This site is kept open for archival purposes. There are lots of blog posts on everything from tech stuff to Scientology on this site. It will remain open for years to come.
But, my new home is at isene.org. That is where I continue blogging and sharing materials for your free use. You can subscribe at the bottom page over at isene.org to keep yourself updated on new posts.
Articles, books, my artwork and music is shared at one of the pages on my new website, and easily reached via isene.com.
The one essential tip.
This OnePageBook™ will help boost your self confidence, productivity and quality of life.
“If there hadn’t been women we’d still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends.” (Orson Welles)
Make your résumé really stand out.
This OnePageBook™ helps you write an outstanding Curriculum Vitae or Résumé.
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” (Confucius)
What are you going to do about it?
This OnePageBook™ is about you taking responsibility for your life – past, present and future.
“I decided I can’t pay a person to rewind time, so I may as well get over it.” (Serena Williams)
“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” (Kenji Miyazawa)
“Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home… it’s your responsibility to love it, or change it.” (Chuck Palahniuk)
“You’re never served more than you can handle” (Anette Iren Isene)
There should be a simple, structured and effective way to describe anything using just text. A way to describe any thing, situation, process, recipe, any plan or project.
There is. It’s called HyperList.
Become familiar with the efficient way to create plans, process descriptions, Todo lists, idea outlines, documentation, logic structures and much more with this OnePageBook. Download for the free pdf.
Got rolling with podcasts. Brendan and I have done a few and released two so far. One is about mental training, the other about the benefits of failing. You can listen to both here: https://www.a-circle.no/podcasts
What do I do to help Mankind’s Plan B? What programming language would I save for posterity? How often do I cook dinner? Vegan much? What’s my worst side? Today Brendan decided to do one where he fired a long list of (revealing) questions at me. No preparations. Just quick answers from the top of my head, or deeper inside. You can listen to it here:
To perform at your best, you must own your actions. You must be fully responsible for what you do and accept the effects you create 100%. Any advice from others is only as good as you own them yourself. Any method, methodology, system of belief or guidance will only help you if you can fully own them. And to own an advice or method from another, you must prove its effectiveness by your own senses. Anything less will disparage your responsibility – your ability to perform will suffer to that degree because you will be less yourself.
Be careful when you accept an advice or adhere to a method. Take care to make it your own before you start to truly rely on them for your performance.
Where do you get your energy? Beyond air, food, sleep and basic securities, when do you get pumped up, how do you get on fire?
Accomplishments. It’s when you accomplish something you feel is worthwhile. When you progress toward your goals, you get energy. When you move away from your goals, you are drained.
But you need energy to get stuff done. And when you are energy depleted, it can be hard to even envision getting started on some tasks, much less accomplishing something worthwhile. Even when you are well rested and fed, you can still lack initiative.
That’s when you start small. Accomplish stuff through baby steps. You do one tiny semi-worthwhile step that give you a small drop of energy. You use that drop to do another, fractionally larger step to gain a bit more energy. And so on. As long as you accomplish what you can in the situation you are, you keep gaining energy. Keep the momentum going. And you will get pumped and on fire.
But be attentive. Whenever you feel an energy drain, stop and reconsider. Do something worthwhile instead.
You get to decide what is worthwhile. You get to decide what an accomplishment is. It could be anything from taking a short walk or painting a picture to helping a friend in trouble, earning money or salvaging a country. You decide the direction, you get to feel the effect of your steps – toward your goals or away from them.
The 6th OnePageBook™ tackles the skill of listening. Learn to tap in to your superpower with simple and effective concepts.
Understand others better. Your wife or husband, your kids, your family, your boss or collegues, a random stranger. Listen, and listen good. Get in there and really get it. And let the other person know you truly understand. Lift personal relationships to a new level.
As usual, this is a straight-to-the-point one pager with no beating around the bush.
Head on over to the OnePageBooks and get your copy (as an e-book on Amazon, or as a downloadable pdf).
Businesses are concerned with controlling most aspects of operation. Finance, sales, manufacturing, logistics, projects, people, all kinds of processes, planning, even innovation. They don’t want to fail.
People are concerned with controlling most aspects of their lives. Money, job security, family time, kids, house, even vacations. We don’t want to fail.
Society is built upon the need for control. We don’t like when things spin out of control.
Control makes sure we don’t run into unknown territory. It keeps us safe.
It also hinders innovation. Precisely because it mitigates surprises by ensuring we keep out of unknown territory.
I advocate the occasional UNCONTROL. Just “letting go” may not be quite enough. We should sometimes make a conscious decision to uncontrol a situation. To really let it run its own course into uncharted territory. To let the project derail and let the sale cycle take surprising turns. To stomach the uncomfortable uncertainty, embrace failing and let new synapse paths connect.
Daring the unknown spurs innovation.
Geir Isene - uncut 