Ah! The last person gets it! Us 4 are weird (I also personally prefer text), and everybody else who likes audio and video is completely normal.

On a more serious note…

On  a more serious note, there really were a ton of great responses, and hopefully I’ll assemble the serious version of this article by tomorrow. There’s a lot of good stuff in there I want to share with you all.

Thanks a bunch to everyone who filled out the survey!

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Reader Survey

by Vlad Dolezal on April 25, 2009

I’d like to get to know each of you a little better. I’ve created a simple survey about my blog. It has only 7 questions, and should take less than 5 minutes to fill out.

Update: The survey is now closed. Thanks everybody who took the time to fill it in.

I know filling out a survey is not the most fun way to spend your time. I’ve done a few myself for other blogs. But I want to provide you with the most useful and interesting content possible. And your feedback would really help me with that.

So if you could just take less than 5 minutes to fill out the survey, that would be awesome!

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Video Post! How to Not Leave Everything Until the Last Moment

by Vlad Dolezal on April 22, 2009

Hey everybody!

This is my first video post, so please excuse that it’s a bit rough around the edges.

I had to cut off a bit at the beginning because of recording issues (so you don’t get to see me say “Hi everybody!”… awwww). Also at one point I say “This is my task…” when I obviously mean “This is my list [of tasks]…”. It made me realize how easy it is to make small edits in a text blog post compared to a single-shot video :)

I hope you enjoy the video!

(if you’re reading this in your RSS reader and can’t see the video, click through to the blog and watch it there.)

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My Two Posts on Other Blogs, Plus a Fun Way to Lift Your Mood in Under a Minute

by Vlad Dolezal on April 18, 2009

I recently had two guest posts published at two of my favorite blogs.

The first was published on The Discomfort Zone. I really recommend you check out the rest of the blog after you read my guest post, because Tim Brownson has a very unique writing style. You’ll understand when you see it. Now read my guest post on The Discomfort Zone. (The post has a boring title, but interesting content, if I may say so myself :) )

The second post is called The Plague of Happiness Ever After, and it’s on The Positivity Blog. That’s a great blog to read for positive uplifting thoughts. Oh, and trust me, you’ll love this guest post. It’s even got a dragon and everything :D

…

And now for something completely unrelated.

I recently came across a cool blog called Happy Lotus, and I found a really nifty piece of advice there. Apparently drawing a positive uplifting doodle on a piece of paper, like a smiley face or a rose, will immediately improve your mood.

The moment I read that, I had to try it. And since I always keep around a pen and some paper, I just had to reach for my pen and start doodling. And all I can say, after drawing a happy smiley face and a happy penguin, I was openly grinning :)

It definitely works! Some people even report that you simply can’t feel unhappy while drawing positive doodles, just like you can’t sneeze with your eyes open. I’m going to use it from now on to make boring lectures more fun :D . You can read the original post where I heard the advice, and then browse around the blog. You’ll enjoy it.

And that’s all for today! I’ll be back with you on Wednesday.

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Creating Money out of Thin Air

by Vlad Dolezal on April 15, 2009

creating_money1

Hi everybody. Today, I’ll show you how to create money out of thin air.

That is, using knowledge that you already have. And, even better, it’s using knowledge that’s unique to you, so nobody can steal your personal way of creating money out of thin air, even if they read this post too!

What is money

First a simple point. What is money?

Think about it.

Small green pieces of paper are not money. I mean sure, they ARE money, but you don’t need them to have money.

Over 90% of money today is digital. If you went a bank and asked for your money, the bank wouldn’t just go to some vault where they store YOUR money and withdraw that for you. They would simply give you a bunch of small colourful papers, which would REPRESENT the amount of money you had with them.

But you don’t need high-tech computers either. There was money around before them. There was gold, and seashells, and “IOU”s, millenia ago!

No, money is something more fundamental. Put simply:

Money is a representation of value.

You with me so far?

So, to create money, just create value for other people. You can then always find a way to turn that into money.

That’s a deep point, so you might want to pause for a bit if you haven’t considered that before. Or, if you’ve heard it a million times before, read on, because now I’ll show you how to CREATE value out of thin air.

Okay, let’s go on to the REALLY good stuff!

How to create value in one easy step

Here it comes! An EXTREMELY easy formula for creating value:

Join two unrelated fields.

Like Andria Baldovin, a case study from Tim Ferris’ Four Hour Work Week. She knew a lot about yoga and rock-climbing, and she noticed some yoga exercises she knew were great for rock-climbers.

