I now do my writing on Substack. This WordPress blog will be left for archival purposes. For all of my writings, past and present, my Substack is https://interestingthings455.substack.com/, here is my introductory post if you’re new to my Substack: https://interestingthings455.substack.com/p/a-formal-welcome-and-intro?s=w
Interesting Things You Should Know About in March 2022
Welcome to another installment of Interesting Things You Should Know. Let’s start right away!
💻New Technology I’m Using: I’m writing this blog post for the first time using my new laptop the ASUS X515. I’ve had my old laptop for almost 8 years now and I’ve decided to get a new one. By the time I publish this, I will be using the ASUS X515 for less than a month. Right now, I am enjoying it. The pictures are much smoother and clearer, the audio is better, some of the games play better, and I love how light and compact it is. Here are a few images to give you a glimpse of what it looks like:
📚Books I’ve Read this month: For this month I’ve completed Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou. It’s a continuation of her first book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, an excellent book I recommend everyone should read. While the sequel isn’t as good as the first book, I still valued my time reading. Maya Angelou in this is highly relatable as she goes to different jobs, not just in search of making a living but also in search of an identity as well. If you’ve read I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, check this book out.
I’ve also read Whatever It Took by Henry Langrehr and Jim Defelice. I actually found this book in a thrift store and only spent $3 on it, an insanely good price on a book I’ve been compelled to read ever since I read the first few pages. It tells the real-life accounts of a poor Iowan man, how he fought as a paratrooper in WWII, being a PoW working in the horrific Nazi death camps, and how he escaped and made it back home. A harrowing yet heroic read. The soldier and author who recounts his life, Henry Langrehr, wrote this when he was age 95 and he’s actually still alive! Incredibly impressive he was able to recount so much of his own experiences, even if we’re only getting a look at what’s above the iceberg and not much below. If you want to read a war biography, this is a fantastic read.
🔊Audio series I enjoyed: I listened to the Audible Original, Impact Winter. It’s about a bunch of British survivors who take shelter in a medieval castle seven years after a comet blots out the sun and vampires start taking over. It’s a great mixture of post-apocalypse, horror, and adventure, the British cast is top-tier, and the audio design is superb. It felt like a high-budget TV show if they only focused on the audio.
If you want a free trial to experience Impact Winter or the many other offerings Audible has, including exclusive podcasts and audiobooks, click the link right now.
📝Articles I recommend reading: I have two articles to show. The first is titled How To Find Obsession. If you look at people who are highly proficient at whatever it is that they do, whether it’s sports, music, writing, etc., one thing that they have in common is that they are obsessed with whatever they set out their minds on. The article gives a full rundown and is worth a read. It shouldn’t take too much of your time.
Speaking of obsessions, one thing I have been obsessed with is music. I remember back in middle school when my parents tried to have me practice guitar. It didn’t last with me and the plans of being an excellent guitarist fell through. More recently, I have been listening to more albums, expanding my music taste, learning more about music theory, and all the great psychological and social benefits that come with music.
I know most of you just want me to get to the point, so the point is that there is a really cool guide on how to start making music courtesy of the website Psyche. They have some well-done, practical guides out there and in the future, I’ll show you more of their guides that I think have some real usefulness in the near future.
🌐App I’ve been checking out: Ever since the pandemic, one of the skills I’ve learned (and loved) is cooking. Cooking is a fantastic skill, not only do you save money from eating out, your meals tend to be a lot healthier and filled with less junk. I’ve recently found an app called SuperCook. It’s an app that shows you recipes that require recipes that you already have in your kitchen. It’s fantastic for those looking to save time and money, and it helps reduce food waste. It contains 11 million recipes from 18,000 recipe websites in 20 different languages. And all of this is completely free. Just download it from the app store and you will have access to many different recipes in the palm of your hand. Imagine all the food recipes you can make with just what you have in your kitchen. Give it a try!
That’s all for this month! I know it’s a shorter one, but I hope you’ve found this month’s post useful. See ya next time!
Interesting Things You Should Know About in Feb.2022
Hello and welcome to the second installment of interesting stuff you should know about in February 2022. Here are just a few things I want to showcase to you guys.
📝Trivia Nights I’ve Been Attending: There is this cool weekly trivia show called King Trivia. It is a Bar/Pub Quiz company where they host weekly trivia nights. Their games consist of seven rounds, including Picture rounds, a Guess Who round, and General Knowledge rounds. My personal favorite are the Find the Connection Rounds. In Find the Connection, there is a connection between the first nine questions, and the answer to the tenth question will be to “find the connection.” It requires more brainpower in that round and finding the connection makes this round fun. If you’re interested in being a host or helping your local bar get more customers, King Trivia is there to help.
📚What I’ve Been Reading: Because it happens to be Black History Month, one of my reads was the short story These Alien Skies by C.T. Rwizi. He’s the same author who wrote Scarlet Odyssey and Requiem Moon, two African fantasy books I enjoyed immensely. The story is only 25 pages, which happens to be the average length of pages I read daily, so this wasn’t all that hard for me to read. Despite being 25 pages, there’s a lot of depth when it comes to the characters, the science, and the world-building. I enjoyed it a lot and this makes me want to read more short stories at some point.
I’ve also read The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. It should be required reading in schools when it comes to Black History. A moving, heart-wrenching yet hopeful biography of a man who sought his freedom from slavery. Everyone should know and read about this man.
Finally and completely unrelated to Black History, I read Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To by David Sinclair. If you follow the world of podcasts, he’s been featured in plenty of episodes such as the Lex Fridman Podcast, and Sinclair himself has decided to launch his own podcast. I decided to pick up and read the book myself out of my own curiosity. It’s a fascinating read not just on why we age, but also on how to have a longer lifespan and all the ethical and philosophical implications behind what it means to live longer as a species. If you’re interested in why some people are younger than they look and how you can achieve that yourself, check out David Sinclair’s podcast and read the book yourself.
