Monthly Archives: August 2010

Todays words from the digital man cave are about education. And a change in format. I’ve been doing this for 12 weeks now and it’s been a  good thing. I started this Sunday regular series for a few reasons. 1) I really wanted to stick to a set post schedule and I needed something consistent to nail that down. 2) I wanted to chronicle my adventures and misadventures in going back to school. 3) I needed a regular post topic to free up time and mindspace to work on other projects.

Well now that the first quarter is all done, I’m going to switch it up a little bit and not post about the educational world every week. The experiment was successful and I’ve got the schedule down. I’ll just post on it as things come up, and the week counter will still be kept for the frame of reference on how far along things have progressed.

I’m doing this so I can provide a little bit more varied content here at the digital man cave. Right now I’m only giving you the meat and potatoes once a week. I need the option to hit you with the double whammy on the regular. Other projects will continue as they have been… something about not being in an office right now makes it much easier to think and create. Go figure. You’re probably wondering what all this has to do with education and what have I learned over the last twelve weeks.

Well first, going back to school is not all it’s cracked up to be. When you’re out of school you kind of miss it. Don’t let the nostalgia fool you. The fact of the matter is, once you get out of school you fill your time with all sorts of other things. When you go back to school those other things don’t necessarily disappear, and change is rarely ever easy.

The second thing that has stuck out to me is that you sometimes want to plan ahead from your planning ahead. You got the feeling like something is about to blow up in your face, listen to it. Things come up. Gotta be able to adapt. Darwin wasn’t stupid. Whether or not you should care what he had to say is something that will probably never be debated here, but in modern life the law of the land is “he who is most adaptable will survive and thrive“.

Stay tuned to the digital man cave as you get more of what I hope you enjoy!

Todays words from the digital man cave are about my news feed reader. Actually it’s kind of about what I read on Seth Godin’s blog about him not publishing books anymore in the traditional format. Why does this matter here at the digital man cave? BECAUSE I WANT TO WRITE A BOOK.

Scratch that. BECAUSE I AM WRITING A BOOK.

Now I’m not saying that whatever Seth Godin does, that is the way to go. Not saying that at all. I like some of the things the guy says, but sometimes he irritates me for good and bad reasons, and from the neck up he somehow taps into some primal childhood fear that I have and creeps me the eff out. That picture over there. FULL TANK OF NIGHTMARE FUEL. Aside from that the guy has said and done some pretty creative things. Enough so that he’s made my list.

The group that this blog became associated with recently also had something to say about Godin’s work, although they are more concerned with the level of originality and creativity that is being seen on a regular basis, not necessarily the state of the industry. Or any industry actually. Different concerns over there than in the digital man cave.

When I’ve envisioned myself on this book writing journey, I’ve seen myself releasing character bios, short back-story pieces, maybe even full chapters along the way to get some feedback and so people can get used to my style. And maybe, just maybe, someone will be paying attention when the thing is actually complete and ready for publishing. Now, I don’t know much about this side of the book industry but from what I know publishers and authors don’t just give away the book as it is being created. As far as I know the profit margin isn’t very high in doing that.

But what do I know about profit margins as a writer? Particularly as a writer who was born and bred in the digital age?

What do you know about it? Hit me in the comments and stayed tuned for more words from the digital man cave!

Todays words from the digital man cave are once again, on mastering education. This first session is almost over… This is the end of week 11, and nearly the end of the quarter. And what have I learned over these 11 short weeks? A number of things but this week I relearned a very valuable lesson.

Punishment has its placed in life.

At times, it is a very very useful tool. What I mean is that, it can be a motivator as well as a teacher. I think most people believe in the power of reinforcement as a teacher and motivator but I think punishment has its place too. For example, in the past couple weeks I was unable to turn in an assignment on time. I simply scheduled too many things to happen within the same few hours and it ended up coming to a point where I couldn’t complete my duties within the specified time limits. Well, the consequences of doing something like there have been spelled out since Week 1 Day 1 for me so I expected to receive adequate punishment.

Nothing.

Not a single thing was done about it. So where was my motivation the next time that situation came up? In the crapper, that’s where. And what was the lesson that I learned? I shouldn’t be so intent on following all of the set guidelines if the people in charge weren’t. This is bad. The punishment should have been there to teach me that the choices I make can have unfavorable consequences, and it should have been there to motivate me to not let it happen again.

See, punishment has its place. Especially in education. Then again, maybe I’m just being ungrateful for catching a lucky break…

What do you think?

If you were once in my situation, did not receiving an adequate punishment change the way you interacted with your education? Or were you just grateful to catch a break?

Let me know in the comments and stay tuned for more from the digital man cave!

Todays words from the digital man cave are about a topic that will probably make me sound like an obsessive compulsive, overly technical, monstrously uncool geek. Flowcharts. The glorious glorious world of flowcharts and life.

You’re shaking your head right now aren’t you? It’s okay, I’m used to it. I write for a place called “The Digital Man Cave”. Getting funny looks are sorta the norm.

I’m really not as crazy as I sound. Yes I can be obsessive-compulsive, yes I am a geek, and I have no clue if I’ve ever been a part of “the cool crowd”. But I’m not crazy. I can’t be the only one that flowcharts out the major plot points in their life story. We all do on some level. Do I go left or right? Park here, park there? Do this on the weekend, or do that? If I do this, does it bring me closer to this, or is it only pushing me away from that?

