It seems like one of life’s big secrets is how to find your place in the giant clusterf**k we call humanity.

Some people are even creating graphs of social networks that are revealing – well – not much. But they are at least providing some scientific backup to long believed common sense.

DON’T RUN WITH A BAD CROWD

Obesity or at least social acceptance of obesity appear contagious.

Which means that you should avoid hanging with the big dogs and stick around healthier people?

Check out this incredible animation – less than two minutes long  – from the New England Journal of Medicine.

Uncategorized, communing with the universe, useful technology

Which of these reminds you of the internet?

“Surfing the web” is a horrible and inaccurate metaphor. The artful physicality and subtleties of catching a wave have little to do with the hunched, glassy-eyed aimlessness of link-clicking.

The information on the internet is as vast as an ocean, but the waves don’t break that clean. The staccato click of the mouse and sudden jumps from web page to web page make browsing more like “sucking on the machine gun of the internet” than “surfing the web.”  Maybe, “standing beneath the mudslide of the internet” or “dumpster diving the internet” would work better.

Read more…

everybody loves GTD, honoring distraction, productivity tips, the creative process, useful technology

Dream: build a website that is content rich, elegant, helpful, and filled with good writing on topics that I am passionate about.

• Step 1: think about it, dream about it, talk about it
• Step 2: make a mind-map about it.
• Step 2.1: get distracted looking at mind-map web applications
• Step 2.2: write an article about getting distracted

Me and Mind Maps

I got into mind maps a couple years ago. I started out by reading The Mind Map Book by Tony Buzan, the slightly annoying man who attempted to trademark the word “Mind Map” and is often given credit as being the inventor. Despite being annoyed by the constant capitalization (of the letters and on the idea) of Mind Map, I found the book to be incredibly useful. I followed advice which suggested that I adhere to a particular set of “Mind Map Laws” until I had made 100 maps. I’ve drawn about 300 or so, written an article about them and given several workshops on the topic.

“Mind map” can mean a lot of things, Read more…

honoring distraction, information dieting, mind maps, the creative process, useful technology, what it's like to be me