Out of all the thumbnails I’ve used for videos, this is my favourite. (Source)

I started making videos on YouTube because it was something I’d never done. As you might expect though, I sucked at it. I mumbled and stuttered and lost my train of thoughts, and just had all sorts of a nasty time trying to speak to a camera lens. But it didn’t make sense.

Why can’t I talk to a camera lens?

Looking back, it seems silly that I feared it like I did. But that’s not because the fear is silly. It’s because I thought that maybe, just maybe, it’s not something that could be learned. Maybe this was the exception. A skill that you had to be born with. You can talk to a camera, or you can’t, I thought. There is no middle-ground. There is always a middle-ground though. It just took some persistence (and a couple of simple tactics in the short-term) to find it.

The Most Important Thing

There’s a lot of “cures” for nervousness and a lot of tricks to ease discomfort, all of which can lead to wildly different results from person to person. One person might find them useful and another might receive no benefit whatsoever. That’s not much use to us though. We need the principle that allows for lasting, consistent change. And what is that principle? It’s a classic:

Practice makes perfect.

But wait! Don’t flick to some other page on the internet. The notion might be cliché, but that simply leads people to not paying attention to the deeper message, and there’s a lot that can be learned about practice. At the end of the day though, if you want to feel comfortable in front of a camera, nothing is more effective than sitting down every day and talking in front of a camera. You might feel awkward and lame, but you’re tackling the problem head-on, and what could be more effective than that?

To lessen the ambivalence though, don’t feel the need to share every single video you make. I’ve made dozens that never saw the light of day, and when you see the older videos that did make the cut, you’ll understand just how badly things must have gone.

At the same time though, feedback from people on the internet can be very useful, so I’d suggest you to upload as much as you’re comfortable with. Or maybe even a little more than you’re comfortable with. Try to push yourself. Comments on the internet tend to be blunt, which can hurt, but they’re also more accurate than what a real-life friend might offer.

As far as trolls are concerned, they’re not that big of a deal. Most people on YouTube — and the internet in general, for that matter — are quite pleasant and won’t attack every apparent flaw you have. The basement-dwellers who want to cause emotional harm usually focus on people making popular videos. It’s how they get the attention they crave.

Making Progress

In Dan Shipper’s article, You Have To Get Good Before You Get Better, he talks about what it’s like learning to make computer software. That doesn’t sound relevant, but he explains that, of those who are successful in learning to make software, they:

…treat their progress as an inevitability so long as they put in the work.

And that’s a great approach to any sort of learning, while also being particularly useful for folks who want to sit and talk in front of a camera. It’s not like this is a genetically-coded skill. Anyone can talk in front of a camera. If you’re life experiences haven’t prepared you for it, that makes it a struggle, but it’s by no means out of reach. Compare this, for instance, with this.

Those are videos that I made, but with a couple of years between them. It’s not hard to spot the difference and, although two years may seem like a long time, I hope this shows you that, at least in this case, progress is inevitable. It will happen. You just have to “show up”.

That Big Red Button

For a long while, making videos was a stressful experience. I didn’t just feel uncomfortable, my heart would start to race whenever I pressed that big red button to record from my camera. As soon as I tried to speak, the words would be mumbled and meek and all hope would be lost. I continued like this for a long while, furthering my belief (at the time) that maybe I wasn’t ready to make videos (and maybe I’d never be ready).

To combat this, however, is surprisingly simple: don’t start talking as soon as you push the recording button. The magic of editing means you can press the button, sit there for three or four seconds (or minutes, even), then begin talking. This allows a moment to calm your nerves and avoid the mumbling in the beginning that’s only going to deteriorate your confidence.

You might also like to sit in front of the web-cam while it’s recording, even without the plan of making a video, just to show yourself how un-scary it is. For some, that will sound extreme. For me though, it helped eliminate most of my irrational fears.

(Avoid) Flying Blind

A lack of preparation is a big reason you might feel nervous in front of the camera. It’s also a perfectly-justified reason to feel nervous. When you don’t know what you’re trying to say, you spend all your time trying to figure it out, and it’s impossible to be (and appear) comfortable and confident when that’s the case. So, before each video, ask yourself:

What the hell are you trying to say?