🎤 Podcast I’ve Been Listening To: Speaking of podcasts, there’s another podcast I highly recommend. It’s called the Huberman Lab Podcast. The host of the show is Andrew Huberman, who is a neuroscientist and professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford. He’s made contributions when it comes to brain development, neuroplasticity, and how the brain interacts with other parts of the body. He’s been hosting the podcast for over a year now and the episodes are well-researched, well-explained, and filled with excellent ideas on how to use the ideas used in the podcast for everyday life. The podcast is on the longer side so it can be daunting to figure out where to start. I recommend going with the first episode, where it’s all about the nervous system and working your way up from there.
Here’s the Youtube channel if you’re interested in delving deeper:
https://www.youtube.com/c/AndrewHubermanLab/featured
🏙️ Announcing the Future Fund: Are you interested in philanthropy? Do you have ideas on how to build a better future for all of humanity but don’t know where to start? Well, there’s a new organization called the Future Fund. The Future Fund is a philanthropic fund that makes grants and investments aimed at improving humanity’s long-term prospects and solving some of the most pressing issues out there such as climate change and poverty. If you’re interested in any of this, read more about it here:
Announcing the Future Fund
And finally a quote I’m Pondering:
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
Jim Rohn
If you enjoyed this blog post, feel free to share this with others. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to comment on social media or email me at cybershocker455@gmail.com.
Interesting Things You Should Know About in Jan. 2022
Hello everyone! Hope you had a wonderful January 2022. I’m going to be trying something new here. I apologize for how scuffed it’s going to be but I did promise I will be doing something new. What I will be doing is a newsletter-esque collection of interesting things that I’ve done that you should know and check out. It’s something I want to experiment with. I won’t make it too long and it’s going to be a curated list of interesting things you should know about, just like I said last year. Without further ado, here is the list.
📚Books I have read: I have continued my reading habits into the new year and I thought it is worth sharing what I’ve read. Here is what I’ve read:
AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War by Tom McNichol: I listened to this through Audible during my road trip to Universal Studios Hollywood. It’s a fascinating history book on the history of electricity and a portrait of the life of Thomas Alva Edison and how he was born into a world without electricity and how his inventions changed the world to the point where by the time he died, the world couldn’t live without electricity. If you want to take a look into the past, present and (possible) future of electricity, this is a book worth looking into.
Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee: It’s the last book of the Green Bone Saga and it was quite the journey from beginning to end. The setting is heavily inspired by gangsters and Tai Chi and it all revolves around the resource of Jade and how it can shape societies, individuals, the environment and other domains of this well-told fantasy world. By the end, it was an incredibly bittersweet experience when I had to say goodbye to the characters. If you enjoyed Shang-Chi, you will absolutely enjoy the Green Bone Saga, starting with Jade City. It’s a different kind of fantasy experience.
The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes by Jackson Crawford: I first listened to this through Audible and I was so impressed by the narration I decided to buy a physical copy of this as well as its follow-up The Saga of the Volsungs, which I am currently reading through. It’s a high-quality translation of ancient Norse stories following the Norse gods such as Thor, Odin, Loki, Sif, Freya, and many others from the Norse pantheon. I have always been passionate about mythology ever since I was a tween and reading the book while listening to the Audible narration by the author Jackson Crawford himself helps bring these ancient tales to life. The narration and translation of the old Norse language make it both easy-to-understand and incredibly rewarding to read. Jackson Crawford also has a Youtube channel where he teaches an entire course’s worth of knowledge on Norse mythology, language, sagas, and culture at zero cost. Check it out if that interests you.
🎙️ Podcast I have been watching/listening to: I have been watching the Diary of a CEO podcast, where British businessman, entrepreneur, and TV personality Steven Bartlett interviews different guests on their backgrounds, experiences, and learnings. I enjoy the way Bartlett gets insights into the different guests, how they became successful in their fields, the failures that led to their eventual successes and who they are as people. The most recent one where Bartlett interviews the founder of the Calm app co-founder Michael Acton-Smith is a fantastic one and makes for a great jumping-on point.
📱App I’ve been using: I’ve been enjoying the Optimize app by Brian Johnson. Brian Johnson is the modern-day equivalent of a monk. He has read hundreds of the best books on self-development, peak performance, ancient philosophy and so much more and he has summarized them into what he calls PhilosophersNotes and they are some of the best distillations of wisdom I’ve read. If you want to spend 3-5 minutes a day improving yourself and reading the best bits of wisdom out there, Optimize is completely free. No ads. No paywall. No subscription. No hassle. Give it a try!
🎵What I’ve been listening to: I’ve recently started a vinyl record collection. I wanted to give this hobby a try for a few reasons. One reason is ownership. When you listen to music on a streaming service, you don’t really “own” the music. Streaming music (or any other piece of media such as books or movies) feels more like your renting it. You’re enjoying it now but there’s no guarantee that music will be there forever. I feel like collecting can give you a tangible, physical way of listening to music. Another reason is sound quality. I’ve done a test on listening to music in different ways such as through laptop speakers, radio, and other ways of listening, and I enjoy the sound quality of vinyl the most. I’ve grown to enjoy the scratching of the record and listening to older records give it a vintage quality.
I have been using my record player and collecting vinyl for over a month and I am enjoying the hobby. I want to continue investing my time and money into this hobby and I do have plans on upgrading my set-up at some point. For now, here are the first 10 records I have collected.
And finally, I have a quote I want to finish this blog on. It comes from The Poetic Edda, one of the books I’ve finished. More specifically, it comes from Havamal (literally “Words of the One-Eyed” or “Words of the High One,” referencing Odin), the text that basically serves as the Norse equivalent of the Book of Proverbs. There are a lot of great, timeless quotes based off of timeless wisdom. Here is one I want to share:
“It’s a long and crooked
walk to a bad friend,
even if he lives nearby.
But it’s an easy road
to a good friend,
no matter how long the journey.”
That is all for this blog post. Feel free to share this blog post and give me a follow. See ya next time!
Best Book Reads of 2021
Happy New Year everyone! My New Year’s Resolution for 2021 was to read more books. My initial goal was to read 21 books. I managed to smash that initial goal just halfway through the year, which is astounding for me given the chaos that happened during my life at that time. By the end of the year, I managed to finish 30+ books, definitely around 36-38 books. I lost count during that time. How was I able to accomplish this goal? I simply committed to reading at least 20 pages per day, or two chapters depending on the book.
