Introducing Reason for Success

I'm proud to announce my new blog/website Reason for Success -  the premier personal development destination promoting the virtue of productiveness.  In it, we analyze scientific discovers in goal setting and decision making, explore philosophic insights, discuss industry best practices, examine case studies, review hot new books in personal development, and interview successful individuals from all walks of life.  If you have enjoyed my blog posts on goals, productivity, and purpose on Try Reason, I encourage you to check out the new site and follow us on our journey.  

You also can follow along on Facebook and Twitter.

8 years ago today

8 years ago today, the weather forecast called for rain all day. 


That would have been alright, except I had a extremely special outdoor event planned at the Cafe DeMenil at the DeMenil mansion in St. Louis.  All day we waited and hoped our luck would hold out.  An hour before the event started, we arrived at the mansion. The rain immediately stopped and the sun came out.  The flowers re-opened and the birds came out to sing.  The event went on as scheduled with the most beautiful setting and with our most important friends and family.

On July 3rd, 2004, I married my wife, Brenda.  

Happy Anniversary!  I love you, Brenda!

Objectivist Round up

Welcome to the January 19, 2012 edition of Objectivist Round-up.

Objectivism is a philosophy for living on this earth.  For me, that is especially poignant because my grandfather passed away yesterday.  He was a good man who valued his family and treated them accordingly.  A story I heard at my grandmother's funeral (his wife for over 60 years) shows the character of this man.  Please indulge me while I tell it.  On a family vacation many years ago, my grandma, grandpa, dad, and uncles were traveling through Florida and enjoying the warm weather.  My grandma, the always cheerful, caring woman, had one desire on that vacation - to see the sun rise over a particular bridge in Florida.  My grandpa, the matter of fact, focused, purposeful man that he was, wanted to get on the road and driving to the next location as soon as possible.  He packed the car and loaded everyone up at 5 AM, well before sunrise and took off - driving over the bridge where my grandma wanted to watch the sun come up.  As they were nearing the end of the bridge, my grandma was in tears, afraid she was going to miss this one sight she had dreamed of seeing.  My grandpa, seeing her crushed, pulled over to the side of the road and waited for over an hour for the sun to come up.  In spite of his desire to hit the road, he could not stand to see the person he loved most in such pain.  This love was evident throughout their marriage. 

When I think of this story, it reminds me of the importance of maintaining a rational selfishness - of recognizing your highest values and acting accordingly.  It reminds me of staying true to reality, and not pretend that the person sitting next to you is not crying, when in fact they are.  It reminds me love requires the best within us.  In short, it reminds me of why I am an Objectivist.  I will miss him.

I don't wish to usurp the round-up, so here are other great stories and articles by Objectivists.  Read, enjoy, and find that inspiration to be the best that you can be.

Jim Woods presents An Open Letter to Gary Johnson, Libertard for President posted at Words by Woods, saying, "Based upon C-SPAN's series "The Contenders", how can a flawed candidate without a chance of being elected run a campaign that could be historically significant?"

Darius Cooper presents Are Americans spendthrifts? posted at Practice Good Theory, saying, "I look at America's personal savings rate"

Paul Hsieh presents Why Is Creating Value Good, But Profits Bad? posted at We Stand FIRM, saying, "My latest OpEd at RealClearMarkets discusses the morality of making a profit. In a free society, "creating value" and "making a profit" are just two sides of the same coin!"

Rachel Miner presents Trustee from the Toolroom Review posted at The Playful Spirit, saying, "A delightful book which I read after seeing Yaron Brook's recommendation. I share some thoughts that may spur you to give it a try."

Ari Armstrong presents Gary Johnson Can't Save the Libertarian Party posted at Free Colorado, saying, "Gary Johnson can't advance the cause of liberty while running with the Libertarian Party."

Diana Hsieh presents Video: SOPA and Online Piracy posted at NoodleFood, saying, "The "SOPA" and "PIPA" bills currently under consideration would threaten every web site with shut-down, if that web site contains so much as a single link to copyrighted material anywhere. These bills, if passed, would break the fundamental architecture of the internet, and enable Chinese-style censorship of the internet. Watch my webcast discussion, then call and e-mail your representatives!"

Jason Stotts presents The Logical Necessity of the Oxford Comma posted at Erosophia, saying, "The Oxford Comma is not only stylistically necessary, it is logically necessary and its absence can lead to absurdities."