In the early days of making videos, I couldn’t answer this question with confidence. I had a basic, mental outline of news stories I had to cover, but that didn’t offer a lot of help. For the video below though, I had a TaskPaper file opened in front of me and a clear list of the major points I wanted to make. There was still plenty of room for on-the-spot creativity, and I said a lot of things I hadn’t planned to say, but that’s because the plan was in place. The plan was a structure that made one part of the process predictable, and predictability brings comfort.

It’s “Just” Public Speaking

Even though the audience for an online video isn’t visible when we’re making a video, it’s still the very thing that makes us nervous. The idea of that audience sitting there, judging us, and waiting for us to make a mistake is almost as terrifying as the audience itself. But while being afraid of a camera lens is consistent with the fear of public speaking, so are the solutions, so we don’t have to cower in fear for (too) long.

For more adventurous souls, you could join a public speaking club. If you’re uncomfortable in front of a camera though, you’re probably uncomfortable in front of a crowd of people (even if those people are also there to learn). That’s why we can turn to these things called “books”.

The awareness that all public speaking skills will transfer to talking in front of a camera means there’s a ton of training material available. I am fond of two books though:

• Confessions of a Public Speaker, which is an honest collection of stories from an experienced public speaker, filled with cringe-worthy moments and practical advice. There’s no better, overall picture of what it’s like to be a public speaker.
• Win the Crowd: Unlock the Secrets of Influence, Charisma, and Showmanship, which is less about public speaking and more about being in front of a crowd and keeping them captivated. You’ll get your money’s worth from the exercises at the end of chapters.

And that’s it. I don’t want to make it seem like becoming comfortable on camera is some slick, five-step process. You will encounter self-doubt and (temporary) defeat along the way. There’ll be a point where it will “click” though. It is guaranteed to happen at some point. You just have to hold-out in the mean time.

The post How To Be Comfortable on Camera (and What This Can Teach You About Learning) appeared first on Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

Last Night in Japan, 2011.

I’m a fan of self-analysis. It can be limiting to associate yourself with various definitions based around collections of data, but you will at least come away with an understanding of how other people might perceive you. With this in mind, there’s three tests in particular that I’m a fan of.

1. Strengths Finder 2.0

The code that comes inside the book allows you to complete an online, multiple-choice quiz that determines your top five strengths. These strengths are not specific to the point that you’ll have an exact career-path as a result, but you will have an idea of the sort of work and hobbies you might enjoy.

According to the test, these are my strengths:

1. Intellection
2. Empathy
3. Futuristic
4. Learner
5. Input

But the inclusion of “Intellection” as one of my strengths doesn’t mean I’m smart. This isn’t an IQ test, after all. Instead:

People who are especially talented in the Intellection them are characterised by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciated intellectual discussions.

Therefore, this particular theme suggests an interest in things associated with intelligence, rather than intelligence itself. The results also suggest that “writing might be the best way for [me] to crystallise and integrate [my] thoughts,” which is probably why I enjoy writing on this site so much.

The rest of the themes can be seen in the same way. They’re not a grading of your worth as a human being. They’re simply indications of where your energy might be best spent.

2. Myer Briggs Test

Probably the most famous personality test that exists, the Myer Briggs Test will give you a comprehensive clarification of what’s going on in your brain. Since it also has an emphasis on strengths, it also acts as a great cross-reference for the Strengths Finder 2.0 test. You’ll have a better understanding of the really obvious things you should be focusing on.

For the curious, I fall under the “INTP” category.

3. Handwriting Wizard

I stumbled across this test a while back, and while I didn’t expect a lot from the results, they blew me away. They were specific, relevant to recent experience (at the time), and offered a lot for me to think about. I would suggest skipping through the test’s constant pushing for you to buy something though. The free test is fine.

For your reading pleasure, I’ve included the full results of the handwriting analysis below. Just be aware, this is where you learn that I’m a grossly imperfect human being. (These results are a couple of years old though, so I’ve been working to fix the issues.)

