Reciprocity

In Robert Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he argues that reciprocity is one of 6 major factors that influences human behavior.  He says reciprocity is in our nature, and it feels awkward to receive a gift without giving anything back.  It's easier for a salesman to get an invitation into your home if he offers you a small gift.  You're more likely to donate to your alma mater if you feel it greatly contributed to your success.

I've thought about an extension to this idea that reciprocity is not just a side factor in relationships, but that relationships often build on top of reciprocity.  Let's walk through a hypothetical romantic relationship from beginning middle to end from a reciprocity framework.  I believe it applies to friendships and other relationships, but I think results are amplified in romantic relationships.

You try to get a stranger's number or try to buy her a drink.  In both cases, you could be violating social reciprocity.  In one case, you're asking for too much and in the other, you're giving too much. Relationships build off of gradual increase in reciprocity, so maybe first you strike up a conversation, then buy a drink, then get coffee, then get dinner, etc.  It's weird for someone to "try too hard."  And I think it's why there is a 'rule' for a guy to wait 3 days after getting a number to contact a girl, because you don't want to 'seem too desperate' and break the social rules of reciprocity.  

During the relationship, reciprocity is even more important.  If one person is giving too much relative to the other person, the relationship will quickly end.  There's a lot of factors that would sway the definition of "giving too much" such as perception of giving/receiving, resilience of each individual, opportunity cost, etc.  For example, maybe a guy is giving what he thinks is a large amount of his time, and the girl thinks he's not giving enough.  Maybe she's flirting with other guys, but he is in love and cannot end the relationship.  But my main point is that when things FEEL equal, everything seems right and when things FEEL unequal, the relationship becomes shaky.  When both parties think they're spending an appropriate amount of time together, the relationship is great.  When she wants him to meet her parents and he doesn't think that's a good idea, the relationship gets shaky.  Reciprocity.

In friendships, there are far fewer expectations and the amount of giving is usually low.  The results aren't as amplified, but even all the "20 things to do in your 20's" links all over the internet will tell you to cut off friends who are leeches, aka when the relationship is one-way.  Great friendships are ones where you give and receive the most: the ones where you share your deepest feelings or when you make a sacrifice in the other's time of need.  When a friend asks something big of you, its likely to be a turning point in the relationship, for much better or much worse.

Experiments

The other day at work, we talked about the value of experiments.  In the context of poker, if you play the same game, an adaptive player will always win in the long run.  And yes, the long run can be a very long time and perhaps the experiment isn't worth the initial cost, but many times the benefits are enormous.  For example, let's talk about my mom's cooking.  My mom is a great cook and I always love going back home to eat her cooking, but it's likely that she improved to a point and stopped experimenting because her cooking reached a level she is satisfied with.  But if every time she made the same dish, she tried 1-2 new things, the results would be extraordinary.

So the first barrier to running experiments is being narrow-minded to the possibility that a better alternative may exist or not wanting to improve on the current state.  Maybe you've never tried yoga, golf, Indian cuisine, meditation, Brazilian jujitsu, some experimental drug, sex with a (insert adjective here) girl, waking up early, the possibilities are endless.  What if you tried it, and it ends up being a game changer?  In fact, this is where I have trouble and I'm trying to be more open minded about new possibilities.

The second barrier to running successful experiments is the difficulty in determining results.  Say you have trouble sleeping, what can you do?  You might try to relieve stress through a hobby, exercising, removing distractions before bed, or maybe some sleeping aid drug.  But how many data points do you need to determine it's unsuccessful?  How do you determine adverse side affects?  In a game like poker, it might be easier to conduct experiments because of the controlled environment and limited number of decision points.  But in real life, there are so many uncontrolled variables that it can be extremely difficult to evaluate the experiment.  How many times do you try a food before you can determine you do not care for it?  Have you considered acquired tastes?  The costs of trying a new food or restaurant is so low.  But when you find that favorite dish or restaurant, it will continue to blow your mind forever.

Anyways, we're way too young to be stuck with our habits.  Try new things!  The downside is so small, yet the upside is nearly unlimited.

Framing

Framing is the way we look at things.  Having a baby.  It could be "magical," could be mistake, could be simply the further reproduction in the evolution of a species.

