If you’re looking for me, I’m on PandaWhale.
I’m stashing many things there.
And reflecting.
May 5, 2012
March 26, 2012
Bird is the word!
Peter: “There seems to be an absence of an ornothological piece… A headline regarding mass awareness of a certain avian variety…”
Brian: “What are you talking about?”
Peter: “Oh, have you not heard? It was my understanding that everyone had heard…”
Brian: “Heard what?”
Stewie at 0:27: “BRIAN, DON’T!!!“
Originally posted June 22, 2010 at 2:09 PM but I bumped it to the top because I’ve been missing it…
March 19, 2012
Dear Twitter, PLEASE Keep Posterous Running.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Posterous.
Especially now that Twitter owns Posterous.
I hope that Twitter keeps Posterous up and running, because I love writing and reading on Posterous, as do many others.
Furthermore, keeping Posterous running will help Twitter to increase their understanding of the Interest Graph.
Some interests run longer than 140 characters, and Posterous is the perfect service for longer tweets. The Interest Graph is so money.
And, keeping Posterous running will give Twitter a great service it can learn from as it iterates through the Creative Process to continually improve.
A post-Twitter Posterous could be wonderful.
Twitter, PLEASE keep Posterous running.
And don’t leave it up to a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock.
Go out of your comfort zone.
Let Posterous live where the magic happens.
February 12, 2012
The 12 Laws of Karma
1. THE GREAT LAW
As you sow, so shall you reap.
This is also known as the Law of Cause and Effect.
- Whatever we put out in the Universe, is what comes back to us.
If what we want is Happiness, Peace, Friendship, Love…
Then we should BE Happy, Peaceful, Friendly, Loving.
2. THE LAW OF CREATION
Life doesn’t just HAPPEN. It requires our participation.
Whatever surrounds us gives us clues to our inner state.
- BE yourself and DO yourself… what you want to have in your Life.
3. THE LAW OF HUMILITY
What you refuse to accept, will continue for you.
If what we see is an enemy, or someone with a character trait that we find to be negative…
- Then we ourselves are not focused on a Higher Level of Existence.
4. THE LAW OF GROWTH
Wherever you go, there you are.
For us to GROW in Spirit it is we who must change and not the people, places, or things around us.
The only given in our lives is OURSELVES, and that is the only factor we have control over.
- When we change who and what we are within our heart, our life changes too.
5. THE LAW OF RESPONSIBILITY
Whenever there is something wrong, there is something wrong in me.
We mirror what surrounds us, and what surrounds us mirrors us.
- We must take responsibility for what is in our life.
6. THE LAW OF CONNECTION
Even if something we do seems inconsequential, it is very important that it gets done,
Each step leads to the next step and so forth and so on.
Someone must do the initial work to get a job done.
Neither the first step nor the last are of greater significance.
They were both needed to accomplish the task.
- Past, Present, Future: They are all connected…
7. THE LAW OF FOCUS
- When our focus is on Spiritual Values it is impossible for us to have lower thoughts such as greed or anger.
8. THE LAW OF GIVING AND HOSPITALITY
If you believe something to be true, then sometime in your life you will be called upon to demonstrate that truth.
- Here is where we put what we SAY that we have learned into PRACTICE.
9. THE LAW OF HERE AND NOW
Looking back to examine what was, prevents us from being totally in the HERE AND NOW.
- Old thoughts, old patterns of behavior, old dreams… Prevent us from having new ones.
10. THE LAW OF CHANGE
11. THE LAW OF PATIENCE AND REWARD
All Rewards require initial toil.
Rewards of lasting value require patient and persistent toil.
- True Joy follows doing what we’re supposed to be doing and waiting for the Reward to come in its own time.
12. THE LAW OF SIGNIFICANCE AND INSPIRATION
You get back from something whatever you’ve put into it.
The Value of something is a direct result of the energy and intent that is put into it.
Every personal contribution is also a contribution to the Whole.
Lackluster Contributions have no impact on the Whole, or work to diminish it.
- Loving Contributions Lift Up and Inspire the Whole.
Sources:
- PandaWhale – The 12 Laws of Karma
- PandaWhale – Playing with the Moon
- Waking Times – The 12 Laws of Karma (video)
January 24, 2012
Be lucky.
Robert X. Cringely’s first tip for would-be entrepreneurs is:
”Avoid stupid and unlucky people.“
I’m taking his advice because starting a company is hard.
I want to be lucky, like the kitten that adopted me last week.
For decades my father has told me that
“It’s better to be lucky than to be good.“
I don’t just want to be good; I want to be excellent.