In it’s modern day form we call it  mindmapping now. Businesses create these maps to help them organize information, solve problems, see the relationships between things, and make decisions.

You know, it’s a pretty commonly accepted notion that in order to get somewhere you need to know where you’re going. You need to be able to see if you’re making progress on that journey. You need to be able to clearly know when you’re off-course. You need to have a map. If you know me personally you might think that statement is uncharacteristic of me. Funny even. I tend to try not to plan farther than 2 days in advance because I believe a lot can change more than 48hours out. And because I am terrible at keeping a calendar. So talking about maps is actually a foreign concept coming from me. The old me that is. The new me wants to know what the hell he is doing, before it is happening. Something about being proactive instead of reactive…

Life is kind of like a baseball that got hit funny and is going sideways off into the crowd. It’s unpredictable and exciting, and has the potential to be awesome or painful. Now imagine you were at the game of life, trying to catch a potential souvenir baseball but you weren’t ever really paying attention. You had no gameplan or concept of what you were doing. And that baseball was coming right for your head, as many opportunities and experiences in life are. Kinda hard to sieze life by the ball if you never saw it coming, right?

So do you have a map? Have you ever taken time to do a little mindmapping? It could actually be a worthwhile exercise if you’re feeling a little unguided in life (who isn’t at some point?), because it’s not just for businesses you know.

Let me know in the comments and stay connected for more words from the digital man cave!

Todays words from the digital man cave are celebratory. As in WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No I’m not done with the first quarter. I’ve got two more weeks officially. I’m celebrating because I’m almost done with the quarter and because I’m moving forward with my goals. Not all of them mind you, that list of goals is much longer. But on the grand flow chart of my life A LOT of my activities have a common goal. That goal is to work for myself when I say, how I say, and for as long as I say. In other words, I want to be the best and worst boss in my job history. If you’ve been keeping up with me a little bit, this isn’t new information.

What is new is that I’m doing things I didn’t consciously think I would ever do. Things I didn’t realize I had a silly mental roadblock about. Things where I told myself “I can’t do that. That’s not for me.” for no good reason. In fact pretty much everything I do now I had previously told myself I couldn’t do it. That’s cause for celebration. In school we’ve been learning about different ways to view one broad topic (psychology) and how they aren’t necessarily separate. They just tell different parts of the story, and give an overall narration from a different view point. Like the Jet Li movie Hero, except way less epic.

The things we do with our days, in life, are supposed to tell our story. Everything we is a piece of that story, a different perspective on the event that is your life. At least that is the way it is supposed to be. Is it for you? Are you spending your time writing your story? Or are you spending your time helping someone else write theirs? It’s OK in some cases to help others write theirs, like your kids for instance. Part of having kids is committing to devoting a few chapters of your book to their unique narration. But what about the rest of your life?

Who, if anyone, is writing your book?

Todays words from the digital man cave are about some behind the scene changes that have taken place, and a new project coming up just around the corner.

Recently I’ve been working in the background to start building… well, my empire. I’m not a “world takeover” kind of guy, but I’ve got ambitions. And I see alot that can be changed for the better in the world.

I kinda want to do something about it.

Step 2 has already been taken, and Step 3 is coming up. In the coming days I’ll be coming out with a free report. Actually, lets call it an eBook. I don’t really like the idea of calling it a free report because it sort of implies that I’m trying to sell you something with it. I’m not. Seriously, there’s no product attached to the eBook.

It is being created because I have an idea that I want to share with people. Somewhere along the way I got the crazy notion that most people are slowly killing themselves through the course of their weekly activities, and they may not even be aware of it. The average person works a 40 hour week, has X number of responsibilities for their time outside of work, and only the weekend and weeknights to fulfill those responsibilities. I’ve written about how little time there can be in 24 hours, so I know it’s stressful to even try to do everything we put on our lists. I want people to reclaim their time and their lives.

Most of us don’t think about it or have reminders that the clock never stops ticking. Mine is right up there on right. Every day I get a little reminder that time waits for no man. Which means every day has to be moving me closer to what I want out of life, and farther from the things that take away from that. I want that for other people too.

Right now the new project has the working title of “48 Hours to a Better You”, and by September 15 it’ll be ready for “launch”. The idea is that you can change the parts of your life that are lagging with 48 hour time periods. People always say that weekends aren’t long enough. Why? Because you don’t do everything that you want to do? Or because it’s not enough time away from the kind of life you lead during the week?

A weekend can be a lot of things, but it should never be unfulfilling. I aim to make sure you agree by the time you finish reading.

Now a few of you might be wondering… if that’s the new project, what’s the new association? And what the hell happened to Step 1 back there? Step 1 is the new association. Step 1 is making this blog a part of something called The Mastered Ingenuity Collective. The goal over there? Growth and creativity. Bringing it out of people and bringing more of it to the world. I can get with that idea. I personally want to see some changes made in the world, and I’m under no illusions that this blog will do it. This blog is fun for me. Maybe one day it’ll be profitable too. But the focus that it has today is not yet geared towards massive social change (as far as I know, but someone please tell me if I’m wrong).

So in the meantime my site can certainly back a group that has that as their main goal. Stay tuned for the Sunday edition of the digital man cave!