Vikashan

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We are collectively passive, and I think that any efforts to spread the word about any cause should be welcomed rather than criticised. This may not always produce a good outcome; but global democracy, the democratisation of truth and social media influence on policy are the inevitable technological elements of our future. We have a responsibility as change-makers to accelerate rather than inhibit this progress. 

Here are some responses to common criticisms of the KONY 2012 campaign. It's only been a few hours since I, like many others had heard the name 'Joseph Kony', so I remain open minded to changing my opinion or learning about different opinions in the future. I'm fairly sure however that I'll remain supportive of any social media "awareness" campaign. 

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The past few months for me have been saturated with this idea of how your perception can alter your reality. 

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I have always enjoyed helping people come to the realisation that their crazy dreams aren't really that unrealistic. When we stop to consider what is actually technically possible, our value system reconfigures itself to accommodate for new priorities. However, this idea of chasing small possibilities isn't exactly accurate. When we decide to isolate successful people, we find a ridiculously obvious pattern. The vast majority of successful people enjoy what they do, and are good at it. Unfortunately, the majority of working people spend their week enduring work, and wait for the weekend. 

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Many of you may have heard of the Myer's Briggs Type Indicator for personality (MBTI) and some of you may even be familiar with what your type might be. 

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The following is a crash course on writing an effective email, including how to write a cover letter, business emails, email etiquette or general letter writing. Since this information is not taught to most students, I thought I should take the opportunity to fill the knowledge gap.

1) Start with a thesis and introduction.

Emails have a designated subject line, and it is crucial that the subject line and the first few sentences clearly state the purpose and contents of your email. Since emails are often a response to one or many questions, it's important to address each call individually in your introduction. For example, in a cover letter, the most important and most often overlooked dealbreaker is that an applicant responds directly to each part of the selection criteria. Readers are quick to make judgments about your email based on the first few lines they read. It is also generally important to lay down important definitions, to clarify your understanding of the scope of the dialogue.

2) Use Topic Sentences

Readers of emails often skim the contents without reading the whole text. It is hence quite crucial to include topic sentences at the beginning of each new point, to summarize your arguments or ideas. In a cover letter, the words of the selection criteria or close synonyms should be used throughout the email to let the reader know that you understand and can address the requirements of the position directly. Often in emails, it is useful to use bullets or numbering to help structure your ideas, although this may not be applicable in all circumstances.

3) Provide evidence for your arguments

There is absolutely nothing worse than unsupported claims. Perform any necessary research, and include quotes, statistics, or references to support all claims and arguments you make. For example, when pitching an idea to a boss, it is always important to provide reliable evidence that your idea has the potential to work, including statistics, associated costs and third party guides. The source of the evidence should be clearly stated to ensure that the information can be retrieved by the reader.

4) Explain why the evidence is relevant

Simply shoving in a quote, pasting a URL or including a statistic has no meaning for the reader of an email whatsoever on it's own. It's hence quite important to include an adequate explanation of why the information is relevant, how it contributes to your main points, and why this is relevant to the reader of the email. It is generally useful to briefly link your evidence back to your thesis at the end of each point.

Other important ideas to remember:
- Conclude appropriately
- Use sophisticated language if you actually can
- Try and keep a coherent flow between ideas
- Don't take your education for granted

Good Luck!

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Notions of injustice are invariably fuelled by a long rally of false perceptions. 

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Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle states that 80% of output results from 20% of inputs. Conversely, 80% of the input contributes to 20% of output. For example, if you work for 10 hours on a 1000 word essay, 2 hours of your time will account for 800 words, and the other 200 words will take you 8 hours. The key to using the Pareto Principle to one's advantage is to identify those inputs such as time, resources, elements, or priorities which produce the most output, and prioritize these above the rest, continually re-evaluating input options until the task is complete. We are basically inclined to leave the most important and most productive inputs until last, despite the reality that all inputs cannot realistically be attended to with full attention. In business, it is significant that 80% of profits come from 20% of clients, and it is advisable to actually neglect smaller clients. In an economy, it was originally noted that 20% of the population owned 80% of a nation's wealth.

