Plus1living.org is down!

I've just got notice from my host: justhost, that they are suspending my account due to too much usage of their CPU. I'm using a shared hosting service and this makes all my websites inoperable now.


Fantastic. Dealing with it though.

Quest 7 is under way over at plus1living.org

I have decided on a quest, and will be writing about it over at my Quest journal over at Plus1living.org

Commitment

I have an idea for something to do. I don't know if this will be profitable nor I know how to test this idea. The only thing I can do is DO it.

Potentially it is very low risk with about £20 investment in money, but more in time. It has potential without testing because it involves becoming an affiliate of products that already sell. 

The thing that is I'm not settled with is the part of this idea which has me creating a YouTube channel specifically for the niche I have in mind that could pick up subjects from forum threads. This is to bring traffic to the e-store.

What I am anxious about is that I need to commit to a month or two of creating those vids without any guarantee. Which means that if I'm not right, this could be wasted time.

I could just make one video, but I'm worried that:

• I really need momentum that only a series of vids can bring
• I could lose momentum after one vid and not follow through even if the one is successful

On the other hand when I think of the time that had passed in which I had deliberated what to do, a month seems like nothing. 

Therefore I'd like to commit to this project:

• spend a month making the vids - three months worth of weekly postings
• after that build the e-store and promote the vids on forums
• potentially bring my own products to the mix
• write about this project on plus1living.org to help grow that community in the same time.

Time to plan these things in. I have everything to start really.

Metrics ideas

When there are metrics and I know which direction I want the figures to go, and I have direct influence over the growth of these figures, then they do improve. Here are some metrics I believe I need to track and therefore would have a chance to improve upon:

Time - what I spend my time on generally

Total Time spent on Quests and % of time spent on each quest

Time spent on doing vs research vs brainstorming - %

Tasks scheduled vs tasks done

% of completion of missions and quests.

Found one time tracking plugin for google calendar: Time & Activity Report for Google Calendar. It works if I use keywords in the google calendar tasks, like Quest1, Quest2 etc 

Why Intelligent People Fail

"I'm not intelligent enough" may be a common excuse for many people that prevents them from going for their dreams, but perhaps this may well be your greatest asset as it is outlined in this article below.

I have found it by chance today at http://www.acceleratingfuture.com and added my comments below

Why Intelligent People Fail

Content from Sternberg, R. (1994). In search of the human mind. New York: Harcourt Brace.

1. Lack of motivation. A talent is irrelevant if a person is not motivated to use it. Motivation may be external (for example, social approval) or internal (satisfaction from a job well-done, for instance). External sources tend to be transient, while internal sources tend to produce more consistent performance.

2. Lack of impulse control. Habitual impulsiveness gets in the way of optimal performance. Some people do not bring their full intellectual resources to bear on a problem but go with the first solution that pops into their heads.

3. Lack of perserverance and perseveration. Some people give up too easily, while others are unable to stop even when the quest will clearly be fruitless.

4. Using the wrong abilities. People may not be using the right abilities for the tasks in which they are engaged.

5. Inability to translate thought into action. Some people seem buried in thought. They have good ideas but rarely seem able to do anything about them.

6. Lack of product orientation. Some people seem more concerned about the process than the result of activity.

7. Inability to complete tasks. For some people nothing ever draws to a close. Perhaps it’s fear of what they would do next or fear of becoming hopelessly enmeshed in detail.

8. Failure to initiate. Still others are unwilling or unable to initiate a project. It may be indecision or fear of commitment.

9. Fear of failure. People may not reach peak performance because they avoid the really important challenges in life.

10. Procrastination. Some people are unable to act without pressure. They may also look for little things to do in order to put off the big ones.

11. Misattribution of blame. Some people always blame themselves for even the slightest mishap. Some always blame others.

12. Excessive self-pity. Some people spend more time feeling sorry for themselves than expending the effort necessary to overcome the problem.

13. Excessive dependency. Some people expect others to do for them what they ought to be doing themselves.

14. Wallowing in personal difficulties. Some people let their personal difficulties interfere grossly with their work. During the course of life, one can expect some real joys and some real sorrows. Maintaining a proper perspective is often difficult.

15. Distractibility and lack of concentration. Even some very intelligent people have very short attention spans.

16. Spreading oneself too think or too thick. Undertaking too many activities may result in none being completed on time. Undertaking too few can also result in missed opportunities and reduced levels of accomplishment.

17. Inability to delay gratification. Some people reward themselves and are rewarded by others for finishing small tasks, while avoiding bigger tasks that would earn them larger rewards.

18. Inability to see the forest for the trees. Some people become obsessed with details and are either unwilling or unable to see or deal with the larger picture in the projects they undertake.

19. Lack of balance between critical, analytical thinking and creative, synthetic thinking. It is important for people to learn what kind of thinking is expected of them in each situation.

20. Too little or too much self-confidence. Lack of self-confidence can gnaw away at a person’s ability to get things done and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Conversely, individuals with too much self-confidence may not know when to admit they are wrong or in need of self-improvement.

At any given point in my life I have been, was or am guilty of each one of these points. This article may well serve as a good reminder and a basis for further game development.

Dan Ariely - rational irrational decisions

Scientist Dan Ariely discusses our decision making process and presents certain irrationalities in it. It is worth watching because it touches on the subject of manipulation of our decision making process - what can be done to prevent being manipulated or what can we do to manipulate others (game mechanics anyone?)