The Lifelong Learner         by Stanley Kubasek | About Me |

Do you consider yourself an expert in your field?

If so, you're not an expert! I'm sorry to say. :-) Real experts don't call themselves experts. Why? Because they still have a lot of things to learn. "The greatest experts in the world think they're still stoopid, " says The Trizle Team.

In this blog post, link below, they explain this in plain and simple way.

1. Expertise takes decades.
2. Expertise takes improving your expertise, daily.
3. Expertise takes self-guidence.

Do you still consider yourself an expert? :-)

"Be. Sexy. Learn. Forever."

Reference
How to Be An Expert, The Trizle blog

Excellent -- simple -- tips for better writing... I've read these before and generally try to follow them... but it's good to re-read them.

The Day You Became A Better Writer

I went from being a bad writer to a good writer after taking a one-day course in “business writing.” I couldn’t believe how simple it was. I’ll tell you the main tricks here so you don’t have to waste a day in class.

Business writing is about clarity and persuasion. The main technique is keeping things simple. Simple writing is persuasive. A good argument in five sentences will sway more people than a brilliant argument in a hundred sentences. Don’t fight it.

Simple means getting rid of extra words. Don’t write, “He was very happy” when you can write “He was happy.” You think the word “very” adds something. It doesn’t. Prune your sentences.

Humor writing is a lot like business writing. It needs to be simple. The main difference is in the choice of words. For humor, don’t say “drink” when you can say “swill.”

Your first sentence needs to grab the reader. Go back and read my first sentence to this post. I rewrote it a dozen times. It makes you curious. That’s the key.

Write short sentences. Avoid putting multiple thoughts in one sentence. Readers aren’t as smart as you’d think.

Learn how brains organize ideas. Readers comprehend “the boy hit the ball” quicker than “the ball was hit by the boy.” Both sentences mean the same, but it’s easier to imagine the object (the boy) before the action (the hitting). All brains work that way. (Notice I didn’t say, “That is the way all brains work”?)

That’s it. You just learned 80% of the rules of good writing. You’re welcome.

Reference
The Day You Became A Better Writer, The Dilbert Blog

Interesting... Is America behind?

America: The Last Best Hope (Volume I) (Unabridged Audiobook)
by William J. Bennett
ISBN 1595550550
Date Read 6/2007

My Rating

American history is interesting. It has had many great leaders. Reading about Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, Lincoln, Wilson, just to name a few, is fascinating. This is really interesting to me, and I’m not a history buff at all.

My knowledge how America was founded is increasing. I learned a lot from this book. I have to admit that I did not learn a lot about US history in High School nor in College. (I don’t remember anything from those studies, in any case.) But by reading books like this, I am putting things into context and things are starting to make sense for me.

This book presents the events from when America was discovered all the way till the 1st World War. Not everything was interesting, as in any history book, but overall, this was a very good book. Interesting from start to finish... at times, I could not put it down.

What were the most interesting parts? Independence movement, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and Woodrow Wilson.

Negatives? At times, it was not detailed enough. I have read a good deal about the independence movement and learned in detail about Hamilton, Franklin, Washington, and Adams. Not enough was said about them. Coverage about Hamilton was not sufficient, who I consider the most prolific founding father thus far.

Overall, a very good book; interesting 20 hours of listening.

This is such an excellent article, filled with great tips on how to raise an early talker, and how to help a kid advance earlier. Great stuff. A must read for any parent.

Parents should start talking to their little baby from the day he is born. Some mothers are by nature quiet and reserved. Others have the unfortunate idea that it is foolish to talk to their babies, knowing that they do not understand. The mother, who does not talk continually while feeding, bathing and dressing her baby, is laying the foundation for a late talker.

The baby learns language in one way only, and that is by hearing language as the parents talk and talk to it. The more a parent can talk to a child, often repeating the same words, the same phrases, the same structures over and over, the sooner the child will learn language.

Parents should read to their children as often as possible. The secret, however, which will lead to optimal language development, is to read the SAME stories over and over and over.

Reference
Talk Your Child Clever - Parenting Ideas

A great overview of global browser usage. Take a look at how many people use each browser, what operating system, which country, and what resolution. A great overall view of the internet usage world.

Firefox usage is around 25%! Wow! Let the browser wars go on! (I'm happy) :-)

Reference
W3Counter - Global Web Stats

Related
Browser Statistics, W3Schools