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For those of you who would like a summary, Joel takes the position that anyone who thinks they should leave the software industry, probably should. I tend to agree with this, but it's not what I want to write about in this post, partly because I don't want to be accused of being a Joel fanboy (even though the fact that I went to a Java school should immunize me from such an accusation), and partly because I'm much more interested in one of the side discussions that flared up.
The side discussion that I'm interested in is probably one you've heard before. It's about the merits of going to school and getting a CS degree vs. being a self-taught "hacker". The reason this discussion so fascinates me is that I've been on both sides of it, and I feel like I still understand both sides.
The argument against getting a CS degree always starts out reasonable enough. Here's a quote from the reddit comments:
In my view, a computer science degree doesn't predict whether a person is a good programmer or not.This may be true, but the point is that it's a better indicator than not having a CS degree. Think of all the people you know without a CS degree. How many of them are great programmers? Maybe a few, but it's going to be a tiny proportion. Now how about those with CS degrees? Still only a few of them are probably great programmers, but the proportion is going to be much higher.
The same commenter goes on to say:
A lot of people with Computer Science degrees have a tremendously hard time realising for themselves that the degree they've got is probably worthless. There's some serious cognitive dissonance there.Maybe that's because a CS degree isn't worthless? I understand that there may be a bias, but if most people who get a CS degree think that it was worth it, how can someone without a CS degree disagree? On what can they base their argument? Their own lack of a CS degree? If you haven't gotten a degree, then you can't know what it's worth.
The commenter then says:
In short, a degree leads a candidate to think they actually know something in much more depth than they actually do. In pretty much any area of computer science you can understand the subject to a much higher standard with a week of personal study than they achieved with three years at a university.This is patently false. The little bit of knowledge you gain from personal study is much more likely to lead to second-order incompetence. The one thing that I learned better than any other when I went back to school to get a CS degree is how much more there was for me to learn. It didn't lead me to an inflated sense of my own knowledge, it led me to understand how truly ignorant I was.
A different reddit commenter had this to say:
I don't have a computer science degree, and I believe a degree generally shows the following:
- You decided to recognize how the system works
- You can stick with something for four years
- You know how to look up an answer
That's pretty much it.
I agree with the first two points. I went to school with plenty of people who had years of experience and were only in a CS program in order to "get a piece of paper" corroborating their knowledge. They went back to school only to prove they could stick it out for four years, and they had recognized that they needed a degree to get a much deserved promotion. But I always felt that these people were cheating themselves by just showing up to get the degree. Many of them didn't apply themselves as hard as the could, and if they had given it a chance they may have realized, as I did, that there was a lot more to gain than just the "piece of paper".
I don't think that the argument should be that one programmer with a CS degree is better than another programmer without a degree. The real argument to make is that a programmer with a degree is better than he was before he got it. If you don't have a degree, you just don't know how much better you could be if you put in the time and the effort to earn one.


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Top-RankedMaster of Social Work program in Indiana (U.S. News & World Report)
#1Providers of mental health care in the U.S. (National Association of Social Workers, 2017)
8,000+IU School of Social Work alumni working in the field
Degrees, certificates, and more
Labor Studies
Students are provided with the essential knowledge and skills to strengthen the labor movement and trade unionism, develop an understanding of collective action, and learn how to achieve workers' rights and equity and how to promote democratic institutions. The Labor Studies Program provides 100% online programs at nine of the Indiana University's campuses and offers the following degrees:
- Bachelor of Science in Labor Studies
- Associate of Science in Labor Studies
- Certificate in Labor Studies
- Minor in Labor Studies
+16% Overall GrowthSocial Work
Overall employment of social workers is projected to grow 16 percent from 2016 to 2026, much faster average for all occupations. Increased demand for healthcare and social services will drive demand for social workers, but growth will vary by specialization.Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Social Workers

subset: commoncrawl


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adjective; satisfied, contented, happy, pleased.
Due to a family emergency we will not be able to process your orders from our site for the foreseeable future. We sincerely apologise for this inconvenience.
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Contact us Bodlon Shop & Coffee Shop, 12 Park Road, Whitchurch, Cardiff CF14 7BQ Email: firstname.lastname@example.com | Telephone: 02920 650 564 | 07825 444 233


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City of Lincoln
Mayor's Office
Media Release
Mayor Coleen J. Seng and the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department are inviting the public to view the preliminary plans to renovate the Sunken Gardens at an open house from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, December 4 at the enclosed shelter in Antelope Park, just east of the Auld Recreation Center, 3140 Sumner Street.
"While these plans are in preliminary stages, they are very impressive, and we are excited to share them with the community," said Mayor Seng. "The hard work and generosity of so many people are resulting in a safer, more accessible garden that can be enjoyed by many future generations."
The Clark Enersen Partners are developing plans and construction documents for the first major renovation of the Gardens since they were built in 1930. The improvements include a new entrance pavilion; a redesigned parking area with 34 parking spaces; handicapped-accessible walkways; a new entrance plaza and bus drop-off area; a restored cascading fountain feature; additional display beds; and rest rooms. The renovation also includes a rebuilt infrastructure with security lighting, new water lily display ponds, repaired stone retaining walls and an automated irrigation system.
"These plans are a progression of what was started more than a year ago by the City Parks and Recreation Department with input from the community," said Dennis Scheer of The Clark Enersen Partners. "As architects and designers, we think it is imperative during the renovation design process to respect the integrity and history of Sunken Gardens. As we continue to develop the design and details of the Sunken Gardens renovation, we will do so with a light touch so that the fullness and richness of the Gardens can form memories for many generations to come."
The Sunken Gardens were built as a Depression-era project on an abandoned neighborhood dump site. Through the years, the Gardens have become one of the most popular areas in Lincoln and are the only Nebraska gardens listed as one of the "300 Best Gardens to Visit in the U.S. and Canada" in the National Geographic Guide to America's Public Gardens.
"We have made every attempt to be sensitive to the fact that people do not want the Gardens to change too much," said Lynn Johnson, Director of the City Parks and Recreation Department. "The intent with these renovation plans is to enhance its special history while looking to the future. When this is finished it needs to look like a 1930s-era garden but have 21st century infrastructure."
"We are thrilled with these preliminary designs and are looking forward to finishing the campaign to make the renovated Gardens a reality for all to enjoy," said Clancy Woolman, President of the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Foundation.
In May, the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Foundation launched a $1.7 million fund-raising drive to restore the aging Gardens. Since then, nearly $1.57 million has been raised. Co-chairing the renovation campaign for the Foundation are Mike Seacrest and Roger and JeNeane Dodson. The Foundation hopes to reach its fund-raising goal in the next few months. The Gardens will be under construction in 2004 and will reopen in the spring of 2005.
More information about the Sunken Gardens and about the fund-raising campaign is available by calling the Parks and Recreation Department at 441-7847 and by visiting the web site at www.lincolnsunkengardens.com.


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10:00 pm
Flagler's Train: The Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad Nearly thirty years after the last spike was driven in the transcontinental railway at Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869, the vast Florida wilderness was America's last frontier. But Standard Oil millionaire Henry Morrison Flagler had a vision for the lush, subtropical territory, one that he believed would bring untold commerce, people and riches to the as yet untamed land. It involved a railroad network, built through his iron will, vast riches and sheer determination that though short-lived, had far-reaching effects that are still felt today, 100 years after the first train pulled into Key West. D
11:00 pm
Marion's Triumph: Surviving History's Nightmare In 1938 the Blumenthal family attempted to escape Nazi Germany but became trapped in Holland when their passenger ship was bombed. Holocaust survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan now talks of her six years in various refugee, transit and prison camps. She travels to schools, organizations, synagogues and churches worldwide to share her message of love, respect and tolerance. The documentary is based on Lazan's book Four Perfect Pebbles.G


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Baviphat is a Korean brand which has lots of unusual skincare and make up products. I bought some skincare from them recently which comes in very cute packaging in the shape of the fruit or vegetable it is named after!
Mango Magic Brightening Face Mask comes in a not very mango looking pot:
It looks more like a deformed orange.
They say:
A special treatment mask with microscopic oxygen bubbles effectively purifies skin by removing dirt and oil trapped within pores, instantly brightening and rejuvenating skin.
