Nels Wadycki

Nels W

Writes Code, Fiction

  • Book Recommendation: Talent Is Overrated

    Nels W

    (The link is to the paperback which comes out in May 2010 – there is a hardcover available now)

    I read this book back in July and since then I’ve thought about it on almost a daily basis. The hypothesis, stated by itself, sounds fairly ridiculous because it comes down to: There is no such thing as talent. Perhaps I feel so strongly and was so influenced by the book because I’ve kind of always felt it was true, but presented in the book are studies that provide the kind of evidence I’ve always believed in a more anecdotal way.

    My personal favorite example (not presented in the book) is Michael Jordan. Say what you will about Jordan (and if you don’t know why I qualify it that way, then don’t worry about), but he practiced, and practiced right. I’m sure there were people who spent more time playing basketball than Jordan in high school (okay, I’m not actually sure about that, but it’s possible), but Jordan, like Jerry Rice – who is actually used as an example in the book, used his time most efficiently.

    There is the well known story of Jordan getting “cut” from his high school varsity team as a freshman (but mostly because freshman weren’t allowed to be on varsity – I know how that is). As a result of that slight, Jordan would go to the gym early every day and practice. Did he have talent? I would argue no, and that’s why it’s so hard to explain Talent Is Overrated. Most people would scoff at the notion that Michael Jordan didn’t have some natural talent. But I would say he didn’t.

    Did he have a genetic disposition for height that made him grow to 6′ 5″ (or however tall he actually was)? Yes.

    Did he have a very strong work ethic? Yes.

    Did he have a natural talent for basketball? No. He just combined the two factors above and decided he wanted to play basketball.

    I would argue that anyone with his height and the same strong work ethic could be the best in the world at playing basketball. Anyone who disagrees with that probably underestimates Jordan’s work ethic. He didn’t get better simply because he was destined to become the best basketball player ever. He got better because he wanted to become the best basketball player ever, and he wanted it more than anyone else.

    Yes, he played in a time when the media exposure was just right, and he played on a team that was able to put people around him who also worked hard and were able to play like Jordan wanted them to play.

    If you think I’m biased… well of course I am. But I’m not the only one. Someone else wrote a book about it and cited studies from people who were researching the same idea.

    If you don’t think there’s a chance you’ll ever believe that people aren’t born with innate talent, then don’t bother reading Talent Is Overrated. But if you think that maybe the people who are the best at what they do got that way because they worked hard and worked smart, then I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.

  • Aardvark on the iPhone – Mobile Answers

    Nels W

    The need to call my brother-in-law when I was out and needed access to a computer ended when I got my iPhone, but now Aardvark has taken that sort of help and said “Hey, you can ask hundreds of people’s brothers-in-law at the same time!”

    I’ve been a fan of Aardvark for some time now, so of course I downloaded the app right away. It’s great that the iPhone has Push Notifications now because otherwise the app would be fairly useless, but as it is, it works pretty much as well as the IM interface that I normally use.

  • Jay-Z is on fire, and so is Lala.com

    Nels W

    So, I just got The Blueprint 3. It’s $4.99 on Lala.com, but only $3.99 on Amazon. I got it from Lala to support the little guy. I decided it was worth $5 after only the first 7 songs – two of which I’d already got the “web version” of on Lala. It’s that good.

    But, after buying the MP3s, I discovered that there’s a Beta section in Lala, which – among other things – lets you scrobble tracks to Last.fm.

    exclamation-point

    I may never buy another MP3 again! Considering I can open a tab in Firefox, play songs on Lala.com using less RAM than iTunes (with much faster reaction time from the app), AND have them scrobbled to Last.fm… the only advantage that MP3s have is that I can put them on my iPhone… but I don’t really listen to music on my iPhone; I usually listen to audiobooks in the car or when I’m walking or whatever (and the audiobooks come from the Chicago Public Library via Overdrive download or imported Audio CD). Also, I could back up my 15 GB of music on my desktop computer (using Hamachi) and then have an extra 15 GB on my laptop hard drive (which I’m hoping would improve the read/write performance of my computer). And since it’s synced via the Lala Music Mover, I know that those backed up songs are going to be available on Lala.

