How to Fall
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Here’s what About.com has to say about falling on a skateboard.
The biggest thing is, when you fall, try to NOT use your hands to catch yourself. This might be kind of hard to learn, but if you lose your board and you are going to smash into the ground, you should try and let your shoulder and body take it, rolling with the blow as much as you can. Catching yourself with your hand is a great way to break a wrist, and while wearing wrist guards can protect you from this, it’s dangerous to get used to using your hands, because at some point you will skate without the wrist guards …
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Let me repeat that. The biggest thing to remember when falling is NOT to try and catch yourself from falling. If you try too hard to resist it, you’re more likely to get hurt even more badly. Instead, go with it, try to roll into the fall. Let the momentum of the fall take you where it wants to, and just position yourself so that you’ll be able to get up and move on.
I think that’s great advice for all aspects of life, don’t you?
[?]The Right Connections
Image via Wikipedia
Plus Magazine tells us that the price of oil could be related to the Australian Cricket Team’s results.
It’s an interesting graph. Obviously, we know that the relation is nothing more than coincidence. But looking at the graph alone, it could be interpreted in many ways.
Just goes to show, if you look deep enough, there are connections to be found anywhere. Two implications of this. Firstly, don’t believe anything you see or read. Secondly, and more importantly in my opinion, it raises the question – are you finding the right connections and interpreting them in the right way?
There are lessons you can learn from anything around you. Practically anything you see can be connected to something else and learned from. It’s just a matter of how deep you look.
Are you making the right connections?
Tags: assumptions, connections, cricket, learning, math, oil
Lessons from a long walk
May 5, 2008 Analogies, Personal
So, a couple of days ago I walked home (I stay in Tampines) from Victoria Concert Hall. More specifically, I walked from Victoria Concert Hall to the Singapore Flyer, to Kallang MRT, then along the MRT track to Bedok MRT, then through Bedok Reservoir and to Tampines and home. For those of you not from Singapore and have no idea what I’m talking about, it was a walk of slightly over 11 miles (based on Google Maps).
And well, the walk reminded me of two lessons.
Firstly, at a point during the walk (in Bedok), I made a wrong turn. I could have turned back, retraced my steps, and gone the original path. And it would have taken me just as long (or even longer). Instead, I went on, kept in mind the big picture (the rough direction I was headed), and adjusted my route accordingly. Eventually, I did make it back, and I learned more about the area because of that.The same lesson applies in life. We’re human, we’ll all make mistakes. If you’ve got the big picture in mind, if you know the general direction you’re headed, you’ll be able to readjust your plans accordingly when you do.
Secondly, and more importantly, the walk started out as just a short stroll, because I didn’t feel like going home yet. But after a while, it became a challenge, to see how far I could push myself. Honestly, I wouldn’t have expected to be able to walk all the way back home. I just wanted to see how far I could go, and in the end, I managed it.
Just goes to show that you never know how far you can go until you push your limits – and more often than not, it’s further than you’d expect.
Are you pushing your limits and stepping out of your comfort zone? Are you really going as far as you can?
[?]Tags: big picture, comfort zone, lessons, life, limits, readjust, walk
Feedback Loops
Apr 25, 2008 Analogies, blogging, Technology
Image via WikipediaWe’ve all heard the high pitched squeal that results from feedback from speakers. And I’m pretty sure most of you would agree that it’s annoying. It’s not something you want to hear.
Feedback occurs when a microphone picks up it’s own sound from the speaker. The sound gets trapped in a loop (microphone picks it up from the speaker, amplifies it and sends it to the speaker, where it gets sent back to the microphone, etc), which causes that annoying whine that we all know (and most hate).
The thing is, with the power of Web 2.0, it’s very easy to get trapped in our own ‘feedback loop’. The web allows you to amplify your voice. With blogs, podcasting, Twitter and all the other Web 2.0 tools, you can speak and be heard.
But social media is a conversation. It’s not a one way broadcast. Yes, the tools help to amplify what you have to say, but if you’re just trying to build yourself up, it’s not going to work. You’ll just get annoying.
Companies which blog and only plug their products aren’t going to get much value from social media. Companies which blog and listen to what their customers say back will.
Same for individuals. You’re more likely to gain from social media if you’re listening to what others say, and feeding off each other, inspiring each other. If you’re just amplifying yourself over and over, you won’t gain value, and you won’t be adding value either. You’ll just be making noise.
How do you keep yourself from getting trap in a ‘feedback loop’?
Tags: feedback, listening, social media, twitter, web 2.0
Pick a Number
Apr 5, 2008 Analogies
2 15 18 9 6 4.
Pick a number.
Now, how many of you picked 18? How many picked 6?
And how many of you picked 7? Or 951? Or 3000?
Why not? I didn’t say you had to pick a number that I wrote down. Yet most people assume that.
People tend to make assumptions. More specifically, people tend to make assumptions based on what they’ve seen in the past, and what they know. A list of numbers preceded the request, so an assumption is made that you were supposed to pick a number from the list.
But sometimes, these assumptions can limit your choices. You may have more opportunities than you think you have, if you get past the initial assumption.
What assumptions do you make that limit your opportunities? And how do you get past them?
Disclosure: As much as I wish I did, I didn’t think of the “pick a number” example myself. Saw it on Numb3rs, and thought it was a great lesson, so I thought I’d share it here. And admittedly, it works better in person, and not as well on a blog post, but I hope it got the point across well enough.
Tags: choices, opportunities, options, pick a number
Communication – Interpretation vs Intent
Mar 13, 2008 Analogies, life, Marketing
Communication is about the interpretation, not the intent of the message.
Is what you say the same as what your customer hears? If it isn’t, what can you do about it?
This is my entry to Brad Shorr’s Win an Ipod Nano contest.
[?]Tags: communication, customer, intent, interpretation
Thinking about Improvisation
Sometimes it’s better to not think too much, and just go for it.
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Tags: brain, improvisation, jazz, overthinking
