Decisions

If you happen to be on a Mac, there is simple and cheap decision support tool ala Benjamin Franklin's Pro/Con list made by Jonathan Clark.

Mac App Store: Decisions

Here is the original letter from Benjamin Franklin describing the process, thanks to Aaron Stannard's further elaborations:

To Joseph Priestley

London, September 19, 1772

Dear Sir,

In the Affair of so much Importance to you, wherein you ask my Advice, I cannot for want of sufficient Premises, advise you what to determine, but if you please I will tell you how.

When these difficult Cases occur, they are difficult chiefly because while we have them under Consideration all the Reasons pro and con are not present to the Mind at the same time; but sometimes one Set present themselves, and at other times another, the first being out of Sight. Hence the various Purposes or Inclinations that alternately prevail, and the Uncertainty that perplexes us.

To get over this, my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns, writing over the one Pro, and over the other Con. Then during three or four Days Consideration I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different Motives that at different Times occur to me for or against the Measure. When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out: If I find a Reason pro equal to some two Reasons con, I strike out the three. If I judge some two Reasons con equal to some three Reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther Consideration nothing new that is of Importance occurs on either side, I come to a Determination accordingly.

And tho' the Weight of Reasons cannot be taken with the Precision of Algebraic Quantities, yet when each is thus considered separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better, and am less likely to take a rash Step; and in fact I have found great Advantage from this kind of Equation, in what may be called Moral or Prudential Algebra.

Wishing sincerely that you may determine for the best, I am ever, my dear Friend,

Yours most affectionately

B. Franklin

Political Message

Fribourg, Switzerland, 2011-08-06

Natural Awareness

George Draffan's Natural Awareness Blog with wonderful buddhist wisdom.

Cheers!

Tribschen

Richard Wagner Museum

Here are the touristic photos, and here the artistic...

Emmental

2011-05-28










Burgdorf

Focus

Steve Jobs about Focus at AppleInsider:

Jobs outlined Apple's intense focus during an interview with Fortune in 2008. "Apple is a $30 billion company, yet we've got less than 30 major products. I don't know if that's ever been done before. Certainly the great consumer electronics companies of the past had thousands of products. We tend to focus much more. People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully," Jobs said.

"I'm actually as proud of many of the things we haven't done as the things we have done. The clearest example was when we were pressured for years to do a PDA, and I realized one day that 90% of the people who use a PDA only take information out of it on the road. They don't put information into it.

"Pretty soon cellphones are going to do that, so the PDA market's going to get reduced to a fraction of its current size, and it won't really be sustainable. So we decided not to get into it. If we had gotten into it, we wouldn't have had the resources to do the iPod. We probably wouldn't have seen it coming."

Bach - Labèque Sisters

The Labèque sisters play Bach with Il Giardino Armonico

Do I Want This?

One day, while staying at a friend’s house, Nasrudin peered over the wall into the neighbor’s yard and saw the most wonderful garden he had ever seen. He noticed an old man patiently weeding a flower-bed and asked,

“This is a beautiful garden. I’d like to have one just like it. How do you make a garden like this?”

“Twenty years hard work.”

“Never mind,” said Nasrudin.

From: Three Questions from Ken McLeod

Better Than A New Year's Resolution

30 Day Trials

Not sure Steve Pavlina invented them, maybe - whatever, it's a very effective way to change a strong habit, to direct attention to it, and to work on it with persistence.

30 Days to Success

Start the New Year With a 30 Day Trial

I find that I do best when I take time to prepare for about a week in advance. I immerse myself in the new habit I want to install by reading about it, thinking about it, and imagining what it will be like. I hold myself back from starting until I feel a strong internal pressure to begin. This helps me make it through the first several days with high enthusiasm, which helps a lot since the first week is usually the hardest.

30-Day Supertrials

Your level of self-discipline will have a strong impact on your self-esteem. The more disciplined you are, the more you can adopt positive habits and shed negative ones. Positive habits yield positive results, and positive results feel good. Feeling good gives you more energy, and that feeds into more positive actions, which in turn become positive habits.

30-day trials can be very challenging, but they’re also very effective. This is my #1 favorite tool for habit change.

Now in the past, I’ve cautioned people not to overdo it. Many people who are new to the concept of 30-day trials go kittywompus and try to install 5-10 new habits simultaneously. And almost without exception, they crash and burn. Usually they don’t even make it past Day 3.
It’s like trying to juggle too many balls at once. You end up dropping all of them. Zero results.

So I’ve advised people to stick with one 30-day trial at a time. One trial will be plenty challenging. And you can do 12 of these per year if you’d like. Even if you only succeed at half of them, that’s still a tremendous amount of improvement within a year.

SimpleGoals

SimpleGoals is a tool for the iPhone or iPod touch to easily and conveniently track your status or progress of reaching your habitual goal(s). Thought with this tool it is easy to track too many things you might want to change all at once and get frustrated by falling back and failing with too many "resolutions". As Steve Pavlina wrote above, it is much easier and effective to concentrate just on a single behavior and let the rest follow by itself (month after month:).

Conducting Talent

3 year old Jonathan conducting to the 4th movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony



Thanks to the courtesy of Lena.

It Ain't Over

'til it's over...

Swiss Ants

Ämesse, Omeisele, Äbese,
Aweissi, Ameisi, Uweisse,
Wurmeissi, Wurmeisle, Wurmasle,
Harmäusli, Ambeisse, Umbeisse,
Hampeissi, Lombeisse, Empeisele,
Ambitzli, Wumbitzgi, Humbetzgi,
Ambessgi, Umbasle, Hobäsle,
Wurmasle, Wambusle, Bumbeisgi

Source: Peter von Matt,
Tages-Anzeiger, 2010-10-16

I. Have. No. Words. For. This.

How to turn yourself into a Heuballen. Naked.


Thanks Alvis.

Ein bisschen Spass

muss sein...

Deutsch mit Roberto Blanco:



Lyrics:

Ein bisschen Spaß muss sein,
dann ist die Welt voll Sonnenschein.
So gut wie wir uns heute verstehn,
so soll es weitergehn.

Ein bisschen Spaß muss sein,
dann kommt das Glück von ganz allein.
Drum singen wir tagaus und tagein,
ein bisschen Spaß muss sein.

Heute Nacht feiern wir,
machen durch bis um vier.
Fragen nicht nach Zeit und Geld,
weil es Dir und auch mir so gefällt.

Ein bisschen Spaß muß sein,
dann ist die Welt voll Sonnenschein.
So gut wie wir uns heute verstehen,
so soll es weitergehen.

Ein bisschen Spaß muß sein,
dann kommt das Glück von ganz allein.
Drum singen wir tagaus und tagein,
ein bisschen Spaß muß sein.

Draußen wird's langsam hell,
und die Zeit geht viel zu schnell.
Noch ein Glas und einen Kuss,
ja, und dann ist noch lange nicht Schluß!

Ein bisschen Spaß muß sein,
dann ist die Welt voll Sonnenschein.
So gut wie wir uns heute verstehen,
so soll es weitergehen.

Ein bisschen Spaß muß sein,
dann kommt das Glück von ganz allein.
Drum singen wir tagaus und tagein,
ein bisschen Spaß muß sein.

Ein bisschen Spaß muß sein,
dann ist die Welt voll Sonnenschein.
So gut wie wir uns heute verstehen,
so soll es weitergehen.

Ein bisschen Spaß muß sein,
dann kommt das Glück von ganz allein.
Drum singen wir tagaus und tagein,
ein bisschen Spaß muß sein!