Persistence Unlimited » Thoughts

Your education vs. Your EDUCATION

Brad Isaac — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:36:22 +0000

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” ~Mark Twain

I didn’t get the best grades in college. Isn’t it funny how by saying I didn’t get the best, it implied I failed? That’s a discussion for another day. But I made mostly A’s and a few B’s. And a C thanks to Chemistry… blah!

There are two reasons I wasn’t valedictorian. One, I didn’t have valedictorian set as a goal – in fact it wasn’t on my radar. But two (and more importantly) I was too busy getting an education to be bothered with too much study.

A college degree is good to have on the outside – it shows people outside yourself you have certain levels of proficiency and smarts. But it doesn’t contribute much to your education – where you will spend most of your lifetime working hours doing.

An education is exploring your passions and natural talents.

For me, much of my college career was spent writing, hacking my computer and improving myself via self development. Is it odd? weird? strange? to see I am still doing those things today and making a living from them?

I think coming to terms and honestly deciding where one’s true interests are is half the battle. It makes getting a true education almost effortless. And it is where you will make your greatest contribution as a human being.

Just make the decision earlier rather than later.

Sounds of One Hand Clapping for 2009-05-13

Brad Isaac — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:00:00 +0000

I’m not understanding the new Twitter reply system. Does it mean if I type @jakrose (who isn’t following me) he’ll see it or no? #fixreplies #
A great way to motivate myself and calm down when overwhelmed is to clear my mind “bucket style” ala David Allen. Your thoughts? #gtd #
Goal setting exercise of the day: Identify what’s blocking you from taking immediate action. Name it. You’ve now discovered enemy #1 #
Beth stays in shape with a good reward system. If she jogs 2 miles she gets 1 scoop of ice cream. No run, no fun. It’s that simple. #
Guess I better turn in. Busy day tomorrow… Good night all. #

Sounds of One Hand Clapping for 2009-05-12

Brad Isaac — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Sometimes I miss the taste of drinking milk from milkboxes we had as kids…but not enough to do anything about it. #
Messing around with http://freetwitterdesigner.com/ Can you tell? #
There are a million critics but only a few true creators. Why? Criticism is easy. Creating is hard. In essence, critics are lazy people… #

Will TaskBlaze Kill Twitter? This Reader Thinks So…

Brad Isaac — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:54:02 +0000

I am still excited to be coding TaskBlaze’s next generation of features – including new automatic posting of tasks to Twitter. But apparently not everyone happy. In one email, the writer indicated the new TweetBlaze feature will kill Twitter.

But before I get further into that subject, I want to mention the TaskBlaze updates since my last post:

Twitter approved our source parameter! – meaning after you post to Twitter, in the text below your post, it says from TaskBlaze (thereby recognizing TaskBlaze as a Twitter friendly app.)
Better error handling for Twitter and Google Calendar – in certain instances you may have crashed if something goes wrong when entering username/password and then starting a task. The new version addresses this by “refreshing” TaskBlaze’s settings if you make a change.
Update engine fixed – If the latest update didn’t come through for you, you can download it here. It will fix the delays with getting updates. It is also set to not replace your configuration files – sorry that happened in the first place.

To the ones who have written in, thanks for all of your helpful feedback for the latest Beta. You’ve found many of the little bugs that I missed. I’ve corrected many of them already and I posted a new Beta last night.

Twitter Killer?

During a coding session yesterday I noticed my email chime in with a new message.

The writer said in reference to TaskBlaze’s new automatic task posting to Twitter feature :

Oh, goody. Now we get to read, “I’m writing a letter.” “I’m updating my resume.” “I’m going to lunch with Max.” “I’m updating the Q4 sales reports.” Ad nauseum.

Automated crap like this is going to kill Twitter.

hmmm… It never occurred to me that TaskBlaze would destroy Twitter. Plus, why would I want it to? Twitter are good people. I have no reason to do the company harm.