Parkinson's Law

Parkinson's law states that work expands to fill the time available for it's completion. If 10 hours is allocated for task completion, it will take 10 hours to complete the task. If 20 minutes is allocated for task completion, it will take 20 minutes to complete the task. Whether or not quality is lost with allocated time is not relevant, although when juxtaposed with the Pareto Principle, we can estimate that the level of quality lost when reducing the time available for task completion is negligible. Alternatively, we can consider that if the main priority in a specific case of required task completion is task completion rather than completion with maximum possible quality, the level of quality becomes considerably irrelevant. Obviously, taking advantage of Parkinson's law for one's advantage simply involves reducing the time allocated to oneself to complete a given task. It is always relevant to consider whether or not it is physically possible given the circumstances that the task can be completed in a drastically reduced allocated time, with the hypothetical assistance of such independent variables as "Being in the zone" and "Having Internet access". The answer is most often certainly yes. 

Peter Principle

The Peter Principle states that in a hierachy, each member rises to their level of incompetence. Basically, if person A and B are required to perform the task of licking envelopes, and person A is able to lick envelopes twice as fast as person B, person A will be promoted within the hierachy to envelope manager, and the rate at which envelopes are being licked will remain significantly lower than the maximum possible. The Peter Principle is universally applicable, as competent workers will be promoted to a position at which they are incompetent, and incompetent workers, rather than being trained or fired, will duly not be considered for further promotion. In order to take advantage of the Peter Principle, one must value consistency and expertise over progression. As soon as feat X is achieved, it is more important to maintain the ability to consistently achieve feat X rather than immediately aim for feat Y, as this will almost certainly eventually lead to a position of failure. It is advisable to focus on measures of self-development, in order to put oneself in a position at which one will be capable of completing the responsibilities associated with a hierarchical advancement once placed in that position.

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Eureka Moment!!!! - I have cracked the secret to success!

Assuming you guys have all heard of the highly disputed book "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne, which suggests that actively wishing about something will bring that thing to you through the law of attraction.

Another great book, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, quotes  "When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you realize your desire".

The law of attraction is also mentioned in arguably the greatest success book of all time, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (1937), which refers to the law of attraction as "The Carnegie Secret", referring to the secret behind the revered Andrew Carnegie's rags-to-riches success, as he became the richest man in the world.

The Secret can be linked significantly to the school of optimism and positive thinking, which is even taught as a graduate course at Usyd. Norman Vincent Peale, who founded the phrase "When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade" in his book "The Power of Positive Thinking", also preaches the importance of simply thinking about success.

The majority of successful companies have "Vision Statements", whereby they assume the present tense at an arbitrary point 5 or 10 years from now, and Leo Babauta, the most succesful blogger in the world with Zen Habits, preaches visualization strategies fervently. And almost every inspirational speaker speaks about creating Visions and goalsetting as a means of achieving success.

So what's the secret behind this Secret? How can so many successful people preach such a simple and seemingly ridiculous, illogical strategy to achieve success? I believe today to have cracked the Psychology behind Creative Visualizations. (yay!)  The folllowing deconstruction will probably be worded really badly since I have not put much thought into it, but perhaps will shed some light on the science behind the art.

When we create a detailed, second by second recount of a certain point in the future, we are forging new systems within our "episodic memory", which refers to the detailed memory of past events. In turn, this triggers memory on a "semantic" level, linking the episodes with other aspects of our existing memory. This subsequently creates implicit "priming" effects when stimuli are presented which connects to the semantic network you created earlier. Basically, this means that if you create a creative visualization, not only are you planning ahead, but you are subsequently creating a "memory" which is triggered by external stimuli. If you are presented with decisions throughout your daily life, the implicit priming effects will subconsciously encourage you to choose the decision that is most optimally connected to success, since your brain has been conditioned to think that this is part of your "Routine".

I actually tested this by the way yesterday, and spent 15 minutes writing an excruciatingly detailed vision of what it would be like to be 8pm on a Saturday night and having finished my Assignment. This was at 3pm. At 4:30pm, I was virtually convinced that since I had done nothing for 1.5 hours, the creative visualization had failed, and I would not finish the assignment. I was finished at 7:15pm.

It's important to remember that these effects are real and subconscious. They are not even remotely magical, It's just changing the way you make simple subconscious decisions by conditioning your mind to think that you are in the routine of successful decisions.

Although I have read about "The Secret" for a long time, I rarely really try it. Invest a generous period of time into patiently writing your vision, planning ahead and imagining that you have already achieved your goals. This creates a twofold effect, whereby you achieve a "mind like water" and you can just DO rather than THINK, and it also subconsciously conditions your mind to make decisions which will lead you to the path of success, as if you are in the routine of making these minor decisions.

I hope this made sense and was useful to you, and i'll be sure to expand on this concept in more detail in the future.

