Get up Early or Stay Up Late?
What’s more effective — getting up early or staying up late? Or both?
The Common Denominator of Success
From Stephen Covey and Rebecca Merrill’s book First Things First:
The common denominator of success is not hard work, astute human relations, or luck, although all are important. It is putting first things first.
Great news. Except that that among all the things they listed (and all the other things they could have listed), that’s the hardest to do.
On The Declaration of Independence
With the fourth of July coming up, it’s a good time to review the Declaration of Independence.
The Two Best Paragraphs in the Declaration
The first two paragraphs in the document give you an entire philosophy of government in themselves:
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Fundamental Principles of Government from the Declaration
A few of the principles of government that we see here are:
- All people are created equal.
- Therefore all people have certain unalienable rights. Chief among these rights are life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the ability to own property (not stated here, but in the original draft).
- These rights are given by God.
- Therefore, our rights are not “privileges” granted or controlled by the government. They exist prior to and apart from the government, and the government must respect them.
- Therefore, government exists for the sake of the people, not the people for the sake of the government. Government does not have a right to lord it over the people.
- Instead, government exists to preserve and protect these rights. Government is not ultimately about control.
- The government cannot do anything it chooses. There are certain things that are wrong for a government to do, even apart from impressively stated arguments for their pragmatic value.
- The rights of the people are more important than the desires of the government.
- Government derives its powers from the consent of the governed; the people do not derive their rights from the will or choice of the government.
- People have the right to abolish their government when it becomes destructive of these ends.
This is simply radical. Really, we should be stunned and immensely grateful that our society came to recognize these truths. In a world where so many people seek after power, it is incredible that a government should come to exist which acknowledges that the power of government is not ultimate.
The Single Governing Principle of Government
We can roll all of these principles up into a single, governing principle of human government: the purpose of government is to protect and maximize the freedom of the people. And people have this freedom because they are all created equal (so people in government are not “more equal” than the private citizen — even when they are working for the “collective good”) and endowed with intrinsic rights that they hold simply by virtue of being human.
In order for government to accomplish this purpose, there are two necessary implications, both of which are embodied in our Constitution:
- Limited government.
- Separation of powers.
What True Liberalism Is
The principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence, by the way, are what “liberalism” really is. Today the term “liberal” is used to refer to policies that seek to expand the place of government and give it a greater role in people’s lives. That’s not liberal — that’s conservative.
It’s conservative because it seeks to conserve the way the world functioned for thousands of years before the American Revolution — namely, a world where government saw its power as ultimate, rather than the God-given rights of the people as prior to the power of government.
What today is called “conservatism,” on the other hand, actually used to be called political liberalism because it advocated for change from the government-first ideology that dominated for almost all of human history before that. It advocated for the principles that we see outlined in the Declaration. That’s why on my Facebook profile I put my political views as classical liberalism.
By the way, you can read the whole Declaration of Independence here.
Phantom Traffic Jams Explained
From Fast Company: “A team of MIT mathematicians has developed a model that describes how and under what conditions such jams form, which could help road designers minimize the odds of their formation.”
The Safety of Airplanes
Two major airline crashes in the last month is tragic. Fast Company has an interesting article on “why, in the 21st Century, do aircraft keep plummeting out of the sky?” I gave some of my answer last month in my posts on why airplane crashes happen and the role of communication styles in airplane crashes, following Gladwell’s excellent discussion in Outliers.
I focused on the accumulation of minor difficulties and seemingly trivial malfunctions that in themselves are inconsequential, but taken all together result in catastrophe. The Fast Company article looks in more detail at the difficulty of flying, the complexity of aircraft, and the adversary of the weather.
In spite of the recent crashes, air travel is still incredibly safe. (Although I prepare to die every time I fly — irrational, I know, but probably good for the soul! And ironically, this becomes more true the more I fly, which is about once or twice a month.)
