The Perfect Diet

The second most important quality of the perfect diet(or any plan): can it produce the desired results?

The most important quality: can it actually be followed?

Readings of 2014, April Edition, Part 3

The Money Code by Joe John Duran:

I feel most people(myself included) can always learn more about money. I have read a few books on money in the past, but they seemed to either be about how to save more money or how to make more money. None of them really dug into to the psychological reasons for why we want money in the first place.

Until I read this book.

Duran proposes that everybody seeks money for varying degrees of the three reasons:

    1) To provide a sense of security.

    2) To obtain things that they want.

    3) To provide for others.

He proposes that until we look within ourselves to figure out where we fit in in the above 3 types, and translate those to tangible goals, quantifying how much money we actually need, we will forever be stuck feeling like we don't have enough money.

I would highly recommend reading this book to anybody even slightly confused by the role that money plays in their life. It is an extremely quick read, most could probably read it over a few cups of coffee.

The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein:

Not unlike money, Twitter is a tool that I never felt totally comfortable using, always feeling like others are using it much more effectively than I.

Maybe, I was using it wrong.

Maybe, I wasn't fitting enough wit into those 140 characters.

So, I figured I would give this book a read and see if I could get to the bottom of it.

Unfortunately, the book was a tad bit out of date so most of the stuff I either knew(how to use hashtags) or behind the times(suggested third party twitter apps, and need to use metacharacters for retweeting).

It was a pretty quick read, so I didn't feel like I wasted much time reading through it, but I don't think I would suggest it.

The Move

So it's really happening, I found a place on Airbnb, took my own advice to be the small fish in a big pond and am moving to San Francisco.

Don't get me wrong, San Francisco seems about a billion times larger than any city I have ever lived in, I am scared shitless and will miss Boulder and all of the truly awesome friends I made while I was here! However, I know I have to surround myself with the largest startup and technology culture in the world if I want tot truly push myself.

So it is time to put the best advice I have ever received to the test, and get a little uncomfortable.

Correct-Amount-Of Information Diet

Have you ever notice that as soon as you start dieting, everybody seems to becomes a diet guru?

Or how about when you're about to quit your job, everybody seems to turn into a career coach?

Unfortunately, most of the time the advice is pretty horrible. Usually, it is for innocent reasons; they want to feel like they are helping, but they simply lack the expertise to provide quality information.

However, sometimes it is for not-so-innocent reasons. Maybe they hate their job, but are too afraid to leave it, so they project those insecurities on to you. Or maybe they are insecure about their bodies, so they try to consciously(or subconsciously) attempt to undermine your attempts at obtaining the physique that you desire.

Not everybody needs to know the whole story about why you're quitting your job, for most people it can simply be "it wasn't a great fit" and leave it at that; the less that they have to go off of, the less inclined they will be to "help". For people who can genuinely help(manager, actual career coach), the story should be much more detailed.

Give people the correct amount of information; not too much, and not too little.

IPhone Chargers

IPhone chargers are great at their primary goal: charging phones really fast.

However, they really blow it when it comes to their secondary goal: universality.

If I lose the charger for my Galaxy S3, I can use a charger from any other Galaxy device. Or any Android device. Or any Kindle device.

Any generic micro usb can charge my device.

That is the beauty of conforming to standards.

When you forget your iPhone charger, and you are only surrounded by Droid users, you will wish that Apple had sacrificed a little performance for accessibility.

The Best Coach

Imagine you're trying to hire a new coach. Also imagine that the only information you have to go on is their relevant athletic career.

Would you hire the hall of fame athlete?

Chances are you would.

But you'd probably be wrong.

How about we rephrase it. Who do you think knows more about losing weight: the guy who came out of the womb with chiseled abs and bulging biceps, or the former pudgy guy who is now pretty lean?

Not to bash the work ethic of hall of fame athletes, chances are the worked their asses of to obtain that title. Chances are also pretty good that they also happened to always just be a little bigger, stronger, faster, and their sport just generally came easier to them; they can't really pass that knowledge on to others, because they never had to learn it themselves.

If you want to find the best coach(or professor or manager or...), look for the loser who made themselves pretty damn good.

Readings of 2014, April Edition, Part 2

Remote by Jason Fried:

Jason challenged the successful business status quo in his last book, Rework. In Remote, he does it once again.

In Rework, he mentions in passing that it is possible to have a majority, if not all, of your work force working remotely; in Remote, he expands upon the benefits and pitfalls of doing so, and offers suggestions for companies or employees looking to transition towards remote work.

It is a rather quick read, so I would definitely recommend it for anybody even remotely interested in working remotely.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg:

Why do you grab that 3 o'clock cookie?

Why do you go on a morning jog, rain or shine?

How can people with amnesia, walk around their neighborhood without getting lost?

We all have habits, beneficial and detrimental alike, that guide us through our day-to-day lives. In the Power of Habit, Charles guides us through the how-to of habit formation, distilling research and anatomy into easily relatable text.

Before reading this book, I was a firm believer in the driving force of habit, which has only been reinforced since reading it. Above I alluded to the biggest testament to habit's power presented in this book: an old man with amnesia could walk around his neighborhood, without getting lost, yet he had no idea where he was going or where his house was.

Another book that I would definitely recommend for anybody looking to make positive change in their life, and understand why that change is taking place.