The Lifelong Learner         by Stanley Kubasek | About Me |

How do you influence another person? How do you make him change? How do you get him out of this habit that's killing you?

It's not easy. But there are good ways and bad ways of accomplishing the task. I found this out by reading a very good book on communication skills, Messages. I extracted what I found the most useful information.

"Influencing others is an art that requires an understanding of the principles of change."

INEFFECTIVE WAYS

Blaming, criticizing, or complaining.
- your basic message is "you are bad or wrong."

Threats.
- "do what I want, or else..."

Pouting or withdrawing.
- "you won't have it, if you won't do what I want"

EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES

Positive Reinforcement

1. Praise.
Everyone is hungry for esteem and appreciation. You can praise past behavior that is similar to the changes you now want to reinforce.

2. Trading.
"I'll give you X if you give me Y."
They are effective because they acknowledge the other person's needs and promise to provide something real as compensation for the desired behavior.

3. Building in rewards.
Much like trading, but the reinforcement is woven into the desired behavior.
"Come shopping with me. There's a huge bookstore in the mall. You can browse around and see what new biographies they have."

4. Verbal and nonverbal appreciation.
Appreciation conveys the message that you are grateful, you are pleased, and you value what the person has done. It greatly increases the chance that the behavior will be repeated and you will continue to get what you want.

Negative Consequences

Negative consequences should be used as a last resort, when positive reinforcement isn't working. They tend to create a backlash of anger and resentment.

1. Stop rewarding the person for behavior you don't want.
If you want somebody to be punctual, don't wait for them while they're still doing some last minute preparations
Influencing others is bound to be frustrating when you consistently reward them for staying the same.

2. Design self-care strategies to meet your needs when the other person is unable or unwilling to make desired changes.
"If a friend keeps borrowing things without returning them, a self-care strategy might be to insist that only one thing can be borrowed at a time."

3. Identify natural consequences.
"If someone is always late for your lunch dates, stop eating with them in restaurants.

Reference
Messages: The Communication Skills Book

Over time, is a cause of memory loss, according to Harvard's Improving Memory publication.

Over time, people who don't challenge their minds exhibit a greater degree of memory decline compared with people who remain mentally active. According to a 2005 study, people who held jobs that involved complex work, such as speaking to, instructing, or negotiating with people, had a lower risk of dementia than people whose jobs were less intellectually demanding.

Most experts think it's not the years of formal education or the type of occupation per se that benefits memory. Instead, a lifelong habit of learning and engaging in mentally challenging activities -- like reading, playing chess, performing music, or acquiring new skills -- is thought to help keep the brain in shape.

Scientists believe that intellectual enrichment and learning stimulate the brain to make more connections, increasing the density of synapses. As a result, the "educated brain" may possess greater reserves of cognitive ability -- a deeper well, so to speak -- and be able to sustain more neuronal loss. Researchers refer to this enhancement of skills or abilities as cognitive reserve. In addition to increasing neuronal connections, mental activity sets into motion a host of processes that keep neurons and their interconnections alive and well.

Reference
Improving Memory, Report from Harvard Medical School

We are constantly being overloaded with information. It seems like we live in an Information Overload age. In any day, I receive more than a dozen emails, subscribe to over 50 rss feeds, read several daily news, read other less-frequent periodicals, and read other material. Isn’t that too much? I think so. It takes time to do all of that. Plus, a lot of it is not really that useful.

I have been changing a lot of my habits in this area lately. My desire is to be more productive and not be overloaded with information. Reading blogs like lifehack.org really helps – they’re loaded with good information. Other books, 4-hour workweek also had some good points in this regard. But it all comes down to “Information Diet” – having the discipline to cut the not-needed material.

In this article, Eight Tips to Find Your Information Oasis, which appeared on lifehack.org, the author gives 8 excellent tips on how to go on such an information diet. I am already doing a lot of them and I'm trying to get into a habit of doing most.

