In the midst of my series on Communication Skills Exercises, yesterday I worked with the brilliant, talented, and accomplished Nina Paley — free culture advocate, creator of Sita Sings the Blues, cartoonist of the insightful, funny, and subversive Mimi and Eunice, and friendly neighbor. We animated the Freedombox logos John Emerson and I worked on. She also does things like post blog entries titled “I am awesome,” suggesting an obvious[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday’s post described how interacting with a former Austrian soldier, now friend’s grandfather led me to examine my values. Such interactions lead you to expand your understanding of others and of humanity as well. Let’s understand the situation. Comparing people to Nazis has become an internet joke (perhaps insightful) called Godwin’s Law. This situation isn’t that. This man was a Nazi foot soldier, proud of some aspects of it. I’m[…] Keep reading →

You may think you know your values. Until you test them, you probably don’t. Understanding their boundaries helps you understand them better. Testing them in controlled situations prepares you for surprises others aren’t prepared for. Preparation like that makes for effective leadership of yourself and others. If you never plan to reach any boundaries, you may not expect to benefit from examining them. But then if you never examine them,[…] Keep reading →

People often comment they can’t tell when I’m joking. Taking many things seriously takes the fun out of life, so I like finding humor everywhere. I finally found a way to put it I like. With credit to Scarface, I’m always joking, even when I’m serious. And I’m always serious, even when I’m joking.

Although July 20th is celebrated the world over first and foremost as my birthday, it also happens to be the anniversary of a human first stepping on the moon. According to Wikipedia’s page on Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on Earth’s Moon on July 20, 1969 (20:17:40 UTC). The mission, carried out by the United States, is considered a major accomplishment in the[…] Keep reading →

Following up yesterday’s example of how one person created success out of what others might consider disaster or failure: Johnny Depp used telemarketing to transform a floundering music passion into one the top trajectories in acting today. To people in the rat race, who blindly accept other people’s values for themselves, resorting to telemarketing would suck. They’d probably say their lives were disasters and be depressed. People who didn’t blindly[…] Keep reading →

Life has challenges. Successful people succeed anyway — not because they have easier lives, but for knowing how to handle challenges. They know how to use unexpected or undesired situations to improve their lives. Successful people make their lives great. You can too. In particular, you can learn from their successes. An interview of Johnny Depp on Inside the Actors Studio revealed some of how he succeeded. Depp is one of[…] Keep reading →

Everyone kid gets asked what they want to be when they grow up. Do you remember what you said? Did it happen? Somewhere in the mid-2000s, I remembered a vignette from my childhood for the first time in decades, which was someone asking that question of me and my response, which was to say I wanted to be an inventor. I didn’t remember it in the meantime because of what[…] Keep reading →

People misunderstand culture shock. They talk about it happening when they go to a new place, but that’s not when you really get culture shock. When you go to a new place you expect things to be different so differences don’t shock you that much. You get culture shock when you return after having been away and having adoped foreign standards without realizing it. Then what used to be normal[…] Keep reading →