OPEN CLASS

EPIC READS
Collected by V Hi ng

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CONTENTS

DREAM ON .................................................................................................................................................. 3
UNUSUAL VALUE: What do software engineers who earn $500,000 a year do? ......................................... 8
TO DOS AND TO DON'TS: How to make a to-do list that actually helps you get everything done.............. 11
CONFIDENCE MAN: Bruce Lee achieved all his life goals by his death at age 32 because of one
personality trait ........................................................................................................................................... 13
FEAR NOT: The optimists guide to the robot apocalypse .......................................................................... 16
CHOKED UP: The brain surgeons memoir that Bill Gates says is worth crying over .................................. 22
Here are Google, Amazon, and Facebooks secrets to hiring the best people ............................................ 23
DO NOT DISTURB: Theres one big reason that Ive never had a cellphone and Im never going to get one
................................................................................................................................................................... 26
FREE ADVICE: The practical, unsexy steps it takes to actually become a millionaire ................................ 28
KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY: I spent $1,200 on books in one dayand it was a totally worthwhile career
investment (Unsplash/CC 0) ....................................................................................................................... 33
This happiness hack from a wildly popular Stanford class can help you create a life you love .................... 35
WORDS FOR LIVING: If you want to get smarter, speed-reading is worse than not reading at all ............. 38
RIDDLE ME THIS: The single best question to ask anyone interviewing for a tech position is Einsteins
Riddle ......................................................................................................................................................... 40
SPACED OUT: A step-by-step guide to hacking your brain so it can remember anything ........................... 44
Why Germans pay cash for almost everything ............................................................................................ 48
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Your brilliant Kickstarter idea could be on sale in China before youve even finished
funding it ..................................................................................................................................................... 51
The 10 most challenging things about the Navy SEAL's 5.5 mile swim ....................................................... 56

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DREAM ON
Being sleep deprived at work is as bad as being drunk

Hit the snooze. (Reuters/Carlo Allegri)

WRITTEN BY

Travis Bradberry President, TalentSmart

March 27, 2017

This post originally appeared at LinkedIn. Follow the author here.

The next time you tell yourself that youll sleep when youre dead, realize that youre making a decision that
can make that day come much sooner. Pushing late into the night is a health and productivity killer.

According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, the short-term productivity
gains from skipping sleep to work are quickly washed away by the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation
on your mood, ability to focus, and access to higher-level brain functions for days to come. The negative
effects of sleep deprivation are so great that people who are drunk outperform those lacking sleep.

Why you need adequate sleep to perform

Weve always known that sleep is good for your brain, but new research from the University of Rochester
provides the first direct evidence for why your brain cells need you to sleep (and sleep the right waymore
on that later). The study found that when you sleep your brain removes toxic proteins from its neurons that
are by-products of neural activity when youre awake. Unfortunately, your brain can remove them
adequately only while youre asleep. So when you dont get enough sleep, the toxic proteins remain in your
brain cells, wreaking havoc by impairing your ability to thinksomething no amount of caffeine can fix.

Skipping sleep impairs your brain function across the board. It slows your ability to process information and
problem solve, kills your creativity, and catapults your stress levels and emotional reactivity.

What sleep deprivation does to your health

Sleep deprivation is linked to a variety of serious health problems, including heart attack, stroke, type 2
diabetes, and obesity. It stresses you out because your body overproduces the stress hormone cortisol
when its sleep deprived. While excess cortisol has a host of negative health effects that come from the
havoc it wreaks on your immune system, it also makes you look older, because cortisol breaks down skin

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collagen, the protein that keeps skin smooth and elastic. In men specifically, not sleeping enough reduces
testosterone levels and lowers sperm count.

Too many studies to list have shown that people who get enough sleep live longer, healthier lives, but I
understand that sometimes this isnt motivation enough. So consider thisnot sleeping enough makes you
fat. Sleep deprivation compromises your bodys ability to metabolize carbohydrates and control food intake.
When you sleep less you eat more and have more difficulty burning the calories you consume. Sleep
deprivation makes you hungrier by increasing the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin and makes it harder
for you to get full by reducing levels of the satiety-inducing hormone leptin. People who sleep less than six
hours a night are 30% more likely to become obese than those who sleep seven to nine hours a night.

How much sleep is enough?

Most people need seven to nine hours of sleep a night to feel sufficiently rested. Few people are at their
best with less than seven hours, and few require more than nine without an underlying health condition.
And thats a major problem, since more than half of Americans get less than the necessary seven hours of
sleep each night, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

For go-getters, its even worse.

A recent survey of Inc. 500 CEOs found that half of them are sleeping less than six hours a night. And the
problem doesnt stop at the top. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a third of US
workers get less than six hours of sleep each night, and sleep deprivation costs US businesses more than
$63 billion annually in lost productivity.

Doing something about it

Beyond the obvious sleep benefits of thinking clearly and staying healthy, the ability to manage your
emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has
conducted research with more than a million people, and weve found that 90% of top performers are high
in emotional intelligence (EQ). These individuals are skilled at understanding and using emotions to their
benefit, and good sleep hygiene is one of the greatest tools at their disposal.

High-EQ individuals know its not just how much you sleep that matters, but also how you sleep. When life
gets in the way of getting the amount of sleep you need, its absolutely essential that you increase the
quality of your sleep through good sleep hygiene. There are many hidden killers of quality sleep. The 10
strategies that follow will help you identify these killers and clean up your sleep hygiene. Follow them, and
youll reap the performance and health benefits that come with getting the right quantity and quality of
sleep.

1. Stay away from sleeping pills

When I say sleeping pills, I mean anything you take that sedates you so that you can sleep. Whether its
alcohol, Nyquil, Benadryl, Valium, Ambien, or what have you, these substances greatly disrupt your brains
natural sleep process. Have you ever noticed that sedatives can give you some really strange dreams? As
you sleep and your brain removes harmful toxins, it cycles through an elaborate series of stages, at times
shuffling through the days memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams). Sedation
interferes with these cycles, altering the brains natural process.

Anything that interferes with the brains natural sleep process has dire consequences for the quality of your
sleep. Many of the strategies that follow eliminate factors that disrupt this recovery process. If getting off
sleeping pills proves difficult, make certain you try some of the other strategies (such as cutting down on
caffeine) that will make it easier for you to fall asleep naturally and reduce your dependence upon
sedatives.

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2. Stop drinking caffeine (at least after lunch)

You can sleep more and vastly improve the quality of the sleep you get by reducing your caffeine intake.
Caffeine is a powerful stimulant that interferes with sleep by increasing adrenaline production and blocking
sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain. Caffeine has a six-hour half-life, which means it takes a full 24 hours
to work its way out of your system. Have a cup of joe at 8am, and youll still have 25% of the caffeine in
your body at 8pm. Anything you drink after noon will still be near 50% strength at bedtime. Any caffeine in
your bloodstreamthe negative effects increasing with the dosemakes it harder to fall and stay asleep.

