Category: General Advice

Today is honorable mention day. That means I am not talking about “books” but instead Audiobooks and Podcasts.

Audiobooks:
The wonders of Audiobooks first became apparent when a long car ride to Flordia (from PA) was made significantly better by the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone audiobook. The way a narrator can carry you through the story using only the voices he produces is simply mesmerizing. There is depth in the spoken word, and you can infer so much about a character from the inflection an author gives to their lines.

Hagrid is a massive half-giant with a huge scraggly beard and a deep voice. Every time the narrator spoke as Hagrid the resonant sound of his voice brought back my mental image of Hagrid as a character. For many people movies that are based on a book stink because the disrupt or shatter whatever the reader’s mental image of a character looked like. Audiobooks strike a balance between providing more information about what a character sounds like and how he/she acts without removing the audience from the creative process. How I saw Hagrid was influenced by what I thought Hagrid would look like. It was as if I was a creative consultant on the character design of every person in a book. Thus I feel that audiobooks serve a niche in my life. If I am going on a long (insert prolonged mindnumbing experience here) then and audiobook will be superior to even music.

Music is great for listing in a car, but on a 4-hour car trip, I want to have experienced a story by the end. Having an audiobook can help me do that.

Podcasts:
Podcasts are a crazy element of the digital revolution, and they come in all shapes forms, sizes, and varieties. Podcasts can be hour long unscripted videos, a bunch of people talking into a microphone for half and hour, or a highly scripted 60 min news broadcast.

Some of my personal favorites include Serial, Dan Carlton’s Hardcore History, and anything from the NPR 1 app.

Serial follows the investigation of a real-life crime as the reporters try to wrap their head around the situation and attempt to figure it out with you. The reporter will often take a break and discuss what is going on in her head as you try to formulate your own opinion on what may have happened. More often than not the case is ambiguous and doesn’t have a truly correct answer allowing the intrigue to build even further. If you like Mysteries at all, I highly recommend you check this out.

Dan Carlton’s Hardcore History, on the other hand, is not for the faint of heart. Each episode is highly produced and can be up to three hours in length. I am sure many people would find it mind-numbingly boring, but I like history. It’s right up my alley.

But best of all:
1. They are almost all free!
2. They are all sponsored by Squarespace!

That was a podcast joke I am sorry if you didn’t get it.

If I were truly honest on this blog about what source I read most, I would have to mention Reddit. Reddit is a magical place chock full of rainbows sunshine and quite a few memes. In this post, I am going to try and describe what makes this website special and why I believe that you should use it as a new social media if you haven’t already.

So, what is Reddit even?
Reddit “is an entertainment, social networking, and news website where registered community members can submit content, such as text posts or direct links.” (source).

It’s also one of the most influential and visited sites on the internet today. Reddit received 14 billion unique visitors in March 2018. Reddit’s dedicated userbase alone is over 3.36 million. This is people who actively login and contribute. Over 333 million have accounts (sources).

Visual Appeal
At first, when you see photos of Reddit, you may be turned off by the website’s appearance. It does not have a flashy or modern interface, in fact, it deliberately seems to try and appear as an old 90s webpage. Why is this good? Well for starters, if you decide you can’t use Reddit because the interface turns you off from the website that’s a good thing, it’s a barrier to entry.

When a website is open to anyone and anything, e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Instagram the quality of the average content posted drops. By keeping Reddit looking deliberately old-fashioned looking. (Reddit appears visually closer to Angel then it ever will to Canvas.) People that would otherwise value the site for reasons other than the services it provides are fewer and farther between. Honestly, the visual interface is simple enough to get the hang off, so don’t be turned off by it. There is so much more to be gained from Reddit.

Content
Why is Reddit different from other social media? People are identified for the content they bring to the table not for who they are. Except for AMAs and a few minor Reddit celebrities, people don’t know who anyone else on the website is. This means two things.

1. Just because you are hot, famous, or a large business you cannot acquire significant amounts of followers. In fact “following someone” almost never happens on the site. Reddit is a content aggregator. Think of it as the front page of the internet. You visit Reddit to see all the cool things updated in real time that are going on around the world. Will you ever see restroom selfies and people updating their relationship status? Nope. It’s not even possible. Don’t use Reddit to connect with family and friends. Reddit is to engage with the internet and the world.