At the end of the article they have a video of every global flight in a single day. Here it is as well:
Also in the article is a video of an aircraft trying to land in some vicious crosswinds, which I’ve also embedded here:
If you think about crashing when you fly, it’s worth noting that the most dangerous times are take-off and landing. As the article points out: “It’s at these times, when the aircraft is close to the ground and experiencing some of its greatest structural loads, generally flying slowly and contending with weather effects like crosswinds, that the most accidents occur.”
One last thing: It is interesting to me that, in regard to the two crashes in the last month, both planes were Airbuses. It has been pointed out that they were very differently configured Airbuses, but that doesn’t matter much to me. Other than the TVs right in the back of the seats, I can’t stand Airbuses. I recently had to fly on some during two legs of my trip to China, and the plane often felt like it was going to fall apart. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it was a marked contrast to the 747 we had on another leg of the trip.
If There’s Always Room for Jello, There’s Always Time for Learning
From Seth Godin:
This is one of the great cultural touchstone slogans of our era. A culture where there’s so much to eat we need to try to find a food that we can eat even if we’re stuffed.
Often, we’ll decide that something is full, stuffed, untouchable but then some Jello shows up, and suddenly there’s room.
Think about your schedule… is there room for an emergency, an SEC investigation, a server crash? If you took a day off because of the flu, is your business going to go bankrupt? Probably not.
So, if there’s time for an emergency (Jello), why isn’t there time for brilliance, generosity or learning?
Mac Snow Leopard Update
Here are the enhancements and refinements that are coming with Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
Helpful Review of the iPhone 3G S
This was a helpful and detailed review of the iPhone 3G S, via the Infinite Loop blog.
I’ve picked one of them up and it is indeed much faster. Now, it now longer takes 2 minutes for my OmniFocus app to open up (the 2,345 actions or something like that tended to bog it down). Also, it’s great to have video.
Back from China
I’ve made it back from China and spent the last week or so catching up on some things. It was an excellent trip. I really like China and its people, and we learned a ton.
One of my colleagues on the trip is an incredible photographer. If interested, he has posted some of his pictures online. His shots are amazing not only for capturing some of the feel of China, but also as examples of excellent photography in themselves.
I’ve posted some of my pictures also. They aren’t even in the same ballpark in terms of quality, but here they are.
Our guide during our time did a superb job showing us around, teaching us about the culture, and setting up very good meetings with various people. She also maintains a very enjoyable blog on life in China that is worth checking out.
I probably won’t blog much else on the trip itself, although you can see my real-time twitter posts on my twitter page. Here would be two brief observations/lessons:
- The impact of economic freedom. The reforms that went into place beginning in the 80s to give the Chinese people greater economic freedom completely transformed the nation. They brought it from poverty to stunning economic prosperity. Obviously there is still a ways to go, but the economic transformation of China is a testimony to how capitalism, not socialism, enables a nation to support itself and then prosper. This provides real jobs for people and opportunity. It is unfortunate that many in our nation want to go the opposite direction, and utterly ironic that a communist nation sees the value of economic freedom more than some of the leaders here.
- The productive value of getting up super early. Early in the trip I would wake up at 3 am. It is amazing how much you can accomplish by getting up that early. But, it’s hard to sustain. When this happened again once I was back, I found it more exhausting than productive. But now that I’m back to normal in my sleep patterns, I may try this again sometime.
- Chopsticks are awesome.
China Updates
Things are going well here in China. Also, I’ve discovered, entirely by accident, the incredible value of getting up at 3 in the morning. I wonder if there would be a way to adapt that practice once I’m back in the US…
You can see some of my updates and some pictures, if interested, through my Twitter posts at twitter.com/mattperman.
Off to China
I’m going to be in China for the next week or so. I hope to be able to do some posts from over there, but if not here are some posts from the last nine months that you might find helpful:
- What this Blog is About, Part 1
- What this Blog is About, Part 2
- How to Get Your Email Inbox to Zero Every Day
- Multitasking at 10,000 Feet
- Natural Planning, Unnatural Planning, and Reactive Planning
- How to Get the Mail
- People Are Not Overhead
If I don’t get a chance to do any posts over there, I’ll talk to you again in a little over a week.
