Propellant 7

If you're a high velocity person, having shoe laces coming undone is an inconvenience at best. If you work in active environments like hospitality, it can be hazardardess. In this brief TED Video, Terry Moore shares a simple little tweak that turns a weak knot into a strong one.

Yesterday we talked about getting our arms around a big vision by eating an elephant one bite at a time: breaking down the incompletable into smaller goals. We defined Strength as our ability to carry out an action, and Resistance as the force opposing our action, the amount of inertia to overcome in order to conclude the Performance. Our final conclusion was that Excellence is achieved by eating elephant every day -- consistently exercising Strength and therefore increasing our capability.
Today, I want to go more in depth into some of the specifics pitfalls and benefits of measuring results. 
We noted two ways to set goal markers:
* Immediate -- Distance Achieved: Affecting any set number of empirical units -- empirical means a measurement derived from experiment and observation rather than theory. It's the difference between "Did we sell a lot?" and "We posted a first-quarter operating profit of 1.90 billion euros. " The point isn't precision -- don't get more caught up in measuring the thing "the right way" over completing the action. The point is to make the purpose of your immediate effort the production of a measurable quantity, rather then an opinion subject to the pleasing or displeasing of your personal ego. It doesn't matter how you feel about what you wrote -- it matters that you wrote then ten pages you set out to write.
* Comparative -- Distance over Time : How long does it take us to affect those units? How often can we do it? This is where we calculate cost / performance. Comparing the result over time let's us see improvement -- it makes us aware of the reward of our efforts. And that is very important. Humans are bred for survival, so if we don't experience a short-term gain in some way followed by sustainable results, we lose interest. Everything in our brain screams at us to quit. We call this being lazy or unmotivated, but really, it's just our survival sense kicking in because it FEELS like we're wasting effort, and in days not so long ago, wasting energy meant death.
 Our choice of measurement makes all the difference. Choose the indicator that relates most signifacantly to the action you are engaged in. For instance, most people use body weight to evaluate their personal health efforts, even though body weight fluctuates wildly and unpredictably daily, monthly and seasonally for reasons having nothing to do with diet or exercise. Calorie counting isn't any better for understanding the impact of diet choices. The stats that matter are body fat percentage and blood pressure. In terms of short term success, what you want to know is that you eat an amount you are happy with at each meal, which can be achieved by simply taking a picture of every meal you eat. For exercise track improvement in performance -- when you run a mile in 8 minutes instead of 9, your short-term sense of accomplishment is through the roof, even if your stomach feels somewhere around your knees. Track stats that are both simple and significant.
Now that we've gone over how to define the elephant in detail, tomorrow we'll take a look at providing the first thing we need if were going to be having elephants around -- lots of dedicated space.

There's a bit of wisdom that asks "How do you eat an elephant?" In other words, how do you achieve something that's too big for you?
First, we need to understand how big the thing is, and how big a thing we can eat. We need to define and measure. Strength is our ability to achieve a desired result, and Resistance is what opposes us: the inertia to overcome. Can we lift 300 pounds on a leg press machine? Pay off a $23,200 student loan debt? Send 1.21 Gigawatts into the Flux Capacitor? Defining the question with empirical measurements and a specific goal marker let's us know where we stand -- when you see a pair of tire tracks burning in the street, it's time to shout and do a victory dance.
But back to the question of elephant on the menu. If can't muscle our way past the Resistance in one sitting, we can use our measurements to break it down. We eat the elephant one bite at a time. Break the unachievable result down into a one-time result that you can achieve, and measure as above in terms of Resistance. Then set a schedule to repeat this result, and overcome additional resistance as you are able.
Now we are measuring Time over Distance: If you can swing $6,000 a year, you'll have that student loan debt paid off in four years. Better yet, you'll have a consistent habit of setting aside $500 a month. Continue to do so, and in another four years you'll have SAVED $24,000. This simple calculation doesn't count interest paid on the loan or gained from savings or investing. But we can all agree positive personal net worth is better then a negative one.
Which brings us to Excellence. Strength wanes without use. That 300 pound leg press you maxed at the gym last week? If you don't go this week, you'll only hit 280 next week. If you want to lift 400 pounds, keep going to the gym every week and keep adding weight as you are able. Strength grows with proper use -- the more Resistance you move, the more your capacity to move Resistance grows.
Strength is eating an elephant. Excellence is eating elephant every day.