Why TaskBlaze Won’t Kill Twitter – and a few hidden benefits

TaskBlaze is mainly used by professionals for time tracking - I think the users are bright enough to know that a task they are sending to Twitter is going to be read by other people. They may choose to make the task description more interesting to their readers. for example: Instead of posting “Writing a letter.” They may rephrase the task as “Writing a long overdue letter to my sister whom I haven’t seen in 7 years…”That is one of the hidden benefits of using TaskBlaze and Twitter together. It helps you make the tasks more interesting to your readers – but more importantly to YOU.
TaskBlaze does not post anything you don’t want to post – Let me clear up any confusion. TaskBlaze, like any other Twitter software, posts only what you choose to post. It is incapable of spamming Twitter.It does not manufacture any posts, nor does it grab your task list and post it. It simply grabs the task you are working on and posts that. But it only posts it if you want it to!
People post unimportant stuff Ad nauseum with or without TaskBlaze – Let’s face it, some people post garbage to Twitter. In fact, I once followed a popular Twitter user who posted complete nonsense all day every day. The silly and unintelligible posts grew tiresome quickly, so I unsubscribed.You can help decrease the garbage too. Improve the signal to noise ratio on Twitter by un-following those who don’t contribute in a meaningful way.TaskBlaze can neither cause nor prevent mindless posts. But considering it is used by some smart people, they probably aren’t going to want to clutter up their calendars with stuff like “Going to the bathroom” or “Eating a peach.”
TaskBlaze can be blocked by Twitter - As nice as it was for the Twitter API team to quickly approve TaskBlaze as a source app. They can just as quickly revoke it.We would be lying to ourselves if we thought somehow TaskBlaze took away power from Twitter. They own and control the engine. I feel privileged to be included in the group, but I also know that if TaskBlaze becomes a Terminator rise of the machines, they’ll cut the cord – plain and simple.
I won’t let it happen – I always put a lot of thought into unintended consequences. I met with other network engineering experts prior to, during and after coding the TweetBlaze module. Just about every doomsday scenario – was discussed including:Q: What if someone hacks TaskBlaze so it will automatically spam the same message over and over to Twitter?
Q: What if someone breaks into TaskBlaze source code and steals the API key?
Q: Is there any possible way someone can use TaskBlaze to post someone else’s private Google calendar to Twitter?

In all of these cases, security measures are built into Twitter and TaskBlaze to prevent any abuse by a rogue user. Twitter has a terms of service agreement with users. And I’ve encrypted TaskBlaze executables to prevent hacking.

Never mind the fact TaskBlaze would be incredibly slow if used for spamming. And, it cannot “grab” any information anyway. It can only post one update at a time.

So what are your thoughts? Did I answer your concerns with regard to the Twitter posting via TaskBlaze? Do you have more questions? Or do you think TaskBlaze is still a risk? Please share in the comments.

And if you love TaskBlaze as much as I do, please Stumble this post. You’d be helping me a lot.

How Learning About ‘Different’ People Can Decrease Ignorance

Brad Isaac — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:01:56 +0000

My wife and I didn’t know we had a problem.

Our son had gone from being a kind and lovable boy of 10 to someone prone to violent tantrums, outrageously offensive remarks to other kids, parents and teachers. He was getting suspended from school on a weekly basis for incidents I thought were borderline crazy.

I complained daily that he never seemed to grasp cause and effect. He’d get into trouble at school for something and both the school and his parents would punish him. The very next day, he’d go in and repeat the same mistake. Lather, rinse, repeat – we’d go through the same dance again and again.

There were late nights when he would obsess about a grandparent who died 2 years prior. His tearful detailing of the subtleties of human death, dying and decay, I literally got chills! It was like living with the kid from the Sixth Sense.

We wondered if he had been abused by someone while we weren’t around. The doctors were baffled and could not give us any answers.

At one point I considered the possibility that after his appendix burst and had emergency surgery, maybe he had suffered a mild brain damage from the anesthetic or perhaps the poison from the appendix caused the problem. Many nights we stayed awake trying to make sense of it all.

How does a parent deal with a child who seems to get more odd by the day? How do you stop him from acting out? How do you stop him from hurting himself?

Well, if you are me, you search.

