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My Author Journey, Monday, January 22, 2018
# 844 (countdown)
Woke up 4:10 am.
Recently I haven't been updating this diary as I needed to allocate more time to finalize the process of publishing my fifth book (it's available on Amazon #GOLD 2017: A complete collection of 2017 Instagram quotes by Lukasz Laniecki), and I visited my mom and my in-laws with my son.
I've found this collection of fantastic historical documentaries called PBS American Experience and I decided that I will watch them all. This led to my cancelling my paid subscription to Netflix as I won't have time to watch it in a foreseeable future.
History fascinates me. I realized that I'm not only WWI and WWII freak recently as I initially thought. I like to learn about history in general. But I'm not into specific dates, names, events. Of course history is specific dates, names, events. That's what history is essentially. In history lessons we can learn what happened when, who married who, who led which armies to what battles, who defeated whom in which battle, who ruled when and who succeeded as a ruler after whose death. That's history. And it's still f*cking boring to me. I couldn't care less what was the name of the guy or gal who ruled Austro-Hungarian Empire in the XIX century, who was the first Pope, or which battle was the longest or bloodiest in the history of all battles. Some people are fascinated that they can learn all those facts (sometimes those are "facts" not facts), but I'm not one of them.
I never thought that I would be interested in history, let alone that I will be so fascinated by it. And I can't even tell people what exactly triggered this interest in me. My adoptive mom was a history teacher back when I was in kindergarten and elementary school, but she never taught me (my class) in school and she wasn't on a mission to sell me on history as a subject. I mean sporadically she might have told me some interesting facts or "facts" from the history but I can't even remember if she actually did that. And history was never my favorite subject. It was dull for the most part. Back in my school years I had this sense that all it revolved around were those super important dates, names, events, but what did I care what happened 500 years earlier? No wonder my son is wondering why they have to learn history in school.
Obviously I can rule out the possibility that I inherited some history freak gene from my adoptive mother, and I guess I can also rule out the possibility that she triggered that interest in me because history was a subject that was always discussed in our house. It wasn't.
My adoptive father, on the other hand, was fascinated by old things - anything which was at least 50 years old he had to have it. In other words, he collected antiques. Of course he couldn't have bought everything, but his collection was impressive nonetheless. To the point that I felt like I was living in a museum or art gallery. Could this be a reason I'm into art? Could be. I guess I can't rule it out. Was this the mysterious link between me and history? Could be. I guess artists care about people, they want to show the human condition, way more than they care about the name of the first Pope or of the last ruler from certain dynasty.
And that's precisely why I'm into history. I'm into history because I want to learn more about people and the world in general (how everything is connected, what leads to what, what are the indisputable laws, and what are the laws and rules that we invented), not because I need to know what happened when, who ruled when - I will never remember all those facts anyway. I have problem remembering what is the name of my son's best friend's dad. I never remember any names. You can introduce me to someone and there is a huge chance that five minutes later I will ask what was the name of that person. I don't know, names almost mean nothing to me - I want to learn about the mindset of that person, this is important to me. Of course it's easier to remember names of people I meet over and over, but that's not some special feat, everybody knows what their parents' or children's names are.
And I won't go to Quora and ask people Is it to late to learn more about history at the age of 41? like so many people do. If that's what I want to do I'm going to do it. I don't want to know other people's opinions whether or not I'm too old for this. I mean who are they to tell me this? F*cking Gods?
I don't care if someone will laugh at me or conclude that I slept through elementary or high school, or that I'm an ignorant, or that my parents sucked since I don't know the basic facts (must be because they didn't send me to private school). Let me tell you something about those people. People who have time to gossip about me and ridicule me must have a lot of free time. And having a lot of free time is the best indicator if someone is really realizing his / her full potential. If they have a lot of free time it means they don't work half as much as I do - I don't have time to gossip and ridicule people who try to accomplish something in their lives.
I guess I like history so much because it let's me find numerous flaws of our species. And knowing those flaws makes connecting the dots so much easier. And I f*cking love connecting the dots.
Recent listening to audio.
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari (100 min; on scribd app).
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to drive your career and create a remarkable future by Seth Godin (25 min. on YouTube).
Recent movies.
Tesla | American Experience | PBS (on YouTube). Finished it.
America 1900 - The Manila Correspondent and the McKinley Censorship (on YouTube). Finished it.
America 1900 - Anti-trust/anti-imperialism (on YouTube). Finished it.
America 1900 - The Imperialism Stunt (on YouTube). Finished it.
America 1900 - The Trust Giant's Point of View (on YouTube). Finished it.
Edison: Electric Light (on YouTube). Finished it.
Building the Alaska Highway Promo | American Experience | PBS (on YouTube). Finished it.
The Battle of Chosin Preview | American Experience | PBS (on YouTube). Finished it.
Hannah Arendt (on cable TV). Finished it.
No ski, no fun. (on cable TV). Finished it.
Dries (on Netflix). Finished it.
He Named Me Malala (on Netflix). Finished it.
Maddman: The Steve Madden Story (on Netflix). Finished it.
Recent progress on my sixth book: 160 min in the last two days.
My recent answers on Quora:
Answer to When would you advise someone to give up on their dreams?
Answer to Many people have told me to follow my passion in my career, but I don't think I can generate money out of my passion. Should I give up on it?
Answer to Is it true that psychology doesn't have any future and I won't have a stable life and a good salary even after a few struggling years?
Answer to My uncle (a civil architect) is convincing me not to pursue architecture and instead, pursue a career in programming for a brighter future, what do I do?
Answer to Is university the key to success?
Answer to Am I naive to want to take 6 months away from work and use my savings to try and find my passion?
Answer to How do I decide what I want to be in life if I'm not really interested in anything and I'm not good at anything?
Answer to What is your advice for someone who is scared to pursue their passion?
Answer to What should I do in my life now after I have made wrong career decisions?
Answer to How can we find our passion?
Answer to I changed 3 jobs, but I'm not happy. What should I do?
Answer to How do I convince my parents about our future when we want to do that which we are interested in?
Answer to How do I stop beating myself up for the past mistakes? I think I lived in vain, my dreams didn't come true due to my silly behavior and poor life choices and now there's no reason for living because I have a pain that my dreams didn't come true.
Answer to How would I know if what am doing is my passion?
Answer to The more I look, the more I'm convinced there's no right job out there for me. What are my options?
Today's workout: 25 minutes.
Meditating: 15 minutes (using Headspace).
Music for this writing session: All the Beauty in the World (on Spotify).
Funny thing is we don't even know if the dreams we had (and which we failed to realize) are worth having regrets and feeling pain that we didn't pursue them.
Those were only our dreams and we can't know what our lives would be like had we chased after them. The only way we could find out is when we did chase after them. If you chased after a dream (realized it) it ceased to be a dream - you did it (it was real).
So our dreams (our unfulfilled plans/ aspirations) are those perfect realities / scenarios only in our heads. We can't know for sure what would and what wouldn't have happened, whether we would love or hate that choice. It's impossible to know such things.
Again, the only way to find out is to make it happen. But before we make it happen we can't say if it's that awesome.
We like to idealize, glamorize our dreams, but what we imagine is only our vision of the reality had we chased after this dream. It's not the truth. It could be that the reality would correspond with our image of it, but it could also happen that we grossly overestimated the beauty of this potential reality of the world.
I mean, I may beat myself up my entire life for not having approached that woman or man on a bus in Rome, or for not having had the courage to propose to my girlfriend when she still was my girlfriend, or for having failed to be upfront and say "I love you" when those three words would probably change everything, but what do I really know about my life with this person (a person I hardly even knew, or didn't know at all)? Nothing! I would have a chance to learn that had I approached her, proposed to her/ said "I love you".
It feels so nice to dream and imagine ourselves in those better relationships/ better careers/ better places. And because it feels so nice we usually fail to factor in that this idyllic reality exists only in our imagination and that the reality could have been different.
That's why it doesn't make sense to regret not having chosen B instead of A.
It makes sense to regret not having had the courage (to speak up / stand up for what you believed in / stand up to your controlling parents, etc.), but it doesn't make sense to beat yourself up for not having realized your dreams (the logic says there is nothing to regret because there was no guarantee).
Which means you can stop beating yourself up for not having realized your dreams (for not having this beautiful life - this life that only exists in your imagination), and you can turn your attention to regretting never having had the courage to make those bold moves in your life.
What's the difference?
When you beat yourself up for having wasted all those fantastic chances and years, when you know that your life could have been so much better (which is nothing but a nice romantic story you tell yourself - basically a fiction) you start getting all those sad thoughts and you might even end up having depression. You are stuck in the past, unable to move on. The only thing you can do is mourn and ask yourself how you could have been so stupid. You know that those chances you had are gone and that the time when you could have made those "better" decisions is over too.
When, on the other hand, you only regret never having had the courage to make those bold moves in your past, it will be much easier to move on. You don't mourn because you had all those "fantastic" opportunities 10 or 20 years ago. You can shift your focus to future things. You can realize that you probably still have 10, 20, 30, heck maybe even 40 years of your life. And it's not too late to finally be courageous and start chasing after the next dreams (you will have them as soon as you stop thinking about the past and the imagined and idealized alternative reality that could have been - a.k.a. fiction).