Handwriting Analysis Results

David has difficulty making decisions. His mind changes constantly. He lives in an emotional tug of war. David could be described like a thermometer. Today warm and friendly, yet tomorrow he may be distant and cold, not wanting to be close to anyone.

Some research indicates that people with a severe variety in the slant of their handwriting have an inability to tolerate sugar and are suffering the side-effects of too much sugar in their diet. If moods swings are a reoccurring issue, investigate the diet.

If David encounters a situation he cannot handle he frequently pulls into himself. He feels his emotions are secure if he is withdrawn. When he has solved the problem he can be very outgoing and again need other people’s companionship. Some see David as very moody, but it it would be more accurate to say he has two complete personalities that he chooses depending on the circumstance. This type of person is often hard to understand because no one knows what personality he is exhibiting today. He may not be bothered by something one minute, then the next minute become upset at the same thing. It is very difficult to pin down David’s emotional expressiveness.

People that write their letters in an average height and average size are moderate in their ability to interact socially. According to the data input, David doesn’t write too large or too small, indicating a balanced ability to be social and interact with others.

David will be candid and direct when expressing his opinion. He will tell them what he thinks if they ask for it, whether they like it or not. So, if they don’t really want his opinion, don’t ask for it!

David is a cumulative and procedural thinker. He likes to have all the facts before making a decision. He thinks or creates much like a brick mason, stacking fact upon fact. His thought pattern or the conclusion will not be complete until the last fact is in place. Like that brick wall, David learns faster through visual demonstration than through quick verbal instructions. Once he has learned new material, and understood it, he won’t forget.

David is a methodical thinker, therefore he is able to build things and come up with new ideas. In an argument, he often loses to rapid thinking people because he is thinking thirty minutes later about what he should have said. These people often are very booksmart, but can be out-gunned in a rapid fire verbal debate.

He may learn new ideas at a slower pace than other “less detailed” people, but once he gets it, he can handle repetition. Some people hate jobs with too much repetition, he can handle it better than most.

David’s true self-image is unreasonably low. Someone once told David that he wasn’t a great and beautiful person, and he believed them. David also has a fear that he might fail if he takes large risks. Therefore he resists setting his goals too high, risking failure. He doesn’t have the internal confidence that frees him to take risks and chance failure. David is capable of accomplishing much more than he is presently achieving. All this relates to his self-esteem.

David’s self-concept is artificially low. David will stay in a bad situation much too long… why? Because he is afraid that if he makes a change, it might get worse. It is hard for David to plan too far into the future. He kind of takes things on a day to day basis. He may tell you his dreams but he is living in today, with a fear of making a change. No matter how loud he speaks, look at his actions. This is perhaps the biggest single barrier to happiness people not believing in and loving themselves. David is an example of someone living with a low self-image, because their innate self-confidence was broken.

David is constantly disappointed when trying to reach success. He works very hard, perhaps harder than most, then just before succeeding, something happens that keeps him from success. Often, David changes to a second project just before the first one is finished, thus failing to complete the first project. Sometimes he changes because he feels he needs a different challenge. David feels dejected. This feeling relates to his failures. This trait is very important in a working situation and in a relationship. He must be handled in a very special way to get the most work from him or to make a relationship last. Concerning this trait, personality modification is available to change his life.

The post According To My Handwriting, This Is Me (and Other Forms of Self-Analysis That You Might Enjoy) appeared first on Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

This picture is not relevant.

When talking about a craft such as writing, a lot of people suggest they were born to do it. As in, they were born to be a writer. Or born to be a musician. Or born to be a whatever. But the truth is much plainer: we’re not born to be anything.

I would never criticise the belief itself, since it is nice to feel as if the entire universe has taken so much care to blend our passions with our reality. When you discover what you want to do, it can even be a coping mechanism to deal with the difficulties of doing something you love. But there are side-effects when you take pride in this apparent reason for your existence.

The Problem

When we believe we’re born with anything more than the fused genetics of our parents, our options become fixed. We’re born to do this. We’re born to do that. You have one or two things that define your existence, and that’s it. Or maybe you’re not even that lucky.