One doctor had hinted at the diagnoses for 3 months before he called me in for a 1 hour meeting.

“Listen,” he said. “You have a great kid there. He is likeable - I like him and most everyone will like him. He’s bright. He’s got a caring spirit. And I know you and your wife are on his side – some parents aren’t.

…But you seem resistant to hear what I am telling you.”

“Ok,” I said. “What are you telling me.”

“I believe your son has autism. “

And there it was. He said it. I dreaded with my very soul to hear that word. I felt my chest sink into my stomach. Adrenalin hit my bloodstream.

No. I said. He’s too smart. He’s like a mechanical engineer – just geeky and awkward. That’s all.

But inside I knew.

The doctor continued talking, but I couldn’t hear. I nearly panicked about what it meant for my son’s future. What it meant for my family. What about schools? How would we survive with this horrible curse thrust upon us?

“..His behaviors, social skills and inability to see cause and effect are extreme enough to warrant that diagnoses with no further testing. However, I recommend you take him in for more in depth testing so proper school arrangements could be made.”

Thus began a new journey. I started a new education into the world of autism spectrum disorder, especially Asperger syndrome.

And if you are expecting me to say everything has been peachy keen since, sorry this isn’t that type of post. But it hasn’t been nearly as horrible as I expected. There have been many lows but some memorable highs too.

Today is autism awareness day. It begins the official autism awareness month.

As a parent of a child with Asperger’s syndrome (mild-high functional autism) this today is a good opportunity for me to help raise awareness. Though I am still new to it all.

But I have decreased my ignorance with regard to autism in several positive ways:

I discovered my son wasn’t abused, poisoned, brain damaged, or seeing dead people
I discovered he is still smart and autism won’t decrease his brain capacity.
I discovered that although it may not be natural, he will one day learn cause and effect. We’ve already experienced improvements in this area.
I learned there are hundreds of wonderful families in my area going through the same thing who are wanting to support and help.
I learned there is a wealth of information being shared among parents of autistic children and that my wife and I could get support and information just by getting involved.
I’ve discovered that it is still going to be difficult much of the time, but there are wonderful spots of clarity along the way.

That’s my story. Let’s hear yours…

Has your life been changed by an autistic child or relative? What discoveries have you made about autism that changed your original misconceptions? I encourage you to share your story in the comments.

Seventeen Best-of Articles To Make You Unstoppable

Brad Isaac — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 02:05:14 +0000

Update: Actually it’s 27 Articles…but who’s counting My 41 year old vision ailments seem to be kicking in… lol

Is it just me or did 2008 go fast? It seems like just yesterday I was working on the 101 Goal Setting Breakthroughs series from last January. Which is now a book you can get with my free advanced goal setting newsletter. But in looking back through the blog, it just feels like it went too fast. Maybe it’s me being middle aged now?

Anyway, I went through last years’ posts and came up with a list of the most commented, Stumbled, Dugg and otherwise most popular posts in the last 365 days. Below is the list for your review, and increased success.

Happy New Year and have fun!

Wherever I Go Sawdust Follows…

Brad Isaac — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:40:23 +0000

In my post make a pile of chips I talked about Abraham Maslow’s wife and her mentor’s advice to make a pile of chips. The moral of the story is even though you may not know what you are doing, start something. By making a pile of chips, you allow underdeveloped ideas to take shape.

This year has been my best for woodcarving. Starting with a few blocks of basswood, saws and some new professional carving tools from my family, I set out to make some Christmas elf ornaments I found in a magazine.

I quickly learned I had underestimated the skill level required for these ornaments. Two weeks had passed and you couldn’t even tell what the first ornament was supposed to be!

I wanted to to give up and simply carve some beginner Santas. In fact I bought a book Carving Santas from Around the World. But I decided to stick with it a bit longer. After all, carving is fun, even if I am only making a pile of chips.

The challenge

My greatest mistake was not predicting how darn difficult the eyes would be. My first elf’s eyes may appear quite sunken due to me carving, re-carving and carving again. But finally, with the aid of an eye carving model and practice stick, I think I got the hang of it.