Again dreams are only something we imagine, they're not this future scenario. There is no guarantee that you will like it. But you can always course-correct. And that's what we all should do in order to live a happy life - have the courage to make our own life decisions, know that there will be good ones and fuckups, and when our decision turned out to be a fuckup we course-correct.
We all want only the best for ourselves (we're not crazy - we don't want to ruin our lives on purpose), so it means we are all competent enough to make those decisions. We just need to realize that we are not f*cking Nostradamuses and not all our decisions will turn out to be good decisions (but usually we make those decisions hoping that they will further our cause/ bring us closer to our desired goal - sometimes it's the reverse and that's when we need to make a new decision in order to course-correct).
You don't need to like all my thoughts or ideas. Liking or loving all my thoughts and ideas is not the point.
Actually I think I might have a huge problem finding a person who would love all my thoughts and ideas. Why? Because I don't craft them to the liking of some ideal customer or target group. I just share what I think, and if so there is always this chance that people will sneer at something I shared. That's the risk.
The point is to extract value from it.
Take what you like from it and ignore the rest. Not even that, before you take anything from me, question it. Ponder it and how you could improve on that.
The thoughts we share, we don't share them for other people to merely soak them up, I mean it happens (actually it happens a lot), but that's not what smart people do.
Smart people know that reading a book or a quote by a famous person (or not so famous) is only the first step. You don't just soak up what you read (or dismiss it), you give it a thought. Only then you accept the idea or thought in its original form (adopt it, soak it up), or develop a variation of it, or dismiss as a complete horsecrap (if there's nothing you could extract from it — no value whatsoever).
Thus each thought, quote, article, blog post, book becomes a material for you to work on.
The contribution of those who write them comes down to providing you with this material (food for thought). It's not their job to give you only the right answers, best ideas and best solutions to all your earthly problems. Their job is to inspire you to develop your own.
And it's totally OK if they have a flawed idea from time to time — no one has 100% good or brilliant ideas. Even those who are commonly known for their brilliant ideas, like Confucius had their fair share of bad ideas, very bad, even laughable or loathsome. And they even shared some of them (that's how we know). And in reverse, those who were generally full of shit had some brilliant ideas.
People usually can't imagine themselves in new situations.
They say things like My God, nine children! I could never have nine children. I could never manage. or What?! A fish for breakfast, lunch and supper? I could never eat like this. or I couldn't live without hot water. or I couldn't live with so many people in one place / in this filth. or I could never live in such a big city.
But the truth is they could do all of it (and more), or endure conditions even worse than the ones they say they could never endure.
The truth is we can't imagine ourselves doing something which isn't our routine, but once we have no choice (once we're in that position), or once we've overcome the fear of doing it and tried this new life, we somehow miraculously can do it.
That's the secret to doing the "impossible". It's not impossible, it's unimaginable.
We can't imagine ourselves doing it / living like that, but only until we do it / live like that (until the circumstances of our lives forced us or we dared). Then, out of a sudden, we can do it.
This book is a complete collection of my 2017 instagram posts for which I created a separate category called #GOLD. Under this category I post my thoughts on passion, career, life, family, parenting, success and happiness and sporadically throw in some quote, by my favorite author, visionary, inventor, scientist, thinker, artist, explorer, game changer, entrepreneur, athlete, or … fictional character (like Kung Fu Panda for example - but of course there's someone, a human being, who puts those words in the mouths of those fictional characters, so in reality the thoughts are never by a fictional character, they're always by a certain human being).
I publish this book mainly for people who already know me quite well, especially my Instagram followers who like the things I share with them each day, and who might enjoy a book in which I gathered all those thoughts I shared in 2017, something that would allow them an easier, more convenient access to my stuff. Which doesn't mean other people can't read it. They totally can.
If you aren't my Instagram follower, if you don't know any of my books, if you never stumbled upon any of my Quora answers or posts, if you never read any of my blog posts, if you don't even know I have a blog, or Medium or Twitter account, if you never heard about me then it certainly is a big gamble and risk to spend money on my book. I just hope the risk isn't too big. We usually don't know something before we get to know it. Or wait, isn't it always like that? There's always this first time we grab for something, and it's always a gamble so I understand the situation you might be in right now. Will I waste my money, but more importantly time on this book? you may be asking yourself. Even if people love something and recommend it to others (and they're in they majority) I sometimes discover that the book they so enthusiastically recommended didn't speak to me. And in reverse, when people say some book is mediocre (and they're in they majority) I sometimes discover that I (I!) liked this book a lot and think that everyone should read it (but am the minority).
What if there are no reviews? Well, that's the most difficult situation of all, isn't it? Am I the first person ever who will read this book? That's probably not something most people would enjoy. Being the first to taste a delicious-looking cake, that's a different story. Anyway, assuming it's not a delicious-looking cake, being a pioneer or early adopter definitely isn't for everybody.
It's similar to the situation of a young adult who is about to pick his / her first career (due to certain beliefs in our society it's often the only career he / she will have). Picking the career which your parents (other family members), or other well-meaning adults recommend, or which is trendy, or which many of your high school peers also picked, or which has been indicated by the Forbes magazine as one of the top 50 best future careers, seems like a safe move. It's almost a guarantee that today and in the near future (what about a more distant future?) you will not have problems finding a job. Whereas forging your own path (doing something regardless of what others did or said) is a hell of a risk and only few people will do it (and, by the way, those are the only characters who have a chance to find their passion).
I cannot guarantee you that you will love this book. Even if you loved this introduction I cannot guarantee you that you will love the rest of this book. And even if you loved this introduction and enjoyed the first couple of dozen pages I cannot guarantee you that you will love the rest - heck, maybe you will only love pages 26, 57, 88, 109, and 156-199 and loathe or sneer at the rest of the pages. Who knows?
So I'm far from offering you any guarantee.
But you know what? It's not about having such guarantees.
You don't need to like all my thoughts or ideas. Liking or loving all my thoughts and ideas is not the point.
Actually I think I might have a huge problem finding a person who would love all my thoughts and ideas. Why? Because I don't craft them to the liking of some ideal customer or target group. I just share what I think, and if so there is always this chance that people will sneer at something I shared. That's the risk.
So what is the point?
The point is to extract value from it. Take what you like from it and ignore the rest. Not even that, before you take anything from me, question it. Ponder it and how you could improve on that. The thoughts we share, we don't share them for other people to merely soak them up, I mean it happens (actually it happens a lot), but that's not what smart people do. Smart people know that reading a book or a quote by a famous person (or not so famous) is only the first step. You don't just soak up what you read (or dismiss it), you give it a thought. Only then you accept the idea or thought in its original form (adopt it, soak it up), or develop a variation of it, or dismiss as a complete horsecrap (if there's nothing you could extract from it - no value whatsoever). Thus each thought, quote, article, blog post, book becomes a material for you to work on. The contribution of those who write them comes down to providing you with this material (food for thought). It's not their job to give you only the right answers and best solutions to all your earthly problems. Their job is to inspire people to develop their own. And it's totally OK if they have a flawed idea from time to time - no one has 100% good or brilliant ideas. Even those who are commonly known for their brilliant ideas, like Confucius had their fair share of bad ideas, very bad, even laughable or loathsome. And they even shared some of them (that's how we know). And in reverse, those who were generally full of shit had some brilliant ideas.
There is no guarantee. You can try it if you want. Too risky? Don't try it. Simple as that.
Get it now on Amazon #GOLD 2017: A complete collection of 2017 Instagram quotes by Lukasz Laniecki
In a series of events what was supposed to be my orderly world, with all its so called universal truths, fixed definitions, clichés, stereotypes, long-standing beliefs, proven solutions to all your earthly problems, vanished.
Myriad things can disrupt the orderly world.
Wars, so called natural disasters (they're disasters only to us, to the rest of the species they're just events, not disasters, so objectively speaking they're not disasters), revolutions, car accidents, terminal illnesses, near death experiences, alien invasion, or … finding out as a teenager that your father fancies men (and your other parent isn't a man), or finding out in your adulthood that you were adopted and that the people who you took for your biological parents were actually your adoptive parents and many people knew about it and you were the only person who had no clue (which by the way allows you to understand what Truman Burbank must have felt when he and Christof talked to each other for the very first time in their lives), or finding out that you've been disowned by both your parents — the very people who raised you (and one of them died suddenly which means you have a chance to reconcile with only one of them and you wonder what your relationship with the other parent would be like right now, and when you don't believe that you'll meet again in afterlife, that that was it), or finding out that the judicial system is a joke and works properly only sometimes (even in so called civilized countries), which means that those who hold power never lose (and you've just lost to those powerful characters).
Isn't it ironic that the things which have the power to transform us are also the things which hit us the hardest? There is nothing transformational in learning for example that your daughter wasn't accepted to the college of your choice (or even her choice), but if your daughter has been diagnosed with cancer and it's obvious that she will not be fine (she's dying) it will probably change a lot in how you view certain things in life. Same thing if you've been through war and you've experienced firsthand some of the worst nightmares of war. Of course, those events may also leave you mentally ill in which case the transformation will mean something different altogether.
It's like we need to be smitten, but manage to escape the worst (death or some dire consequences). Only then we are able to stop, withstand the inertia which is otherwise almost unbeatable. Notice that I said "only then we are able to stop" not 'only then we will stop'. Some people won't be stopped even then, which means that they will waste this perhaps one in a lifetime opportunity to ponder their existence and change the way they live their lives.