DO TRY IT!

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"We are all a little bit mad" - Rosanoff.

A few weeks ago, I amused my seasonal bout of hypochondriasis by flirting with Dr Google, diagnosing myself with various behavioural disorders and hypothetically prescribing myself with the appropriate medication. I subsequently learnt a lot about autism spectrum developmental disorders and mental health issues, reading forums of people who have these conditions and watched some disturbing "cry for help"-esque Youtube Videos. Coincidentally in the same week, my office hosted a seminar by an investment banker hoping to penetrate the pop-psychology industry in a revival of 1930's-40's personality tests which divided people into various disorders. For example, one person might be in the "depression" category, and another person might be in the "epilepsy" category (seriously). In both of these studies I was categorized as manic depressive - bipolar disorder:  the ultimate HypochondriGasm. The following week, we commenced the topic in psychology called "Abnormal Psychology", dealing with the DSM. I was able to appreciate the stuff we learnt in Psychology from a different perspective as a result of having seen accounts of sufferers and reading about it online, and I would like to present a practical perspective of mental health from what I have gathered.

The resounding hypothesis which i'd like to stress is that the behaviour spectrum is continuous.

Everyone has or has had a strain of every mental illness on the market. The boundaries between "feeling down" and "Depression" and between being stressed and having "Anxiety Disorder", and between "having trouble concentrating" and "ADHD" are admittedly vastly blurred - not just for sufferers but also undeniably for both psychologists and psychiatrists.

Now whether or not we are prone to these issues absolutely cannot be controlled. I resent people who say that "it's all in your head", because that's the point... it's stupid to tell someone to get over it, suck it up, not to worry, that it'll blow over, to cheer up, calm down, or to try harder. Not only do these advice strategies often fail to work, but they more often than not intensify any existing problems. The fact is evident that there IS a problem, be it mild or easily solved, and acknowledgement is the first step to solving this problem that exists. The  "seriousness threshold" of mental illness is completely arbitrary -  there is a lot of subjectivity concerning whether or not a problem is "serious" or not and hence the "level of seriousness" or "Seriousness Quotient" should not be speculated upon - it should be considered irrelevant until it has actually been determined. Your "seriousness quotient" can be determined by consuting my "Brief Guide To Sanity" at the bottom of this page.

There are often better solutions to even moderately invasive mental health issues than paying $200 a week for a psychologist who may use outdated strategies to determine "how you feel", or than paying $500 for a psychiatrist who may give you medicine which may make you feel numb, or than going to a GP who may only Google the Problem and show you the screen.

Since the vast majority of University students suffer from some degree of mental or developmental hypochondria at some point, I have provided below a "Brief Guide to Sanity" - for any intellectual idiosyncrasy which you think you may have no control over. Teenagers are  obviously extremely volatile to mental health issues or speculations, and any instabilities should be addressed if only as a mere personal development exercise.

A Brief Guide To Sanity: Your Seriousness Quotient

Quotient #1: Acknowledge & Accept the Problem:

There's no question about it: you are insane, and the very first step is to identify what's wrong with you! Record any issues you identify regarding your own mind, in an attempt to develop a greater sense of self-awareness and understanding. Record any problematic experiences in writing, and determine how invasive you think these mental issues are. How are these problem interfering with your life, and what specifically are you unable to do? Are there any strategies you can take immediately to solve them? If you find that you do in fact have a problem inside your own head which is interfering with your success, then move on to Quotient 2. Otherwise, you should be a happy person! Yay!

Quotient #2: Healthy Body, Healthy Mind!

Often, invasive problems can be overcome through a healthier diet, regular meditation and an exercise routine. A regular sleep pattern, increased water intake, stabilizing relationships, musical interest, sport, or charity work may also be employed to forge a balanced lifestyle for optimal mental health. It would be great to see a Doctor at this stage for a general checkup and to discuss your mental health. You could receive some invaluable advice, and may receive a referral to a specialist which you can use if you need it. If these strategies have been tried with consultation from doctors, dieticians, spiritual leaders and fitness instructurs and your problem persists, willpower may be required to develop habits to manage common problems in the next Quotient.

Quotient #3: Force New Habits!

