This is a short and exciting game I play with myself. I play it when I feel like some rapid learning.
Playing this game once a week might make you go crazy, I’m not sure, I don’t play it that often. But I allow myself this pleasure once in a while, and I’d like to think it helps me grow as a person. Curious?
Here are the rules to the game
- Choose someone you either admire, or someone totally strange to you
- Immerse yourself in blog posts/ articles/ books they wrote/ related to them
- Observe and note down new ideas, mental notes, and thoughts worth sharing.
- Blog about it (might as well share the learning with others)
I have been sub-consciously doing this for a while now, minus the blogging bit. It usually starts with reading one thing cool about one person, then craving for more… My past victims include
Jeff Bezos
Founder and CEO of Amazon.com, I admire him because it’s a mean feat to transform yourself from startup cowboy all the way to big name CEO of a solid dot-com definer.
Henry Ford
A thinker way ahead of his time.
Not that I was born in the 40’s but you know what I mean.
I used to just get lost in reading whatever I could find online about them. Pity I didn’t take down notes I can share.
So really, today is the first time I’m going through the process, and blogging about it.
And for you to see how I play this game…
Going Behind The Brain Of… Tim Ferriss
The man behind “The 4 Hour Workweek”, a book which really jives with me and how I want to lead my life.
Over the past 3 weeks, I’ve been reading articles about him, as well as his book. But for this game, I’ve spent the last 4 hours consuming all his blog posts.
Here are some notes I taken down…
From Tim Ferriss’s blog
Achievement VS Appreciation
If we define “achievement” as obtaining things we desire (whether raises, relationships, cars, pets, or otherwise) that have the potential to give us pleasure, let’s define “appreciation” as our ability to get pleasure out of those things. To focus on the former to the exclusion of the latter is like valuing cooking over eating.
Time without attention is worthless, so value attention over time.
Most people spend more time planning their weekends than their relationships. Don’t make that mistake. You are the average of the 5 or so people you associate with most.
My own notes…
- I have have learnt the hard way (through being one of those kids who must ACE every subject in uni) that time management is BS. What I needed to manage was my energy, attention, and awareness. It’s good to know Tim Ferriss preaches the same.
- I noticed I rarely allow myself to be too content with what I have. My impatience and hunger for chaos has always driven me to do crazy things, sooner. I like it this way. But in light of not turning into a mean, greedy, crazy dude, I will learn to include more ”appreciation” and “gratitude” into my daily experience for a healthier equation.
- I’m glad my experiments in being selective with who I spend my time with has paid off. Life is even more fun given my new social cliques. But this is only the beginning. I’ve always found myself the happiest when surrounded by the right people – and I’m going to take it to the next level in 2008 with my new, yet-to-be-revealed projects… ;)
Future victims of “Going Behind The Brain Of…”
- Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator
- Einstein –
the forgotten Ninja Turtle I think you know this guy?
- Who else should I go behind the brains of? I want to an “unusual suspect” – I want to pick someone very different from me…
Now that I’ve revealed my game to you – you are forced to
- Tell me who you would ”Go Behind The Brains Of…”
- And leave a comment here if you decide to blog about it!