In a series of events what was supposed to be my orderly world, with all its so called universal truths, fixed definitions, clichés, stereotypes, long-standing beliefs, proven solutions to all your earthly problems, vanished.
Like someone repeatedly used brakes in order to bring me to a halt, to kill inertia. Inertia that allows people to spend their entire lives and never, not even once ask a fundamental question, let alone challenge some of the theories and / or truths of the pre-invented world. Pre-invented world is the world we all live in. And because we as species have hard time adjusting to new realities (though we usually embrace them later — later means when they've already replaced the old order, when it's quite obvious that the old order is gone and won't be back) the whole system is so designed that we never have too many revolutions at once. In other words, it's designed to make change super hard.
We ridicule the new ideas and people who present them to us. We discourage young people from having big dreams and taking risks. We discourage all people from having different opinions. We believe that those who have big ideas and success are cut from a different cloth and convince ourselves and others that it's futile to even try (we talk ourselves and other out of bold moves). We conspire against the revolutionaries, the rebels, the weirdos, the black sheep, the misfits, and try to sabotage their work. We want members of our families and our peers to be like the majority of us (we want everybody to fit in, adopt similar life philosophies, beliefs, traditions, etc.).
And, of course, we care what others think (about us and our ideas), which allows it to be a well functioning system called the 'society'.
In a series of events what was supposed to be my orderly world, with all its so called "universal truths", fixed definitions, clichés, stereotypes, long-standing beliefs, proven solutions to all your earthly problems, vanished.
Now I only accept the nature's order (actually I don't have much choice but to accept it). The one which we human beings can't disrupt (or can only disrupt at our peril). In other words, I accept the laws of nature as being undeniable and unavoidable.
Like the fact that we need water, food, sleep and waste matter management in order to live, or that all living species have their own unique way of producing offspring, and that the desire to live and produce new living organisms in us (in all that's alive) is stronger than we can imagine — it is no coincidence that mating and sex are so pleasurable. Make no mistake, falling in love, love affairs, the excitement, the butterflies in our bellies, the cosmic orgasms, aren't there for no reason — we're just tools in nature's hands. They're all elements of the nature's plan (we can debate if it's perfect or not), so designed to be irresistible. We only enjoy the perks of being human beings on earth — members of one living species in the entire, vast universe of all living things. Perks which are there in order to make sure you do your job.
There is nothing that could convince me that I could successfully object the laws of nature, say that I'm out, that it's not for me, that I could make better laws. I can raise an objection but it will be to no avail. Laws of nature will not change simply because I objected them. I can even throw a tantrum and … still nothing will change. Nature doesn't care what we think of its laws. We are its subjects and that's all. We can use those laws to our advantage, but that's just another perk for staying in the job.
What about the other order — the one we created? This order we can object and successfully reject. Why? Because we created it.
So why so few people ever do it? Because A/ they assume they should accept the order that is in place (because they've been told that the world is what it is — so many people can't be wrong, everybody else is doing it) and B/ they're too busy living their lives the way everyone else does (and they're in a hurry, between meetings, appointments, tasks).
What about the other order — the one we created? This order we can object and successfully reject. Why? Because we created it.
So why so few people ever do it? Because A/ they assume they should accept the order that is in place (because they've been told that the world is what it is — so many people can't be wrong, everybody else is doing it) and B/ they're too busy living their lives the way everyone else does (and they're in a hurry, between meetings, appointments, tasks).
My Author Journey, Thursday, January 11, 2018
# 845 (countdown)
Woke up 5:05 am.
I think most parents over-exaggerate the need to impress their children, satisfy all their needs (or wishes), or otherwise put them at ease. Actually I would say that they mistakenly assume that it is their job to impress their children or put them at ease.
In my late 30s I chose to quit the legal profession in favor of doing things nobody would even suspect I would be doing. I became an artist who writes (mainly) but who also has this need to try other forms of expression, and it is a shock to many people. Some of them probably think I'm crazy, that I went mad, that my brain has been damaged, or that I have some genetic flaw, or that I let someone from the self-help industry brainwash me.
I'm this weird character in their otherwise orderly world.
Now, it's quite possible that I will become this weird character to my son too. I wish it never happened, but this is something I can't rule out entirely.
He is under the influence of other people, most of whom are "normal" (have normal jobs, don't freak out, don't "embarrass" other members of their families with their weird ideas, think the way most people think, believe what most people believe). That's probably somewhere around 95% of people he meets each day. And he is a young boy on the brink of becoming a teenager. And when you are a teenager you want to be like your peers. You don't want to be different when you are a teenager.
You don't want to be like your parents (who by the way desperately want you to be like them - most of them), but it doesn't mean you would fancy being an outsider. You want to belong to this group of people who are your age and you desperately want to demonstrate to your parents that you are not like them (your parents). It should be pretty obvious that as a teenager you're not like your parents, but because there is this strong desire on the part of most parents to mold their children so that they resemble them (behave like them, believe what they believe, etc.), and because parents generally assume that they have the right to demand obedience and that everything their children do should be approved and understood by them (that in a family all members should speak the same language and behave according to family standards), teenagers often need to show their parents that they don't have to be like them.
Nevertheless 95% of their peers have "normal" parents and if you want to be among this 5% of weirdos (which means that you want to behave differently) your child might not like that idea. Why? Because your child wants to be like his peers and inevitably most of his peers' parents are so called "normal" parents, not weirdos. So if you are weirdo you may find yourself in a situation where your child will think that you suck because all his peers have "normal" parents and you are a weirdo, so in a sense you create a predicament for your teenage child. And if you don't want to upset this young adult you should stop being a weirdo.
But we don't owe it to our children to predicate our life choices on whether they will feel comfortable with them or not. We are free to do whatever the heck we want and if that's makes them uneasy they should ponder why is that. That's of course if they don't want parents who in one year, two years, or five years will demand that they (the young adults) predicate their life choices on whether we (the parents) will feel comfortable with them or not.
Recent listening to audio.
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari (20 min; on scribd app).
Recent movies.
The Great War: Part 3 | American Experience | PBS (10 min. on YouTube). Finished it.
The Race Underground | American Experience | PBS (on YouTube). Finished it.
The Rise and Fall of Penn Station | American Experience | PBS (on YouTube). Finished it.
Streamliners "American Experience" (on YouTube). Finished it.
Recent progress on my fifth book: 60 min today.
My recent answers on Quora:
Answer to I'm 19 and my mom is threatening to kick me out if I abandon her dream of me becoming a nurse and pursue my dream of becoming a cosmetologist. What should I do?
Meditating: 15 minutes (using Headspace).
Music for this writing session: various tracks from the playlist Best Piano Music (on Spotify).
My Author Journey, Wednesday, January 10, 2018
# 846 (countdown)
Woke up 4:20 am.
During war the countries or the sides involved sometimes find themselves in a situation when they need time to organise themselves. They lost too many soldiers, machines, weapons and other resources and unless they have time to rebuild their army they'll not be able to fight. Or they want to enter the war but their army isn't ready (the case of America during WWI). Of course they can engage in next battles but they are well aware of the fact they will not be able to win - the enemy is simply too big/ too strong for them. They will perish if they don't have the time to gather more troops and prepare and equip those to fight. They're in a position when they need to buy time.
How do you buy time?
For example you plot with your allies that you (whatever is left from your army) and they will attack the enemy on other fronts and force him to concentrate a significant part of his army on that front. If you and your allies can manage to engage the enemy in a battle for long enough, say a month, three months, or maybe even half a year, you'll have the time necessary to rebuild your army which will allow you to send the enemy back to where he came from (or to hell, anyway away from your country). And if you and all your allies will be able to achieve this goal the war will be won by you.
When do you plot to buy time? In other words, when does it pay to buy time?
It pays to buy time (and make an even bigger sacrifice) when you believe that you can win that war. When you are overwhelmed and hopeless surrendering to your enemy is usually a wiser option. When you are overwhelmed and hopeless, buying time will only prolong your agony. Anything you will decide to throw at your enemy will be wasted. All resources and people's effort to produce those resources would be wasted. It would probably be a better idea to sell those machines, guns, clothes and other resources to your allies, before the enemy will seize it and use it in his attempt to crash them too.
I've just realized that I also need to buy time. Actually that's what I'm doing already. I have this strong belief (conviction) that I will one day be able to live off my writing and other creative pursuits. Who knows, maybe even live comfortably off it. I know that this is something I'm best at (this is my best contribution to the world) and should I continue down this path I will only be better. That's why I think buying time makes sense in my case.
In late spring last year I self-published my first book. Then I added three more books, so to date I have a total of four books on Amazon. At least as many will appear on Amazon this year. Actually I plan to self-publish at least six more books this year. Ideas for more books continue to flood my head. In 2016 and 2017 I did a lot of writing and I continue to write every single day (several hundred words a day).
I remember what Seth Godin said in his book Linchpin
I've produced more than a hundred books (most didn't sell very well), but if I hadn't, I'd never have had the chance to write this one. Picasso painted more than a thousand paintings, and you can probably name three of them.