An information oasis - where you can get only the gems of the information without the noise - is the dream land of Information Age. It is the place where the information you consume boost your personal effectiveness rather than decrease it.

But how do you get there? How can you find your information oasis in the midst of information desert? Here are eight tips:

1. Minimize your news consumption

News is probably the most noisy kind of information you could get. The reason is simple: 99% of what you read in the news today would not make it to the history 100 years from now. That implies that 99% of what you read in the news is actually not that important. There are simply too many details than you need. Reading the headlines is more than enough in most situations.

2. Read history in place of news

Rather than reading news, I believe it’s a good idea to read another kind of information which has much less noise: history. History has filtered 99% or more of the unimportant details to give you only the important. Furthermore, history also allows you to see the contexts of the events that happened.

Why is it important? Because contexts allows you to find patterns which in turn give you invaluable lessons of what to do and what not to do. Why should you repeat the same mistakes made by others throughout the history if you can just avoid it in the first place? News, on the other hand, gives you just details without contexts. You may read hundreds of pages of news without ever capturing the big picture.

3. Unsubscribe the feeds and magazines which are not essential

To find your information oasis, it’s important to reduce your information intake. Besides minimizing your news consumption, you should also unsubscribe the feeds and magazines which are not essential. Check your magazine and feed subscriptions, and assess the value you get from each. Is it really worth your time? Does it help you do the important? Or maybe it actually distract you away from the important?

4. Read quotes from the great thinkers

I love quotes because they are the kind of information that has the highest density of wisdom. In the same amount of time, you can get much more insights by reading quotes than by reading other kinds of information. Just go to quote sites like ThinkExist or BrainyQuote, browse the quotes by topics or authors, and internalize what you read there. This is among the purest kinds of information you could get.

5. For each reading, read no more than what is necessary

It is an important key to effective reading. Why should you let all the noise get into your mind if you can just get the gems? So whenever you read something, just read what is necessary and no more. That’s why it’s important to have a clear purpose before you read, especially for readings which require longer time commitments like books. Clear purpose helps you distinguish the necessary from the rest.

6. While reading, focus on getting actionable ideas

Another key to effective reading is focusing on getting actionable ideas. Actionable ideas are ideas you can act upon to improve your life. If it’s not actionable, the information might just take up space in your memory without doing anything useful for you. In other words, it might actually be noise.

7. Check your email no more than twice per day

Email is one of the main sources of information noise in the Internet Age. If you check your inbox again and again during your day, not only it introduces a lot of noise into your brain, it also distracts you from actually doing the important. It’s better if you allocate certain periods of time (at most two) during the day to deal with it so that the noise is isolated and the distractions are minimized.

8. Ruthlessly stop consuming information whenever the value you get is no longer worth it

Whenever you consume information, don’t forget that diminishing returns applies. Over time, the value you get from consuming the information is decreasing. Eventually it will reach a point where you can get more value by doing other activities than by consuming the information. To minimize noise, you should ruthlessly stop at this point. More than that and you are introducing noise into your life.

Reference
Eight Tips to Find Your Information Oasis, Donald Latumahina, posted on lifehack.org

An excellent guide to follow in your Lifelong Learning quest.

1) Always have a book.

It doesn’t matter if it takes you a year or a week to read a book. Always strive to have a book that you are reading through, and take it with you so you can read it when you have time. Just by shaving off a few minutes in-between activities in my day I can read about a book per week. That’s at least fifty each year.

2) Keep a “To-Learn” List

We all have to-do lists. These are the tasks we need to accomplish. Try to also have a “to-learn” list. On it you can write ideas for new areas of study. Maybe you would like to take up a new language, learn a skill or read the collective works of Shakespeare. Whatever motivates you, write it down.

3) Get More Intellectual Friends

Start spending more time with people who think. Not just people who are smart. But people who actually invest much of their time in learning new skills. Their habits will rub off on you. Even better, they will probably share some of their knowledge with you.

