Monthly Archive for June, 2008

Practices Conducive to States of Flow

Published
by
jeremyrwelch
on June 27, 2008
in Education and Philosophy
. 0 Comments

I’m currently reading Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In the book, Mihaly relates lessons he learned from studying states of “optimal experience” for over two decades.  In the third or fourth chapter, Mihaly provides examples of various cultures that have developed practices and beliefs that are conducive or destructive to states of flow:

Another good example of how a culture can build flow into its life-style is given by the Canadian ethnographer Richard Kool, describing one of the Indian tribes of British Columbia:

The Shushap region was and is considered by the Inadian people to be a rich place: rich in salmon and game, rich in below-ground food resources such as tuers and roots–a pletiful land. In this region, the people would live in permanent village sites and exploit the envrons for needed resources. They had elaborate technologies for very effectively using the resources of hte environment, and percieved their lives as being good and rich. Yet, the elders said, at times the world bcame too predictable and the challenge began to go out of life. Without challegne, life had no meaning.

So the elders, in their wisdom, would decide that the entire village should move, those moves occurring every 25 to 30 years. The entire population would move to a different part of the Shushwap land and there, they found challenge. There wer enew streams to figure out, new game trails to learn, new areas where the balsamroot would be plentiful. Now life would regain its meaning and be worth living. Everyone would feel rejuvenated and healthy. Incidentally, it also allowed exploited resources in one area to recover after years of harvesting…

Is your lifestyle conducive to states of flow?

Jubilee and Topspin

Published
by
jeremyrwelch
on June 23, 2008
in Business, Entrepreneurship and Music
. 0 Comments

Thanks to start-up Topspin, I have a new favorite band — Jubilee. The songs Rebel Hiss and Fuzz are Down are hooky as hell.

Jubilee is the first band to use the super secret application/platform/magic that Topspin has been building the past couple months. From first look at Jubilee’s website, I think Topspin is building a application that puts together the best parts of Wordpress and other blogging platforms, and music distribution stores like iTunes Music Store. Jubilee’s website looks like it is the product of a blogging platform, except for the music widget where you can play or buy single songs or the entire 4 song ep. Jubilee’s site also says that you can pay 19.95 for a full year’s worth of content including all music, videos, art, and more.

But why should you go through Topspin’s platform instead of downloading the music elsewhere? According to the band:

This is the ONLY place you should be heading to via the world wide web if you’re on the hunt for MP3’s of Jubilee tunes. Why? Well…
A) It’s cheaper here than anywhere else
B) The quality is better
C) You’re getting more bang for your buck (lyrics, liner notes, pictures, etc., not available on other online music stores)
D) It’s the only place where you can subscribe to Jubilee’s entire musical output for the whole year for just $19.95
E) You’re supporting the band directly, and not putting money into the pockets of those who couldn’t care less about music, art, and the other finer things in this life that make you actually want to get out of bed every day

So what does the $19.95 subscription get you exactly? Well, in 2008 you’ll get the “Rebel Hiss” single, at least 2 more upcoming album singles also containing exclusive non-album tracks, and of course the full-length debut album. Not to mention exclusive live tracks, music videos, live videos, photos, lyrics, artwork, and even more goodies you won’t find anywhere else. Your subscription is also the only way you’ll get a shot at obtaining super limited pressings of Jubilee vinyl (including rare first pressings and even test presses), and even allows you first access to owning all the releases way before anybody else can, and well before they hit the stores.

Now, the best part about going the route of the $19.95 subscription… If you do so, at the end of the year, you’ll also receive an exclusive Jubilee 7-inch single ONLY available to you and the other subscribers. This limited vinyl record will also include even more exclusive tracks not available ANYWHERE ELSE. Not in stores, not even digitally… And we’ll even mail the lil sucker straight into your palms at our expense. This is something we will also be continuing annually hereafter for all those signing up every year. And don’t worry, if you’re broke right now, you can still sign up for this subscription at any point in the year, and all the music, as well as the limited 7-inch, will still be yours. Thanks for your support.