    So, that’s the interesting part of the tech stuff. I’m about to do one of those track-by-track album reviews right now (possibly my first ever, but certainly a copycheated idea; gotta keep up my copycheating cred to hold the belt).

    (more…)

  • Facebook may end my run as the World’s Greatest Copycheater

    Nels W

    Not only can you now use the Lite Facebook Interface – i.e., the Twitter Facebook Interface – but Facebook is also said to be (slowly) rolling out @ tagging of people in Status Updates. I actually posted a Status Update a while back pondering if Facebook were to add that feature, thereby eliminating my need to ever use Twitter again. And now my dream (yes, it’s a pretty lame dream) has come true. Now I can just use Facebook for my “mass” communications until I’m famous enough that thousands of random people will want to read my thoughts 140 characters at a time. (Or they could just read my blog, I suppose)

    Facebook-@

  • Songs In Code

    Nels W

    Only the obvious ones have been submitted to the SongsInCodeDB.

    worldAsWeKnowIt.end(); self.feel = “fine”;

    Wish skeelo = new Wish[]; skeelo[0] = “taller”; skeelo[1] = “baller”; skeelo[2] = “girl who looked good”;

    if (ready) { hereICome = true; } else { hereICome = true; } you.hide = false;

    if ( !woman ) { cry = false; }

    temperature = temperature + 100; clothes.off();

    Guitar g = new Guitar(); g.color = “#CCCCCC”; if ( picasso.know() ) { buy(g); g.play(); }

    if ( romeo.makelove(juliet) ) { juliet.cry(); }

    public boolean bringDown(landslide) { if ( reflection.see() ) { landslide–; bringDown(landslide); } }

    Problem[] jz = new Problem[99]; for (int p=0; p<jz.length; p++) { if jz[p].equals(Bitch) return true; } #songsincode

    dc = chillin; pg = chillin; if (this.name == wale) { kill(it); }

    if ( me.hasWorld() ) { empire.build(); }

  • Fraud “Protection”

    Nels W

    Evidently buying a plane ticket for Thanksgiving and then signing up for Google AdWords (to use a free credit) within 3 days of each other is frowned upon by Capital One. At least I used Skype to call their 800 number and saved myself 20 minutes on our cell phone plan (more time for my wife to talk on the phone). And they give good rewards, so I can’t complain too much.

    What scares me a little bit, though, is that they didn’t have a phone number on file for me. Yes, I did just change it recently to my Google Voice number since we’ve decided to cancel our landline, but I got a confirmation email that it had been changed, so it’s worrisome that it wasn’t showing up.

    What scares me more is that though they didn’t have a number on file, someone who was “from the Capital One Fraud Department” called my Google Voice number and left a message with a different 800 number to call. I checked that number on 800notes.com (cool site, btw), and it seemed to be split about whether it was a scam or a real number. I called a number from Capital One’s website and got through to their Fraud Department, verified charges, and got back access to my card, but I am still wondering if that person who called my GV number was really from Capital One or if The Scammers have figured out a way to know when your account has been held up for fraud and use that as an “in” to get you to give them all your information.

    It’s not frightening to me on a personal level because, as you can see from my story, I am not about to call someone back who says they’re from a credit card company (or bank or any other financial institution) without checking the number and going to the company’s web site first. But I am scared for all the people who are more trusting (and/or worried about their credit and credit card fraud) and will call that number back without hesitation.

    credit-card-scam

  • My Sharona… er, Persona

    Nels W

    From My Persona:

    persona

  • How Overestimation Leads To Procrastination

    Nels W

    Rhyme time, baby.

    The subject line is in regard to a fault of mine when it comes to personal commitments (like cutting my hair, mowing the lawn, going to the grocery store).

    I tend to overestimate the amount of time and effort that are required to do simple activities like those mentioned above, and as a result, I tend to put off doing them.

    For example, cutting my hair (I do it myself) takes about 40 minutes including a shower to wash all the excess hair off. I just did it myself recently and it looks a lot better than when I let it grow out and get shaggy. It’s always taken me 40 minutes to do it. Even when I first started more than 10 years ago. And I only do it every 6-8 weeks, so it’s not like it’s a huge time sink, but I often tend to do it closer to 8 weeks when it should be done after 6 just because I “don’t want to take the time” to do it.