My dad says that to be excellent I should surround myself with people who have good luck. He tells me that people with good luck are contagious — as are people with bad luck!
My dad regularly affirms:
“Avoid the unlucky, the unethical, and the unhappy.“
To find people who are ethical, I have a strategy. My startup co-founder has a sixth sense when it comes to sniffing out ethics; Detective Troutgirl is always on the case.
As for happiness, lessons are repeated until they are learned. There is no way to happiness because happiness is the way; consequently, people reveal true colors in conversation. But what about luck?
I want to find people who are as attracted to luck as cats are attracted to heat.
To create luck, I conjure up some scientistic sleuthing.
If 80% of success is showing up, then
80-90% of luck is an excellent attitude.
Those numbers are corroborated scientistically by business shark Daymond John and psychologist Richard Wiseman:
Daymond John boldly declared on Shark Tank,
“Life is like business. It’s 20% what happens to you, and 80% how you respond.“
Richard Wiseman concurs,
“Only about 10% of life is purely random.
The remaining 90% is defined by the way we think.
Our attitudes produce our luck.“
I read those sentiments over and over, and think to myself: Still, there’s that remaining 10-20% that is pure luck, and that’s the part we need EVEN if we work hard and make wise choices and are as patient as a crouching kitten.
So… How can we MAKE more luck?
In 2010 I chuckled that with a luck factory, I’d make a fortune.
Since then, I’ve become aware that there are traits that we can practice to increase our ability to make our own luck.
On 106miles.net I summarized Bakadesuyo’s article How can you become more lucky? by noting that lucky people practice four traits: openness, intuition, optimism, and resilience.
Practice every day, as much as possible:
1. Openness to new experiences. Network. Meet new people. Re-engage with people you know.
2. Intuition. Listen to yourself. Meditate to clear your mind regularly.
3. Optimism. The mind is a feedback loop that creates self-fulfilling prophecies, so be positive.
4. Resilience. “Success is moving from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” (Winston Churchill)
To that I add, don’t try to avoid pain:
Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you. You just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.
(mis-attributed to Bob Marley; actual author unknown)
Be open. Be intuitive. Be optimistic. Be resilient. Good luck!
In the meantime, I’m looking forward to Get Lucky: The Book.
I’m going to make it a habit to spend time with people who are lucky, and we’ll see what happens when I practice lucky traits.
I will stay interconnected and get enough sleep.
Yes, sleep…
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Refer to me as @ifindkarma and I’ll be happy. You can also find this work as a chapter in Eric Ries’s and Hunter Walk’s wonderful Uncensored book for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Photo credits: All four pictures in this post were taken by me using Instagram on iPhone 4s, and are hosted on Flickr. These pictures feature the cats I humbly serve: Beavis, the 18-year-old silver Tabby; Coco, the 18-month-old Tuxedo kitty; and (unnamed), the 9-month-old lucky black cat who adopted me last week at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley. Not pictured is Lola, the 9-year-old Oklahoma runaway feline who is camera-shy.
January 12, 2012
Who’s got it better than us? NOBODY! #Harbaughisms
Joyce reminds me that 1/11 PandaWhale turned one year old.
Right now we’re working on awesomizing PandaWhale, building on what we’ve learned from our alpha.
We draw on inspiration from Jim Harbaugh:
Who’s got it better than us? NOBODY!
I repeatedly watch 0:55 into this clip…
The 49ers reached the NFC title game because of three things: The Team. The Team. The Team.
What transformed The Team from 6-10 last year to the NFC Championship this year? Jim Harbaugh!
I’m sad that Harbaugh hasn’t tweeted his philosophy recently.
That philosophy was imbued in Jim and his brother John “early on, an approach, a way of looking at things in terms of football, or life… That comes from our parents.”
Their dad Jack Harbaugh would chauffeur the boys to school each day and utter the same 20 words:
Ok, men, grab your lunchboxes and attack this day with an enthusiasm UNKNOWN TO MANKIND.
And don’t take any wooden nickels.
They turned out to be words to live by.
“In this world, you can choose to be positive or you can choose to be negative,” Jack Harbaugh says. “You can choose to see things through a set of eyes that sees good or you can choose to see things in life that aren’t so good.
“At least every day, they were reminded to look at it through a positive set of eyes. Let the lens of your eyes be positive.“
We try to stay positive as PandaWhale navigates our creative process to create a masterpiece.
Like Alex Smith after a 27-yard QB sweep!
So in honor of PandaWhale’s anniversary, here are 11 of my favorite #Harbaughisms:
11. “I don’t like that kind of football where you try and talk and intimidate. It’s not real. You play with your feet, your legs, you play with your hands. Just play football. Shut up and play football.“
10. “I just like being the guy who throws the rocks at the beehive every now and then.”
