29/4/09
26/4/09
Una escalera
Cada ves que alguien tiene una vision de su vida futura, puede que le cambie la vida. Esa vision puede venir desde el torpe acto de bajar una escalera, hasta ... todo.
un solo ejemplo ... todos sabemos que fumar es malo y dañino, no solo para uno sino que para el entorno, pero fumamos, y fumamos harto, y mandamos señales a nuestros hijos de que sus padres saben que hacer. Entonces, si en algo tan simple como fumar, nos es dificil tomar decisiones inteligentes, como tomamos las otras?
Living a Life of Ends
Enviado por jsaldiva a través de Google Reader:
Why do you do what you do? Do you ever feel like you're spinning your wheels? Is your life filled with activities and obligations that have no intrinsic meaning for you, things you do because you have to for one reason or another? Are you bored?
I've been thinking about engagement since I interviewed Michael Lee Stallard last year and reviewed his book Fired Up or Burned Out, and lately I've been thinking about it a lot more. The issue really came home for me when someone posted a comment on my recent post, "Finding Purpose ", expressing an attitude that I fear is all too common among my students as well: that every class is just a means to an end, that end being the BA and, I suppose, the miserable grind of a desk job for the next 40 years after that. Whee!
Something came together for me then, something I'd had a hard time wrapping my head around before then, and that's this: our lives should be lives of ends, not lives of means. That is to say, if everything you do is simply a way to get somewhere else, you're missing out on life altogether — ideally, everything we do should be an end in and of itself, even if it's intended to lead us ever-closer to some other goal.
Means people suck
The moral philosopher Immanuel Kant discussed means and ends in his famed Humanity formulation, saying "we should never act in such a way that we treat Humanity, whether in ourselves or in others, as a means only but always as an end in itself"(from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ).
Normally, this is taken as saying that you shouldn't use others to advance your own goals, but should appreciate them for themselves, that each relationship is its own end. Relationships that exist solely to forward our own causes without regard for the humanity of those we are in relationship with become purely functional, and lessen both us and others as people. Means relationships objectify our others — that is, cause us to see and treat other people as objects, not people — and are fundamentally narcissistic.
A life of means
But there's another part of Kant's principle that bears mentioning — he doesn't just say don't treat others as means, he says don't treat ourselves as means to an end, either. But that's exactly what we do when we approach everything in our lives as a means to an end. Instead of engaging with the world before us, we become fundamentally disengaged and future-oriented — our attention split between the world we dwell in and the world as we want it to be, between the task at hand and the "real" reason we're doing it.
When we treat the things we do as simply functional steps towards some future ends, function replaces meaning, and we transform our very selves into objects for the satisfaction of some future self.
Consider, for example, the growing body of research that calls into question the role of incentives. An incentive is an end separate from whatever it is we're doing at any given moment. I might offer you a hundred-dollar bill for getting an "A", outselling your colleagues, or serving my table well — it really doesn't matter. The incentive is completely divorced from the reality at hand.
And research shows that this messes with our heads. In one classic psychological study, for instance, two groups of children were brought in over a period of several weeks to draw and color. In the first group, children were given awards and certificates for doing well; in the other, no rewards were offered. After several weeks, the first group — the kids with the outside incentive — were less interested in drawing and had not advanced as far technically as the second group. The kids in the second group were able to enjoy drawing for the sake of the act itself; adding incentives had shifted the first group's focus from the fun of drawing to the ephemeral and rapidly uninteresting act of getting rewards.
It's not just children who fail to respond to incentives, either. Another study found people were half as likely to do charity work (like delivering meals to homebound invalids) if they were offered money for the job. The ones who were asked to volunteer found intrinsic value to appreciate in the job itself; by offering money, the other subjects shifted their attention from the task to the compensation, and usually found it lacking. They researchers weren't paying enough to get them to do a job that many of them would have been willing to do for free!
