Shower Power

For the last two weeks, I have tackled issues, and I’m still tackling new ones.

(Have a look at my past posts to know what I’m writing about).

Needless to say: it is exhausting.

I always find myself awake at 4:30 am, super energetic (it is usually my energy peak) , and I hate wasting energy.

So, I grab my iPad and read books nobody will. at least I think so.  Would you be interested in reading a book called “Inside Apple“? Unless your are a fanboi computer geek which is interested in HR and temperaments/personalities and their pros and cons, I bet you wouldn’t.

Not a safe bet.

My health has never been great, and I don’t want it to deteriorate.

There are a few tricks that I do before giving in (and I gave in once in my life: I had a lung infection and spent a few days in the coma. OK, I digress, but bear that in mind)!

Taking a shower after having triggered my mind with an insanely intricate computer science lecture, or an inspiring TED talk, is what I usually do.

Solutions and ideas appear when you least expect them. It is common sense.

The next Joe would say the same, but I’m not the next Joe.

When you let purposely your mind wander, it will certainly bring you where it wouldn’t if you were hyper-active and focused obsessed.

My weapon of choice is a simple shower, or a bath.

I soak my hands in warm water before playing keyboards or cello. Any tension disappears, and I can warm-up, then play confidently knowing that I prepared myself.

See… This is a borrowed parallel paradigm (a term I coined a few blog posts ago and didn’t use in a blog post)!

I use a “model” totally unrelated to the task at hand to solve it. I transpose it (sorry for the musical pun).

Well, it’s time for a new TED talk and to catch up on my Stanford lectures (I have a strong disgust for the C language, and we are comparing Objective-C and ANSI C. I want to move on to the next step, yet I know that my teacher is doing what we’ll need ten lectures later).

Oh, one last thing: nothing beats a cup of Yunnan tea.

One more thing: this is the post where my 666th tag will appear. I’m an unabashed metal freak, but in no way Satanist. I just find that ending my post with something less serious could release some tension!

Which are your strategies to kick out stress and burn-outs from tearing you apart?

Do you let your mind wander to find solutions, or do you keep working until you run out of gas?

 

 

 

Our Memory is a GUI

Everything that goes through any of our senses is stored in our memory as a mental picture.

It uses our occipital cortex. So, don’t scratch the top of your head if you can’t recall. It happens behind your head!

Just google “visual memory” and countless search pages will show up with miracle recipes on how to improve it.

This is totally uninteresting to me. However, I often take a quick look at all those self-help things, then discard 99% of them.

What is interesting is how our brain works, and thorough studies, serious stuff won’t appear on the first search page. Go further.

I find it fascinating that our memory transforms everything into a mental image. Vivid, exaggerated, lurid, hilarious… Unexpected ways are to be expected!

One of the most important aspects of it, is that if you aren’t actively participating in memorizing, your “file” (memory) will be lost somewhere into some random place you can’t easily recall, or can’t recall at all. Unlike computers, we have no indexing and search option available to find where our file is.

Actively participating means “abstracting” the (usually) boring stuff. You’ll need to find ways to get mnemotechnic in remembering things. It will take some time and practice, but it is worth the sweat!

If you just absorb, you are not memorizing. You are listening, watching, smelling… but not memorizing.

When memorizing, don’t lay on a couch and repeat ad nauseam the same thing, hoping it will get into your memory. You have to add emotion to it to work properly.
Being on a couch is not what I call an emotional trigger (unless you get laid, but that’s another story).

Stand up. Read aloud. Repeat each syllable many times. Let the music come.

Don’t worry, your music will anyway be associated with a mental image. Not a mere image, but a mental one. Those are discrete things!

I hope that by now, you start figuring out why I called this post “our memory is a GUI”. Yes, it is a graphical user interface. Touch this icon / click on it, and it will react.
An icon is an object which has properties. Exactly like our memory.

I am still studying this overlooked aspect of our memorizing process, so expect an update or another post as soon as I have new and relevant content.

Meanwhile, know that nobody has a bad memory. If you want to have a really hard time remembering faces, events, sounds, etc, keep saying to yourself that your memory is poor, or bad, or that you suck.

I encourage you to do your own search. I want us to discuss and debate around this topic.

Well. I’m going to find ways to memorize five high-level programming languages. I’ll focus primarily on Objective-C.

The meaning, the syntax, the words or signs used all have some potential for visual memorizing. What can I do with @synthesize ? Split it into syllables and repeat them until I find a way to relate what is on my screen to what it means. Make music out of it (“synth” could already be “synthesizer”. Or maybe should I try to merge “sin”, “in”, “the”, “size and visualize a huge cock)?

I told you that the more exaggerated, gory or porn, the better and easier to remember. Summarize it into a vivid mental image (not an image like a photo) and link it to its meaning (meanings aren’t obvious in programming). That is why Stanford has a “programming abstractions” course, in my opinion.

Again, don’t merely absorb, but stand up (to stay alert) and actively participate in memorizing.

In those big “memory contests”, they give you energizing beverages. It is not a coincidence, is it?

 

The Split

I used to wish that days lasted 48 hours instead of 24.

I was just a terrible time manager. Now I wish days were just 12 hours long.

Here’s what I’ve done since last weekend: a “split”.

It basically means that I’m cutting my working hours in half, weeding out drivel and clutter, while focusing only on what matters to me.

You can’t outdo yourself after the 24th hour.

The clever thing to do is to get rid of distractions (I never watch TV, so I already removed a lot of useless stuff) and to focus. I’ll never emphasize that enough, even if I’m guilty of not always practicing what I preach.

Get rid of busy work. Welcome real work.

Feel free to contact me using the form below, should you want to discuss about time management.

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Δ

Work and love stories…

…are exactly the same: date, romance, break up.

Do you know that I know that you don’t know?

I’m both a job seeker (I was a pro session drummer. I had to quit due to severe neurologic issues- it let me time to think, that’s the great part-) and the leader of the Anti-Resume Revolution “à la française”!

Angela Lussier already released a book Seth Godin mentioned! You have to read it!

“The Anti-Resume Revolution.”

Back to my blurbs:

French people amaze me. They’re afraid of absolutely everything new or different.

And they expect to find a job. Not a job they love. Just a medium to have enough bucks to eat and pay their bills.

They expect mediocrity.

Here in France, we’re fed with brochures and meetings and advice telling us to be the shiniest-brand-spanking new cog in a machine, using “out the f*** over capacity outdated CV models”.

Don’t be a Linchpin or you’ll be hanged…thrown stones at…or perhaps be burnt.

It is insane, I tell you.

They should all know it

Everyone knows that the best way to learn how to write…is to write.

Yet in our corporate world, nobody seems to know that the best way to learn how to work…is to work!

Patrons (or any people hiring people for what they can’t do themselves) are SLAYING MASSIVELY incredible, indispensable creative and talented people because they do not “fit in”.

Soon enough, there won’t be any cogs anymore (you know, what schools are made for, creating fearful cogs), the giant machine will be dead and everybody will have to shift for another model.

In the meanwhile, the slaughter continues.

Can you stand still waiting for it to pass?
I can’t. That’s why I’m leading a branch of very active people to put an end to all of that.

Angela Lussier is already doing an excellent job leading the “Anti-Résumé Revolution.”

Make a Google search for it.