I’ve read a good variety of books: a whole lot of nonfiction, classical literature, some self-development books, some books that came out in 2021, some centuries old. I also started to listening more audiobooks and I’ve definitely gotten the hang of listening to them and paying attention to what was being said.
With this list, they are in no particular order, either chronologically or by personal rating, they are books that I simply read, enjoyed, and are worth sharing. I won’t go too much into depth as I want to encourage everyone reading this post to check out the books I list. Some of these are books you’ve already heard of, some not as well known. Without further ado, here are the best books I read in 2021!
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: The very first book I read and completed on the first day of the New Year. I read this book way back in high school and it was my favorite book to read in school. I read it because 2021 was the year the book became public domain. The book itself is actually 180 pages and can easily be completed in a single day. So that’s what I did and I immediately fell in love with it again. Fitzgerald’s mastery of words and language, his ability to transport you to 1920s New York, the surprising relatability of Jay Gatsby’s character, and the tragedy surrounding him makes it a book I could reread over and over again for years to come and I could never get tired of it. Definitely worthy of the title classic literature.
Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin: The first audiobook I listened to from start to finish, James Baldwin’s understanding of human psychology, race relations, and religion within the African-American community, as well as his prowess with words, were completely enhanced through audiobook format. It made me realize how great works of literature can be enhanced through being told in spoken narration.
Breath by James Nestor: My favorite type of non-fiction books are the ones with a whole body of evidence, data, and statistics to support their idea, ties into various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, history, science, and more, took a lot of time to research, write and edit, and its ideas are easily applicable and easy-to-understand. Breath fits that criteria and so much more. As a science journalist, James Nestor turns a mundane subject such as breathing into a fascinating, engaging read that will change the way you inhale and exhale. One of my favorite science books.
Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers – and Seize Success by Dawn Graham: This book was incredibly helpful to me when it came to switching careers and industries. Plenty of data is used in the world of career psychology, and the advice and tips are applicable to anyone looking to change industries.
Coach: The A.L. Willaims Story by Art Willaims with Karen Kassel Hutto: A.L. Williams is arguably one of the most impactful people of the 20th century that no one has ever heard of. Starting off as a high school coach, he challenged the conventions of the life insurance industry and created “Buy Term and Invest the Difference.” A great biography of how one man can change an entire industry.
A World Without Email by Cal Newport: I thoroughly enjoy the works of Cal Newport, especially his book Deep Work, and A World Without Email is another homerun. He gets to the root of the problem, this time the tyranny of the inbox, and finds practical solutions and applications of how to escape from that tyranny. If you need alternative ways to communicate effectively without the constant noise of the inbox, this is the book to read.
Scarlet Odyssey and Requiem Moon by C.T. Rwizi: An epic fantasy series set in Africa, the first book Scarlet Odyssey follows the story of Salo as he goes through a journey to stop an evil plan while also struggling to reconcile his affinity for magic and approval from his tribe regarding where he fits in. It’s a fantastic mixture between African mythology, fantasy, and sci-fi, with multi-faceted characters, an intricate magic system, a fully-realized and unique world, and an epic plot. There’s a third book incoming called Primeval Fire and I am stoked to read it when it comes out.
Will by Will Smith with Mark Manson: I’m not the type of person who reads celebrity memoirs and biographies, but I was excited when this was coming out and became one of my most anticipated reads in a long while. After finishing the book, it exceeded all my expectations. Not only is this an engrossing, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant look at one of the most well-known and influential Black entertainers of our time, it also delves into different subjects such as the history of hip-hop music, African-American history and culture, the movie industry, spirituality, celebrity status, and genuine life advice. There’s something here for everyone in this book and it’s a fascinating biography, Will Smith fan or not.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: One of the longest and most challenging books I ever read. This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel centers around a boy losing his mom from a terrorist bombing in an art museum in New York. As Theo struggles with grief and is taken in by a wealthy family, he takes in a rare Dutch Golden Age painting called the Goldfinch. A novel that is simultaneously extremely detailed and focused on the plot, it was quite the page-turner and by the end it had me asking more questions than answers. If you want a challenge, read this novel.
Letters From a Stoic by Seneca: The guiding hand of the Roman Empire, these selected letters give a look into the ethical principles and philosophy of one of the most influential people of the ancient world. From courage to handling suffering to the value of friendship, the writings of Seneca showcase the enduring appeal and timelessness of the Stoic philosophy.
The Invention of News by Andrew Pettegree: A long and academic book on the history of news, journalism, and the exchange of information that traces all the way back from the invention of the printing press to the Enlightenment. If you’re interested in journalism and how information flowed back in ancient times, you’ll find a lot of insights and findings throughout the book.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: My favorite read of the year! If you enjoyed The Martian, you will find Project Hail Mary a blast to read. It takes the survival plot, human ingenuity, and scientific accuracies of The Martian, ups the stakes, darkens the mood, and adds more complexity without losing sight of what made The Martian such a great book to begin with. Andy Weir made another sci-fi classic!
These are 13 of the best books I’ve read in 2021. These are by no means the only books I’ve read that year, there are plenty of other books I’ve read. These are just the books that I found noteworthy or played a major part in my life throughout the year. I have gained so much from reading books last year, it’s definitely a habit that I will continue throughout 2022. I might even have to double up my efforts and read more books. Stay tuned for more updates on the books I have read throughout the year, and if you find any of the books I’ve read worth your time, please feel free to check them out on your own accord.
State of the Blog
Hello! I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I haven’t written or posted anything on the blog for the past three months. Now, don’t worry! I’m not dead and I have no plans on ending the blog. However, I do want to make changes to the blog in the coming year.
