Abundance Juice ala Jeff Walker

He was publishing a free investing newsletter in the 1990s. The owner of a competing website emailed him, asking to know how he created stock market charts displayed on his site. And these charts were his site's only unique differentiators.

Should he give away his advantages so easily?

Jeff Walker reasoned with himself thus:

... if I had figured it out, he would certainly be able to. And why put him through the day of tedious trial-and-error that I went through to learn how to do it?

Frank Collar, the rival site owner, in turn, offered to help Jeff publish a paid newsletter. 

Abundance-based mindset or scarcity-based mindset, your choice to make.

National Identity, Product Identity, Personal Identity

First I read an article titled "It's Over" in Psychology Today issue of May/June 2015. It is about breakup recovery and contains a sidebar titled "Rejection Relief"  on page 85. Here are the first two, or most important suggestions:

1. Reconnect with yourself: Who am I? ... How should I spend my time?
2. Cultivate Self-love: ... being compassionate and gentle with yourself ... kind and forgiving ...

Second, I read about building a national identity. These two readings remind me of what I have kept reading in psychology and branding/positioning.

It's all the same.

When you know who you are, and you are proud of it and you want to continue with it, you get a strong sense of identity.

Such an identity,whether national, organizational or personal ,come from what you stand for (your values), what you want to accomplish (your aspirations) and from how you overcome obstacles.

Soul-searching and identity-seeking always do us good.

When the chips are down, when you are against the wall, as in the breakup article, you only have yourselves to rely upon to re-build your lives. Know yourself, your values and your aspirations to lead a worthwhile life.

Who are you?

What do you stand for?

What do you want to achieve? How do you want to be perceived / remembered?

We at EssayKKN are also thinking about our product identity.

Courage Math and Imagination Essays - Part 2

We can teach kids to be imaginative by asking them

1. to copy Degas, Gauguin, Picasso, Monet or Van Gogh
2. to design new Lego Mindstorms, BeagleBone, Arduino, Raspberry Pi robots 
3. to play Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky 
4. to write Harry-Potter yarns or Roald Dahl thrillers 
5. to design their own dresses and accessories 
6. to design their own makeup 
7. to design their own furniture 
8. to take very nice and unusual photos and selfies 
9. to compose jingles, rhymes, and songs 
10. to write movie scripts.

All these are nice and can be effective. But some of them incur some considerable costs.

Essays, you don't even need papers and pencils to write.

You can write "air"/ verbal/spoken essays like Obama, Steve Jobs, Lincoln. Or like Stalin or Hitler.

Kids hate essays because they don't know how to imagine, to dream, to envision.

Kids grooming to be CEO's, Prime Ministers, Generals, articulate and therefore value-multiplying scientists, communicative and therefore value-adding knowledge-workers need all these skills.

We at EssayKKN know better.

Dont' we? ;-)

                                                     

Courage Math and Imagination Essays - Part 1

We can teach kids to overcome fear by asking them:

1. to do extreme sports such as rock climbing, wing suit flying, parkour 
2. to join street gangs and take part in streets fights 
3. to go out of their comfort zones by studying strange math problems 
4. to go out of their comfort zones by studying strange foreign languages 
5. to taste the fear of the unknown by visiting Syria or Afghanistan 
6. to sell by cold-calling total strangers 
7. to eat scary-looking but harmless insects or creatures 
8. to touch scary-looking but harmless snakes like Python,or fangless cobras

But then I have some reservations for some of these proposals.

1. We have only 1 life. A bad fall can end my kid's life before s/he learns how to control her/his fears.
2. Same with reptiles.
3. What s/he learns in Syria may not apply in other parts of human civilization.
4. S/he may not need to use those foreign languages that often in her/his later lives.

So we teach Yoda-style fear-controlling mind tricks through Math, Physics, Chemistry or Javascript or Essays. With us, kids will never fear to think on their own feet.

Steve Jobs once saw a few masters disassemble and re-assemble electronic gadgets and he never feared them throughout his life.

We at EssayKKN, try to do the same for your kids with science and learning and essays.

Quality or Type of Drive

We all need drives, just like cars need batteries and fuel.

No drive, no energy, no progress, and you may even say, no life at all.

Then, in history, I see repeatedly that

(1) Drives driven by cleverness don't work.
(2) Drive driven by disdain/contempt  don't work.

(3) Drives driven by fear, anger, or revenge don't work.

(4) Drives driven by greed without empathy or sympathy don't work.
(5) Drives driven by lust don't work.

Then  what kind of drives work?


Drives arising out of virtues only, can be sustainable. Other types are even self-defeating.

Very Unfair Exchange with my Students --- Episode 1

May 27, 2014

So I decided to invest about 1 hour to prepare for the 8-hour course. In 1 hour, I covered 90% of preparation for the course. Then as usual, I went further. In the end I spent about nearly 10 hours to prepare. In Jurong East Library(Level 3) alone, I re...ad nearly 150 books of marine engineering books and about a dozen Singapore, Malaysian insurance books. From Internet, I read dozens of vessel insurance reports.

He is older than me and has many degrees and certs. So we didn't need to do basics of grammar or writing. Only a few tricky stuffs and cases.

