Courage : early months of 2016 -- part 2

Visualization helps. Imagination helps.

If you can't train in one particular way, imagine many other ways to train.

Courage : early months of 2016

"The Street-Smart Salesman: How Growing Up Poor Helped Make Me Rich" by Anthony Belli

There will always be opportunities. So be ready to walk away from any deal.





Even when you are losing in one front, say, your workplace, you can be winning in another. Winning in any front will rub off on your effort in any other front. A lot like portfolio investments.

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.

Decisive Quick-Witted Re-framing

Monkey leaps on a croc posing as a stone in the river

VANARINDA-JATAKA

"Whoso, O monkey-king, like you, combines
Truth, foresight, fixed resolve, and fearlessness,
Shall see his routed foemen turn and flee."

Reference

The Jataka, Volume I, tr. by Robert Chalmers, [1895], at sacred-texts.com
THE JATAKA OR STORIES OF THE BUDDHA'S FORMER BIRTHS.

TRANSLATED FROM THE PALI BY VARIOUS HANDS
UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF PROFESSOR E. B. COWELL.

Undaunted spirit

The story of a forester protecting a group of merchants from 500 robbers

KHURAPPA-JATAKA

"When many a bow the shaft at speed let fly--
Hands grasping blades of tempered steel were nigh--
When Death had marshalled all his dread array--
I felt a great and mighty joy this day.

"And this my joy gave me the victory;
I was resolved to die, if need should be;
He must contemn his life, who would fulfil
Heroic deeds and be a hero still."

Reference

The Jataka, Volume 2, tr. by Robert Chalmers, [1895], at sacred-texts.com
THE JATAKA OR STORIES OF THE BUDDHA'S FORMER BIRTHS.

TRANSLATED FROM THE PALI BY VARIOUS HANDS
UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF PROFESSOR E. B. COWELL.

Floyd Mayweather, a running boxer is a winning boxer

Whatever you think of Floyd Mayweather, a running boxer is a winning boxer.

A running army is a winning army. Mao's army. Genghis's army.

And the first rule of professional Ninjas, run away, run out of danger.

If you are brave, what will you see

If you are brave, what will you see, and what will you do?

If you are discerning, what will you see, and what will you do?

If you are disciplined, what will you see, and what will you do?

Above all, if you are virtuous, what will you see, and what will you do?
Oh, beloved country, beloved world, what do you see, and what will you do?

How to Overcome Inertia and Initial Fears

Some kids and teenagers are too reluctant to try out stuffs that only look difficult but in fact are not. Here are some tips to help them tackle their inertia and initial fears.


The Genius of Instinct: Reclaim Mother Nature's Tools for Enhancing Your Health, Happiness, Family, and Work advises small steps.

1. Small steps are safe.
2. Small changes are pleasurable to human brains.
3. Such steps allow us time to know something in depth.

 

Maybe another way is to make them fall in love. When they are too much in love, they may forget to fear.

Stay Cool with Calculus - Part 3

Some time in August 2012, or earlier.

We were doing Calculus just to test how cool my Primary 5 son can be in the face of some supposedly "scary" problems.

And we were looking for a kid-friendly introductory book

 We did check out books at our Popular stores. In Singapore, Calculus is taught in A Maths in Secondary 4. The textbooks, the workbooks, the supplementary books there did not foresee customers like us.

We did find Business Calculus Demystified, a wonderful book, a great one. But it didn't meet our requirement of " just 1 or 2 hours."

We kept looking till we found "Calculus Made Easy."

Strangely, a book published in 1910 is the most suitable for the 21st century:

It also captures the spirit of the calculus reform movement:

The photos were taken form "Calculus Made Easy" the 1998 Edition's introduction by Martin Gardner.

By this time, we, both father and son, were very cool.

1. We know more relevant branches of Maths, other than Calculus.
2.  Tough big books are not our problems, but the problem for the authors and the publishers.
3. We can bypass them with cooler nicer books.

We read

1. a few chapters of Calculus Made Easy
2. a few sections of a workbook from Popular store
3. a few chapters of Business Calculus Demystified

He tested his understanding of the concepts by working out some exercises in Business Calculus Demystified.

I believe that this experience will help him with other areas of studies too.

Stay Cool with Calculus - Part 2

Some time in August 2012, or earlier.

We were doing Calculus just to test how cool my Primary 5 son can be in the face of some supposedly "scary" problems.

And we were looking for a kid-friendly introductory book.

We ran into lots of tough, heavy books and I lost my cool.

A subject that is beautiful, still useful in many disciplines(described better here in "Calculus Made Easy" the 1998 Edition's introduction by Martin Gardner)















A subject that has been taught for decades ...

But a subject which has been sort of superseded by other branches of maths, in particular by discrete maths ...

Still here we find calculus books getting thicker, heavier and more inaccessible to outsiders. Again the explanation comes in Martin Gardner's introduction:

Are we going to find the kind of book that suit our needs:  just 2 or 3 inspiring real-life problems, 2 or 3 simple formulas or procedures, just 1 or 2 hours?

Stay Cool with Calculus - Part 1

Some time in August 2012, or earlier.

