Credit: Bob Mankoff of the New Yorker
Goals don't start themselves
Why is talk cheap?
One will think Nike is paying me, but, sadly, they are not. Doing and talking are two different things. Talking is easy whether you are good at it or not. Anyone can do it. Doing is difficult. Self-start doing is harder. While at a conference many speakers take the opportunity to talk about what their audience should do. Beautiful ideas are spoken. Inspiration is felt up and down the isles. Yet, many do not provide a plan of action or encourage their listeners to take action. Being told what to do is preferable for it is a mainstay in a young person's life: go to school, get good grades, go to college, get a job, have kids. Then those kids repeat the process. These imperatives are common and are dictated by parents. No one is stopping you from living your life's wish, only yourself. With the right know-how, determination, and time you will become what you always wanted to be. These things do not require a degree. Being stuck in a dead-end job or doing something you'd rather not be is your fault and no one else's. No one said you have to remain within your area of study--only recruiters or HR executive say so. The days of companies being picky over candidates for jobs is over because the economy is booming. HR executives like making ridiculous requirements for entry level positions like three years of experience minimum required because they want the most qualified candidate while paying that person the least possible. Nowadays the US economy continues to climb in job growth. People once not looking for a job are now out and about. Companies are complaining about not having skilled workers filling roles while Millennials (hate using generation labels) are the most educated generation according to a Pew Research study.
Just do it!
If you want it bad enough, you will get it. Put together a plan, do some research, find alternatives, set a timeline, a goal, and objectives for reaching that goal. Go for it! You can do this. I know you can because I have doubted myself, too. This means you are not challenging yourself. This can be corrected. Nobody talks about this. Just be reasonable with yourself. This is said not to discourage you. Not everyone will be an astronaut, but there are a lot of people that support that astronaut to get into space. Money is an obstacle, this is true and cannot be ignored. People have bills to pay--they will not pay themselves. Not everyone can live with their parents or move back home. Saving money is important as a safety net and will enable you to do what you wish. Good things come over time. No one became a doctor overnight. Or, the cliche: Rome wasn't built in a day. Prestige is not earned outright. Dedicate yourself to the dream. Immerse yourself until you have become one with the dream. Mastering the saxophone, working as an accountant, and learning simple-Chinese will not accomplish your goal so much as working as a barista and spending the remainder of your time training to become a helicopter pilot will achieve your goal. Failure will happen. This is natural. Sometimes quitting is right. It is better to know what does not work. At least you gain that bit of knowledge. Quitting mid-goal is common and natural. When the tough gets going, don't quit--just do it! And keep going. Tough times are when you grow the most. This is important to consider. See what I did there? I am talking about a goal, not goals. But it is important to start with a goal. Attending a conference and or reading a self-help book will not do you any good if a goal does not result. Start your first goal small like read 30 pages every day for 30-days, or say hi to someone you have never spoken to every day for 30-days.
Matt Cutts, former Czar of search engine spam at Google and currently works for the Department of Defence as a project manager, communicates goal setting simply, concisely, and brilliantly in a Ted Talk. I highly suggest watching it. Change is difficult. Complacency is an easy trap to fall into. Catch yourself when boredom strikes because you are thinking about yourself too much. Go out and do something new for it's the only way you will grow. My goal is to read two books every month for twelve months. More will come. I challenge you to set a goal right now. Don't tell me about it or put it off. No matter how small or silly just remember to just do it! -Tyler
On a bright Sunday morning, I took an Amtrak train to New York City to visit a friend and see the Phillies lose to the Mets. Fourth of July weekend was in full swing. I couldn't wait to see Pete and slug beers while we caught up. Nothing can stop my good mood.
Although, while maintaining face and composure I was reminded of a few annoyances that used to trigger negative feeling. Many things agitate me. Two of them are people who play music too loud on their headphones while in a quiet place and, more potently, individuals who hum to themselves while in a public, quiet place.
Do you like being a public disturbance? Does making noise for personal enjoyment while ruining other people's silence titillate you? Did you forget to bring your social norms to the train station?
