Jarkko Laine » Learning

How to Learn Like Neil Strauss

Jarkko — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:18:14 +0000

What should you do if you want to learn how to use a knife?

Buy a book? Wrong.

Ask a friend to teach you? Better (assuming he knows how to use a knife), but still not quite right

Go to Mad Dog – the guy who makes knives, breathes knives, thinks about nothing else than knives? Correct.

That’s how Neil Strauss would do it.

Emergency is an interesting book about preparing for the worst case scenario when the world falls apart around us and everything comes crumbling down. But interestingly enough, the biggest thing I got out of it was not how to survive in the scary future but how to learn like a pro:

Go to the best expert in the field.
Take in all the knowledge you get from them.
Practice. A lot.

When you find a new skill that you are lacking, write it on a “to learn” list. Then repeat the steps above.

That’s it.

No related posts.

Glen Allsopp Plugs Into his Identity

Jarkko — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:52:50 +0000

Just a bit over a year ago, Glen Allsopp was an 18-year old guy from England, working in a job he hated, doing college courses that bored him to death, and running his own business part-time. In my books, that’s already quite an achievement for someone that young.

But it wasn’t enough for Glen, who wanted to plug into his real identity and live his life to the max. So, he took a job in South Africa, left his old life behind and moved to a whole new country far away from everything he knew.

If you checked out any of the links to Glen’s blog I posted last week, by now all of this is old news to you. You know who Glen is, and want to hear him speak, don’t you?

That’s why I think this is enough background.

Let’s get started with the interview questions.

Your blog is about plugging in to your identity and being the real you. But who is the real Glen? (A drawing to represent your mind would also be nice)

I’m someone who’s just realised they are not the box they thought they were trapped in. Despite doing crazy things like moving to South Africa on my own at 18, my life had been lived relatively shy and script-like.

As soon as I started to realise this, I’ve completely turned my life around. I’m starting to become a very confident person, someone who goes for what they want and I’m really enjoying life. I see it as my mission to help others do the same.

To describe myself in 5 words:

Authentic
Passionate
Non-judging
Creative
Challenging

A drawing that represents my mind:

The pink is my brain / mind, the light-bulb is my core creativity and centeredness. The green-lines are my distracting thoughts and beliefs that sometimes consume me and the majority of the planet.

This blog is about being insanely interested in everything. Often it’s not that easy to let go of all the prejudices related to the right way to lead your life and really make the most out of your unique personality. How can someone like this plug into her identity and make the most out of it?

Being insanely interested in everything must be great; I guess it keeps life interesting. I assume the prejudices you are talking about are that people think you are a little insane and should stick to one core focus.

Stick to what is true to you, because deep down you know what is right.

If being interested in everything is enjoyable and makes you happy, why change for anyone? Accept the prejudices / judgments and thrive off them. Be proud that you aren’t following the social norms and you are leading your own life.

What makes this September insanely interesting for you?

September has been very interesting for me; I’ve been offered a few great jobs in New York which I’ve turned down for personal reasons. The main thing for me this month is focusing on productivity, my workload has increased the last few months and using tools like ToDoist have really helped me keep on top of my tasks. That and the great ‘what are you doing this week’ discussions over at My Tropical Escape.

Every month is interesting because every month is different. I’ve also been planning the adventures for when my family come to visit me in Cape Town, it’s been over a year since I seen them.

What do you suggest others to do to make their September more interesting?

Do something different, give something a try, and even just set yourselves a challenge. Try a month where you try to cut costs and see how little you can spend whilst surviving. Or, look at areas of your life you would like to improve and spend a month working on them, such as going for interviews or asking for a pay rise if you want to improve your career.

I would actually recommend people try blogging if they’ve never tried it before; it can be almost meditative and could possibly become a new passion for many readers.

What is the most interesting/scary thing you have done so far in your life? How did you make yourself do it?

By far it was quitting my job in England, quitting college where I only had 1 year left (of 3) and leaving all my friends and family behind to go to Cape Town on my own (at 18). I did it by looking at my life situation, seeing if I was happy or if I wanted to make a change.

