Saturday, December 15, 2018

For Good



Idina Menzel Lyrics



"For Good"
(feat. Kristin Chenoweth)
(from "Wicked" soundtrack)


[Elphaba:]
I'm limited.
Just look at me.
I'm limited.
And just look at you.
You can do all I couldn't do.
Glinda...
So now it's up to you,
For both of us.
Now it's up to you.

[Glinda:]
I've heard it said,
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn.

And we are led to those
Who help us most to grow if we let them.
And we help them in return.

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you.

Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun,
Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood.

Who can say if I've been changed for the better
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good.

[Elphaba:]
It well may be
That we will never meet again in this lifetime.
So, let me say before we part:

So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you.
You'll be with me like a handprint on my heart.

And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend.

Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea.
Like a seed dropped by a sky bird in a distant wood.

Who can say if I've been changed for the better
But because I knew you...

[Glinda:]
Because I knew you...

[Both:]
I have been changed for good.

[Elphaba:]
And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done,
You blame me for.

[Glinda:]
But then I guess,
We know there's blame to share.

[Both:]
And none of it seems to matter anymore.

Like a comet pulled from orbit
(Like a ship blown from its mooring)
As it passes the sun.
(By a wind off the sea)
Like a stream that meets a boulder
(Like a seed dropped by a bird)
Halfway through the wood.
(In the wood)

Who can say if I've been changed for the better.
I do believe I have been changed for the better.

[Glinda:]
And because I knew you...

[Elphaba:]
Because I knew you...

[Both:]
Because I knew you
I have been changed...
For good.

Friday, December 14, 2018

Key to Success


"Success is the progress realization of a worthy ideal."
"We become what we think about".
"Believe and succeed."

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Change Your Mind


To be a human being, to have a brain, is to be a creature that learns. A lot of learning is incremental and slow.

Think holistically about yourself, not treating yourself like a machine simply. Always thinking in guiding meaning of life. What's meaning for you at meta level.

Do not allow anyone to prioritize things for you.

There is things you know. There is things you don't know. There is things you don't know you know. There is things you know you don't know you know.

The brain ...can color experience... it is a living, growing, always changing organ ... the role of incrementalism and building up skills...

Aristotle had this very impressive idea that human beings are happiest and they flourish when they use their best capacities all at once together. That's when you feel most alive.

Friday, November 16, 2018

How To Be a Great Leader



"When we get the environment right, humans will do remarkable things."

"We are social animals. Our happiness, our joy, our success, everything is dependent on our relationships. We respond to the environments we are in. You can take a good person, and put him in a bad environment and he'll be capable of doing bad things. Likewise, you can take a person or a group and even society has given up on, and you put them in a good environment, and they are capable of turning their lives around, and really make something remarkable out of themselves. We are social animals and we respond to the environment we are in. Leaders are responsible for building that environment. If you create an environment in which people feel safe amongst their own, we will naturally, the natural human response to those conditions, is trust and corporation. Trust and corporations are feelings. They are not instructions. There is no powerpoint and pitch deck you can give, and at the end someone will trust you. You can't tell somebody: "Trust me".  It does not work that way. They are feelings. Likewise, if you create an environment where we fear each other,  fear the people we work with,  the natural human reaction to that environment, is paranoia, cynicism, mistrust and self interest. That's what happens. There is enough danger outside the organization, there is enough stuff going on outside that we should have to fear the people we work with, or fear our own leaders. Most leaders don't get this. Most leaders think leadership is being in charge. No, it's not. It's about taking care of those in your charge. Most leaders think everybody works for them. No. You work for the people in your organization. It is your responsibility to take care of them, make them feel safe and they would naturally want to corporate, work hard, and give you their blood, sweat and tears to advance your vision. All they ask is that you take care of them, make them feel valued and valuable and the rest takes care of itself. "

Monday, November 5, 2018

Five Ways to Manage Your Time


Define your goals
Prepare in advance
Manage yourself
Spend time alone
Find the right motivation



Find What You Really Want


Ask the right questions - there are two things that controls everything in your life: every thought, every feeling, every emotion, every action in your life, what you are wearing is all controlled by two things: your beliefs and your values.

Live your life uniquely

Shift your perspective

Figure out who you are

Don't betray yourself

How to Find Your Why


Rule #1: Find the things you'd do for free
Rule #2: Do a joy review
Rule #3: Try different things
Rule #4: Find what make your heart race
Rule #5: Serve others

Ask yourself the following questions:
1. What are the two qualities that I most love and enjoy expressing in life?
2. What are two ways that I most love and enjoy expressing those qualities when interacting with others?
3. What would the world look like if it were perfect right now, according to me?