When you do finally fall asleep, the worst is yet to come. Caffeine disrupts the quality of your sleep by
reducing rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the deep sleep when your body recuperates most. When
caffeine disrupts your sleep, you wake up the next day with a cognitive and emotional handicap. Youll be
naturally inclined to grab a cup of coffee or an energy drink to try to make yourself feel more alert, which
very quickly creates a vicious cycle.

3. Avoid blue light at night

This is a big onemost people dont even realize it impacts their sleep. Short-wavelength blue light plays
an important role in your mood, energy level, and sleep quality. In the morning, sunlight contains high
concentrations of this blue light. When your eyes are exposed to it directly (not through a window or while
wearing sunglasses), the blue light halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes
you feel more alert. This is great, and exposure to morning sunlight can improve your mood and energy
levels. If the sun isnt an option for you, try a blue light device.

In the afternoon, the suns rays lose their blue light, which allows your body to produce melatonin and start
making you sleepy. By the evening, your brain does not expect any blue light exposure and is very
sensitive to it. The problem this creates for sleep is that most of our favorite evening deviceslaptops,
tablets, televisions, and mobile phonesemit short-wavelength blue light. And in the case of your laptop,
tablet, and phone, they do so brightly and right in your face. This exposure impairs melatonin production
and interferes with your ability to fall asleep as well as with the quality of your sleep once you do nod off.
Remember, the sleep cycle is a daylong process for your brain. When you confuse your brain by exposing
it in the evening to what it thinks is morning sunlight, this derails the entire process with effects that linger
long after you power down. The best thing you can do is avoid these devices after dinner (television is okay
for most people as long as they sit far enough away from the set). If you must use one of these devices in
the evening, you can limit your exposure with a filter or protective eye wear.

4. Wake up at the same time every day

Consistency is key to a good nights sleep, especially when it comes to waking up. Waking up at the same
time every day improves your mood and sleep quality by regulating your circadian rhythm. When you have
a consistent wake-up time, your brain acclimates to this and moves through the sleep cycle in preparation
for you to feel rested and alert at your wake-up time. Roughly an hour before you wake, hormone levels
increase gradually (along with your body temperature and blood pressure), causing you to become more
alert. This is why youll often find yourself waking up right before your alarm goes off.

When you dont wake up at the same time every day, your brain doesnt know when to complete the sleep
process and when it should prepare you to be awake. Long ago, sunlight ensured a consistent wake-up
time. These days, an alarm is the only way most people can pull this off, and doing this successfully
requires resisting the temptation to sleep in when youre feeling tired because you know youll actually feel
better by keeping your wake-up time in tact.

5. No sleeping in on the weekend

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Sleeping in on the weekend is a counterproductive way to catch up on your sleep. It messes with your
circadian rhythm by giving you an inconsistent wake-up time. When you wake up at the same time during
the work week but sleep past this time on the weekend, you end up feeling groggy and tired because your
brain hasnt prepared your body to be awake. This isnt a big deal on your day off, but it makes you less
productive on Monday because it throws your cycle off and makes it hard to get going again on your regular
schedule.

6. Learn how much sleep you really need

The amount of sleep you need is something that you cant control, and scientists are beginning to discover
the genes that dictate it. The problem is, most people sleep much less than they really need and are under-
performing because they think theyre getting enough. Some discover this the hard way. Ariana Huffington
was one of those frantic types who underslept and overworked, until she collapsed unexpectedly from
exhaustion one afternoon. She credits her success and well-being since then to the changes shes made to
her sleep habits. I began getting 30 minutes more sleep a night, until gradually I got to seven to eight
hours. The result has been transformational, Huffington says, adding that, all the science now
demonstrates unequivocally that when we get enough sleep, everything is better: our health; our mental
capacity and clarity; our joy at life; and our ability to live life without reacting to every bad thing that
happens.

Huffington isnt the only one. Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, and Sheryl Sandberg have all touted the virtues of
getting enough sleep. Even Bill Gates, an infamous night owl, has affirmed the benefits of figuring out how
much sleep you really need: I like to get seven hours of sleep a night because thats what I need to stay
sharp and creative and upbeat. Its time to bite the bullet and start going to bed earlier until you find the
magic number that enables you to perform at your best.

7. Stop working

When you work in the evening, it puts you into a stimulated, alert state when you should be winding down
and relaxing in preparation for sleep. Recent surveys show that roughly 60% of people monitor their
smartphones for work emails until they go to sleep. Staying off blue light-emitting devices (discussed
above) after a certain time each evening is also a great way to avoid working so you can relax and prepare
for sleep, but any type of work before bed should be avoided if you want quality sleep.

8. Eliminate interruptions

Unfortunately for those with small children, the quality of your sleep does suffer when it is interrupted. The
key here is to eliminate all the interruptions that are under your control. If you have loud neighbors, wear
earplugs to bed. If your mother likes to call at all hours of the night, make certain you silence your ringer
before you go to bed. If you had to wake up extra early in the morning, make sure your alarm clock is back
on its regular time when you go to bed. Dont drink too much water in the evening to avoid a bathroom trip
in the middle of the night. If your partner snores . . . well, you get the idea. If you think hard enough, there
are lots of little things you can do to eliminate unnecessary interruptions to your sleep.

9. Learn to meditate

Many people who learn to meditate report that it improves the quality of their sleep and that they can get
the rest they need even if they arent able to significantly increase the number of hours they sleep. At the
Stanford Medical Center, insomniacs participated in a six-week mindfulness meditation and cognitive-
behavioral therapy course. At the end of the study, participants average time to fall asleep was cut in half
(from 40 to 20 minutes), and 60% of subjects no longer qualified as insomniacs. The subjects retained
these gains upon follow-up a full year later. A similar study at the University of Massachusetts Medical
School found that 91% of participants either reduced the amount of medication they needed to sleep or
stopped taking medication entirely after a mindfulness and sleep therapy course. Give mindfulness a try. At
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minimum, youll fall asleep faster, as it will teach you how to relax and quiet your mind once you hit the
pillow.

10. When all else fails: Take naps

One of the biggest peaks in melatonin production happens during the 1:00 to 3:00pm time frame, which
explains why most people feel sleepy in the afternoon. Companies like Google and Zappos are capitalizing
on this need by giving employees the opportunity to take short afternoon naps. If you arent getting enough
sleep at night, youre likely going to feel an overwhelming desire to sleep in the afternoon. When this
happens, youre better off taking a short nap (even as short as 15 minutes) than resorting to caffeine to
keep you awake. A short nap will give you the rest you need to get through the rest of the afternoon, and
youll sleep much better in the evening than if you drink caffeine or take a long afternoon nap.

