December 2007

This year, I’ve read more good books containing radically new ideas than in any time of my life.  The genre of How To has been different.    Seven Habits: Cool, but stale.  GTD: Cool.

I have been aware of Six Thinking Hats for a long time.  Been on my someday/maybe list.  I read it last week.  It’s impressive, novel, and intuitively correct.

The gist:  The are paradigms of thinking that we should exercise:  Western Civ teaches black hat thinking–which is “trying to be cautious.  By adding “optimisitc” thinking, “creative” thinking, “emotional” thinking, and “facts/figures” thinking we can have a geometric impact on our effectiveness.

Six Thinking Hats is novel because it creates a dead simple framework for getting the best out of each other in meetings, in planning and in everything else.  I highly recommend reading it.  It’s probably going to make my “annual reread” list.

Six Thinking Hats.  Edward DeBono.  196 Pages.

Tim Ferris.

Bill Phillips.

Mike Ferry.

Scott Adams

Warren Buffett.

Mark Cuban.

Seth Godin

Phil Jackson

And Yes, Tiger Woods.

I have a long list of heroes. Of course, not everyone up there has totally defensible positions on everything, or perfect moral clarity. But, all of them–to a man–are radically different than the people around them. Tim Ferris works for 4 hours. Mike Ferry wants his people to work an honest schedule. Scott Adams writes goals 10x daily. Warren Buffet shops at JC Penny. Mark Cuban sells companies. The dissonance in that list is astonishing.

The Same Behaviors Yield the Same Results.

I’ve got some things I want to accomplish in a relatively short period of time. And right now? I’m doing the same shit ad infinitum. The pull of this society to become mediocre and to conform is the biggest obstacle to progress–which is made by the efforts of individuals. Your peers are probably listless losers. Why emulate them?

I’m not saying to be cruel, but why have more involvement than is necessary with people that are stuck in this world? If you want to make incremental change, people will push you into the hole that they see you in with sarcasm, rejection of the goal (why would anyone want to do that), and all sorts of ad hominem attacks on you (you’ve never done this, why is this time different). People are risk adverse mealy mouthed pack animals, and to be like them is to short change the life you can create.

Don’t Let Anyone Vomit On Your Soul.

Being alone isn’t necessary the lot, but it’s gotta be an acceptable outcome. Needing people to praise you is an insidious control that allows us all to self censor our best contributions. Ryan Holiday recently mused that if his parents were an obstacle to his progress, then even they won’t be permitted to screw with your head. I agree. Bo Jackson said you can’t be a man if you allow other men to tell you how to think.

I had my Damascus experience. I am marginally different than everyone around me. I stand at my desk at work (because I get more done). I blog. But those things? They don’t get me closer to my big damn goals. I’ve got a lifestyle that consumes income, I’m working in an industry that’s imploding.

To be radically different and to seperate yourself from the pack, you gotta commit to radical change. And to hell with anyone that doesn’t agree. My guess is that you’ll attract people that are in sync, and that are making their own pack.

More tomorrow. My mind is full….and I need to see if I can sleep for a few hours.

Good afternoon, I am sitting in Panera(?) with Jeremiah on we are discussing the capabilities of Jott and I’m demonstrating to him how easy it is to put content on your blog. listen

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Hello world, I’m sitting in Tenero(?) with the great Jeremiah Arn. We are talking about demonstrating how easily Jott works. Sorry to be giving you all a low value post. Make it great and I’ll talk to you soon. listen

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Hello everybody I hope you’re doing well. This is for Morgan’s(?) loan(?) officers that happen to be reading my blog. Next week is a full work week. That means that you should not give up or give in or take it off because 5 days which is a quarter of a month to earn your money. Go forth and conquer. listen

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I’ve been really digging Google Notebook lately.  It’s been a handy GTD tool, and the “note this” feature on my right click rocks.  I wish there was some way to get it to come up without leaving the keyboard.  I have a lot of love for Google, and I truly hope that they buy Zoho soon.

Zoho has made the web the platform in a way that I’ve not yet seen anywhere else.  Google spreadsheets is cool because it’s got the link embedded in our gmail.  But Zoho feels like running a better, cooler version of MS office on a really bad computer.  If they get the speed upgraded, then there will be no reason to use MS office.

I tried to do a resume in google aps not long ago.  It was barely functional.

I did a resume in Zoho yesterday.

It rocked.  (I’m doing a resume not because I have any desire to change jobs.  At all.  I think a resume is something you should ALWAYS have just like you should ALWAYS go on 6 job interviews a year).

So I made mine here.     It took about 20 minutes, and it was just to learn if Zoho worked or not.  And it does, man.   I hate bashing the church of Google.  Online Docs and Spreadsheets is a REALLY cool idea, but this is just incredible.   It works as a printable resume as well–though not QUITE as slick.

Not bad for a 15 minute effort though–and it’s one that I can carry with me.

Anyway Zoho is a leg up and I’m eager to try out the rest of their products.

One of the things that he says is that Blogging is barely worthwhile because people miusnderstand half of what he writes. To me, Dilbert Creator Scott Adams writes with astonishing clarity and poise, but apparently he is misunderstood quite often.

Well, I made a post at Blown, predicting a grim future for people in the wholesale channel. It’s grim, and my post was meant to spark discussion of how loan officers planned to survive.

Instead I got told I was a wannabe. I got told I was a loser. Because I think the market–as an aggregate–was getting worse. I still agree with that–and hiding from facts isn’t going to do anything about it. I didn’t say I was going to accept a lower level of production.

Instead I think that the market will be different, and there will be a different landscape. Nobody wants to consider that possibility.

Hello world. This is me once again, I am doing a test and hopefully this is working just fine, be right back, bye bye. listen

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Hey, this is a test to see if the Jott service works for the blog. I’m going to use this [...] Twittering from now on but this is a test. So, hopefully I’ll be great. Thanks so much, make it a great day. listen

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