Start with Why


Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Monday, September 10, 2018

Blockchain Explained

Blockchain 101 - Part 1 - A Visual Demo

 

Blockchain 101 - Part 2 - Public / Private Keys and Signing


Benefits of Journaling

Goal Setting, Priorities and Living in the Present


1 Be in charge of your thoughts
2. Do the most important work first
3. Live in the present moment
4. Pick up the two priorities a day
5. Set your goals high
6. Lean into change
7. Beat your fears with anchor thoughts
8. Choose what you would love to do
9. Break the habit of hesitation
10. Help others

Principles: Life and Work


In this video, Ray Dalio talked about the principles he uses to guide us through life and work. He suggested the following 5 steps to go through in order to be successful:

1. Know what your goals are.
2. Encounter problems, learn from mistakes
3. Diagnose the problems, get to the real root cause. understand one's strength and weaknesses.
4. Design a solution that works.
5. Do the things you design, which requires self discipline.

It's a continuous, iterative process.

Embracing reality. Comfortable ambiguity (that's where discovery is). Not embarrassed of making mistakes. Not worried about the approval of others.

Also, how to view and deal with one's weaknesses, stress testing points of view

Find out who Ray Daloio is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Dalio

Friday, August 17, 2018

Build a Better Signal

Value Creation

The only things that matter when it comes to succeeding in the marketplace are:
  1. The ability to create value for others.
  2. The ability to persuade others of your value creation potential.
It’s not your school, your grades, your network, your knowledge, or anything else you may have been told. Those things are only useful insofar as they help you do #1 or #2.

Side Projects Are The New Resume

How to Win the Future

Design Thinking for Education

Power of Ten


Design Thinking Case Studies


Friday, June 22, 2018

Saturday, June 16, 2018

From a music and biology major to become a security hacker

Very informative talk for anyone who wants to learn more about cybersecurity, or wants to work in cybersecurity related fields.

How a music and a biology major become a security hacker

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Cybersecurity terms explained

Learning security terms:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_security

Vulnerabilities and attacks
Risk
Impact of security breaches
Protection and counter measures

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Learning a New Skill



For those who are overwhelmed by the shear amount of resources that are available to us and felt lost and immobilized, this is a good read to get unstuck:

The Importance of Deep Work & the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill

Friday, March 23, 2018

Crypto 101: Everything You Need To Know About Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchains, ICOs



How to Solve Problems Like a Designer


"I am interested in things that don't work very well and things that you can impact society with. And they are mostly more complex things." - Tom Brown from IDEO

Book by Victor Papanek: Design for the Real World 

"From products to real world experiences, the design steps are  just about the same:

Step 1. Observing the world in order to ask an interesting question
Step 2. Ideation or idea making
Step 3. Prototype
Step 4. You test it."
- Tom Brown from IDEO

"If it don't work, I need to rethink my idea and I do it again. That's where iteration comes in. You learn from the prototype,  you realize what's not working, maybe it is a crummy idea. You have to go back and find a new idea again and you go over that loop over and over again. Asking the quest, having ideas, learning and until you get something that truly meets some of these needs or a set of people's needs. The last bit of process is storytelling - always you're trying to explain to people why your idea is interesting.What you need to design a complex system is not one brain, you need a lots of brains, with different perspectives, different creative contributions, that you make working together, to get to an outcome that is literally rich enough and sophisticated enough to be able to behave like a system, instead of being like an object." - Tom Brown from IDEO

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

How to manage your time more effectively


What we can learn from computer algorithms. Check out the book: Algorithms to Live By - The Computer Science of Human Decisions, by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Places to Visit in NYC


There are trains and buses that you can take to get to the city.
Once you are in Manhattan, it is very easy to go around by subway. I suggest you buy a 7 day unlimited subway pass or a daily unlimited pass, and use that to go anywhere. Click here for subway map.

Depends what you want to do, for art museums, you can visit MetGuggenheim, and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum - these three museums are close to each other and Central Park is nearby. 

Moma is at mid town and a lot of high end shops on 5th avenue where Moma is. Moma has films each day, you can get tickets at the ticket counter.

If you are into photography, there is International Center of Photography, also on 5th ave.

in Long Island City in Queens, accessible by subway. There is a branch of the American Folk Art Museum​ there as well.

If weather is nice, you can go to HIghline Park for a walk.

Winer Garden​ and 911 Memorial are tourist attractions and both are located in downtown Manhattan.

Communication

Monday, February 19, 2018

Top jobs after the military: Transitioning back to civilian life

Top stable, high-paying jobs for veterans:

  • Project Management
  • Law Enforcement
  • Health Care
  • Skills Trades
  • Education

Click here to find out more ---> Transition from Military to Civilian Life

 From Military to Civilian Life