The front page of Reddit on the day I joined as a registered user - January 26, 2012
What happened to Reddit?
Reddit is not what it use to be. It lost its charm after many changes from upper management, an echo system that rewards its top posters and commenters who dominate the site's content and shutters attempts from others, and exacerbates the egos of extreme politics.
Like the App Store, there's a sub-Reddit for everything. As Reddit became popular so did the frenzy for control of user subscriptions as meme Lord or subreddit moderator like the gold rush of the 19th century. Reddit is like the directory of the internet's best links, plus comments. Do a quick search, and one will find a catalog of relevant, informative posts. From the harmless like /r/fellowkids, a subreddit for people who misuse memes, to ones about a particular profession like /r/justrolledintotheshop, auto mechanics posting interesting customer cars, or the obscure like /r/slavs_squatting. If there is interest or a fan base a subreddit exists. Not to mention the copious amount of pornographic material available on more subreddits than all nonpornographic subreddits combine. Reddit is beautiful for its creative, diverse subreddits that leave no doubt for imagination.
This letter is a long one coming.
First of all, in its current state since 2016, the algorithm keeps old content on the front page longer while new content is shown less unless that post is upvoted profusely. Reddit's board of directors lead these changes in the company's quest of monetization. It's value and functionality has decreased significantly since Ellen Pao was interim CEO. But, blame the board--Ellen was a scapegoat who was unsupported by the company and fell on the knife of Redditors backlashing against her in a witch hunt that was her untimely exit. Other changes drove down user experience, but this is chief among them.
Secondly, the default subreddits are spammed, full of reposts, regurgitations of 9gag and Tumblr posts, and plastered with misused memes. Lurk Reddit for two years, and one will see familiar content from then moving forward. The algorithm changes were done partly to combat this issue, yet the reposting persists.
Thirdly, 1% of Redditors own 47% of all karma points earned on Reddit thus dominating top comments and overall comment contribution on Reddit. Karam inequality, like income inequality in the United States, happens and impacts the tone of Reddit's discourse. Why post when someone else did it, better, faster, and clearer; someone who takes on Reddit posting as a profession, consistently? There are egos on Reddit that have an agenda. Whether it is posting nefarious activities on subreddits not safe for work (NSFW), altering the political discourse and influencing elections through shit posting and shills, or satisfying an ardent need for a corpulent karma count, Reddit's top contributors will stop at nothing in owning what makes Reddit what it is--the best place on the internet for links and comments on those links.
Fun fact, quality of comments is not the reason for top comments--it's the first, most witty, usually, one that points out the obvious like an observation, comment that receives the most upvotes and crown as a top comment in the thread which dominates the discourse within the thread.
Anyway, fourthly and most importantly, Reddit is an echo chamber of similar voices and beatings of the preverbal dead horse depending on the subreddit-- /r/the_donald for its hyperactive spread of ignorance and peddling of misinformation on US politics, /r/politics for its bleeding heart, ultra left, social justice warrior grandstand of political opinions, or /r/Wallstreetbets for its frat style, reckless abuse of capital in regards to get rich quick day trading, and non-apologetic, non-sympathetic approach to peer advice, Reddit exemplifies the same problem caused by Facebook, Twitter, and cable news; closed off, echo chamber rhetoric that has continued to polarize American politics to extremes. No more, please.
Attempts were made to make Reddit great again. Reddit can't change from one person. No one wants to revolt when asked to do work. Like most Redditors, they silently lurk. Mixing subreddits was a strategy right before quitting Reddit became a desirable action. The result was met with disappointment. Despite well written, concise headlines, the posts are lacking in volume. Like removing the Facebook app, the only way fix Reddit is deleting the app.
The last bastion of bipartisan news and information lays on the ill-financed print publications like the Atlantic, New York Times, NPR, BBC, and others. My Reddit is now an RSS feed of journalist, bloggers, and columnists from both sides of the isle (which is shared on this blog).
