Auteur/autrice : marc

Gravity’s not just a good idea, it’s the law – Seth Godin

This makes my day. As I was reading the last but on post from Seth Godin titled Actually, the truth isn’t up to them, this last sentence (the title of this post) made my day! It made me create a new category too under my Misc one: Truth.

Truth is an interesting concept. It’s generally linked to undisputable facts. It’s anchored in reality. However, it’s subject to interpretation. God is real is a truth for believers. However, proving the existence of God is factually impossible (at least as of today). I am not saying it’s impossible, it’s « factually » impossible. There are no facts that prove the existence of God (a book or a man does not prove the existence of God, and I know I am on a slippery slope).

However, everyday we hear so-called truth on TV, on radio or over the Internet. In most cases, those are not truths. Those are facts that lead to creation of fake truths. Gravity existence is true. The moon’s existence is true. A plane that flies is a truth. However, as for the God’s example, truth is subject to deep-rooted beliefs and emotions, and generally very little science backs those truth up.

Have a read a Seth Godin’s post. It’s not only enlightening, it makes you think about the what the truth is and how some powerful medias or people manipulate the truth. Ponder the following quote from Blaise Pascal : « The truth on this side of the Pyrenees, error on the other ». The Pyrénées being a mountain chain that separates France from Spain.

However, IMHO, truth should be objective, not subjective, otherwise it’s just an interpretation of facts or emotions. If the world was governed by real truths, it would probably not be in this current state. However, it’s in the best possible state with the knowledge and the wisdom (or lack of) we have. So our only subjective truth is to enjoy what we have and look at improving oneself and the world.

2 avril 2016
Then/Now

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Now, bumped into this on the web and it made me laugh out loud: Then/Now.

The three only sure things are death, tax and change. This is about change. What was true yesterday may be wrong today and ignored tomorrow. Pace of change has accelerated. Flexibility is required. Adaptation is required. Useless to moan. Adapt! And this ties to the debates these days in France about the changes that the government wants to drive in job laws, with the « infamous » Loi El Khomri that drove people of all ages demonstrating across France, forcing the government to rewrite it.

This law is probably far from being perfect almost like any other laws. However, it shows how much people fear change. The world has dramatically changed over the last years and the pace of change is accelerating. Even climate is changing! However, change is inevitable and instead of trying to stop it, embrace it, love it, make it yours. Don’t fight it!

Of course because there are so many changes happening at the same time at an unprecedented and overwhelming pace, most people tend to try to block change. But change will happen, inevitably. You can mourn on the past and fear the future, but you cannot freeze the present. Being alive is being in motion, changing, growing, failing, falling, getting back and moving forward. The world is at its best with the elements it has. Once you’ve embraced this simple statement and fact, you can act first on yourself then on others and the world.

We can blame finance, the stock exchange, ISIS or Richard Nixon for all the problems the world is facing. Or we can be happy that we are living in a world that is better that the world of our parents and grandparents. I know many people think the good ol’ times were much better. But factually they were worse for a vast majority of people, this has been demonstrated factually. However, people forget and embellish the past. Now is better than Then. And we act Today to make Tomorrow better, not to make Today like an imaginary Yesterday.

You can’t choose the Now you want to live in, but you can decide how you live it. It’s your decision and not anybody else’s decision. It may not be an easy one, but there’s only one Now and there are multiple ways to live it. However, the only right way, IMHO, is to enjoy it fully as much as we can even if the Now is dire.

30 mars 2016
A simple method to find ideas and be creative

Sometimes when you have to find ideas for your next project, irrespective of what it is, the best source of inspiration is other’s work!

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.
Voltaire

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May the Kindle be!

And for this idea generation, I generally use my Kindle! There’s a simple function in Kindle that allows you to annotate a text. I generally due this when reading a sentence or a paragraph that inspires me. I collection quotes too, like the one above, but I would say quotes can be easily found on the net, extract from text you read have a more personal relation: you read the book, the text ticked at a particular moment and you made the effort to set it aside.

With a kindle, you can go back to your notes by opening My clippings (I have a pretty old kindle, so not sure it’s all the same in the newer ones, but I’m sure you’ll manage). There, I browse through all the extract I kept over the years. Inevitably, something will resonate. You will remember why you picked this sentence, it will remind you of a particular story or it will inspire you. It never failed me and I’m sure it will not fail you if you just use it.

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Creativity is a matter of brain connection

Being creative is not difficult, it just requires some action and some tricks like this kindle one. Ideas are never created ex nihilo, although sometimes we may feel they are. It’s just our brain playing some nasty tricks on ourselves. Because ideas are just coming from other ideas, linked one to another in a neuron mesh. The beauty of the process, the more you use it, the easier it becomes. Practice makes perfection!

23 mars 2016
Tying Productivity, Methods and Tools

Your Hump Day Success Edge Post #3

Productivity is a loose word as it may mean a lot of different things for different people. As per the Oxford dictionary, productivity is the state or quality of being productive, that is to be able to achieve a significant amount or result. If I need to deliver 10 actions in the course of the day, I want to deliver as fast as possible with the required quality. Therefore, productivity is generally linked to a form of time management (method) and to tools we use.

Make your own productivity methods

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Unfortunately for any human being, there are plentiful time management, goal setting, project management methods, just to name a few « buzzword ». The most important method is the one that works for you. I’ve seen many failed attempts to fit a square peg in a round hole. The only way to make any method work is to adapt it to our own existence and adapt our own existence to the method. This means making a conscious effort, but not a too steep one. It needs to make sense for you. If the method does not make any sense, change it!

Make your productivity tool work for you (not the opposite)

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As a professional, I keep track of my goals and what I need to do in Microsoft Outlook, because it replicates to all my devices and is easy to capture any new task. But I’m not a classical user of Outlook, I’m a deep user of Tasks and Calendar, on my own terms. However, Outlook may not work in every situation, particularly for team work, for which I am using my own version of Scrum in simple Excel spreadsheet. Because my motto in productivity tool is: Keep It Simple, Stupid! If any tool requires more that one hour to master, I throw it away.

Does this make sense? Let me know!

17 février 2016
The one behavior that makes a huge performance difference

Recently Inc.com published a post entitled The Productivity Secret Behind Bill Gates’s Incredible Success. The title entices you with the idea that Bill’s success is a matter of just a productivity secret, which is, of course, not really true. However, it puts the finger on something that has now been demonstrated numerous times: intensity of focus is a game-changing behavior and increases performance.

Monotask

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For peak performance, the first to get rid of is distraction. Second, you need to concentrate on the one task you have to do. If you’ve ever been totally absorbed in what you do, like coding or painting, or any pleasurable activity, you should have been amazed at how time flies fast and how much you have done. This is the power of dedicating all your energy to one activity and one activity only. Of course our brain and body are multitasking: we breathe without thinking about it, we digest, we do all sorts of things without being conscious about them. However, dedicating our conscious energy to one thing only is what I’m calling monotasking here.

Concentrate

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When you are about to do something difficult, you often need to concentrate. This moment of deep thinking allows to focus our mind and energy on what we are about to do. Unfortunately, with all distractions, many people have lost the ability to concentrate and dedicate oneself to deep work. If you are prone to distraction, you may need to start with short period of concentration, like 10 minutes, and increase slowly to be able to sustain an hour or more of deep concentration. Concentration will bring you to the next performance level.

Meditation can help you reach your concentration goal. By bringing back focused monotasking in your daily work, you will soon be amazed at your results!

10 février 2016