2. Reddit is content based. The currency system of Reddit isn’t “likes,” “follows,” or “subscribes.” Reddit conducts business in upvotes. On Reddit, people post links, text, photos, or videos. These are then voted on people as to which ones should be seen by more people. The faster a post garners upvotes the quicker it moves to the front page. This means that on the front page you can have a post half a day old with 50,000 upvotes right next to a new post with 5,000. The new post is probably breaking news of some sort and so it rapidly shoots up the system to display both the most important and timely news all in one place. The longer a post stays on Reddit the more upvotes it needs to sustain to remain on the front page.

Personalization
The final reason Reddit is great is has to do with personalization. On Reddit content isn’t all posted to one massive jumbo pot and then upvoted from there. Everything is divided into subreddits. All of which each represents their own unique, thriving communities about specific things. Fly fishing? Check. Birds with Arms? Check. International Politics? Check. Music? Check. Hitler wearing sock? Check.

As a user, you don’t subscribe to individual people. You subscribe to different subreddits. This allows you to customize what kinds of news you receive. If you only like science news, then only subscribe to the subreddits that promote science news. It’s a phenomenal system that is infinitely customizable. By using Reddit, you are building yourself a custom news filter just for you!

In this post, I didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what makes Reddit great. If you want to learn more, just use the website, and watch this video by CGP Grey.

Today’s good read will be On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder.

Form
This book is a quick read, it’s only 126 short pages and it’s form factor makes it great as both coffee table literature or something to read in the bathroom. The book is comprised of twenty short lessons, all focusing on a specific aspect of society that we should participate in or watch out for to prevent Tyranny in America. The language is not hard to understand. It is written so anyone can pick it up and read it. Overall I need to complement this book’s style. It does a great job of walking the line between coffee table literature and serious political commentary while making the book itself accessible to anyone who wants to read it. Coupled with the book’s $6.39 price on Amazon for the paperback, there isn’t a reason people shouldn’t get this book.

Content
This is where Timothy Snyder’s opinions and mine differ. I think that everyone should read this book as a way to start conversations with others about the book’s content. With each chapter being comparatively few pages, even if Snyder Wanted to, he couldn’t fully articulate his claims in that space. This is why Snyder has chosen to give brief little overviews in each lesson. Evey lesson has some supporting evidence, but not much. The book is great as a stepping stone into a conversation. After quickly reading a lesson people should have an idea of where to start a conversation with someone about that lesson. They will not have a list of facts for which to use in that conversation.

Facts and Opinions
This book is highly opinionated. The first two chapters start out simple enough. They tell people to reflect on their actions as to not obey in advance and defend institutions. By the end of the third chapter, it would be possible to interpret some of Snyders words as an attack on the Republican party. This theme continues to various degrees throughout the book. Snyder becomes very critical and makes it apparent that he loves to “throw shade” at the Republicans, but especially Trump.

Because this book does not have space to fully support the claims it makes, coupled with the fact that nothing is cited in this book. Makes it rather frustrating to read regardless of if you like or dislike the state of the white house.

It’s still worth it
This book is not perfect, and not very good at some things. However, this book has significant value because it is good at starting a conversation. People who read this book regardless of if they agree or not will be in a better place to comment and even make counter-arguments. That is why I think the book is indispensable.

Do yourself a favor and leave this book on your coffee table. Trust me. Your afternoon hangouts with your friends might become the slightest bit more political. Many people might not want that, but I do. That is why you will find On Tyranny present on my coffee table.

When I was little the very first thing to truly get me invested in reading was Calvin and Hobbes. In fact, my investment with this comic strip is to the point where I think of both characters as old freinds rather than any fictional character.

In many ways, the comic could be the single defining literature of my childhood. I own the vast majority of the collections that were released, and the crown jewel of my collection is the thick three release hardback “Master Collection” that contains every single comic ever penned during its syndication from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. Countless hours have been spent in bed pouring over this newspaper strip. All of them were worth it.

