Relax, Everything Is Deeply Intertwingled

Happiness

Happiness is discovering other peoples' blogs. To my surprise and delight, today I found more happiness:

I often (deliberately) misquote JFK, who said:

Happiness is the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.

I modify it to get to the spirit of what I think he meant by substituting "along lines of excellence" with "towards noble ends". To misquote someone else, excellence in the pursuit of vice is no virtue.

     -- Allan M. Schiffman, who I finally met after hearing Rohit rave about him for 10 years

This reminds me of Dan Kohn's happiness page, which succinctly states that

happiness = reality - expectations

I like this because it implies that there are two basic ways to improve one's happiness, and, improving reality should really be the more difficult one.

...

My newest thoughts are in the direction of pop psychology: that the two things everyone craves are prestige and security.

and I note that the definitions of happiness that Allan and Dan cite are quite compatible.

Three Questions

Reid Hoffman writes:
- Is there such a beast as "the meaning of life"?
- Why is it over when the fat lady sings?
- What makes friendship so important?

I reply:
- Yes. We each have our own purpose and our own meaning as our own part of The Whole.
- To make us appreciate it while it lasts.
- The fact that life is short.

Be Good

"It is a little embarrassing that after 45 years of research and study, the best advice I can give to people is to be a little kinder to each other."
    -- Aldous Huxley

Hold On Hope

The Architect to Neo:

"Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion,
simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness."

It's Not What You Say So Much As How You Say It

Claudia H. Deutsch in NYT on style: "Some of his tips — know your subject, do not read woodenly from notes, hold important lunches at restaurants where past tipping has made you a favored customer — are pretty obvious. And many sound like orders from drill sergeants and schoolmarms: Hands out of those pockets! Elbows unglued from those sides! Distribute weight evenly on both legs, and stop moving around so much! Do not keep opening and closing your hands, and, for goodness' sake, try not to stare at your shoes!

But Mr. Daley offers a formidable list of eye-opening pointers, too:

• Gesture with one hand. Waving both looks fidgety and distracting; using one looks natural and emphasizes a point.

• Speak up. Speaking low may force people to listen harder, but it will make you sound boring.

• Focus on one member of the audience to keep your eyes from darting around. But change to another person often, so you don't stare.

• Don't ever be in total darkness, even if that means audience members must squint at visuals. You want them riveted on you, not on the slides.

• Apply the same rules to one-on-one meetings as to keynote speeches, but just tone them down. "Make the gestures smaller and the voice more modulated, but never forget that an animated person is more interesting," Mr. Daley said.

If it sounds like a top-heavy emphasis on style over substance, that is because it is. "

I really do have to work on my public persona -- to say more by saying less, removing that nervous tick that wants to fill silence with bits.

Satan Cruz

I'm stuck in Santa Cruz for the rest of the week for a KnowNow offsite with the rest of the exec team. Joy.

Questions I will ponder, thanks to Bill Maher:

• How did we get here?
• What happens when we die?
• Is there a heaven?
• Am I on the list?
• Who let the dogs out?

Documentation Wants To Be Free

Micah Dubinko: "Author obscurity is worse than percieved piracy. Unless you're Stephen King, release your books under a free documentation license."

Do The Right Thing

Dr. Ernie's Difficult Law:

"Of course doing the right thing is hard.
If it was easy, everyone would do it."