I'd like to point out that we frame almost everything in a way that our parents and society have taught us (which makes a lot of sense), BUT that makes us unaware.  I'll give a few examples.  The idea of a birthday wish already assumes we don't have everything we want.  So does the idea of a dream.  The fear of death is ingrained in us as something horrible, but it happens to everyone.  How can it be horrible?  Our society emphasizes the importance of the individual.  And in the grand scheme of things, our only affect on the world is likely to be our children.  Yet we believe that there is nothing more important than the self.  Society emphasizes having a great career.  But there are a lot of careers that manipulate the masses in order to achieve greater profits.  And again, the concept of the self is more important, so we want to make money at the expense of others.

I think about a certain frame a lot.  It's one where you can put a creature in an environment and watch it.  Like if you watched rats or puppies or monkeys in their natural habitats, what happens?  And now,
if you watched a video of yourself, what would you see?  I go to work 5 days a week, and probably spend of my non-work hours alone.  I eat well, exercise from time to time, and I'll see my friends maybe 2 nights a week.  Once a month, I visit my family.

Try this exercise with your own life and someone else's life.  What would life be like as a billionaire? What would life be like as a lunch lady? Or a sweatshop worker, or a prostitute, or a soldier, etc.  Think of how your day to day would change, and how your relationships with other people are different.  Imagine yourself as another person, then think about the community, the country, the human race, then how we fit in this universe.  And on every level, the frame is different.

On the universe level, we are all part of the same flow of events.  We are the product of some series of events that created the Earth, created life, and life has evolved to our current state.  And the universe will continue, we will die, our offspring will evolve and the flow of things continues.  Yet sometimes it seems like we work so hard to go against the flow of things.  Society gives us the impression that we should all want to be rich models with fancy things, but statistically, less than 1% of people can obtain all of these things. And if that's the case, then were we born likely to be depressed.  But from a different frame, aren't we incredibly unlikely to be born?  In which case, we should be born likely to be ecstatic.    

Game Changer: Meditation

I've been reading a lot of positive psychology, which is the study of how to be happy, optimistic, confident, etc.  And there's research that shows meditation can literally transform your brain to make you more likely to be content and happy.

Happiest Man in the World

Quick 2min video about meditation

The first link is an article about a monk who undergoes brain scans and shows happiness levels that are completely off the charts.  The second is a western psychologist who's done lots of research on eastern meditation techniques and effects.

The first point I'd like to get across is that your brain is constantly changing and continues to develop, change, grow or decay throughout your lifetime.  This is phenomenal!!  We're constantly changing our ideas, viewpoints and opinions, but we can also change our fundamental outlook on the world.  Neural connections can be created very quickly if we allow our mind to continue to expand.  As children, we're constantly confronting new feelings, emotions and ideas but it doesn't change as adults.  There are fewer new experiences for adults, which results and fewer neural connections created.

The second point is that meditation or mindfulness training can help us change our brains.  We all know the placebo effect is real, and that a $2 hotdog tastes better than a 25c hotdog, or a $2 aspirin is more effective than a 25c aspirin.  Our mind changes how we perceive and happiness is a function of our perception.

One of the ways that the mind changes through meditation is that we become more aware.  There are many lies being told in our society that are perpetuated and become truth to many people.  Awareness and mindfulness development over time will reveal many truths because it removes you from the current state and see the world from a different point of view.  I personally dislike the phrase, "I don't know why anyone would do that."  It's a very ignorant phrase which is used too often and basically translates into, "I only understand the way I think."

There's also the conventional arguments of stress relief, anger reduction, better sleep or whatnot, but you all have heard that before.

Sick TED Talks

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_christian_big_history.html

Talks about the history of the universe, from the big bang to the beginning of life, through evolution and our current role in the universe.

http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html

Talks about the different growth rates of countries and compares them to measures of health, like child mortality.  Talks about wealth, growth, health, population, trends of the world and revealing true statistics which are likely to contradict our current beliefs.

http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_hawking_asks_big_questions_about_the_universe.html

Talks about the possibility of aliens, space, time and the future of the world.

Theory of Mind

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind  It is the idea that children cannot understand that other people have different ideas and feelings.  Basically, children believe the world revolves around them and they are they only thing that matter.  As we grow older, we develop the capacity for compassion.

