Michael Sautter's Blog

My Quirky Notes: Spontaneous Happiness by Andrew Weil

I recently finished Dr. Weil's book Spontaneous Happiness (ISBN: 9780316129442). I didn't know much about the book before I picked it up but I'm glad that I read it. Here are the notes I took from my reading.

Quotes

"One who contains content, remains content." ~ Lao-tzu

"[Happiness] is determined more by the state of one's mind than by one's external conditions, circumstances, or events - at least once one's basic survival needs are met." ~ Dalai Lama

"In order for man to succeed in life, god provided him with two means, education and physial activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means, men can attain perfection." ~ Plato

"Gratitude is an attitude."

"The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest." ~ William Blake.

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Vocabulary, Ideas & Concepts

lagom

Swedish for "just right" or "exactly enough." It permeates their entire culture and daily life.

MBSR

Mindfulness-Based Stres Reduction. Basically a form of meditation to lessen stress.

dysthymia

mild chronic depression. Dr. Weil has suffered this in the past.

eudaimonia

wellbeing: a contented state of being happy and healthy and prosperous. In Aristotle's works, eudaimonia was used as a term for the highest human good, and so it is the aim of practical philosophy, including ethics and political philosophy, to consider (and also experience) what it really is, and how it can be achieved. at Wikipedia.

Three Interventions

(positive psychology): Pleasure, Flow & Meaning.

"Society of the maximal self"

encourages an obsessive focus on the individual rather than the group. Seligman believes much unhappiness springs from it.

Mental Nutrition

"I advise you to take particular care with your choices of media. . . . Often it exacerbates anxiety and the sense of being overwhelmed and out of control." Consider a 'news fast' once a week.

millinery

women's hats. Making of hats and headwear. Dr. Weil's parents owned a millinery shop in Philadelphia. (has nothing to do with happiness but I never saw the word before)

Age of Social Isolation

Dr. Weil suggests this as another name for the Information age.

Johrei

(浄霊 literally “purification of the spirit”), sometimes spelled "Jyorei", is a healing ritual that claims to use "divine light" to dissolve the spiritual impurities that are the source of all physical, emotional, and personal problems. It was by developed in Japan in the 1930s by Mokichi Okada. at Wikipedia. Reminds me of reiki.

 

People

Martin Seligman, PhD at University of Pennsylvania. Convened the first positive psychology summit in 1999.

Aaron T. Beck, regarded as the father of cognative therapy. He developed a cognative theory of depression in the 1960s. Called negative views "schemas." His work influenced Seligman.

Books

Coyote Medicine by Lewis Mehl-Madrona. A fusion of modern psychology and ancient wisdom.

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, by Howard C. Cutler, MD & HH the Dalai Lama

Winter Blues by Norman E. Rosenthal, MD. Classic treatise on Seasonal Affective Disorder (now recognized in DSM-IV). Also SSAD: Subsyndromal Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Authentic Happiness, by Martin Seligman.

The Mantram Handbook, Eknath Easwaran. About meditation and how to choose a mantram (mantra).

Links

MindAndLife.org, The Mind and Life Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the relationship of science and Buddhism as methodologies in understanding the nature of reality. The institute has affiliates including notable scientists, and Buddhist practitioners, the most notable of which is Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. at Wikipedia

Drugs.com/sfx, Drug Information Online. For side effects of meds including psychological side effects.

DrugWatch.com, Keeping an eye on pharmaceuticals. Also for side effects of meds including psychological side effects.

Positive Psychology Center at University of Pennsylvania.

NACBT.org, National Association of Cognitive-Behavorial Therapists.

'A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind' report in Nov. 12, 2010 issue of Science about an experiment conducted by Havard psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert. I wanted to link to the magazine article but couldn't find it, if you search for the title of the report you can find many web sites talking about the report.

LaughterYoga.org

Good News Sites:
HappyNews.com

GoodNewsNetwork.org

OdeWire.com, News for intelligent optimists. (especially recommended by Dr. Weil.)

Breath Work

1. Put your attention on the breath whenever possible.
2. Whenever you can, try to make your breathing deeper, slower, quiter, and more regular.
3. Let your belly expand outward when you inhale.
4. To deepen breathing, practice exhaling more air at the end of each breath.