First, some housecleaning. I’ve been a lot more focused on work. I’ve been trying out different types of work and seeing what works. If you haven’t heard there’s been a Great Resignation going on, at least in the US. A lot of people quit their current jobs, rethinking their priorities, their values, and what truly matters in their lives. For me, I’ve been focused on wealth creation, how to get wealthy, what wealth is, and what to do with that wealth. I want to make a living for myself, but I also want to help my family, my friends, and my community. I’ve been trying (and failing) to find the right opportunities and figuring what works for me and what makes me happy. I won’t get too specific here, but I have an incoming part-time job to help supplement the other job I have. I’m taking risks, doing something new, and seeing what works. When you’re in your 20s, you’re allowed to make risks.
But back to the main topic, the fate of this blog. I still want to give general life advice and tips on how to live, but expect fewer articles on them from now on. I don’t have the time to do the research and write the deep dives on subjects where there’s already plenty written about. There’s already plenty of creators out there who have written plenty on health and well-being.
That’s another thing that’s been on my mind recently. There is a giant amount of content out there. More content out there than there has ever been in human history. There are so many content creators out there – from Youtubers to Twitch streamers, to podcasters, to artists, writers and many more out there. With so much fighting for our attention, there’s bound to be stuff that’ll slip through the cracks and not get noticed. The world has plenty of creators and a ton of consumers. But what about curators? There are very few people out there willing to dig through the digital trash gunking up the internet and find hidden gems.
So what I’ll be doing from now on is share some of the most interesting content I found and use this blog to promote it. I’ll still write articles, but expect me to showcase stuff that I either enjoyed, made me think, or is worth your time. This will be experimental and expect the scheduling to be inconsistent. But we will work this out.
Thanks to the people who read my blog posts, I appreciate the feedback and views. I want to continue blogging and writing in general. I apologize once again for taking a while with my blog posts. I promise that I won’t spam your feeds with blog posts all the time, just a few blog posts every now and again. If you want to help me, all you have to is share my blog posts to others and leave any comments. I would greatly appreciate that. Not gonna lie, I went through some struggles this year, but I’m able to overcome them. Cheers to the New Year!
On Listening
One of the things I’ve been doing is listening. By that, I mean, being more aware of sounds and filtering out the noise, both figuratively and literally. I’ve been consuming far less visual mediums like television and film and a lot more podcasts, audiobooks, and albums. There are a few reasons why I’ve been doing this.
The first thing is that I want to be a better listener. In terms of the career path I’m going towards, building relationships, and experiencing life in general, being good at listening is key. I have always been more of a listener than a talker, but I don’t want to just listen passively. I want to truly understand what other people are saying. Getting to know them, understanding the tone of their voice, and pay attention to the stuff that matters and tuning out the noise.
Last year, I practiced a form of meditation. Not the meditation where you close your eyes and OHM for forty minutes. I practiced the kind where I took out all distractions. I had my laptop turned off, my phone silent downstairs, TV screens black, and I observed the sounds, both from the outside world and inside my own head. I noticed a lot more noises that I never paid attention to. I heard the roaring engines of cars, the buzzing of drills and the whirrings of helicopters. I also heard the chirping of birds, the gusts of winds, and echoes of windchimes. It was the first time in an incredibly long time where I became a lot more attentive of what I heard inside and outside my own home. This was also the time where I could finetune my observations and examinations of my own mind. I asked questions of what it means to exist, what am I good at, what do I truly value, what are my ethics, and what do I want out of life. I was at a moment where I met myself at the crossroads of living. I was listening to myself. This was the time where I managed to cut out the noise, listen to the world and to listen to myself. In a way, that’s how you can describe meditation.
Another big reason is because I want to develop a greater appreciation towards music. While I do have my own personal playlist of songs that I enjoy (which I will not show yet because I don’t want you to judge me over my taste in music!), I don’t actually listen to albums all that much and I do feel like I’m missing out in a lot of great music out there. Plus, lately I’ve been feeling out of touch with modern music and I hate feeling this out of touch so I’ve been forcing myself to listening more. I’ve been dividing my time listening to both parts of top 40 radio and classic albums.
In my youth, a lot of my music taste came from both the contemporary top 40 radio stations and the old VH1 Top 100 countdowns and I Love The Decades series back in the 2000s. I didn’t have my own Spotify account until 2018 when they bundled it with a college. Nowadays, Spotify is my main way of listening to music and podcasts, as with a lot of people these days. I have expressed interest in having my own record player and collecting vinyl records, however.
I’ve listened to the discographies of Talking Heads, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, Tyler the Creator’s Flower Boy and Igor, Anthrax’s Among the Living, and other miscellaneous pieces of music. Normally, I have a generalized taste in music, but I definitely have a preference towards alternative rock. If I like a song and I want to hear it again and again, then I keep it on my playlist. I have always enjoyed music, but I want to better listen to music and notice more of the subtleties and nuances of what I listen to.
When it comes to listening to music, I notice first the vocal delivery and lyrics of a song, if they exist of course. Recently, I’ve been picking out the instrumentation of a song and how it’s layered and how the components come together in a given track. I also notice the beat and melody whenever I listen to a song as well. I have a much deeper appreciation when it comes to production and sampling and how well a piece of music is well-produced, and subsequently when something is not well-produced. I wouldn’t call myself all that knowledgeable when it comes to music theory, but I’m starting to pick up the nuances of whatever I listen to.
And that brings me another reason why I’ve been focusing so much on listening: nuance. When it comes to listening, it’s not just what you say but how you say it. The tone of voice, the way the sentences are structured, and how certain words are emphasized are just as important, if not more so, as saying them. I’ve been honing more of my attention towards the accents used, the way something is said versus the way something is written, and the tone being used in a given conversation. Listening is a key skill in a lot of jobs, especially when it comes to sales and customer service.
But how does one become a better listener? What skills can you develop when it comes to listening? These tips can be useful when it comes to becoming better at listening.
The first tip is to avoid distractions. If you want to better understand someone, you need to remove the barriers getting in the way of truly getting someone. That distraction can be your phone, it can be a deadline for a project, it can be a noisy environment littered with distractions left and right. There are many ways to deal with these distractions: put the phone on silent, complete that project right away, go to a better environment where you know nothing can distract you. The less barriers you have to deal with, the better you can converse with someone that needs to be heard. You can’t listen to someone if you don’t give them your undivided attention first.