9. ”I didn’t want to be in any kind of comfort zone. I didn’t want to be in any kind of guaranteed situation. The fact that it was uncharted waters, try to figure out ways to do things, gave me energy.“
8. “I don’t take vacations. I don’t get sick. I don’t observe major holidays. I’m a jackhammer.”
7. “As long as everything that’s said is said against us, we feel a certain assurance of success. It’s when they go the other way, when flowery words of praise start to be heaped upon us — that’s when we start to feel exposed before our enemies.”
6. “ALL OBSTACLES CAN AND MUST BE OVERCOME. That’ll be our approach without excuse.“
5. “We’re not sustaining a gosh darn thing. We despise the word sustaining. We despise the word satisfaction.“
4. “What’s YOUR deal?” (“I’m great.”)
3. “We want to win with numbing repetition.“
2. “Attack this endeavor with enthusiasm unknown to mankind.” (“EUTM” comes from Jack Harbaugh.)
It’s worth reading Jack Harbaugh’s story of “Who’s got it better than us? Noooo-body.”
To this day, it gets Jim Harbaugh all fired up.
Bay Area rapper Bailey even turned it into a rap.
Been there, done that, got the tee shirt.
Nobody has it better than us. NOOOO-BODY!!!
And on that note, it’s back to the creative process we go, to create a better “masterpiece”…
Go Niners! Go Niners! Go Niners!
Meanwhile, special props to the 49ers Special Teams for being DELIGHTFULLY QUIRKY!
The 49ers Special Teams Unit can be seen dancing before every kickoff to a song by Future called “Tony Montana” …
Who dances better than us? NOBODY!
January 1, 2012
Between being and becoming is an #AttitudeOfGratitude
In 2011 I resolved to own an attitude of gratitude.
In 2012 I resolve, again, to adopt an attitude of gratitude.
But first, let’s review 2011.
In 2011 I played outside. That was excellent.
And, I consumed many bootie mashups.
In 2011 I continued my obsession with pandas.
2012 is Year of the Dragon. The Water Dragon.
That’s right, 2012 will be Panda vs Dragon.
Don’t underestimate the things that I will do.
In 2012 I will face the difficult questions we face in creating a happy life.
Forty-Two means living in the exhilarating tension between being and becoming.
People have asked me where the phrase Between Being and Becoming came from.
SNL season 15, episode 17, Dana Carvey as George F. Will’s Sports Machine:
George F. Will: All right, hands on buzzers. [ he hits several buttons on the machine, which spits out a quiz card that George reads ] “The precarious balance between infield and outfield suggests a perfect symmetry. For $50, identify the effect of that symmetry.”
[ the contestants stare cluelessly, as the buzzer sounds ]
George F. Will: Sorry. The answer is: “The exhilarating tension between being and becoming.” Being and becoming. Next question…
That phrase has been spinning infinity in my head since I first heard it.
I believe that life is a precarious balance, a perfect symmetry.
We have to be who we are, while becoming who we want to be.
We don’t just want to be hard-working, awake, and accepting of ourselves.
We want to be a better version of ourselves. To continually improve.
In 2012 I resolve to…
1. Be grateful. Wake up every morning with a deep breath and an #AttitudeOfGratitude.
2. Be here now. Don’t try to live your life in one day.
3. Be excellent. Excellence is a habit.
5. Be bold. Fortune favors the bold. TDs only; play to win.
6. Be creative. Creativity is just connecting the dots.
7. Be optimistic. Optimism creates luck.
8. Be who you are, as hard as you can. It’s not about what happens to you; it’s about how you respond to wha
t happens to you.
t happens to you.
10. Be healthy. Spiritually, emotionally, physically, just dance.
11. Be happy. Happiness is the way.
12. Be kind. Only kindness matters in the end.
Tom Landry said, “Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”
That said, these twelve goals are qualitative, not quantitative. Each day as I wake up I can resolve to be grateful, excellent, lucky, bold, optimistic, creative, punctual, healthy, happy, and kind, but I’m not going to count each act of demonstrating that quality. It doesn’t feel right to count random acts of kindness (#raok).
Instead I’m going to include these values in my thoughts whenever I can.
Thoughts become words become actions become habits become character.
And character is destiny.
I know how this works. The creative process is tough.
To summarize: Touchdowns only; no Field Goals. Play to win.
Who’s got it better than us? NOBODY!
Now excuse me while I pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space…
December 9, 2011
#42
Anything that happens, happens.
Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen.
Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.
It doesn’t necessarily do it in chronological order, though.