None of the rock-climbers knew them, because they didn’t do yoga, and no yoga folks realized the exercises would be great for rock-climbers, because they didn’t climb. Only Andria, because she knew both fields, realized how much value she could bring to rock-climbers by teaching them the simple exercises. So she created instructional DVDs, and now earns a nice living through that.

Or Brian Clark from copyblogger. He decided to join the fields of blogging and copywriting, because he noticed how useful copywriting advice could be to bloggers. He has built a massively successful blog, by teaching bloggers to create catchy headlines, and snappy interesting content, by applying copywriting principles.

In both of the above cases, the entrepreneurs managed to literally create money out of thin air. Just by joining two unrelated fields they knew about.

How you can apply this

Ok, it’s time to give you action steps to apply this!

The first step is pretty obvious. Pick two unrelated fields.

Now, you don’t need to be an absolute expert at both of them. You just need to know quite a bit about one, and have basic competence in the other.

For example, Andria didn’t need to be anywhere near a stellar rock-climber to realize the yoga exercises would be great for climbers. It takes only a few sessions to realize which muscles always end up stiff after climbing. And she just needed to know a bit about yoga to know that those exercises existed.

If you’re not sure which two fields of your expertise you could join, that’s quite natural. First grab a piece of paper. (In fact, even if you already have an idea, do this anyway.)

Then, on your piece of paper, write all the fields you’re good at. Yes, all of them. There will probably be dozens.

Then, if you want, make another list of all the fields you have basic competence at. This way you have more options :)

And now the next step…

What to look for – Why this works

This process works because there are always some things that are completely obvious and common in one field, but an absolute revolution in another field.

Alex Sol, an internet marketer, was once passing through Montreal. He saw a shop selling LED signs, and on a whim decided to stop there. He walked in, asked the business owner how the business had been going, and then if they have a website.

Since it was 2008, they did, but it was nowhere to be found on Google for their keywords. So Alex offered to make him a website for $1000, and have it rank in Top 5 on google for several of the main keywords.

He delivered in one week (most of which was waiting for Google to index the site), with ease that surprised even himself. It’s very easy to get ranked high on Google if your keywords include the name of the local town.

In Alex’s own words: “I made $1300 for about 2 hours of work. I was completely shocked to realize how much money there is in taking local offline businesses online”.

And the business owner? He got his investment back a week later, since he landed two new clients for a total of $3000.

The above is a great example. Basic keyword optimisation is Internet Marketing 101. Yet it’s something completely foreign and alien to most local business owners.

So what you’re looking for are skills that are completely obvious in one field, and a complete revolution in the other.

If you have your paper in front of you, and can think of some interesting connections between unrelated fields, just note them down. Within a few minutes, you should have several ideas that you can explore in more detail.

And that’s it. You can now start creating money out of thin air! Just bring your knowledge from one field to another.

Cheers!

(Image courtesy of Steve Wampler)

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Interview With Leo Babauta

by Vlad Dolezal on April 12, 2009

Hey folks! Today, I’m bringing you an interview with the star blogger Leo Babauta.

Leo writes one of the most successful personal development blogs around, Zen Habits, with over 100,000 subscribers. He lives in the tropical paradise Guam (at least it sounds like paradise to me, living in the UK :p), he is happily married with 6 kids and he works from home at his own pace. He’s also recently published a book, The Power of Less. I haven’t read it yet, but I hear good things about it.

In this interview, we cover two main topics:

1. Blogging

Where Leo explains:

  • how to pick a blog name
  • how to create a consistent brand
  • what to write about (it’s different for everybody, but there are some common aspects)
  • how he achieved his great success (and you can too)


2. Personal Development

Where Leo explains:

  • the power of habits
  • how to form habits
  • how to make time for what’s essential in your life
  • one simple daily trick that can really boost your productivity

Hit the play button below to listen to the interview!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

You can also right-click here to download the interview, for convenient listening on your portable mp3 player.

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One Awesome Attitude That Can Transform Your Life

by Vlad Dolezal on April 7, 2009

Have you ever wondered what separates successful people from mediocre people?

Sure, there’s a difference in skills, and resources. But those aren’t that important. What really makes the difference is attitude.