It might sound like risky business, but if the job you are doing isn’t for you and you don’t plan on extending education in the courses you are taking, why bother? That was my mentality anyway. Thanks to the support of my parents I realised it was possible and ended up in South Africa a few weeks after being offered a job.

Let’s play a word associations game: I give you five concepts, and you respond with the first idea that comes to mind.

Pizza: chicken, sweet corn, food fights, messy furniture
Pencil sharpener: scratchy, metal, small, sharp, shiny, cheap, annoying
South Africa: violence, beaches, women, sun, adventure, challenge, experience
Water: cold, windy, splashing, birds, clean, refreshing
Plug: PluginID ;), energy, voltage, electricity, implementation, doing

Thanks, Glen, this was fun!

Now, make sure to check out Glen’s blog if you haven’t yet. And even if you have, there is something big you just might have missed: an always up-to-date Personal Development Blog ranking list (too bad we’re not listed ;) Insanely Interested ranks 47th).

The 52-in-One Challenge: Write a Blog Post Like Nothing You’ve Ever Seen Before

Jarkko — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:00:49 +0000

I have all these serious posts planned out. They have nice titles, I’m doing some heavy research on them, and I hope they will make a difference in some of our lives.

But today, I don’t feel like working on any of them.

Instead, in the spirit of Insanely Interesting September, I’m going to let ideas flow and just have fun. Seriously, sometimes you just have to get a bit crazy and go overboard.

Why?

Well… Because.

It will make your life insanely interesting. Trust me.

That’s why today, I’m putting up a challenge for myself as well as all of you.

All the way back in January, Mark Hayward wrote an inspiring blog post listing 52 Post Ideas to Help You Stay Inspired Throughout The Year.

Coming up with 52 ideas worth sharing with the world is a big deal. But how about combining all of those 52 ideas into a single, meaningful title — and then actually writing that post?

The outcome can be anything. It can be a huge success. But it can just as well be a complete failure you’ll want to forget, lock up, and sink in the deepest oceans.

That’s exactly why it’s the interesting thing to try.

Let’s Get (Y)our Hands Dirty

In his post, Mark divides the 52 ideas into 10 categories (Blogging, Link bait, Marketing, Social media, Humour, Entrepreneurship, Online business development, Design, Guest blogging, and Blogging tools). Go take a look at the post to see what the original, serious ideas were, and then get back here to see how I twist and turn them into something horrible.

First, I thought I’d combine each of the ten categories (and the two extra titles) into eleven titles to make the final title combination easier to grasp.

Here you go. The first list:

Are You Ready For Server Crashing Traffic — A Creative look at Technorati’s Top 5 Must Read Blogs, Why You Site Stinks, and How You Can Swim Against The Stream
Blog Post Buffet: Read These Top 10 Marketing Posts About Scrambled Egggs From Technorati Top 50 Blogs to Ensure Eternal Blogging Success
Feeding Readers to the Purple Cow. Five Steps for Becoming Remarkable with a Viral Marketing Campaign, One Reader at a Time
Want to Become A Top Digger? It’s all About Stumble Upon, Social Media Comments, Giving and Taking. (P.S. Get Noticed)
Seth Godin Ate John Chow While Mud Wrestling With Shoemoney: Top Reasons Why Australian Crappy Updates On CopyBlogger Disturb Me
Failure 101: How Failure Helped Me Get Five Tips From the Most Motivated Internet Entrepreneurs
Flipping Flagship Blog Networks: These Ten Niches Will Outsource Your Writing To Generate Income Today
Love your RSS Button: How Improving Your Branding Will Increase your Reader’s Opinion on This Site’s Font Size
Why Crafting The Perfect Invitation To Get People to Write on Your Blog Tool is Easier Than You Think – and a Very Effective Networking Tool
One Little Known Plugins That is Guaranteed to Stand Between WordPress and Movable Type and Declutter Your Traffic
Ten Habits Of Computers – How to Improve Your Writing by Avoiding Bloggers

What do you think?

I think many of these titles would make rather interesting blog posts. But this time, I’m after a bigger goal: combining all of these into just one, massive monster headline.