I present SMART Goals and Philosophy posted here, saying, "Objectivism is a philosophy for living, so it should come as little surprise that some industry best practices in goal setting align with Objectivism's ethics and epistemology.  See how." 

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of objectivist round up using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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A Rising Tide at Christmas

A little bit of positive news comes from economics?  Jobless claims failing.  Mortgage rates at historic lows.  So this Christmas, remember that all those gifts you can afford to give (and get) comes primarily from our improved standard of living.  (Yes, even the poor are getting richer).

To get you in the mood this season, take a gander at my Christmas Poem.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

How to do Abstract Integrative Reading

Inspiration flowed while reading Study Methods & Motivation Chapters "How to do Abstract Reading" and "How to do Abstract Integrative Reading".  I realized that much of his commentary mirrors what I've learned about "meaningful learning" theory proposed by Ausubel.  Besides implications for my own reading, I brainstormed how I can create class exercises for my students that would facilitate this type of reading.  My take away is that I'll spend the first day of class showing students the following process, perhaps even giving them worksheets to fill in.  I provide my own analysis to "How to do Abstract Integrative Reading" below.

1. Start with a definition of the concept you read - but state in your own words.

2. Why is the concept important?

3. Describe the concept (this is where you integrate the concept with your current body of knowledge)

4. Provide examples

1. Definition

Abstract Integrative Reading is a skill used when reading where a book's ideas are integrated into one's current context of knowledge.

2. Importance

Abstract integrative reading is critical for developing a deep understanding of ideas.  This skill makes reading purposeful and useful for thinking and reasoning.  Improving this skill will ultimately help me gain knowledge systematically while reading, allowing me to make better decisions and live a happier, more successful life.

3. Description

Abstract integrative reading includes the ability to define a term appropriately, neither too broad nor too narrow - neither too vague nor too concrete - and avoiding subjective interpretations.  Although Locke never explicitly states it, this approach to study compliments Ayn Rand's theory of concepts.  What I mean by deep understanding of ideas is that this process for reading will make sense to me on many levels.  If I can identify cause/effect relationships, similarities and differences, implications, or categories for concepts, then I can communicate those concepts with ease because I can rephrase my words depending on the context.  Its important that these concepts be integrated with one's context of knowledge because like all learning, concepts should not be floating in the ether regions or else they will fall victim to rote memorization. For example, I identified the similarities with abstract integrative learning with Rand's theory of concepts and Ausubel's Meaningful learning.  I've further integrated his suggestions into another context, my teaching, by developing this process.  Abstract integrative reading provides me with the mechanisms for meaningful learning such that readings will persist in my mind for the long-term and can be used to help me make decisions in the future. 

4. Examples

If a book provides examples, I can brainstorm my own examples that fit within the concept. 

This blog post is an example of the output from abstract integrative reading.  

Notes I take on books or articles I read help facilitate abstract integrative reading.

The Child's Imagination

As I was throwing away two old computers, my son asked what they were and I told him.  He wanted to see inside, so I opened it up and started explaining all the parts.  What he saw: "It looks like the Earth" pointing to the mother board.  "And look, here's a park and this dot is our house... this is my school... this is Tara's school".  So I opened up the other computer and he found Grandma and Grandpa's house.  30 minutes later, he and his sister were still studying the compute boards. 

Its amazing what the mind of a 4 and 5 year old see.  I see a hard drive, memory, capacitors, circuits, and mother board.  My kids see a cornucopia of adventures in a new world.  Truly fascinating!  Who knew I would still get one last use out of those old machines?

Do you want to be a dad?

Here's my 20 minute run down of thoughts about being a dad.

The bad:
Cleaning a poopy diaper for the 4th time in 30 minutes.
Arriving to work 10 minutes late and realizing that you have some poop on your shirt.
Tripping over their toys for the 1000th time.
Realizing you bought all of those toys.
Struggling to keep your cool after the 10th time your child has come out of bed when he's supposed to be asleep.
Answering "why?" for the 100th time today (I usually don't mind doing this, but sometimes answers allude me or I'm just too darn tired..."Why?").
Wishing I had my evenings back.
Rocking a sick child back to sleep at 2 AM... and 4, and 6.
Worried beyond compare when your children disappear out of the backyard...they were found holding hands, walking around the block to retrieve a Frisbee thrown over the fence.