Thomas Edison wasn’t any smarter than other scientists of his time. But he had a different attitude. Most would have given up after a few dozen failed attempts at making a light bulb, maybe a few hundred at the most. But Edison, when interviewed by a newspaper reporter after 800 unsuccessful attempts at making a light bulb about “what it feels like to have failed 800 times” answered…

“I haven’t failed 800 times. I haven’t failed once. What I have done, is I have succeeded in proving that those 800 ways won’t work. Once I eliminate all the ways that won’t work, I will find the one way that will.”

And sure enough, several years later, after thousands more “successful proofs” he managed to find a way that works, and thus illuminated the world.

Talk about the difference his attitude made!

The One Life-Transforming Attitude

Speaking of attitudes, I recently assimilated a new attitude. And it already made such a huge difference in my life, I just had to share it with you! Are you ready?

Whenever you learn something new, immediately ask yourself: “How can I apply this as soon as possible?”

A few weeks back, I was reading some old posts at one of my favorite self-improvement blogs – Scott H. Young.

And I noticed I was reading them differently.

In the past, I would read the posts, and think “Hmm, neat ideas!” But now, I read the posts, and think “Hmm, neat ideas! How can I apply them as soon as possible?”

So when I read the post where Scott describes how he reads for an hour every morning, I decided to try it. I had a big backlog of awesome books I wanted to read anyway!

And I am SO glad I decided to apply Scott’s advice! I already got through some absolutely fantastic books, like The Way of the Superior Man and The Big Five for Life. It would probably have taken me months, or even years to get through them if I didn’t simply ask myself while reading Scott’s blog: “How can I apply this as soon as possible?”

The very next morning I had my first hour-long reading session. And I’ve only missed one morning since that day.

…

In fact, my whole course on overcoming procrastination is built around this attitude.

Yes, it contains 7 major topics of personal growth, and 7 great ways to deal with procrastination. But the golden thread that runs through the whole series is helping you apply everything you learn IMMEDIATELY! That’s why I included action steps at the end of each day so you can immediately apply the lessons.

I really recommend you check out the course. Hey, it’s free!

How This Attitude Can Transform Your Life

So what will this attitude do for you?

Well, first the obvious. You will do more and learn more :) .

But also, your life will become more fun! Because instead of reading about all the cool ideas, you will be doing them. You will be living them!

Applying this attitude is as if you were reading a great fiction book… and then suddenly found out there’s a way you can become a part of the story. Instead of reading about the great exciting adventures, you can start living them yourself!

And all it takes is the one simple attitude: “How can I apply this as soon as possible?”

How You Can Apply This As Soon As Possible

You know what’s coming. A way to apply what you just learned as soon as possible :D .

Here’s my suggestion:

  1. Think of something cool you learned over the past 24 hours (With the amount of information we all consume, there must be something.)
  2. Ask yourself: how can you apply it today? (Or, if you’re reading this in the evening, apply it first thing tomorrow.)
  3. Write it down so you don’t forget
  4. Do it!

And that’s all, folks. Onwards to lasting personal growth! Yarrrr!

###

Odd and Ends:

This Saturday, I’ve got another audio interview coming up! It will be the last one for a while, so I interviewed a very special blogger for you. Stay tuned!

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Why Linux Breeds Fanatic Fans… and Google Doesn’t

by Vlad Dolezal on April 5, 2009

fanatic

Use Linux! Arrrr!

Have you ever met fanatic Linux fans?

You know, folks devotedly shouting that Linux is even better than sliced bread, that anybody still using Windows is stuck in the stone ages, that Linux has great anti-virus capabilities and it’s free and it’s awesome and…

And have you ever met a fanatic Google supporter?

I personally find there are plenty of fanatic Linux fans. But I haven’t met any fanatic Google fans yet. All the Google fans I have met (and there are millions of them) have been calm, almost matter-of-fact.

I’ve always wondered why that is. And I just found the answer in the book Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:

You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it’s going to rise tomorrow.

When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths, or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it’s always because the dogmas or goals are in doubt.

Fanaticism comes from insecurities

Yeah, that’s right. Linux fanatics feel insecure about Linux.

Now, hold it right there if you’re a Linux fanatic yourself! If you’re just getting ready to fire off an angry rebuttal and completely close your mind off to what I’m about to say, that’s your choice.

But as a Linux user, you’ve already shown you’re pretty open-minded. So how about you keep that great quality for a few minutes longer, and at least hear what I have to say. Then you can make up your mind if I have a point, or if I’m a raving lunatic who deserves an eternity in hell stuck with dial-up internet.