Calvin and Hobbes is the brainchild of the now legendary comic artist Bill Watterson. Bill had experimented in political cartoons before Calvin, but Calvin and Hobbes was what made him famous.

I have intense respect for Bill Waterson as a man of morals and character. He is a firm believer in maintaining creative integrity within his brand. In fact, the only reason Calvin and Hobbes came to a close was commercialism. Bill had gotten to a point where the strip was so famous that if he was going to be forced to commercialize it if the comic continued. A great example of this commercialization is Dilbert, Peanuts, and Garfield. They all were respectable comics in their time but now can be found on everything from calendars, mugs, and TV ads. Bill believed that when you commercialize you “Sell Out” and your brand losses integrity.

He never wanted his comic to become merely a tool for marketers to make money, so rather than “sell out.” He just stopped writing. To this day he still maintains full creative control over his content. This means that every time you see a Calvin and Hobbes bumper sticker of Calvin peeing on a logo, it is used without permission and the company making it could receive legal action. Watterson is the only person I know of that killed his product, over the intrinsic value it contains, in the face of significant personal financial gain.

For this reason, I have immense personal respect for Watterson and his work continues to live on in the hearts and minds of its readers, like me!

As far as the actual work itself is concerned. It goes without saying, the comic is some funny stuff. Calvin is a rambunctious 6-year-old with an intense vocabulary and an unending desire to explore, hit girls with water balloons, and spend time with his best friend and stuffed tiger, Hobbes.

What I think Calvin and Hobbes so timeless, is its ability to take someone back to their childhood regardless of your current age. Calvin is the perfect embodiment of just what a crazy kid I was and in some ways I think my childhood lives on inside of this comic too.

I would recommend this comic to literally anyone who is fluent in English and honestly, even to those who aren’t literate with English. Like I said before, this comic got me into reading, and for many strips, the pictures tell a far more humous story than the text ever would. So regardless of if you are literate, or if you like comics or not, do yourself a favor and pick up one of these collections. In fact, if you are in RCL and reading this come up to me after class one day and I will let you borrow one of mine for free. (I have extras, it’s not a problem in the slightest.)

 

 

I recently finished the book Learn Photography in a Weekend by Michael Langford. By reading the book, I wanted to get a better handle on my sense of photos, and because I enjoyed the book so much I hope I can convey some of that knowledge to you. Of course, seeing as this is a public blog post with people of all different skill types I will start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. I will briefly go over The Rule of Thirds, Perspective, and Lighting.

Rule of Thirds

One of the single most important things you can do to improve your photography is to follow the rule of thirds. Have you ever wondered why your camera has an option to display a grid? This is why.

The Rule of Thirds says that one of the ways to make your pictures more effective is to divide your photo into thirds horizontally and vertically and then place the subject or interesting parts of the photo either on those lines or close to them. Ideally, it should be where they intersect. These points of intersection are called Crash Points.

Pro Tip: When taking a headshot it’s not the head but the eyes that should line up with one of the thirds. The eyes are a focal point for the rest of the head.

Perspective
Taking photos is something that everyone does at some point in their lives, and everyone has viewed 10s of thousands of photos. In general, each person knows what a good and bad photo looks like even if we cant put it into words. A great way to improve your photography is to show your audience a new perspective. As humans, we see from normal viewing distances at eye level. When viewing photos, people want to see something new! Get up close! Back up! Change your height! Anything you can do to make your photo stand out in a novel way will generally be good.

Lighting
Photography is quite literally capturing light. So of course, the type and availability of light extremely important. In general, prefer outside natural light to indoor light as natural light provides the full spectrum of light and is much brighter. Artifical light is poor for photography and can be very harsh. Open windows or take photos outside. By the same token, outside mid-day photography can also be poor because of the harsh sun. The best type of lighting is a more ambient, diffuse light.

Pro Tip: Dusk and Dawn are called the Golden Hours of photography because of the diffuse light that they provide. Overcast days are great too as the clouds break up the harsh direct mid-day sunlight.

Have Fun/Experimenting
As I mentioned before in the perspective section, people want to see new things. Try out new stuff, and if it doesn’t work, you can always delete the photo!