I know many of you reading this piece are thinking something along the lines of but I know someone whos
always up at all hours of the night working or socializing, and hes the number one performer at our
branch. My answer for you is simple: This guy is underperforming. We all have innate abilities that we
must maximize to reach our full potential. My job is to help people do thatto help the good become great
by removing unseen performance barriers. Being number one in your branch is an accomplishment, but I
guarantee that this guy has his sights set on bigger things that he isnt achieving because sleep deprivation
has him performing at a fraction of his full potential. You should send him this article. It just might shake
something loose.

After all, the only thing worth catching up on at night is your sleep.

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UNUSUAL VALUE: What do software engineers who earn $500,000 a year do?

Its all about the guy with the purple bucket. (Amin Ariana)

WRITTEN BY

Amin Ariana

July 29, 2015

This question originally appeared on Quora: What kind of jobs do software engineers who earn $500k per
year do? Answer by Amin Ariana, Innovation Growth Engineer.

Disclosure: Im an ex-Googler. This answer does not represent the company.

The premise of the question is somewhat misguided in that there are no $500,000 guaranteed earnings
out there for engineers. Unusual pay is often a combination of salary and restricted stock units (RSU).

To explain what youd need to do to get there, let me offer an analogy:

If youre a worker in a village who supplies said village with water, you are valuable to its people. There are
two types of workers:

Type one worker

Grabs an empty bucket or two, goes to the sweet water lake, fills them up, comes back, and makes twenty
people happy. He gets to drink some of that water along the way, and once he gets back, takes some of
the water home.

Type two worker

Disregards how much of a fair share of water hes getting. Instead of grabbing a bucket, he grabs a
shovel and a little cup, and disappears for a while. Hes digging a stream from the lake towards the village.
Often he disappoints people for having returned from weeks of work with an empty cup. But the elders in
the village for some reason believe in him and want to keep him (and throw him a bone so that he doesnt
starve for a little while). Some day, he suddenly shows up with a constantly flowing stream of water behind
his back. He puts the type one workers out of the water delivery business. Theyll have to go find a different
activity and team to work with. The type two worker, depending on how much control they retained on that
stream, gets to own a good chunk of it. Because the village wants to acquire and integrate that stream, they
trade the ownership of that stream for equal-value ownership in the village itself, typically in the form of land
or such to the type two worker.

Let me now tell you a real story:

I was in Monterey Bay for New Years this year. I stood there with my wife, watching a young guy start to
dig a hole. My wife was enjoying the general vibe of the beach, where everyone was busy ignoring the guy.
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I pointed to him from the top of the observation spot and told my wife Watch. In 30 minutes, all these
people will be digging for this guy.

Thirty minutes later, he had managed to dig a tiny stream from his sandcastle/moat to the ocean. The water
had to come uphill from the ocean to fill his moat, so he was busy changing the slope of the stream to favor
the moat. Five minutes later, observing children started digging with him. Ten minutes later, a few grown-
ups started digging. Fifteen minutes later, the timid foreigners with cameras in hand started digging. In 60
minutes, one type two worker had managed to inspire 15 type one workers to complete a flowing stream of
water.

At the top of this post is a photo I took of the completed project, to forever commemorate my bet on the
power of an individual. The guy with the purple bucket is the founder of that stream, though you wouldnt
know it just by looking at the picture. Here it is again:Its all about the guy with the purple bucket. (Amin
Ariana)

The overlooked detail is that not all sweat creates equal value. The type two worker was willing to break
some rules, becoming an outcast and going hungry for an indeterminate period of time to create an
automated stream of wealth for the village. Worker one expects to get paid this value by performing
skills or tasks. The basis of this line of reasoning doesnt yield the desired results. The key difference is
risk-taking with no guarantees.

Arguably almost all of the pioneers of the village itself (in this case Google) were type two workers who held
their thirst for years before establishing the stream of billions of dollars. The folks making big RSUs either:

From the early days, were responsible for having created a major core value.

Created new value accidentally as a side project that turned out to be valuable.

Left the village to start another one

Somehow (unlikely) have monopolistic knowledge about a value stream.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

A number of people have indicated that they have a hard time putting this parable in the frame of their
reality. Some question the negotiation tactics needed by the employee to secure the level of equity that
would be appropriate to compensate for their contribution to a company. A recent concrete story sheds
more light:

In May 2009, a career type one worker applied for a job at Twitter. He was turned down. In Aug. 2009, he
applied for a job at Facebook. He was turned down again. He decided to set out on an adventure, and
picked up type two work, digging a stream of revenue from the Lake of Humanitys communication needs to
the Village of Incorporated Chatterboxesmanifested in the very two companies that had rejected his type
one services.

Along the way, when he and another friend were digging the stream, their inspired group grew to 55
individuals, and the elders of other villages threw them a few bones, $250,000 at first, then $8 million, and
eventually $50 million by Sequoia Capital once the stream was going to obviously be successful.

Three hours before the very moment that Im writing this, CNN announced that this type two workers
stream was purchased by Facebook for $19 billionthats billion with a B. (Editors Note: Facebook
purchased WhatsApp in February 2014.)

And Brian Acton, after five years of digging a revenue stream for Facebooks business, is now a capital
owner in Facebooka place where he originally applied for a job and got denied.
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His timestamped tweets from 2009 before he started digging:

Got denied by Twitter HQ. That's ok. Would have been a long commute.

Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking
forward to life's next adventure.

Do you think his 55 employees will need to negotiate for $500,000 salaries at Facebook?

Or do you think Facebook will force larger salaries and vesting capital upon them lest they decide to get the
heck out of the village as soon as their checks clear?

The type two worker does not compare or negotiate salary, because he is not selling a service to the village
(corporation). He is selling overlooked wealth. The village essentially has no choice but to compensate him
in accordance with the value of the wealth he brings to the table. The wealth in his hand can be traded to
make both sides of the deal better off. (Watch the uptick in Facebooks shares)

The question is not whether there will be a deal. Its whether this particular village is sitting at the other side
of the table when that deal happens. And when its water for the village, the extra zeroes following the
dollar sign are considered a negligible necessity.

You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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TO DOS AND TO DON'TS: How to make a to-do list that actually helps you get
everything done
Your to-do list doesn't actually contain everything you need to do.

WRITTEN BY

Jocelyn K. Glei

OBSESSION

The Office

September 26, 2016

A lot of people start their workday by making a to-do list. Depending on how realistic you are, there are
probably anywhere from three to 15 items on your list. If its three, you probably end your workday feeling
accomplished and energized. If you try to complete 15, you probably wrap up your day feeling stressed,
disorganized, and guilty.