There as so many publications on the internet! The internet is great because just about anyone may have a podium to speak from and is part of the reason why the internet is bad, but the point is not enough Redditors are contributing high-quality content nor upvoting or contributing noteworthy comments for the platform to be diverse and objective. After ~five years it is time to move onto something else for after all the internet is a big place and a desirable echo system lies in a custom feed.
No one likes a quitter, and I have done it. My excuse use to be because it was was boring. Up until freshman year of college, I would fall asleep in class-- especially mosaics, any literature class (what's funny is ever since treatment started I find literature to be exciting). The activities done in my past were great, yet most of them I'm not doing nowadays. My appetite for quitting seems to be due in part to not seeing desired results quickly enough. Good things take time. No one becomes an expert overnight except I believe in my capability to the affirmative. Nowadays this ineluctable attitude has stopped. I am going to stick to a short list of goals and achieve them over the following five years. Every day I will remind myself of these goals, measure status through completing objectives and stop or prevent doing any activities that advert me from achieving my goals. If I am to quit now, then I will have nothing to live for, for progress will not be made, and all I want from life is to make progress, to become an expert, and be recognized for my efforts. Another reason for my past quitting is a lack of concentration. Developing the discipline and knowledge of myself necessary to overcoming a lack of concentration and developing has taken several years--which I am very close, but no were near, to achieving concentration required for tangible progress. Though I have quit before, and I suppose there was a good reason for it, you will not see it from me because I am going to just do it--like it or not.
Some songs place me in a preferable mood while other take me to a mood I would rather not be. It seems the brain associated memories with music, which is great because I value music, yet the reason why this happens is not clear. Moreover, does this happen to others?
Overall, listening to music engages the parts of the brain responsible for creativity, hand/eye coordination, and emotions. Research points to those reasons here, here, and here. But the University of Newcastle in Australia and the University of California, Davis has done a majority of the research scarcely available on the subject. As a result, music-evoked autobiographical memories are created when your favorite tune is heard.
Not only that, music triggers emotion. I should probably stop listening to death metal while in between sales calls and switch to something more wholistic like Dave Matthews band or something super poppy and only played in major keys...
An important fact was revealed recently by the Wake Forest School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina-- regardless of the genre of music and or the absence or presence of lyrics, the brain will react the same when one listens to their favorite song. To paraphrase, "...people report they often experience personal thoughts and memories." You can read more about it here.
The thought has never occurred to me until now. Countless songs trigger great, and sometimes, not so great memories in my brain. Here I will account and describe some these songs and memories.
Do you experience the same thing? Tweet me @TRW215 or write in the comments section, below.
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Musical Memories
(There is no particular order to these songs and when the memory happened)
Things Happen, by Dawes
Every time I hear Things Happen I get lost in its lyrics for a recent break up with a certain someone comes to mind. The motif is dealing with the untimeliness of a breakup-- the end of blissful ignorance between two people. Truth and honesty are laced with inherent contradictions, utilized as motivation. A broken relationship can only go on for so long until it falls apart. The chorus is the best part. Lists and t-charts were overused in the relationship I speak. The bad stuff that happened doesn't matter; think positive. Somehow, Dawes wrote a song two years before this relationship, and they could not be any closer to describing how it ended and why.
616 Rewind, by Cunninlynguists
Aw man-- this song brings me back to 2008 in Honk Kong, China. I was on a trip with the high school marching band and recently discovered hip hop. Not off the Billboard top 100 hip hop-- no, no, I am talking about that underground good, good. I recall blasting this jam while showering one morning. My hotel-mate was partial to classical and jazz, so hearing this in-your-face tongue twister of a track shook his ear, to say the least.
Working Man, by Rush
Last period, senior year of high school (2010), spring semester, I would pay a dollar to play this track at the beginning of gym class at a nearby bowling alley. Rush, in generally, is very fast moving and progressive, but Working Man is FAST. Many pins were crushed while Alex Lifeson shredded his guitar.
Nostrand, by Ratatat
Temple University Technology Center circa fall 2013, I was studying overnight for a big exam on consumer and buyer behaviors. Pandora was playing when this track came on. I remember being startled when the song transitioned from a calm, walking bass line to applause as the guitar takes over at 1:55, then proceeded to dance in my seat.