I'm at my fifth book which sounds unimpressive when compared to SethGodin's number. But, knowing how much I enjoy writing, I'll probably end up having more than 100 books under my belt too. But of course, it's not about how much books you can produce. It's do you have anything interesting to say on those pages. Seth always had something interesting to say. I believe I will have, too.
How am I buying time?
Currently I'm buying time by selling online unused and unneeded things which piled up throughout years in our apartment. Things which only gather dust. If I can sell something each day we'll be fine for two or three months (taking into account that my wife has a steady pay check). I almost hear this voice in my head asking me What is steady in this world, you fool? Of course it's a myth that we can have a steady pay check. I mean it might happen that this steady pay check (we call it steady because it's been steady for quite a while) can be gone very quickly. Many unfortunate events may lead to this. So there is this history of it being steady, which doesn't mean it will be guaranteed in the future. We fool ourselves that those things are steady, but it's foolish to assume that something will last based on what was true in the past.
Anyway, having this pile of unused crap which I can sell now (and which we didn't touch for months or even years, and nobody would even bother to think that it might generate income) is an advantage. No question about it. Thanks to this pile of crap I can concentrate on publishing new books, which no doubt will bring me several steps closer to my goal. Even if I won't be able to make decent money off my books this year (and this is something I need to factor in - maybe I'll need 30 or 50 books for it to happen) I will use this time (those two, maybe three months) as best as I can, being the most productive human being I know.
And what if I'll have nothing else to sell? After all the number of unused items that piled up in our houses is finite. I'll have to think of other ways to earn some money. I like the idea of selling other people's unused crap — those who will not do it themselves and who wouldn't mind having someone else doing it for them (I elaborated on this "business idea" in one of my previous entries), as it would allow me to stay out of day job, and day job would mean that I would have significantly less time to do my thing, and the money I'd get would never compensate me for this huge loss of time.
Recent listening to audio.
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari (20 min; on scribd app). I like Yuval Noah Harari's style. I think it's similar to mine.
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to drive your career and create a remarkable future by Seth Godin (25 min. on YouTube).
Recent movies.
The Great War: Part 2 | American Experience | PBS (54 min. on YouTube). Finished it.
The Great War: Part 3 | American Experience | PBS (110 min. on YouTube).
Recent progress on my fifth book: 30 min yesterday.
My recent answers on Quora:
Answer to Should I obey all the religious laws of the church my mom goes to just because it makes her happy or should I do what makes me happy, which is not to follow her religion and laws?
Today's workout: 25 minutes.
Meditating: 15 minutes (using Headspace).
Music for this writing session: various tracks from the playlist Best Piano Music (on Spotify).
My Author Journey, Monday, January 8, 2018
# 848 (countdown)
Woke up 5:10 am.
Yesterday I wrote that I have those weird thoughts by which I'm haunted now that I'm no longer a lawyer and am doing weird things I never studied for. In my audaciousness I dare to call myself this or that (depending on what I take on as a new pursuit), and yet the only thing that I studied was law (5 years of law school + 3,5 years of additional studies to become an attorney), and negotiation and mediation collectively referred to as alternative dispute resolution (1 year).
I stopped being a lawyer which is unthinkable to most people, but what's even more unthinkable to them (more unsettling to their orderly minds), and what worries them (or maybe I should say, what they don't feel comfortable with) is the fact that I refuse to acquire a new label. I didn't go back to school or college to acquire a certain new label for myself which from now on should stick with me. Don't we all know that one can only do certain, clearly defined jobs?
I didn't acquire a new label. Anyone wanting to create a business card for me or even introduce me to people would have a serious dilemma.
What if this idea of being this or that (having a certain label) is flawed?
What if we didn't attach those labels to ourselves and call the things we studied in schools "our fields"? Wouldn't it be a lot easier for us to switch to something else?
What sense does it make to call myself a lawyer if I'm 24, fresh out of law school? What if I'll die the next day and will never get the chance to work even a single second as a lawyer? And yet that's precisely what I've just become - a lawyer. And from now on everybody else also knows that I'm a lawyer. Will I end up being (working as) a judge, a prosecutor, or an attorney? is a different question, and in the future. Now, in this vital moment in my life when I'm proudly holding my law school diploma in my hand one thing is clear to me and the rest of the universe - I'm a lawyer.
I acquired this label for myself, can print out business cards and people will have no problem introducing me to other people "This is my friend Lukasz. Lukasz is a lawyer". A guarantee that everyone will be pleased to see that the world works the way it should. Everything is how it's supposed to be, people are pigeonholed - nothing unsettling about this situation, we expect it to be this way).
Now, if I worked my entire life as a lawyer (even in my 80s and 90s I did something which was related to this field, in other words I dedicated my entire life to being a lawyer) then I would agree that calling myself a lawyer made sense.
Of course, it's hard to imagine our society without those labels. Where would we go if we needed a legal advice? It's much easier this way - with those labels. But that we as a society invented those labels (so that navigating in this society isn't that much pain in the ass) is something none of us can deny.
Those labels are our invention. And if so we are not obliged to wear those labels. We will feel the pressure to acquire them and tell other people who the heck we are. No doubt. But it doesn't mean we absolutely need to wear those. We have a choice.
But wearing those labels by and of itself wouldn't be that much of a problem. If I go to war for a year and my job is to fight I'm a soldier, that's obvious, and it helps as I will not assume that I'm there to catch butterflies. But once the war is over I'm not a soldier anymore.
Something else is a problem - thinking that since people graduated from this school or that school they should stick to those careers / fields, and equally (but in reverse) that those who didn't study a certain subject in their late teenage years / early 20s (didn't go to school or college and didn't get their diploma in this field) can't or shouldn't touch those things. And the conviction of most people is that trying to be something you're not (entering a new, unrelated field), especially if you've already reached the magic age of 25, is immature, and a sign of a wishful thinking at best, and ludicrous, and a sign of lunacy at worst.
And that's the point I'm trying to make here.
We think we're married to those labels we acquire as young adults. We're not. We can wear them for 5 or 10 years, and after that we can do something else. And what's even more important, we can study for four long years to acquire those labels for ourselves, but it doesn't mean that once we got this diploma we're sentenced to this career for life. And many young people have problem with that.
Recent listening to audio.
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari (20 min; on scribd app).
Recent movies.
The Great War: Part 1 | American Experience | PBS (100 min. on YouTube). Finished it.
The Great War: Part 2 | American Experience | PBS (60 min. on YouTube).
Recent progress on my fifth book: 30 min yesterday.
My recent answers on Quora:
Answer to What are my chances of making a living and career out of being an author/writer?
Answer to How do I deal with a family that hates and annoys me? I have nowhere else to go.
Music for this writing session: Yiruma (various tracks on Spotify).
My photo of the day
My Author Journey, Monday, January 8, 2018
# 848 (countdown)
Woke up 7:10 am (went to bed 2:00 am).
Spent several hours this weekend designing the covers for my two subsequent books. Graphic design was always something that I liked to tried myself in. Many people told me they like my projects, including my son.
I believe it to be an extension of my work as an artist.
Apart from looking at other projects (logos, typography, elements of interior design, elements of visual identity, branding) I never took any lessons in graphic design. As a lawyer I had a colleague (also a young lawyer) who did great designs (people liked his work) and who earned some money taking commissions here and there. He also did several designs for me (websites, logos, etc.) and I was always eager to pay for his work because I loved what he did. No doubt he knew more about design than I, so it was also a chance for me to learn something from him.
Oftentimes I encouraged him to consider focusing solely on graphic design (because of his apparent talent for it) but he wasn't so sure about that. Law was something he spent a lot of time and energy on, it also seemed more profitable to him in a long run, and something that would offer him a greater security and stability in the short run.
Funny how we all tend to blindly and entirely trust all those stereotypical images of certain professions and never factor in that apart from the general condition of a certain profession and the prospects it offers according to the general belief within the society (something almost all parents and their adult children take into consideration without fail when those young adults in their late teenage years pick those "practical" traditional or potentially in demand careers, which from this moment on they will treat as "their" careers, something they should do until retirement) there's also such things as passion - love of the craft and thus also of the process, being able to try new things, being able to make changes, hence all potential and unexpected pivots, unexpected blends of several different interests (intersections), and all the other factors which may influence our behavior and affect the shape of our future career and render us victorious so to speak.
Anyway, this is more or less all I know about graphic design. I know something about colors and their meaning to most people.
Of course when I make cover designs for my books I also look at other cover designs of non-fiction books (of books that were published and are available on Amazon and in other online bookstores), study them, and try to figure out what it is that I like about them and which are the crappy designs in my opinion.
There are many crappy designs out there, even the bestsellers or books which are critically acclaimed have poor book cover design - I see them as crappy, I don't like them and those are designs which would discourage me from buying the book unless I knew the author and was sure that he or she has something valuable to say regardless of this crappy book cover design. When I know the author and am sure that this person writes good content I don't even look at the cover (unless I really love it) - I don't want this poor book cover design to stop me from reading something I might enjoy and which may be of great value to me.
I can understand my colleague, probably one of the best graphic designers among lawyers. I too have those weird thoughts that I shouldn't be doing it. That now after I had studied to be a lawyer and almost became an attorney and acquired this label for myself I shouldn't touch all those other things. Like I'm not supposed to.