I wanted to teach my Primary 5 son some Calculus. He's not a nerd and I didn't know Calculus myself. We were doing it just to test how cool he can be in the face of  some supposedly "scary" problems.

My purpose was clear: just 2 or 3 inspiring real-life problems, 2 or 3 simple formulas or procedures, just 1 or 2 hours.

I had read about how Calculus can be used to calculate optimum prices etc. I had also read about Einstein's gratitude to his childhood textbooks: simple, easy, general, introductory, user-friendly, kid-friendly, (in his hand-written translated diary, to be accurate.)

Many outsiders realize it can be beautiful and desire to see its beauty with their own eyes:








That is taken from "Calculus Made Easy" The 1998 Edition's introduction by Martin Gardner

Can you find such a book easily in our modern days? Excluding the Khan Academy or any online stuffs.

Daredevil Risk Taking and Tooth Fairies

Throughout our political and business histories, there have been daredevil risk takers. You may believe that they have a devil-may-care attitude to life, and that they had no concern and care for their own lives and safety of their followers. Maybe you also believe there are Tooth Fairies in your bedroom too.

I'll demonstrate only 3 examples.

Hernán Cortés or Pizarro

Hernán Cortés or Pizarro

The myth is : Cortez and his troops were landing at an enemy territory where they were greatly outnumbered and he ordered his troops to burn the ships.

The truth: he merely scuttled them. Even then, in order to prevent mutiny. And he had taken a special care of the ship building crew.

Bayinnaung Kyawhtin Nawrahta

In Myanmar history, Bayint Naung is well known for his over-confident promise to his King. The King had asked him to wait for his arrival before they began a decisive battle. Bayint Naung asked the messengers to tell the King that they had already won the battle. When his staff questioned his over-confident promise,  Bayint Naung replied that any king cannot blame the troops that have already perished! And before they crossed a river, he asked his troops to burn their boats and rafts, a la Cortez / Pizzaro style.

Was he making a point to the mercenaries under his command to fight to win?

He couldn't swim back to this side of the river, of course. But did he know palces where he and his troops re-locate on the other side, like Douglas MacArthur and the Japanese in the Philippines?

Please check out logistic plans in his Thailand campaigns. I just cannot believe Bayint Naung would act cool without some insurance.

Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson is the founder and head of the Virgin Group of more than 400 companies. He himself has explained on many occasions that before he placed any bet, he ensured that

1. They are not betting the farm. He even made sure that his employers would not suffer when their bet miscarried.
2. They decreased their downside.
3. They increased their upside.

Is that daredevil risk-taking?

Effectiveness | Dell | Obvious Open Secrets

Effectiveness is an open secret. Everyone knows what it is and how to achieve it. But the will and the courage distinguish the real deals from the posers. For instance, Michael Dell didn't even consider their formula for corporate success a secret worth keeping. He openly shared it with everyone including rivals. I hope we can learn from him how to achieve our personal or corporate effectiveness.

I'm referring to How Dell Does It

1. Play where you can win : where there is profit and growth, where your business model has an edge, where you have vendors providing standard-based components.


2. Execute.


3. Use metrics everywhere.


4. Adapt your organizational structures, your people(e.g. segment/modularize their responsibilities), the info flow in response to the markets and the technologies.

In other words,
1. play where you can win and
2. do play there.
3. monitor how you play and
4. adjust.

If this is very obvious, that's Dell's genius.
If it's not that obvious in the book , but obvious only in my summary, maybe that's my genius.

Fu Mingtain: Expand Your Focus to Strengths

Everyone is talking about Fu Mingtain these days in Singapore. What can she teach your kids?

Here are a few good things various people have talked about her.

1. She's tough.
2. Never say die.
3. She's a fighter, warrior.
4.“She has excellent fighting spirit and mental strength. She really deserves the gold medal,” said Singapore’s chef-de-mission, Dr Tan Eng Liang.

So, you can ask your kid to be tough, to never say die, to keep fighting against heavy odds, to be strong etc.
If your kid agrees, then you can stop reading this post right now.
If, the other hand, your kid hesitates, then please read on.

I am writing in my own words what I've read in the Straits Times.
She noticed that the home crowd cheered the other player and booed her.
Instead of taking this as intimidation, she interpreted this as more pressure piling upon her opponent.

Reframing! A more helpful point of view! A better perspective! (CBT! REBT! NLP! Don't worry about this alphabetic soup: concepts matter, terms don't.)
And therefore, more optimism, more courage.

The footballers who choke, collapse under pressure/expectations ...
Kids who get stomach upsets, emotional upsets near critical exams ...

They may not be able to toughen up in days, but they may be able to conjure up a nicer point of view in hours and get more courage in time.

Even the famous general US ("unconditional surrender") Grant overcame his fear with a spin on his perspective. More about this later.

I can't turn a chicken kid into an eagle in months. But I can help a chicken kid fly above eagles in hours. It's easy, isn't it? If I let it fly in a plane. (How about Cao Cao, Song Jiang, Mao, any under dog in history?)

A perspective is worth 80 IQ points, right?

November 23, 2011