Fast Company’s 13 Most Creative Cities in the World
Fast Company has an interesting, short slideshow of the 13 most creative cities in the world. Some of the cities on here were surprising.
Coming Friday at 11:01 pm CDT: Custom URLs for Facebook Pages
Facebook usernames are coming Friday night at 11:01 pm Central Time. This means that the url for your profile will be as simple as www.facebook.com/mattperman, rather than www.facebook.com/id=592952074?!#@4832
From the Facebook blog:
Starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13, you’ll be able to choose a username on a first-come, first-serve basis for your profile and the Facebook Pages that you administer by visiting www.facebook.com/username/. You’ll also see a notice on your home page with instructions for obtaining your username at that time.
….
From the beginning of Facebook, people have used their real names to share and connect with the people they know. This authenticity helps to create a trusted environment because you know the identity of the people and things on Facebook. The one place, though, where your identity wasn’t reflected was in the Web address for your profile or the Facebook Pages you administer. The URL was just a randomly assigned number like “id=592952074.” That soon will change.
We’re planning to offer Facebook usernames to make it easier for people to find and connect with you. When your friends, family members or co-workers visit your profile or Pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you. We expect to offer even more ways to use your Facebook username in the future.
The Rate of the Earth’s Curvature
The rate of the earth’s curvature is about 8 inches per mile.
At least, that’s what the globe I have in my office here says. That’s interesting.
Thomas Sowell on Learning from Other Countries
In his latest column, Thomas Sowell points out that learning from other countries does not simply mean imitating them, as many who call for America to be “more European” imply, but often means learning from their mistakes:
People who say that we should learn from other countries seem to have in mind that we should imitate those countries. But some of the most valuable lessons from other countries can be had from seeing the disasters their policies have produced– especially when our own intelligentsia are pushing ideas that have already been tried and failed elsewhere.
Here’s one example:
A British homeowner who held two burglars at gunpoint until the police arrived was arrested– even though the gun he used turned out to be just a realistic-looking toy gun. The British intelligentsia take guns much more seriously than they take burglary, even when it is only a toy gun that is used to “intimidate” a burglar, as they put it.
My Favorite Piper Message
This is the first Piper message I ever listened to. It was 1996, and he had given the message just a week or two before. It’s called “Sustained by Sovereign Grace — Forever” and it is still my favorite (well, top 5). You can read it or listen to it at that link.
Graduate School without Graduate School for Unemployed College Students
Seth Godin has good advice for the 80% of college graduates who sought jobs but have not obtained one yet.
Obama’s Unmeasurable Metric
The Wall Street Journal has a good editorial on Obama’s claim that his stimulus has “saved or created” 150,000 jobs so far, and that he will ramp up spending to create another 600,000 more this summer.
The problem is that it is impossible to measure the number of jobs “saved.” Economist Gregory Mankiw calls this an “unmeasurable metric.” Agencies like the Labor Department and Bureau of Labor Statistics measure the number of jobs lost or created, but none of them track the number of jobs “saved” because there is no way to know.
Which means that talking in terms of “jobs saved” creates a very convenient situation for Obama:
“You created a situation where you cannot be wrong,” said the Montana Democrat. “If the economy loses two million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would’ve lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs. You’ve given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct.”
Now, something’s wrong when the president invokes a formula that makes it impossible for him to be wrong and it goes largely unchallenged. It’s true that almost any government spending will create some jobs and save others. But as Milton Friedman once pointed out, that doesn’t tell you much: The government, after all, can create jobs by hiring people to dig holes and fill them in.
The New iPhone
It will be available starting June 19. See an overview on the Apple site. Looks excellent! Key improvements include:
- 2 times faster
- Built in video camera (finally! — although I know you could take video before if you “unlocked” it)
- Voice control — play music or place a call by voice
- Compass
- Spotlight search so you can search across the whole device (finally)
- Send photos and videos in your SMS
- Copy and paste (part of the software update, so it sounds like you have this even if you don’t upgrade the phone)
The Top Ten Things to Do if You Become Unemployed
Marcus Buckingham has a good article on The Top Ten Things to Do if You Become Unemployed.