I think most of us have those thoughts and doubts. We've been brainwashed to believe that we need to pick something "practical" as young adults and stick to it. That what we pick as young adults will be our job until retirement. That we have only this short time window in our late teenage years / early 20s to make those all-important decisions and to learn (and if you want to learn you absolutely need to go to college) and those who will sleep through their late teenage years / early 20s will be left behind. That later we will have our families and it will be impossible.
All those damn clichés! Statements almost all people repeat without pondering them, which then become their beliefs and prevent them from even trying. Those f*cking clichés are our greatest enemies. They have the power to shape our beliefs (what is and what isn't possible in life) and in reality they do shape them. And those are usually debilitating beliefs - limitations.
That's why we see all those questions on Quora, I've spent four years of my career in a field that I absolutely have no interest in. Is it too late to switch careers now? and the like. Tens, probably even hundreds of them each day, only I don't see all of them (it's impossible - there are too many new questions each day on Quora).
And those who dare to transition to something else, who don't want to be pigeonholed for the rest of their lives, like myself, have those weird thoughts that they're doing something they shouldn't be doing. Because they see all those people who do it "the right way". How do we know it's the right way? We've been instructed by our parents and teachers that this is the tried and true method, that all ambitious young people from so called good or normal homes (consisting of reasonable and responsible people) do it this way. That trying out other methods is too risky. And we conclude that this must be the right way. This sucks!
Recent listening to audio.
Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War by Michael Sallah, Mitch Weiss (30 min; on scribd app). Finished it. Great book!
Recent movies.
"APOCALYPSE Stalin" Demon (on YouTube). Finished it.
"APOCALYPSE Stalin" Red (on YouTube). Finished it.
"APOCALYPSE Stalin" Master of the world (on YouTube). Finished it.
"APOCALYPSE the Battle of Verdun" The Carnage (on YouTube). Finished it.
"APOCALYPSE the Battle of Verdun" The Illusion (on YouTube). Finished it.
The Great War: Part 1 | American Experience | PBS (10 min. on YouTube).
Recent progress on my fifth book: 90 min in the last three days.
My recent answers on Quora:
Answer to How should I respond to my parents when they tell me opinion doesn't matter?
Answer to Why do most parents refuse their children to do art careers but rather have them do things like medicine?
Answer to I've spent four years of my career in a field that I absolutely have no interest in. I am a content creator by profession and I want to switch to a stylist or a makeup artist. Is it too late to switch careers now?
Answer to Is there any good career/life advice for fresh graduates?
Answer to Should we keep our family members happy or not?
Answer to What can I do when I want to follow my passion but don't know to get there?
Answer to How can I expose myself more to find my true passion?
Answer to I can't find my passion. What should I do?
Music for this writing session: Philip Glass: Piano Works (on Spotify).
Glenn Miller's orchestra, they were doing some gigs somewhere.
They can't land where they're supposed to land because it's winter, snowy night. So they have to land, like, in this field and walk to the gig.
They're dressed in their suits, ready to play. They're carrying their instruments.
So they're walking through the snow, and it's wet and it's slushy.
And in the distance they see this little house. And there's lights on in the inside and this billow of smoke coming out of the chimney.
They go up to the house, and they look in the window, and in the window they see this family.
They's a guy and his wife, and she's beautiful. And there's two kids. And they're all sitting around the table. And they're smiling, laughing, and eating. And there's a fire in the fireplace.
These guys are standing in their suits, and they're wet and they're shivering, and holding their instruments.
And they're watching this incredible Norman Rockwell scene.
This one guy turns to the other guy and goes, "How do people live like that?"
[Jerry Seinfeld's favorite story about show business which he told Orny Adams, a struggling newcomer to stand-up comedy, complaining about his successful friends with wives, children and steady jobs.
The story was told in the movie Comedian.]
Why is it that almost all parents want their children to enter "practical" professions?
Because they're selfish and care more (or only) about their own needs being satisfied, rather than their children's needs being satisfied.
They want a peace of mind, have something to brag about, they don't want the embarrassment, they care about the good name of their families, they care about what other people will say about them as parents, etc., because they make this classic mistake of assuming that how their children will fare in their lives says a lot about them and their parenting, or even about the entire family, and they fear that if their children will have no successes in the conventional sense they will be judged by people and that people will conclude that they sucked as parents.
They want to live and then die knowing that their children are safe (have stability, money, etc.). What's wrong with wanting their children to be safe (have stability, money, etc.), in other words wanting the best for their children? At first glance, nothing is wrong with that (all parents think it's a noble goal). They love their children and want the best for them. How could there be something wrong with that? But there is a catch. Who should define what 'best' is? Parents? Why? Why parents? Why not the child? It's their child's (by now adult child's) life.
They want this and they want that. They, they, they. The best part? Almost no parents in this world realize how much it is about them. They use all those clichés about parental love, wanting the best for their children. How about wanting the best for themselves? Don't they (the parents) want the best for themselves? Of course they want the best for themselves (the peace of mind, the success stories to share, etc.) and those needs usually and unfortunately go first. They've bought into a ludicrous idea of happiness in life and now they feel entitled to have a say in their adult! children's lives.
And because they're narrow minded and assume that only things which are tried and true can bring success.
And because they erroneously assume that the fact that they don't know anybody who made money doing this thing means their children will fail. Which is absurd if you think about it! It only means that they don't know anybody who made money doing this thing. Period. They know very little about the future (they only assume they know a lot), they can't say with certainty what will happen if their children will choose a different path (that it will be a disaster, etc.). And if they claim that they can, if they are prophets (so freaking good at predicting what will happen) why don't they tell those young people how to win the lottery? They know for sure that the path of an artist is a poor choice for people, so they should also be able to say what the winning numbers will be.
And because they erroneously assume that their children should be "successful" (attain this conventional success) right from the get go, and only a "practical", well paying, prestigious career can guarantee this. That struggle is bad. That their role is to make sure their children will end up having a "practical" career.
And because they make this classic mistake of assuming that it will be on them to financially support their children for the rest of their (the parents') lives. This is bullshit! Who said that it will be on them? They (parents) told this bullshit themselves. They invented this narrative which now forces them to avoid this scenario at all costs, and they don't see how they should leave their adult! children to their own devices and let them take over. No, they need to be Batmans who will save f*cking Gotham from a tragedy. This is so pathetic.
Wake up, parents!
My Author Journey, Friday, January 5, 2018
# 849 (countdown)
Woke up 5:15 am.
In the last days of December we returned to Warsaw and I finished editing my third book The 27 Biggest Myths About Passion and managed to publish it, as planned, on the last day of December.
Meanwhile I watched lots of documentaries on WWI and WWII. I don't know why I suddenly became this WWI and WWII freak. I think it was after I had watched the documentary Five Came Back (I wrote about it in one of my previous diary entries) and after I spent two months studying Robert Capa's photos (many of which are war photos). We can learn a lot about the human race by watching those photos - the look in people's eyes when they run for shelter when air raid alarm went off, the expression on their faces when they found out that the war was over, or when they're forced to flee their homes, or the devastation in the eyes of soldiers who lost their battles and were taken prisoners or who look at the bodies of those who were killed.
I have many questions. Apart from the obvious function of war and other armed conflicts (to have more power, dominate, retaliate, defend), are there any other, hidden, less obvious functions (and if yes, what are they)? In other words, what is it that the war brings to the world (besides destruction, terror, horror, death, atrocities, trauma, starvation, new world order, etc.)? The economy is different before, during and after war, but that's also rather obvious thing. War is known to have huge effect on the economy. But are there other things which happen because of wars that probably wouldn't have happened otherwise?
For those who survived (and for the posterity) war is a superb chance to learn a lot about the human race. Wars show us many different faces of humanity.
And the next question. What is and what isn't human? Which behavior is inhuman?
Isn't everything members of our race ever did, human? Isn't calling the atrocities some of us are capable of in the face of war inhuman a wishful thinking on our part?
And another question. Who should decide what is and what isn't human (or what is inhuman)?
We? Are you kidding me? With this biased thinking we all are capable of? With this tendency to build narratives in our heads which serve one purpose - make us feel better about ourselves?
As a matter of fact we defined humanity, and we also invented and use the words 'human' and 'inhuman'. And I think what we did was, again, nothing but a wishful thinking.
I mean, we can go on and try to fool ourselves saying that this or that behavior is inhuman. That killing an innocent baby by an American soldier during the war in Vietnam by cutting his throat was inhuman, or that raping German women by Red Army soldiers during WWII was inhuman, or that killing millions of innocent people (mainly Jews) by Nazis during WWII was inhuman.
But who did those terrible things? Aliens that visited the earth and decided to play war games? Members of a different species which inhabit the earth (non-homo sapiens)?
Or we, human beings (members of the species homo sapiens)?
So I think it is a wishful thinking to assume that something members of our species ever did was inhuman. We strive to portray ourselves as this superior species with special characteristics, best among all living creatures. Better than wild animals (members of any other species) who can ruthlessly kill other animals. We can think better than members of any other species. We can talk and communicate better than members of any other species. We can empathize better than members of any other species.
