Paradigm shift

This morning I read a passage about paradigm shift. Not so much the explanation of what it is, but the reason for understanding the importance of it.

This is very interesting the fact that when one looks at an image he will see it based on his interpretion, and his interpretion of the image is derived heavily from his past experience.

Philosophical questions...

I have a tonne of these questions, how can I permeate those to friends and people who care? It's a balance of time between the imminent tasks at hand, which everyone is busy dealing with, and those philosophical questions that changes the way you think and approach issues that will benefit you.

Team basics

Definition from Wisdom of Teams:

A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

Trust in a sentence...

"...Trust is hard to earn, easy to lose and nearly impossible to win back."

What people do not realize is the capacity of people to improve and correct.

The world is often accustomed to the fact that people's character is set in stone. Often this is true, there are a lot of cases where people may revert back to their old self if he is pushed/shoved into a corner. Few people has what it takes to admit mistakes and demand for change, since such actions are often disruptive.

Characters do change. Ones willingness to change is variable. It may take extraordinary effort/circumstances to make this happen. There are just numerous ways to consider one's will/capacity to push for change and embrace it. Some people can identify what a person's character is with a short five minute conversation, and infer the person's willingness to change. Some people wait out a period of time to see if character improvement is noticed. And of course, to a large degree, your family, who means most to you, are the ones you will have to continue to forgive and embrace in perpetuality.

Working approach

1. Can we break up hierarchical patterns by assigning work tasks based on skills rather than position? Can we assign leadership roles to someone other than the CEO?
2. What specific rules would help us work better together, and "equalize" our individual, real work contributions to group goals?
3. Can we reconfigure our group into subteams more appropriate to the specific issues, opportunities, or problems identified?
4. How can we most effectively foster teams down the line?

Complementary Skills

1. Do we have important skills that are not best captured by our formal roles and responsibilities?
2. Can we better utilize the basic skills and experience of our group by working together beyond as well as within our formal, functional responsibilities?
3. Could some of us build skills in other areas, and thereby help strengthen the overall capabilities of the group?
4. Can we modify our membership to include others down the line to enhance our collective ability to achieve particular goals?

Identifying Team Performance Opportunities

1. Can we convert the company mission into a more group specific performance purpose for our group, including specific performance goals necessary to accomplish that group purpose.
2. Which of our performance challenges are best accomplished by individual assignments and responsibility? Which require a team effort and a set of collective work-products? Can we test the water by trying a team approach on one or two of these?
3. How can we ensure that we each subordinate our individual priorities to the group's purpose and goals?
4. How can we measure our mutual progress toward our group's purpose and goals as well as monitor the effectiveness of those teams among us that are needed?

Applied Cryptography

How PGP works decribes cryptography better than any I have seen. Simple and straight forward.

Never felt so sad...

I have never saw a movie that I connect so well. I don't know what I have done wrong in my past lives, but it seems like I have to pay it all back this time around... Maybe there are more people who are worst off than I do, but at this moment I am brought to my knees. Where is my family when I need them? I know they are around, but I can't seem to grab them with my hands. They feel so distant. Maybe like Ben says, I have to let go of it all, myself included.

Handling stress

Taken from uOttawa Health Services

Four ways of handling stress:

• Be aware of your interpretation of stressful situations. since stress is directly related to your thoughts, try thinking in a more positive manner.
• Try relaxation methods such as meditation. This can be helpful in reducing anxiety and managing stress. By turning on the relaxed state, you are turning off the stressed state. This is because you can't be releaxed and stressed at the same time.
• Get physical! Techniquues such as breathing exercises, stretching, and walking all help in preventing stress and lower the physical signs of stress.
• have some fun! Go out and do something you trule enjoy. Whether it is a hobby or vacationing, you need to experience tings that give you genuine pleasure.

Having a creative mind is essential... when you can only think of one thing at a time, you lose the positive perspective at the time you are thinking about the negative.

Anatomy of famous people

All the well known people I know about are: people that love what they do, good communicators, unselfish and most of all, good tempered... which I am not. How can I fix that?