Second level thinking can greatly improve relationships.  Relationships by definition is a two-way street.  If you can read body language well, or simply ask a friend questions from his perspective, it can go long way into developing a deeper relationship.  Most teenagers are unable to understand this concept, which may contribute to why high school is so harsh towards people who aren't "popular."  I also believe that I was able to form deeper relationships in college because of the slight increase in maturity. 

How do I get better talking to girls?  How can I interview better?  How can I be a better son?  How do I show my boss I deserve more responsibility?  We don't really need a book to tell us any of these things.  If we could fully understand the other person, we would have the solution to all of our questions.

Perhaps maturity and wisdom are both related to theory of mind and our ability to see through another's eyes.  

    

Cost of Living

A good friend of mine made a good argument for the fact that there exists a cost of living.  I work 45-50 hrs a week and I get paid.  With my money I can afford some lifestyle and I also have vacation days.  On weekends and vacation days, I can determine exactly what I want to do.  Vacations and weekends are my time.  And in order to have this standard of living and have my own time, I must work and for 50 hrs a week for the next maybe 30 yrs of my life, these hours belong to someone else.  If you screw up enough, you lose your job and can no longer maintain the same standard of living.  The argument is that in order to live my current lifestyle in the US with my friends and family, and all the safety and running water and constant internet access, I must have a job and I don't choose what I'm doing.  Sure I can start a company but that is also running a high risk that I may not have the same standard of living.  Sure I can choose my job, which is somewhat of a choice of what I want to do in those hours, but nonetheless, I must add value somewhere.  I can choose a lower standard of living, but that simply lowers the cost.  I'll be free to do what I want with my time, but time and money are interchangeable at this point.  If you want more time, you'll have less money.  If you want to be able to pay for more things and vacations, you need to work more.

Something like 30-40% of my waking hours of my entire life are going to be working somewhere or at school.  I might work at a great job and be doing well for myself relative to the average college graduate, but 35% of my waking hours are dedicated to something that is not determined my me. 

The one thing we have going for us is how we interpret these hours.  In A Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl writes about his experiences in the Nazi concentration camps.  For the prisoners, 100% of their waking hours are determined by someone else.  They have no vacation days and no weekends and are also separated from their families and friends.  But what Frankl finds is that one can find meaning through hardship.  Rather, one is forced to find meaning or become depressed and lose the will to live.  Maslow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs) once said that if you take 3 men from 3 different walks of life.  Beggar, priest, businessman.  You deprive of them of food and sleep for 1 week and they'll become the same person, a hungry fiend.  In practice, Frankl discovered that men are completely different when they are deprived of food and sleep.  Some find meaning in life, some would choose to die rather than give up a name of someone who stole bread from the kitchen.  Some choose to steal or turn their back on the Jewish people.  It is possible to laugh, even in times of great distress and it is possible to be happy. This gives me great hope.

My takeaway from this idea is that
1. Time and money are interchangeable, Cost of Living exists
2. It is possible to be happy at our job, perhaps 'cost' is not the best word
3. Either pick a job you like, or like the job you have

Illusion and Reality

So, I'm a nerd and I'm a big fan of Naruto, which is an anime about ninjas.  There is a character named Sasuke Uchiha who has a brother named Itachi.  Their clan is one of the most powerful in the world because of their special eyes, which they could use to place others into an illusion called 'genjutsu' and also have high levels of perception.  Itachi killed every member of the Uchiha clan, except for Sasuke and Sasuke goes on a quest to kill his brother to seek revenge.  His brother is one of the best ninjas in the world but also loves his little brother.  After Sasuke murders Itachi, he finds out that his brother was forced to murder his own clan because of political reasons.  Thus, Sasuke seeks to destroy the village that forced his brother into such an act.

For the whole beginning of Sasuke's life, he believed one thing, and lived his life around getting stronger so he can one day face his brother.  And after discovering the truth, he changed his beliefs about his brother and turned his anger towards something else.  Perhaps Itachi created this hatred inside Sasuke in order to make him strong, and for what purpose?  Maybe Itachi has even bigger plans for Sasuke's future.