But we often forget to mention (because we don't want to) that we can kill better than members of any other species, and what differentiates us from members of other species, we usually kill because someone sold us on some ideal, a scenario unheard of in other species, which means that our habit of comparing people who did awful things to animals is actually an insult to all other animals who never plot and persuade or force members of their clan to invade other creatures (and ruthlessly kill even those who aren't a threat - babies) because they have some ideal, or because they feel entitled to some part of our planet (part of a pale blue dot in the whole universe - I love it how Carl Sagan called our planet! couldn't have said it better).
Wars (the history of waging war against a common enemy) also helps unite people and gives them the identity. Were it not for their long history of armed conflicts, their victories, or heroic feats, patriotism wouldn't exist (or we would need to invent something akin to it). The core values of patriotism are identity, self-determination and solidarity. It'd be impossible to unite people around those values if we had no history of wars.
Without identity and solidarity who of us would care that a person who lives in the same country, but miles away, and whom we never met or even heard of before won this or that tournament, competition, olympic medal, etc.? We would be indifferent to this, like other animals.
Recently I listen exclusively to classical music when I write. I like Franz Liszt's music. Lang Lang and Evgeny Kissin are my favorite pianists. By the way, a lot of beautiful music and poetry and other art forms are inspired by war.
I decided that in January I will not shoot photos. I have other plans. I will publish two books (hopefully) in January alone, will still write new content each day, and each day I will spend dedicate a portion of my time to selling things through platforms like ebay (old items we neither use nor need).
Recent listening to audio.
Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War by Michael Sallah, Mitch Weiss (75 min; on scribd app).
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to drive your career and create a remarkable future by Seth Godin (50 min. on YouTube).
Recent movies.
Hitler, a Career (on Netflix). Finished it.
Numbered (40 min. on Netflix).
The Jack King Affair (on Netflix). Finished it.
Twice Bombed: The Legacy of Yamaguchi Tsutomu (on Netflix). Finished it.
"Apocalypse: World War I" Deliverance (on YouTube). Finished it.
"Apocalypse: The Second World War" Aggression (on YouTube). Finished it.
"Apocalypse: The Second World War" Crushing Defeat (on YouTube). Finished it.
"Apocalypse: The Second World War" Shock (on YouTube). Finished it.
"Apocalypse: The Second World War" Embarrassment (on YouTube). Finished it.
"Apocalypse: The Second World War" The Great Landings (on YouTube). Finished it.
Gallipoli (on Netflix). Finished it. A masterpiece!!!
Dunkirk (on iTunes). Finished it.
Risk (on Netflix). Finished it.
Matilda (on Netflix). Finished it.
Recent YouTube videos.
New Years Resolution 2017
NOTHING VALUABLE COMES FAST | DailyVee 020
Recent progress on my fifth book: 150 min in the last two days.
My recent answers on Quora:
Answer to I don't find my passion in my current field of work, but changing it would probably lead to a big drop in my income. What should I do?
Answer to Mothers only: What do you need from your son to make you happy?
Answer to What is the best profession?
Answer to Does it make sense to continue to pursue your passion even if you are losing money doing so?
Answer to Why does everyone just assume that parents deserve respect? Aren't you supposed to respect to be respected? What should you do if your parents don't respect you, but think they deserve your respect? Also, does respect mean obey everything they say?
Answer to Will an MBA from a top school in the U.S. help me figure out what I want to do with my life?
Answer to What kind of advice would you give a 16 year old about life?
Answer to If you could give someone in their twenties a really great piece of advice about life, what would it be?
Answer to Would you stick to a conventional path that lead to a secure degree/job or take the risky one knowing that it can either be a dream come true or a huge mistake?
Answer to I want to repay my family for everything they have done for me. How should I start?
Answer to How do I choose a path I want to follow in life if I don't know what to follow or do?
Answer to How did you discover your passion and drive, and what are your tips for those who are still struggling to find the meaning of life?
Answer to How can I convice my parents that I need some time off college? I'm in my second year of college and I'm depressed and unmotivated. I recently applied as a visiting student to NYU, thinking it would solve all my problems.
Music for this writing session: Franz Liszt (various tracks on Spotify).
I like this photo
I bet to most people having a new book each two months, or each month is a crazy idea. It would mean that the quality of those books will be very poor and that there will be nothing interesting to read.
How is it even possible that someone is able to put out something as big as a book in so little time?
Don't we all know that book production takes months, if not years? We often hear how this or that book took a year or two to write and another year to publish. Don't we all know how the thing must circulate back and forth between several different people before it sees the light of day?
We all know it. It's how the book publishing business always worked. There is this person called writer, there is an editor (or several different editors), there is a proofreader, a dozen beta testers, a book cover designer, a person who takes care of the layout (unfortunately I don't know what this person is called, and am not ashamed of it), there is a book marketer, and of course a printer and bookbinder. Quite an army of people, isn't it?
It's unthinkable that they produce a book in less than 6 months (if they're extremely productive and and if there are no delays, misunderstandings, failures, etc. - people understand each other perfectly and each person is able to satisfy other people's expectations without fail every time they do their part).
In his book Linchpin Seth Godin wrote
I've produced more than a hundred books (most didn't sell very well)*
[* He said I've produced more than a hundred books. He didn't say he wrote those books (was an author of those books), but would it make any sense if he mentioned the books he didn't write and if he didn't distinguish between the books he wrote and only helped to write or publish? The full quote (paragraph in his book) was:
I've produced more than a hundred books (most didn't sell very well), but if I hadn't, I'd never have had the chance to write this one. Picasso painted more than a thousand paintings, and you can probably name three of them.
The fact that he compares this to the number of paintings Picasso painted to me means that he meant he wrote those books.]
Seth is 58 this year which means he had 57 full years so far at his disposal. Linchpin was first published in April 2011. In April 2011 Seth Godin was 51 (and spent 50 full years on this planet - I assume he spent those only on this planet, can't be sure if he actually did). I don't know all the details about him, but I'll assume he started writing and publishing somewhere in late 1980s / early 1990s (when he was 30). That would mean 20 full years until the beginning of 2011. 20 years equals 240 months. 240 divided by 100 (at least 100) equals 2,4. So we can say that so far in his career as a writer he produced a book every 2 - 2,5 months. Not every 2 years, every 2 - 2,5 months! Heck, let's assume he started writing and publishing when he was 20 (so that we don't need to ask him, or so that people can't say I made a mistake). That would mean 30 full years until the beginning of 2011. 30 years equals 360 months. 360 divided by 100 (at least 100) equals 3,6. So we can say that so far in his career as a writer he produced a book every 3 - 3,5 months. Not every 2 years, every 3 - 3,5 months. Still a very fast pace!
Seth Godin convinced me, through his books and speeches that in the era of the Internet book publishing doesn't need to look the way it always looked (well, of course not always - the way it looked in the decades before the Internet came into our lives). That the Internet allows us to self-publish books and that there is no reason why we shouldn't take advantage of that.
Because most of us have our computers and because we have access to tools (apps) nobody would even dream of having access to 20 or 10 years ago, we can orchestrate all of it or most of it on our own. We can wear a hat of a writer, an editor, a proofreader, a book cover designer, a person who takes care of the layout (nowadays we have access to online tools that make those two jobs relatively easy for us and are offered at affordable prices or are free), a book marketer (most of it happens through social media or blogs today and we all have access to those too). And we can decide that our book (or our first couple of books) will be offered in digital form only, so we don't need printing and bookbinding services (or we can take advantage of a new service in book publishing - book printing and binding on demand, starting from one copy of your book).
Although most authors discourage people from trying to wear all those hats (because they're worried about the quality of the end result - assuming that one person will not be able to handle all of it) I'm of the opinion that most new authors shouldn't listen to this advice and should do as much as possible on their own, betting on speed of book production, not perfection.
If your aspiration is to have only one book, by all means, join forces with the best people in book publishing (sell your car, borrow money from your in-laws, or save up, in order to be able to afford it) because this will be the only book you will be known for, and if that's the case try to make that best first impression on people. Spend two, three, maybe even as much as 5 or 10 years writing it, care about every tiny detail (the font, the margins, the colors you use, everything - hire a person who has done research on the elements of book selling, and another one who is unparalleled in preparing and carrying out book launches). Do all that.
Did I forget something? Ah, of course, make sure the content of your book is outstanding.
Will it be a great commercial success, a bestseller? Maybe, if you're extremely lucky and talented and if the people you teamed up with really are the best of the best.
That's when you want to write one book in your life or one book every 5 or 10 years.
But what if you want to produce as many books as Seth Godin did? By the way, he not only is an example of a prolific writer and a skilled project manager and or a human orchestra if he managed to produce so many books in his life so far, but he was doing all this at the time when most people had no idea such things were even possible.
If you want to produce a book roughly every three months you have to do it differently. You will probably need to be this Jack of all trades at the beginning. At least it is a good idea to test what you can do on your own, without having to spend money on book production - try to have a new book every two or three months and spend even $1K or $2K on production of each of those books (which isn't much!). Good luck! Assuming that you are not a Rockefeller I guess your career as an author will end very soon. And I won't even mention the delays.
Of course, every once in a while you can decide that one of your books will be professionally produced and that you will spend significant amount on that. But unless your first book, or your second or third book (or all of them combined) sell in great numbers, and you were able to recoup the initial investment in the production of each of those books, you will feel discouraged to pour money in the production of new books. And because it's a rare author whose first book, or first couple of books sell like crazy chances are (and those are great chances) that each commercial failure (each so called "unsuccessful book" - unsuccessful because nobody wanted to read your shit) will inevitably bring you closer to the end of your career as an author.