A lot people don’t know what they’re “born to do”, and the more they’re led to believe that there’s a talent lurking within them, the worse it becomes. Talent is created, not found, and yet the Disney-esque belief that there’s a spark within all of us is much more attractive. It doesn’t involve actual work, after all. You’re just born with it. Like a limb. Or asthma.

This is something I struggled with for a while, since writers in particular like to romanticise the idea of innate ability. “It was always there,” a writer might say say when questioned about their skill. “I just felt the fire inside of me, you know?”

But it wasn’t always there. You didn’t come out of the womb with a pen in hand. You didn’t even understand the language you grew-up to write with. If I’m such a know-it-all though, why do so many people feel like this? And are they really all wrong?

Yes.

A writer who believes they were born to write or a musician who believes they were born to play music were simply exposed to these aspects of life in a positive learning an environment at a young age and have simply forgotten about this specific point in time.

Becoming a Writer (or Anything Else)

My interest in writing started with reading. Our school had a library that had a lot of fantastic books for children and young adults, and they weren’t just “the classics”. They were books that were extremely fun to read to the point that picking out a book each week was an adventure. I soon craved new books and stories and my parents were more than happy to encourage this.

A lady at a bookstore recommended Contest, an action novel by Matthew Reilly. I read the book in a single sitting — which I’d never done before — and took note of just how effortless it was to read. Reilly has such a direct and clear writing style that the book felt like a movie in my head. I wasn’t reading it at this point. I was experiencing it.

There didn’t seem to be any strange voodoo at play though. The words were short. The sentences were simple. I could see the gears turning behind the story, and yet it worked. It sucked me in and made me crave more. And that’s when I realised:

Maybe I could be a writer.

It wasn’t a thought that launched me into writing a grand novel in that exact moment. It’d be years before I wrote an actual first draft of something. That was the first moment where it felt possible though, and it lay the ground work for the eventual, reignited interest. But the steps I took don’t matter as much as the fact that there were steps I took. I didn’t unleash some deep part of my soul that revealed me to be a writer. My circumstances turned me to writing. That’s it. And even those circumstances aren’t as clear as I’ve made them seem. It was a messy, messy road, and I could never really know where I’d end-up (and I still don’t know, of course).

The reason I’m aware of this though is because my interest in writing developed over a fairly long period time. As a kid, I had a lot of interests and the incredible distraction known as “the Internet”, so reading didn’t take up the majority of my time. The writers who are unaware of their process of becoming a writer probably followed through a similar series of steps, but in shorter periods of time, which is why they’re forgetful. They were just too young.

The Messy, Messy Road

It’s this progression that reminds me of a sketch from Demetri Martin’s This Is A Book:

There’s no clear path. There’s no true, lightbulb moments that change everything. To assume you’re born with “a fire in your belly” that pushes you toward a certain path in life is to ignore all the experiences you’ve had up until that point. We are products of our circumstances, and that’s not something to feared. If anything, it’s liberating. If we’re just made of what surrounds us, we can change what surrounds us to change who we are. We’re not locked in at all.

The post Natural Talent Doesn’t Exist (and Why We’re Really Not Born to Be Anything) appeared first on Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

Despite the silly title for this post, the seemingly-simplistic idea conveyed through the above flowchart is really the “super-secret method for everything being incredibly amazing forever”. Because, while it’s not literally a secret, people (including myself) forget that unhappiness is a feeling influenced by our circumstances, and those circumstances can always be changed.

Change, of course, is not simple. If you’re feeling miserable at any point though, reflect on the previous few weeks of your life. You’ve probably maintained a repetitive string of activities that you know aren’t that good for you. Once you have that awareness, follow this process:

1. Stop doing those things…
2. …and replace them with vastly different (even contradictory) activities.

Again, it’s difficult. It might even feel impossible. But it’s the solution. There’s no need for extensive self-help, or shilling out hundreds of dollars for an inspirational seminar. You just need to change something, and that change has to be significant enough to be scary. The changes you make should be personal, but here’s a few things I’ve done in recent days:

1. Participated in a 26.2km walk in support of the Cancer Council.
2. Attended a couple of meet-ups in relation to NaNoWriMo. (For more general meetups, use meetup.com.)
3. Became a member of the National Parks Association of NSW so I’m able to meet other people interested in bushwalking and other adventure-ish activities.