This is because to-do lists have one key flaw: They very rarely encompass everything you have to do.
Whats missing are two other huge factors that dictate how you spend your time every day: the meetings on
your calendar, and the messages in your inbox. Both your calendar and your email also contain to-dos
that, like it or not, are probably going to eat up a lot of your time.

We behave as if we have one to-do listthe one we write downwhen we in fact actually have three to-do
lists. The problem emerges when we behave as if we have eight to 10 hours to deal with our written to-do
list, while ignoring the vast time commitments dictated by our calendars and email. If you are a busy, in-
demand person, you could easily have three to six hours blocked off for meetings, calls, and other
management tasks, and then youll spend another one to two hours inevitably reading and responding to
email.

Productivity isnt about being ambitiousits about being realistic. That means its very easy to create a to-
list that presumes eight hours of available work time when your actual availability looks more like two to
four hours a day. Youre constantly planning to be productive on borrowed timetrying to shoehorn your
most important tasks into time thats already spoken for.

To see just how far out of alignment you are, start by taking a look at what you have planned for today. Jot
down a to-do list as you normally wouldexcept add time estimates next to each task. Then take
everything on your calendar thats not already on the list (such as calls, brainstorming sessions, and
meetings) and add it with time allotted next to each task. Then guesstimate how much time you spend on
email per day, and write that down as your last to-do item with a time estimate. Finally, take stock of how
many items are now on your to-do list, and add up how much time you are planning to spend on those
tasks.

If youre anything like most people, your real to-do list will now look terrifying. Whats more, it will probably
require a 16-hour workday if you really wanted to tick everything off. Well, at least now you know why you
feel so unsatisfied and/or exhausted at the end of the day. But how to remedy the situation?

Its really quite simple: You need to bring all three of your to-do listsyour written list, your email list, and
your calendar listinto alignment with each other (and your priorities). Rather than having a calendar that
gives over six hours to meetings, an inbox that demands three hours of work, and a to-do list that presumes
four hours of free time, you instead integrate all three items to reflect what you want to accomplish and how
much time it will take.

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Step 1: Prepare for a calendar makeover.

Other people are always happy to invite you to meetings, schedule calls, and generally do whatever they
can to eat up all of your valuable time. If you let them do it unbridled, what youll end up with is a day
organized around other peoples priorities (and a few crappy little 15- to 30-minute increments in which you
can focus on the work you need to get done).

By contrast, if you book time for both your necessary admin work (such as email) and your necessary
meaningful work first, then everyone elseincluding youwill be forced to book those additional meetings
and calls around your most important work instead of in lieu of your most important work.

The only problem is your current calendar. It might already be crazy booked for at least the next few
weeks. If thats the case, look as far into the future as you have to and figure out when your schedule starts
to open up. Thats the week when you will begin to take back control of your calendar.

Step 2: Make room for meaningful work.

One of the reasons that so many of the tasks on our to-do lists end up woefully undone is because
we have to go to meetings, and we have to do email; they create their own urgency. But if you want to
make sure that you regularly accomplish meaningful workthe type of work that helps you advance your
career, push forward important projects, or expand your skill setyou have to make time for it. (Productivity
guru Stephen Covey calls this putting the big rocks in first.)

Now that youve identified a start week when you have some wiggle room in your schedule, go ahead and
block off time on your calendar for one or two 45- to 90-minute sessions per day for meaningful work. This
is when you will work on those to-do list items that you really want to do, but never find the time for:
creating that presentation that will blow away your boss, writing the conference talk that will get you
noticed, or just pushing forward key tasks that often get neglected, like sending invoices or updating your
website.

Step 3: Timebox your email.

You might hate email, but its a necessary evil and youre going to spend a good portion of your day dealing
with it, so just put it on the damn calendar. Id recommend putting two to three email focus blocks of 30 to
45 minutes on your calendar. Commit to checking your email during those time periods, and not checking it
otherwise. If you tend to nibble on your email throughout the day rather than at designated times, consider
making a change. Research has proven that people who check their email in batches are more
productive, happier, and less stressed.

***

Now that youve made time for everything on your calendar, you will be in true to-do alignment and
prepared to execute like a pro. To keep yourself honest, I recommend making a practice of always adding
everything thats on your calendar to your daily to-do list so that youll immediately notice when, and if, you
slip out of alignment and the tasks start to pile up again.

Productivity isnt about being ambitiousits about being realistic. And the more clear-eyed you can be
about how you plan your daily calendar, the better off youll be.

You can follow Jocelyn on Twitter at @jkglei and subscribe to her productivity newsletter here. We
welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

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CONFIDENCE MAN: Bruce Lee achieved all his life goals by his death at age
32 because of one personality trait

Bruce had vision. (Reuters/Aaron Tam)

SHARE

WRITTEN BY

Charles Chu Contributor, Better Humans

March 16, 2017

In 1969, nobody expected a thin Asian man with a high pitched voice to become one of the most influential
characters of the 20th century.

Nobody knew, that is, except Bruce Lee.

That year, Bruce Lee wrote a letter to himself:

My Definite Chief Aim

I, Bruce Lee, will be the first highest paid Oriental super star in the United States. In return I will give the
most exciting performances and render the best of quality in the capacity of an actor. Starting 1970 I will
achieve world fame and from then onward till the end of 1980 I will have in my possession $10,000,000. I
will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and happiness.

Bruce Lee
Jan. 1969

Four years later, he was dead.

But in those four years, Bruce achieved everything he said he would and more. At 32 years of age, he had
already changed the fate of film and martial arts forever.

Bruces letter is overflowing with confidence. But where did this confidence come from? We may never
know the whole answer, but Bruces writingscollected in books like Letters of the Dragon and Striking
Thoughtsgive us a clue.

In particular, lets take a look at a letter written by Bruce Lee over a decade before his death, when he was
still a 21-year-old student at the University of Washington.

As you read, try to hold an image in your mind of letter from a typical 21-year-old

***

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Dear Pearl,

This letter is hard to understand. It contains my dreams and my ways of thinking, as a whole, you can call it
my way of life. It will be rather confusing as it is difficult to write down exactly how I feel. Yet I want to write
and let you know about it. Ill do my best to write it clearly and I hope that you, too, will keep an open mind
in this letter, and dont arrive at any conclusions till you are finished.

There are two ways of making a good living, one is the result of hard working, and the other, the result of
the imagination (requires work, too, of course). It is a fact that labor and thrift produce a competence, but
fortune, in the sense of wealth, is the reward of the man who can think of something that hasnt been
thought of before. In every industry, in every profession, ideas are what America is looking for. Ideas have
made America what she is, and one good idea will make a man what he wants to be.

