Posts Tagged ‘reading’

Heated debate: religion

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , ,
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I came across a TED video of Sam Harris about a week ago, which then prompted me to get his book, The End of Faith, to see what his reasons are for not only not believing in religion, but saying that such an institution is actually destroying us.  I usually don’t come across such strong opinions against religion, so I was definitely intrigued.  I’ve gone from not really caring to thinking about believing to trying to believe and back.  I settled somewhere between agnostic and atheist and haven’t really explored it since.

At work, I mentioned the premise of the book to two coworkers and one of them happened to find this YouTube playlist on Reddit that very night.  He shared it with me and I spent the night listening to this discourse (don’t worry, it’s very much in English, the intro just happens to be in Spanish because it was held in Mexico – I was confused at first too!).  It’s interesting to see how everything panned out – this is obviously a very hot issue, and one that people find very personal.  Tempers inevitably flare when people with opposing views try to talk some sense into each other.  I was almost more interested in their interactions and what they chose to focus on to support their opinions than the actual points themselves.

Admittedly, everyone brought up good points that are worthy of some pondering.  I was also amused by the last guy, who was a bit of an outcast, not fitting in with either camp and actually the very type of person that both sides could probably agree to dislike.  He seemed to best fit and agnostic point of view, dipping his toes onto either side.  Neither here nor there, so he became the pariah, pointing out cons to both points of view.  I could sympathize with him, since I don’t like the idea of outright blasting the other side (no matter which side you are on).  I’ll just continue to read the book I have (and the follow-up, Letter to a Christian Nation) and see what I may learn in the process.  I’m sure there will be a lot to consider.

The HP Way

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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I’m doing some research for internal development at the moment, collaborating with Skim, one of the interns we have for a few weeks during the summer.  She got some books from her school’s library (Singapore Management University Library) for us to peruse in our efforts to look into learning styles and methods, profiling tools, personal development, and organizational excellence, among other things.  I’ve got a nice stack of books to read: Lean Six Sigma for Service, FedEx Delivers, Headless Chickens, Laidback Bears, and The HP Way.

I started with the most intriguing one about chickens and bears, but didn’t see the immediate relevance in the research I was looking for.  Of course, it fits into the whole personal development section, but the time needed to go through that book didn’t seem to justify looking at it first, so I reprioritized and decided to go with learning more about the origins and philosophies of HP.  It’s the smallest book out of the bunch, so I figured at least it’d be fastest to power through.

DSC04927In reading it, I’m still not sure I’ve gotten much out of it and I’ve only got another 50 pages to go.  There’s been a lot of random background stories and detailing of this and that technology that they or their acquaintances pioneered, but hardly much mention of the HP way other than some quick references to their rewarding pay scheme, dedication to quality and innovation, and decentralized structure.  Perhaps it’s because what they were doing at the time was completely revolutionary, but now I find that these strategies are more commonplace and certainly nothing too exciting.  I was hoping for a better collection of sage advice that I could soak up, but instead I find certain ideas reinforced, but not much else.

One thing that really struck me for their start and development was all the help they got along the way, especially from a well-connected and very well-meaning professor of theirs when they met at Stanford, a Fred Terman who time and time again was their guardian angel.  This, coupled with a lot of their other connections that helped them be a leader in their field, stood out to me.  Being the self-dependent type that I am, I am conscious of the importance of mentors, but not very good in seeking them out or using their knowledge and experience to help me grow.  So here again I am reminded of how I am so blessed to have Starfish and Zen here to guide me now, but concerns of how I will maintain the relationship worry me.  I’ve reached out to others who are doing things that I’d aspire to achieve one day, but not yet followed through with meeting up to get advice.

All in all it’s making me consider what my philosophy and approach would be in starting my own business.  I’ve outlined some things here and there but never really solidified anything.  Someday I’d like to have a clear set of visions, missions, and goals to strive for.  I’ll spend some time looking at the success stories including HP, FedEx, Google, and Starbucks.  From there, I can take what I like and modify what I don’t to fit my desires and purposes.  For now, I’m still finding my way.  After all, I still don’t know for sure what type of business I might want!

Fear

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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I just finished powering through a book called Turning It On by Robin Speculand, which is basically a collection of stories for the business world meant to be fables of sorts – they all have a specific point and lesson to be learned.  There were some great points I took from it, though I feel at this point in my development, nothing is new except the way and how well it is presented to me.  I mean, I know all this information, but hearing it again and again is what will help grill it into my life and make good habits out of them.  As the 7X7 Rule of Communication states, tell it 7 different times in 7 different ways!  So, though sometimes it feels repetitive, I push on in the hopes that these constant reminders will guide my behavior down a good path.

Fear makes my heart hurt!

Fear makes my heart hurt!

Now what I came across that did intrigue me was a new way of putting an old idea: FEAR.  In this case, it’s “False Evidence which Appears Real” and the four most common ones that are identified are fear of failure, rejection, being wrong, and emotional discomfort.  Funny, I was just talking about this with Starfish yesterday, because I often hold myself back, too afraid to jump for fear of all but the last one, pretty much.  I spend so much time thinking and analyzing, but my fear is what keeps me from putting everything into action.  It’s also what creates a lot of self-doubt, which otherwise is really not justified.  I don’t horrible feedback and I haven’t had a traumatic experience, yet I worry about so many things and how they are wrong, wrong, wrong.  And I hate to be wrong!

Part of the reason I believe in reminding myself is because for something like this that is so ingrained in my way of thinking and framing things, it’s very challenging to change.  But of course, I must strive for nothing but, since it’s obvious that I’m missing out on a lot, whether actually accomplishing what I dream of or learning valuable lessons from my stumbles, falls, and the resulting bruises.  I’m fine with physically tripping and messing up, but I dread doing so professionally and personally in the work that I do and the ways that I handle things.  Alas, so much of life is learning from your experiences (which inevitably include mistakes).  Just knowing I need to work on this doesn’t make it any easier and doesn’t make it happen any faster, but at least I am aware and trying right?  Right?

So, reading about this new way of putting fear really struck a chord with me since this is the very thing I am struggling the most to overcome internally.  After all, I can get a lot of outside support, but I need to change my mentality to truly stop behaving in a timid, fearful manner.  I’m not very good at it, but I think I’m better or at least more willing to consider facing and overcoming my fears.  It’s so strange that I am so hesitant when I’ve had certain failures that I have put behind me and nothing so terrible has happened because of them.  So why, why is it still such a challenge?!

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