Success Manifesto

Today I went to an panel on blogging, politics, and personal voice. The panel was moderated by Jeff Jarvis and consisted of:

1. John Aravosis - Writer and political consultant specializing in using the Internet for political advocacy
   
2. Cam Barret - Created the Clark Community Network
   
3. Jen Chung - Edits the Gothamist
   
4. Jay Rosen - Chair of the Journalism Department at NYU
   
5. Douglas Rushkoff - I follow his blog and just read his book, Nothing Sacred: The Truth about Judaism, which I highly recommend. It will make you look at religion in a new way.
   
6. Julian Sanchez - Assistant editor of Reason magazine

It seems that search engines are catching on to this idea as both Google and Yahoo are beta-testing local search services. I guess these moves are not surprising when about 25% of online buyers look for local merchants (Bizrate and The Kelsey Group).

Ironically, it seems that the Internet, which is a global medium, may also have a huge impact on how communities function locally by connecting people that are geographically close to each other in new and meaningful ways. Due to lack of expertise, I will not try expound on what I think this means. However, the consequences for politics, volunteerism, personal happiness, and commerce seem like they could be large, very large.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 10:57 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

1. Read Books. Well-written and researched, provocative books can completely change one's worldview. There's nothing like getting access to the smartest people in the world and getting an organized summary of their thoughts in 10 hours for $14.95. Furthermore, reading books and scholarly articles gives one an 'in' to their authors. It still amazes me how much this resource is under-utilized!
2. Get Current Events & Culture Through Osmosis. Rather than actively learning about these through newspapers, magazines, and TV, keep up-to-date on them through my network.
3. Main Areas of Interest.
   • Religion
   • Philosophy
   • Psychology
   • Sociology
   • Quantum physics
   • Neuroscience
   • Technology
4. Practice Vipassana Meditation. This is hands down one of the largest growth experiences I've had. I practice this daily and hope to go on 1-3 10-day retreats/year.
5. Niche News. Keep up-to-date on people, publishing, technology, online marketing, companies, and blogs through bloglines and Google News Alerts.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 03:21 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (8)

A few nights ago, I couldn't fall asleep. Normally, I would wake up Sheena and try to make her talk, often unsuccessfully and often against her will. However, a few nights ago, I decided to try and clear my mind instead as part of my continuing quest to follow the "Golden Rule" (to do unto others as you would want done to yourself). Interestingly, all I could think about was getting a piece of bread and spreading butter on it. After 5-10 minutes of deliberation, I started to get up, when to my surprise, Sheena said in an annoyed voice, "Don't let the butter melt!"

You can imagine my shock, considering the facts that:

1. She was asleep. This was confirmed after prodding her side and saying her name in an increasingly louder voice (sometimes the "Golden Rule" must be broken).
   
2. I hadn't mentioned my bread & butter thoughts out loud.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

In January, I made a post about questions I had on the scientific method and its relation to religion. Now, eight months later, I'm doing an independent study with the president of NYU related to the subject and have begun to dive into the subject more thoroughly. The two books that I would most recommend to others are:

Religion and Science by Bertrand Russell
First published in 1935, this book talks about where science and religion have come into conflict over the past few hundred years. More specifically, he goes into detail on the following conflicts:

• Sun vs. Earth (as the center of the solar system)
  
• Evolution vs. Creationism
  
• Demonology vs. Medicine
  
• Soul vs. Body
  
• Determinism vs. Free Will
  
• Mysticism (experiencing truth) vs. Scientific Method (proving truth by replicable experiments)
  
• Cosmic Purpose
  
• Limits of Science (how ethics/values can never proven by science)

Major Take Aways from the Books

1. The Old Power of Religion. I've gained a more thorough understanding of how dominant religion was in people's lives. For example, Aristotle believed that the speed of which objects fall is proportional to its weight. In other words, he believed that a ten pound object dropped at the same moment from the same height as an one pound object would reach the ground ten times more quickly. Surprisingly, this easy-to-test idea wasn't even tested until 2,000 years later when Galileo tested it by dropping objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa and observing the results.

   Over time, the power of religion is also demonstrated by the fact that millions of innocent victims have painfully died as a result people using the Bible as a guide to conduct. In fact, Russell says that, "It is estimated that in Germany alone, between 1450 and 1550, a hundred thousand witches were put to death, mostly by burning. (95)". Interestingly, the most common accusation against witches, at the time, was that they caused bad weather (i.e., tempests, hail-storms, thunder, and lightning). After accusations, women (who obviously pleaded that they were innocent) were brutally tortured until they admitted that they were witches. According to Russell, the last burning of a witch occurred as recently as 1722 or 1730. Wow!

2. Religion will Always Exist. While the trend for the past few hundred years has been for science to take over parts of religion, it seems that religion will always exist where science has not proven itself yet or where science can't make conclusions (i.e., values, ethics, questions that ask why, etc.).

3. Religion Isn't Innately Bad. I've come to the conclusion that religion isn't innately bad or useless (which is what I've thought for a large part of my life). In fact, I think it can be very useful and practical for people. I'm exploring this ideamore, but when religious diversity is accepted and used synergistically and when religious creeds and ethics evolve with culture and science, I think they can be powerful.

4. Like Democracy, Science isn't Perfect, but is the Best that We Have. It is hard to argue with many of Sagan's points. Some that I thought were interesting are:
   • In Western Europe in Medieval Times, the human life expectancy was about 20 to 30 years. Today it is approaching 80 in the United States.
     
   • "Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history. (11)"
     
   • Communication, transportation, entertainment, and other technologies, which have drastically changed the way we live our lives.
     
   • If prayer is so powerful than why didn't kings and queens live longer when all of its citizens were constantly praying for his/her health and praying, "God save the Queen".

Posted by Michael Simmons at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (14)

We've wanted to do shirts for Extreme Entrepreneurship for awhile now and may be taking action somewhat soon. I just thought of an idea to improve them and would be interested in your thoughts.

Style: T-shirt, Sweatshirt
Color: Black background; White font
Front: Our logo (in a small size) on the upper-left-front
Back: Customized life visions. So for me it would be:

1. If you saw somebody you didn't know wearing a shirt like this, what would your thoughts on that person be?
   
2. Would you wear a shirt with the Extreme Entrepreneurship logo on the front and your vision on the back? Why or why not?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (16)

Over the past few weeks, I've been more introspective about life, asking myself core questions like "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?". However, lately, the more I ask myself these questions, the more I feel like they can never be answered for sure. Below are questions that have come to mind:

1. Is there innate meaning to anything (i.e., to life)?
   
2. If there was, is it ever possible to know this innate meaning? How would one know? Senses? Feeling? 'Knowing' we can't voice? Gathering evidence and making an hypothesis?
   
3. How is it possible for us to know that something is on the tip of our tongue yet not remember it? Is this a same kind of 'knowing' that we have about answers to core life questions?
   
4. Can the meaning one interprets from a situation ever be wrong? For example, if I create an object with a specific purpose, and somebody uses it for something else, are they wrong? In other words, can the purpose one chooses for one's life every be 'wrong' (especially if it goes against a creator original intention)?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (11)