When it was finally time to part with the ornaments, I didn’t want to. My piles of chips had taken on personalities of their own. First came the elf I named Knibblesby, whom I gave to my sister.

During the carving of this whimsical elf, my kids and I would make up stories about his adventures sneaking into parties just so he could nibble appetizers.

The second elf I named Beardsly for obvious reasons.

He wasn’t as fun for the kids for he had an old stoic demeanor and quickly became known around the house as a grumbler about a great many things. But I love him and I’m quite happy with the end result:

Epilogue

Woodcarving really drives home the point “it’s the journey, not the destination.” The reason is since I’ve finished the ornaments, there is a void. Yes, I feel a little let down that I don’t have a project in progress.

Sure, I can start another one, but which one? heh…maybe I’ll start a gargoyle for my next journey. What do you think?

4 Ways To Find A Goal To Get Excited About

Brad Isaac — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:59:46 +0000

This is a guest post written
by Jim Burtoft.

We always read about how to be productive and stay focused on our goals. But sometimes, we have a problem finding something to be excited about. We need to find goals that will inspire and motivate. If you find that you are having problems setting goals, or the goals that you have set seem to leave you wanting more, read on for some of our suggestions.

1. Don’t be afraid to set the goals you really want

Setting a goal of paying off debt or losing weight is easy. But maybe, deep down inside, you really want to reach level 60 on World of Warcraft. Or rebuild the My Little Pony collection you had as a child. Or finish a particular book or video game, perhaps from your childhood. Or reread one.

When we are focused on productivity, we often avoid certain activities because they are considered a “waste of time”. Don’t be afraid to waste time if it is something you enjoy. Just be honest with yourself and make sure you are wasting it on what you will enjoy the most. Also, examine your motivation. Maybe what you like most about an activity is spending time with a certain group, or alone, or maybe you just enjoy relaxing for a certain period of time. You may be better off with setting a goal to read or game for a certain number of hours a week.

2. Do something different

It is possible that you have never done the thing you like the most. Maybe you can’t imagine your “magnificent obsession” because you have never done it. You can try imaging different activities, but your best bet is to get out and try them. Go rock climbing. Work on a house with Habitat for Humanity. Help out at a soup kitchen. Maybe you won’t find what you love, but you’ll be better for the experience.

Set aside a week to NOT think about goals. Don’t try to accomplish anything outside of the minimum. Keep yourself away from TV, Internet, or whatever your default activity is. See what you spend your time doing or thinking.

3. Think about what you enjoy

We often get bogged down thinking about the means to an end. Our goals may say “I want to have 5 million dollars” when we really want the freedom the money can give us. But what would we do with that freedom?

Go out and buy a lottery ticket for the big jackpot and dream about what you would do if you won. Don’t worry about where you would invest the money, just think about how you would spend your time. What would you do every day? If you would give money away, who would you give it to? Is there a better way to help them than to give them money? You might think you would like to buy someone a home or pay for college. While they would appreciate that, they would also appreciate an email or a phone call regularly. What activities would you pursue? Maybe you can do some of them without the full $200 million. Try to figure out what you really want to do by removing the resource requirement.

4. Steal someone else’s goals

Talk to your friends about their goals, or look up someone else’s goals online. Google “list of goals”. A lot of them will be something you already thought of, but you may just find that one thing that you think would be incredible.

Silicon Valley’s Advice for Handling the Downturn

Brad Isaac — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:36:15 +0000

The blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich found a fascinating, if not scary, slideshow presentation from venture capital firm Sequoia. You owe it to yourself to take a look at it.

The long and short of it is market cycles are long. With the US debt load as high as it is and the average savings account adding up to a Starbucks’ Mocha Latte, there are will be some serious challenges ahead.

If you read my rant on the economy from a few weeks back, you know my opinion. But in case you weren’t paying attention, now is time for us to to shore up our reserves, put on our thinking caps and buckle down and get to work.

They Broke the Economy – Now What?