Itachi was able to shape Sasuke's reality with illusions he created.  And after Sasuke discovers 'the truth', perhaps he is still in another illusion.  Sort of like an inception-like illusion within an illusion. This is similar to movies like The Matrix or Inception, where the illusion becomes the reality.  But what I want to leave this with is the fact that our environment has created our reality.  My parents, teachers, friends, NJ, BRHS, Columbia, etc. have shaped my reality.  And my reality is completely different from that of others.  I'm not saying that we might wake up one day and realize robot sentinels have taken over the world, but that perhaps our reality is not the best form of reality.  Do we have the power to change our own illusion/reality?  Can we break free from the illusion/reality that our society has created for us?  What can we gain from experiencing the reality of others?  And of course, is there a difference between an illusion and reality?

Principles

Here's something that I thought was very profound, and surprised Wharton MBA's when they completed the task.  Shouldn't take longer than 10-15 min.  Click the bottom link and scroll to Chapter 1 and do the Six Lives Exercise (maybe 5-10 pages into chapter 1).  Basically you read 6 different lives of people and you rank them in order of your own definition of success.  You'll find out a little bit about your own values if you continue reading a couple pages after the exercise.  The book is called Springboard: Launching your Personal Search for Success by Shell.  The read was alright, I think this exercise is the best part of the book.

 http://books.google.com/books?id=3wcGUDQo3V4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=springboard+shell&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LBRKUuufM4nc4AOl7IH4Aw&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

edit**

I realize most people won't do this, so here's the part I thought was most interesting.  A majority of Wharton MBA's pick a stone mason's life.  He likes his job, has a small house in Iceland or something.  He gets to use his creativity and has a few children.  Don't remember details of the children, but I think one of them is successful, one is not.  And basically, if that's their definition of success, why are they leading such different lives?  Why are they on paths to become hedge fund managers, CEO's and consultants?

Flow

Csikszentmihalyi is praised as the founder of a concept called Flow.  We've all experience this before.  It's when you're playing basketball, a video game, working intensely on a project or practicing a technique. The task is challenging, and the task is of your choice.  Time flies by, you're completely focused in the present moment.  That's when you're in flow.  Flow is commonly mentioned as a source of happiness and I think ideally, we should all hope to be engaged in flow in our career of choice.  

From wikipedia:

Flow theory postulates three conditions that have to be met to achieve a flow state:

1. One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals and progress. This adds direction and structure to the task.^[12]
2. The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows him or her to adjust his or her performance to maintain the flow state.^[12]
3. One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and his or her own perceived skills. One must have confidence that he or she is capable to do the task at hand.

In positive psychology, an occupation can be described as "work", "career" or a "calling."  Work is associated with a means to an end.  Work is a way to pay the bills and keep food on the table.  A career is associated with a means of obtaining wealth and status.  A calling is something you do because it gives meaning to your life.  I think it's worth considering what our occupation is to us, and whether or not we feel we're on a path to finding work that we love.  And whether or not we experience flow in our occupations and our hobbies.   

Priming

If you've taken any basic psychology course, you've probably heard of priming.  Basically, if a group of people see a flashcard with "SO_P" and recently heard the word "wash" and "clean", they would fill the blank with A to make the word SOAP.  If they had recently heard the words like "stew" or "carrots", they would be more likely to make the word SOUP.

But priming affects us much more than that.  Through introspection, I've found myself to be a money-centered person.  This may have to do with my upbringing with parents emphasizing a great education and a great high-paying job, constant awareness of how much things cost, etc.  In addition, my job as a trader can't help either.  I constantly think in terms of profits and losses, expected values, probability/stats.  CNBC is constantly on TV at work and instead of hearing the words like WASH, CLEAN, STEW, or CARROTS, I'm primed with money related ideas.

Everyone is primed in a certain way.  A priest would view an event through a religious lens, and a scientist would view the same event in a completely different way.  And once we're primed, we develop actions and actions become habits.  And once we keep habits for a long time, our actions become part of our character.  A little priming can go along way.  Recently, I've decided to wear these Buddhist mala beads to prime myself towards Buddhist ideas of compassion, nature, calm and inner peace to contrast my everyday surroundings of the new smartphones on commercials, the latest styles on GQ and all the fine dining pictures on Facebook/Instagram.  One little thing could change behavior in the long run.

Effectiveness Management

I don't like the phrase "time management."  It doesn't grasp the essence of what is important.  What is actually important is how effective you are with your time.  Time is a bad frame for effectiveness management since you can spend hours doing something without being effective.  How is it that some people can finish a paper in 2 hrs and I need 7 hrs?  How can some people lose 10 pounds in 4 weeks, and I lost 2 pounds in 4 weeks?  What matters is not time spent or money spent, what matters is effectiveness for the amount of resources you put in.