Remember the Rule of Thirds. Think about your photo’s perspective. Choose appropriate lighting conditions. But most of all, try to have fun. Without fun, photography has no point for me. Enjoy taking your photos, build memories, and hopefully, you will have a good shot to remember them by.

Context

As someone who was born on within the last few years of the millennial generation, I use the internet a lot. I am continuously connected to the magic of the world wide web. Often I will be on one of my most frequented sites: Reddit.

Reddit is a unique website with an older look to it and for this story you need to know a few things about it. First, people post things, and other people can comment. Second, when people post they choose what subreddit they want to post in. Each subreddit is dedicated to a specific type of content. Users subscribe to the different subreddits that best suit their tastes, and as a result, each user gets a personalized stream of new posts about the things they like. Similar to how people follow others on Twitter to create their updated feed, users of Reddit subscribe to different subreddits.

Story

This story occurred a long time ago, but I only just found out about it recently.

Four years ago a user by the name of “maxstolfe” posted something in the GetDisciplined subreddit labeled “I just don’t care about myself.” It was a fairly long rant about life where “maxstolfe” complained about having no purpose, motivation, and in general felt like his life was meaningless, and he couldn’t make progress doing things he wanted to do.

In reply to “maxstolfe.” A user named “ryans01” created a masterpiece known now as No Zero Days. “Ryans01” essentially broke down a step by step plan for how to get from where you are now to where you want to go in life. What’s a zero day? I will let “ryans01” explain it.

“A zero day is when you don’t do a single thing towards whatever dream or goal or want or whatever that you got going on. Didnt’ do anything all day and it’s 11:58 PM? Write one sentence. One pushup. Read one page of that chapter. One. Because one is non zero. When you’re in the super vortex of being bummed your pattern of behavior is keeping the vortex goin, that’s what you’re used to. Turning into productivity ultimate master of the universe doesn’t happen from the vortex. It happens from a massive string of CONSISTENT NON ZEROS.”

This concept of a zero day was not only personally revolutionary for me, but it also became rather popular with the Reddit community. In fact, an entire subreddit was created for the topic. Now over 48,000 people are connected to this unique subreddit all joined in a commitment to become better people than who we were before.

For me, the concept of a zero day is what I think of when I need motivation. When I don’t want to get anything done, it’s late, and there is an assignment due tomorrow, I think about no zero days, and I get kicked into gear. Even if it’s not perfect work got done.

It’s crazy to think about a community larger than the undergrad class at University Park is coming together on a regular basis because of one man’s post four years ago. We are all capable of amazing things, but the only way to get them is by making sure we don’t have any zero days!

Now pardon me, but I have some more reading to do.

 

When I was younger, I wanted to put two things on my resume: Black Belt and Eagle Scout.

Only one of those things happend. Hint: I never came anywhere close to being a black belt.

In fact, I never even had any formal martial arts training. (I mean I had a few lessons when I was small, but I am not going to count that as I don’t remember much of anything.) As such the dream of attaining a black belt faded away into the distance. What I had not realized was that martial arts is half physical and half mental. Strength and muscle memory are required to advance, but the martial arts are also a mind game.

Joe Hyams is an author who spent a significant portion of his life dedicated to the martial arts. He studied under some of the greatest masters of his era including George Waite, Ed Parker, and Bruce Lee. His idea for writing the book came from how Zen is taught in martial arts classes–Short lessons and stories. He wanted to recapture the teachings and format them for nonmartial arts readers.

Zen In The Martial Arts is a short book. It contains only 133 small pages to express its message and themes.

The book is broken down into a variety of short stories. Each short story contains a lesson that Joe Hyams has learned on his journey through the martial arts. The techniques taught in the book range from mental exercises to ways of thinking, and even different behaviors. Little did I realize that I would learn how helpful some of the techniques can be first hand.

At the end of fall semester freshman year of college and during finals week no less. I fell ill with phenomena and had to remain hospitalized for three days. On the second day of my stay in the hospital, the doctors decided to aspirate a cyst that was inside of my right lung. This operation was to be conducted while I was fully conscious.