The good:
Coming home from work to a chorus of "DADDY!!!" with big hugs from all your kids.
Finding an excuse to play with toys you hadn't played with in 20 years.
Having your son fall asleep in your arms.
Getting a sweet kiss from your daughter.
Having your values and virtues tested and actualized in real time (your children are a reflection of yours, so its pretty obvious).
Seeing pure joy on your child's face.
Learning how to balance your time equally between family and work.
Realizing that life is not ending with children...its actually a lot of fun.

There's no question I'm happy I had children. They can be trying at times, but I'm quickly realizing that the biggest issues I have with fatherhood usually stem from failures on my part to live rationally. If anything, they challenge me to be a better person. And this, along with their unconditional love, are two of the greatest things that come with being a dad.

Face of Joy

The joy of a three year old
waiting for the train.
Waiting for his favorite train in the whole world,
Thomas the Tank Engine.

One ride. A dream come true.

If only we could all experience the same unadulterated joy that he does at this moment.

Put up or shut up?

Here is a man who is willing to stand, and eat, by his arguments. Ari Armstrong claims that the amount of money provided with food stamps is more than enough for a healthy diet. "Armstrong, who previously spent a month eating for $2.57 per day... will spend February 4-10 eating a highly nutritious, low-carb diet for less than food stamps provide. (Now at $4.74 per day)" [Bold added.] This diet will consist of mostly meats, vegetables, and fruits. No filler foods like pasta, potatoes, Ramon noodles, or the like.

Mr. Armstrong also offers to help evaluate family meal plans (for the first 5 interested) to achieve this goal.

Now this is a man I can admire. He decided to put up when challenged on his beliefs. He also rightly notes that government subsides do violate our property rights...stealing from one person to give to another. But the ludicrous assumption that we are not stealing enough from one person to give to another person so that other person can eat enough to live...well, its just flat wrong.

Happy Birthday!

A day to remember and honor Miss Ayn Rand (born February 2, 1905) Although I'm tempted to say this day should be a national holiday, the best tribute to Rand may actually entail being as rational and productive as possible on this day.

So in her honor, I will work my butt off today!

A Christmas Poem

Here's a little Christmas poem I wrote a couple years ago. I hope you all enjoy.

Christmas Poem
By John Drake

It’s wintertime! It’s Christmas time!
Ho, Ho, Ho to all.
It’s time to make a Christmas rhyme
So let’s get on the ball.

For on Christmas day, we gather round
At the foot of our tree
To see what presents can be found
And open gifts - you see.

The joy of family and friends we seek
From which the season springs.
The kids promise they will not peek
At the toys that Santa brings.

The wreaths are made from Douglas fir
The candles dance all night
The smell of pine we do concur
Makes the mood just right.

The house is decorated to its full extent
The Crystal and china look great
Glitter and candy canes drive excitement.
The kids can hardly wait.

With turkey and stuffing and potatoes and rolls
Topped with a bottle of wine
Mashed and creamed and cooked into bowls
The guests are ready to dine

The table is filled with laughter and cheer
As jokes and stories are told
About their adventures over the previous year
From which their memories still hold

Just when the food begins to set
Out come the cookies and fudge
No one can leave the table just yet
Our favorites we must judge

With dinner complete, our butts we lift
And gather round the tree
For there is piled a load of gifts
Is one of them for me?

In searching for gifts, the children glow
As the adults gather round
The gifts are wrapped in ribbons and bows
Nothing is left unfound.

Then one by one, the paper sails
Half way across the floor
Tearing open the gifts, it never fails,
Is anything but a bore

With a hoot and a holler and giggles galore
Everyone is delighted to see
The presents they received is far, far more
Than they imagined it’d be

Puzzles and books, new toys and games,
A sweater, tie, and ornament
Music and tools, plants and picture frames,
And for sports, equipment.

As we admire our brand new property,
Let’s show some thankfulness
Our country was founded on life and liberty,
And the pursuit of happiness

For without these freedoms we all enjoy
Christmas would not exist
No one could afford a brand new toy
And Santa would have no list

So give thanks to all the freedoms won
And to those who keep it so.
Embrace the splendors and all the fun
And feel free to blow your dough.

Merry Christmas!