~ Douglas Adams
Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen.
Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.
It doesn’t necessarily do it in chronological order, though.
~ Douglas Adams
.
Most people do not comprehend,
[no matter how] they encounter such things,
nor do they understand what they learn;
they believe only themselves.
~ Heraclitus
[no matter how] they encounter such things,
nor do they understand what they learn;
they believe only themselves.
~ Heraclitus
.
Every thought is a seed.
If you plant crab apple, don’t count on harvesting Golden Delicious.
~ Bill Meyer
If you plant crab apple, don’t count on harvesting Golden Delicious.
~ Bill Meyer
.
All the lessons of history in four sentences:
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power.
The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small.
The bee fertilizes the flower it robs.
When it is dark enough, you can see stars.
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power.
The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small.
The bee fertilizes the flower it robs.
When it is dark enough, you can see stars.
In the spirit of Thirty and Thirty-Five comes the following awesome, beautiful, and creative web of thoughts that occupy my brain.
No matter.
I’m not patient enough to write poetry or prose, so I’ll just count down after Futurama.
Don’t you worry about life, the universe, and everything; let me worry about blank…
42. We believe in the interconnectedness of all things.
41. Everything is about inclusion.
40. Everything is everythang.
39. Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.
38. As human beings, our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
37. Let it go. This too shall pass.
36. SIMPLIFY.
35. Lessons are repeated until they are learned.
34. The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
33. Reflect on happiness.
32. People are very bad at predicting what will make us happy.
31. There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.
30. We are feedback loops. We are the stories we tell ourselves.
29. Love is when you open your heart to pain.
28. To get over grief, be there for someone else’s grief.
27. Kittie heaven is mousie hell.
26. Bird is the word!
25. The ride does not require an explanation. Just occupants.
24. It’s not going to stop till you wise up.
23. Character is destiny.
22. Reflection creates identity.
21.
You can do anything.
20. We can change the world with a pen and paper. We keep waiting, waiting.
19. Starting is hard.
18. We’ll see.
17. Life is… delicious ambiguity.
16. Beware drift. Do what you love!
15. True happiness comes from within.
14. Get yourself a giant panda! (Super kawaii!)
13. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
12. That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.
11. It goes to 11. (Be sure to read through to Andy Weir’s story, “The Egg”!)
10. Life is like business. It’s 20 percent what happens to you, and 80 percent how you respond.
9. 80 percent of success is showing up.
8. Our attitudes produce our luck.
7. Love more, fear less.
6. Be grateful for every breath.
5. Be who you are, as hard as you can.
4. Be here now.
3. Be excellent.
2. There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.
1. Only kindness matters in the end.
42.
Anything that happens, happens.
Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen.
Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.
It doesn’t necessarily do it in chronological order, though.
~ Douglas Adams.Most people do not comprehend,
[no matter how] they encounter such things,
nor do they understand what they learn;
they believe only themselves.
~ Heraclitus.Every thought is a seed.
If you plant crab apple, don’t count on harvesting Golden Delicious.
~ Bill Meyer.
All the lessons of history in four sentences:
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power.
The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small.
The bee fertilizes the flower it robs.
When it is dark enough, you can see stars.
In the spirit of Thirty and Thirty-Five comes Forty-Two — the following awesome, beautiful, and creative web of thoughts that occupy my brain.
I’m not patient enough to write poetry or prose, so I’ll just count down after Futurama.
Don’t you worry about life, the universe, and everything; let me worry about blank…
42. We believe in the interconnectedness of all things.
41. Everything is about inclusion.
39. Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.
38. As human beings, our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
37. Let it go. This too shall pass.
36. SIMPLIFY.
35. Lessons are repeated until they are learned.
34. The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
32. People are very bad at predicting what will make us happy.
31. There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.
30. We are feedback loops. We are the stories we tell ourselves.
29. Love is when you open your heart to pain.
28. To get over grief, be there for someone else’s grief.
27. Kittie heaven is mousie hell.
25. The ride does not require an explanation. Just occupants.
24. It’s not going to stop till you wise up.
22. Reflection creates identity.
20. We can change the world with a pen and paper.
18. We’ll see.
17. Life is… delicious ambiguity.
16. Beware drift. Do what you love!
15. True happiness comes from within.
14. Get yourself a giant panda! (Super kawaii!)
13. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
12. That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.
11. It goes to 11. (Be sure to read through to Andy Weir’s story, “The Egg”!)
10. Life is like business. It’s 20 percent what happens to you, and 80 percent how you respond.
9. 80 percent of success is showing up.