Apply evenly on cleansed skin, leave on for 2-3 minutes or until bubbles have subsided. Rinse off with lukewarm water and then pat skin dry.
I love these kind of masks!I have Bliss Oxygenating Face Mask (I like) and also one from Missha which is similar to this one.
The "mango":
Mango is my favourite fruit!
This smells of mango!
The mask is a thick white blancmange type mask with lots of little beads in it. These beads are supposed to contain oxygen and you burst them as you rub the mask in then leave it – it turns into a rich foam which is easy to rinse off:
Like the Missha mask and the Bliss ones these type of oxygen masks are super duper quick to use. They take about 5 minutes to use max so they are great if you just like a quick fix and my skin definitely looks brighter at least for a good few hours after the application.
I also think most skin types can benefit from this kind of mask for a quick skin prep:
Overall a nice mask – it's cute, it works quickly and doesn't make my skin sensitive or give me any kind of allergic reaction. It's also quite fun seeing the mask go from a rich cream to loads of bubbly foam!
I bought this from eBay for £8.


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By Ground Slammer - Fri Jun 16, 2017 8:13 pm
- Fri Jun 16, 2017 8:13 pm #399048
What have you to say about how long it takes to set up your machine-current or an old one. What I am looking for is what is about as long a effort you feel was worth it ----and was there a machine that was just too long and you bailed on it because it was too much of a "B"? The top end winner was the UP Red Tail at 60 seconds bag to preflight! What I looking for is on the other end How much time is okay and how much is too much.


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Gordon Brown interview: the election, Blair and family life
The Times April 10, 2010
– Ginny Dougary
Gordon Brown talks candidly to Ginny Dougary
Photo: Mitch Jenkins
By our third meeting, the Prime Minister's skill at the public kiss had improved immeasurably. There was now definite contact between lips and cheek and no head clunking, although he still needs to work on his puckering technique. When I commented on his progress, in the library of 10 Downing Street, he laughed… which is something he does a lot, the more we meet, in-between some rather solemn moments. My teasing had come on the back of seeing his turn on Piers Morgan's television show, and the clips of him bungling the continental double-kiss with the likes of Carla Bruni (but, really, who can blame him for being a little fazed by that?).
In the run-up to the election, the beauty contest between David Cameron and Gordon Brown is hotting up. After Brown's hour with Morgan came his opponent's twirl with Trevor McDonald, featuring the Tory's "secret weapon" – after Sarah Brown's endorsement of her husband, at last year's Labour Party conference, proved such a hit – David's wife, Samantha. But McDonald's gentle lack of probing did his subject no favours, and Cameron's performance – not helped by some rather ludicrous footage of him jogging to a soundtrack of Nina Simone's Feeling Good – merely reinforced his critics' complaints that he is a lightweight.
Brown has the opposite problem; where Cameron is accused of "hidden shallows", the PM is thought to be almost too deep. There were cavils about him looking upset (apparently there is also such a thing as being "too human") when discussing the death of his baby daughter, Jennifer, with Morgan but, on the whole, the attempt to portray him as less remote and more normal worked. So thus far, in the battle of the populist TV shows, it's probably 15-love to Brown.
Our first day together started early with a photo opportunity at Euston station, the PM alongside Lord Adonis, to publicise the new high-speed rail link from London to the Midlands and the North. Then on to the train, in first class, where there is the first of several amusing moments. Brown comes over to greet us and blocks the aisle to the disgruntlement of a couple, behind him, who tut-tut and say, "Excuse me", crossly, and when the PM turns round, the expression on their faces is priceless. Sarah Brown is accompanying her husband and, although we have met socially on a number of occasions, her manner is initially a little strained. This must be "protective wife syndrome", since there was a similar quality of watchful wariness on Samantha's face when we met at the Camerons' home last year.
The main event of the day is at the National Memorial Arboretum, in Staffordshire, a service of rededication of the Basra Memorial Wall. The original wall was built, with local bricks, outside the airport in Basra. It was constructed in the dark, in their own time, after they had finished their day's work, by Royal Engineers, hanging it with brass plaques as each man or woman was killed.
The Browns are sitting in the middle of the front row, with the Duke of Gloucester and Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup, Chief of the Defence Staff, alongside. At one end, is Cameron, slightly slouched, legs crossed over each other oddly casually, in contrast to Nick Clegg, at the other end, who looks about 12, and Brown, who looks his age (59), who are both sitting bolt upright and staring straight ahead.
After the lighting of the memorial candle by Tracey Hazel, whose son – Corporal Ben Leaning of the Queen's Royal Lancers – was killed in action at the age of 24, the readings, the playing of the Last Post and the minute of silence, the families line up to place their wreaths.
As they approach the wall, it is hard to witness their faces, convulsed in grief. They are all ages: some will have lost their husbands or wives; some their sons or daughters. Brown and Cameron are seven seats apart but, despite the bigger gulf of their political battle, there must be some communality, at this moment at least, in their thoughts of the loss of their first-born children. In the silence and the chilly air, it is impossible not to empathise with the families' bereavement. Cameron is stooped forward, deep in thought, with a furrowed brow. Brown's hound face looks sunken, ashen and grave. Later, he tells me, several times, "War is tragic" in an echo of what his old compadre, Tony Blair, said: "War is horrible." But all their knockers want to know is, "Could it have been avoided?"
Next on the agenda is a "healthy living centre". This is a Brown initiative; multipurpose centres to serve the local community, where you can drop your child at the nursery, go to the dentist, and so on, all in one place. In the nursery, Brown drops down on his knees – no hint of creakiness – and chats away to mothers and nursery aides, and their charges.
I would say, having observed both Blair and Cameron in similar circumstances, that Brown, contrary to expectation, has more of a common touch than either of them. Perhaps this is to do with his upbringing – his late father, the Rev John Ebenezer Brown, was a minster of the Church of Scotland, and the family manse in Kirkcaldy, Fife, was something of an open house to the poor and in need. Gordon and his brothers, John and Andrew, were expected to be kind and hospitable to whomsoever arrived at the door.
On the train back, Brown and I are left to talk, in rather trying circumstances, knees to knees, juddering china, hovering rail staff with loudspeaker voices. His voice is low and soothing but his manner is more hesitant, particularly at first, than in subsequent meetings.
It's intriguing to hear the private reflections and anxieties of our public figures behind their impassive façades. He was worried at the service, for instance, about how much eye contact he should make: "It was very emotional. I found it difficult because I wanted to look at everybody but not in a prying way. I wanted them to know that I wasn't trying to avoid their… so I looked at them and sort of nodded." Afterwards, he met the families. Did they express their anger to you? "That has happened but not today… Look, war is always tragic, that's what I wanted to say at the Iraq inquiry."
So why didn't you say it? "I did say it but that's not what was reported. Tragedies happen during a period of war or conflict and you've got to keep asking yourself, 'Is this the right thing to do? Can you justify this? What is happening to these young people?'?"
Do you sometimes feel like weeping, yourself, in a public event like this one? "Of course, of course." I ask him, then, about his emotionalism when talking about the death of his daughter on the Piers Morgan show. Was he surprised when his feelings overtook him?
"Well, we… I hadn't really talked about it much in public and I just… um… I mean, that's just the way it happened. I wanted to explain what had happened because these were ten…the ten most important days of my life and I can remember almost every minute of them. And, yes, you do cherish them."
Who can forget those pictures and footage of Brown, happier than anyone had ever seen him, as he held his new baby girl in his arms? He came to fatherhood relatively late in life, and looked like a man who could hardly believe his good fortune. And then those grief-stricken, shell-shocked photos, ten days later.
Does that personal experience connect him to the people whose own children have died, and does it also reconnect him to his own feelings of loss? "Yes, it does, because a loss is not something you get over. You just adjust to it. It's very, very difficult, particularly when people have built their whole lives around either a partnership with someone or their expectations that they will see their teenage son prosper and then, suddenly, they're dead, and it's very, very sad. It is a terrible thing to lose your child."
Moving on, I ask Brown whether he has enjoyed being Prime Minister, which startles him. "Enjoyment! It's not the first word that you'd use," a big laugh. "I do enjoy being in politics and, I mean, if I thought that I wasn't being able to do anything that was of any use, I'd get out immediately. I'm not really wanting to be there if I can't do anything. So as long as I feel there are more things to do… Yes, it is enjoyable."
