Been thinking of a (September) trip to Australia and I think I found the perfect board bag by Alexandra Cassaniti. Now, I just need the flight and surfboard and I’m all set.

This whole concept of how people get to be great at something is really fascinating to me. There’s deliberate practice, natural talent, relaxed concentration, and now psycho-cybernetics (as I found out via this article on Allen Iverson).

Then there’s the practice thing. You might not like it, and you might not buy it. But you should at least understand Allen Iverson’s approach to the game. Larry Platt’s Only the Strong Survive, which every Denver Nugget fan should read immediately, makes clear that, petulant as it may sound, Iverson is an artist. Both in reality–he can do things with pen and paper that would amaze you–and in his approach to the game. It’s helpful to understand that. This segment deals with Dennis Kozlowski, who was both the football coach and the athletic director at Bethel High School:

Kozlowski was a staunch believer in psychocybernetics. He’d preach the value of visualization long before such mental gymnastics were in vogue. He had Allen read the book Psycho-Cybernetics, by Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon who maintained that, even after reconstructive nose surgery, many patients would still see their old nose when they looked in the mirror; such was the power of the brain’s imagery. Kozlowski would tell Iverson to tie his shoe while continuing to carry on a conversation with him. Iverson would be speaking to him, looking up at him, while kneeling and tying his shoe. “See that,” Kozlowski said. “See how you didn’t have to look at yourself tying your shoe? See how you didn’t even have to think about it? I want you to play like you just tied your shoelaces–automatically. The way you do that is by having an image in your mind of what you do before you do it.”

“Allen took psychocybernetics to a new level,” Kozlowski recalls. Today, Iverson doesn’t like to talk about how he does what he does on the basketball court. “I just do it,” he says. Partially, like any artist, he is wary of overanalyzing his gift. But it could also be that he’s known since high school that the real explanation defies easy answers, that the answer is, at heart, both beneath and above the level of language, and connected, on some level, to his psyche. In other words, missed in all the hand-wringing about his lackadaisical practice habits in the NBA is the possibility that so much of his work is cerebral. Unlike, say, Jordan, who was a craftsman, someone who would take hundreds of jumpshots a day, Iverson imagines the possibility and then acts it out.

For whatever reason, I like thinking of different job titles that defy the typical “manager”, “VP”, “staff”, etc. Maybe it was my obsession with the (hip) culture of the internet boom or the fact that I think org charts are dumb? I don’t know. Anyway here are a couple that I’ve thought of that I would love to answer with when asked, “what do you do for a living?”

Operations Maven / Creative Sage / Director of Possibilities / Fiscal Czar / Sinecure / Right Hand Man / Information Jockey

What else am I missing? What are some of the real, but ridiculous job titles out there? Comment away.

Most people I talk to about the web believe you have to have 1mm unique visitors or more to be relevant. I completely disagree and to help prove my point I usually point people to Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans post. Here’s a couple choice excerpts.

One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate.

The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

…

A few caveats. This formula – one thousand direct True Fans –  is crafted for one person, the solo artist. What happens in a duet, or quartet, or movie crew? Obviously, you’ll need more fans. But the additional fans you’ll need are in direct geometric proportion to the increase of your creative group. In other words, if you increase your group size by 33%, you need add only 33% more fans.

“Slowly dies, he who does not travel, he who does not read” – P. Neruda

This past Christmas at my house I was flipping through one of my mom’s cooking magazines and found this recipe that I want to try soon (I would have tried it sooner, but just found the scrap paper in the back of a closet).

Ingredients

• 12 cups water
• 2 cups dark roast coffee
• .5 cups powder creamer
• .3 cups cocoa
• .35 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 10 tablespoons bourbon
• 10 tablespoons whipped cream

Directions

1. boil water
2. add coffee
3. remove from heat, let stand for 15 min
4. pour through strainer into large saucepan
5. combine creamer, cocoa, sugar, cinnamon and red pepper
6. add combination to pan, stir and whisk
7. add bourbon and whipped cream

I like the idea of a consolidated aesthetic totality; what you make looks like what you listen to, sounds like what you wear, and speaks like what you believe in. In simpler terms, my girlfriend might look like she’s in a band I’d listen to, my haircut looks like it belongs in the chair I’m sitting in, and the work I’m designing might be written about in a book that I would read. Even my cat has to figure in there somehow. It’s a meticulous thing to maintain, but probably comes from the fact that I’ve discovered mostly everything through music, whether it’s ideologies, writers, artists, designers, cultures, subcultures, or other music. So it’s easy to tie things back into your work, as long as you keep your eyes and ears open, and maintain a healthy dose of critical thought.