Brad Isaac — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:59:14 +0000

Note: This post is like nothing I’ve ever written on this blog. Some of you may think I’ve lost my marbles. It may shock some of you. But I consider many of you my friends, And as friends, here’s my unfettered attempt to protect you from what I see coming down the road. I don’t mean to sound negative or pessimistic. I am only trying to be cautious and frankly, I feel that if some of what you are about to read does come to pass and I didn’t at least say something, I’d regret it. So read what you will into it, good or bad, but please take it as me doing my level best to help.

Like it or not, there is a huge financial crisis unfolding in the world. Banks are going bankrupt, 775,244 people have lost their homes this year (source Bloomberg ). Millions are losing or have already lost their jobs, and the threat of economic depression rivaling 1929 is a constant topic of conversation.

In August, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose by 163,000 to 1.8 million, an increase of 589,000 over the past 12 months. The newly unemployed–those who were jobless fewer than 5 weeks — increased by 400,000 over the month. — source: US Dept. of Labor Aug 2008

I believe this crisis was caused largely due to Government meddling in private business. In the case of the banks, the government started telling the banks who the banks could and could not lend money to. Special tax incentives and benefits were given to banks issuing high-risk loans. The ones who did not immediately comply with these unreasonable demands were accused of illegal and discriminatory lending practices by your government.

And to fix it, rather than back off and let private businesses repair the damages, the government wants to loan and give away nearly 1 trillion dollars it does not have. The first of these schemes was voted down yesterday. But look out, another bill is on the horizon.

I am no economist, but it looks to me like these plans are about as smart as me getting my 4 year old nephew to write a check to cover my mortgage and utilities.

Unfortunately for us, this is not a problem we can vote ourselves out of. No, I’m afraid that it really doesn’t matter who the next president is. They can talk, debate and sign whatever they want. But neither of these clowns, in this dog and pony show we call an election, has the power to fix this. They can only make it worse through more legislation.

So since the banks aren’t on our side and the government is not on our side (big surprise!). You and I are going to have to fend for ourselves.

Considering what’s done is done and there’s nothing you, I or the next president of the US can do about it. Here are my thoughts on how you can handle a coming economic collapse – whether it happens now with this recent calamity, or in the not too distant future.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst - Like I said, I’m not an economic genius. Maybe the numbers I am reading aren’t as dire to some as I see them. But regardless, consider my plan. If we hit a depression, I believe you’ll be better off. If we don’t hit a depression, you’ll still be better off.

By hoping for the best I suggest you keep positive. If worst comes to worst, I am confident you and yours will do alright. We are the thinkers and doers. We will find a way. Plus, panicking about something you can’t control isn’t going to help.

Prepare for the worst – walk with me for a minute and tell me what you would do if in 6 months you were out of a job and your entire industry was demolished. Do you ever think of that? How do you plan around loss of employment when there might not be any other jobs on the horizon?

“You’ve got to think winter in the summer. It’s just too easy to get faked out when the sky is blue and the clouds are fleecy. You’ve got to prepare for winter because it’s coming, it always does. Put another way, you have to get used to doing one of two things: Planting in the spring or begging in the fall.” – Jim Rohn

Winter is coming early this year. Let’s make sure we’re prepared.

Be willing to learn and work outside your specialty – During great economic times specialists prosper. But during the tough times, the multi-skilled prosper. Why? Because cutbacks and survival ensure only people who can wear many hats will remain.

A recent example: Many of my friends woke up Monday morning to find out their employer Wachovia bank no longer existed! Who saw that coming? Is now the time to have only one skill?

Be prepared in case paper money becomes worthless - What do you do if the $2000 you have saved in the bank is worth less than a penny? Again, I am not trying to be negative. I’ve just read a lot of history. The logical outcome of inflation (or government printing more money to compensate for debt) is that each dollar we own is worth less tomorrow than it is today.

We must be cognizant of the possibility and at least have some plan in place to get the food and supplies that we need if our paper money can’t buy it.

