mind, focus, concentration, and learning mind, focus, concentration, and learning
 
Imagine a giant college campus filled with dodo birds and woolly mammoths. All carrying backpacks, textbooks, and a cup of Starbucks. And all extinct.

It is inevitable that Colleges and Universities will collapse under their own weight. Entities like that have a tendency to resist technological change, and to resist changes in technology is always fatal. Efficiency always wins. Inefficiency  always loses. Always.

And that is good.

Learning isn't going away, it is growing, and what is slowing it down is the old educational system. The old system needs to get out of the way, because if the world needs anything, it needs more knowledgeable people walking its surface.

I go to the University of kin

Look at book stores, book publishers, record labels, record stores, and music publishers, all of which have resisted change and all have fallen, been damaged, or they have had to downsize and change because of the changes in the world. They tried to stop change and got run over while standing still.

What doesn't change, dies.

What does a university have in common with a music label and Borders bookstore?

All were initially designed and built to distribute information. Colleges and Universities are built for exactly the same thing. It is what they do. It is their thing.

Two hundred years ago it was possible to read every book in the world, books were hard to produce, and they were expensive. Over time means of production came into play, and huge distribution networks were built to funnel books to the world. I can read a copy of Basho's haiku on my kindle for free, anywhere I want to read it. 

Music is the same. Think about it, it used to be the only way to hear music was to go hear the artist, and then records, radio, and huge businesses were built to get you the 45, the cassette tape, and the compact disc. I used to have boxes of music, and now I have the entire collection of The Black Keys in my pocket while I type this.

The internet allows instant distribution with no real carrying costs to carry infinite amounts of inventory. Anyone can play in the sandbox.

Between a musician and their fans, there used to be an army of people and companies. The same is true of authors. Today the connection is direct, fast, efficient, and more profitable.

Back to Universities, they are giant and expensive knowledge machines, useful only if you can go to them to learn. They are designed to be distribution hubs of knowledge. They are the funnels, the gatekeepers, or at least they used to be.

Just like music labels, record stores, and book stores, they are no longer needed for us to access what we want to learn, to read, or to listen to, .

The internet has made access to information location independent and almost free. Today you can learn anything from anywhere. Anything.

The University and College system is an expensive dinosaur. Like the giant reptiles before them, their days are numbered.

And that is not a bad thing.

Today an author can interact with, talk to and sell directly to their audience.

A musician can do the same, selling their music direct, with no middle man to slow own the process or increase the cost.

The artist makes more money, and the audience pays less to get what they want. Like a good feedback loop, both sides improve as the process gets more efficient.

Imagine a world where professors and experts can go direct to students, and teach those that want what they know. From anywhere to anywhere.

That is the new knowledge distribution model. Chinese professor teaching a student in the Balkans while traveling in South America.

The expert is now able to talk to, work with, sell to, and also learn from their audience with nothing between them. The expert is the business.

Everyone wins.

The expert, the professor, like the author and musician, now control their own fate.

D

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“You at least are willing to work hard,” Komatsu said cautiously. “As far as I can tell, you don’t cut corners. You’re very modest when it comes to the act of writing. And why? Because you like to write. I value that in you. It’s the single most important quality for somebody who wants to be a writer.” “But not, in itself, enough.” “No, of course, not in itself enough. There also has to be that ‘special something,’ an indefinable quality, something I can’t quite put my finger on. That’s the part of fiction I value more highly than anything else. Stuff I understand perfectly doesn’t interest me. Obviously. It’s very simple.” 

Those people have it pounded into them to carry out whatever needs to be done to accomplish the mission, and to do it instantly, without the slightest hesitation. The important thing is not to hesitate, no matter who the opponent might be. Amateurs hesitate,

There is some risk, of course. But risk is the spice of life. 
Good style happens in one of two ways: the writer either has an inborn talent or is willing to work herself to death to get it. 
You couldn’t begin to imagine who I am, where I’m going, or what I’m about to do, Aomame said to her audience without moving her lips. All of you are trapped here. You can’t go anywhere, forward or back. But I’m not like you. I have work to do. I have a mission to accomplish. And so, with your permission, I shall move ahead. 


Haruki Murakami
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Love this quote from the Mark Cuban book;

I had to kick myself in the ass and recommit to getting up early, staying up late and consuming everything I possibly could to get an edge. I had to commit to making the effort to be as productive as I possibly could. It meant making sure that every hour of the day that I could contact a customer was selling time, and when customers were sleeping, 

I was doing things that prepared me to make more sales and to make my company better. And finally, I had to make sure I wasn’t lying to myself about how hard I was working. It would have been easy to judge effort by how many hours a day passed while I was at work. That’s the worst way to measure effort. Effort is measured by setting goals and getting results. What did I need to do to close this account? What did I need to do to win this segment of business? What did I need to do to understand this technology or that business better than anyone? What did I need to do to find an edge? Where does that edge come from, and how was I going to get there? The one requirement for success in our business lives is effort. Either you make the commitment to get results or you don’t.
How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It by Mark Cuban 

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Instead of flinching back, they flinch forward—toward their opponent, and toward the threat. When you flinch forward, you’re using the speed of your instincts, but you don’t back off. Instead, you move forward so fast—without thinking—that your opponent can’t react. You use your upraised hands as weapons instead of shields. You use your fear to gain an advantage.