One part of my life is gung fu. This art influences me greatly in the formation of my character and ideas. I
practice gung fu as a physical culture, a form of mental training, a method of self-defense, and a way of life.
Gung fu is the best of all martial art; yet the Chinese derivatives of judo and karate, which are only basics of
gung fu, are flourishing all over the US. This so happens because no one has heard of this supreme art;
also there are no competent instructorsI believe my long years of practice back up my title to become the
first instructor of this movement. There are yet long years ahead of me to polish my techniques and
character. My aim, therefore, is to establish a first Gung Fu Institute that will later spread out all over the US
(I have set up a time limit of 10 to 15 years to complete the whole project). My reason in doing this is not
the sole objective of making money. The motives are many and among them are: I like to let the world
know about the greatness of this Chinese art; I enjoy teaching and helping people; I like to have a well-to-
do home for my family; I like to originate something; and the last but yet one of the important is because
gung fu is part of myself.

I know my idea is right, and therefore the results would be satisfactory. I dont really worry about the
reward, but to set in motion the machinery to achieve it. My contribution will be the measure of my reward
and success.

Before he passed away, some asked the late Dr Charles P. Steimetz, the electrical genius, in his opinion
What branch of science would make the most progress in the next twenty-five years? He paused and
thought for several minutes then like a flash replied, spiritual realization. When a man comes to a
conscious vital realization of those great spiritual forces within himself and begins to use those forces in
science, in business and in life, his progress in the future will be unparalleled.

I feel I have this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition,
greater than confidence, greater than determination, greater than vision. It is all these combined. My brain
becomes magnetized with this domination force which I hold in my hand.

When you drop a pebble into a pool of water, the pebble starts a series of ripples that expand until they
encompass the whole pool. This is exactly what will happen when I give my ideas a definite plan of action.
Right now, I can project my thoughts into the future, I can see ahead of me. I dream (remember that
practical dreamers never quit). I may now own nothing but a little place down in basement, but once my
imagination has got up to a full head of steam, I can see painted on a canvas of my mind a picture of a fine,
big five or six story Gung Fu Institute with branches all over the States. I am not easily discouraged, readily
visualize myself as overcoming obstacles, winning out over setbacks, achieving impossible objectives.

Whether it is the God-head or not, I feel this great force, this unstopped power, this dynamic something
within me. This feeling defies description, and [there is] no experience with which this feeling may be
compared. It is something like a strong emotion mixed with faith, but a lot stronger.

All in all, the goal of my planning and doing is to find the true meaning in lifepeace of mind. I know that
the sum of all the possessions I mentioned does not necessarily add up to peace of mind; however, it can
14
be if I devote [my energy] to real accomplishment of self rather than neurotic combat. In order to achieve
this peace of mind, the teaching of detachment of Taoism and Zen proved to be valuable.

Probably, people will say Im too conscious of success. Well, I am not. You see, my will to do springs from
the knowledge that I CAN DO. Im only being natural, for there is no fear or doubt inside my mind.

Pearl, success comes to those who become success-conscious. If you dont aim at an object, how the heck
on earth do you think you can get it?

Warm regards,
Bruce

***

Wow. Theres a lot to highlight here, but heres what stood out the most to me:

Absolute confidence

The most important personality trait in Bruces arsenal was confidence. Bruce had absolute confidence in
himself, free from all fear or doubt. This was not innate, but developed through years of mental and
physical training.

Reward through contribution

Becoming a millionaire is the side effect of helping a million people. Your salary or influence is not an end in
itself, but an (imperfect) measure of your contribution to the world.

Intense purpose

Bruce called it spiritual force, but I prefer the word purpose. A lot of people spend their whole lives
chasing the what and then worry about the why later. Instead, study the why first (Bruce, for instance,
studied philosophy in college) and everything else becomes easy.

You always hear people say that your belief defines the limits of your possibility, but talk is cheap. Bruce
Lee is one of the few that lived his life walking the walk:

If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into
your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond
them.

The above letter came from Letters of the Dragon, a collection of Bruce Lees letters filled with practical
wisdom, philosophical musings, and beautiful sketches of martial arts techniques. This post originally
appeared at Better Humans.

15
FEAR NOT: The optimists guide to the robot apocalypse

Maybe automation technology won't destroy the world. (AP Photo/John Locher)

WRITTEN BY Sarah Kessler@sarahfkessler

OBSESSION Machines with Brains

March 09, 2017

Machines, you may have heard, are coming for all the jobs.

Robots flip burgers and work warehouses. Artificial intelligence handles insurance claims and basic
bookkeeping, manages investment portfolios, does legal research, and performs basic HR tasks. Human
labor doesnt stand a chance against themafter the automation apocalypse, only those with spectacular
abilities and the owners of the robots will thrive.

Or at least, thats one plausible and completely valid theory. But before you start campaigning for
a universal basic income and set up a bunker, you might want to also familiarize yourself with the
competing theory: In the long run, were going to be just fine.

Weve been here before

Our modern fear that robots will steal all the jobs fits a classic script. Nearly 500 years ago, Queen
Elizabeth I cited the same fear when she denied an English inventor named William Lee a patent for an
automated knitting contraption. I have too much regard for the poor women and unprotected young
maidens who obtain their daily bread by knitting to forward an invention which, by depriving them of
employment, would reduce them to starvation, she told Lee, according to one account of the incident. The
lack of patent didnt ultimately stop factories from adopting the machine.

Two hundred years later, Lees invention, still being vilified as a jobs killer, was among the machines
destroyed by protestors during the Luddite movement in Britain. More than 100 hundred years after that,
though computers had replaced knitting machines as the latest threat to jobs, the fear of technologys
impact on employment was the same. A group of high-profile economists warned President Lyndon
Johnson of a cybernation revolution that would result in massive unemployment. Johnsons labor
secretary had recently commented that new machines had skills equivalent to a high school diploma
(though then, and now, machines have trouble doing simple things like recognizing objects in photos or
packing a box), and the economists were worried that machines would soon take over service industry
jobs. Their recommendation: a universal basic income, in which the government pays everyone a low
salary to put a floor on poverty.

Todays version of this scenario isnt much different. This time, were warned of the Rise of Robots and
the End of Work. Thought leaders such as Elon Musk have once again turned to a universal basic income
as a possible response.
16
But widespread unemployment due to technology has never materialized before. Why, argue the optimists,
should this time be any different?

Automating a job can result in more of those jobs

Though Queen Elizabeth I had feared for jobs when she denied Lees patent, weaving technology ended
up creating more jobs for weavers. By the end of the 19th century, there were four times as many factory
weavers as there had been in 1830, according James Bessen, the author of Learning by Doing: The Real
Connection between Innovation, Wages, and Wealth.