WARNING MILDLY INTENSE DESCRIPTION AHEAD

The procedure would involve me receiving a small amount of anesthetic in my chest and then the radiologist would insert a needle straight through my chest, puncture the lung wall and finally end up inside the cyst in my lung. The radiologist would then withdraw some of the fluid inside the cyst for analysis and then remove the needle.

Now I am a brave person but having a sharp metal object puncture your lungs (Even when done by a trained professional) is not exactly what I do on the daily. I was in need of guidance. That’s where Mr. Hyams pulled through for me.

Un-Thinking Pain

One of the martial arts masters that Hyams was seeing had to undergo surgery. The master refused anesthetic. Instead, he decided to go through the whole operation conscious with his senses undulled. When the operation was complete Hyams asked how the master had done what he did.

“Regulate your breathing, fix your eyes and mind on something else–perhaps a rock or a spot on the floor or ceiling. Concentrate on that object, savor it, taste it, give it color and smell the dimension. let it absorb all your thoughts and concentration, and the pain will diminish.”

When I was lying under the CT scanner with a needle about to go into my chest, I thought back to the old zen master’s quote and found peace in a tiny bolt on the ceiling. I let the bolt encompass my whole being. To this day, months later, I can still picture it perfectly in my mind. The tiny imperfections, how it was slightly corroded on the left side, how specifically the nut fit over-top of the washer.

Then the operation was over.

I was shocked. The focused concentration had worked so well that the time of the operation had even slipped away from me.

I didn’t intend this blog to become a list of book reviews, but from me to you, I highly recommend this book.

How I Read Books

When I read books I use a style of reading that I have adopted from my uncle but it depends on why I am reading.  In general, though, my strategy is to highlight, highlight, highlight, and then highlight some more.

For me there are three main types of reading:

1. Educational reading. If I am reading for an assignment, I highlight.

2. Enrichment reading. If I am reading for my personal knowledge, I highlight.

3. Pleasure reading. If I am reading a story for pleasure, I don’t highlight.

Highlighting for me isn’t as simple of a process as you might think. The first step, of course, is to physically highlight in the books I read. The second step is to type up every phrase I highlighted into a document on my computer.  The third step (if necessary) is to condense down the highlights, by going through the word document and only picking out the best of the best. These quotes get put into a final word document.

What exactly am I doing and why? 

The idea behind the highlighting and typing system is repetition. When you highlight something you need to go back and verify that the thing is indeed something you want to highlight and then you have to physically highlight it. What is even more important though is the typing process at the end. Going back a the end of each chapter or at the end of the book to type everything up is what truly solidifies the information in my mind. Not only does the act of typing solidify the information, but then I have a handy document from which to quickly browse through for the best quotes from a book or to refresh myself on the content of that book. The system truly is great even though it is time-consuming.

I am warning you, this system is not for everyone. Some people just don’t learn by typing things up, and others don’t have the time to dedicate to reading, yet alone highlighting and typing.  If they read a book at all its a great occasion to be celebrated. Reading has always been a big part of my life since childhood so while I may not always have time to read as much as I want, I want to do it right when I can.

This brings me to my final word of concern. If you do decide reader to take up this system be warned. You need to follow through in order for it to work. Its a careful system of checks and balances. The act of highlighting is easy and many people highlight all over the place. I am judicious with my highlights because I know that everything I highlight will need to be typed up. If I don’t think something is important enough to type up by hand then It clearly isn’t worth my time to highlight it. Make what you highlight special and important information and that information will stick with you.

If on the other hand, you highlight willy-nilly and then don’t type it up you lose the repetition. If you don’t highlight enough you have missed out on other important information.

And that’s how I read. Try out the system if you want and then let me know how it works for you!

If you have been following the blog for some time now, you know that I like to harp on a few essential points.

1. Genuine Interest is a Must.
2. Do Your Homework or necessary background work to make the conversation interesting.
3. Have Fun

What some of you might not have realized is that these apply to everyday life as well. Every conversation that you have with another human being is a chance to exchange information and learn something about the world. Every conversation is an opportunity for you to be engaged with another and create a unique connection between you. Make these worth it!