Can you give an example of something you set out to do and have achieved; something which makes you feel proud? "I think we have probably created a fairer society and rebuilt our public services. These Sure Start Children's Centres, for instance, like the one we were at today… There's now 3,500 around the country and there were none in 1997."
He talks about the new challenges each day brings, and meetings with Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the internet, and Martha Lane Fox: "We're trying to work out how we can move to the next stage of the internet in Britain and how Britain can lead in that."
How good are you at the new technology? "I'm not that great." Do you tweet? "Well, I give people messages but we've got 1.5 million people on it!" How are you at e-mail? "I do e-mail and you can tell it's me, I never correct the spelling. I can't be bothered doing spellcheck.
"My father had a typewriter and when I was very young, we [he and his brothers] all learnt to type with two fingers. That's never changed," he demonstrates, looking like an old-time reporter in The Front Page.
Brown went to Edinburgh University to read history at the age of 16, having been fast-tracked in an experimental educational programme, selected at Kirkcaldy West primary school, and taught in a separate class – with the other hot-housed children – at Kirkcaldy High School.
As a teenager, he wrote about how much he hated the experiment and he still clearly believes it was a bad idea: "My school life and everybody else's was determined by this narrow, narrow measure of IQ. The kids I was in a class with, with very high IQs, were being trained to do better at university, assuming they would go to university. And, actually, most of them didn't go because the pressures were very high on them, and a lot of them just gave up on the way.
"The idea that you can narrow intelligence down to one measurement of IQ… when what we've got to have is both an education system and a society that recognises that people's talents flourish in different ways. You cannot standardise a measure of talent."
Deyan Sudjic, the director of the Design Museum, was a contemporary of the PM's at Edinburgh and recalls Brown's successful campaign to become rector in 1972, at the age of 21, following in the footsteps of such towering political figures as William Gladstone, Thomas Carlyle, Stanley Baldwin and Winston Churchill.
"He wasn't the first [student rector] – he was the second – but he was the one who made the most of it," Sudjic remembers. "Here was someone who was quite cerebral about politics but who also managed a very populist campaign [a posse of miniskirted cuties, who called themselves the Brown Sugars, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with Brown's face and the slogan, "Gordon for me"]. It was a time when students were more interested in sit-ins and were quite snooty about that kind of thing, but he had a gift for touching different sorts of people."
Even then, Sudjic says, "Brown had a glow, which is nothing to do with hindsight – a charisma that this was someone who was going to do something." They worked together on the student newspaper, where Sudjic was editor and Brown was the unofficial news editor who could be relied on to come up with cracking headlines, and quickly: "He was always the centre of a group of people who wanted to be around him, and popular – of course – with women. [His girlfriend, for five years, was Princess Margarita, the eldest daughter of the exiled King of Romania.] We'd all go to a pub – the Meadows Bar – which was a notorious dive."
When Brown left university, staying on as rector until 1975, fighting and triumphing in various thorny political battles, his plan was to be an academic. He lectured in politics in Glasgow and Edinburgh, "and I was going down that sort of road, but after I had my series of eye operations, I decided to do something a bit more useful".
As is well known, Brown lost his sight in one eye in an accident when he was playing rugby in his final year at school. Up to that point, he was a gifted and keen sportsman. I'd read somewhere that he'd even thought of turning professional, but when I ask him, he says "No! But I was very fit and I was very fast. I was a runner, you know, so whether you're playing football or rugby or athletics, if you're fast, you've got something to offer."
But then there were complications in his other eye and he had to spend long weeks, with operation after operation, lying on his bed in the dark with nothing to do but think: "I decided I had to do something a bit more useful, so that's when I got more involved in politics." But what could be more useful than teaching?
"That's true, but I thought I was doing it just for myself." In-between being a university lecturer and an MP, Brown had a stint as a broadcast journalist on Scottish Television. How did you find that? "I thought it was fascinating because it taught me how – well, it should have taught me how – to present a case, and it should have taught me how to say things more succinctly!"
For the rest of the journey we talked about books and poetry. Brown knew that this interested me, for several reasons, and I had the impression that he had prepared himself. We had met years ago when he threw a drinks party for Women in Journalism, in a gracious reception room on the top floor of 11 Downing Street. He may have had, even then, a slight reputation for dourness – which was nothing compared to what it became – but he was incredibly charming and seemed totally at ease surrounded by legions of spike-heeled feministas who all wanted to get close to him. His chief memory of the occasion, rather disappointingly, was the enthusiastic smoking on the balconies.
Then, more recently, as Brown's reputation hardened – and he was portrayed, in some places, as a moody, paranoid, bitter, neurotic, socially dysfunctional, obsessive, workaholic weirdo – it struck me how distinctly at odds this was with the impression of him conveyed by other people I interviewed. Talking to them revealed glimpses of a Brown that we rarely see, and I wanted to dig deeper into this hinterland.
Terence Conran, for instance, spoke about his passion for modernist architecture and how – before the big modernism exhibition at the V&A in 2006 – Brown had asked if Conran would give him a tour of the show one evening. What impressed him was the knowledge of the Chancellor, as he was then, but also his curiosity and desire to learn more.
Antonia Fraser was struck by Brown's cleverness but also his passionate interest and knowledge of poetry. Brown remembers being invited to a reception for Fraser's anthology of Scottish love poetry when he was a student: "This was very funny because Hugh MacDiarmid was there [the nom de plume of the communist poet Christopher Murray Grieve, who created a Scottish version of modernism] and he was just swearing at everything. This man who had this great talent with words was reduced to the adjective, the verb and the noun of swear words. It was incredible." But why was he swearing? "Well, I was the rector of the university, and I was a student, and the establishment was not very pleased with me [Brown had taken the university to court over its investments in South Africa, and won] and so Hugh was siding with me."
He still reads poetry, which surprises and delights me, and he really knows his stuff. Every time I make a reference, he joins me, and so we make a bit of spectacle of ourselves, yelling, "My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains my sense" over the rattle of the train. (The only other politician, in my experience, who has a similar love and appreciation of language is Boris Johnson.)
I had asked Brown to cite his favourite love poem and he's a bit stumped. About a week after our last meeting, I have the faintly surreal experience of the Prime Minister calling me at home, on a Sunday, and quoting the lines of various poems that do it for him. Clearly, he was speaking from memory, because he is unable to tell me the titles, apart from Robbie Burns's A Red Red Rose. He also likes this one by Erich Fried and recites it:
"It is nonsense/ says reason/ It is what it is/says love
It is calamity/ says calculation/ It is nothing but pain/ says fear
It is hopeless/ says insight/ It is what it is/ says love
It is ludicrous/ says pride/ It is foolish/ says caution/ It is impossible/ says experience/ It is what it is/ says love."
Towards the end of our train journey, Sarah came and joined us. Her husband had been talking about his book of the moment, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.
What I want to know is whether the Browns swap books at bedtime. Sarah says in her dry way: "I read a lot of chick lit… and Gordon, not so much." Really, how can you fail to like her? "Well, Sarah reads a lot more than I do," says Gordon. "I'm less interested in reading political biographies but I do find biographies interesting; the way they try to get at the heart of people."
We've arrived at Euston. Brown ushers me into his car, en route for Downing Street, where he and Sarah are hosting a reception for the heroes of different communities, and talks in an unbridled way about himself.
There is a bit of a whiff of that "They're out to get me" paranoia when he refers to certain newspapers, but then you could say it's justifiable paranoia because they are. More interestingly, he says that for some years he had felt restricted by a kind of image-problem straitjacket but now he's shrugged it off and can be himself. He talks about it as though it were a liberation.
Other people have witnessed this new lightness in the PM's step, although they say the straitjacket was of Brown's own making. One political commentator first noticed what a good mood Brown was in on the plane to Trinidad, last November, for the Commonwealth summit. "I kept saying, 'Why is Gordon so relaxed? Is it because he can see the finishing line?' He's seen off the coups, and he's got the polls in a good position and he's been thrown a lifeline that wasn't there – because the public has taken a good look at Cameron and they're not quite sure about him… So Brown's in with a chance."