Each human could make more than 20 times the amount of cloth that she could have 100 years earlier. So
how could more textile workers be needed?

According to the optimists viewpoint, a factory that saves money on labor through automation will either:

Lower prices, which makes its products more appealing and creates an increased demand that may lead to
the need for more workers.

Generate more profit or pay higher wages. That may lead to increased investment or increased
consumption, which can also lead to more production, and thus, more employment.

Amazon offers a more modern example of this phenomena. The company has over the last three years
increased the number of robots working in its warehouses from 1,400 to 45,000. Over the same period, the
rate at which it hires workers hasnt changed.

The optimists take on this trend is that robots help Amazon keep prices low, which means people buy more
stuff, which means the company needs more people to man its warehouses even though it needs fewer
human hours of labor per package. Bruce Welty, the founder of a fulfillment company that ships more than
$1 billion of ecommerce orders each year and another company called Locus Robotics that sells
warehouse robots, says he thinks the threat to jobs from the latter is overblownespecially as the rise of
ecommerce creates more demand for warehouse workers. His fulfillment company has 200 job openings at
its warehouse.

A handful of modern studies have noted that theres often a positive relationship between new technology
and increasing employmentin manufacturing firms, across all sectors, and specifically in firms that
adopted computers.

How automation impacts wages is a separate question. Warehouse jobs, for instance, have a reputation as
grueling and low-paying. Will automation make them better or worse? In the case of the loom workers,
wages went up when parts of their jobs became automated. According to Bessen, by the end of the 19th
century, weavers at the famous Lowell factory earned more than twice what they earned per hour in 1830.
Thats because a labor market had built up around the new skill (working the machines) and employers
competed for skilled labor.

That, of course, is not the only option, but it is an outcome embraced by the optimist crowd. Similarly
positive results of automation: If companies can make more money with the same number of workers, they
can theoretically pay those workers better. If the price of goods drops, those workers can buy more without
a raise.

As automation kills some jobs, it creates others

As the Industrial Revolution ended, about half of American workers were still employed in agriculture jobs,
and almost all of those jobs were about to be lost to machines.

17
If nothing else had changed, the decrease in agriculture jobs could have led to a largely unemployed
society. But thats not what happened. Instead, as agricultural employment dwindled to less than 2% of
American workers, jobs in other sectors grew during the same period. They involved working in factories,
yes, but also working with computers, flying airplanes, and driving cargo across the countryoccupations
that werent feasible in 1900.

Todays optimists believe that the latest automation technologies will create new jobs as well.

What kind of jobs, they really cant say (this is where the optimism comes in handy). About a third of new
jobs created in the United States over the past 25 years didnt exist (or just barely existed) at the beginning
of that period, and predicting what jobs might be created in the next 25 years is just guessing. In a report on
artificial intelligence and the economy, the Obama White House suggested that automation might create
jobs in supervising AI, repairing and maintaining new systems, and in reshaping infrastructure for
developments like self-driving cars. But, the reports authors note, Predicting future job growth is extremely
difficult, as it depends on technologies that do not exist today.

Automation doesnt necessarily make humans obsolete

In 2013, researchers at Oxford sparked fear of the robot revolution when they estimated that almost half of
US occupations were likely to be automated. But three years later, McKinsey arrived at a very different
number. After analyzing 830 occupations, it concluded that just 5% of them could be completely automated.

The two studies obviously counted differently. The Oxford researchers assessed the probability that
occupations would be fully automated within a decade or two. But automation is more likely to replace part
of a job than an entire job. When Amazon installs warehouse robots, they currently dont replace full
workers, but rather, the part of the job that involves fetching products from different shelves. Similarly, when
my colleague used artificial intelligence to transcribe an interview, we didnt fire him; he just worked on the
other parts of his job. McKinseys researchers model didnt attempt to sort jobs into replaceable and not
replaceable, but rather to place them on a spectrum of automation potential.

Almost every occupation that McKinsey looked at had some aspect that could be automated. Even 25% of
tasks inside of a CEO job, the analysis found, could be automated. But very few jobs could
be entirely automated.

McKinseys conclusion was not that machines will take all of these jobs, but rather, more occupations will
change than will be automated away. Our CEO, for example, wont spend time analyzing reports if artificial
intelligence can draw conclusions more efficiently, so he can spend more time coaching his team.

This part of the optimists theory argues that if humans arent bogged down by routine tasks, they will find
something better to do. The weavers will learn the new job of operating the machines. My coworker will
write more articles because hes not transcribing interviews. The warehouse workers will each pack more
boxes because theyre not running between shelves collecting each item to be packed.

Any time in history weve seen automation occur, people dont all of the sudden stop being creative and
wanting to do interesting new things, says Aaron Levie, the CEO of enterprise software company Box and
an automation optimist. We just dont do a lot of the redundant, obsolete work. He points to potential
examples like automatically scheduled calendar appointments or automated research services. Why wont
we make up that time with doing the next set of activities that we would have been doing? he says. What I
think it does is make the world move faster.

What might that look like? Sodexos CEO of corporate services, Sylvia Metayer, offers one example. She
says the outsourcing companys building maintenance crew has started using drones to survey roofs for
maintenance needs in three locations. Before the drones arrived, a human climbed onto the roof to check
things out. Now, that human stays on the ground, which is safer. The service hasnt changed, the clients
18
still need someone to help maintain the roof, she says. If we do it with drones, the people who would have
been going up on the roof have more value, talking with clients about what needs to be done.

Examples also exist in back office automation. From what weve actually seen on the ground, in real
business operations, weve seen almost zero job loss, says Alastair Bathgate, CEO of Blue Prism, a
software company that helps automate tasks within customer service, accounting, and other jobs. One of
his clients, a bank, trained the automation software to react when a customer overdrew an account by
checking to see if there were a balance in another account that could be transferred to cover it. This was a
process that had never been done by humans, because it would be too tedious and expensive. Another
bank used the software to allow customer service representatives to direct customers who had a credit card
stolen to an automated system that would input their information and close the account. What do they do
now? It allows them to take another call, Bathgate says. On-hold time, not head count, went down.

We may need automation

As the birthrate in many countries declines, the share of the working age population will shrink. To maintain
todays GDP, those workers will each need to be more productive than workers today, and theyll need to
improve at a faster rate than they have in the past. Even if productivity continued to improve at the same
rate that it has throughout the last 50 yearswithin which the computer and the internet both became
mainstream toolsit wouldnt be enough of an improvement to sustain GDP. Automation technology could
be the answer. According to a McKinsey analysis, it could raise global productivity by as much as 0.8% to
1.4% annuallybut only if humans keep working, as well.

