Archive for the ‘RESOURCES’ Category
Friday, August 15th, 2008
“Lessons learned” is the theme of Chapter 3 in which Pausch shares several anecdotes from his life and the valuable wisdom gleened from those experiences. These stories are wonderful, but what hit me even more is how he was able to reflect on these past experiences and really find meaning in them. It made me think about how little time I dedicate to self reflection, and challenged me to do more. Just like Dr. Pausch, I love my life, and am truly thankful for the experiences of had (good and bad) now I just want to take a little more time to think about them so in the future I really live out what I’ve learned from them.
If you were going to write a book about valuable lessons from your life experiences, what would you say?
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Monday, August 11th, 2008
Living out his childhood dreams is what Pausch discusses in Chapter 2. From being in zero gravity, to meeting Capt. Kirk, working for Disney, and even playing in the NFL (ok he didn’t quite make that one…but he did learn some good lessons in trying) Dr. Pausch really did make it a point to use his gifts and talents to make these goals a reality, and at the same time enjoy the journey. He still kept family first and also focused on his career, but along the way, he made time to live out dreams that were important to him which, in turn brought him great happiness.
“This is exactly how geeky, I am…I hopped into my convertible and drove over to Imagineering headquarters. It was a hot summer night and I had the soundtrack to The Lion King blasting on my stereo. Tears actually began streaming down my face as I drove past the building. Here I was the grown up version of that wide eyed eight-year-old at Disneyland.” - Dr. Randy Pausch, after arriving in California to work as an Imagineer
What childhood goals have you accomplished? How did you feel when you accomplished them?
What childhood goals would you still like to accomplish?
-JH
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Monday, August 11th, 2008
Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood is home to all kinds of boutique little bistros, clubs, and coffee shops, but last night I happened to stumble upon one spot that is truly unique. The Recovery Cafe is a community dedicated to helping people find healing and hope. Whether its homelessness, abuse, drug or alcohol addiction this is the place to find help.
In addition to a warm friendly environment to develop supportive realtionships, the cafe offers a variety of recovery courses, life skills and leadership training, free meals, and fun events to anyone who needs help and is willing to commit to stay clean and sober. The Cafe is run mostly by volunteers, so if you live in the Seattle area or are visiting and want to check it out, click here to find out how you can get involved.
-JH
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Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
“If I were a painter, I would have painted for them. If I were a musician, I would have composed music, but I am a lecturer, so I lectured.”
After finding out he only had a few months to live, Dr. Pausch considered not doing the “last lecture”, as he wanted to spend as much time as possible with his family and prepare logistical matters for their life without him. However, once he realized this was a way to leave a memory for his young children (1,3 and 5) by showing them who their dad was, and teaching them some of the important life lessons he would have shared with them over the next several years he couldn’t pass it up.
If you knew you had one last chance to leave a lasting legacy for your children or loved ones, how would you do it? What would you say?
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Friday, August 1st, 2008
I hope you have enjoyed watching Dr. Pausch’s ‘last lecture’ here on our site or on the MajorityMag Myspace. If you haven’t seen it, I definitely recommend that you take the time do so, it’s a little long, but worth it. Today, we will begin reading Dr. Pausch’s book and we would love for you to join us. Below is the schedule we are going to follow so we finish it by the end of the month, you can follow along or go at whatever pace you want.
Aug 1-Aug 5 Chapter 1 - The Last Lecture
Aug 6-Aug 10 Chapter 2 - Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Aug 11-Aug 15 Chapter 3 - Adventures…And Lessons Learned
Aug 16-Aug 20 Chapter 4 - Enabling The Dreams of Others
Aug 21-Aug 25 Chapter 5 - It’s About How To Live Your Life
Aug 26-Aug 31 Chapter 6 - Final Remarks
As usual, I’ll be posting regular thoughts and discussion questions, and I would love to hear from all of you as well.
-JH
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Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
If you knew you had one last chance to pass on some advice to your children before you died, what would you say? Randy Pausch, a computer science professor from Carnegie Mellon, had that chance, and his message of “living out your dreams” has inspired millions. Although Dr. Pausch passed away last week, his message lives on through his book, The Last Lecture.
This Friday, August 1st, we will start reading The Last Lecture as the third installment in our MajorityMag Summer Reading Series. Whether you have joined us for any of the other readings or not, we would love to have you join us. I’ll be posting regular thoughts and questions here on the blog and would love to hear your feedback. You can find the book just about anywhere right now, so go pick up a copy today, and we’ll get started on Friday.