The accusations sparked by Andrew Rawnsley's book that Brown has "anger issues" have tended to make the PM more popular. "The country was not shocked by suggestions that the PM loses his temper, and his staff don't regard him as a bully," the commentator continues. "He's not a cruel guy – he doesn't get any pleasure by being hard on people – but he is extremely demanding. I've had texts from people in No 10 saying, 'God, he's in a bad mood today,' and there's no doubt that he's really, really moody. But now that it's been seen that he can shed a tear as well as sock people," he jokes, "Brown's far more interesting to the public."
I spoke to someone close to Blair who had witnessed the two of them during some of the more tense periods. "I've never seen anything like bullying," he says. "I've heard horrible tempers but the most difficult thing with Gordon was his withdrawal or sulkiness which was much more tedious. His main problems were shooting the messenger and sulking when he didn't get his own way, but my impression is that all that is better now and his team seems to be working better."
It's possible, of course, with the election only weeks away, that no one from Labour's inner circle, past or present, is going to put the boot into Brown since there's no shortage of people who will be doing that for them.
Our next meeting takes place, on Sunday afternoon, in the kitchen of No 10. It's rather pokey and old-fashioned and to get there, you go up in a lift the size of one of those saw-the-lady-in-half magician's boxes. The Browns' sons are nowhere to be seen but I pass their brightly coloured wellingtons lined up, regimentally, in another tiny nook at the entrance of the flat. Sarah organises coffee in a cafetiere and, again, Brown and I are left alone, to talk around the kitchen table.
This lack of control-freakery is highly unusual with senior politicians. Brown's press person leaves a tape recorder on the table but never sits in on the interviews. When I interviewed Tony Blair a number of times last year, again with no aide present, he said that when he was Prime Minister that would never have happened. I wasn't allowed to be on my own with David Cameron in our time together, again last year, without his press officer glued to our side. Cameron's people were also much more anxious about what I was going to write, while Brown's lot are almost peculiarly chilled. It's hard to know whether this is an extremely clever ploy – see how relaxed and confident the PM is! Gordon Brown has nothing to fear! – or a bit naive and unprofessional.
I ask Brown, after all the recent focus on his personality, how he would describe his temperament. "Determined, strong-willed, impatient, wanting to do things." Are you moody? "Yes, but, look, every day you get up with a determination to do certain things, and you can get very frustrated if you haven't done them by the end of the day. But every morning, I'm very positive about what you can do."
There's been no hint of brusqueness in our time together but I wouldn't see that, would I, since we are both sort of wooing one another for our own reasons, aren't we? He laughs: "I don't think I'm naturally surly but I am very strong-willed."
When I repeat what the political pundit had said about the public being more interested in him, now, because of the tears and him packing a punch, Brown says, "But I don't pack a punch!" He talks about his father, to whom he often refers, with a rather touching admiration: "He was a man who I never heard raise his voice once. You always knew when he was disappointed by the expression on his face but he would not get angry. And every time I get impatient or angry around others, I remember my father was not prepared to lose his temper."
Does Sarah ever tell you to calm down? "Not those words, no." What does she say? "Move on to the next issue.'" Do you brood? "I think about a lot of things. But 'brood' is not the word. 'Brood' is your poets we were discussing the other day."
I ask him whether this new lightness of being – he says that it's a consequence of him not caring any more about what people write about him – means that he is philosophical about his future.
"I'm not philosophical in the sense that people might understand it – that I'm just letting events take their course. I'm fighting as we've never fought before to win," he says.
Some commentators are saying that the danger is that you underestimate Cameron. "I don't underestimate anybody," Brown says steelily. "And I certainly don't underestimate the Conservatives. I mean, they're putting huge amounts of money and huge amounts of effort and huge amounts of personal… You know, sort of 'Brown is the problem', 'Another five years of Brown'. I don't underestimate them at all."
Does he fear rejection, I wonder. Could this be the reason that he put off the election, the first time round, when he seemed to be in a much stronger position to win, even though the initial honeymoon period was over. "That wasn't about a fear of rejection, it was about the right time for doing the right things," he says. "And I'm not going into this election fearing rejection. I mean, if people decide not to vote for us, I'll accept that. I have to accept it so I will accept it. I don't think I'm motivated by the fear of rejection."
So why didn't you call an election at that time? "Because I'd just started the job… We'd gone through the summer with floods and terrorism, and foot-and-mouth, and I thought about it and then decided not to do it because I thought we would give people more time to see what we're capable of doing."
Hmmm, how very generous-spirited of you, I say. Do you despair of the fickleness of the public; the way when Blair had gone, it was all, "Thank God, no more of that dreadful showbiz and glamour – Gordon Brown is so solid and no frills," and, pretty soon, it was you who could do nothing right?
Another big laugh. "Well, look around the world at every political leader and for most of the time that they're in office, it's a referendum on them. So – make a mistake [which his people admit he did on pensions, for instance], make a bad judgment, do something sort of idiosyncratic or do something a bit strange or odd or stupid, and – you know – people will mark you down.
"So most of the time, it's a referendum and it's only when it comes to an election – and, actually, it's only in the few weeks before an election – that it becomes a choice. So if you're asking people, most of the time, 'What's your view of the Government?' they'll say, 'The Government's done something wrong.' If you ask them nearer an election, then they know they've got to choose between these two parties.
"And if I seem happy it's because I believe that we can show people, against the odds, and the odds have been against us, that we can come through."
I ask him what he's learnt about people from his time in politics. Any surprises? "I think that in the job that I'm in there are lots of things that shock you!" Any examples? "I'd better not! I'm still shocked by some of these parliamentary expenses problems that I never knew about. There was a system that was wrong, but it does shock me how bad some of the experiences we had to deal with were."
Are you a bit of an innocent then? "Maybe I am." A huge laugh. "No, I think most people would be shocked by this. And when you see people abusing any system, you get angry and it made me very angry indeed." He goes on: "I didn't have any particular problem with my expenses but everybody suffered and it's bound to affect the government of the day. In the last two years, we've had two of the biggest problems that British politics has had to face since the war. One is the trust in politics that has been damaged in a way that it's never been hurt before by a sort of cumulative weight of public opinion against MPs – because of the expenses – which is justifiable.
"And the second is the global financial crisis – and when you ask me about why we didn't choose to go for the election…" Do you regret that you didn't? "No." Why? "Because I think it was better for me to see through the global recession. And let's see what happens in the next few months. I mean, there's still a long way to go."
He talks about "the tragedy of British politics", when there are big moral questions that should be debated – such as the right to assisted suicide, genetic research, discrimination laws – that are "about the future of our culture, in some cases, as well as the future of our country", and yet, "All you see is a sort of divisive, confrontational opposition versus government bun fight that is more reminiscent of a public-school debating society than it is of a serious chamber looking at serious issues."
He continues: "We've got to do better than this confrontational point-scoring and legalistic cleverness because, that's what it is, clever not wise. And the reason that people don't feel that their politicians are in touch with them as they should be is that they don't feel that politicians are debating the issues that really matter to them – like social care – how do you care for the elderly? If you could see Parliament really debating that, then people might have more trust in the political system. That's where I'd like it to be."
And, yet, there are obviously larger moments of shared humanity where all differences are put aside: "When people are talking in the House of Commons about the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mood is very different. Look, politicians can behave well, even if they often behave badly."
I ask him what has been the happiest moment in his political life, and he says: "I think it was probably presenting the first Budget as Chancellor – probably because you felt you were actually doing something, after so many years in opposition of not being able to change things.
"The Budget was 3.30 one afternoon, and for some stupid reason the Conservatives decided to make points of order. And we had 18 minutes of points of order – hahahahah – and I remember turning to Tony and saying, 'Look, we've waited 18 years, I suppose we can wait another 20 minutes.'?"
The relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is one that has riveted the public and media alike. It has been the subject of many column inches, books and a TV drama, The Deal. Given the Conservatives' recent, rather counter-intuitive claim that they are Blair's heirs, it seemed a good idea to contact the man himself. Blair is harder to pin down, these days, than the PM, but he spoke to me on the telephone, in snatches, from Moscow, London and Brussels, before flying off to China.