The 4-7-8 Breath
The most effective anti-anxiety measure I know is a quick and simple breathing technique I call the 4-7-8 breath. Here it is:

1. Place the tip of the tongue against the ridge behind and above th front teeth. Keep it there through the whole exercise.
2. Exhale completely through the mouth (and puckered lips), making a whoosh sound.
3. Close the mouth and inhale deeply and quietly through the nose to a (silent) count of 4.
4. Hold the breath for a count of 7.
5. Exhale through the mouth to a count of 8, making the same sound.
6. Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5 for a total of four breaths.

This can be done in any position; if seated, keep the back straight. Do this exercise at least twice a day and, in addition, whenever you feel stresed, anxious, or off center. Do not do more than four breaths at one time for the first month of practice but do the exercise as often as you wish. After a month, if you are comfortable with it, increase to eight breaths each time and gradually slow your counts down. The minimum practice is then eight breaths twice a day, every day.

 

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Notes from Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

I recently finished reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It's well worth reading especially if you're into design, business or technology. Here's a few of my quirky notes from the book.

 

Quotes from Steve Jobs

"People would confront a problem by creating a presentation. I wanted them to engage, to hash things out at the table, rather than show a bunch of slides. People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint."

Steve Jobs, page 337.

 

Weniger aber besser.

(Less but better.) Steve Jobs admired Dieter Rams, the German industrial designer for the electronics firm Braun.

 

Memento mori.

(Remember you will die.) A reminder to victorious generals in ancient Rome to keep them humble, page 461.

 

"I thought he [Steve Jobs] was calling to say something nice about it [Comcast's HDTV service]. Instead, he told me 'It sucks.'"

Brian Roberts, Chairman/CEO of Comcast.

 

"You're blowing it with Fox News. The axis today is not liberal and conservative, the axis is constructive-destructive, and you've cast your lot with the destructive people. Fox has become an incredibly destructive force in our society. You can be better, and this is going to be your legacy if you're not careful."

Steve Jobs to Rupert Murdoch, page 508. Hey, but they were still friendly and worked together on The Daily.

 

"We spoke about furniture in theory for eight years. We spent a lot of time asking ourselves, 'What is the purpose of a sofa?'"

Laurene Powell, Steve's wife, page 276.

 

Build Your Vocabulary with Steve Jobs

Fibonacci number

By definition, the first two numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are 0 and 1, and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two. From Wikipedia. [I forgot exactly what they were, so I looked them up.]

chamfer

A chamfer is a beveled edge connecting two surfaces. If the surfaces are at right angles, the chamfer will typically be symmetrical at 45 degrees. A fillet is the rounding off of an interior corner. A rounding of an exterior corner is called a "round" or a "radius". Wikipedia [Steve Jobs liked rounded edges.]

perfidy

the quality or state of being faithless or disloyal : treachery. Merriam-Webster [used to describe John Sculley on page 239.]

 

Two Books Mentioned in Steve Jobs

The Autobiography of a Yogi, Steve first read this as a teenager, again in India, and once a year for the rest of his life.

The Innovator's Dilemma deeply influenced Steve but he figured if another product was going to replace one of his he might as well be the one to make it too.

 

Steve Jobs' Washer & Dryer

Furniture wasn't the only thing that Steve had trouble deciding on for his home. Finally after a lengthy family discussion lasting weeks, they decided on a Miele washer and dryer. They take twice as long to wash clothes but use less water and soap in addition to leaving less detergent on them. The clothes come out much cleaner and softer and last longer. In short they don't trash your clothes.

 

 

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I got a Nook Touch!

Wednesday I picked up the new Nook Touch that I pre-ordered at Barnes & Noble. So far I really like it, it's teh awesome! Here I'll go over setting it up and my plans for my new Nook Touch.

Set-up was easy enough, there were no real problems. You will need a Barnes & Noble account to use the Nook Touch. I already had an account so all I had to do was enter my account information (email & password) and I was just about set. If you don't have a Barnes & Noble account then I would go to their web site and set one up first. You can register on the Nook but I think it would be easier if you do it from a computer or laptop first.

Also you will need a wifi connection to set-up the Nook. You can set-up and register your new Nook while the battery charges. The quick start-up guide says the battery could take as long as three hours to fully charge but mine was done in about an hour.

A credit card is NOT required to set-up the Nook, however you will not be able to download any of the 'free' ebooks at Barnes & Noble or use any of the 'free' B&N extras without setting a default credit card. I don't want any of B&N's DRM infected ebooks so I have not registered a credit card with them. If you do give B&N your credit card information then you may want to set the Nook to require the password before each purchase. You can do that under Settings > Shop.