They’re not necessarily massive actions, but they are different from my regular reality, and I’ve managed all of them (in addition to a few others) in the past four days. I’m curious to see what else I’ve changed a week from now. Forward momentum, onward!

Related: How To Do Scary Things

The post How To Be Happy: The Ultimate, Super-Secret Method for Everything Being Incredibly Amazing Forever appeared first on Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

NaNoWriMo is a fantastic time of the year where tens of thousands of people come together and write 50,000 words in a single month. It’s an excellent way to get people writing, but a lot people never make it to the end. Tragic, right? But as someone who succeeded on their first attempt, I thought I’d share some tips to get you through it.

1. Wake up early on the first day. You need to charge at NaNoWriMo with teeth bared and a maniacal, contorted expression on your face. Or, for the less insane, just get a few words down as soon as possible when you wake up. No shower. No breakfast. Just write.
2. Set low barriers to entry. Don’t commit to writing a thousand words in a single sitting. You’re more likely to sprout wings. Instead, just commit to writing five words when you sit down. The rest of the words will come when they’re ready. They just need that push.
3. Over-describe everything. The point is to reach the daily word count. Does it matter if half of those words are dedicated to describing a coffee table? Not at all! Give me a God-damn beautiful description of that bloody thing. There’s no rules against it.
4. Write with a friend. If I wasn’t accountable to a friend when I did NaNoWriMo the first time around, I wouldn’t have finished. The shame of failing in front of someone you know in the real world is a powerful motivator.
5. Join a local meet-up. This is a good alternative for people who lack friends (or at least, who lack friends who want to write 50,000 words in a month). You should be able to find meet-ups via the official forums. And fear not, internet people tend to be friendly.
6. Don’t bore yourself. You’ll reach a point where your story drags on. More than anything, this is what saps motivation. But there’s a solution: make it interesting again! Introduce a character. Blow something up. Add dragons. It’s your story. You can do anything with it.
7. Just get it down. You can’t over-think the process. The moment you compare your work to finished products, you’ll psych yourself out. Focus on getting the words down. You have no other priority. If it takes a minute to write a couple of sentences, write faster.
8. Work with descending word counts. This involves writing 3346 words on the first day, then less words per day for the rest of the month until you only have to write one word on the final day. You can see the specific, daily word targets here.
9. Create multiple story-lines. It might seem simpler to follow one character throughout a book, but multiple viewpoints and interwoven stories give you a lot of variety when you’re running out of steam after spending too much time with a particular character.
10. Remain hopeful. After writing multiple first drafts and dealing with a ton of self-doubt, I can promise you that, even when you feel like you’ve reached a dead-end, you’re literally right around the corner from an extremely interesting twist in your story. Don’t give up!
11. Procrastinate by reading books on writing. The ones that focus on self-doubt — like Bird by Bird and The Getaway Car — are the best way to get you back in the mood to get some words down. You might even learn something that stays with you. (Crazy, I know.)

If all else fails, remember how satisfied you’ll feel when you reach the end. It’s a big thing to write so many words in such a short amount of time, and that sense of achievement is more than worth it.

The post How to Survive NaNoWriMo: 11 Tips to Write 50,000 Words in 30 Days (Without Throwing Yourself Out a Window) appeared first on Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

NaNoWriMo, 2010.

I read a lot of books at a young age and attempted to write a novel at the age of eleven, but outside of homework assignments at school, never put a lot of words on paper until October 1st, 2010, which marked the start of that year’s NaNoWriMo.

For those who might not be aware, NaNoWriMo — National Novel Writing Month — is a time where thousands of people on the internet commit to writing 50,000 words of fiction over the course of thirty days. The idea is that you switch off your inner-critic and finally get around to writing that novel everyone says they have in them.

Without a doubt, my involvement in NaNoWriMo changed a lot for me. Just a few months after completing it, I started writing on a regular basis, knocking out a minimum of 1500 words per day (and I’ve maintained this for nearly a year and a half without missing a single day), and this has resulted in writing five, complete first drafts. Those drafts aren’t masterpieces, for sure, but I’ve made vast improvements to my writing in that time, and I owe that all to NaNoWriMo.