…

I know the experience first-hand. I used to be a Linux fanatic myself.

But I’m not anymore. And now that I think of it, I stopped feeling fanatically passionate about Linux at right about the same time as I realized that…:

  • Linux is indeed the 100% right choice for me
  • Linux is not for everybody
  • There are a few quick questions I can ask someone to find out if I would recommend a Linux switch to them

Before that, I would preach the Linux way, and claim it’s the best operating system, the one operating system, the one true way to happiness and freedom and a salvation from the evils of Redmond!

But I wasn’t quite sure about that. I mean, on the surface, I was 100% convinced. But deep inside, I had nagging doubts. I realized Linux wasn’t the best choice for everyone. (Or, rather, SWITCHING to Linux wasn’t the best choice. If they grew up using Linux, they would be better off than with Windows.) Heck, I wasn’t even quite sure if the choice was right for me, at the beginning!

And it’s the same reason I never fanatically promoted using the Dvorak keyboard layout. Because from day one, I realized it’s not for everybody.

Why Google has luke-warm fans

Google’s fans are very different from those red-hot fiery passionate Linux fanatics. Why?

Because everybody is confident about Google’s superiority. Everybody knows they provide the best search. Everybody knows they provide the best web-based e-mail. (If you haven’t tried GMail yet, do so!)

A fanatic shouting that Google is the best search engine would be like someone fanatically claiming that the Sun will rise tomorrow.

And people would look at him the same way. Of course Google is the best search engine! Nobody doubts that!

Why fanatics don’t convert people

Here’s the thing, Linux supporters. Fanaticism doesn’t convert.

Because deep inside, people realize that fanaticism comes from insecurities. They might not realize it on a surface level, but fanaticism simply turns them off.

That’s why I developed a few quick questions that I ask people to find out if a switch to Linux would be good for them:

  1. How many hours per week do you use your computer?
    Because if they use it 1 hour per week, there would be no point in switching. Also, if they give me a large number, I can later use that as a leverage to explain how much the smaller differences add up.
  2. What do you use your computer for most of the time?
    I generally get web browsing, e-mail, and computer games as the answers. I can later tailor the explanation of why Linux is better to their specific needs. Also, rarely, I find out a switch wouldn’t be right for them.
  3. Do you use any highly specialized software?
    Generally, this is Photoshop, and some business-specific programs.

And you know what? For 95% of people, dual-boot is the best option. Windows for computer games and specialized software. Linux for everything else.

Because Linux is better for most tasks. It’s far better for web browsing because of the security architecture! It’s faster, more responsive, and more customizable.

And, using Linux is fun :D

But you see, I’m not fanatically claiming that Linux is 100% better, and it’s the best choice 100% of the time. I’m past that stage.

So whenever you learn a new ideology… stop trying to convert everybody and their dog! Instead, figure out who is your new ideology right for. Then ask questions to find out if the person you’re talking to is a good fit.

It keeps the wrong people out. More importantly, it also improves your chances of convincing the right people.

So there you go. Next time you’re hoping to convince someone, don’t go all fanatic-like on them. Instead, clearly state the benefits for them, and also why it might not be the right choice for them. You’ll improve your chances.

Cheers!

(Image courtesy of Rishi S)

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Don’t be Afraid to Ask for What You Want

by Vlad Dolezal on April 2, 2009

Richard Feynman tells a great story in Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! about how he learned to simply ask for what he wants.

He was an amateur painter at the time.

As every man, he enjoyed beautiful women. So he would ask women to pose for him, and they would.

But what he really wanted to try was painting some women nude. He thought of bringing it up, but he never felt there was a good time. So he asked one of his experienced painter friends.

“I would like to paint the women nude, but I can never think of a way to ask. How do you bring the subject up?”
“Have you tried just asking them?”

So the next time, Feynman simply asked the woman if she would like to pose nude for him. And she agreed.

And the next time the simple request worked as well. And the time after that.

Ask for What You Want

Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. If you have honest intentions, then it’s perfectly ok. People will only respect you more.

There’s a concept in marketing called “call for action”:

If you want your customers to pull out their credit cards and fill in the order form, tell them. If you want their name and e-mail address, ask for them. Don’t just present your great offer, and then leave the customer hanging there, guessing what’s the next step. If they’re interested, they’ll be glad you told them the next step. Asking for what you want is in both parties’ interest.

Try it the next time you notice yourself beating around the bush. Take a deep breath, and then simply ask for what you want. And notice what happens.

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