Willpower is a skill that can be developed as a habit. In the "Marshmellow experiment", 4 year olds identified as having higher willpower achieved greater success in high school 15 years later. The skill can be slowly developed through simple gradual willpower activities such as using your left hand to perform simple tasks, driving behind a slow car, studying or concentrating for longer periods of time, or walking up UNSW stairs. The willpower should obviously be employed when dealing with the tasks you have identified as being hindered by your possible mental health issue, but practicing skills of willpower throughout your day can strengthen your willpower "Muscles" and improve your chances of getting through a crisis. Your aim in this Quotient is to develop the habits that can help you manage the problems that you definitely have. If your willpower doesn't yield enough results, or if you still can't build the willpower to solve the problem, you might want to move on to Seriousness Quotient #4. 

Quotient #4: Work Around it!

To suggest that a mental illness should in all cases be cured through sheer willpower is like telling someone who has extreeemely bad handwriting to haul ALL their time and energy into fixing their handwriting. This solution will obviously only allow the metaphoric handwriting to interfere with the sufferer's life more than it already is! A more constructive approach would be to simply identify alternative solutions to the allegorical example of bad handwriting - such as employing the use of a keyboard, or engaging in careers which don't involve handwriting.  If these solutions are not feasible given the circumstances, then visiting a specialist and asking for  advice or medication is definitely encouraged.

Quotient #5: Specialists & Medication

Medicines are all placebo tested - science denial is a ridiculous way to approach mental health, but these medicines often do have side effects and high costs for often unnecessary prescriptions which you may even become dependent on. It's not worth a medical prescription if you just want an "Artificial boost" because the repercussions of dependancy far outweigh the costs of self-improvement. Be cautious about what you are taking, and please obviously ignore any concerns about stigmas or of being seen as a mental case. This goes both ways - some people with serious issues avoid seeking help in fear of being stigmatised, and for many other people the stigmatic attention associated with medical diagnosis provides opportunities to be excused for shortcomings or stand out from a crowd. The latter are obviously common, but do not warrant the perpetuation of stigma more than they call for greater concern over more serious problems in those individuals. Anyway, as mentioned in SQ3, It may often be highly worth the costs of medication to solve a seriously invasive issue and allow you to carry on with your daily life. Some say that this is a "quick synthetic fix" to a natural problem, or an "unfair advantage in life", and while this is all subject to philosophical debate, you have nothing to prove to anybody - you know what you want and you will do what you need to do to get there, especially if the problem is interfering with your wellbeing.

Quotient #6: Serious

Generally, doctors and specialists provide information and advice that is much more inconsistent than one would expect. There are in fact both good doctors and bad doctors, and it's often important to make sure you are seeing someone whom you feel is helping you.

It's obviously not my place to be able to discuss Mental Health in depth beyond SQ5 of the Seriousness Quotient, but hopefully with experience, advice, and a degree, I can extend upon the 'Brief Guide to Sanity' for a more practical approach to common mental health issues.

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I read something that really struck a chord with me yesterday which has genuinely put the time I waste into a new perspective.

My goal as an Organizational Psychologist will be to charge approximately $300/hr for my time with groups of clients, and a book by Dan Kennedy asks one to use this medium for goalsetting rather than any means to a specific end. Kennedy suggests that if your goal is to earn $300 an hour, your time spent working towards that goal is worth $5 a minute. An episode of Glee watched during allocated study time costs me approximately $200, which has turned me off the show's ridiculously inconsistent plot for at least a couple of days, after which I will hopefully have finished my assignments and will be drawn back into the infectious musical gaiety once again.

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Donating a pair of shoes to a poor boy will allow him to walk more comfortably in the same situations under which he suffers .

Teaching the boy how to make shoes will allow him to change his situation, and the situations of those around him. The way we conduct and think about charity needs to change, since we are doing an injustice to those who deserve so much better.

This essay provides some of models which should be considered ideologically as we grow older. I highly recommend that people would read it, or at least watch this video.

Some extracts:

"" Accordingly, with admirable though misdirected intentions, they very seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see. But their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it. Indeed, their remedies are part of the disease. They try to solve the problem of poverty, for instance, by keeping the poor alive; or, in the case of a very advanced school, by amusing the poor. But this is not a solution: it is an aggravation of the difficulty. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible.  Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it.""

Basically, I don't propose any sort of socialism which restricts social freedom, but rather an economy which promotes a high degree of social welfare. As purported by this comic, democracy is fundamentally flawed - it is useful in the majority of situations - but not all. The majority of people can be wrong. In an age where studies are empirically conducted and documented in archives, all people should read all academic journals on any given topic on a regular basis before given the right to make decisions on issues. Opinions, prejudice, and biases should not prevail over basic justice and common sense. Secularism is imperative, academics should be in parliament, and decisions made by the experts should be final. "Public Backlash" should under no means be a valid reason for changing those laws, but rather reason for education campaigns and further investigations into the science behind the laws. 