My purpose in life

Is it that important to identify the purpose of your life? Absolutely! As Ayn Rand says:

Man cannot survive, like an animal, by acting on the range of the moment. An animal's life consists of a series of separate cycles, repeated over and over again, such as the cycle of breeding its young, or of storing food for the winter: an animal's consciousness cannot integrate its entire lifespan; it can carry just so far, then the animal has to begin the cycle all over again, with no connection to the past. Man's life is a continuous whole: for good or evil, every day, year and decade of his life holds the sum of all the days behind him. He can alter his choices, he is free to change direction of his course, he is free, in many cases, to atone for the consequences of his past-but he is not free to escape them, nor to live his life with impunity on the range of the moment, like an animal, a playboy or a thug. If he is to succeed at the task of survival, if his actions are not to be aimed at his own destruction, man has to choose his course, his goals, his values in context and terms of his lifetime. (Ayn Rand, VOS, p. 26)

In other words, he needs a purpose.

Steve Palina suggests you can discover the purpose to your life in about 20 minutes to an hour. Although I disagree with Steve on a number of issues, he generally has useful things to say about purpose, goals, consciousness, awareness, and productivity. Well, I decided to try his method, in part because they reminded me of Nathaniel Branden's sentence completion exercises, which I have found helpful before. (FYI, I have a very negative opinion of Branden in general, particularly the way he treated Rand and continues to misrepresent Objectivism, but some of his psychological practices has been useful in my life.)

Steve was right, within 30 minutes I had converged on my purpose in life. While I was not crying, like he suggested I should be, I was overwhelmed with emotion at the acknowledgment of the correctness of this purpose.

This purpose is: To say at the end of my life that I lived rationally, productively, and proud to the best of my abilities.

When the full context of that statement finally sunk in, I knew that I had found the answer. That is my purpose. That is what tantalizes and tickles my passions in both a fiercely emotional and intellectual manner.

After discovering my purpose, I stumbled upon various other passions that helped me to define my mission statement:

Three primary passions drive my actions: to love only what is worth loving, to discover the answers to the mysteries around me, and to bring order into my life.

To love only what is worth loving is founded on the principle of justice. I have always been ruthless in my drive to pick friends that are worth my effort. I have always been ruthless in loving only those items that facilitate my joy and happiness. Wasting time and effort on things that do not deserve it endangers my own happiness and long term survival. A corollary to this principle is to hate only what is worth hating. To hate something requires significant effort and should be reserved to things that genuinely hurt my life and values. Such hatred should be reserved to only those things that deserve that hatred. I would much rather spend my time and effort loving things than hating things.

At heart, I am a scientist. I love to learn how and why things work. This is the reason why I studied physics as an undergrad and why I later earned a doctorate and continue to conduct research. I want to learn. I love to learn. And I love to explain what I’ve learned to others. I cannot see myself in any other position. One of the reasons why I choose to study MIS for my PhD is because the field is so dynamic and ever changing, requiring a continuous study of the state of the art. This is an environment in which I thrive.

And lastly, I want order in my personal life. By this, I mean I enjoy well organized environments, but especially environments that flow with my habits and expectations in a reasonable and productive manner. To me, order facilitates high productivity by eliminating all the miscellaneous odds and ends that slow down work towards my goals. If I have to spend minutes or hours looking for something I need, that time is wasted. In a well ordered environment, the search is extremely fast and efficient so I can spend time on things of greater value.

While I have many lesser passions as well, these three are the primary values that I have used throughout my life. The primary passions may change over time, but it is most unlikely they will be inconsistent with my purpose in life.

Shelter me no more

This is a great story about how anyone can move from poverty to good financial standing with hard work and a can do attitude. It also shows how most welfare systems are largely irrelevant.

Hat tip to Noodlefood

A little inspiration for the soul

Success

If you want a thing bad enough To go out and fight for it, Work day and night for it, Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it

If only desire of it Makes you quite mad enough Never to tire of it, Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it

If life seems all empty and useless without it And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,

If gladly you'll sweat for it, Fret for it, Plan for it, Lose all your terror of God or man for it,

If you'll simply go after that thing that you want. With all your capacity, Strength and sagacity, Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,

If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt, Nor sickness nor pain Of body or brain Can turn you away from the thing that you want,

If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it, You'll get it!

BERTON BRALEY

[Hat tip to Pedagogically Correct]

Wind power

If this isn't an awesome story, I don't know what is. Our world needs more kids like this...
http://www.williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/

This kid is still in high school, but has built his own windmill to power his family's home, along with some of his neighbor's electrical needs. Incredible!