Being an automation optimist doesnt mean ignoring jobs lost to automation

The Industrial Revolution eventually led to an unprecedented high standard of living for ordinary workers.

But this prosperity didnt immediately materialize. There was a period in which life inside of factories was
miserable for the laboring class. It included paltry wages, terrible working conditions, and child labor.

Today, during what the World Economic Forum has dubbed the fourth industrial revolution, even optimists
expect short-term labor displacement, wage depression, and, for some workers, pain. To take just one
sector, the Obama White House estimated that nearly 3.1 million people could lose their job to the
autonomous car. New jobs in other sectors could be created as these jobs disappear, but the people who
are losing driving jobs wont necessarily have the skills to fill the new ones. This is a big deal.

What separates the optimists from the pessimists is that they tend to believe that the economy as a whole
will recover from this short-term adjustment period.

Pessimists argue that not everyone will benefit from this industrial revolution in the same way that the
standard of living for ordinary workers rose after the last industrial revolution. Over the last two decades,
most gains in productivity have gone to the owners of businesses rather than people who work for
them. Global inequality has for the last several decades soared.

But theres a lot of stuff going on outside of technological developments, argue the automation optimists,
like the decline of unions, weakening of labor laws, tax laws that benefit rich people, and education policies
that havent adapted to a changing worldthese are policy problems, and we should fix them rather than
blaming technology.

There is, however, one point that cannot be easily brushed aside. Pessimists point to the pace of
innovation as a reason that, this time, advances in technology will impact jobs more brutally than they have
in the past. In the past, when you had disruption, the economy adjusted and jobs were created elsewhere,
says Ethan Pollack, an economist at the Aspen Institute who says he wavers between optimism and

19
pessimism on automation. What happens if [in the near future], each period of disruption comes so quickly,
that it never recovers?

So who is right?

There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk
recently mused at the World Government Summit in Dubai, before suggesting that a universal basic income
would be necessary. But even as he talked of the threat to jobs, he also spoke of positive impacts of
automation technology. With automation, there will come abundance, he said. Almost everything will get
very cheap.

The optimism camp tends to have similarly mixed feelings about automations impact. AI can seem
dystopian, tweeted Box CEO Levie, because its easier to describe existing jobs disappearing than to
imagine industries that never existed appearing. He doesnt deny that automated technology will make
some labor obsoletehe just focuses on the long-term, big-picture opportunity for potential benefits.

Both sides generally agree that there should be measures in place to reduce the impact of labor
displacement from automation, like education programs for re-skilling workers who will lose their jobs. One
side just tends to have a more darker view of what happens after that.

So which side is right? If history is any guide, both.

In the 1930s, economist John Maynard Keynes famously coined the term technological unemployment.
Less famous is the argument he was making at the time. His case wasnt that impending technology
doomed society to prolonged massive unemployment, but rather that a reaction to new technology should
neither assume the end of the world or refuse to recognize that world had changed. From his
essay, Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren:

The prevailing world depression, the enormous anomaly of unemployment in a world full of wants, the
disastrous mistakes we have made, blind us to what is going on under the surface to the true interpretation,
of the trend of things. For I predict that both of the two opposed errors of pessimism which now make so
much noise in the world will be proved wrong in our own time-the pessimism of the revolutionaries who
think that things are so bad that nothing can save us but violent change, and the pessimism of the
reactionaries who consider the balance of our economic and social life so precarious that we must risk no
experiments.

The Obama White House, in a report about how automation may impact jobs, recommended responding to
automation by investing in education; creating training programs for workers, like drivers, who will be
displaced by automation technology; and strengthening the social safety net. Bill Gates has suggested that
we tax robots productivity similar to how we tax humans income in order to finance retraining programs
and jobs for which humans are well-suited, like care-taking. Others have suggested wage subsidies and
direct government employment programs. These proposed solutions are not so dissimilar to those provided
to President Johnson in 1964, which included a massive program to build up our educational system and
a major revision of our tax structure.

Even so, little progress has been made since then in making the US more resilient to job displacement
caused by automation. The cost of college education has never been higher. As a society, the US has not
shown a commitment in building effective, equal-opportunity re-skilling programs. Inequality continues to
increase. And the Trump Administration has so far focused on preventing companies from hiring people
into manufacturing jobs overseas rather than preparing the economy for the impact of automation. This is
an insufficient approach.

As MITs Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee put it more recently than Keynes in their 2014 book about
automations economic impact, The Second Machine Age: Our generation has inherited more
20
opportunities to transform the world than any other. Thats a cause for optimism, but only if were mindful of
our choices.

21
CHOKED UP: The brain surgeons memoir that Bill Gates says is worth crying
over

Tears, earned. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

SHARE

WRITTEN BY

Thu-Huong Ha

March 09, 2017

Bill Gates is scrutinized for his investment decisions, reading habits, and tech predictions. One thing we
dont know too much about is what makes his heart flutter, or his eyes well up.

His book review for the bestselling When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi gives a glimpse of his soft
side. On March 7, Gates published a blog post about the posthumous memoir, titled This Book Left Me in
Tears.

Im usually not one for tear-jerkers about death and dyingI didnt love The Last Lecture or Tuesdays with
Morrie, writes the philanthropist and Microsoft cofounder. But this book definitely earned my admiration
and tears.

Kalanithi was a promising neurosurgery resident in his late 30s when he was diagnosed with stage-IV lung
cancer. He was also becoming a new father. Kalanithi died while working on his book about life, death, and
medicine. Published early last year, it has spent 53 weeks on The New York Times bestsellers list.

In a passage about learning how doctors can be left to decide when to withdraw treatment for dying
patients, he writes:

The twilight existence of unconscious metabolism becomes an unbearable burden, usually left to an
institution, where the family, unable to attain closure, visits with increasing rarity, until the inevitable fatal
bedsore or pneumonia sets in. Some insist on this life and embrace its possibility, eyes open. But many do
not, or cannot, and the neurosurgeon must learn to adjudicate.

Gates is a compulsive reader, and his favorite books tend to be about science, tech, and business. He
posts less frequently about feeling or fiction, which makes this post stand out.

I was super touched by it, as was Melinda and our daughter Jennifer, writes Gates of the memoir. In fact,
I can say this is the best nonfiction story Ive read in a long time.

22
Here are Google, Amazon, and Facebooks secrets to hiring the best people
They have no idea what's coming. (Sarah Cooper)

WRITTEN BY Sarah Cooper

OBSESSION The Office

May 03, 2016

Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Google, Amazon.

These top tech companies each receive over a quadrillion
resumes per year (source needed). So its safe to say
they have a good process for choosing the best job candidates. But what is it?