Distractions aren’t just from the external environment, they can also come from within. Am I distracted by the inner monologue inside my head? Am I distracted by the unrealistic expectation of whatever I’m listening to? Having a mind that is clear is just as important as having a room that is free of anything distracting. What is needed when it comes to listening is serious concentration, and that takes up cognitive space. Treat your mind like a cup, you can’t gain anything if the cup is already filled up. You need to empty the cup in order to gain something new. Whether it’s instructions, commands, or just a simple, everyday conversation, you need to have a mind free of clutter first.
Another important tip is to ask: why am I listening in the first place? What is my intention when it comes to picking up what someone is saying. Otherwise, why listen in the first place? If you’re listening to a loved one, are you really paying attention to what they’re saying? They can be expressing their love, asking whose turn it is to wash the dishes, or who gets to pay the takeout tonight. Most people only want to hear what they want to hear, they let their own biases and ego get the best of them, and that often leads to trouble. We waste time and energy listening to conversations we don’t want to listen to because they bother us, disturb us, or makes us uncomfortable. When it comes to listening, you have to remember why you want to listen in the first place. Establish your why to make sure the conversation you have with someone, whether it’s your friend, family member, co-worker, or whoever it is, know that they’re being heard.
When you establish your intentions for listening, now comes picking up the cues. Start noticing the tone of their voice, how the words are said. Which words are being emphasized? What emotion are they trying to convey? How are the vowels and consonants stressed in order for the messenger to make their point? If the voice of the person is high-pitched, it could mean anger or fear. If the voice is monotone, it might mean they’re bored and show no interest to what is happening. A low energy tone could also mean sadness, or even depression. Identify the emotion being expressed and that’ll help you better listen to someone, especially if they’ve something on their mind.
This is also where you start providing small verbal encouragements and brief pauses. Saying “right,” “correct,” or “does that make sense” help ensure that the person you’re talking to is paying attention to what you’re saying and in turn help you pay attention as well. And after you say these verbal encouragements, this is where you give out the brief pauses. We’ve all been in that situation where we just can’t stop talking and everyone loses track of what’s being said. This is where you give brief pit stop towards what you’re saying, so the conversation keeps going smoothly. These techniques are small but they go a long way with building rapport.
The final and most important thing when it comes to listening is body language. Pay attention to your poster. Do your shoulder point high up to the ceiling? Or do they slouch? If you want to give the signal that you’re actually listening then eye contact is a must. To make sure you’re making eye contact, you have to make sure your head is facing the speaker, inclined towards them. And make sure your close towards the speaker. Not too close where you’re invading their personal space, but close enough to make sure you can hear them.
There’s obviously a lot more when it comes to body language, such as arm and leg positions, body gestures, facial expressions, and what they all mean. Right not, I’m giving you the bare minimum, the basic knowledge when it comes to body language while listening. I am not an expert when it comes body language by any accounts. These are all basic social skills everyone should know.
Listening is a basic skill everyone should know but can actually take a lot of time to master. Listening takes a serious lifetime, and it’s all a matter of putting the needs of someone else over your own. It’s a transference of feelings, the act of sacrificing your time for another, and the willingness to hear the other side. Humans are social creatures and to quote the Stoic philosopher Epictetus “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” It’s an essential skill when it comes to carving out a career, building relationships, finding love, and helping out your community. Listening to others is truly a part of what makes us human.
Review: Coursera’s Google Project Management Course
One day, when I was busy browsing my email, I read a notification and it was talking about Google Career classes. Classes where you can spend less than six months learning skills, watching videos, and doing assignments on a subject that you want to take. I’ve done online classes in the past, mostly college courses on history and English, subjects that can easily be done in an online course. I have had familiarity going to a slightly-outdated browser, clicking on assignments where the answers were less about choosing the right answer and more about your interpretation about X event. Those were the classes I excelled at in college and having it all online made it easier for me. I clicked on a video and the specific course I was interested in the most was Project Management. I never had any experience running programs or being a software engineer. However, I was a psychology major and the college I was at placed heavy emphasis on Industrial/Organizational Psychology, which is a fancy way of saying psychology in the workplace. I ultimately decided to give the course a shot and try the free trial.
Fast forward to four months later. I was going through a job transition, I had no real plan, I was freewheeling it like I was descending through a mountain. Although I haven’t gotten all of my work graded yet (more on that later), I can safely say I’m finished with my entire online course on Project Management. If you’re completely new to Project Management and online courses in general, it’s an online course worth pursuing.
The content itself always felt easy-to-understand and I never felt confused and it never felt overly-complicated. While I was familiar to some of the ideas introduced, other ideas I was not too familiar with. I didn’t understand how to manage risks, being aware of scope creep, or how to use project methodologies such as Agile or Scrum prior to this course. I was amazed not only when I understood them, but when I also realized how applicable the skills are when it comes to other fields of work and towards other domains in life. Every time I had to take a quiz, the quizzes were all based on the concepts you learned, what they mean, and how you apply them in a real-life scenario. The learning material all felt approachable and that I understood what the course wanted from me, even when I didn’t get it right the first time.
What made learning the material better were the instructors. I liked how the instructors were all employees of Google who all had experience in the respective fields, whether it was project manager, program manager, or senior developer. They showed parts of where they came from and how they got into their fields, they all showed what they learned and how they got their expertise, and the advice felt practical and understandable. The instructors presented themselves in videos that ranged from 2-8 minutes and they never felt like they dragged on for too long. Plus, they intermittently paused the video so they could ask questions to see if you were paying attention. You could also save notes and add your writings if you wanted add something to make you better remember the material, which is neat. All of the videos looked presentable and instructors felt very professional.