Amazing Grace, by (unknown)
The year was 2009, a time when I attempted to skateboard well, is when I heard this song when watching Team Alien Workshop's recent skateboarding showcase video called Mind Field. A good friend of mine, Andrew Moignard, turned me onto this film. He is a passionate skateboarder to this day. Amazing Grace is typically played at funerals, so I found it odd as the track for the introduction to a skateboarding film. It works. A funeral is not just a time to mourn; it is a time to celebrate. The guys of Alien Workshop are celebrating the art form of skateboarding and its beauty. I am moved every time I hear this song and watch this clip for the orchestration's magnificence; the church organ backing the bagpipes completes the sound.
Breathe, by Pink Floyd - covered by Capital Cities - ft. Tupac Shakur
The time was December 2013, I was interning at DMi Partners at 1 South Broad Street in the city of brotherly love. The guy who hired me loved talking about music festivals of all kinds and told me about this track. Life is a party and this song is one. So, as I built links for clients and wrote blog posts under a pen name I would play this song.
Fade to Black, by Metalica
(Starts at 3:56)
Another song is tied to a break up-- the time was spring semester, junior year of undergraduate, 2013. The girl I was seeing told me she was was in a long term relationship a few weeks earlier, but it turned out that she was still dating that guy the entire time! I couldn't help feeling used and, as a result, sorry for myself. Fade to Black is the ultimate feel-sorry-for-yourself song.
Variations on a Shaker Melody, by Aaron Copeland
Sixth-grade band class comes to mind when I hear this song. My position was third chair clarinet when I played this song. I went from a badass fifth grader to bottom of the totem pole sixth grader the following year. The memory is vivid-- ease comes to mind because playing this song is simple. I remember becoming at ease after playing this song because it assured me that, at least band class, was not going to be as difficult as first thought.
Come Alive, by Foo Fighters
This song is perfect for it rocks and is a metaphor for my career in marketing. When my first college internship offered me a full-time position, I listened to this song while tuned into my laptop. Not only does this album song spectacular, every single track, for the entire song in Come Alive the Foo Fighters make this sweeping crescendo into a wall of sound and rock and roll.
Hail Marry, by Tupac Shakur
My first job out of college was selling software subscriptions, and one of the sales rules was a current customer could not be sold to after they made their fourth monthly payment. So, a few days before that deadline and a deal were not on the table the sales team would send a "hail marry" pitch as the last effort to sell that customer, and I would listen to this song for motivation while emailing. Though this song is a bit hateful and strongly worded, as is most of Shakur's music, the message was clear-- sell or die.
Sell Out, by Reel Big Fish
While in high school I played tenor saxophone in a ska band called serious business. Sell Out was one of our covers and a personal favorite of mine. As a band, we never played a show, but we had a lot of fun practicing, and hopefully, the band will get back together. I remember hanging out at the drummer's house on Saturdays perfecting this song and jamming aimlessly.
We Will Fall Together, by Streetlight Manifesto
My first live show was Streetlight manifesto. I think Reel Big Fish opened for them or was it Mad Caddies? Anyway, New Jersey, Sayreville area was the band's home turf-- a perfect place for them to release their third studio album, Somewhere in the Between. The very first song, the album's barn burner, is We Will Fall Together. Not only did I dance and scream with passion, as a bonus for attending the release show, the entire band gave out signed posters!
I Need A Dollar, by Alec Blacc
A line uttered in comradery was, "seriously, I need a dollar." One friend, in particular, identified me to this song as we hustled our way through high school by salvaging scrap metal in abandon buildings. We would blast this song as we left the scrap yard with cash in hand.
Allure, by Jay-Z - remixed by Ratatat
2007, 2010, 2014, doesn't matter-- when I hear this song ultimate frisbee come to mind. For many years this would be my warm up song before taking the fields for a tournament. This track was first heard while watching Ultimate Players Association (UPA), now called USA Ultimate, club national highlights in 2008. I remember driving to Mercer County Ultimate summer league for the first time while playing this song.