Train yourself to flinch forward, and your world changes radically.

The lessons you learn best are those you get burned by. Without the scar, there’s no evidence or strong memory.

Firsthand knowledge, however, is visceral, painful, and necessary. It uses the conscious and the unconscious to process the lesson, and it uses all your senses. When you fall down, your whole motor system is involved. You can’t learn this from books. It just doesn’t work, because you didn’t really fall. You need to feel it in your gut—and on your scraped hands and shins—for the lesson to take effect.
The Flinch by Julien Smith
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It is going to be a new year and it is time to shake off the dust and debrisThe new year is here and I have decided to focus in on six things in 2012.

I call them a plan, as I think it gives a more definite feel to them than resolutions, and I plan on tracking as I go.

The six are;

1. Learn to type fast. I can type, but it isn't pretty, and it is one of the three things everyone should know. ( The three things are typing, at least two languages, and entrepreneur/ accounting.) I really need to improve. I have much to do with little time and typing like a caveman is nether very skilled or helpful.

2. Learn a language. I have dabbled, but this year I go and do it. I want to read some authors in their native language, I just have a feeling I am missing a lot in the translation. The two languages I want to learn is Japanese (Haruki Murakami) and French (Albert Camus). French is the one in 2012. I want to read Camus' essays in French this year.

3. Fitness - fell out of shape in the last 6 months with the chaos around me. Need to get the discipline back. I will start training and watching what I eat. Thinking of learning Krav Maga. 

4.I want to learn a new cooking skill. I can do Italian, Mexican, and a little Asian, but need to widen it out. 

5. Write 50,000 words. I want a book. It is in me, I know what it is, and needs to get out.

6. Start a business on the side that will teach me some more online techniques and make at least a $1,000 in 2012. No more studying, now you do.

Each of these will make me better at what I do, and we all want to be better.

I feel you need to put it down, make yourself accountable.

D
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“I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, "Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
“You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil.” 
“I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what is was all about.” 
“There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? There is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. This is how you live a life in two days. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any biblical span.” 

 
― Ernest Hemingway
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Sitting outside on the patio, looking at the trees around me, each tree seemingly twisting towards the California sun. 

I have my old black sweatshirt on,my  hood over my head against the morning chill, drinking yerba mate tea, eating some whole wheat scones I made, and reading and reading and then thinking.

I read several books at a time, and at first I thought it showed a lack of discipline, that I couldn't focus, but I have come to learn over time that the way I read balances and keeps my mind and focus fresh. People find it odd, but it works the best for me.

I average 4 to 6 books a month, and so I combine then, as studies have shown that you can study for about 30 to 40 minutes, and then you need to take a break, and I use that concept in my reading plan.

I read usually four books at a time, and right now I am reading;

One fiction book ( I am reading Haruki Murakaim's 1Q84 - he is one of my favorites)

One nonfiction book ( usually science or business, right now I am reading Uncertainity by Jonathan Fields)

One health/ brain nonfiction book ( I rereading the four hour body by Tim Ferriss)

And usually one biography ( Just finished Steve Jobs by Issacson and I am deep in a biography of Voltaire right now. Voltaire was quite the entrepreneur)

I am also reading a fifth book that I find interesting called Lean Six Sigma for Supply Chain, which is a pretty good book on the subject. I am studying for a new job.

I find by changing between books as my focus lags allows me to reset my concentration and keep reading.

The world would be a much better place if we all read history books, as we would make much less of the same mistakes that plague us today if we read of the mistakes of others before us..

D
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“Be like water making its way through cracks. 

Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. 

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. 

If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. 

Now, water can flow or it can crash. 

Be water, my friend.” 


― Bruce Lee
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Never, in the history of America has there been so great an opportunity for practical dreamers as now exists. The six year economic collapse has reduced all men, substantially, to the same level. A new race is about to be run. The stakes represent huge fortunes which will be accumulated within the next ten years. The rules of the race have changed, because we now live in a CHANGED WORLD that definitely favors the masses, those who had but little or no opportunity to win under the conditions existing during the depression, when fear paralyzed growth and development.

There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning DESIRE to possess it.


Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
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“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.”

 – Mark Jenkins
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