After the videos, they usually had readings right after. The readings helped further expand and explain the concepts described in the videos. The readings also had links to other articles and readings if you want to further explore the world of project management.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an online course without tests. The fortunate part is that the tests are all incredibly easy. They just test on what you just read or watched. The threshold to pass is about 80%. If you go below that, you just try again. You’ll get feedback on what you missed and you can apply that to get the answers right the second time around. The real bulk of the assignments, however, are the activities. The activities are examples of what a project manager usually does. The activities range from creating a schedule, writing emails, setting up a project charter, assigning risks, and much more. There are also peer-graded assignments, activities where you submit them and have them graded by at least people. This is where I have some criticisms, however. Although the guidelines for passing the assignments are easy, it takes a long time for someone to actually grade the assignments. I don’t know if it’s the algorithm not properly giving my assignment to someone for grading or something like that, but I would’ve preferred a discussion board where I can submit my assignment and have someone choose to grade my assignment. There are issues with that, of course, but I personally would’ve preferred that.
Beyond that, I had a great time with this online course. It’s a great course if you have no prior experience with project management, like me. The helpful instructors, well-constructed videos and readings, and assignments designed to test and apply your knowledge into a field whose skills can be transferable to other fields make it an easy recommendation. If you’re looking to expand your skillset into an everchanging landscape, I highly recommend the course.
Reflections on Traveling to Chicago
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When you get stuck at home for a year and a half, everyone gets that yearning to travel. Prior to writing this blog post, I spent the last two months studying up to get my insurance license and training to be an insurance agent. All of that training has made me creatively sterile. I haven’t had that much inspiration writing blog posts, painting, or any other types of endeavors. I was also losing enthusiasm and I needed to take a break for a while and I needed someplace far to go. With everyone traveling this summer, it was about time to travel myself.
My family and I went to one of our cousin’s houses just near Chicago. I have never gone to the American Midwest before, and I have been itching to explore more of the states besides the West Coast or Hawaii. The airplane ride lasted about 5 hours, which is a relatively short flight. I brought my laptop, multiple chargers, and two books by sci-fi author Andy Weir, The Martian and his more recent Project Hail Mary (coincidentally, the main character of the Martian, Mark Watney, happens to be from Chicago). My extended family are nice people, but I could hardly understand them!
I contacted an Uber driver and went from the airport to Gurney, a suburbs that’s on the edge of Wisconsin. My family and I chatted with our Uber driver. He happened to be a native of Chicago. We talked about best places to go in Chicago, best food, what it means to be American, LGBTQ, Instacart, school, and places we’ve been to. He and his family revealed to us he’s been all over North America. His family came from New York and was raised in Virginia. He’s traveled to parts of the American Southwest such as Texas and Georgia and to the Midwest besides Illinois such as Michigan and Wisconsin. Compared to my travel experience, he’s clearly seen more of the Eastern and Southwestern parts of the US. You can learn a lot more about the world just by traveling to it and seeing it yourself. Just more things to add to the bucket list.
The first and most noteworthy travel destination that my family and I went to was the Chicago Botanical Gardens.
The whole place was home to millions of plants. Acres and acres of grass and greenery. When I hopped on the touring bus, the tour guide showed off her impressive knowledge of the ecology, the history and the logistics of handling of such a massive garden. The land was separated into different islands. One island was a Japanese garden, heavily influenced by the cultivation practices of Zen Buddhism and ancient Japan. There were very few, if any, man-made structures on the gardens. I could only catch the garden from a distance but it was as beautiful as looking at a postcard of a place far from home. Another island was where the rivers were surrounded by giant trees and river lilies where the butterflies swarmed and the sounds of birds chirped as they raised their flock in elaborate birdhouses that resembled exotic penthouses in the sky.
There are only so many words I could describe the greenery, the flowers and the shrubbery that filled up the botanical gardens of Chicago. But another aspect I noticed about the botanical gardens, and indeed the rest of my trip to Chicago, was that it takes a lot of people and an entire community to take care of this gigantic garden. There were thousands of staff that has to take of the flowers, gardeners that made sure the food was right both for the animals of the park and for us as well. There were scientists and botanists that no doubt studied the cultivation and growth of the plants and how to properly raise them and take care of them like a child. It’s an operation that requires a lot of logistics to both plant these vital resources and to take care of them so they can be enjoyed by future generations, and I imagine there’s a lot of staff both enthusiastic of both studying nature and taking care of it. It reminds me very much of how Mark Watney took care of his garden of potatoes when he was on the rusting planet of Mars.
Both in connection and contrast to the Chicago Botanical Garden was my first trip to the city itself. The city itself was an urban jungle made of steel, glass, and concrete. The story of Chicago is intertwined with the story of America itself. There are three main characters in the story of Chicago: the people of Chicago, the the architecture, and Lake Michigan. I took a ferry ride that toured the river canal, and I was amazed at the height of the buildings. Manmade towers sculpted by the hands of its workers, many of whom come from different backgrounds and countries. English, African, French, German, Spanish, Haitian, Hispanic, Asian, Polish, Greek; the city of Chicago is well known for the ethnic diversity of its people. An example of this would be its name: Chicago. Where did that word come from? There are many theories but the official theory and the one I got from the tour guide was that it’s an Indian word that originated from its major crops: stinky onions. In other word, Chicago is the stinky onion to New York City’s big apple! Who’s crying now?
That’s another thing I want to talk about: the tour guides. I enjoyed having the tour guides share their knowledge on their domains. I was especially impressed when I learned more about the history of the city, the materials used to build the architecture, the ecology of the forests and rivers and the history behind that, and people behind the architecture.
For example, one of the buildings was actually a speakeasy used by Al Capone exactly 100 years ago. There was also a period of time where there was rapid industrialization between the 1890s and 1929. By the time the Stock Market Crash of 1929 happened no new buildings were built until after the Second World War. After that, architects carved out and built what they planned during the interim of time. The ferry ride of Chicago was a lot like traveling through time and seeing how the architecture has changed and what styles and movements inspired the design, all of them ranging from modernist to neoclassical to art deco to brutalist.
One of my favorite stories involving one of the buildings was where back in the 70s, architects were obsessed with making black box-styled modernist buildings.
Eventually, the architects got tired of making black box modernist buildings. They wanted to show that they had creative ideas. They wanted to show they could more than just the same black box modernist over and over again. They wanted to innovate. What innovative building did they construct instead? The answer is a white box building!