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When there are two sides to an argument, both sides should obviously be explored. Often, one side of the argument has more evidence to support it than the other side. In this case, the side with more evidence prevails, and the argument is over. 

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Systems may work without any structure, but an efficient structure can defy our perceptions of what is possible.

Even if things are going well, planning can often make things work better.

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Since I always talk about motivation psychology but have yet to achieve my potential academically, I will be running a new blog on the side - with daily updates, not linked to FB.

If i'm successful in juggling work with uni and overcoming procrastination, I'll possess the credibility to continue exploring ideas related to personal development in the future.

http://vikrastination.posterous.com

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Over the past few months, I have read all of the following announcements written by journalists and most particularly, by internet people:

"The Internet is Dead"
"Marketing is Dead"
"The Niche is Dead"
"TV is Dead"
"Journalism is Dead"
"The Music Industry is Dead"

What utter nonsense. There is evidently an underlying assumption that anyone with an iPad believes that Ebooks will soon replace the Newspaper and the Magazine. In reality, technology is becoming cheaper, people are becoming wealthier, more newspapers and magazines are being produced, and more people continue to buy magazines. It's the same with movies, music, and marketing. Yes, traditional methods cannot continue as they have been - the online realm has undeniably posed massive challenges - but they will nevertheless continue to exist. These industries must grow around the opportunities presented by evolving technology. If the internet killed the music industry, there would be less music - but there is more. Next time you hear someone suggest that some idea or object is "Dead", tell them to read a book.

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Intangibles have been ignored for centuries because we have had the need to survive. Today, you and I are surviving rather well, if I may say so myself. As a society, we are not used to this idea. But the first step, every person, family, company, and country should take is to start accepting the importance of intangibles.

I'm talking about happiness, communication, and sustainability for future generations. Philanthropy through intangibles, and entrepreneurship.

I read a sad article by a very smart man named Brandon Muth, who criticized Facebook for having "flawed economics". That's a bit of a moo point in my opinion. Social Media defies traditional economics, but why and how do you think Wikipedia survives?

There is no reason for our politicians and the media to insist on measuring everything measurable in terms of money and return on investment. In the words of Lincoln Smith, asking for the ROI on the internet is like asking for the ROI on a mobile phone. Do we all stop using Facebook and riding our Bicycles because these functions are not profitable?

Many of the questions that Politicians dodge produce complex answers in situations where measurable statistics are demanded, and I don't blame the media. We all love to see numbers, "proof" and security. But it's important to understand how intricate these issues really are. We are arguing about the most minute semantics when it comes to policy. Can you really "prove" that one design is prettier than another? 'Of course you can', I hear you say, 'through consensus!' So why criticize attempts by either party to seek consensus on such complex matters? (*cough* climate change.)

It's time for the major political parties to stop attempting to convince us that one policy is hypothetically "better" than the other policy, and better embrace the very idea of complexity and varied values. We are a first-world society, with first world problems that extend far beyond that which is measurable. Innovation and design are unequivocallay more valuable today than production capabilities and cost efficiency, and companies compete for customer satisfaction rather than cost-leadership. You can't put a price on Happiness, and when it comes to the Economy, we'll survive in the long run!

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I wrote a poem today randomly, shamelessly inspired by "Jabberwocky" :)

----

Scopy Scapes

'Cross the scope and larshous ba'in
with rimless fleece and main ery,
is waitered by a found two legs
who bakers down to roar his flee.

Spent from mocking daily fleece!
Legs bakers back to lone ery, 
rest duly down from vacious brun
and weely dists to leepy nun.

So d'enter scapes of reamy faux
wist fully through to sepshun, goes
into a place of zibberdacks,
and laser snatching digi packs.

Ray for making lappy fays!
he stokes and chunders, bash and says
that d'enter scapes are all the rage
and scopes and rims are olden days.

May and Pastor filler smack, but
Legs is macky, knacky, back
Thall never fund the band the bill
You try yourself - you said you will.

Mersed in something nothing real
but happy nonetheless to come, to
seal the bows of zenzic mums and
cleanse the scope of waiting scales.

So Spent from mocking daily fleece
Legs bankers up from lone ery
to scurry up tward vacious bun
and brings his fleece along for fun :P  

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