    This especially applies in the summer time because there are not a lot of higher ROI activities that I can do to make myself feel better than cutting my hair, and still I don’t do it because, in my mind, it’s a chore that takes a lot of time and energy.

    Takeaway: Be realistic about the length of time it takes to do tasks that you do on a regular basis. I’m even thinking about making a spreadsheet just so I can stop fooling myself by storing the numbers in my mind and manipulating them “telephone” style whenever it comes time to do them.

    boys_telling_secrets

  • Speaking of The 4-Hour Work Week

    Nels W

    Speaking of The 4-Hour Work Week, there is a pretty accurate review over on Startup Blog.

  • How I Read The 4-Hour Work Week in 4 Hours

    Nels W

    4-hour-work-weekOkay, this is actually really easy, but is great for people like me who are really slow readers… on paper.

    I’m a very fast reader under the right circumstances… So, what are the circumstances that allowed me to read a 320 page book in 250 minutes? (I realize that this 1.28 pages per minute probably doesn’t seem like it’s all that fast, but it’s probably twice my normal reading rate*)

    4 Factors:

    1. Audiobook
    2. 2x Speed
    3. Attention/Focus
    4. Forehand Knowledge

    Yes, at first this seems like a cheap tactic – like exploiting a glitch in a video game. But, it is a cheap tactic that just saved me 4 hours and 10 minutes – more than enough time to write this blog post, and work on a fantasy basketball draft guide. And, I further believe that examining each of these factors will actually lead to further insights.

    1. Audiobook

    Yes, having someone read to me is much faster than reading myself. But the point I want to make here is that while I’ve been waiting for a hard copy of 4-Hour Work Week from the Chicago Public Library for nigh on a month, I was able to place the downloadable audio version on hold and get it onto my iPhone in less than a week. Bigger fish. Smaller pond.

    2. 2x Speed

    This is something that you get for free when you have an audio book on your iPhone (or iPod Touch, I would assume). Something that’s important to note, however, is that not all audio books are created equal. For example, the ones I download from ChiPubLib have a “type” of Audiobook, so the iPhone knows to treat them as such and will automatically remember my place as well as being able to play at 2x speed. Ones that are imported from Audio CDs (also available at your library), however, usually don’t get classified as audio books by default, so you have to do that yourself. Don’t worry, it’s pretty easy, and definitely worth the few minutes it takes.

    3. Attention/Focus

    Playing the book twice as fast as normal would be nothing without focusing on listening and paying attention. As luck would have it, I listened to 4-Hour Work Week on a Sunday while my wife took a nap, then while I walked to the store to get groceries and do some other unplanned shopping that I’d planned to do (that’s a concept for a whole different post), and then for a bit while I just sat in my office chair. A key to note is that while I was doing my unplanned shopping, I paused the audio book because, while my unplanned shopping was fairly mindless, it did still require some of my attention, and as such I knew that I would miss parts of the book and have to go back to re-listen. (I know this from the experience of having tried to listen to other audio books while doing menial tasks)

    4. Forehand Knowledge

    I haven’t done enough split testing to know if this is a definite prerequisite for my plan to work, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. But what do I mean by Forehand Knowledge? I mean, you have some idea of what the book is about, and perhaps even know some of the content from other sources already. The 4-Hour Work Week was great for this because I’ve read books like Getting Things Done, Talent is Overrated, Making a Good Brain Great, and I Will Teach You To Be Rich, all of which contain pieces that are also present in The 4-Hour Work Week. This allowed me to avoid frying my brain with 4 hours of intense focus, lightening the load somewhat by lowering the amount of concentration required to absorb the information.

    * Just to make myself feel better: I do have excellent reading comprehension. I always did really well on the SAT and GMAT reading comp. sections. I probably should have learned to read faster at that point to save myself more time so I could have done better on the other sections, but I didn’t want to sacrifice one of my stronger areas for what might or might not have actually helped me in other areas.