You will lose money, momentum, hope, confidence and eagerness to publish any new books. Whereas by putting out book after book after book in a quick succession, without worrying too much about making each of those books perfect (a bestseller) you will stay in this game a very long time, just like Seth Godin did.
I'm of the opinion that today book production can resemble music production. There are musicians who release new tracks each day (they upload it to soundcloud or YouTube for example). They don't spend a year or two, or five years preparing a record (the way most or probably all musicians and singers did in the past). If they're prolific artists they can have a new "record" every two weeks. How? By putting out new music each day. They don't even need to think about the cover, dedicated marketing campaigns and things like that. They simply make music and it appears each day on their soundcloud profile or their YouTube channel. Filmmakers - similar situation.
With books it can work this way too. You write each day (say 500-1000 words), this post is 1967 words, you publish this content as a blog post on your blog or a story on Medium, or as a chapter of your book - if you write in places like Wattpad, and then, once every two or three months, you compile those posts, stories, chapters and release them as a book on Amazon or in other places.
Why wait? Why make it a huge project? If you had people who enjoyed your writing when they read it on your blog, or on Medium, or Quora, or Instagram, or Wattpad, they will probably also enjoy it in form of a book.
Will there be a few typos in the first edition? Probably! That's the deal - there is always a sacrifice you need to make. And people (readers) will be aware of it too. It's normal. If you're a skilled or even decent writer and people usually understand what you have to say, you shouldn't worry too much before releasing your next book. The only thing you should really care about is whether you have something worthwhile to say in your next book, if it's not your previous message stated differently, or just a worthless crap.
Realize that if you want to publish many books in quick succession you can't expect them to be the hallmarks of superior book production (magnificent book covers, world-class editing, great promotion, etc.). It won't happen. But you will have ten books under your name instead of just one, and you can always upload an enhanced version of your book to the platform where it is available to people (I bet you will read this book for a fifth or tenth time, after it's already published, because you will want to make sure the message is clear and there are no silly errors).
Nowadays you decide how long the book will be, in other words what the word 'book' stands for, (nobody can reject it when you self-publish), so having a book every two months really is doable - if you write each day that is. Although some online platforms may require that a book is not shorter than, say 10,000 words (I think I met with this requirement somewhere - can't remember exactly where).
The examples of people who don't understand passion but nevertheless talk about it, say that they have it, or that someone else has or had it, are so common that finding them is not a problem at all.
People on Quora ask questions where they claim to have passion and yet they desperately need guidance because they don't know what they should do. Others say they have too many passions at once and they are confused - they also need guidance because they don't know what they should do. Still others say they have passion for what they do, but they're hesitant whether they should still do it.
There is this vast (almost infinite) reservoir of examples of people who speak about passion and don't know what this word actually means. They think it's a synonym for a strong interest, a fad, or a hobby. They don't see any difference. For them it's all the same. And this misunderstanding makes it even harder for people to find their passion as they can erroneously assume that they already have passion (more than one passion) when in reality they have no passion.
They assume that a strong interest or a short lived enthusiasm for a certain subject means they have passion and they're confused - they see that passion could actually be ignored, or that you could decide that you will quit. And if this thing called passion is so weak, how it can drive anybody?
They start assuming that there must be something else beside passion, some special secret ingredient. That passion alone is not enough. And instead of realizing that their understanding (their definition - the most widespread definition) of the word 'passion' is screwed up, they look for and ask others for this secret ingredient hoping they will one day find it.
And from this vast reservoir of examples of people who speak about passion and don't know what this word actually means I picked the one that shook me the most.
In their movie Hitler, a Career (original title Hitler - Eine Karriere) the producers said that Adolf Hitler had a passion for architecture.
Adolf Hitler himself once said
If I hadn't become involved in politics, I would have been one of Germany's finest architects.
My take, Germany's finest architects have / had passion for architecture. Hitler, on the other hand, had only a strong interest for architecture and nothing more. Because I actually understand passion (and the differences between a passion, a strong interest, a fad and a pastime hobby), it's obvious to me that Hitler couldn't have had passion for architecture, whereas it's not obvious to the producers of this documentary. He might have developed such passion if he hadn't become involved in politics, but he didn't develop it.
If Adolf Hitler had had passion for architecture today people would marvel at his creations, not wonder what possessed him, how he managed to trick and manipulate so many people (his own and the rest of the world), how was it possible that the whole world watched his rise to power and his madness and nobody stopped him sooner, etc.
If Adolf Hitler had had passion for architecture today his name wouldn't be a synonym for total destruction, brute force, madness, lack of tolerance and smashing everything that stands in your way, no matter the costs, but for creation, hard work, beauty, unrelenting pursuit of making the world more pleasurable for all humanity.
If Adolf Hitler had had passion for architecture he would have been immersed in it 100% each day which means that he would have had no time left in which he could think how to deceive and invade other countries.
The thing is more and more young people on the brink of becoming adults have a new aspiration. Passion.
Passion is like cool new sneakers, or better, like the new iPhone - you absolutely need to have it. ASAP. Ideally before your high school peers have it, be the first in the entire class.
That'd be cool, wouldn't it?
There is this new thing that popped up recently (everybody is talking about it - which means it is cool) and if you want to impress your high school peers that's what you should get.
Some say that the current outpour of articles with the word 'passion' in them makes them wanna puke. They're not dumb. They will not let a fad distract them. Eyes on the prize! Prize being a "practical" college degree - because that's what their parents want, or because they've bought into this idea that a college degree will set them up for life. We need to keep a cool head, they'll tell us.
Various career experts warn young people that they shouldn't think about passion, or that following passion might not be the best idea / strategy for life. That nothing trumps being practical and learning a craft that is in demand. That there are no guarantees that passion will give them the life they want. That they know people who tried and failed, that there is a better way, etc.
What baffles me is how few of them (young adults and their parents and other career "experts" who want to help those young people, those rookies) actually know what they're talking about / understand what passion is.
They talk about this thing or dream about it and nobody finds it useful to ask themselves whether or not they got it right. They assume they got it right (like we do most of the time) so there is no need to ask questions. Thus we can skip this step and immediately take the next one, which means we will decide on how we will approach the thing we assume we understand well.
It's similar to getting married. Who would bother to ask what it is really about (what are the concrete benefits of being vs. not being married for two people who love each other)? Most people will skip this step and immediately take the next one - meaning whom will (should) I marry and / or when. Why ask questions? It is generally assumed that all people who love each other and want to form a family get married. So we kinda already know everything we need to know. Or that's just what we assume we know (c'mon, it's obvious to everyone - we don't want to appear like we're ignorant about obvious things, right?).
Meanwhile the myths about passion are plentiful and ubiquitous in our society (precisely because nobody wants to ask those questions). And nobody talks about them. I wanted to change that and wrote this book.
Get it from Amazon.com > The 27 Biggest Myths About Passion
Can we really know what would and what wouldn't have happened if the circumstances of our lives had been different?
We often hear famous people say with confidence in their voice that were it not for the fact that some, usually unfortunate, event happened they would have never done / achieved this or that, or moved to a different country which was crucial for their career, etc. Many people say such things.
Steve Jobs in his famous 2005 Stanford Commencement Address said
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
and also here:
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple.
But in reality in most cases we have no idea what would/ could have happened. Heck, maybe there was something even better that could have happened to us?
Steve Jobs couldn't have known (been sure) what would/ could have happened if he hadn't been fired from Apple. How could he possibly have known such things? This is ridiculous. Maybe some of those things would have happened nonetheless - even if he hadn't been fired from Apple? Who knows?
We will never get this chance to find out what certainly would and what wouldn't have happened. If we picked a certain path or if A happened instead of B we will never be able to find out what exactly would have happened had we made a different decision, or had B happened instead of A.
I said the same about having lost a two-year court battle in which I attempted to prove that I actually should have passed my bar exam (after which I would have become an attorney). I started that court battle because there were people in my country (and I knew them, knew exactly who they were) who offered the same solution to the same problem and managed to pass this exam while I failed in it.
I said Having lost this court battle was the best thing that could have ever happened to me, because it opened my eyes and I was able to leave this profession at a still fairly young age (35) and find something I love doing. And had I won this court battle (and thus passed the exam) it wouldn't have happened.
But again, it's a bullshit little story I tell myself. Maybe I would have left this profession anyway as being a litigation lawyer wasn't my dream job and because I am too much of a rebel? Who knows?


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Structural Design Engineer jobs in London (Greater)
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Found 43 jobs
Senior Structural Engineer
A Chartered Structural Engineer, and accredited with a MEng degree (or equivalent) in Structural or Civil Engineering is required to join a success...
Structural Design Engineer
Structural Engineer – A technically design focussed consultancy based in Central London et are searching for an experienced Structural Engineer wit...
Structural Engineer
Are you an ambitious structural design engineer who is looking for a new challenge to start the year? A medium sized, financially stable and well-e...
Chartered Structural Engineer
A chartered senior structural engineer is needed to join this global award winning architecturally lead design consultancy. The right candidate wil...