Genuine Intrest

This is the simplest and easiest aspect of yourself to improve that will advance your conversation in everyday life. Say you just met your uncle for dinner. It turns out he is a photosynthetic plankton genome specialist. His exploits do not interest you in the slightest. While It definitely may be hard for you to just “become interested” in different topics like “photosynthentic plankton genomes,” it’s vital that you at least try so that the other person can recognize you are putting effort into the conversation. Then even if that fails you can then try to change the subject to something else you both enjoy.

 

Do Your Homework
Every time you interview someone about a book or article they have written make sure you read it and understand it. If you do, they will be far more impressed with you and willing to open up a wealth of information for your use. For example, I have a family friend that wrote a book on architecture. I asked for a copy and read the book. The author’s kids haven’t read the book, but I have. This gives me both starting points for conversation and a connection with the author. Think about how awkward your parents are when they try to talk about or pass judgment on behavior, or activity they don’t even fully understand.

“Son, I don’t like this global warming and these video games.” your father would say.

“But have you done any research on or even given any an honest try?” you might ask.

“No. And I don’t want to.” comes your father’s final reply.

Try to remember never to be awkward like your parents. Make sure before starting an in-depth conversation about something with anybody that you have done your homework on a topic at least slightly, make it apparent that you know nothing so that the person you are conversing with knows what to expect, or change the subject entirely.

Have Fun
The simplest and most straightforward of the three, but also the hardest to master and pull off consistently. To be genuinely having fun in every conversation is impossible but at the very least an attempt can be made. Your aunt Barb may seem very dry and uninteresting to speak to, but if you open up and start having fun she may do the same. Then everyone is happy.

Hopefully but taking the steps, I had mentioned before and elaborated on here to heart you will start to have not only more informative interviews in your professional careers but more pleasant conversations in your social lives too.

Catch you on the flip side.

-The Author

 

Any interview you will conduct is a conversation, from an interview for a newspaper or essay to something being broadcast live. No matter the situation, a conversational tone should be held.

Why?
A good convesration is interesting. There are ebb and flow. Both sides contribute to making the information being conveyed meaningfully. If I conduct an interview I make sure that I am personally invested in the conversation and topic. Starting from the ground up, If both the interviewer and interviewee are not invested than an exchange of valuable information won’t happen. If this exchange doesn’t happen because one of the sides isn’t invested or “isn’t feeling it” on that day, everybody loses.

The conversation must be engaging or the information being conveyed from it will cause people to lose interest. People in the 21st century have an attention span of about 8 seconds.

Time that yourself. Set a timer up on your phone and talk for 8 seconds. THAT is the average attention span for peoples interest in any form. How many sentences could you get through?

A print version of your interview? 8 seconds
A video version of your interview? 8 seconds
A radio sound bite of your interview? 8 seconds

The conversation and flow of information must be active. Without this, your audience will zone out and leave. If your audience leaves… Then whats the point?

Always make sure you are assessing yourself with a phrase similar to “Would I listen to this in my free time?” If the answer is no, then something has to change. Allow yourself to become totally invested in your work or project. This may require some changes to your previously set interview style.

“Would I listen to this in my free time?”

 

One of the things I do for a paper or print interview is take an audio recorder with me. We all have a totally adequate version in our cell phones that will work just fine for this type of job. For a while, I used my cellphone, but now I have a dedicated audio device for in the field recording. I use a Tascam-dr 40. The device was purchased used for $40 and I take it everywhere.

Why record and have a dedicated device? First, when recording an interview you can dedicate yourself entirely to the task at hand: Interacting with the person and creating the valuable conversation that you need to create. Before I started to record I was looking up and down, jotting notes all the while. I was disengaged. But, if I was disengaged my interviewee was disengaged. Why should they give me their full attention I wasn’t willing to give them all of mine?

Clearly, If I was writing notes I had a “reason” to not be giving them my all, but that still doesn’t matter. Creating meaningful content is the most important aspect of what I do. So I tailor what I use to the situation.

To summarize:

• Make the interview a conversation
• Put in 100% all the time
• Record the interview if possible
• Humans have an attention span of about 8 seconds

Catch you on the flip side.

-The Author