-JH
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Friday, July 25th, 2008
How’s the reading going? I hope you are getting some good stuff from this book. This week we are looking at Chapters 5-6 and next week we’ll finish it up.
In Chapter 5 Gladwell uses the success story of the book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, to explain the role that groups play in making an idea tip. The concept is that once a part of a group our behaviors tend to change. We make decisions and come to conclusions differently in a group than we would by ourselves. I agree with this concept, and I’m sure I’ve proved it true many times. Peer pressure can be good or bad though. Obviously we don’t want to allow ourselves to be swayed into negative or destructive beliefs or actions, so we have to guard ourselves against our tendency to conform in those situations. However, on the other hand we should realize that if we are going to try to make something positive happen, we have a better chance of accomplishing it if we can get groups involved so the positive side of peer pressure will make the idea spread quicker. Do you think you act differently in the context of a group? Explain. What do you think about the Rule of 150 (idea that groups under 150 are more effective)?
Chapter 6 Gladwell identifies the importance of translating an idea, product, etc. differently to different types of people. When an idea first starts out there is a certain way it should be presented/marketed to reach Innovators and Early Adopters, but then as it moves to the Early and Late Majority the way the message is translated may need to change. Some ideas/products never become mainstream because they don’t make sense to the majority, others do, but then they lose their “cool” because they are not “innovative” anymore. Clearly then, change is necessary, but you don’t have to change the whole idea, just the way you present it.
-JH
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Friday, July 18th, 2008
The two main concepts from Chapters 3 & 4 are the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context. Being a Sesame Street fan I really enjoyed hearing about all the research that went into making it “stickier”. Its true what Gladwell says, no matter who you get to spread your message, it won’t last in the long one if it isn’t memorable. What’s interesting though is you don’t have to change up your whole message, just make little tweaks. While Gladwell has a thorough explaination of stickiness and how it worked for Sesame Street, Blues Clues and others, there isn’t a lot of ideas about how to apply it to other things. For that, I recommend checking out a book called Made To Stick, which the authors say was specifically inspired by this chapter of the Tipping Point.
The Power of Context, which is what Chapter 4 is all about, suggests that the environment, surroundings, or situation, play a role in determining actions. This is important on a lot of levels. One is, as Gladwell mentions, the way we view people. We need to be careful to take context into consideration when we make a judgement about a person’s actions (or maybe just not judge all together). The second thing to realize is that small changes to environments can change people’s performance. Schools, offices, homes, etc. may be able to be more productive with small changes to the environment. Its up to us to be creative to figure out what those changes are.
These are just a few things that jumped out for me, but as always, I would love to hear your thoughts as well.
-JH
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Thursday, July 10th, 2008
Now we know that “the tipping point” is the almost magical moment when an idea, trend, etc. begins to spread like wildfire. To me, just thinking of ideas spreading like that gets me excited. I can think of so many great thoughts and ideas that I hope to see reach their tipping points.
One thing that is important to realize is that while some of the factors in way things spread like epidemics are inexplicable, it doesn’t mean that getting something to tip is just a matter of luck or chance. In fact, I believe that by using the knowledge Gladwell is sharing with us we can give our ideas a better chance to reach their critical mass. The three types of peope he points out in Chapter 2 The Law of the Few: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen are definitely key to spreading the word about ideas. Its important to understand how certain people naturally function in these roles and how they can play a valuable part in the spread of ideas. At the same time I think its equally important to know what role you tend to function in and how you can use that bent to help other people’s ideas tip as well.
At MajorityMag, we kind of see ourselves as Mavens of positive news. We love to dig up encouraging information about other people, movements, organizations and trends, and we find great joy in sharing it with others. We hope to see our site become popular, but at the same time, we want to help a lot of the things we write about reach their tipping points as well.
We want to know what you’re thinking as well. What ideas do you want to see tip? Are you buying Gladwell’s theory? Do you consider yourself a Connector, Maven, or Salesman (or maybe none of them). Leave us a comment and let us know.
-JH
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Friday, July 4th, 2008
For the last 15 years, former American University librarian/historian James Heintze has dedicated himself to the study of Independence Day. He has spent countless hours pouring through books, microfilms, articles, rare documents, and even traveling to various locations to find out every detail about our nation’s birthday and how it has been celebrated through the years. Lucky for us, he’s chronicled all that information in one 360-page volume called The Fourth of July Encyclopedia.
Packed full of famous speeches, patriotic poems, and songs, as well as accounts of great social events that took place on the Fourth such as New York’s emancipation of slaves in 1827, the encyclopedia is sure to help bring a new perspective on what today’s holiday is really all about.
-JH
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