They were both new MPs when they met – Blair was 30, Brown, 32 – and they got on instantly. "He was pointed out to me as someone who was a highly intelligent, able guy – the rising star of the Labour Party – and we got talking and I found him both intellectually stimulating and a fascinating personality and then, by a curious quirk, we ended up sharing this windowless, airless room underneath a House of Commons corridor.
"That was the start of a very close friendship because we were in a very, very small room – slightly bigger than the inside of a car, but not much – and we were there all the time. First, there was a very strong intellectual curiosity, and an understanding that the Labour Party had to change and that we were in serious trouble.
"Second, we got on personally very well together, we really, really enjoyed each other's company, and he certainly taught me a lot about politics."
Blair offers as an example the first press release he did, "which was very much like a sort of lawyer's opinion, and he said, 'What's the headline?' And I gave him this intellectual analysis, and he said, 'Look, what's the headline?' So he was extremely good at doing that."
Brown also helped Blair with his first speeches: "Getting a point to them and a rhythm to them that was for a public speech rather than an argument. But the most important thing was that for ten years we were extremely busy iterating and reiterating where the Labour Party had to be… what was the modern form of social democracy that would be capable of remaining true to its values but win public support.
"So it was an intellectual bond but a strong personal friendship, too."
I ask him about the next stage, when the decision was made for Blair to become leader. Wasn't that awkward, since Brown had somewhat mentored him? "Well, of course, these things are always difficult," he says, and then – which felt almost too melodramatically apt – the line went dead in snowbound Moscow.
We resume, a day or so later: "Of course, it was bound to be difficult because only one of us could go forward, and we'd been working extraordinarily closely together and very productively.
"But at the time, the great challenge was how to win the aspirantly upwardly mobile in the South." And yours was the face that fitted? "You could say that… Obviously, it was very hard for him but, yes, I think he eventually reconciled himself to it."
Blair says that the first term was about re-establishing Labour's credibility to govern, "and he was a tower of strength, particularly in respect of the economy, because the worry had always been that Labour either didn't understand it or couldn't run it or manage it. And, actually, in those ten years we were a very successful partnership. But, yes, the tension obviously remained."
I've been told, as was widely speculated, that after 2005, there was a real deterioration in your relationship, is that right? "I'm not sure it was quite like that but obviously Gordon still retained a very strong ambition to be leader – and he was perfectly entitled to, which is why I always thought he'd be my successor.
"When major events happened, like September 11th and Afghanistan and Iraq and so on, he was there and he was supportive. But there's no point in being silly about it – of course the tension remained between someone who had the job and someone who wanted the job. That's always the way it is, but it was still a very enduring partnership."
Do you feel protective of Gordon when he is under siege? "Of course, because I know what it's like to be under attack in that way. One of the reasons why I would never go out and criticise the person who is Prime Minister is that I know how damn tough the job is, and I also know enough about the way the modern media works to know that things can get extraordinarily exaggerated and your motives are completely traduced.
"But there'll always be a basis of friendship for us and, indeed, respect – because on the great issues of the day, he is someone who thinks profoundly and, indeed, in an original way – which is a rare quality."
I wait for the PM in the library of 10 Downing Street, with its rather gloomy landscapes in ornate frames, and books – lined up under august busts – which have an uncherished and unconsidered quality, dating back to previous incumbents. Only in one corner, almost embarrassedly tucked-away, is there any sense of the here and now – a photograph of a beaming Brown, with his two boys, John, 6, and Fraser, 3, wrapped up in his arms.
Sculpted into the cornices, around the room, are four tiny bees that Cherie had commissioned to represent the actual Blair heirs. The original vandal was Margaret Thatcher who had decided, in a fit of whimsical grandeur, to have four thatches attached to the stucco of the ceiling in one of No 10's reception rooms.
When Brown arrives, I ask him what form his interior legacy will take. "I haven't thought about that at all," he says. "What's Tony done?"
I had asked him whether his weeks of darkness and enforced idleness as a youth had taught him more about patience or impatience: "Impatience, I think – because I was doing all these things I enjoyed, like playing rugby and football, and then that just stopped.
"So, instead of allowing it to be a setback, you think you'll try to make something of it – and I became more impatient to do things more quickly."
And, yet, you had to be patient for so long, waiting to become prime minister? But then you weren't so very patient towards the end, were you?
"Well, ask Tony. We had our ups and downs but there is no political relationship, as I have said, that has survived so long as Chancellor and Prime Minister as the one I had with Tony. How many Chancellors did Margaret Thatcher have? Three or four? And I was the longest-serving Chancellor for 200 years. So we worked things through when there were difficulties, and I've got enormous, enormous respect for him."
He was also close to his special adviser Damian McBride, who had to resign after the e-mail scandal when he and Labour blogger, Derek Draper, fabricated unpleasant personal stories about Tory politicians and their wives. Do you still talk to him? "No, I haven't talked to him." Don't you miss him and feel sad about it? "It's a very sad example of someone making a mistake and paying very heavily for it. You can't condone what happened but, equally, the penalty for him was very high."
Does that mean that you're not a good judge of character? "I don't think so, no. One of the things about people is that you think you know them and then you get a surprise. But you think you know yourself and then sometimes you've got to think, 'Oh, I've reacted in this way which surprises me.'?"
Well, look at Peter Mandelson, and how he bounces back. He's gone from being the Prince of Darkness to – what? – the Labour Party's Winne-the-Pooh? "I think people admire the way he's fought back."
Earlier, we had been talking about Brown's extracurricular interests – he still plays the piano (as a boy he had lessons from his aunt, who was a music teacher) and he likes Bach, but he also can bang out some Beatles songs. What's your favourite Beatles song? "Hey Jude." He tells me that his older son, John, was given a teddy bear that plays Imagine when you wind it up – but it's only later, when I compare Mandelson to a Mandy Bear, that he says: "That's the guy who gave John the teddy bear that plays Imagine."
What does he make of George Osborne's claim that the Tories are the real Blair's heirs, presumably trying to imply that Brown is a sort of Arthur Scargill throwback?
"It's a Tory tactic to try to present themselves as centre ground and me as too far on the left. And it's wrong because, basically, I am centre ground and they are too far on the right."
Given that GB was as much the architect of New Labour as TB, the Tories might as well say that they are wearing Brown's crown.
Moving on to Iraq, did he ever feel like resigning over it? "No… It wasn't weapons of mass destruction or the issue about regime change that was important to me. To me, the important thing was, if you are creating a global community – which is what we are trying to do after the Cold War – you cannot have countries that persistently defy the international community by refusing to abide by their obligations."
But was it our responsibility to go in? "There is a responsibility to protect – which we will have to debate – you know, we didn't go into Rwanda when we should have done. You wouldn't justify now the Western world's inability to deal with the problems of Rwanda, would you? So you would support intervention in cases where it was morally justified."
So are you saying we should be doing more Iraqs, not less? "Well, I think you've got to ask – what is a just war and what is a just peace."
But, Gordon, do you understand that it's not just the expenses scandal that has made the public turn against politicians – it's also that thousands and thousands of people marched against the Iraq War but their opposition counted for nothing. Do you understand that anger?
"I understand the anger over Iraq, I do – because people feel that they were given information that turned out not to be correct. I understand the feeling that people have but you want me to, sort of, denounce something that I was involved with.
"Do I understand why people feel worried when there are casualties and people are killed? Yes, I do – but I can't be in politics and be a pacifist."
How much does the public have a right to know about their political leaders? "That's an interesting question, isn't it?" If you had been suffering from depression, for instance, should we know about that? "I've never really thought about it." But weren't you asked about that by Andrew Marr? "That was about prescription drugs, wasn't it?" But if I asked if you were on Prozac, let's say, should I expect an honest answer? "I think people have got to give answers to questions, yeah."
But do you think that's a legitimate question to ask? "Look, I think we are in a world where every part of my private life has been investigated by someone. Every part of what I do… my house, my marriage, my children. I didn't choose to expose the fact that my son [Fraser] had cystic fibrosis. I didn't want people to know that. I'm not ashamed of it but I didn't want people to know because I want to protect my sons.
"But it leaked out. Someone sold the story. But I am realistic that people will ask all sorts of questions and they do – and in the end people will judge you by what you do."