8. Our attitudes produce our luck.
6. Be grateful for every breath.
5. Be who you are, as hard as you can.
4. Be here now.
2. There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.
1. Only kindness matters in the end.
********* …enlightenment… *********
Kittie heaven is mousie hell.
We’ll see. But before we get to that, let’s reflect on the last year.
I began this year with an attitude of gratitude.
I am caught in the tension between being and becoming.
I am on a path to be excellent, and I never skip a day.
But I need more luck.
You can create the conditions to make your own luck by practicing your openness, intuition, optimism, and resilience when things go badly.
A new year is a new beginning. A time to make new changes, experience new things, forgive those who have done you wrong, and put the past behind you.
You are the author of your own life, and you can make this next chapter one to remember.
You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequence of choice.
So don’t worry, choose wisely if you want to get to heaven.
Everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to die.
For now, we live. And who’s got it better than us? Nobody.
Think of heaven and hell like any destination: not as places but as ways of looking at things.
Is it heaven or hell to spend 22 months making stop motion animation with jellybeans?
It mostly depends on whether you have choice.
Without choice, heaven or hell depends on who you are.
Kittie heaven is mousie hell, and if you’re a mousie there’s nothing you can do but commit.
But with choice, heaven or hell depends on attitude.
Once upon a time, in a temple nestled in the misty end of south hill, lived a pair of monks. One old and one young.
‘What are the differences between Heaven and Hell?’ the young monk asked the learned master one day.
‘There are no material differences,’ replied the old monk peacefully.
‘None at all?’ asked the confused young monk.
‘Yes. Both Heaven and Hell look the same. They all have a dining hall with a big hot pot in the center in which some delicious noodles are boiled, giving off an appetizing scent,’ said our old priest. ‘The size of the pan and the number of people sitting around the pot are the same in these two places.’
‘But oddly, each diner is given a pair of meter-long chopsticks and must use them to eat the noodles. And to eat the noodles, one must hold the chopsticks properly at their ends, no cheating is allowed,’ the zen master went on to describe to our young monk.
‘In the case of Hell, people are always starved because no matter how hard they try, they fail to get the noodles into their mouths,’ said the old priest.
‘But isn’t it the same happens to the people in Heaven?’ the junior questioned.
‘No. They can eat because they each feed the person sitting opposite them at the table. You see, that is the difference between Heaven and Hell,’ explained the old monk.
The moral of this story is simple: A turn in mind is all the difference between Heaven and Hell lies (???????????????????????????).
Be kind to people and people will be kind to you.
The choice is yours, don’t be late.
December 8, 2011
Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.
The Internets say that Bob Marley said that everyone’s gonna hurt you but some people are worth it anyway.
No matter how much I search, I cannot find the context under which he said it or even if he said it…
“Truth is” is a lesson that repeats until it is learned.
I speak “truth is”, and “truth is” speaks to me.
We are feedback loops.
We are the stories we tell ourselves.
“Truth is” is interconnected through time…
- “Be here now.” This began my wondering if Bob Marley even said it.
- I’m willing to believe that 6 million Facebook likes can’t be wrong.
- So I Facebook’d it too, looking for answers. None came.
- And I did it again.
- I tumbled for it. And I asked on Quora.
- But still no one on the Internets knows when or why Bob Marley said this.
- It reminds me that life is pain, highness; anyone who says differently is selling something.
Fear of pain causes stress.
Do not fear pain. Let go of fear.
Maureen Killoran said, “Stress is not what happens to us. It’s our response to what happens, and the response is something we can choose.”
Maybe I will wait forever and never find out if Bob Marley said it.
The truth about forever is that it is happening right now.
Maybe I will get lucky.
Those who open ourselves to pain often find luck.
It’s worth taking some time to learn to attract luck:
- Create your luck, says Altucher. Luck only takes 4 steps.
- There are 4 principles for making luck, says Bakadesuyo.
- Make your own luck, says 106 Miles paraphrasing Bakadesuyo.
- Happiness affects luck profoundly, says Tumblr. I repeat it.
- Invest in a luck factory and make a fortune, says ifindkarma.
- What traits do lucky people share? Optimism.
- Attitude affects luck, says Wiseman.
Memo to self: include luck in my incantations to be great.
And include luck in my incantations to be kind.
Malcolm S. Forbes said that too many people undervalue what we are and overvalue what we are not.
Instead, find someone or something worth suffering for.
Open yourself to heaven and earth, then trust your natural responses; and everything will
fall into place.
fall into place.
Step out of your comfort zone.
That is where the magic happens…
Postscript, a few days later. Truth is, Bob Marley probably did not say this.
Thank you, Spyridon Michalakis, in helping my quest for the truth.