Incentives shift our relationship with what we're doing, causing us to view our tasks as simply means to the end of gaining the incentive, rather than as activities that are valuable and worth doing in their own right. And too much of our daily lives follow the same pattern, whether they are done for incentives of various kinds or simply for the attainment of some far-off goal.
A life of ends
The trick, then, is treating every activity — or as many as possible, anyway — as an endin its own right. This means approaching the world with a higher level of reflective awareness than most of us are used to. It means taking the time to find a purpose that is internal to the things we do — that is, an incentive that isn't imposed from outside but is part and parcel of the activity itself.
We talk about this, maybe dream about this, all the time. We speak of work that is its own reward, we lose ourselves in the flow of activity, we long for jobs that have us bounding out of bed every morning. When the things we have to do have their own intrinsic value, and when we engage with them as fully present beings, work stops being a chore and becomes something else, something better.
This isn't to say that we should turn away from every distasteful task, every job we simply do not want to do. Sometimes we literally do have to do something because the alternative is losing a job we're otherwise happy with, destroying a relationship, or becoming simply incapable of reaching our goals.
Truth be told, there probably are a lot of times when we'd rather be doing anything else other than the work in front of us, and it truly is the promise of future satisfaction that motivates us. As much as you can, though, try to find the gratification that everything you do over the course of the day might bring you. And if you realize that there's little in your life that provides its own internal worth, maybe it's time to start rethinking some things.
Dustin M. Wax is the project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He is also the creator of The Writer's Technology Companion, a site devoted to the tools of the writing trade. When he's not writing, he teaches anthropology and gender studies in Las Vegas, NV. He is the author of Don't Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.
Follow him on Twitter: @dwax.
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Want to be Able to Predict If Someone Will Be Happy In the Future?
Enviado por jsaldiva a través de Google Reader:
I recently finished a terrific novel, Sarah Dunn's Secrets to Happiness
Alan asks Betsy, "Do you consider yourself a happy person?" In response to her vague answer, he says, "My uncle always said…the secret to being happy in a marriage is to marry someone who was already happy...[And] the older I get, the more I see that my friends who married happy women are happy, and the ones who didn't have all sorts of problems."
"You can't blame that on the wives," Betsy answers.
"Yeah, but I think what he meant was, it's hard to make an unhappy woman happy…a house can only be as happy as the least person in it." (His rationale would apply to husbands, too.) Alan never asks Betsy on a second date, and the clear implication is that he decided that she seems unhappy, and so would likely be unhappy in marriage.
Now, this reminded of studies – as discussed in Daniel Nettle's Happiness
This tidbit has always struck me as singularly unhelpful for someone working on being happier – like telling someone that the best way to avoid being overweight was to have always been thin.
Alan was using that information not as a guide to thinking about his own happiness, however, but to evaluate the likelihood that someone else would be happy – someone whose happiness would matter a lot to him, if they married.
This got me thinking. Betsy was unhappy, in large part, because she was worried about getting married and having children. Presumably, then, she'd be happier once she was married with a family, so it seems unfair for Alan to presume she was permanently unhappy.
But in real life, how does this work? Are some people basically happy or unhappy, and don't try to change, so that something like finally getting married wouldn't make such a difference? Or would it? The arrival fallacy holds that we generally aren't made as happy by that kind of "arrival" as we expect. On the other hand, the First Splendid Truth holds that feeling right is very important to happiness, and if your life doesn't reflect your dreams and values, it's hard to be happy.
That question aside, Alan's way of thinking struck me as both helpful and harsh.
Helpful, because sometimes it might well be worth considering someone's happiness level. If you're interviewing for a job with a boss who seems very dissatisfied and angry, you might decide that he wouldn't be happy with you (or you with him). If you're thinking of sharing an apartment with someone who lives under a dark cloud, you might want to choose a different roommate.
Harsh, because it prompted Alan to turn away from Betsy, who was a nice person, and because this kind of analysis would push people away from less-happy people, who need friendship and consideration. (Spoiler alert: in the end, Betsy gets married to a terrific guy.)