Where the Whitetails Go, By Mo Lowda & the Humble
MO CHOWDA, I would chant when these guys use to play basement parties at Temple University. Man, these shows were great. They would rock out, friends in attendance, and we would scream, shout, and drink. Nothing said Saturday night like a Mo Lowda basement show right after midterms. In a crowded basement, I remember a girl situated in front of me turning around suddenly as I had a 40oz beer in my face and caused my tooth to chip. That didn't matter because Mo Lowda was playing Where the Whitetails Go!
Whatever You Like, by T.I
In the early years of high school, this song was our song, my first girlfriend and I. She was into rap more than I was, but I liked this song whenever it came on the radio, which was often at the time. I remember cruising around in her early 2000's Saturn Ion looking for places to go and people to see with this song turned up to ten. No longer could I bare listening to this song after I broke up with her for I never had a woman get so mad at me than that day.
Superstition, By Stevie Wonder
One summer night, circa 2010, a bunch of us, freshly home from our first year of college, met in a basement for some good old drinking and the host played Superstition on repeat for the entire night. From ear to ear I smiled while writing this. Almost every time the song started someone would say, "who turned on this song, it's really good?" Many other people attempted to change the song to something, anything else but failed for the host and DJ guarded the tune-machine all night. To this day I am not sick of hearing this song and think of that night every time I hear Superstition.
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After writing about these songs remembered over the past 14 years, I am amazed that these songs are able to preserve memories in such vivid form. Indeed, all favorite songs and their memories were not accounted for here, but these are the notable ones. Though nostalgia is one of the lowest forms of conversation reflection is still important, nevertheless. Sometimes a reminder of who one is is necessary from time to time. For me, this task is easy for I will go into my Spotify account and tune in, drop out to my favorite songs.
A memory palace is the easiest, most efficient method of memorizing anything.
It is also the oldest method of memorizing. First taught in 80 B.C by unknown authors, the memory palace involves associating data such as a number set or a verse of text with familiar memories like one's home or the way to work thus utilizing existing pathways in the brain.
Recalling one's kitchen layout is pretty simple, yet it's not thought of as the easiest way of memorizing on the surface. You know when someone was in your bedroom while away because a red solo cup was left on the dresser or your pen sits atop your book horizontally instead of vertically like usual. Your palace is well know to you. The memory palace utilizes existing memories to recall something with little additional skill or pathway building.
Afterall, memorizing anything is a difficult task in of itself, at least when committed by brute force like conventional methods such as flashcards or repetition, which dulls creativity, but that's another blog post. No one wakes up in the morning and says to themselves, "I want to memorize something and a lot of it!"
But people do enjoy memorizing. Competition exists for the best memorizers to test their skill. They are given a deck of cards and are tasked with reciting the entire deck of 52 back, timed or a list of 252 random digits or pie. It's called the U.S.A Memory Championship. People of all walks of life and careers compete regularly.
Every time the competition happens major news publication writes about it like NPR and the Guardian, most recently, the New York Times here, last year about this period, and here, and Vox through their nifty video methods on how to practice it.
Anyway, memory athletes are no different from people who do not like or cannot memorize. These people do not have a photographic memory nor do they have additional gray matter in their brain. The memory palace uses the brain no differently than not using the memory palace.
This new thing called research here and here backs this claim (no fake news here). As reported in the New York Times, 80 percent of those who took part in a research study published by Duke University Medical Center recognized the images that were asked to be memorize a few hours earlier. Humans are excellent at associating memories with images, so when images from everyday life are related to what needs to be memorized that memory will be recognized 80 percent of the time, or so the study says.
Before the age of computers and photography, ancient Greeks had to memorize important records-- ones typically stored thanks to modern technology nowadays.
I decided to build my own memory palace. The preamble to the US constitution is the objective. To do this, I broke up the sentences into three to five-word phrases. Then I recalled my parent's kitchen, a place where many hours of my life were spent growing up. Finally, I placed those words in a sequence around the kitchen and ventured that path from memory. Once the memory palace is forged completion of memorization is a matter of time and effort. Such as when there is down time simply go for a mental stroll to Mom and Dad's kitchen where the preamble is scattered about.
