Denny Chapin’s Blog

So this post is doing 2 things. It’s testing 2 plug-ins, wordbook and podpress.

So this post should be posted to my facebook account.

And you should be able to stream an audio file from here as well.

It’s an mp3 with 3 big start-up CEOs and Tim Ferriss.

 

 The Art of Speed: Conversations with Monster Makers: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’ve been thinking about this concept for a day straight now.

I don’t think I buy it.

Radical honesty, as portrayed in the article, is about saying all your thoughts.

But it’s the case that almost all our thoughts are unreflective and non-linguistic. Thoughts being what happens in consciousness.

Or if we redefine thoughts as the reflective language sentences in our mind, then I don’t think we engage that hemisphere often at all.

We do so when we answer questions.

But isn’t this impromtu truth?

If someone suddenly asks me what I think about their shirt, depending on my mood and how I felt about that person, I might say ‘it’s great, love it’ or ‘I just threw up in my mouth a little bit’.

Obviously things are biased. But ‘the truth’ really comes out of left field and changes often.

The idea seems to be more about radical opinions in the spur of the moment. Not radical honesty.

Honesty seems to imply something less open ended. We are honest about events. Opinions change quickly.

Anyway I enjoy how the ideas are making me think. I haven’t had much time for reflection as of late so I’m digging the process, as per usual.

And it’s a great conversation topic. I’m trying to use it more and more. Not to be offensive when I feel pissed off.. but also to hold back less, let a bit more out, and forget about the embarrassment associated with the things I think.

Often times they’re a bigger deal in your head than they are anywhere else.

Anyway I’m thinking about getting the book. We’ll see.

I have a very crazy notion in my head that I can learn a years worth of German in 2 months.

The challenge is to be in 2nd year German at my college (Beloit) by the time classes begin.

I’ll walk into the German teachers office, tell them when I started (here’s some proof), where I’ve gotten, and if I can do an independent study or take level 2 German.

How?

A number of ways. Mainly using meetup.com and couchsurfing to find people to hang out with and speak the language.

I’ll be borrowing from many methods from Tim Ferriss. The main strategy is focused learning by determining:

1. Priority. What I need and want to learn. Focusing on specific material.
2. Interest. How to keep motivated by the process so I can cut down on repetition learning, have faster recall, and move on more quickly.
3. Process. What’s the method? Is learning the way I’m learning going to produce the most results in the least amount of time? If not, scrap and find a new method.

Soooo. How do I match up with these 3 criteria?

First off, speed usually requires the ready, fire, aim approach. Have an idea, make it happy very quickly, and modify to suit the needs of the user. Thus #3 will be a little sketchy for these preliminary ideas.

1. Priority: Philosophy. I want to be able to walk around in Berlin, order food, small talk, and speak about the following topics: Art (graphic, film, sculpture, and architecture), Books (novels, non-fiction), and Philosophy (I’d like to read Heidegger’s Being and Time Division I). And food vocab, naturally.
2. Interest. I need to find hilarious German people and drink with them. Period. TONS of German movies with subtitles. Berlin based magazines. Prints of the city from my photos and flickr. Skype conversations with couchsurfing friends from Berlin. Camping trips and day hikes with German speakers ONLY.
3. Process. From visiting Berlin and learning a few phrases I know that pronunciation will be the most difficult part to handle. I don’t want to sound like a ‘fucking American’ while in Germany. It took me two days of practicing the word I (’ich’) to get it right. Beyond that, showing up is half the battle. I need to keep it regular and consistent. I also need to figure out some reward system for motivation.

Stupid? Maybe. But oh well. Ιt’s definitely worth the try and effort.

I do want to live in Berlin and study German philosophy, after all.

Anyway this is a crazy and exciting idea. I’m ordering the CD sets now.

A much smarter idea is to resurrect my broken Spanish. As I told everyone in Spain, I understand almost everything, I just can’t speak back without sounding like a ‘nino tonto’ (silly child).

I might just try both.

My mom calls this god light.

I call it beautiful.

Photo by LastSham

The following is a link to an Esquire article where A. J. Jacobs practices “Radical Honesty” as a lifestyle experiment.

I Think You’re Fat

Firstly, a HILARIOUS read. Laughing out loud. Quoting to friends. So funny.

And secondly, talk about an experiment.

A bit about Radical Honesty: “The movement was founded by a sixty-six-year-old Virginia-based psychotherapist named Brad Blanton. He says everybody would be happier if we just stopped lying. Tell the truth, all the time. This would be radical enough — a world without fibs — but Blanton goes further. He says we should toss out the filters between our brains and our mouths. If you think it, say it. Confess to your boss your secret plans to start your own company. If you’re having fantasies about your wife’s sister, Blanton says to tell your wife and tell her sister. It’s the only path to authentic relationships. It’s the only way to smash through modernity’s soul-deadening alienation. Oversharing? No such thing.”

My immediate reaction: impossible. Personally, I could never do this.

Not only do I lie about little things to keep tensions cool but I’ve fabricated many a story in my day.

There’s a lot I DO NOT want to share. I’ve luckily done some personal work and breathed the less-paranoid air as of late, but I have my skeletons.

To be 100% open about it all. Everything.

The founder, Blanton, a politician who promised to never lie in office, admits sleeping with over 500 women and 6 men. Add hermaphrodite to the mix.

The author, Jacobs, tells a five year old that, no, your pet bug isn’t sleeping, it’s dead honey.

!!!!

This raises an interesting question: Is honesty measured by 1) the necessity of saying what you think? Or is it 2) responding truthfully to any question?

I think it becomes obvious that option one is going to piss a LOT of people off.