He had said that his upbringing was one where you didn't talk about personal things outside the confines of your family: "I was quite a shy boy when I was young and, yes, I'm probably still shy… but not unwilling to take on the things I do."
Do his feelings get hurt by the personal comments? "I think it does affect you when people say, 'Oh, this guy's got a…' – hahahaha – 'weird smile,' and 'This guy's got something wrong about the way he speaks.' I mean, people are pretty cruel sometimes. But, no, I don't get hurt any more."
Watching the Browns, over several days, one did, indeed, get the impression as the PM puts it, "We do well together – we've been very lucky." He looks a bit emotional. "You've got to understand each other's needs and, at the moment, she's having to do more for me, so it's more of a pressure on her."
How much do you think Sarah's changed you? "A lot, I think. She's helped me to be more outgoing and more sensitive to things that probably I was not as sensitive to as I should have been."
What have you discovered about her in this role? "Poise. I knew she was compassionate and very dedicated to what she was doing – but it's a difficult job for her because there's no official title or office that sort of backs her up. But she's tried to do all the things that are necessary with poise and, I suppose," – a shy laugh – "elegance."
Can you imagine a life without children? "Not now – it's absolutely the best thing that has happened to me, and it was never clear after Jennifer died whether Sarah could have more children, so we were very lucky.
"Working here and living here, you're meeting your children throughout the day – so, you know, they're running in to see you." Are you demonstrative with them? "Oh, yes, very." Were your parents with you? "Not so much, no. But children like that – we play a lot together and I try to read them stories… You know, it's the softness of their skin which is just wonderful.
"I've been very lucky to have children at this age – Sarah is younger than me, our children are very young, and I feel younger as a result. It's very energising to be around children."
How does Brown think he and Sarah will get on when they have more time on their hands? "Better," he says. "I think so because Sarah's got things she wants to do, and I've got things I want to do…"
Can you imagine a life without politics? "Oh yes, I could always imagine a life without politics." What would you enjoy? "Time to read, time to write… I have written one or two books and I love the intellectual discovery that comes with it. I'm fascinated by the moral sense that people have and how that arises, and what makes people do the things they do."
When we had been talking about poetry on the train, Brown spoke about his favourite poem – Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard, and its theme of potential never realised, the flowers never to blossom and so on, because of impoverished lives. I'd asked him, then, if he felt that he'd fulfilled his potential. "Not yet. Does anybody in the end? I don't know." He also said that everyone who is reported as being one-dimensional has more than one dimension: "Everybody has a hinterland of some sort."
I spoke to Rory Bremner, whose job as a political satirist and impressionist requires him to examine our political leaders with forensic precision, and his view was that Brown was the most three-dimensional of them all. He also said that, "Brown is a serious man and a significant politician but the skills set of a modern politician is about fluency and ease and looking relaxed in your own skin, and Brown doesn't fit into that."
What Bremner said chimed with the general impression I had of Brown, while working on this piece that, despite, his mistakes, he is a man of substance in a shallow age. So the question is – will we get the prime minister we deserve?
Towards the end of our sessions, I put it to him that politics often seems not to be about the art of the possible but the art of the compromise. "It ought to be the art of making the desirable possible, in my view," was Brown's supple riposte. "Is that not what politics should be? Making the desirable possible?"
10 Apr 2010 Administrator 0 comments


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Three Simple Steps
Publisher's Summary
How many self-help books are written by authors whose biggest success is selling self-help books? Three Simple Steps is different.
Despite stock market crashes, dot-com busts, and the specter of recession, the author started a virtual company from home, using a few thousand dollars of his savings. A few years later, without ever hiring an employee or leaving his home office, he sold it for more than $100 million. As the economy slipped into another free fall, he did this again with a company in a different field. He accomplished this through no particular genius. Rather, he studied the habits of the many successful men and women who preceded him, and developed three simple rules that, if followed diligently, virtually ensure success. Using them first to escape poverty, then to achieve a life of adventures, he finally turned them toward financial independence.
Written in a straightforward and no-nonsense style, Three Simple Steps shows you how to take back control of your destiny and reshape your mind for increased creativity, serenity and achievement. While building on the wisdom of great thinkers and accomplished individuals from East and West, Three Simple Steps isn't a new age text or guide to esoteric fulfillment. Rather, it's a practical guide to real-life achievement by a pragmatic businessman who attributes his incredible successes to these very simple ideas. Three Simple Steps is a must-listen guide for everyone who wants to achieve more, live better and be happier.
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- Kim
- 27-12-2016
Found this book inspiring. Lots of useful information and it is laid out and explained well.
- Rob Joseph
- 20-02-2013
Consciousness ("Mentality") is the key
The three simple steps revolve around the ways you can consciously use your mind (or "mentality" as Blake calls it):
1. Focus only on what you want, not on what you do not want. Filter out negative conversation, people and media. Cultivate internal views of scenes and conditions you enjoy, love and wish to have more of.
2. Set aside quiet time each day. Quiet is the ground of potentiality.
3. Develop *intention* to attract your desired results and circumstances. Not a goal; a goal is inherently separate from us and has doubt attached. Intention -- or as Blake also puts it, a state of knowing -- is part of us and does not include doubt. Intention brings itself into being.
The book includes inspiring stories, including the one at the beginning that I will refrain from spoiling by not revealing the surprise ending. He relates being bullied as an English boy growing up in poverty in Wales (with some truly harrowing anecdotes), and how he overcame trauma by learning about and following the examples of others from oppressed backgrounds who discovered secrets to phenomenal success.
A modern take on some age-old ideas, the "Three Simple Steps" are refreshingly straightforward, but there is also nuance to this book. Blake encourages us to pay close attention to our internal and external experience, and to become the selectors of the circumstances and lives we want.
The voice performance is adequate, although to hear Britishisms read in an American accent is a little odd at times. Overall there is nothing negative to say about Dudley's narration; it is easy to listen to without sending the listener to sleep.
Recommended for those who wish to set their lives on an upward trajectory.
40 of 40 people found this review helpful
- Nick
- 22-01-2016
Some shaky logic
Any additional comments?
I really liked this book at first. It definitely started with a little more of a spiritual perspective than I was expecting (positive thinking and filtering out negativity from others and the media to steer your mentality in a positive direction) but it wasn't too out there.... at first. As the book progressed however, things really took a turn. At one point the author uses the theory of relativity to explain why all thoughts "must" become reality and he uses the actual mathematical formula E=mC^2 as proof where mass (things) = energy (thoughts) divided by the speed of light in a vacuum (nothingness) squared. A bit of a stretch to say the least. Later, he very casually walks through a story in which a dead person explains how unhappy he was in life to his parents via a spiritual medium. The thing I found most off-putting about that part was how matter-of-fact the story was presented as evidence to support the major conclusions of the book. And then there is the "quiet time" ritual which is obviously exactly the same thing as meditation, although the author basically bends over backwards not to call it that. At another point, the author suggests that a friend of his didn't get the job she really wanted because she told other people that she wanted it and their positive thoughts about her getting the job interfered with her own communication to the universe, preventing the universe from turning her specific thoughts into reality. For a book framed under the pretense that self-help gurus are a dime-a-dozen and usually offer little practical advice, I found it ironic how much of this book was the most guru laden material I have ever encountered.
Overall, I think there are a few takeaways from this book that will serve me well. It's an easy listen with lots of good story-telling, which I enjoyed. If you are able to let a few shaky conclusions about thoughts vs reality slide, you will probably enjoy this book. If you're someone who thinks critically about the information being presented, you might take issue with some of the ideas presented and you will probably struggle, as I did, with the repeated advice of the author not to worry about how it all works, just trust that it will.
27 of 27 people found this review helpful
- Normand
- 18-03-2013
High above the crowd
Where does Three Simple Steps rank among all the audiobooks you've listened to so far?
Top audiobook in terms of learning about life.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Three Simple Steps?
Turn off the negative Commercials and News in life and focus on what you want.
What does Matthew Dudley bring to the story that you wouldn't experience if you just read the book?
Great voice expression. He keeps things interesting
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
Forget all the other self help movies and look at this one.
Any additional comments?