What do you think? Have you ever made a similar analysis about someone else's happiness?
* Special message for the Super-Fans:
Hey Super-Fans!
Thanks SO MUCH for volunteering as a super-fan. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. The designers report that the website will be ready to test on April 6. We'll see – such dates often slide – but it shouldn't be too long. I'll send you an email with all the information. (If it turns out you don't want to participate in the test, don't worry about it, of course.)
If anyone else is interested in volunteering as a super-fan, to help me out with various tasks such as the early testing of my super-fabulous new website, you can click here or email me at gretchenrubin1 [at] gmail [dot com]. Just write "super-fan" in the subject line.
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Hive Five: Five Best Mind Mapping Applications [Hive Five]
Enviado por jsaldiva a través de Google Reader:
Mind mapping is a great way to add structure to brainstorming sessions and visualize your ideas. Check out the applications your fellow readers use to do their best brainstorming.
Earlier this week we asked you to share which mind mapping application helped you brainstorm most effectively. The votes are in and we're back to share the results and arm you with the tools to make your next think tank meeting that much more productive.
MindMeister (Web Application, Free)
MindMeister is by far the most simplistic mind mapping tool in the top five, but its simplicity is definitely an asset. Once you're logged into the service, you can create a fully functional mind map using little more than the directional arrows and the Insert key to add new nodes to your map. Additional customizations like font size and node colors are available for when you want to go beyond the basics. In the upper right corner is a navigation window, handy for when your mind maps become larger than the display space. Exporting is also a strong point for MindMeister; you can export your files to a text outline, PDF, JPG, PNG, or GIF. MindMeister's history function lets you view past versions of your mind map and revert to them if you desire. You can share your maps for public collaboration or hand-select collaborators. Upgrading from the free account to the premium account gives you some handy additional features like map searching, offline editing, and the ability to export your maps to popular software like FreeMind and MindManager.
Mindjet MindManager (Windows/Mac, $349)
Mindjet MindManager isn't cheap by any means, but you get more than your share of value and sophistication for the hundreds you spend on the program. The interface and feature set of MindManager are very polished, and the primary menus are set up like the Microsoft Office Ribbon. After the initial installation, MindManager walks you through the creation of a sample mind map—helpful both to familiarize you with the interface but also to show you features you may have overlooked. MindManager is definitely oriented towards corporate environments, including extensive integration with the Office suite and support for linking your mind maps directly into common database formats like MySQL and Access. Finding information in large mind maps is easy thanks to topic sorting, filtering, and text search tools. Mind maps can be exported in a variety of formats, but most notably in interactive PDF files and embeddable Flash animations. MindManager is available as a 30 day trial.
XMind (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free)
XMind is the kind of free application that makes you forget you're not paying for the privilege of using it. The interface is simple and intuitive to use. You can quickly move through your entire mind map with only a handful of keystrokes or jump over to the outline view for even quicker navigation. In addition to a basic mind map you can also create fishbone, organizational, tree, and logic charts. You can export charts as HTML, images, or text, and XMind comes a free account on XMind.net which allows you to share your charts online and embed them into blogs and web sites. There is a professional version of XMind which expands on the functionality of the base application and allows you to create online charts and collaborate with others. XMind Pro is $49 per year, but most people will find the free version more than robust enough for their mind mapping needs. Portable versions available for all three supported platforms.
FreeMind (Java, Free)
One of FreeMind's strongest selling points is a Java-based implementation. Whether you use it on Ubuntu or Windows, the features and user interface remain consistent. FreeMind is keyboard friendly with the core functionality well covered by keyboard shortcuts—I made the sample mind map pictured here without ever touching the mouse. The visual elements of your mind maps are highly customizable, including custom icons for flagging nodes on the map, color coding, grouping, and more. Mind maps created with FreeMind can be exported as HTML, PDF, and PNG files, among others.The support wiki for FreeMind is extensive and goes well beyond simply explaining how the application functions, covering things like how to add your own keyboard shortcuts and how to make the application portable.