-Jubilee

I am intrigued…

Welcome to the New Blog

Published
by
jeremyrwelch
on June 22, 2008
in News
. 0 Comments

Welcome to the new blog! I have now been blogging for almost two years on a wordpress hosted blog ( Jeremy Welch :: The Blog ). Its about time that I begin hosting my blog. Using Wordpress and K2 as a base, I designed and hacked this site together this weekend ( June 21-22 2008).

For old readers, I will continue writing posts similar to the ones on my old blog. I will write about business, tech companies, music, philosophy, and more.

For new readers, thanks for reading! For old posts, click on the link in the top paragraph to visit my wordpress.com hosted blog. Look for a post in the near future on some of my most popular posts from the old blog. Also, check out the about page if you would like to contact me for any reason.

5 Social Media Tools for Learning Language

Published
by
jeremyrwelch
on June 20, 2008
in Education and Productivity
. 5 Comments

Check out this post I wrote several days ago for the Ignite Social Media blog:

June 17, 2008

In college and high school, I used flash cards, vocabulary lists, and even audio programs on tapes to learn new languages (Spanish in high school, German in college). Each of those tools is helpfflagsul in some capacity, but in the end, the quickest way to learn a language will always be through real conversations. Some new social media websites will allow you to do just that.

Check out these 5 social media tools for learning language:

1. eduFire.com - This web app allows language learners to connect with language teachers for one on one tutoring sessions by webcam. The platform is simple to use, and content on the web page is great. Payment is arranged through PayPal, and each tutor sets an hourly rate based upon their experience. They also have flashcards and videos of lessons in multiple languages.

The video chatting system setup has two spots for streaming video (one for the tutor and one for the student) and a chat room right beside the two video screens. This format is really the best of both worlds. On the one hand it is casual because it is a normal video chat, but the tutor also has the ability to post links and write out full sentences (which helps with grammar) in the chat window.

2. StudiVZ.net and other International Social Networks - After the successful growth of Facebook in the US, entrepreneurs in countries all over the world are creating social networks for college students using Facebook as a model. These entrepreneurs take the best parts of Facebook, then make changes to allow the program to fit in better with local culture. StudiVZ looks and feels very similar to Facebook, but is all in German. The company also has sites in French, Italian, Polish, and Spanish.

Language learners can use social networks like StudiVZ.net, Vostu.com (Spanish), vkontakte.ru (Russian) to meet people in foreign countries (and in their native country) who speak the primary language of the site. Join groups, make friends, and start conversations - even poke (gruschle in German, ha ) in the language you are studying.

3. Lingro - Lingro bills itself as “the coolest dictionary known to hombre!” — I definitely agree. Lingro is an interactive dictionary for use with websites. Enter the URL of a website, enter the language and direction of translation, and click the arrow. Now the page loads, but each word on the page is click-able and attached to a dictionary.

For instance, I entered welt.de (a German news site) and German > English. Then, while reading an article on the German soccer team, I came across a word that I was not familiar with. I clicked on the word, and instantly a small window pops up with the English translations of the word. Also, if the word is in a link, a small window pops up above the word asking if I’d like to follow the link. This interaction is great, but what’s even cooler, is that Lingro will track the words and sentences you look up on other web pages. If you register, you can save this data and create a kind of automatically generated vocabulary list — awesome!

4. Chinesepo - Chinesepo.com bills itself as “not your parents’ language instruction. This is learning on your terms.” Very cool. They center their service around four main activities: Listen, Review, Practice, and Reinforce. A user can listen to ChinesePod lessons on the site, or download them as mp3s to listen on the go. Review activities are centered around a PDF file for each lesson, with vocabulary, conversations, and exercises. Practice activities are live chat sessions with real tutors. Finally, a series of flashcards and vocabulary games are available for reinforcement of learned material.

5. Livemocha - Livemocha offers services similar to eduFire, but with a few more added features. Livemocha offers self-study lessons, professional tutors for one-on-one sessions, and community and chat tools for meeting friends and conversing live. Additionally, the Livemocha system has motivational and goal setting tools, allowing users to compete against each other.