There were plenty of other buildings I shot as well. One had a reflective glass that showed a mirror image of the ferry. Another had an actual map of Chicago. Another was an abandoned smoke stack used as a remnant of Chicago’s industrial past. Another was in the style of the king and queen chess pieces. Another was a building used as a filming location set dress as Batman’s headquarters.
The ferry ride in Chicago was in many ways a story of how people immigrated, how to innovate and overcome economic, social and environmental hardship, and what it means to be a city.
One of my favorite places I visited was the Art Institute of Chicago. Although I only visited a small portion of the museum, I had a very full, artful experience. The first and my most favorite part of the museum was the artwork dedicated to the 19th century. I was impressed by the well-known, heavy-hitter artists they had on display. Rodin, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Cezanne, van Gogh, and many other had their art on display and it was all original and one-of-a-kind. The subjects ranged from still lives of fruits and plates, beautiful vistas of roses and lilies, portraits of people ranging from military generals to slaves turned revolutionaries, abstract expressions of waves, depictions of war and love, famous biblical stories and Greek myths adapted into paintings, and, of course, naked women. It was like going to an art gallery from The Goldfinch, minus the terrorist bombing. I genuinely felt like a kid in a candy store, using my eyes to observe the diverse color palettes, the superb usage of space and symmetry, and the exotic brushwork used throughout the paintings. I only explored what felt like the tip of the iceberg when it came to the art displayed, and I took even less pictures during my visit. Here’s a handful of the pictures I took.
When it comes to visiting a new place, one of the things you should absolutely do is to try out the local cuisine. The city of Chicago is of course well-known for two of its signature dishes: their Deep Dish Pizza and the Chicago Hot Dog. First up is their Deep Dish Pizza.
The restaurant I got this deep dish pizza from was Giordano’s. It’s a pizzeria that I ate at the Navy Pier, one of the first major locations in Chicago. I ordered the Chicago Classic, a deep dish pizza stuffed with pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, and onions. The most notable thing when I took my first bite was the cheese. It was incredibly gooey and very stringy. Whenever I took a bite, the pizza left a trail of its cheese in its wake. Indeed, the cheese was the main highlight of the pizza, its freshness and its combination with the tomato sauce makes eating this pizza worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed the Wisconsin-style mozzarella and on top of a pizza crust layered with tomato sauce, it made the pizza divine. It more than makes up for the toppings stuffed inside the cheese. When I tried tasting the toppings together, I felt they blended in and tasted like chunks made to compliment the cheese. I couldn’t taste the toppings individually and they had no distinction from each other. If I had to order another deep dish pizza from Chicago, I would just have the cheese alone.
In direct contrast with the Chicago Deep Dish Pizza was the signature Chicago Hot Dog.
I got the Chicago hot dog from one of the food stands near one of the museums I visited. Its served with a poppy seed bun and on top of the beef sausage was yellow mustard, onions, relish, tomato slices, sport peppers, a dill pickle spear, and a dash of celery salt. The number of toppings made it sound like pizza toppings than hot dog toppings. It’s just as stuffed as the deep dish pizza. But unlike the deep dish pizza I had, I tasted what the toppings had to offer, and these are toppings I wouldn’t normally have on a hot dog or any food for that matter, and I felt that the toppings enhanced the dish. The hot dog had the right balance of sweet and spicy, a lot of it thanks to the pickle spear and sports peppers, and I ate it with as much of the toppings as I possibly could because it was not only was it one of the best food I ate in Chicago, it was one of the best hot dogs I ate period. It’s a hot dog I would love to eat again and again.
There’s a lot I could talk about in terms of where I visited in Chicago. I visited Millennium Park and the Bean sculpture. I visited the Shedd Aquarium and took a ton of photos of the fish, crustaceans, sea mammals and other marine life. I even visited the front gates of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippin. But I don’t want to make this blog post longer than it already is, so instead I’m going to give you the three biggest lessons I learned while visiting Chicago.
- The Value of Uber Drivers
This was the first trip I realized how great it is to have Uber drivers. Having an app on your phone where you choose where you want to go and where you want to be picked up, and how quick it is to put all of that information in made it easier and more fun to travel Chicago. More importantly, though, during those rides, we were able to learn a lot more about the people behind those rides. Beyond talking about the best food and locales in Chicago, we learned about the personal lives of these drivers. We had discussions on pets, career prospects, and the freedom and flexibility of being an Uber driver. I met about five different Uber drivers and I gleaned a lot of information during that trip. I even made a long-term connection with one of the drivers and I consider him a friend to my family.
It made me realize how important it is to make meaningful connections, especially with random strangers. Doing contract work as an Uber driver is a lot like running your own business, and one of the most important things you can do to ensure that business stays afloat is to make long-term connections with your prospects. It’s one thing to have an algorithm determine who your prospects are, it’s an entirely different thing to build a long-term relationship with them. Contacting Uber drivers, having them pick you up, looking around the city, and having them act as your companions made traveling to Chicago a much richer experience.
2. The Importance of Interconnectedness
What makes a city a city? Some say it’s all about the architecture. Others say it’s the economy, stupid. Others say it’s the people. For me, it’s all about the interconnectedness of all these factors. Chicago is a great example of a city where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
As I’ve mentioned before, the story of Chicago is really the story of its people, the architecture, and Lake Michigan. One of the most infamous events in Chicago is the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871. It was a devastating event that killed 300 people and cost by today’s standards $4.7 billion. The event was a lesson in that if you want to build a city you need to build structures that are safe and are of high quality to withstand fires, have citizens well-informed about the dangers of fires and how to protect themselves and you need to take care of the nature, whether it’s the trees or the rivers. The rivers back then were heavily polluted with oil and garbage and they no doubt worsened the fire conditions. You have to take care of the rivers and ensure it’s healthy for everyone for future generations. It’s the job of firefighters, architects, engineers, scientists, local government, and citizens to ensure everyone lives safely and happily. Cities are a reflection of how we are interconnected as a community.
3. Traveling rejuvenates the spirit
Going full circle, prior to the the trip I was creatively exhausted. I needed new sights, new inspiration, new ways of seeing the world. There’s always this urge, this desire, this feeling of going somewhere new. Whether it’s traveling because you want that creative inspiration, traveling because you want to meet new people, traveling because you want to see, touch, smell, hear, or taste the world, or traveling because “why the hell not?” we all want to take a break from the mundane and go somewhere new.