Of course, there are criticisms against the initiative, but they tend to come from bitter editors who complain when participants send in their unpolished drafts once the month is over. And yes, it’s unfortunate that people do that. All good writing is rewriting. You never get it right on the first draft. Or the second. Or third. Or tenth, even. It takes time.

But criticisms of the event miss the point. Is it really fair to encourage people not to create art simply because there’s a small subset of people who are over-eager in their dreams to become the next, ultra-successful author? Answer:

No. That’s not fair at all.

The world needs more art, not less, and the exact people who should be creating art are the ones who are the most scared to do so. Encouraging them to do otherwise is one hell of a dick-move, and that’s why I had to share these reasons to participate in NaNoWriMo. It’s something everyone should give a go at least once in their life. You might even enjoy it.

It’s Something You’ve Never Done

Maybe you consider yourself a writer. You may have even finished a first draft. But have you written 50,000 words in thirty days? If you’re reading this, you probably haven’t, and that makes for the perfect opportunity to do something you’ve never done. Because, while writing a lot of words in a short amount of time is neat, there’s benefits you simply can’t anticipate.

As a result of NaNoWriMo, I:

• Discovered a love of writing fiction that has turned into a habit that involves writing 1500 words per day. I’ve never been so disciplined with anything else in my life.
• Attended the Paris Writing Workshop in July of 2012. I learned a whole lot about writing, made friends, and simply had one of the best months of my life.
• Enjoyed countless, imaginary conversations with the characters I’ve created. (Okay, so this might be more a symptom, rather than something to be proud of.)

The writing part of NaNoWriMo is incredible. But considering it’s such an ambitious and taxing endeavour, there’s so much else that can be gained from it. Just be willing to be surprised.

There’s a Lot of Value in Quantity

“Quality over quantity,” says every well-intentioned person who isn’t getting anything done. And yes, quality is awesome. It’s nice to make good stuff. But there’s a whole lot of problems with being overly-focused on quality:

• The fear of sucking at something will stop you from doing anything.
• You lose motivation since there’s no chance to move fast and build momentum.
• It ignores the natural ebb and flow of creation — write, then rewrite.

The care-free encouragement to write 50,000 words in thirty days, however, is the perfect way to break through all of these roadblocks, and allows you to:

• Shut-off the inner-critic.
• Move fast and stay motivated.
• Get something done.

At some point, you will have to write with care. Quality will matter. It doesn’t have to be today though. For now, you just have to get the words down. Nail that process. The rest can wait.

See also: The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How.

You Can Share The Pain

Writing is difficult. But unlike a lot of other difficult things, it’s something you do completely alone. There’s no personal trainer to get you in shape, or close friends to act as motivation, or even clear benchmarks to strive toward. Most of the time, you’re creating stuff in a void.

NaNoWriMo, however, is one of those times where that void disappears. You don’t have to operate alone. Thousands of people start working on a first draft at the exact same time, and every problem imaginable when writing a novel is faced (and defeated) over thirty days. We’re all the same, as you’ll discover during the month. The fears, the struggles, and the insecurities we feel are not just unoriginal. They’re boring. They’ve been done before. But that also means they’ve been defeated before, too. And that is a glorious realisation to have.

You might even be able to rope-in a real-world friend for the month. This is how I ended up participating in the first place, and it’s much more difficult to let someone down when they’re not a faceless person from the Internet. You end up feeling a lot more accountable.

If Not Now, When?

There will always be an excuse not to write. I don’t have time. My idea isn’t good enough. I’m just not inspired. It doesn’t matter what the excuse is. The very fact that you have the capacity to make the excuse means it’s invalid. People who literally can’t do something don’t wonder if they can do it in the first place. The presence of an excuse, then, is precisely a reason to work past that resistance. You can do it. You’re just scared of it. And that makes it worthwhile.

We’re Nothing But Habits

In the oft-repeated words of Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” And it’s not just excellence that’s a habit. Our entire beings are nothing but habits. We are what we do. Not what we say, or what we feel, or how other people see us. The things we do define us, and nothing else.