Zimbabwe is to introduce a bank-note worth Z$100bn (that’s billion!) in response to rampant inflation – but the note will barely cover the cost of a loaf of bread. source: BBC News

So do I recommend you pull out all your cash and buy gold? Not exactly. I am doing a little of each. Gold being a stable standard, it doesn’t always pay high on investment returns, but it does get things done when paper money is worthless. So if you are looking at this time as a good time to invest your hard earned dollars, I recommend gold as being a significant part of your portfolio.

Learn to trade – A skill that serves equally well in troubled and soaring financial times is barter. I’ll trade you this for that. So work on putting together the valuable items you are willing to trade.

Learn to barter your services - like toys and gadgets, you can barter your skills for money or other goods and services. Even during great financial times, I’ve bartered my networking skills and computer maintenance for stuff such as free resort time, marketing help, massages (no not THAT type of massage) and plenty of other worthwhile services. You can too by revisiting that fabulous skill you learned as a child. Learn to trade again. It will serve you well the rest of your life.

Side bonus: Bartering your services is a growth industry. The people you trade with most always feel like they are getting a bargain because they aren’t paying money but likely trading something you want that they don’t. So glowing reviews and more opportunity comes when they refer you to friends and associates.

Stock up on food - Have a couple of weeks of food stocked up in case their is a “run” on the supermarkets. I am not saying dig a bomb shelter and declaring yourself a sovereign nation Mr. Wacko. I’m simply talking about thinking like a squirrel for a few weeks. Get a surplus going just in case.

Those of us who remember the gas lines of the 70’s can probably relate to this better. When there’s a shortage of one commodity, it tends to lead to another, and another. You may think I’m crazy to suggest America with an obesity “epidemic” might have a food shortage. I’m only saying the next few months concern me. If a run on fuel can happen, so can a run on food.

If it doesn’t happen, then great. Feel free to bandy about calling me a nutcase at your leisure. But what’s the harm in stocking up on some dried and canned foods just in case?

Kill all the debt you can - We need to change from paying with credit to paying with cash. The simple reason is things you own outright are harder to take away from you than things you’ve borrowed. If you took out a loan for your car and suddenly can’t make payments on it, then it can be taken away. If you bought a bunch of gadgets and other junk on credit, you might have to sell them for pennies on the dollar to make rent or buy groceries. Think about it if everything were to go down in 6 months, how would you get by? Considering most Americans live with enough savings to replace just one or two paychecks, how are they to make payments on a credit card and put food on the table?

Stop wasteful spending- If there was any time in your life where to carefully consider purchases, now is that time. That latest gadget might look good but it could be a week’s worth of groceries for your family. It’s hard to make a dinner from silicon and plastic when you’re broke.

Do not waste time - The time is short my friends. The time you’ve got to reach your financial goals is short when the economy is booming. It’s especially short when things could fall into the pit. So the time to get started, if you haven’t already, is now.

Begin canceling services and subscriptions you don’t use. Clear your attic of old dusty stuff that others want but you don’t use – sell it on eBay. Sell off your car if you owe money on it and get something you can pay cash for. Start saving that car payment for gold or use it to pay off your other debts.

Extreme times call for extreme measures

Again, I may sound extreme. But what’s scary is that the government who has absolute power to wreck financial havoc on the entire world can make a $700 billion bail out plan somehow appear to be “no big deal” and just a blip on the radar. blip blip blip… did you hear that little blip? That’s $700 billion dollars of our money disappearing. How is it that not extreme? When was the last time your bank forgave a late payment or an accidental bounced check and said “Hey man, the government will get that. Don’t worry about it.”

Yet, we are to sit by as the US congress gambles the financial stability of this and other countries. I’m stunned they’d even consider such a vote. Because as I said above, government meddling is largely to blame for this catastrophe.

So as extreme as I may sound, it’s more extreme for me to stay quiet and expect everyone just to pick up on what’s going on. I can’t be happy with that position. I have to say something.

To conclude, I’ll say I hope that this mess is solved by business and investors before it’s too late. Government cannot solve this problem without creating seemingly 700 billion more problems. We need to see this for what it is and that’s a government banking plan like the ones they had in place in 1929.

Fool me once, shame on you fool me twice shame on me….