- Working at a higher paying job for the same hours is more effective than a similar lower paying job.
- Quality time with friends talking about life events is socially more effective than playing video games.
- Working out intensely for 25 min is more effective than screwing around in the gym for 1.5 hrs.
- Learning how to interview then going to 5 interviews is more effective than interviewing 30 times without prep.
- Researching what clothes are fashionable and look good on your body, then going shopping is a much more effective way to spend money on clothes.



Sometimes, Working Smart > Working Hard.  Think about how effective you are, and think of ways to become more effective.

Habits

I believe habits to be one of the biggest influences of our actions.  We're lazy, we fear change, and we're risk averse.  How much more likely are you to enter a restaurant if you've already been there before?  How much more likely are you to exercise if you've already done so in the past week?  How much more likely are you to switch your dentist, even if you've had a bad experience last time?

Try a thought experiment.  Say you're Jane Goodall observing monkeys LOL.  And you observe what they like to eat, how much they play, sleeping patterns, social patterns, mating patterns, what they do day-to-day etc.  You spend the time researching and thinking about these behaviors and write a dozen books on monkeys.  Try to take a step back and think of yourself as the monkey, and ask yourself what a book on yourself would look like.  What are your eating and sleeping patterns?  What are your social skills like?  How is your physical health?  Take a few minutes to actually think about what a book on your behaviors would look like.

Then make a conscious decision of what habits you want to keep and what habits you want to change.

*I said I was going to write more about principles, but I'm going to hold off on it for now.

Principles Part 1: The Problem

I'm very intrigued by the process of decision making.  I actually enjoy reading about behavioral biases, about where people go wrong in making decisions.  I like poker because it involves so much game theory.  To study poker is to study how other people make decisions; I think it's really fascinating stuff and you can count on me posting about this stuff later.  But before you're able to make any real decisions, you need principles.  I've gathered this idea from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey.

Great so here's a hypothetical situation:

You're 29 and you've planned a week long trip to Greece with your serious girlfriend and her parents, and your senior partner tells you that your big case is being moved up to the same weekend.  You think that if you crush this case, you'll impress senior management because you'll help bring in a huge client, and it'll put you to first in line of becoming a partner within the next few yrs.  You've been with your girlfriend for just under 2 and half years, you've met her parents before, but this trip seems very important to her and everyone involved.  What's the best decision?

Principles are simply the things that are important to you.  At the end of the day, what's going to make you happy?  You see a lot of articles about how to network, how to make money, how to interview, how to talk to girls at the bar, how to this and that.  But these are techniques or tools.  It's like learning the subway system, learning how to drive a car, get gas, etc.  These skills are important, but you first need to know where you're going.  If you want to get to a destination but grab the wrong map, you'll be upset that you've ended up in the wrong place in life.  

"... working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need." - Fight Club

Sometimes, we forget what makes us happy.  Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow talks about how our brain will try to simplify questions like "are you happy?" into a question that is much easier to answer like "what's your current mood?" or "has anything good/bad happened in the recent past?"  Sometimes we relate money to happiness or unfortunate events to sadness.  If the stock market swings down 40% and you lose 30% of your net wealth, you might be devastated.  But all you really lost is money...  

In my next post, I'll write about my thoughts on sets of principles and what different "Maps of Life" might look like.

  

Game Changer: Investing

In my mind, investing is something that can help you and your family never have to work another day in their lives.  For me this is a huge game changer.

Being born with wealth is like starting a game of Monopoly with property, extra money, and if you're dad is the owner of some big company, it's like you've already built big beautiful hotels on your property.  This is completely insane and unfair if you think about it.  But life isn't really fair is it?  We're all in a big game of monopoly, and we're actually all doing pretty well (read my last post "Perspective.")  Being born into a middle class family in the US is like collecting lots of money when we pass go, relative to someone born in a 3rd world country.  My family and I are doing very, very well compared to the rest of the world.  Now I'm saying we can do much better if we bought property, just like in the game Monopoly.  **I'm totally not saying money should be the goal in life, that's absolutely not what I'm saying.  Just making an analogy right here.

