My post on how Freedombox’s pursuit of perfection is undermining its goals prompted some discussion. Hearing how people the Freedombox community wants to help end up supporting products we see as non-Free jolted my system. I believe constructive criticism helps, but my desire to contribute more led to the offer below. One person’s response got me thinking about how I, as someone who doesn’t write much software, can help. Diaspora[…] Keep reading →

I don’t know what the world would look from the eyes of a North Korean, so I’m just speculating. I just wanted to go point for point on a bunch of yesterday’s points on what I considered weird about them. Just because we think they do some things weird doesn’t mean we don’t. On the contrary, you thinking someone else weird virtually guarantees they will think you weird, but not[…] Keep reading →

Weirdness is subjective, of course. I’m only describing what I consider weird. And I want to stress that I don’t consider nor mean to imply that weirdness is bad. I consider it interesting. As a friend said, “Nobody is normal.” I celebrate individual differences. I put “weird” in the title to get people thinking and asking themselves questions. In particular, I hope people will consider questions like these, which I[…] Keep reading →

Continuing rules and regulations we faced from yesterday… You may only exchange currency at the official exchange rate, which was about twenty or thirty times worse than the market rate. That is, if we exchanged dollars for North Korean currency at one of the approved sites, we got a certain amount of their currency. If we could walk around the corner and exchange with a private individual, we’d get twenty[…] Keep reading →

We’ve now covered the examples and transformation stages of how to implement the Method. Here is a diagram summarizing these steps (click it for full size).

The North Korean government heavily restricts what you can do there. Here is a short list of the main restrictions I remember facing. You may not take pictures without permission. On the other hand, if you treat your guides well and tip people, you get a lot more leeway. You may only visit sites from the list of places the government allows you to see. You can only get there[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on The Method to use The Model — my model for the human emotional system designed for use in leadership, self-awareness, and general purpose professional and personal development — which I find the most effective and valuable foundation for understanding yourself and others and improving your life. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the[…] Keep reading →

For my last post on Ultimate Frisbee in North Korea for a while, I’ll post some far-reaching ideas, link to articles about it, and give thanks and credit. Einstein said “you cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.” And George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Well, if you want peace, I suggest you begin with fun and games, or at least make[…] Keep reading →

Once the elements of a transformation start supporting each other the transformation starts to feel like it will take root. You may still feel some inertia, fakeness, and conflict between the old and new you, but decreasingly. Examples of elements supporting each other include After starting a new hobby (behavior) you start meeting others who do the same hobby People compliment you on losing weight People you meet in new[…] Keep reading →