And here it is. The ultimate blog headline (I wonder what Brian Clark would think of this one):

Seth Godin Ate John Chow While Guest Blogging and Buffet Crashing! A Creative look at Technorati’s Top 5 Must Read Marketing Blogs, Why Scrambled Eggs Helped Me Get Five Tips About Failure, and How You Can Use Your RSS Button to Swim Against The Stream (and Generate Outsourced Income) by Feeding Your Readers to the Purple Cow (ps. It’s All About Font Size, StumbleUpon, and Improving Your Writing)

And now, the most interesting part, the challenge.

Write a meaningful blog post with the monster title shown above.

And here’s some more detail:

Write your post during September
Send me the link to your post (or add it to the comments)
I will add your link right at the end of this post (first come, first served – so be quick to reserve the best spot and most clicks)
After a while, I might run a round-up of the most inspired submissions around the end of the month, which naturally means more link love your way.
I’d appreciate it if you linked to this original post. But you don’t have to. If you have a policy against linking, or you feel like you don’t want to fall into my link bait, I totally understand it. Just write the post, let me know about it, and I’ll link to it. I just want to see what you guys can come up with!
Tell your friends (But only if you like the idea… If you hate it, I’ll just pretend I never wrote any of these 846 words)

But that’s not all.

I will also do my share, and post my own version some time during the next two weeks. Subscribe to my RSS feed to make sure you won’t miss it!

Now, let’s have some fun.

What You Came Up With

Here are the posts that were written in response to this challenge, in order of appearance:

Derrick Kwa writes about why it’s not a good idea to mix up every spice in a blog post, even if they would be good ones when used sparingly.

There’s still room for more, so keep them coming!

Following The Creative Toddler

Jarkko — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:27:51 +0000

Do you know why it’s so hard for a sushi cook to start a new restaurant that mixes sushi with Russian blinis? According to The Medici Effect, it’s mostly because of association barriers inside the chef’s mind: he is just too used to looking at the world through his specialized sushi master eyes to see the opportunity.

It could also be that sushi and blinis don’t match. But that’s a different story.

We are told to think outside of the box, but still most (if not all) of us often get stuck in our usual ways of thinking. It’s just so much easier to keep doing the old thing and ignore new options.

Too bad this approach doesn’t work that well with innovation.

It’s this approach that makes a software developer stick to his current tools even when a different programming language or development style would be more suitable for the project at hand. It’s the approach that keeps a manager from reviewing his rewarding practices even when they clearly have no effect on performance. It’s what makes everyone work overtime in their offices even if working less hours – maybe even outside the office — would be a cheaper and less stressful option.

Little kids are different.

They have just entered this world, and they are still open to every new thing that comes their way. Of course, not every child is the same, but if I asked you to define children with just one word, I’m pretty sure curiosity would be at the top of the list.

My son is just like that. He is always on the move, exploring the world. In a fraction of a second, you may find him standing on the kitchen table looking at cars outside the window. Shouting of excitement. Seeing a miracle in pretty much everything new he finds. Always learning.

That’s the spirit we, as grown ups, can learn from children. As Kim and Jason wisely put it, we should be childlike – not childish.

Yesterday, I took my family out in a forest near our home and filmed my son, Oiva, as he explored the unknown.

I see this video as an example on how we should live our insanely interesting September!

Insanely Interesting September

Now, let’s take a look at you. How has you insanely interesting September been so far? Let’s hear what you have learned, seen, or experienced so far – write your insanely interesting events in the comments!

If your month has been no different from August, it’s not too late to get started. Here are some ideas to make your September the most interesting so far:

Get on the level of a toddler, and look at the world from down there (you may also want to taste some of the things a toddler would put in his mouth). You’ll be surprised at how different things look like from that perspective
Write down all your ideas
Ask why — again and again. Don’t settle for “because I say so.”
Wake up early
Slow down
Make yourself accountable
Read about all kinds of topics
Start a new project
Take a chance

And share the things you learn with your friends (that’s us), through the comments. Have an Insanely Interesting September!

The Return of the Insanely Interesting September

What is an Idea?