This book is worth every important second of your life.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful
- Amazon Customer
- 28-02-2013
Simple steps and a great system to implement them
The Three Simple Steps has no real new ideas, but these ideas are put in terms that make them easy to understand and to put into practice and that is its true brilliance. I have read numerous self help books in the last twenty of thirty years and non of them put the basics in such terms that allow you to follow them.
You are what you think about, has been taught through out the history of the subject, but my trouble was always how to put that into practice. Blake tells you not just to think positive, because we all know that is hard to do, but how we react to the negative thoughts that makes the difference. When a negative thought come into your head, try and think a even better, positive thought to drown it out. Think about what you hear and say, as he says, map it on your tough before you speak, change a little, change a lot.Good advice.
I had listened to "The Secret" and it all made since, but it never told you how to keep the positive thoughts in your head, to keep from getting bogged down in the negative. Blake gives you some great advice. It's the next step, at least for me.
The other two steps are to take quiet time each day to get to nothingness, that is where the great ideas come from and then have intentions, not just goals. Intentions are something that you can see as already happening, goals are something that is going to happen. It's a subtle , but important difference.
He did sometimes get bogged down in too long story telling, the stories were good, just a little to long, and the narration was just ok, but I will listen to it again.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful
- The Corps
- 11-03-2016
The Occult in a self help book?
Trevor Blake actually ties Einstein and Aleister Crowley in the same sentence--and then tells you how a dead doctor, speaking from beyond the grave through a trusted medium, proved an unfulfilled life could kill you.
Actually, Blake begins his book trashing every other writer in his genre, while claiming the first step to success is to avoid negative input.
This book is terrible.It is filled with magical thinking and the author's ego.
Pass on this one folks.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
- Deborah
- 18-03-2013
Informative - good tools
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
My time was well spent listening to this boook. I am sure that I will learn more as I relisten to the book which I will do again.
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
No! The story line was entertaining.
What three words best describe Matthew Dudley's voice?
I listen for content. Unless the voice is not annoying I don't pay much attention to it.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
Any additional comments?
A good listen!!
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
- Matt
- 18-03-2013
Enjoy The Simple Things
If you could sum up Three Simple Steps in three words, what would they be?
Simple Success
What was one of the most memorable moments of Three Simple Steps?
The history of some of the other successful people in the book. It was a bit of an eyeopener to hear their stories.
Any additional comments?
This is great book to allow you to get focused on improving your life with Trevor's "3 Steps". However, like most things in life they may be simple but there are not always easy. I recommend this to anyone who has been studying goal setting and getting frustrated with your success. It is not just the goal, it is the actions you take to achieve it. Trevor's lessons and experience will open a whole new process for you. It has for me!
5 of 6 people found this review helpful
- Amazon Customer
- 28-01-2016
Esoteric Claptrap à la 'The Secret'
I didn't know it when I bought it, but now I know, and if there were something from the book I could tell my previous self so that I would have saved the money, it would go something like this:
The Universe can hear when you say things out loud (it speaks English, by the way). And if you think something, it will happen, and stones are perceived by humans as more dense than trees, but they vibrate at a lower frequency. Positive thinking and E=MC² and waka waka bing bam.
The initial revelation in the book that the author is a multimillionaire serial entrepreneur made me think that he might actually reveal some secrets to his success, but with all this new-age woo woo, he clearly doesn't even know himself.
Yes, he is a successful millionaire. And he believes the universe reads his mind. That doesn't mean the latter was the cause of the former. I'm good at, let's say... languages. I also scratch my rear end sometimes. I won't try and convince you that scratching your butt makes you a cunning linguist, however.
There, former self! Save that money and but a more sensible book. Sorry I had to toss this one. I will never be successful if I keep buying junk like this.
14 of 20 people found this review helpful
- Kristin Austin
- 21-02-2016
Smashing tale!!
I absolutely loved this book!! The three steps were not what you might expect. But more than that, the story that was woven through the explanation of how to go about those steps was wonderful and in places reduced me to tears.
I already practice steps one and three, but in off to put step two into practice immediately.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
- Tibor Mackor
- 09-04-2013
A great read
What made the experience of listening to Three Simple Steps the most enjoyable?
The simple steps highlighted by Trevor Blake
Who was your favorite character and why?
Trevor himself. He tells it in a humble way.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
- Rolaa
- 20-09-2016
Loved it
What a great book, and powerful reminder to have quiet time and create the life you love.
- Andrew Ramwell
- 02-08-2016
Simple powerful truths
Great book that offers real insight to moving forward in 3 simple steps. Love the author's metaphor of life as a winding staircase. Great narrator who seems to catch the mood through out the book. Highly recommend a listen.
- Famiii
- 23-08-2015
1st class, simple guide personal growth that works
a practical guide to the law of attraction. seven more words before I can submit
- Eren
- 24-03-2015
A story full of inspiration and have already started the 3 simple steps, will continue until my intentions are achieved
- Gareth
- 05-01-2015
5 stars loved it , highly recommend. Trevor goes into full details on how to be successful in life and business


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Artyarns BEADED SILK AND SEQUINS LIGHT | 511 Texas
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Artyarns Beaded Silk & Sequins Light
Artyarns most sparkly yarn to date - beaded silk with sequins Light! 110 Yards of beaded and sequins love. Crisp, shiny - wonderful for lightweight shawls or even crocheted jewelry- this is a stunning choice for any project! And with every purchase - a free pattern Ebook with 7 Gorgeous Patterns for this yarn!
FIBER:100% Silk with Beads & Sequins (Silver, Gold, Gunmetal)
LENGTH: 50 grams 100 meters/110 yards
GAUGE:4.5 Stitches per inch on #7
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CARE: dry clean/handwash| AIR DRY LAYING FLAT


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The first varsity eight boat is pictured during its win over Delaware March 30 (photo Harvard Athletic Communications).
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard lightweight crew will look to build off of three varsity boat wins March 30 when it ventures to Philadelphia, Pa., to face Penn and Cornell Saturday and Princeton, N.J., to see Georgetown Sunday. The Crimson will send three varsity boats and two freshmen crews on the trip.
April 6 | Philadelphia, Pa. | Penn/Cornell
April 7 | Princeton, N.J. | Georgetown
9:40 – 2V and 3V
Projected Boatings
First Varisty
Bow: Stuart Taylor; 2: Matt O'Leary; 3: Nicholas Gates; 4: Austin Meyer; 5: Michael Wales; 6: Florian Mayr; 7: Andrew Campbell; Stroke: Alexander Bonorris; Coxswain: Paul Farber
Second Varsity
Bow: Malte Zopfs; 2: Connor Mangan; 3: Craig Herron; 4: Michael Paresky; 5: Erich Schultze; 6: Robert Hawthorne; 7: James Groeneveld; Stroke: Nico Wiik; Coxswain: Alex Saal
Third Varsity
Bow: AJ Carvalho; 2: Matt Pawlowski; 3: Ross Svenson; 4: Sam Barrington; 5: Yoan N'Komba; 6: Chris Magani; 7: Stefan Skalbania; Stroke: Eli Leavitt; Coxswain: Jonathan Shpall
First Freshman
Bow: Cameron Clemence; 2: Zebulon Goodman; 3: Christopher McKenna; 4: Ian Klein; 5: Lucas Farewell; 6: Samuel Frum; 7: Min-Woo Park; Stroke: Jeffrey Rogers; Coxswain: Joshua Blecher-Cohen
Second Freshman
Bow: Matthew Seghers; 2: Raymond Lopez; 3: Miles Graham; 4: Trevor Lutzow; 5: Fred Quesada; 6: Nick Phillips; 7: Lev Ratnofsky; Stroke: Mitchel Cole; Coxswain: Chris Xu
Listen Live
Penn is offering live audio on Saturday. To access the call, visit http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/penn.portal.
Last Time Out
Three of Harvard lightweight crew's varsity boats earned victories over Delaware March 30 on the Charles River in the first competitive action of the spring season. The Crimson's best boat navigated to the finish line in 6:08.4, well ahead of Delaware's 6:24.9 pace, and the second and third varsities also picked up wins. Harvard's second varsity eight rowed the course in 6:23.8 and won by 21.1 seconds, while Harvard's 'A' third varsity boat finished in 7:23.2, 11.4 seconds ahead its 'B' boat and 22.6 seconds faster than Delaware's third varsity.