4) Guided Thinking

Albert Einstein once said, “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” Simply studying the wisdom of others isn’t enough, you have to think through ideas yourself. Spend time journaling, meditating or contemplating over ideas you have learned.

5) Put it Into Practice

Skill based learning is useless if it isn’t applied. Reading a book on C++ isn’t the same thing as writing a program. Studying painting isn’t the same as picking up a brush. If your knowledge can be applied, put it into practice.

6) Teach Others

You learn what you teach. If you have an outlet of communicating ideas to others, you are more likely to solidify that learning. Start a blog, mentor someone or even discuss ideas with a friend.

7) Clean Your Input

Some forms of learning are easy to digest, but often lack substance. I make a point of regularly cleaning out my feed reader for blogs I subscribe to. Great blogs can be a powerful source of new ideas. But every few months I realize I’m collecting posts from blogs that I am simply skimming. Every few months, purify your input to save time and focus on what counts.

8 ) Learn in Groups

Lifelong learning doesn’t mean condemning yourself to a stack of dusty textbooks. Join organizations that teach skills. Workshops and group learning events can make educating yourself a fun, social experience.

9) Unlearn Assumptions

You can’t add water to a full cup. I always try to maintain a distance away from any idea. Too many convictions simply mean too few paths for new ideas. Actively seek out information that contradicts your worldview.

10) Find Jobs that Encourage Learning

Pick a career that encourages continual learning. If you are in a job that doesn’t have much intellectual freedom, consider switching to one that does. Don’t spend forty hours of your week in a job that doesn’t challenge you.

11) Start a Project

Set out to do something you don’t know how. Forced learning in this way can be fun and challenging. If you don’t know anything about computers, try building one. If you consider yourself a horrible artist, try a painting.

12) Follow Your Intuition

Lifelong learning is like wandering through the wilderness. You can’t be sure what to expect and there isn’t always an end goal in mind. Letting your intuition guide you can make self-education more enjoyable. Most of our lives have been broken down to completely logical decisions, that making choices on a whim has been stamped out.

13) The Morning Fifteen

Use the first fifteen minutes of your morning as a period for education. If you find yourself too groggy, you might want to wait a short time. Just don’t put it off later in the day where urgent activities will push it out of the way.

14) Reap the Rewards

Learn information you can use. Understanding the basics of programming allows me to handle projects that other people would require outside help. Meeting a situation that makes use of your educational efforts can be a source of pride.

15) Make it a Priority

Few external forces are going to persuade you to learn. The desire has to come from within. Once you decide you want to make lifelong learning a habit, it is up to you to make it a priority in your life.

Reference
15 Steps to Cultivate Lifelong Learning - lifehack.org - authored by Scott H. Young

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

Here's a number of techniques that will help you to learn faster, study better, and begin absorbing information like a sponge.

I think this is an excellent set of tips on how you can continuously keep learning. Be a lifelong learner! :-) Here's a seven step formula.

1. Teach Someone Else. If there’s something you want to learn, try teaching it to someone else.

2. Write an Article.
By writing about it you will soon begin connecting new ideas with things you already know, creating an interlinking web of knowledge.

3. Start a Blog.

4. Treat Your Body Well.
When you’re trying to increase your learning speed, you need to make sure you are feeding your brain – quite literally.

* Eat every few hours to keep your blood sugar levels up.
* Exercise on a daily basis.
* Try to relax a few minutes each day.
* Sleep at least seven hours each night.
* Stay hydrated with water.
* Eat a light lunch. Heavy lunches tend to make people drowsy. Instead, recharge with a light lunch and a power walk.

5. Learn with All Five Senses.
You haven’t learned anything until you have put it into practice in your own life. Engage in learning through touch, sight, sound, hearing, and smell.

6. Increase Your Motivation.
If you create a reward system that you actually look forward to, you will be able to learn faster in anticipation of that reward.