Notes from the Art of Learning (Part 3)

Published
by
admin
on June 16, 2008
in Business, Education, Philosophy and Productivity
. 1 Comment

(Part 3 of 3 posts. See part 1 and part 2 for more.)

I just finished reading Josh Waitzkin’s book The Art of Learning and thought I would post my notes. Waitzkin is most well known for being the young chess champion in the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer.” What most people do not know is that he is also a martial arts World Champion. In the book, he relates what he has learned about the art of learning and performance psychology.

These snippets are parts of the book I underlined or noted while reading:

**Note** Key parts and chunks of knowledge are in bold.

Chapter 13 through Chapter 20

Once we reach a certain level of expertise at a given discipline and our knowledge is expansive, the critical issue becomes: how is all this stuff navigated and put to use? I believe the answers to this question are the gateway to the most esoteric levels of elite performance. (pg 135)

…my road to mastery–you start with the fundamentals, get a solid foundation fueled by understanding the principles of your discipline, then you expand and refine your repertoire, guided by your individual predispositions, while keeping in touch, however abstractly, with what you feel to be the essential core of the art. (pg 137)

This is why profoundly refined martial artists can sometimes appear mystical to less skilled practitioners–they have trained themselves to perceive and operate within segments of time that are too small to e perceived by untrained minds. (pg 147)

…armed with an understanding of how intuition operates, we can train ourselves to have remarkably potent perceptual and physical abilities in our disciplines of focus. The key, of course, is practice. (pg 148]

I knew from chess that a superior artist could often get into the head of the opponent, mesmerize him with will or strategic mstery, using what I playfully like to call Jedi Mind Tricks. (pg 150)

If a pattern of interaction is recognizable to the adversary, then mental conditioning will not be terribly effective. (pg 157)

In virtually every competitive physical discipline, if you are amaster of reading and manipulating footwork, then you are a force to be reckoned with. (pg 159)

If both players are aware of a tell, then it will be neutralized, made ineffective, and others will have to be unearthed and exploited. The game goes on. (pg 162)

Presence must be like breathing. (pg 172)

…Stress and Recovery. The physiologists at LGE had discovered that in virtually every discipline, one of the most telling features of a dominant performer is the routine use of recovery periods. (pg 179)

…the better we are at recovering, the greater potential we have to endure and perform under stress. (pg 180)

So how do we Step up when our moment suddenly arises? …My answer is to redefine the question. Not only do we have to be good at waiting, we have to love it. Because waiting is not waiting, it is life. Too many of us live without fully engaging our minds, waiting for that moment when our real lives begin. Years pass in boredom, but that is okay because when our true love comes around, or we discover our real calling, we will begin. Of course the sad truth is that if we are not present to the moment, our true love could come and go and we wouldn’t even notice. And we will ahve become someone other than the you or I who would be able to embrace it. I believe an appreciation for simplicity, the everyday–the ability to dive deeply into the banal and discover life’s hidden richness–is where success, let alone happiness, emerges. (pg 187)
…when considering the issue of performance state, it is important to avoid focusing on those rare climactic moments of high-stakes competitive mayhem. If you get into a frenzy anticipating the moment that will decide your destiny, then when it arrives you will be overwrought with excitement and tension. To have success in crunch time, you need to integrate certain healthy patterns into your day-to-day life so that they are completely natural to you when the pressure is on. The real power of incremental growth comes to bear when we truly are like water, steadily carving stone. We just keep flowing when everything on the line. (pg 187)

I had to develop the habit of taking on my technical weaknesses whenever someone pushed my limites instead of falling back into a self-protective indignant pose. Once that adjustment was made, I was free to learn. If someone got into my head, they were doing me a favor, exposing a weakness. They were giving me a valuable opportunity to expand my threshold for turbulence. Dirty players were my best teachers. (pg 206)

Once we build our tolerance for turbulence and are no longer upended by the swells of our emotional life, we can ride them and even pick up speed with their slopes. (pg 211)