Sideloading
Loading your own content onto a Nook by using the USB cable is called sideloading. It's easy enough. My Windows 7 PC recognized the Nook Touch as the E: drive and I simply dragged files onto the appropriate folder under My Files on the Nook. I sideloaded a ebook but I haven't added any photos or graphics yet which are used as screensavers.

Reading
I quickly got lost in a book, page turns are quick and just once every sixth page there is a flash of black which isn't even very noticeable. Reading through the Quick Start Guide on the Nook is very helpful. When you get a chance, skimming through the full guide is also worth it. Three full books come with the Nook: Dracula, Pride and Prejudice and Little Women. I'm about half way done reading Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Going Forward
Here's what I have planned for my new Nook Touch:

• Calibre. ebook management, RSS news feeds and more.
• Overdrive. Check ebooks out of the library.
• Web browser. I've heard about a 'secret' web browser on the Nook Touch.
• Cover. I have an idea or two about making my own cover.
• Public wifi. I plan on trying out my Nook at Paneras and my local library.
• Sources for ebooks without DRM. You don't have to just buy ebooks from Barnes & Noble that are junked up with DRM crap.

 

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I pre-ordered a Nook.

Yesterday, while I was out running some errands, I stopped by a nearby Barnes & Noble store to see if they had a demonstration model of the soon to be released Nook. They didn't but I did pre-order one any way.

Pre-ordering was simple enough. I just filled out a sheet with my name, email address, phone number and the number of Nooks I want (one please). Then when it arrives in the store I have 48 hours to pick it up. Payment is at the time of pick-up. No money required as a deposit. The new Nooks are scheduled to be in store on Friday June 10.

Update (Friday, June 3, 2011): New Nooks started shipping online a few days ago, they should be in stores sooner than June 10.

 

 

A Minor Library Glitch

 

Technology is wonderful - when it works (library edition).

Last Friday a book that I have checked out of the library was due. Thursday I checked online and no one had reserved it so I figured that Friday I would re-new it. Then Friday rolls around and I find the book in this strange situation: there's a hold on the book but there is one available in the system (shown in the screen capture above).

The hold means that I cannot re-new the book online. What I don't understand is why if there is a book available in the system it's not matched with the request (the hold)?

I waited all day Friday to see if the system would fix itself but it never wised up. So Saturday I took the book to the library and asked if I could re-new it. The library had no problem re-newing it for me!

Here's the book that I re-newed: Healing Spices. Highly recommended. There are some spices in here that I never even heard of before.

 

 

Quick Book Review: Ready for Anything by David Allen

Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life, by David Allen.

As we approach the end of the year I bet a lot of people are doing what I'm doing - getting organized for next year. (I'm almost done creating my Getting Things Done planner and I will write about it later.) I've used the Getting Things Done system for several years now and I recently read Ready for Anything. It is a nice refresher and goes a bit behind the GTD system but it's not essential for GTD.

David Allen is best known for his book Getting Things Done. It's about time management and how to best organize your life. Ready for Anything is a sequel that goes a bit deeper than Getting Things Done. Ready for Anything is not a stand-alone book, you will be kind of lost reading it without having previously read Getting Things Done. There is a brief chapter at the end of Ready for Anything that reviews the basics of GTD, if you are new to it then I would read this first. Even better, read Getting Things Done first. Both books are not long, Getting Things Done is 259 pages long and Ready for Anything is just 164 pages long.

Finally here's an idea. Ready for Anything has 52 chapters, why not read one each week of the year and focus on it for that week?

 

 

     

Quick Book Review: Family of Secrets by Russ Baker

Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America

Are you looking for a book to counter Decision Points, President George W. Bush's recent release? To be fair and balanced you might want to read Russ Baker's Family of Secrets. He sums up the book well near the end of his 2008 release:

In the end, it was not reporting or truth that triumphed, but the forces of disinformation. Memogate appears to underline the extent to which the cynical techniques of the spy world have leaped the wall and taken root in the process of American democracy itself.

This is what people like Karl Rove and his allies effectuate on a daily basis. While the media thinks it is reporting an electoral contest with a Madison Avenue gloss, something deeper and more insidious often is going on, largely unexamined. It is fitting that the Bushes, with their long-standing ties to the covert side of things, have been a vehicle through which the political process has been further subverted and the public sandbagged.

And it has worked, time and again.

(page 464, Family of Secrets, ISBN 1-59691-557-9)

This is a thorough history of both President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush. However there is less time spent analyzing what it all means but you can draw your own frightful conclusions.