Jarkko — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:00:33 +0000

In the spirit of Insanely Interesting September, I gave myself a simple task: For one day, write down each and every idea that crosses your mind. Then at the end of the day, count how many you got.

It turns out that this wasn’t such an easy experiment after all: with each new idea I was more and more lost trying to figure out if it qualifies as an idea or not.

My first idea in the morning was to take care of my errands during the lunch break so that I wouldn’t have to hurry too much in the evening.

I didn’t come up with an amazing new product for taking care of your errands. And I didn’t even build myself a new process for taking care of the running tasks I need to handle.

But still, this simple thought saved me a lot of stress throughout the day.

So, was it an idea?

If it was, it wasn’t a very useful one.

It could be a seed for a bigger idea, though: I could write a blog post about how it makes sense to take care of your business during your lunch break, or I could come up with a new business targetted at people who are too busy to take care of their errands.

But does an idea really need to be new in order to be accepted as an idea?

And does an idea need to be useful in order to be a real idea?

You tell me! What do you think an idea is?

What about this video, are the ideas in it ideas, or just things you do?

How to Stay Motivated Working on an Idea From Last Year

The Return of the Insanely Interesting September

Jarkko — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:00:02 +0000

This morning, the grass on our front yard was covered with frost. People were scrubbing ice off their windshields. The last signs of summer were long gone. While I still miss summer, in a bitter sweet way, I love the crisp, fresh air, the bright colors, and seeing the nature change into something new again.

Last year, we dedicated September for celebrating the insane interestingness of life.

It was a month full of inspiring posts and interesting interviews with people with different interests. Here’s a brief recap in case you missed the posts or want to have another look at them:

Now it’s September again. And that means that it’s time to continue the tradition and roll out the second round of interestingness.

And as always, the second round must outperform the first.

So, here’s what you can expect to see in the month beginning today:

Use cases: There will be interesting interviews with readers and public figures insanely interested in everything
Tapping into your creativity: We’ll find out how creative you really are and talk about ways of making the most with the newly found talents.
How to see more: Opening your eyes for the interestingness of your everyday life will be an eye-opening experience.

…and much more: We’ll continue our discussion on expertise and acquiring more of it. You’ll see new links to interesting blogs and web sites. And after the summer break, there will also be a new report on how my make money online challenge is going so far.

To me this is a time for making blogging more fun and enjoyable than ever before. I can’t wait to get the interviews rolling, and sharing my creativity experiments with you guys.

Subscribe to my RSS feed, and you’ll be right where the action is.

Have an insanely interesting September!

Help me Define “Insanely Interested in Everything”

Jarkko — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:00:24 +0000

I want this blog to be a place where we help each other understand the world and how we fit in it. Not just a place where I broadcast my ideas to the world.

That’s why today, I have a task for you: I’d love to hear you define what “Insanely Interested in Everything” means to you.

You’ve read the four words many times: Insanely interested in Everything.

You see them in my posts. You see them and at the top of the blog. If you google them, you know where you will end up. And soon, the whole blog will be renamed to “Insanely Interested (in Everything).”

But, there is one thing that has been pushed forward for all these months.

That is, really defining what Insanely Interested in Everything means and who the insanely interested, the target audience for this blog, are.

I have touched the topic a few times in the past:

In December, I shared a list of seven signs to show that you might be insanely interested in everything.
In May, I wrote a short series on focus for the insanely interested.
And a few days ago, the best effort in finding a definition so far: Experts, Generalists and the Tyranny of OR.

And with today’s post, I hope to get one step closer to understanding what we mean with the catch phrase. But I can’t do it alone. Here’s what I want to do instead:

Help me define the insanely interested

YOU (we, actually) are the people I’m talking about, the insanely interested.

That’s why, to make the definition perfect, I need your input. I need to hear how you would define yourself, and what being insanely interested in everything (= many things) means to you.

Also, if your grandma, uncle or next door neighbour is a prototype example of being insanely interested in everything, feel free to mention her in the comments as well. Every tip and idea that helps us have a clear image of this kind of person is more than welcome.

