If you want to explore or learn astronomy, or if you are already well into it – this is the book you need:
Never have I seen a book so packed with easily digestable facts. This book will make you level up twice in astronomy and reach a new level of general smartness. You can get a taste of this beauty at its web page. And you can order the book from Amazon.
This is a direct copy of Ed’s latest blog post. I wholeheartedly agree:
“Many people have clear goals. These people often will write down there goals, then break them down into sub-goals and actions necessary to achieve those goals. They then draw a long line between where they are now and where they want to be. And, as anyone who has had basic geography can tell you, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Detours only make the journey longer and less efficient. So, the argument goes, the best way to achieve your goals is to make a clear plan; a linear plan, moving daily one step closer down the long straight line toward your goals.
Now, while this may be an excellent way for many people to live a fulfilled life, I’ve not found this method to be most suitable for me. Rather I have taken another approach; a non-linear one. I wander around and collect new experiences. I seldom walk in a straight line for any length of time. I detour often. And as I do this I’m awake to the opportunity to accumulate and learn numerous new skills, attitudes, ideas, ways of viewing things, approaches, etc. Then after some time I stop up for a while and assess where I’ve been and what I’ve learned. I look ahead to see if any new challenges might match the new skills, etc I’ve acquired. Then I take a hop in that direction and start accumulating new experiences in that general area.
The road is created as I walk on it. This is probably not the best method for everyone, but maybe for some? Let me know what you think 🙂 ”
This needs wider recognition:
“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.”
From Gall’s Law on Wikipedia.
Thanks to Geir & Jonas @ Telemark Fylkeskommune for bringing this law to my attention.
Brendan had a meeting with an interesting guy. Ed.
Ed has amazing experiences to share. But he didn’t think sharing them was worth it.
In keeping with our direct coaching approach, Brendan challenged Ed to do 100 days of blogging. Not necessarily for his own benefit, but because he could inspire others by sharing his awesome. I think Ed will find great value in doing so.
Ed writes well. His blog is a great read. And he’s only at day 8.
Head on over to Ed’s, leave a comment or two and let him know he has an audience:
English: The Norwegian students I did a two hour lecture on Scientology for has compiled their studies into a series of blog posts. The blog is publicly available (in Norwegian).
Norsk: Den 16. mars hold jeg et to timers foredrag om Scientologi ved Menighetsfakultetet, Universitetet i Oslo. Studentene har nå samlet informasjon fra et bredt spekter av kilder og skrevet en rekke bloggposter om ulike aspekter ved Scientologi. Resultatet kan du se her: http://buildingthebridge.blogg.no/
Our second OnePageBook™ cuts straight to the core of mental training:
The art of being present.
Dropping the long explanations and anecdotes. Cutting through the bull. You get the method straight – in a just a few minutes.
This book covers the mental training that helped Tiril Eckhoff become the World Champion in Biathlon last month. Take a close look at Tiril when she hits all five targets in her last shooting – her presence and focus is remarkable. This is the run where she took home the gold medal:
The training described in this book will benefit anyone. It is a simpler and more agile way of training to be mentally present than you will find anywhere else. This will help you focus. This will relieve stress. It will help you get down to the very basic: You… here and now.
I believe we have an inherent drive, a purpose. Any purpose.
A purpose needs a game. A game needs a purpose.
Without barriers, there is no drive and without a drive there is no life.
Life is fueled by accomplishment. The overcoming of barriers toward a purpose we create yields a sense of mastery, of accomplishment.
When we fulfill purposes, we create new purposes to achieve. As we realize purposes, our life becomes more accomplished, more perfected. And comfort sets in.
Johnny wants to become a physician, have a luxurious home, a great marriage and two wonderful kids. He goes through years of education, dates girls, becomes a doctor and marries Miss Right. They get two lovely kids. He’s a wonderful father and they adore him. They live in a fantastic house and life is full of comfort. Now what?
With more perfection and comfort, less purposes and excitement remains. There is freedom with less barriers and adventure, less drive and direction. There is less to live for. At that point a person can slumber in apathy or revolt by creating less positive adventures – like self-inflicted pains, drugs or criminality. Johnny starts drinking and beats Miss Right left and right. He gambles and loses the house.
What happens with individuals have parallels in societies and the World at large.
We see the dangers of comfort in our decadent Western world much like the Romans experienced in their conquered world. As our world grows less dangerous and comfort and freedom sets in, we will create new dangers to topple, or we can slide into apathy to have dangers mounting while we slumber. With less wars, population growth tapering off and with criminality rates going down, we may have to rely on global warming or artificial intelligence to keep us busy. Because perfecting society with security to iron out any possibility of terrorism will only create more comfort and less life.
Maybe the need for adventure is why we don’t see any advance alien civilizations. Maybe they bored themselves into apathy or did some crazy shit as a counter-reaction to the increasing comfort and lull.
If you can look past the terrible special effects and the cute retro scenery, this episode of Space 1999 captures the dangers of comfort in a neat way:
What should we do to have a decent game to come back to?
Også i år holdt jeg en forelesning ved Menighetsfakultetet ved UiO. En gruppe studenter skulle skrive artikler om Scientologi, og jeg ble invitert som en kilde for deres arbeide. Studentene hadde allerede besøkt Scientologikirken i Oslo. De stilte med åpent sinn og flere gode spørsmål. Det ble en to timers forelesning som dekket alle nivåene i Scientologi med detaljer fra hele “Broen til Total Frihet” – fra Diantetikk og engrammer til Purification Rundown, Clear, OT-nivåene, Xenu, eksorsisme og OT 8. De fikk høre min historie, om hvordan jeg kom inn i Scientologi og hvorfor jeg gikk ut. Flere andre viktige elementer ble dekket i løpet av de to timene. Du kan se hele forelesningen her:
Usually after having read a 200+ pages book, I wish there was a one page summary I could have read instead.
As Thomas Jefferson once said:
“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
Brendan and myself decided to start condensing our concepts into OnePageBooks. First out is “Organization – The simple way”. In just one A4 page you will get a destilled model and how-to for building organizations.
Geir Isene - uncut 