It’s important, then, to look at your life and ask: what are you current habits? What did you do yesterday? What are you doing today? What are you planning for tomorrow?

If you’re an apparent writer that doesn’t write, you’re living in a fantasy land. You haven’t built the habits of a writer, so why do you deserve the title? But that’s no reason to feel insecure. It’s just one more reason to join NaNoWriMo. Focus one month of your time on writing and, if the process of writing is something you enjoy, the habit will stick. Then you’ll be a writer.

It’s The Ultimate Lifesaver

We might be focusing on NaNoWriMo at the moment, but this is really just art we’re talking about, and as explained by Neil Gaiman in a commencement speech:

[Art] gets you through good times, and it gets you through … the other ones. Sometimes life is hard. Things go wrong — in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do: Make good art.

You should watch the entire speech in the video below to understand how important it is to make art, even when you don’t feel it’s good, and especially when you feel it’s difficult.

The post Dear NaNoWriMo, I Love You (and 6 Reasons to Write 50,000 Words in 30 Days) appeared first on Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

In the words of Steve Jobs:

When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.

This is what I failed to communicate when I said “there’s no big media conspiracy” in Don’t Trust The Media. You can find exceptions, of course, but the media is more often a product of society, rather than the other way around. But while it’s kind of depressing, it’s also freeing.

Why?

Because there’s no need to worry about the media. Just be concerned with not fitting the mould of what the media wants for an audience. Problem solved.

The post Don’t Trust The Media, Part 2: Why The Media Isn’t One, Big Conspiracy (and Why This Is Kind Of Depressing) appeared first on Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

Most people have an Orwellian view of dystopia. If society shifts into a miserable set of circumstances, most people think it’ll be similar to what George Orwell wrote about in 1984. Government control. Cameras always watching us. The truth being hidden from us. And yes, there are some elements of that throughout the world — and in places like North Korea, a considerable amount of it — but that’s not the vision that’s currently “winning”.

At the moment, society is closer to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, so the issues within his book are more relevant to our current situation. The basic gist of the differences between the books can be summarised as:

Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

Not convinced?

As you can see in the comic at the bottom of this post, there’s lots of reasons to believe that Huxley was right. Technology and entertainment begs and encourages constant, and instant gratification, leaving us in a near-endless state of craving pleasure, and tearing us from what are, ultimately, more satisfying pursuits.

That’s not to say we’re actually in a dystopia, but it’s easy to see how life can descend into something extremely vapid without being careful. If you don’t want that to happen, read the comic, then read Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. That’s the book the comic is based on, and which covers this topic in much greater detail.

Of course, doing nothing but reading something won’t have much of a lasting impact. But an awareness of what living a shallow life is like might just provide you with the foresight to avoid that sort of existence for yourself. Or at least, I hope it will.

The post Orwell’s Wrong, Huxley’s Right: The Real Threat of Dystopia, and the Curse of Instant Gratification appeared first on Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

Stoicism revolves around the idea that external events do not cause suffering. Instead, it’s the way we react to external events that determines our happiness. Or, in other words:

Things are neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.

But this is not “positive thinking”. It’s the awareness that, while you may perceive something as “bad”, it doesn’t mean what you’re perceiving has the inherent quality of being bad. It’s only how you see it. Others may agree with you, but it’s still an individually-held perception.

I discovered this line of thinking a couple of years ago and use a lot of what I’ve learned in daily life. If you want to do the same, there’s a few books you might like to read.

Letters from a Stoic by Lucius Seneca is the perfect place to start. It’s easy to read and covers a good chunk of what it means to be a Stoic in simple and relatable terms. In fact, one of my favourite things about reading old books is that you see how little has changed over time. We have fancier technology and different ways of doing things, but for the most part, we’re all the same. If you can only afford one book on the topic, make it this one.

On the Shortness of Life is also something I re-read on a regular basis. As Seneca writes within its glorious pages, “it takes a whole life to learn how to die”, and that’s what this book is about. Death. But not in a miserable, “we’re doomed” sort of way. It’s about how to make the most of our limited time and offers useful reminders, such as:

…you must not think a man has lived long because he has white hair and wrinkles: he has not lived long, just existed long.