Google Wave
You’ve probably heard about Google Wave. If you haven’t (or even if you have), TechCrunch has a good summary of Google Wave that is worth taking a look at. Here’s the 40,000 foot view:
Everyone uses email and instant messaging on the web now, but imagine if you could tie those two forms of communication together and add a load of functionality on top of it. At its most fundamental form, that’s essentially what Wave is. Developed by brothers Lars
and Jens Rasmussen
Having seen a lengthy demonstration, as ridiculous as it may sound, I have to agree. Wave offers a very sleek and easy way to navigate and participate in communication on the web that makes both email and instant messaging look stale.
What Does That Really Cost?
The cheapest option is not always the cheapest option. The management blog over at About.com has an introduction to the concept of Total Cost of Ownership. Here’s the start:
If I buy product “A” for $50 is that cheaper than buying Product “B” for $60? Well, that depends.
The concept of Total Cost of Ownership, usually abbreviated as TCO, helps us evaluate the true cost of the purchases we make for our companies, and for ourselves.
I would like to add another cost as well. I call it the “pain in the neck cost.” In other words, you need to look not only at the purchase price of the item and not only at the total cost over the life of the product, but also at the potential for problems and trouble and turmoil that the product will simply cost your sanity. This cost is intangible — you cannot necessarily assign dollars to it — but is just as real.
These days, when time is the new scarcity, the pain in the neck cost is more important than ever.
Don’t Kick Yourself for Your Productivity Failures
Good advice from Time Management from the Inside Out:
The worst thing to do is berate yourself for not getting everything done, for periodically procrastinating, and for slowing down from time to time. The time and energy you spend feeling guilty create a downward spiral of nonproductivity. Even the most productive people occasionally have off days. The thing that makes them good time managers is that they realize these things are a part of life, forgive themselves, make the necessary adjustments to their schedules, and move on.
Don’t kick yourself for your productivity failures. If you do, you might create a downward spiral that makes things worse. Besides, everyone has bad days.
When You Raise Taxes on the Rich, Everyone Pays
From the Townhall blog:
Here’s what the President hopes nobody realizes: Raising taxes has consequences for everyone – and most of them are bad.
Yet another example: If the Obama tax plan goes through, Microsoft intends to move some of its jobs out of this country.
Yesterday, I wrote about the ugly unintended consequences for regular Americans of the liberal love affair with “taxing the rich.”
Today, Microsoft has offered us a lesson on what it means for regular Americans when liberals try to “tax corporations.”Whether or not they know it, when the government raises taxes “just” on “corporations” or “the rich,” everyone ends up paying. Everyone.
(HT: JT)
The Productive Value of Unproductive Time
From Time Management from the Inside Out:
Another reason people incorrectly estimate how long tasks take is that they overlook hidden time costs. Emily was a novelist whose goal was to write for three hours every morning. So she’d schedule three hours of writing time. That was logical enough; however, she consistently got only two hours of work done each day.
After paying attention to her habits, Emily realized it took her an hour to warm up. During this time, she read the newspaper, drank coffee, and gathered her thoughts. When she skipped this step, her writing was dreadful.
She had to accept that part of her process included warming up. For Emily to write productively for three hours, she needed to schedule four hours. To calculate how long it would take her to write a piece, she would have to allow for this transition time.
It is very interesting that this person spent one hour essentially doing other things in order to get “warmed up” for the writing she intended to do. It would be tempting to say, “that’s inefficient — she should just skip those things, and she’ll get more done in her day.” But, as she noted, if she skipped those “warm-up tasks,” her writing was horrible.
The lesson: Unproductive time is not necessarily unproductive. It may be an essential step in “tuning up” your mind for the high-level tasks it needs to do. If you cut it out, you may find that your productivity decreases rather than increases.
If you find this to be true in your case, embrace it. Don’t go overboard, but don’t try to change yourself. If you can get 4 hours of work done in 4 hours of straight work, that’s great. But if you “waste” the first hour, but then in the remaining 3 hours get the equivalent of 4 hours of tasks done, more power to you.
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