Well, some cases were so tricky that I even recalled David Crystal's remarks: In some cases, English usage becomes so tricky and so full of irregularities that it becomes hard to know which are rules and which are exceptions.

I was right almost all the time. My grammar is not strong any more as I have neglected it for nearly 20 years. Then I realized I was unconsciously using strategies of Poker players, day Traders and investors. That is, every time I am unsure, I check with grammar books or dictionaries. Every time I am sure, I can afford to bet 200% or more. Like George Soros, who borrowed to "gamble" when he was sure.

Soros's lesson is How often you lose or you win doesn't matter. But how much matters.

I told him: My grammar is shaky, but I stay with "clear-cut cases" and expand on them. So, you can be right 100% of time that way if you want to be right 100%.

I gave David Crystal grammar and I got George Soros's Courage because the Universe never allows an unfair exchange. Don't you see how much LOVE I put into my work and my STUDENTS and my CUSTOMERS?

I even told the student directly: The probability of me teaching a student like him again for the rest of my life is nearly 0, so I won't invest much in him. Tough teacher!

Helpfulness Advantage

Working hard is dumb. Working smart is a half-baked advice. We must work to our natural strengths, especially in this globalized, commoditized, very flat world. Michael Porter talks clusters. Seth Godin talks niches. Ries and Trout talks positioning.

How do you uncover your strengths that have paying customers?

I suggest helpfulness.

When I was young, I was very very dumb, short-sighted and narrow-focused. I charged everyone for my lessons, including my close friends, except my brothers and sisters.

However, even in those days, I helped free for short- term or one-off services. Any stranger could come into our Department and walk through my doors and  ask for my help. I had never turned them away.

When you can help someone for free:

1.  You prove to yourself that you are expert in this area.
2. You prove to the world that you can get customers for such services.
3. You increase your odds that you tie your wagon to young Carnegie, rising Sim Wong Hoo, or still poor Zuckerburg.

Choose:

1. Helping already rich people gets you good money. 
2. Helping soon-to-be rich people gets you great money.

Some programmers  may not have learned this lesson. Maybe they prefer working hard in poverty far too long.

Two Free Tuition Classes for Raffles Institution Students

Most of Raffles Institution Students cannot be cool. Goh Zuo Min said in Oct 23, 2012, today paper:

"Students usually keep their notes to themselves, and even tell schoolmates the wrong things to study..."

Thus, my Free tuition classes for all JC students:

1. Kindness for Non_rivals
2. Kindness for Rivals

The first class is easier and higher than the second. If you pass the first, the second is not necessary for you. (This course design betrays my 3000-plus years of age.)

Kindness for Non_rivals

We need to define rivals very specifically. That is, very narrowly. How narrow? How about Sein Baydar, a pre-war famous Myanmar musician?

"Today's Sein Baydar is competiting with yesterday's Sein Baydar..."

All 3000-plus-years old people know that Kaizen/continuous improvement was  not invented either in Myanmar or Japan.

So, who are your rivals, Raffles Institution Students?

Kindness for Rivals

If you still have rivals other than yourself, you need to take this second class. Here I teach self-cannibalization.Again, all 3000-plus-years old people know that it was not invented by Tom Peters, or any other American management gurus.

When I was in high school or Uni, I passed around notes to anyone interested. Those notes were my current best. But they were getting obsolete in a few days' time because I kept working on them.

Can't you let others score good marks while you can score excellent marks?

Even with the same notes, cannot you rely on your intuition, your native wit to give you brainwaves during the exam? When will you train your intuition if not when in schools?

Even with the same notes, cannot you rely on your luck?  All 3000-plus-years old people know that all good people are lucky.

Uncle is sad. Uncle can share a lot with you about good competition. Good luck!

Settling Old Scores for New Years, for New Lives

I have settled all these scores unconsciously many decades back.

If I Had Done Well in Medical College

Then I became a doctor. Then, I would gradually admire those who sell blood-purification herbal powders, balms, cough syrups, itching powders etc -- yes, there are solid reasons for this admiration -- and become a sort of chemist. Given our backwardness and isolation in my days, I may work like Ms Tu Youyou and unearth some "Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One's Sleeves."

Cracking medical recipes, understanding chemical compounds, testing ... THAT IS ALMOST IDENTICAL to what's I'm doing right now. Irony!

If I Had Taken Maths in the Regional College

Then I became an RIT engineer. That route would lead to my current destination even faster than the medical route.

If I Had Been Allowed to Study Chemistry in the Second Year

Then I became an IC(Industrial Chemistry) grad and then an RIT engineer. The same effect as Route 2.

If I Had Been Awarded Scholarship to Do a PhD in Theoretical Linguistics

Gazder? Terry Winograd?Fodor? The same effect as Route 2.

Delightful Irony

Medical Route. Maths Route.
Industrial Chemistry Route. Theoretical Linguistics Route
And the actually-happened Route.

They, like all roads, have actually led to Rome. Irony, but delightful irony,

Like Wreck and Jerry Yang's character in Hot Shot TV series.

All has been settled.

Good Luck to you all, and

HAPPY NEW YEAR!