Image credit Jani Elizabeth

You may or may not be the most important person in your life, but you are the most influential.
No-one's decisions have a greater impact on your life then your own. Take time to influence yourself. Quality one-on-one time.
A simple approach to self-influence is the coffee date. Sit with a cup of coffee or tea for fifteen minutes, the same as if you are meeting a friend at the corner cafe, and tell yourself good things. You don't have to go to the corner cafe, but you can. You don't need an agenda or anything specific to talk about, but you can do that too. You don't have to talk to yourself -- and if you do go to the corner cafe, you probably shouldn't -- just share with yourself.
Free-writing in a journal is socially acceptable. What makes you excited today? Uncertain? What saddens you? What are you proud of? Journally comes bundled with an added bonus: you can review. See where you were a week, a month, a year ago. Patterns will emerge.
Admit you mistakes. Admit your triumphs. Encourage and embolden yourself. The same as if you are with a friend.

Because you are.

Researchers have discovered a secret database within iOS that store records of an iPhone user's location. Although this information is not transmitted to Apple, it is accessible through back-up files stored on a user's computer in iTunes. The database is unencrytped.

"Alasdair Allan, senior research fellow in astronomy at the University of Exeter, and writer Pete Warden, who discovered the log file and created a tool that lets users see a visualization of that data, say there's no evidence of that information being sent to Apple or anybody else. Even so, the pair note that the data is unencrypted, giving anyone with access to your phone or computer where backups may be stored a way to grab the data and extrapolate a person's whereabouts and routines."

Allan and Warden have made an open-source visualization program available for viewing location data stored in an iPhone or iTunes backup file -- however in the same manner that civilian GPS data is purposefully not as accurate as military data, the two researchers deliberately downgraded the accuracy of their program.

Although the database itself is unencrypted, iTunes does have an option to encrypt back-up files:

"To enable that feature, click on the device icon when it's plugged into iTunes, then check the 'Encrypt iPhone Backup' item in the 'Options' area. As for your iPhone, or iPad with 3G, your best bet is to keep someone else from getting it in the first place, and then using Apple's free 'Find My iPhone' app to do a remote wipe if it's lost or stolen."

Apple can collect this information legally according to the iTunes Terms and Conditions.

For a concise FAQ explaining the issues, check out the full story at CNET.

http://www.ted.com/talks/nigel_marsh_how_to_make_work_life_balance_work.html

Prescient Observations:

"Certain job and career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningfully engaged on a day-to-day basis with a young family."

"If you don't design your life, someone else will design it for you, and you may just not like their idea of balance."

"The small things matter. Being more balanced doesn't mean dramatic upheaval in your life. With the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform the quality of your relationships and the quality of your life."

In this video published by Ted.com, the great thinker and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl addresses a group of students in Toronto in 1972 on how our own expectations influence the realization of the hidden potential of our fellow men and women.

Paraphases a quote from the philosopher Goethe and using an example from his flight instructor, Frankl calls on all of us to expect more from others than they deserve. 

Frankl's speech highlights the fact that respect is granted, not necessarily earned. It can be earned, but there are plenty of people with authority who don't receive respect.

Just ask any cop.

In this video, Paul Colligan introduces us to Firesheep, a Firefox plugin that allows ANYONE to login to other folks web service accounts -- like Facebook and Twitter -- accessed over unsecure WiFi. You know, like the free WiFi at the coffee shop? Yeah...

Firesheep was actually created as part of a White Hat effort by developer Eric Butler. The idea is to spur users into securing their WiFi by demonstrating how very very easy it is for hackers to hijack an unencrypted session, and to encourage web service developers to provide secure login protocols. Mr. Butler's strategy is proving successful, as Firesheep's been garnering a lot of talk on the web. Facebooks rollout of secure browsing via HTTPS is in part a response to Firesheep.

Do yourself a favor and get a secure Wi-Fi utility like HotSpot Shield (Free, but ad supported) or WiTopia (Secure VPN service starting at $40/month -- works on tablets and smartphones as well as laptops).