But, I cheated for the task of memorizing the preamble was done once before in seventh grade. Nevertheless, I forgot most of it, so I figure starting with this was a good way to test the memory palace. Moving forward I will have a follow-up blog post on using the memory palace soon.
What I did was not easy for memory palace standards. Ease of memorization is dependent on the task at hand. Memorizing for the sake of memorizing is not as easy as remembering all 26 bones in the foot if you're a student in medical studying for an exam.
Effective memorization is simple as associating commonly found images from life to what must be committed to memory. It's like reading literature or daily exercise-- tedious, but fun if done correctly and respectively. You, too, can memorize the preamble to the US constitution of the entire periodic table of elements with just a few simple images and effort!
Salespeople are known to lie or so the myth goes. Since the dawn of the used car lot, the sentiment of salespeople is trickery, deception, and lying, utmost. Customers would rather self-serve than to deal with a sales person. Whether it's substituting to a competitor like Carmax instead of buying from a conventional car lot or buying online instead of going back and worth with a sales person through email, salespeople are annoying and untrustworthy. They will force you to buy something you don't need and make false promises such as, "this product will solve all of your problems," or, "you will receive THIS much more value by switching to our product!" Salespeople are money hungry, evil, soulless robots. Their career has the lowest prestige of any career, and they don't care. Salespeople say whatever they have to to close the deal and at the largest amount possible, typically through lie ridden snake oil pitches. Lying is an essential tool to salespeople meeting their quota and competently doing their job.
To the contrary, the customers are the liars.
I have no need to lie while selling. Understanding the advantage of lying to close the sale has eluded me since I starting selling a few years ago. Lies catch up to you. One lie turns into another, and another, and so on. Unless there's a CRM that tracks lying, I wonder how people keep track of their lies. Salesforce is already expensive, and I imagine this lying CRM to be even more expensive (you're welcome for the idea, salesforce.com). The product I sell is one of the best in its industry. Its brand is well-known, and people love it the product. Not only do they love the product for its seamless UI, affordability, and wealth of data, our customer service and level of service is unmatched for what you pay for. Customers feel as if they bought an enterprise solution at a fraction of the cost. Because of these product attributes the product sells itself. All I have to do is inform the customer and negotiate a deal.
What's sad are the people who start conversations with negative intentions because of their ill-mannered preconceived notions about salespeople. I believe people view salespeople as bottom feeders who need to be treated as such. After all, we are people, too. As my mother always says, treat others the way you want to be treated. Perhaps these people who hold salespeople in a dark light, who were tricked once before and seek justice. Maybe these people do not like interacting with others. Either way, when salespeople are treated with hostility, arrogance, and disrespect do not feel entitled to a converse response reciprocation is the only logical response according to the golden rule.
Salespeople won't cure cancer. Well, maybe the one who sells the chemicals to the laboratory that discovers a cure, so indirectly at least. The prestige from sell long is not well known. Those who do are owner(s) and or managers who run the business which employs the salespeople. Whiteout them the company will not have enough revenue to stay operational. The owners have enough to do. Salespeople find, qualify, and manage customers from hello to sign on the line that is dotted (insert glen gray link). But no matter. Salespeople are some of the highest earners in the United States. Though the value of a sale person work is not evident intrinsically they deliver much value not only to their organization but the economy.
Do salespeople lie? Of course. What I'm saying is not every sales person lies, and the customers are not innocent either. Anecdote after anecdote comes to mind about customers who take advantage of my service and not buy or make up excuses to receive something free or make a promise to me and not keep it. The fact of the matter is people, sales and customers alike, are people, and they're irrational.
Honesty is essential to successful selling. To paraphrase Clif Reichard or the Harvard Business Review, If success is achieved with even the slightest use of dishonesty than success was not authentically achieved. Honesty with the customer is important not only for sale, for the company and its reputation. Ever product has a downside in addition to the upside. Forgoing the latter is not right for the customer, the salesperson, and the company.