iMindMap (Windows/Mac/Linux, $99-295)
iMindMap can claim two distinctions among the top five tools. First, it's the biggest download—weighing in at 135MB. Second it's the only application on the list developed by Tony Buzan—who lays claim to being the inventor of the mind map. iMindMap takes a different approach to mapping than the other applications in the list. Rather than create new nodes off the main idea by adding boxes, nodes are created by clicking in the center or the main idea and drawing away from it with the mouse. Each new idea is a branch off the center. Strangely, many of basic feature available in free mind-mapping software are only found in the more expensive versions of iMindMap, like the ability to expand and collapse branches. Mind maps created in iMindMap can be exported as PDF, JPG, PNG and text outline; a 7 day trial is available.
A small aside: Although we didn't include it because the topic of this Hive Five was mind mapping software, it bears noting that nearly 20% of the votes went to analog methods like pencil and paper and using a whiteboard. For all your geeky ways, many of you have much love for good old fashioned analog brainstorming.
Now that you've seen the contenders for the crown of Master of the Mind Map, it's time to log your vote for your favorite:
Which Mind Mapping Software Is Best?
( polls)
Agree with the spread? Can't believe your favorite mind mapping tool didn't make the top five? Sound off with your opinions in the comments below.
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Are you Living Life to the Fullest? Shane was!
Enviado por jsaldiva a través de Google Reader:
Are you living your life without limits?? The angels have another legend in their ranks. Legendary skier Shane
McConkey died in a ski accident today. And I know some of you are thinking "well if he lived a little less dangerous maybe he would be alive." But how dangerous are you living?
How strong are you living?
How much purpose is in your life?
Rhetorical questions but ask yourself. What are you doing to the extreme to enjoy your life? Doesn't have to be what Shane did but are you living like there is no tomorrow?
Don't just live your life with purpose. Live it on purpose
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10+ Sites To Add Amazing Effects To Your Photos
Enviado por jsaldiva a través de Google Reader:
Trying to make your photos more interesting? Thinking about learning Photoshop to add some creative effects to images? How about achieving similar results by nothing more than point and click?
Check out the following sites to add funny, interesting and artistic effects to your photos:
Photofunia
This is one of those websites that will really make you think that you really don't need Photoshop for photo effects. Photofunia has over 100 effects to choose from with new ones being added constantly. There are effects that work with face recognition, that is they will search for "the face" in your photo and put it appropriately as required by the effect. Other effects use the complete photo.
Dumpr and FunPhotoBox
Dumpr is another website that lets you choose the effect, upload your photo and get instant results. Dumpr was mentioned previously on MakeUseOf. FunPhotoBox is also similar in concept. Together, all three sites give you plenty of effects and options to choose from and get the perfect effect you were looking for, according to your photo.
Mosaics and Collages
If you would like to create a photo mosaic or collage, check out pixisnap and photovisi. Photovisi is excellent for collages where as pixisnap can be used for creating photomosaics as well as collages. Also check out these cool photomosaic software.
TiltShiftMaker
TiltShiftMaker allows you to transform your real life photo scenes into miniature models. Just upload the photo, choose the area to focus on and presto you have your effect.
Looks great on photos of city scenes, mountains where the whole aspect of the scene has been captured in the image as opposed to a single object.
FotoCrib
A photo effect, editing and photo enhancing web application that allows you to create montages, convert images from one format to another, create rounded corners, add 3d effects, create photo puzzles and much more.
Genopal - pic2graphics
It is said that color represents the mood of the photo. Pic2graphics allows to take colors(and thus the mood) of a photo and apply it to some other photo.
befunky
BeFunky lets you give various artistic effects to your photos. Just choose an effect, upload the photo, tweak some settings and you have an instant professional sketch or cartoon or an ink drawing!
Picascii and Photo2Text
Simple and fun, upload an image and convert it into asciiart.
Do you know of or use some other site to apply interesting effects to your photos? Lets hear them in the comments!
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