100 Pounds of Dynamite

I came across Sir Ken Robbinson’s talk (Watch Online) at the TED conference via Presentation Zen, so I poked around the site a bit. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll get invited to the TED conference one year… in the mean time there are plenty of great talks online.

One of the more surprising talks was from Tony Robbins. I remember him trying to sell something on late night infomercials and thinking that he was a total shyster. His talk was delivered very passionately and drew me in. His exchange with Al Gore was quite memorable. I gained some respect for him when I found out that he started in business by giving to poor families during the holidays until he was doing so much of it, with his friends that it was time to start a foundation.

I was in Borders bookstore today and while looking for another book I saw his book Awaken the Giant Within… We’ll see how that turns out.

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I spent my Christmas vacation with Jessica’s Family in West Virginia. Good times… there’s a flickr photoset (if that’s your kinda thing…)

Highlights include:

• “Byaahhh”
• Sudafed that expired in 1999
• Julie wearing my hat
• Drew and I reading the book Aunt Jaime bought for him
• The MOUNTAIN of presents
• Al the cat cuddling up with me
• Scrabble with Leslie (next year you’re going down!)

It was a wonderful time. (Despite the cold that got passed to me)

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The folks at Google are good at surprising me.

A few weeks ago I went to the ENT to see why it is that my nose always seems stuffed up. I had a septoplasty back in 2002 and still it seems that one side gets more air than the other, and it’s never consistent. He suggested that I might have Vasomotor Rhinitis. (He also suggested that I have a sleep study based on my description of sleep problems… more on that in another post)

Back to Google… I went to Google to search for vasomotor rhinitis and look at what pops up:

The system knows that I’m looking for information about a medial condition and its offering options related to it. I’m not sure how long this has been around, it’s the first time I’ve noticed it.

Brilliant!

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Not to be outdone by Darren and his 2006 Christmas Card (although Darren has most certainly outdone me …

Here is the first annual Frank Jania generic end-of-year holiday post card. If you didn’t get one in the mail it’s either because:

1. I didn’t have your address
2. The layout of the destination and return addresses was, as described by the supervisor at the post office, “horrible” causing the automated reader to send at least 10 of them directly back to me and who knows how many just got lost.

Enjoy!

Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds - life - 20 December 2006 - New Scientist

“A species of moth drinks tears from the eyes of sleeping birds using a fearsome proboscis shaped like a harpoon, scientists have revealed. The new discovery – spied in Madagascar – is the first time moths have been seen feeding on the tears of birds.”

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I was pointed to The Expert Mind by Kathy Sierra over at Creating Passionate Users. The article discusses the idea of ‘being an expert’ and where that expertise comes from. The authors argue that expertise is learned and that, wrongly, we all too often ascribe expertise to some kind of innate talent.

As I see it, its really a hopeful argument. Its hopeful to think that there is more to excelling than simply innate talent. It doesn’t however offer any easy answer, but does corroborate what seems to be, more or less, common sense.

Ericsson argues that what matters is not experience per se but “effortful study,” which entails continually tackling challenges that lie just beyond one’s competence. That is why it is possible for enthusiasts to spend tens of thousands of hours playing chess or golf or a musical instrument without ever advancing beyond the amateur level and why a properly trained student can overtake them in a relatively short time. It is interesting to note that time spent playing chess, even in tournaments, appears to contribute less than such study to a player’s progress; the main training value of such games is to point up weaknesses for future study.

“Effortful Study” … I especially like the notion of “tackling challenges that lie just beyond one’s competence.”

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