7. Learn While You Sleep.

Reference
How to Boost Your Brain Power - lifehack.org

In an ideal environment, you have people that you admire and can learn from. They mentor you. If you have that environment, consider yourself lucky and take advantage of it. It's one of the best ways to keep learning!

If you don't have that luxury, and you think people around you are mediocre or just bad, you can learn and keep learning from them as well! How? By observing them and learning what not to do! This was mentioned in How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci book. The author says that he learned the most from bad teachers. He learned what not to do as a teacher.

So here's how you can keep learning: learn from the best -- copy what they do, listen to them; and learn from the worst -- avoid doing what they do, or do the opposite.

In essence, put others' experiences to your own use.

Reference
How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci

I read a lot. I love to read. Every chance I get, I try to read. I acquire a lot of knowledge through reading. It's more a habit now than a hobby. I would probably not be able to live without it. :-) So why not learn how to speed-read?

I am still a skeptical about speed reading. But lately, I think it might work.

I read this article, Speed-Reading Techniques, some time ago. Basically, the guy convinced me that speed reading might actually work. For everyone. I'm not sure if it works for all material types, but it works overall.

The author points out an interesting analogy: speed reading is like speed driving. Everyone can do it, but you need to be fully concentrated and follow some basic reading techniques, like using your finger, getting rid of all distractions, and having a purpose of why you're reading. Also, the author says, you cannot speed read all the time, and you don't have to -- again the analogy to speed driving (do you always do it?).

I got convinced to at least try it. I'm trying to use a finger when I read. I know I read a lot of faster now but I'm not retaining a lot. :-( I have to do some more research, re-read this excellent article, buy a book, and see if it helps me.

If I can speed read, if I can double my reading speed, then I'm going to benefit greatly.

Resources
Speed-Reading Techniques, by Keith Drury

Breakthrough Rapid Reading, book I bought by Peter Kump

If you are determined to succeed, Glen Hopkins, the author of the book Lucrative List Building has some really good advice.

Apply and Test What You Learn

One of the two most important characteristics that successful people share is their constant strive to improve themselves through ongoing education.

Successful people are not content to simply learn. What separates them from unsuccessful people is their ability to apply and test what they learn.

You see, knowledge is absolutely useless unless you use it. Does it do you any good if it's just taking up space in your head? NO!

In order for it to benefit you, you need to act on the knowledge that you have. You must, therefore, apply it to your life and your business.

The reason that stops most people is summed up in one word: fear.

FEAR: Don't Let It Control You

The second key characteristic or trait that successful people share is that they act in spite of fear because they are not afraid to fail. They are fearless.

What is fear, anyway?

You can't touch it. You can't hold it. You can't show it to another person. Then why do we have fear?

Fear is nothing more than an emotion or a feeling that we hold in our minds. We fear either the emotional or physical pain something may cause. The problem arises when these emotions and feelings affect the way we live our lives.

We fear doing certain things because we think we might fail. This may be due to past failures we have actually experienced, or it may be due to failures we fear we might experience.

You must put aside your imagined fears and go for it!

Reference
Self Improvement Newsletter, Aug 8, 2006

In America, everyone is pressed for time. We don't have time to do anything. But did you know that you have over 225 (or more) hours per year to use?

It's a simple rough calculation: 1/2 hrs * 2 (daily) * 5 (week) * 45 (roughly, yearly) = 225 hours.

If you are a typical worker, that is the amount of time you waste commuting to work. This figure could be a lot higher or a little lower, of course. That's a lot of hours!

What do you do with these hours?

Did you know that you could put those hours "to use?" You could put those hours to your advantage.

You know where I'm going and how I'm thinking. I'm always trying to learn, and the amount of hours is just to great to go to waste. I use the majority of the time to listen to audiobooks. And I get them for free at my local library.

By not paying for the books is great, because if I don't like a book or if it does not capture my tired mind, I dump it. I get another one.

