Brock Butler

This site contains inspirational stuff that I am likely to reuse or respectfully steal from in the future

Life is too short not to do something that matters!

Stellar Combination: Michael Pollan's Food Rules Illustrated by Maria Kalman

Michael Pollan's Food Rules, illustrated by Maria Kalman, inspires me two ways:

  1. This book is so simple, yet so compelling.  It inspired me to join a local produce co-op so my family and I can eat more real food--particularly leafy vegetables.  The "rules" are simple filters to help decide what food to buy and eat. Very useful for a book that takes less than 90 minutes to read!
  2. The illustrations by Maria Kalman--recently added in the new edition--make the book very fun to read.  The visual rules provide an extra opportunity for reflecting and thinking, which was very useful and effective for me. 

Having not read prior editions of Food Rules, I can't imagine the book without the the killer combination of illustrations and rules.  

Pastedgraphic-1

Here are a couple great Food Rules videos found reading Maria Popova's Brain Pickings:

Maria Kalman explaining her illustrations in the book

The Food Rules animated in stop motion

Do Less. Do Things Exceptionally Well. Focus.

Doing fewer things--and doing them better--is profoundly important.  There are so many things to do, but usually only a handful really matter. Those are the things that require intense focus and exceptional execution.

Said another way ... 

Cut Things You Don't Care About, Focus, and Be Awesome

There is no better way to put this in context than to consider our own mortality.  Steve Job's 2005 Stanford Commencement Address, and Merlin Mann's recent blog post titled No One Needs Permission To Be Awesome, do an excellent job explaining this.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

The most essential step in doing the things that matter most is Focus. Focus on the things you care most about. Focus on the things that, once started, are hard to tear yourself away from because you are so passionate about them.  Doing this requires cutting the other distractions, and many of them are not easy to drop.  Some tough decisions need to be made.  

How many things do I need to shed, cancel, defer, drop, shank, or shit-can with extreme prejudice in order to singlemindedly focus on this one thing that I love?

Another Merlin Mann post puts it very well: First, Care. Once you know what you really care about, you can figure out how to focus on them. It makes it easier to settle hard decisions and drop things that would otherwise seem undroppable.  

There are some great resources out there that provide inspiration.   focus : a simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction by Leo Babauta is a great book, and most of it is available freely via the web.  

Finally, I'll end with some words from the ever-quotable Seth Godin:

There’s not much more important than focus and tenacity. I think that making the choice to do art, the choice to make a difference… do that and add focus and tenacity and you win.

Must watch this RSA Animate video summarizing Dan Pink's motivation book (Drive)

via youtube.com

There are three things I love about this:

(1) Daniel Pink's "Drive" is a fantastic book about motivation, and this video provides a great overview.

(2) The visuals greatly enhance the message. I'm impressed at how well the drawing is synchronized with the audio.

(3) There are a whole series of similarly amazing "Vision Videos" at RSA's website: http://www.thersa.org/events/vision

Einstein Quote

Click to view large
Download this gallery (ZIP, 353 KB)
Download full size (202 KB)

Came across this ol' chestnut today. Here's the quote below in better (but not complete) context.

"One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year...It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiousity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this is goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted through means of coercion and a sense of duty. To the contrary, I believe it would be possible to rob even a healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness, if it were possible, with the aid of a whip, to force the beast to devour continuously, even when not hungry — especially if the food, handed out under such coercion, were to be selected accordingly." – Albert Einstein

via garr.posterous.com

I just had to repost this. A bunch of things I have read recently have been resonating with my experience that our education system needs to change. It just has to, and I think it will.

More on this later.
Adapted from Cory Watilo's Proper theme