– Nikolay Saveliev

Just read this sort of follow-up on Moneyball updating things on the movie and philosophies the book exemplified. Nothing really groundbreaking, but it did touch on Bill Walsh, who seems to be tied to these Michael Lewis “change the game” books.

“What I want,” he told me that day 10 years ago, “is to be the baseball equivalent of Bill Walsh, where you have a tree of guys who worked for you, the same way I worked for Sandy, running teams all over the league. That to me is pretty cool.”

and the lineage of Billy Beane…

Perhaps Beane’s best friend in the game, J.P. Ricciardi, was named general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2001. Beane’s assistant, Paul DePodesta, took over the Dodgers in 2004.

On the strength of Beane’s emphasis on technology and quantitative and qualitative analysis, the hiring of young, highly educated executives who never played at a professional level became the single greatest change in the business of baseball over the past quarter century.

DePodesta went to Harvard, and that created a connection for Forst, who played shortstop at Harvard, to become Beane’s current assistant GM. Boston’s Theo Epstein graduated from Yale. Farhan Zaidi — another member of Beane’s camp, now the A’s director of baseball operations — graduated from M.I.T. Jon Daniels, the Texas Rangers’ general manager, is a Cornell graduate. Peter Woodfork, the Arizona assistant GM, has a degree in psychology from Harvard, and worked under Epstein in Boston.

This list of core human skills is more valuable than any class or seminar I’ve ever been a part of. Be sure to check out the list, but for my own good, I’ve posted them after the jump to keep those as my “digital dozen” for my continual effort of self-improvement (I’m trying to think of a better term for it since there’s more to it than just improvement; there’s also the ‘hacking’ and ‘small changes, big results’ aspects and theories I’m kicking around). I plan to reference this list quite often and use it as my 12-point plan.

Information-Assimilation – how to find, consume, and comprehend information and identify what’s most important in the face of a problem or challenge. A person who is highly skilled in Information-Assimilation is able to process information quickly and apply it to the situation at hand, with consistently high levels of comprehension and retention.

Writing – how to communicate thoughts and ideas in written form clearly and concisely. A person who is highly skilled in Writing is able to convey information to others briefly and simply, as well as use writing to persuade and influence.

Speaking – how to communicate thoughts and ideas to others clearly, concisely, and with confidence. A person who is highly skilled in Speaking is able to communicate individually or in front of a group of people in an engaging manner, with little visible evidence of tension or stress.

Mathematics – how to accurately use concepts from arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, and statistics to analyze and solve common problems. A person who is highly skilled in Mathematics is able to use numbers, ratios, and equations to gain insight into present circumstances and potential future scenarios.

Decision-Making – how to identify critical issues, prioritize, focus energy/effort, recognize fallacies, avoid common errors, and handle ambiguity. A person who is highly skilled in Decision-Making is able to weigh available information and come to a supportable conclusion, without falling prey to common reasoning mistakes and cognitive bias.

Rapport – how to interact with other people in a way that encourages them to like, trust, and respect you. A person who is highly skilled in Rapport is able to build productive, mutually-beneficial relationships with a wide variety of people in a way that influences their perceptions and opinions.

Conflict-Resolution – how to anticipate potential sources of conflict and resolve disagreements when they occur. A person who is highly skilled in Conflict-Resolution is able to anticipate potential sources of conflict and counteract unproductive emotions, both individually and in groups.

Scenario-Generation – how to create, clarify, evaluate, and communicate a possible future scenario that assists in decision-making, either for yourself or another person. A person who is highly skilled in Scenario Generation is able to envision possible future events, identify likely tradeoffs, and suggest multiple options that will result in the achievement of an objective.

Planning – how to identify the necessary next steps to achieve an objective, account for dependencies, and prepare for the unknown and inevitable change via the use of contingencies. A person who is highly skilled in Planning is able to examine available resources, anticipate potential issues and risks, and propose new / better paths as more information becomes known.

Self-Awareness – how to accurately perceive and influence your own internal states and emotions, including effective management of limited energy, willpower, and focus. A person who is highly skilled in Self-Awareness is able to recognize what physical and emotional state they’re currently experiencing, utilize or compensate for their current state, and intentionally elicit / reinforce preferred states.

Interrelation – how to recognize, understand, and make use of key features of systems and relationships, including cause-and-effect, second and third-order effects, constraints, and feedback loops. A person who is highly skilled in Interrelation is able to identify the most important factors in a system, explore how they affect each other, and improve systems without provoking undesired consequences.

Skill Acquisition – how to go about learning a desired skill in a way that results in competence by finding and utilizing available resources, deconstructing complex processes, and actively experimenting with potential approaches. A person who is highly skilled in Skill Acquisition is able to continually improve their skills in any field through deliberate practice, observation, and intentional experimentation.