But I don't use all of my commute time to listen to audio tapes. I try to spend at least 10-15 minutes each way for quiet time -- time with no music or other distractions. It allows me to relax and re-charge right after work. It allows me to be more creative. It's a good way to think about different ideas. I let my mind think about anything it wants. I learned about this technique several months ago and have put it to use since then.

What are you doing with your hundreds of hours? Make them work for you. Use them to recharge and to learn!

What does abortion have to do with crime?

If you've read Freakonomics, which I'm currently enjoying listening to, you would know. It's fascinating to hear. And you would not think it is true. But it is, and the authors have reasonable evidence to support it. Okay already, what is it?

Abortion reduces crime. In a big way, actually. What? You might be wondering. Actually, it does. Why? Because woman that usually have an abortion decide that they cannot raise the child, or are in a difficult situation (on drugs, etc). A lot of those times, if it weren't for abortion, they would raise a kid that would be more likely to commit a crime.

This theory has been tested in several states in America. They did not know why crime was falling in America in the 1990s. Almost everywhere in US. They thought it was because of the booming economy, which doesn't have too much to do with it. It turns out that because legalized abortion was put in place in the 1970s, in 1990s when they would become adults, the crime started falling. Want more support for this theory? In those states that had enacted legalized abortion two years earlier, crime started falling earlier. That's no coincidence.

Isn't that fascinating?

I recommend reading/listening to Freakonomics to find our this and other stories like that. It's a very good book and a quick listen.

I love my 40+ minutes commute. Why? Because I am able to listen to great audio books. Mostly for free!

That's just great.

Mostly free, how? Check out your local library. If they don't have downloadable books, then I'm sure you can rent books on tape or CD. As I wrote before, Free Audio Books for Northern NJ Residents, in Bergen County, NJ, I can go to NetLibrary and pick from over 1000 audio books. Then there is LearnOutLoud.com, which has a lot of books for free (sign up for their newsletter to get updates on new titles).

You can also try Audible's 3 free books (they have the largest collection), but you need a compatible MP3 player.

Before I listen to any book, I do some research. There are so many books out there that I need to filter them out and read the best. I usually check each book's ranking on Amazon.com and read books that have a 4.5 stars or higher. This allows me to read the best books.

I also love autobiographies. Especially of the founding fathers. Wow, this is excellent stuff. I'm currently listening to Alexander Hamilton's. I'm not only learning about him, I'm also learning about how America was founded. It's a 30+ hour book, but I'm almost over (over a month into it already :-)). Great book and a great mind.

Reference
NetLibrary.com, Download free audio books
bccls.org, Bergen County Library System
LearnOutLoud.com, contains many free audio books

Related
Free Audio Books for Northern NJ Residents, my previous post

I used to be a subscriber of Time for several years. No more. I have discovered something vastly better.

The Economist has become my favorite weekly magazine. It has excellent writing. It has short stories that are very interesting to read. It has articles on every continent in the world, with extra sections for US and United Kindgdom. It has technology news. It has business news. It has book reviews. It has everything that you need to stay well informed.

I don't know of any other news magazine that is as good as The Economist.

It is truly a gem. If you want to learn what's going on in the world, this is a great way to do it. A lot of people get their news from the web. They base their opinion on never-heard sources. I don't like that. I like to read sources that are trusted. The Economist is as trusted as you can get.

What's different about this magazine vs Time, Newsweek, etc, is that all articles are editorials. They don't contain "she said, he said" types of articles which are good sometimes, but don't let you see the big picture easily. The Economists articles are basically essays, which, to me, are a lot better (and harder to write). The author brings you the big picture, you can't miss it. What I like the most about the magazine is the variety. The US magazines give you mostly information about the US. The Economist gives you a world view.

It's not cheap, though. I paid $45 on Ebay, but you can no longer get it. You can buy it through Amazon for $98 (click on this offer) and get $25 Amazon.com gift certificate. Otherwise, you have to pay over $100.

I am learning a lot by reading the Economist. You will too. I highly recommend it.

