I have recently seen a smorgasbord of articles, blogs, videos, opinions and the like discussing a seemingly benign topic: how to read a book. At first, glance, I thought the topic was dumb; “uh, you open the page, read left to right, top to bottom, and turn the page when you get to the end.” I couldn’t fathom what the individuals were trying to convey; however, after continuous bombardment of the idea followed by a lengthy personal perusing, I reified the following four Q’s to help from everything from reading to working out to vacationing.
Category: career
Get to the Underline
“The Unexamined life is not worth living.” ~Socrates
When we think about our lives, we rarely think about our lives. No, the previous sentence is not a typo, it is a belief. Maybe a better articulation is to write the sentence: When we think about our lives, we rarely think about our lives. The underlined “think” is essential, for it differentiates the same word in two radically different connotations; “think” means the normal definition of the word, whereas think is a deeper meaning that includes a significant commitment. We must strive for the underline. (A similar pattern is exuded in reading: one can read a book, or one can read a book.)
Comfort Killer
I am the comfort killer. I sleep very little. I work out to the point of being sick to my stomach. I push myself to do things I hate. I take cold or lukewarm showers. I read books that are agonizingly slow and are sometimes less exciting than watching paint dry. I assure you I am not a masochist or Sysphean. However, many of you are probably wondering, “what the hell is wrong with you?”
Wasting Away our Lives
Economics is the study of distributing scarce resources. If there truly were no scarce resources, there would be no need for supply and demand as the supply would always be infinite. In some aspects we have the ability to produce, create, or design infinite amount of, well, anything. However, there is one such item in which we cannot reproduce. The cliché riddle goes something like this: “I am something that you lose, but can never get back.” The answer is, undoubtedly: time. Continue reading “Wasting Away our Lives”
Nature vs Nurture
What makes someone great? What makes one of us stand out? How are visionaries created?
The Carrot or the Stick?
The question of motivation is one that plagues the mind of the procrastinator, the binge watcher of Netflix, and the collegiate student alike. There is no doubt that motivation is one of the most ambiguous terms in our language in the sense that not only is it hard to adequately state what motivation is, but it is also challenging because each individual is motivated by different things.
Death by Passion
In 2005, Steve Jobs spoke to the graduates of Stanford University. In doing so, Jobs articulated one of the most impactful addresses to a graduating class in history. His parting words included: “And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
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