In the coming weeks, I will then pick a handful of you to be my Insanely Interested in Everything case study subjects (if you don’t want to be included, let me know). I will ask you a few questions over email and publish your answers on this blog.

If you have a blog, I will link to it.

And if not, you can just consider this a great opportunity to introduce yourself to the community.

So, don’t hesitate any longer: leave a comment and share your thoughts!

Traits of a Person Insanely Interested in Everything

If you like, you can also read on and see what I’ve been thinking before sharing your thoughts. Just don’t let my ideas guide your thinking too much: I want to hear what’s on your mind.

Curiosity: My brother, Tiitus, told me that according to his biology school book (he’s a third-year high school student) a defining trait of the human species is the ability (and willingness) to play, learn and try out new things even as adults. Apparently, most animals stop playing and experimenting with new things when they grow up. And sadly, so do many humans. Not the insanely interested.
Ideas: We are full of ideas. Many of them will never be implemented, but if we write them down and keep them safe, they can lead to some bigger things in the future (see next trait).
Not afraid to mix things up: I have linked to The Medici Effect quite a few times already, but if for some reason you haven’t clicked on the link yet, do it now. The pdf version of the book is free. I believe the book talks about being insanely interested in everything, although it uses a different word, intersectionalist.
Not afraid to try out things you know nothing about: A cautious person could never become insanely interested in too many things. He would look at all the possibilities and become intimidated by the fact that they are outside his expertise. Then, instead taking the risk of broadening his expertise, he decides to stick to what he knows he can do very well.
An entrepreneurial mind: This goes together with what has been said above. If you are creative, curious, and not afraid to try things out, you are great material for entrepreneurship.
A generalist specialist: This is what I wrote about in my latest post about insanely interested people. I think the word generalist (or even worse, Jack of all trades) has a bad connotation of not being that good in anything, and that we should instead focus on the fact that the insanely interested are experts in many of the things they are interested in. You wouldn’t call Jonathan Fields a master of none, would you?

This is what I’ve got right now: being insanely interested in everything means being an entrepreneurial expert open to new things — curious and always willing to learn more.

But now, it’s your turn.

I can’t wait to hear what being insanely interested in everything means to you. Or what makes you insanely interested in everything. And how you would define the term to your friends or relatives.

Let’s talk!

Warning: Personal Development is a Punch in Your Face

Jarkko — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:30:07 +0000

(…or “How When You Think You Have Made It, You Are Just Getting Started.”)

Whoever said “ignorance is bliss” must have been longing for an easy life without knowing that things could be better. Most definitely, he (or she) didn’t want to be punched in the face by hearing uncomfortable truths about his path in life.

I have no idea who it was (it could have been Thomas Gray, but his version is more than just “ignorance is bliss,” and could be interpreted to mean the opposite: “where ignorance is bliss, ‘Tis folly to be wise”) but it wasn’t a personal development writer, that’s for sure.

The more you learn about yourself and your current condition, the more aware you become of your shortcomings and all the things you still haven’t reached. Both in your personal growth and the world around you.

If it makes you do what you need to do to get where you want to be, all of this is a good thing.

But there should also be a warning label stamped on every personal development book or blog:

Warning: This book/blog/article/tutorial can make you unhappy

When you read The 4-Hour Workweek, at first you got excited, saying to yourself: “Wow, this is so awesome! I must try this right away” The first few days were pure joy, but then came the disillusionment: It’s not even remotely as easy as it sounds.

You realized that before Tim Ferriss was able to achieve the lifestyle of his dream, he worked 60-hour weeks building his business for several years — until he realized that he could leave it behind.

You realized that you couldn’t just go to your boss and tell him you quit.

You realized that you weren’t even close to the goal painted by the book.

But hopefully, you also knew that the goal was not impossible to reach — as long as you were ready to fight for it.

The same pattern is repeated over and over again with every book and blog you read: Reading Scott Ginsberg reminds me of how bad I still am at listening to people. Reading Leo Babauta makes me aware of the fact that my habits still are sloppy as ever. Reading Clay Collins tells me that I haven’t gotten any braver than I was yesterday.