Alexander Hamilton was a brilliant man. He was one of the most influential people in the American revolution. He did such a good service to America. He helped America a lot. And he was just a boy when he came to America, by himself, from the Caribbeans.

He was a great writer as well. His writings had great influence. He was writing to newspapers to promote independence. Later he promoted the constitution.

I heard about these stories in Hamilton's autobiography, which I'm now vastly enjoying. It's a fascinating audiobook. I love it.

But because I heard about his writings, I would like to read some of them. I searched for them today. And what? I found Alexander Hamilton's Writings. It's a complete collection of his writings. It's a 1200+ pages book. I think I am going to buy it (probably rent it first from a local library).

As I'm learning more about Mr. Hamilton, I see that he was just as essential in the American revolution as the founding fathers.

I love these autobiographies from the American revolution.

Reference
Alexander Hamilton

Who is he? He's the best management guru that ever lived.

I've only discovered Peter last week. Somebody, not sure who, recommended his books. I went on Amazon, searched for his books and decided to buy "The Daily Drucker." So far, from the intro and from the several daily entries, I can say that people are right. Peter Drucker is the best. I love his writings.

The daily Drucker is broken up to 366 entries. I plan to read a short entry or two every day (it takes me around 5 minutes). I've read several so far and each entry contains so much wisdom packed to a page. People say that Drucker's words are concise and that he can pack a lot of wisdom in a sentence. That's what I've been finding so far. For instance, what do you think of "If leaders are unable to slough off yesterday, to abandon yesterday, they simply will not be able to create tommorow" or "All organizations need to know that virtually no program or activity will perform effectively for a long time without modification and redesign. Eventually every activity becomes obsolete."

I'd say that if you want to read a good management book, read Drucker. I am definitely going to read a lot of him in the future.

Reference
The Daily Drucker, Peter F. Drucker

I discovered something new yesterday (wow, I'm learning a lot lately). I'm mostly discovering things I don't know but probably should know. That may not be so funny, but that's how it is: I don't know a lot of things, sometimes even the most basic. But that's why I learn and want to continue to learn for the rest of my life: lifelong learner? :-)

What did I discover yesterday? Russian literature. Neven knew it was great -- considered the best by many. Mainly, I discovered Tolstoy, Checkov, and Dostoevsky. Sound familiar? When I asked my wife, she said that of course she knows them. She does not remember any works by them, only that she had to read them and that she thinks that their literary works are tough to read. Well, that's not what I discovered about them. Brenda Ueland, the author of If You Want to Write, book I'm currently reading, said that those were her favorite authors, mostly because they spoke the truth and wrote simple.

(If I'm on the topic of writing, that books is a gem. I'm learning that I should be writing from the heart. I should write of what I think, the way I see things, not the way I should see them. I am going to try to do that.)

So I got interested in the great Russian authors. I just ordered two books from them that contain a lot of their best short stories: Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy and The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky (I want to read Notes from Underground right away). I'll see if I fall in love with them as well. Judging by my enthusiasm level, which is high, I think I will.

I'm into history lately. And that's only since I started listening to audio books. American revolution, the independence movement. Those were very interesting times. America was founded by several outstanding individuals: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington. Those are the ones that I came across. It's fascinating to hear these stories. And you know what? I'm bad in history. I don't know a lot of stuff. I'm learning a lot.

David McCullough is an interesting author, historian. If you ever get to read/listen his books, do so. You will be fascinated. Ever since I listened to his book on John Adams I'm in love with him. He knows how to capture your attention. On my must listen are his works: "The Johnstown Flood," "The Path Between the Seas," "The Great Bridge," "Truman," and "Mornings on Horseback." Those are all excellent I hear.

I'm also into listening to biographies. I learn a lot from them. I like John Adams, Benjamin Franklin. They were very special people. They were constant learners, book lovers. They accomplished a lot in their lives.

I'm going to listen to more history, more biographies. Fascinating stuff.