Thoughts Pad

I’m just about to finish listening to the “Making Ideas Happen” audiobook, and wanted to share my review and a few nice ideas I can highlight from it.

Though the title of this book could suggest that it’s subject is related to procrastination, just like the other two books I reviewed last month (The Now Habit and Eat That Frog), this one is focused on challenges one face while trying to bring an idea to reality, what not always is related to procrastination. Bootstrapping an idea isn’t easy, and this book brings some nice suggestions to motivate and inspire you on how to do so.

Prior and Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance (The 6 Ps) – Just thought of my triathlon challenge, and wondered if I could cross the line without prior and proper preparation. The answer is a clear and bold NO WAY. Nobody can undertake a triathlon without Prior and Proper preparation, and most people who would dare to endeavor in doing so, would fail miserably. If you can’t swim, and don’t get prepared for that, or you’re not used to pedal or running, you’ll fall way too short. During my training to get prepared for my first triathlon, I tried to jog for the first time some mere 2.5 km (1.5 mi) and all I could deliver was 1 km (0.6 mi). Since this is part of my prior preparation for a triathlon, it is ok to fail short. If I didn’t have this before, and went straight to a triathlon would be pretty much my performance there. Same will happen with whatever thing you set to do in life. Prior and Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.

Towards the end of the book, learned another concept on how we’re naturally critics and proficient in finding mistakes. One could play the whole String Quartet No. 14 from Beethoven and yet, if in the middle you miss a movement, people will remember it better than your other well performed movements of the 40 minutes quartet. Criticism mitigates our capability of appreciating what is good. At the other hand, compliments improve our capability of recognizing what is good among the bad things and situations, and encourages the receiving party to get more creative. Life is less bitter when we learn to appreciate and recognize what is good, and have good judgement to set apart what is bad that makes good things feel unpleasant.

Finished with listening to this audiobook last week, but only had the chance to write my final review now. I did a previous post about one thing I learned while listening to it, and thought I should conclude with a review.

This book doesn’t teach with straightforward techniques to fight procrastination. Rather, it tries to help you fight the root causes of it with psychiatric techniques through positive thinking and atitudes. I liked this book, though I think that it alone won’t help anyone to overcome procrastination.

It is a good reading, because it clarifies on the root causes of procrastination, and how you may be triggering this behavior in yourself and in people that surrounds you.

Just finished with listening to this audiobook, and it was so amazing that I wanted to share it here in my blog.

Drawn by my interest on Networks (no, I don’t mean the computer networks here) and the science behind it, just decided to give a this book a try, and I was amazed on all the sorts of networks mentioned in this book and how they relate to each other. From holywood networks, going through the Internet, Social Networks and Gene and Protein Networks and closing up the book with Terrorists Networks, this book is a must read for whoever cares about how things relate to each other, what’s the science behind it, what is a network hub, how to build or destroy (if possible) a network and how to recognize one.

You’ll end up figuring that networks are more present in our lives than we think, and how to take benefit of the natural manner in which things relates to each other.

PS: Interesting detail at the end of the book, when the author mentions that al-Qaeda its a scale-free network, and that there are no main hubs that if killed could dismantle the organization. He even mentions Osama Bin Laden, in a hypothetical analysis of what would happen if he were killed… Yes, you guessed it: Nothing. al-Qaeda would just continue with their terror business through their network of ever growing terrorist jihadists.

As you may already know, Umit Project is in as a mentoring organization for Google Summer of Code 2011, and it happens that we just got through the selection process, and earlier today Google announced the winning students!

This year, Umit received 42 proposals, from 40 talented students from almost all continents in the world! We were absolutely astonished with so many talented students willing to work with us this season. So many proposals took us a long while to evaluate, and all of them involved a long process interacting with the student and assessing their capabilities, time commitments, etc.

Do you know when a marketing campaign does so good that it goes viral and someone else comes and try to hitch a ride in the idea?

Volkswagen launched a marketing campaign during the super bowl, where a kid is shown in a tireless attempt to manipulate the force wearing a Darth Vader custom. All of that to show one of the car’s features at the end of the video. Worth watching:

Then, Marvel comes and does an extremely similar video, where a kid wearing a Thor custom is shown trying to unleash the power from Thor’s hammer. But the end is very different from what you would expect if you had watched the Volkswagen campaign:

When I was watching it, just though like: yeah.. daddy is going to bip his alarm, honk the horn or turn the engine on using the remote control, then suddenly the kid manages to unleash the power from the hammer. Then, you just realize that it wasn’t yet another vehicle campaign, but a movie one right after recovering from the shock. Now, try to think of the second one in a world where the volkwagen’s one doesn’t exist or in the mind of someone who didn’t watch it. Not so funny, uh?