But that’s good.

It’s how I want it to be.

I need to be punched in the face every now and then so that I won’t just conform to my happy but still unfinished state of being, wondering how come I’m not doing all the things I thought I wanted to do, and not being the person I want to be.

As Dren pointed out in the comments to previous post, becoming an expert in many things is no short trip at all. You need to keep learning, for years, only to realize that there is still more for you to learn. That’s where reading personal development blogs and books can help: in showing you that you still have a long way to go.

Unless this is what you’re after:

Take a look at what happened around mid-April. No, not the big fall, that was a Feedburner tracking bug. I’m talking about the rather stable 450-460 RSS readers period from April to August during which the blog subscriber count did not grow at all.

That’s what happened to my blog during the summer.

It’s not what you would have estimated based on the growth before April, is it? But it’s what you would expect to happen if you become too content with your current state. I was simply paying far too little attention to growing and improving the blog.

But this doesn’t apply only to blogging.

The same thing will happen in your personal economy, in your knowledge, and in your health, if you decide that you are good enough, and stop trying to improve.

Personal development will tell you this. It will tell you that you are in a bad shape and need to start running again.

It will hurt, but you will be glad it did — in the long run.

My next fight is to get back on track with my blog growth (you can help by subscribing and/or telling your friends about the blog, see Leo Babauta’s summary of how to help a blogger).

What is yours?

Face It, Not Checking Your E-mail All The Time is Hard

(The Key to Life is) Running, Reading… and Writing

Jarkko — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:43:59 +0000

Will Smith said it: “The key to life is running and reading.”

I’m just a beginner at running, and know just enough about it to agree with the Man in Black. And reading? I don’t think there is a single activity in the human life that would bring as much joy and food for thought to a person’s life than reading.

That’s why, in this post I’m going to focus on reading (I will write about running once I can honestly claim to know something about it – right now, it’s not the time yet).

When I envision my dream job, I see myself surrounded by books. I see high bookshelves on all four walls. I see ladders used to get the books from the upper shelves. And I see myself sitting in the corner of the room, next to a fireplace. Reading.

But there is something missing from this picture: the job.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard I have tried to think about it, there is no such job as a reader.

And in fact, such a job would be theoretically impossible because it would benefit no one. Information is only useful when it’s used to create something new — or to support the common good. This is why I added the third ingredient to the key to life: writing.

Writing puts your reading to test. It makes your brain process the things you have read, to combine them into new, meaningful and useful sentences. And if you haven’t paid attention to what you have read, writing will quickly show you where you went wrong.

Reading without writing is a waste of time (actually not quite — but close enough to justify this bold claim, I think), because if you just put more and more new ideas in your brain but never use that wealth of information, who will benefit from your reading? No one.

But if reading without writing is a waste of time, writing without reading is just foolish.

How could anyone know how to write without having seen the great examples from the writers before them?

How could anyone become a real author without knowing what real authors do?

How could anyone relate their ideas to the ideas that have come before them without knowing what others have been thinking about?

That’s why reading and writing always go hand in hand: if you want to write, you need to read. And if you love to read, it makes a lot of sense to write. You don’t have to. But it’s still a good idea.

But why should you do either of them?

If reading and writing go hand in hand, that doesn’t still doesn’t mean that you should read and write. It just means that if you read, you should also write.

But wait! There are many good reasons for reading and writing.

First, hear what Will Smith says about reading. Before I saw this video a few days ago at Zen Habits I had never thought that Mr. Smith was anything more than a nice guy playing the occasional role of a super hero on the big screen.

Well, he is. And you will agree after watching this video.

“(The Key to Life is) Running and Reading”

So, Will tells you that reading helps you through the different stages in your life. It shows you that someone else has struggled with the same questions and obstacles that you are facing right now. And it lets you learn from their mistakes rather than make all the same mistakes over and over again.

But that’s not all.

Reading helps you understand the world. Through stories you will see the full range of human emotions. Through scientific writing you will learn the facts from dinosaurs to evolution to far away galaxies to how the thought goes through your brain and lights the idea bulb right above your head.