There are times where we are lost. We have no idea where our lives are going. We have no idea what school to go to. No idea what our job should. No idea who we should love. Or how to live. Or what to think. Or how we should spend our time. Or where to live. But sometimes, we want to be lost. Sometimes it’s best to live life without following the trail. Sometimes, it’s up to us to make that trail.
Maybe that’s why travel is so satisfying. Going to Chicago made me appreciate the effort it takes to build and manage a city. It made me appreciate the hospitality of my extended family. It made me grateful that I have such a large extended family across the states and beyond. It made me realize that I’m not alone in this world. Chicago is a wonderful city with a very rich history, awe-inducing architecture, and wonderfully diverse people. I’m glad I traveled there.
You Never Stop Learning
Throughout the year, I have learned many lessons. Whether it was through reading books, listening to audiobooks and podcasts, or taking online courses, the biggest lesson I have learned is that you never stop learning. It has been over a year since I graduated college and by the time you’re reading this, I will be 25 years old (yes, I’m already starting to feel like an old man in a young person’s body), and yet, I have never stopped learning.
I have made changes in my life ranging from small, incremental ones such as spending time to read each night to major ones such as quitting my first job in exchange for a risky, yet more rewarding one. Every decision we make, big or small, affects not only yourself but the world around you, whether it’s your family, your co-workers, your clients, or your community. The one thing to realize is that life is school and school is life. There will be times where you will fail. There will be times where you make mistakes and errors that you will look back in hindsight and say, “man, I was really stupid back then.” And there will be times where you learn something and you will ask why didn’t I learn that earlier in my life. Each life is different, and yet, all of us go through the same struggles, the same worries, and the same concerns throughout life. No matter where you go in life, your mind must always be willing to learn new things.
Earlier in the year, I looked up an online seminar for one of the Grow With Google classes. The class was on Project Management. While I have taken online classes before, I have never taken a full online course on Project Management, nor have I had any full experience with any kind of management before. In the months since, I planned out my time carefully on when and how long I should take each segment of the class. I always preferred taking my classes in one long continuous stretch in order to learn more effectively and to give me enough time to meet the deadlines.
Another major thing I’ve learned: the importance of managing your time. We spend 1/3rd of our day sleeping, 1/3rd of our day working and the rest of that 1/3rd to ourselves. It can be daunting to figure out how to spend that time wisely, especially when there’s an abundance of things that can waste your time such as video games or Youtube videos. I have to constantly ask myself what I want to do with my time and what I want to learn about. The cool thing about the internet is that there is so much content to learn from. In my previous job, the problem with the kids I worked with wasn’t what they were learning, it was having the willingness to learn. There’s so much to learn from but there’s a scarcity of wanting to learn. It’s important to always stay curious.
I experimented with the different times to study, ranging from early in the morning to late afternoon to at night. I also practiced studying in different parts of my house and got a good feel of how well I did with learning. The environment plays an important role when it comes to building good habits, and it’s hard to build or maintain them in a toxic environment. Learning is a rhythmic, controllable routine that requires serious time blocking and attention. There’s always something new to learn, no matter your age or how many degrees you have.
What is the best way to learn? Some people say they prefer learning through the wide dimensions of a textbook. Others would rather get their learning through bite-size, easy-to-understand videos such as TedX. The truth is, it all depends on what you’re trying to learn. You’re not going to learn how to drive a car if you don’t know how to get behind the wheel first. You’re not going to learn how to sell something if you don’t meet with someone face-to-face and convince them why your product is superior to the competition. You’re not going to learn how to write that epic fantasy novel if you don’t spend your time on Microsoft Word and turn your imagination into words on a computer screen. This is all pointing to the fact that the best way to learn is to do. You can spend your time theorizing and intellectualizing in pursuit of getting your MBAs and your PhDs, but have you put any of those ideas into practice?
Another important concept when it comes to learning is accountability. Learning is by no means a one-way street. In fact, you are more likely to recall information better if you explain the concepts you just learned to someone else. If you want to improve your learning, find an accountability buddy. It can be a close friend, a family member, or an online community from Discord. Have your accountability buddy set clear expectations of the learning objectives, test your knowledge and explanations constantly, and give feedback on what your strong points are and what you need to work on. Accountability also helps you take on ownership when you learn. Without accountability, you don’t take responsibility for what you learn, and without that responsibility, then you don’t succeed on what it is what you’re trying to learn. Keep yourself accountable, and you’ll reap the rewards of learning.
Finally, the last point I want to make is that learning is a constant process. There’s always new things to learn no matter your subject. Whether it’s physics, mathematics, biology, medicine, or any other subject, new discoveries are made all the time. Knowledge creation and the creative process is what separates the human from all the other animals. Have time to pause and contemplate what you’ve just learned. Every day is a chance to learn something new. Sometimes that requires unlearning and relearning ideas, concepts, and techniques in order to fully understand something.
Remember that learning is best enjoyed as a reward in and of itself. Don’t just learn something because you want to impress someone or for the social approval of others. You don’t learn a language such as Spanish because you want to impress people at a bar. You learn a language in order to better communicate yourself with people who are different from you. Learning about something helps you expand your worldview, challenge your beliefs, and further your understanding of the world.
I write this blog post as I am done studying up on the state license exam for insurance. I have spent an entire month studying up on the laws, ethics, business, history, and details of how insurance, specifically life and health, work. Prior to that, I had little to no knowledge of how insurance works, the laws and regulations, and the amount of knowledge needed to work as a life insurance agent. I spent a lot of time blocking parts of my day to quiz myself, review the concepts, and to truly understand how to work in the insurance industry. While I am by no means an expert, I can say I have a lot more knowledge now than I did back then about insurance. And I can imagine that I will be learning a whole lot more once I get into the field and start negotiating with customers.
Learning is a journey. Sometimes the destination is clear and sometimes it’s not. What matters is the journey itself.
Richmund M. Meneses 