Senior Structural Engineer
Candidates must be competent, experienced in domestic engineering, be able to work without supervision, and work well as part of a team.
PREMIER LONDON CONSULTANCY: 2No Raw Graduate Structural Design Engineers
Premier Structural Engineers based in Central London has a requirement for 3No Raw Graduate Structural Design Engineers to join their teams as it c...
MAINSTREAM NORTH WEST LONDON CONSULTANCY: Chartered (or near) Structural Engineer
Mainstream owner-managed Structural Engineers based in North West London has a requirement for a Chartered (or near) Structural Engineer to join th...
Structural Engineer
An experienced Structural Engineer is sought to join this reputable, established medium sized firm of structural consultants. They have won over 60...
HIGH-PROFILE BOUTIQUE CENTRAL LONDON CONSULTANCY: 2No Structural Project Engineers
High-profile boutique multi-disciplinary Structural Engineers/Architects based in Central London has a requirement for 2No Structural Design/Projec...
PREMIER CENTRAL LONDON CONSULTANCY: 4No Structural Design/Project Engineers (from Raw Graduate)
100-strong premier Structural Engineers based in Central London has a requirement for 4No Structural Design/Project Engineers to join 2 teams withi...
PREMIER CENTRAL LONDON CONSULTANCY: Structural Conservation Project Engineer
Premier Structural Engineers based in Central (North) London has a requirement for a Structural Conservation Project Engineer to join the large con...
Structural Engineer
Our client is a successful Central London consultancy who is currently seeking an experienced structural engineer.
Structural Engineer
The London office of this leading consultancy has an opportunity for a structural engineer within their building structures team.
PREMIER NICHE CENTRAL LONDON CONSULTANCY: 2No Structural Design or Project Engineers
Rapidly-expanding high-profile premier niche Structural Engineers based in London Bridge has a requirement for 2No Structural Design or Project Eng...
Structural engineer
Structural Engineer - Design / Intermediate level London Bridge Permanent £30,000 - £40,000 We are currently seeking 2 experienced structural engi...
Structural Engineer
Structural Engineer Buildings Architecture
Senior Structural Engineer
This structural design firm in SE1 have a rare opportunity for an experienced structural engineer with good buildings structures design skills to j...
Senior Structural Engineer
Would you like to be part of the team in a successful, rapidly expanding, award winning structural engineering consultancy based in South West Lond...
Project Structural Heritage/Conservation Engineer
This Civil/Structural Consultancy is seeking a Project Structural Heritage/Conservation Structural Engineer. This is a permanent position offering ...
BOUTIQUE NICHE CENTRAL LONDON CONSULTANCY: Structural Design Engineer/Raw Graduate Considered
Boutique niche Structural Engineers based in Central (South) London has a requirement for a Structural Design Engineer/Raw Graduate to join the exp...

subset: commoncrawl


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Tech Posts
Robotic Bartender serves you your favorite drink. Cheers!July 29, 2013 By Buddy
Wren demonstrates how sound can be beautiful to both ears and 'eyes' with their wireless V5 speakers for iPhone and other smartphonesDecember 23, 2012 By Buddy
Adidas social media shoe has LED screen that can display tweetsAugust 11, 2012 By Buddy
Soft robotic tentacles produce 3D movement to pick up the flowersSeptember 11, 2012 By Buddy
Systemic computer developed at University College London is crash-free and repairs itselfFebruary 17, 2013 By Buddy
iPad compatible wall posters that play music on being touched
Wall posters…they are colorful, abstract, inspiring, ornamental, musical… wait musical? Yes, well apparently this one is! Novalia has blended simple picture approach with the modern-day artistic motif by adding interactive platform to the poster. A little about Novalia: it is a group of seven people from UK comprising of scientists, designers as well as programmers. The team has made its debut venture with a musical drum kit poster.
The drum kit can produce as many as seven unique sounds and one can even add their favorite beats if they so wish. The whole thing works with printed touch technology using touch sensors produced with electrically conductive ink and you need not struggle with any kind of sticks and styluses. Now when you touch the graphic, it identifies your touch in much similar way as does the touchscreen.
For now, two types of musical posters are being made. First type posters will get connected to your iPhone and iPad through Bluetooth to play the beats and another type that will produce sound by converting poster into a separate speaker. Another plus point is its recycling would be quite easy as paper parts can be easily detached from electronic parts. Now if you really like the idea of blending paper and technology in such a musical way, you can support them on Kickstarter where they have started a campaign to bring down the cost of musical drum kit.


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Press coverage about International Speedway (NASDAQ:ISCA) has been trending somewhat negative on Sunday, according to Accern Sentiment. The research firm identifies positive and negative media coverage by monitoring more than 20 million blog and news sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. International Speedway earned a coverage optimism score of -0.04 on Accern's scale. Accern also gave news coverage about the company an impact score of 45.3462280692045 out of 100, indicating that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock's share price in the near future.
International Speedway (ISCA) opened at $40.15 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1,774.15, a PE ratio of 26.95, a PEG ratio of 5.94 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.41 and a quick ratio of 2.41. International Speedway has a one year low of $32.25 and a one year high of $41.95.
ISCA has been the subject of several research reports. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of International Speedway from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, September 22nd. Citigroup restated a "sell" rating and issued a $31.00 price objective (up previously from $30.00) on shares of International Speedway in a research report on Monday, October 9th. Finally, BidaskClub cut shares of International Speedway from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the stock. The stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $38.50.
COPYRIGHT VIOLATION NOTICE: "International Speedway (ISCA) Earns Daily Media Impact Score of -0.04" was originally reported by Markets Daily and is the sole property of of Markets Daily. If you are reading this report on another site, it was illegally copied and republished in violation of US & international copyright legislation. The correct version of this report can be viewed at https://www.themarketsdaily.com/2018/01/14/international-speedway-isca-earns-daily-media-impact-score-of-0-04.html.
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[JAKARTA] Indonesia's central bank told banks on Monday to attach an underlying document for any large outgoing transfer of foreign currencies starting in November.
Indonesian banks routinely report their foreign exchange traffic to Bank Indonesia (BI). The new regulation requires them to add a supporting document detailing the purpose of every transfer of foreign currencies worth more than US$100,000.
Therefore, banks must ask customers for such a document before processing a transfer.
BI said in a circular letter that the new regulation was issued "to support more transparency and to increase the amount of information available regarding foreign exchange traffic".
BI listed the documents it would accept, which include export and import documents, purchase agreements, loan agreements, invoices for various transactions, proof of a deposit account in an offshore bank and an estimate of living costs abroad.
In case a client does not have such documents, they must write a letter stating the purpose of the transaction.
Banks are to attach the documents along with their routine report to the central bank starting in December, which would detail their foreign exchange traffic in November.
A bank which accepts an order for a large transfer without proper supporting documents faces a fine of 5 million rupiah (S$531.34) for every transfer. Customers who do not attach a supporting document may be fined a maximum 50 million rupiah.
The penalties will not apply until April 2017.
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Bahnhofstraße 19 69115 Heidelberg
Some people say that the mark of a good Thai restaurant is how tasty their Pad Thai is. The individual components of the Pad Thai should create a perfect harmony and balance of flavors – not to sweet, not too sour, just right. Well, if that's the case, then Thanaporn Thai restaurant is surely a winner.
Don't be fooled by the archaic exterior of the restaurant – inside, the dining room is a romantic place and welcoming for diners. The cloth covered tables are met with woven-wicker chairs that are supplemented with comfortable pillows to keep you nice and warm. On top of each table, a candle illuminates the area, enhancing the dining experience. With all of the traditional Thai ornaments and pictures decorating the walls, it definitely feels inviting and hospitable. Even some of the ceiling panels have the image of the traditional Thai dancer. Fantastic!
The menu is quite extensive with many familiar offerings. There is a large variety of chicken, pork, beef, fish, and vegetarian selections that will surely meet your needs. There is also a three course menu, featuring an appetizer, a chicken curry dish, and dessert for single persons and a 4 course tasting menu that can be shared between two people.
The Chicken Pad Thai here is cooked nearly flawlessly. I am, by no means, a professional on Pad Thai cooking, but this one definitely gets a thumbs up. The rice noodles were not mushy nor were they over cooked – they had just the right texture. The slices of chicken were moist and juicy. The dish was stir-fried with the usual ingredients – bean sprouts, chunks of tofu, egg, a piece of lime, a couple slices of cucumbers, and some crushed peanuts – and garnished with chopped cilantro. My only complaint was the sparse amount of nuts. Overall, though, the flavor combinations worked extremely well here.
Portion sizes are slightly smaller than they could be, however the taste certainly makes up for it. The prices are reasonable – the Pad Thai dish cost 7,80 EUR and a cup of tea 1,70 EUR.
Thanaphon is located behind the Crowne Plaza Hotel, near the Bismarckplatz in Heidelberg. It is a secret that cannot remain hidden forever!
Tucked away from the main roads in Heidelberg, Thanaphon Thai Restaurant is a charming restaurant serving up delicious, authentic Thai cuisine.Hours: Monday to Sunday: 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM, 5:30 PM to 11:30 PM
Overall – 5 stars
- Guey Tew Pad Thai with Chicken – 5/5
- Jasmine Tea – 5/5
- Service – 5/5