Reading gives you ideas. A lot of the new ideas are created when two or more ideas from different areas of life are brought together. Frans Johansson calls this the Medici Effect. But with or without a fancy name, this means that the broader the selection of books you read is, the more likely you are to come up with new ideas.

Reading fuels your curiosity. It gives answers to the questions your curious mind has come up with, which leads to a happy, warm feeling of a fulfilled need. And then, all of the sudden, it creates more questions. And more. Each new idea, and each new book gets your curiosity flowing more freely than before.

Reading helps you sleep better. If you have trouble falling to sleep at night, reading can help. A light novel gets your thoughts off the stress you have been fighting throughout the day, and sleeping becomes easier than before.

Reading is fun. There are not many things that would be as entertaining than a good book. And no, although TV tells stories too, it’s not the same as a book. Try it, you’ll feel the difference.

What about writing?

For that, I have to turn to Scott Ginsberg and his mentor, Jeffrey Gitomer who say it beautifully:

Writing is the basis of all wealth

But now, I’m off to read a book! I suggest you do the same.

6 Reasons Why You Should Not Ignore the News

Jarkko — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:00:16 +0000

The other day, I was browsing my way through a personal development forum. I heard people talk about making the most out of their lives. I saw them share new things they had learned. Most of what was said was rather good stuff. That was before I bumped into a post about how, in order to be happier, you should stop following the news.

I have seen that argument many times, and always, at first, it looks like a winning strategy: news only bring you down, so why don’t you just ignore them and focus on something happier.

Often, this suggestion comes disguised as a different wish: There are lots of happy news in the world, so why won’t the newspapers run those stories instead of the dramatic and shocking ones?

I agree that it’s OK to feel good from time to time (maybe even more often than that). But at what cost?

Do we really want to live in an imaginary Matrix world without knowing what is going on in the real one? Would we really feel complete in a world of utopia, where we only see our close, seemingly happy environment, while ignoring the rest?

Photo by przemion

I would have to say no.

You can’t make a difference in the world if you don’t know what the world is all about. And you can’t understand life without understanding the place life happens in.

Here are my 7 big reasons why you just can’t ignore the news:

Know the facts: If you want to be seen as a reliable source for information and a professional who follows the world events, you must know what people are talking about. The longer you keep ignoring the news, the more your information gets outdated.
Inspiration: For a creative professional, the news serve as an invaluable source of information. If you’re a writer, the news can stir up an interesting novel idea. If you are an entrepreneur, you may find new needs for your company to fulfill.
Understanding the world: Even conflicts and natural disasters are important for making us question our world views. And questioning your world view is always good. And keep in mind, not all news are about war and crime.
Knowing what needs fixing: If you want to fix the (or some) problems in this world, the first thing to do is to figure out what the problems are. News are a logical place to start from.
Being able to make the correct choices: Every day we are forced to make decisions regarding things such as our spending habits, our carbon footprints, our support for developing countries. How can we do that uninformed of the current state of things?
Seeing if you made the news: Why not? You might well make the news – at least if you know what the world is all about and do something to change tomorrow’s facts.

But it doesn’t have to be all or nothing

I hope that by now you agree that it’s most important to stay informed on what goes on around the world. But what I’m saying is not that you should watch news every night at nine or read the newspaper when you wake up.

Those are both valid options but not the only ones.

Skipping the newspaper in the morning can save you time and money. Not watching evening news can mean that you can get rid of your TV and again save time and money.

But you need to get the information from somewhere. Here are some options:

Go Tim Ferris and let your friends tell you the news over lunch
Read the news from the Internet
Follow news events on Twitter
Go to specialized news sources: The Oil Drum for oil and energy news, GameDev.net for game development news, and so on
Check news from a different culture

But even more important than finding the news is getting the background information covered.

Don’t just listen to the news and swallow everything that is thrown at you. Read about biology. Read about economics. Read a bit about everything. Talk with people who know about these topics. This way you will be much better prepared to seeing behind the news stories, and can use them to make a difference rather than just seeing them as events that bring you down and thus need to be actively ignored.

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