To help quantify this "much better", the US S&P 500 has grown at something like 10% a year for the past 100 yrs, and if you consider about 3% inflation, you can grow your purchasing power by investing in the market by 7% a year.  That means every 10 yrs you can double your purchasing power.  In your 70 yr lifetime, you can grow your purchasing power by 2^7 or 128x.  For the same amount of money you use to purchase a car when you're born, invested correctly, you'll be able to buy 128 cars.  Okay so there's taxes, maybe the US growth rate will be lower in the future or whatever, but the point remains.  Investing over a long period of time can put your family out of the middle class.  This is the benefit of owning a profit generating asset.  Owning stock is like owning part of a business and will make you rich over time.

An interesting experiment I heard from my high school AP Psych teacher, if you give a 4 yr old the opportunity to choose from an Oreo cookie now or 2 Oreos tomorrow and he chooses 2 Oreos tomorrow, he'll be more likely to become an intelligent man.  Well we all have a very similar situation in front of us right now.

Perspective

Only 63% of the world's population has access to improved sanitation - defined as a sanitation facility that ensures hygienic separation of human excreta from human contact. 2  Source: http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/

Something like 37% of the world/ 2.6 billion people live very close to their own shit, enough so that they are likely to have health problems because of their unsanitary living conditions.  Something like 11% of the world doesn't have access to fresh water.  

We shit in fresh water.

Stoicism

For some, this could be a game changer or not at all.  For me, this is a very interesting idea.

I actually wanted to talk about one aspect of Stoicism, and that is your control over your will.  (I actually don't agree with many Stoic ideas.)  I recently read an article.  In the essay, former US Navy Admiral James Stockdale wrote about his experiences and described war as a battle of will.  The war ends when one or both sides of the conflict has lost its will.  What an interesting way to view war!  He continues describing how some people are slaves, that we are all slaves to those things we fear.  We can fear losing a job, losing a loved one, we can fear being broke and we can fear death.  And our fear can consume us.  Someone close to me feared losing his job.  He felt so stressed that he had trouble sleeping and even lost his appetite.  It's sounds difficult to do, but he can choose how this event changes his emotions.  

In a talk by Dan Ariely, he mentions a punishment in Greek Mythology where King Sisyphus was forced to push a boulder up a mountain, and once he got to the top, he would watch it roll back down.  And in the book Holes, prisoners were forced to dig holes in order to fill them back up.  LOLL!  These punishments are awful!  And they are awful because they are designed to break a person's will.  US troops were accused of torturing natives in Afghanistan because they forced them to stand.  I believe it was a congressman who countered along the lines of, "Walmart cashiers are forced to stand for the same long periods of time."  The actions are the same, but the will behind the actions are different.  

Everyone has the choice to choose his/her will.  Will is the difference between hope and agony.  If you lose your job, or break up with your girlfriend, you can choose whether or not you become depressed.  If you miss your flight or have an imminent test, you can choose whether or not to be angry or stressed.  Now you cannot change the consequences of these events.  If you lose your job, you may need to save money or move to a smaller home.  You cannot arrive at your destination at the same time or change the score of your test after you've taken it.  But you can choose how you handle yourself and you can choose your will.  You don't need to let something like your job, a possession, a test, etc. control you.  You control you.

"Nobody can hurt me without my permission" - Ghandi

Game Changers

The idea of this blog is mainly for me to write down my thoughts and ideas that I believe are interesting and possibly, game changing ideas.  I've recently graduated college and wanted a place to think freely and write down some crazy ideas.  I want someplace where I can share my ideas with others, and maybe even change the way they think.  I don't necessarily wholeheartedly, 100% agree with everything I write about, but I think they bring new perspectives and are extremely interesting.

Game Changers.  I want to write about ideas that are game changers.  For example, using statistics to draft baseball recruits completely changed the way they scout players.  I want to talk about ideas that are game changing for you and me, mostly on the individual level but perhaps I will include some ideas that affect the bigger picture.  Now if I use the phrase "game changer" in every post, it begins to lack meaning so I'll try to use it less often.  But the point of the blog remains, I want to learn and introduce both old and new ideas to my readers.  Some of these ideas are simply common sense, but sometimes common sense gets lost somewhere along the way.  Thanks for visiting my site!