Other works from Seneca include On a Happy Life and On Peace of Mind. I mention these together because they fit nicely as a pair and re-iterate a lot of the points made in the other works. There’s also passages that show how little life has changed over the years, like the advice to “avoid dismal men who grumble at whatever happens, and find something to complain of in everything”. (Because we’ve all come across people like that.)

From there, read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. This is the most popular text about Stoicism, and for good reason. Aurelius was a respected and successful commander. Of all the teachers, he was tested the most when it came to practicing the philosophy, making him the furthest thing from an arm-chair philosopher. It also contains my absolute favourite suggestion from any Stoic text:

Live through your life without pressure and in the utmost contentment.

Doesn’t that sound like the most pleasant of ambitions?

The reason I don’t recommend this book as the first one you read though is that it’s slightly more difficult to read at times compared to the other recommendations. Seneca is the easier starting point.

And while I know a few comforting words aren’t enough to end all human suffering, when you dive into the various philosophies that have been developed over time, it’s baffling that the average level of happiness isn’t a few notches higher. These teachers had it figured out, and they’ve been dead for two-thousand years. What’s taking us so long?

In the mean time, you may like to read the works of Epictetus. What I love about this fellow is that after teaching philosophy for decades and gaining immense amounts of respect and fame, he retired, adopted a son, hired a lady to help raise his son, and there’s nothing else we know about him from that point onward.

He didn’t care for the fame or the respect, and he didn’t let it consume him. He took his teaching as far as he wanted, then he disappeared.

As for his writing, Epictetus never wrote anything down, but one of his students transcribed his lectures and they’re believed to be accurate. For those, read:

• Discourses and Selected Writings
• The Enchiridion.

But while I mention these books last, all of them are worthwhile, and I haven’t mentioned anything that I’m not ridiculously fond of. I think the order I’ve mentioned them is the logical approach, but if something stands out, read that first. Considering it’s truth that’s contained within these pages though, they all lead to the same place.

The post The 7 Best Books About Stoicism appeared first on Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

Paris Writing Workshop at the Paris American Academy (July 2012)

In this week’s A List of Things, we’re focusing on finding a purpose in life. But fear not, you don’t have to choose just one thing. You can have more depth than that, and you are able to change the direction of your life whenever you like. As for this list though, it’s about finding at least one thing to give your life meaning. From there, I’m sure you can find some others.

1. Find a Hole and Fill It

Long ago, I stumbled across a Buddhist newsletter that discusses meaning in life as a very practical concept. Instead of finding that one thing to change the world, it says, your time is better spent finding those smaller holes in people’s lives, and trying to fill them.

The full newsletter provides a much clearer explanation of this, however, and includes a useful cement truck-based metaphor, which describes the truck’s purpose with such beauty:

…it simply went about finding holes—needs—and filling them. No grandiose ideals or pretensions: just simple, ordinary, practical, useful kind of work.

You should read the full thing to get the complete picture. There’s even a printed copy on my desk, which should suggest how useful I find this string of words to be.

2. How Do You Make Life-Changing Decisions?

Back in April, I went to Tanzania with a charity. That nearly didn’t happen, however, because I felt nervous before even applying for the opportunity. But this article from Ryan Holiday (who has a lot of great content on his blog) came at exactly the right time. I read it, and took note of his suggestion to “get rid of the notion that anything about your life is really at stake”, and:

…calm down. We, the young and ambitious, deal almost exclusively with rich white people problems. We’re not going to starve if we make the wrong decision. There is very little we can’t undo.

The rest of the article is also packed with practical tips for making those decisions that, while terrifying, could change everything for us in the most positive way possible. Read it.

Related: How To Do Scary Things

3. What We’re Really Afraid Of

This final article has a narrative-like structure that amplifies the impact of the last point, so I don’t want to spoil the fun by reiterating the point itself. Like these two other articles though, once you read it, your life will at least a tiny bit better.

The post A List of Things #2 — How to Find Your Life Purpose appeared first on Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.