Related Link: Harvard Lightweight Crew Takes Three of Five Races from Delaware in Spring Opener
Season Preview
See what Charley Butt, The Friends of Harvard Lightweight Rowing Coach for Men's Lightweight Crew, had to say about the upcoming season.
Join the Conversation
Follow @HarvardCrimson, the official Twitter handle of Harvard Athletics, for all the latest news and notes on your favorite Crimson student-athletes and teams. To receive updates from the Harvard lightweight crew, follow @HarvardRowing. Use the hashtag #GoCrimson to see what fans are saying about Crimson athletics.
In the Fall
The Crimson captured its first win in the Head of the Charles lightweight eights event since 1975 and sixth overall victory in the race Oct. 21 in Boston. The first-place finish gave Harvard its 41st overall medal, which later became 42 after the Radcliffe lightweight's victory, in the history of the Head of the Charles. Harvard's boat rowed the three-mile Charles River route in 14:35.71, well ahead of its closest competitor. USRowing, which placed second, was nearly 12 seconds off Harvard's pace and Princeton was a distant third in 14:58.24. Yale was fifth at 14:59.70
Last Season
Harvard completed a perfect collegiate season with the program's eighth national championship in 2012, winning the grand final in course-record time at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships. The Crimson held off Dartmouth by nearly a second and blew away the IRA men's lightweight course record by three seconds with a time of 5:33.059 to put the perfect finish on a collegiate campaign that included a 9-0 dual record, Eastern and Ivy League championships and a course record at Princeton.
Up Next
Harvard travels to Hanover, N.H. April 13 to race Dartmouth and MIT for the Biglin Bowl. The Crimson return home to the Charles River the following weekend for a matchup against Navy that will be live video streamed for free on GoCrimson.com.


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Pulsars — tiny spinning stars, heavier than the sun and smaller than a city — have puzzled scientists since they were discovered in 1967.
Now, new observations by an international team, including University of Vermont astrophysicist Joanna Rankin, make these bizarre stars even more puzzling.
The scientists identified a pulsar that is able to dramatically change the way in which it shines. In just a few seconds, the star can quiet its radio waves while at the same time it makes its X-ray emissions much brighter.
The research "challenges all proposed pulsar emission theories," the team writes in the Jan. 25 edition of the journal Science and reopens a decades-old debate about how these stars work.
Unexpected X-rays
Like the universe's most powerful lighthouses, pulsars shine beams of radio waves and other radiation for trillions of miles. As these highly magnetized neutron stars rapidly rotate, a pair of beams sweeps by, appearing as flashes or pulses in telescopes on Earth.
Using a satellite X-ray telescope, coordinated with two radio telescopes on the ground, the team observed a pulsar that was previously known to flip on and off every few hours between strong (or "bright") radio emissions and weak (or "quiet") radio emissions.
Monitoring simultaneously in X-rays and radio waves, the team revealed that this pulsar exhibits the same behavior, but in reverse, when observed at X-ray wavelengths.
This is the first time that a switching X-ray emission has been detected from a pulsar.
Flipping between these two extreme states — one dominated by X-ray pulses, the other by a highly organized pattern of radio pulses — "was very surprising," says Rankin.
"As well as brightening in the X-rays we discovered that the X-ray emission also shows pulses, something not seen when the radio emission is bright," said Rankin, who spearheaded the radio observations. "This was completely unexpected."
No current model of pulsars is able to explain this switching behavior. All theories to date suggest that X-ray emissions would follow radio emissions. Instead, the new observations show the opposite. "The basic physics of a pulsar have never been solved," Rankin says.
Looking for the switch
The research was conceived by a small team then working at the University of Amsterdam, including UVM's Rankin, who has studied this pulsar, known as PSR B0943+10, for more than a decade; Wim Hermsen from SRON, the Netherlands Institute for Space Research in Utrecht, and the lead author on the new paper; Ben Stappers from the University of Manchester, UK; and Geoff Wright from Sussex University, UK.
These researchers were joined by colleagues from institutions around the world to conduct simultaneous observations with the European Space Agency's X-ray satellite, XMM-Newton, and two radio telescopes, the Giant Meter Wave Telescope (GMRT) in India and the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in the Netherlands, to reveal this pulsar's so-far unique behavior.
"There is a general agreement about the origin of the radio emission from pulsars: it is caused by highly energetic electrons, positrons and ions moving along the field lines of the pulsar's magnetic field," explains Wim Hermsen.
"How exactly the particles are stripped off the neutron star's surface and accelerated to such high energy, however, is still largely unclear," he adds.
By studying the emission from the pulsar at different wavelengths, the team's study had been designed to discover which of various possible physical processes take place in the vicinity of the magnetic poles of pulsars.
Instead of narrowing down the possible mechanisms suggested by theory, however, the results of the team's observing campaign challenge all existing models for pulsar emission. Few astronomical objects are as baffling as pulsars, and despite nearly fifty years of study, they continue to defy theorists' best efforts.
Hunting for gravity's wave
And understanding the basic physics of pulsars is important to one of the great science quests of this century: the hunt for gravitational waves.
First predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916 these waves ripple through the fabric of space and time, carrying information from the far edges of the universe. Astronomers hope that being able to measure gravitational waves will open a whole new spectrum of energy — gravitational energy — for observing the universe and will reveal cosmological mysteries such as the location of exotic "dark matter."
But, so far, no one has been able to directly detect these gravitational waves — because they are so tiny.
This is where pulsars may help.
Because of their extreme density and enormous speed, pulsars turn out to be a nearly perfect flywheel, ticking along as the universe's best clock. The arrival of pulses can be so regular that emissions from a group of pulsars is being studied by NANOGrav — an international consortium of scientists including Rankin — to distinguish the faint signal of passing gravitational waves from all the other noise of the universe.
Disturbances in the arrival time of pulsar pulses — i.e., deviations in the ticking of the clock — will show that a gravitational wave has passed by the Earth.
But pulsars, as this new research makes clear, have strange glitches, mysteries, and disturbances of their own.
"The NANOGrav effort and others are pushing the (pulsar) clock so hard that it is becoming clear that if we don't understand the clock better," Rankin says. "it may not work as a tool as well as it could."
"We need to understand the complexities of pulsars," Rankin says, "we need to see them as more than just a clock in the sky."
Erratic star power
Of the more than 2,000 pulsars discovered to date, a number of them have erratic behavior, with emissions that can become weak or disappear in a matter of seconds but then suddenly return minutes or hours later.
B0943+10 is one of these erratic stars. Discovered at Pushchino Radio Astronomical Observatory near Moscow, "this star has two very different personalities," that were uncovered by Svetlana Suleymanova in the 1980s, says Rankin.
"But we're still in the dark about what causes this, and other pulsars, to switch modes," Rankin says. "We just don't know."
"But the fact that the pulsar keeps memory of its previous state and goes back to it," says Hermsen, "suggests that it must be something fundamental."
These new observations "strongly suggest that a temporary 'hotspot' appears close to the pulsar's magnetic pole which switches on and off with the change of state," says Geoff Wright, one of the team's astronomers from the University of Sussex.
But the new results also suggest that something in the pulsar's whole magnetosphere is changing suddenly and not just at the poles or other hotspots. "Something is happening globally," Rankin says, across the whole star.
In order for the radio emission to vary so radically on the short timescales observed, the pulsar's global environment must undergo a very rapid – and reversible – transformation.
"If that is true, it means the entire magnetosphere is alive and connected in very important ways," Rankin says, allowing a change in the pulsar's basic mode of shining in about one second, less time than it takes it to spin once on its axis.
"Since the switch between a pulsar's bright and quiet states links phenomena that occur on local and global scales, a thorough understanding of this process could clarify several aspects of pulsar physics," says Hermsen. "Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to explain it."
In the second half of 2013, the team plans to repeat the same study for another pulsar, PSR B1822-09, which exhibits similar radio emission properties but with a different geometry.
In the meantime, these observations will keep theoretical astrophysicists busy investigating possible physical mechanisms that could cause the sudden and drastic changes to the pulsar's entire magnetosphere and result in such a curious flip in how they shine.