But isn’t that fascinating? If we choose option one, the radical option, we still have the ability to CHANGE our ‘honest thoughts’.

I think nixing sexual thoughts would be tough. But I do believe you can change how you feel about people.

Six months working on perceiving people less as assholes (malakas in Greek–I’m in Athens–thanks language friends!) and more as.. upset? challenged? sad? .. it would be an interesting lifestyle change.

Anyway I love this article. It’s hilarious and thought provoking.

Check it out.

Photo by Knokton

I just wrote a post about my major time-wasters. Mainly the interweb. My how you take my life from me, you shiny information devil.

This post address the flip side of the battle, doing the 20% of things with your time that produce 80% of your happiness and feeling of productivity.

Obviously you want to diminish the time-wasters, the lazy-makers, and focus on the activities that create that feeling of effective, goal centered, production.

Most of the list features creative activities. Here we go:

1. Bike. Specifically, to Seattle. Explore. Be her student. Learn her curves. Hit farmers markets for food.
2. Write. A blog post. Journal. Scribble words. Review notes, expand. Just use the pen to explore ideas.
3. Read. A balance of non-fiction, fiction, and philosophy. Philosophy with a cup of yerba mate. Non-fiction for inspiration and learning purposes (specifically-non profit companies), and fiction for the story, the style, the writing. Read before falling asleep.
4. Take photos. Explore angles, lenses, exposures. Ask a stranger to be a subject. Take some risks, see what happens. Upload them online.
5. Cook. This usually requires a trip to the grocery store. Try new foods.
6. Exercise. - Basketball. Ultimate Frisbee. Tennis. Cycling. Run with the dogs.
7. Muay Thai classes.
8. Photography classes.
9. Thai Chi in the park in China Town.
10. Go have dim sum with friends for lunch.
11. Meet people from meetup.com and couchsurfing.com
12. Organize events, parties, barbecues, and get togethers. Invite new friends and old friends. Integrate.
13. Take a family member out to coffee. No reason other than to talk. Enjoy their company. Listen.
14. Make contact with another blogger. Do an interview.
15. Work on website projects. Create new video content. Write articles.
16. Go shopping at Good Will. You never know when the golden nuggets show up.
17. Rent and watch a quality film. Never a waste of time. Always a good conversation thread.
18. Walk and talk. Approach strangers, find out their favorite places, see if they have facebook, possibly become friends.
19. Find mentors. Specifically about film production companies, non for profit companies, and cinematographers. Ask for book recommendations. Read the books, let them know your thoughts.
20. Post and sell old stuff on eBay. Always better to have less material items and the extra few bucks is an enjoyable evening with a friend.
21. Find and buy tickets to local shows. Yay for finally being 21 in Seattle where I can actually see local music.
22. Create posters and advertise websites (including this one).
23. Post up street art about philosophy (currently in the brainstorming phase).
24. Learn more about health and fitness. I don’t care what people say, I love wikipedia.
25. Meditate. Incrementally add more time to the process. Do this in the morning and during high stress points.
26. Hit golf balls. I find this to be a physical meditation. Driving range therapy. I really love it.
27. Play with the dogs. Even if they make me sneeze.
28. Make prints of photos. Make lots of copies. Send them to friends. Post them on the walls.
29. Modify the bike. Add small things, designs, etcetera.
30. Sleep six hours. Learned this from Martin in Berlin. Even though you’re tired when you wake up, you eliminate that laziness throughout the day. 10 minute powernaps to supplement.
31. Bike to the book store. I collect old editions of Hemingway novels and story collections.
32. Take out the video camera and collect footage. When bored with a friend, film a short. Make it under 2 minutes.
33. Watch and learn how to use Final Cut Pro. Watch friends edit. Play around. Re-edit the same footage each day for a week.
34. Contact locals bands through MySpace about filming music videos.
35. Strength training twice a week. Following this work out plan supported by this research.
36. Lay down outside and do nothing but think–no music. This is better than wasting mindless energy on the interweb.
37. Go swimming. Lake Washington is oh so close.
38. Skateboard.  I’ve had enough dreams of me skateboarding in the last two months to seriously take up this “extreme sport” again.
39. Check this list for activities to do.

Tags: Goals, wasting time, what to do

Photo by Knokton

When I’m not in go-mode, when I haven’t thrown myself into new situations, new challenges, I tend to do the same stupid, time wasting things over and over again. These things make me lazy, allow me to procrastinate, and generally make me feel like shit once the day is over.

No good.

What are the 20% of things you do that waste 80% of your time? Write them down. Slap yourself when they happen. And read below to see how I plan on combating them.

Here’s my personal list of what NOT to do. Thanks Tim Ferriss.

1. Useless internet crap - this means surfing the same websites over and over. Mainly a few forums I enjoy reading and some blogs.
2. Facebook. Yuck. Don’t need to check this other day let alone every four hours.
3. Gmail. Google I love you, but having the google toolbar that tells me when I get a new email is bad.
4. Making drinks. I spend a lot of time in between doing activities making coffee and tea. I like both, although I know I need to cut off the coffee after 11am. Instead I need to make a big batch of the stuff and keep it somewhere close.
5. Wandering around the apartment/house/flat. I know this is strange but I tend to sort of just get up, walk around, and then sit back down. I don’t really know how to explain this. It’s dumb.
6. Repeat #1, I use the internet for no reason whatsoever. Not to do work. Not to write. No reason. And no more.

How do I plan on preventing myself from continuing these useless time-wasting habits?

Replacing them with a What TO DO list. Basically signing myself up for a very active lifestyle. Shying away from these time-wasters that make me lazy and passive and instead throwing myself into proactivity.

That’s next.

Tags: Productivity, time-wasting, what not to do