No, its not that list of popular Google interview questions you Googled on Google. In fact, their finely tuned
hiring process goes way beyond rudimentary queries on algorithms and quantum physics.

If you, too, want to hire the worlds best top tech talent, try one of these secret hiring strategies.

1. Begin phone screens 15 minutes early, 15 minutes late, or not at all

WHY?

To find people who are always ready for the job

Anyone can answer a series of probing questions when you

call them at the expected time. But what happens if you call
them when theyre still sleeping, in Zumba class, or on the
toilet? This is how the top tech companies find people who are
ready for the job at any moment.

2. Make the interview schedule as confusing and unpredictable

as possible

WHY?

To find people who dont need instructions

Make sure that neither the interviewers or interviewees have

any idea whats going to happen during the interview. This is a
great indicator of who will perform best when no one has any
clue whats going on.

3. Make sure something goes wrong during the presentation

WHY?

To see how the candidate adjusts to less-than-ideal

circumstances

Purposely set up the candidates presentation in a room where

the equipment doesnt work, which is probably any room. If the
candidate is able to roll with it and doesnt mind adjusting, then
thats a good sign shed be easy to work with. Bonus points are
given for candidates who have a Plan B, Plan C and Plan D, which comes in very handy in the tech world.

23
 4. During the interview, make a ton of incorrect assumptions

WHY?

To weed out candidates who are easily annoyed

If the candidates last job was at Twitter, say, How long were
you at Yahoo!? Take note of the candidates tone when he
corrects you. Is he a jerk about it or does he stay cool? This is
how tech companies find out what a candidate would be like to
work with when the shit inevitably hits the fan.

5. Ask the candidate to solve your own, specific problems

WHY?

Because you really need help with this problem

Tech companies often have candidates solve real

problems they are currently facing. This is a good way to
get some free help with those problems.

6. Have the interview frequently move between

different rooms

WHY?

To find people who are still excited, even when

theyre uncomfortable

Never let your job applicants get comfortable

during the interview. This is how you find people
who are uncomfortably excited and also get
around the fact that no conference rooms were available for the entire day.

7. Ask the same questions over and over and over again

WHY?

To test consistency

In the tech world, predictability is a good thing. During

the interview, dont worry about asking the same
question over and over again because you keep
blanking out. This is a great tool for testing the
candidates consistency. Candidates should only be
wildly inconsistent with their answers when interviewing
for senior roles.

24
 8. Conduct dual interviews with a good cop / bad cop
vibe

WHY?

To find people who can multi-task under pressure

Put the candidate in the middle of a conference room

with interviewers at both ends of the table. Is the
candidate able to simultaneously direct her attention to
both interviewers while sufficiently answering each
question at the same time? Or is she clearly
exhausted and wondering why she even agreed to this
interview? This is a great indicator of how the candidate will perform during a crunch.

9. Ask a question, then start typing very loudly

WHY?

To find people who remain focused despite distractions

Ask the candidate a question. Then, as soon as he

starts to answer, start typing loudly. Apologize and say
youre listening, just taking notes. You could be taking
notes, or you could be writing an email to your
estranged father, doesnt matter. See if the candidate
can remain focused on the question or if he gets lost.
This will help you find candidates who dont let tiny
distractions get in the way of finishing the job.

10. Three months later, call and offer the candidate a job she didnt apply for

WHY?

To find people who are determined

This is a great way to weed out people who

obviously didnt really want the job in the first place.
Does the candidate fight for the job he wanted? Does
he take the offer because he thinks its the best he
can get? Or does he turn it down because he already
found another job months ago? This tactic is a good
way to suss that out.

Sarah Cooper is a writer, comedian and creator

of TheCooperReview.com. Her first book, 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings comes out October
4th. Sign up for her free email to get updates. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

25
DO NOT DISTURB: Theres one big reason that Ive never had a cellphone and
Im never going to get one
Philip Reed Associate professor, Canisius College

"A cellphone-free life not only helps to liberate the mind, but also the body." (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

It is mildly subversive and perhaps a little quaint when someone clings to their flip phone and refuses a
smartphone. Refusing both kinds of phones is viewed as downright lunacy, especially if the person refusing
was born after the mid-1970s. But Ive never had a cellphone and Im not going to get one. I have several
reasons, and they are good ones.

The first is cost. No cellphone means no monthly bill, no possibility for an upgrade, no taxes, and no
roaming charges (whatever those are). In an era of stagnant wages and growing income inequality, it is
remarkable that people unthinkingly spend $75 or more per month on something that we hardly knew
existed 15 years ago, much less counted as a necessity.

The second is concern for the environment. The manufacture of mobile phones (including raw material
acquisition), the power they consume, and the energy used to transmit calls and access the internet all
produce significant carbon dioxide emissions. The idea that cellphones are good only for a couple of years
is widespread, increasing the number of phones that end up in landfills and leak toxic heavy metals such as
copper and lead into the soil and groundwater.

The decisive reason, however, for me to refuse a cellphone is the opposite of everyone elses reason for
having one: I do not want the omnipresent ability to communicate with anyone who is absent. Cellphones
put their users constantly on call, constantly available, and as much as that can be liberating or convenient,
it can also be an overwhelming burden. The burden comes in the form of feeling an obligation to individuals
and events that are physically elsewhere. Anyone who has checked their phone during a face-to-face
conversation understands the temptation. And anyone who has been talking to someone who has checked
their phone understands what is wrong with it.

Communicating with someone who is not physically present is alienating, forcing the mind to separate from
the body. We see this, for example, in the well-known and ubiquitous dangers of texting while driving, but
also in more mundane experiences: friends or lovers ignoring each others presence in favor of their
Facebook feeds; people broadcasting their entertainment, their meals, and their passing thoughts to all who
will bear witness; parents capturing their daughters ballet performance on their phones rather than
watching it live; people walking down the street talking animatedly to themselves who turn out to be
apparently healthy people using their Bluetooth.

The cellphone intrudes into the public and private realms, preventing holistic engagement with what is
around us. Smartphones only perfect their predecessors ability to intrude.

The disembodying and intrusive effects of cellphones have significant implications for our relationships to
the self and to others. Truly knowing and understanding others requires patience, risk, empathy, and
26
affection, all of which are inhibited by cell phones. Cellphones also inhibit solitude, self-reflection, and
rumination (formerly known as waiting and boredom), which I think are essential for living a good life.

Long before cellphones, human beings were good at diverting themselves from disciplined attention. The
sole cause of mans unhappiness, observed the French philosopher Blaise Pascal in the 17th century, is
that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room. This propensity for diversion was notably confirmed
in a recent studywhere subjects preferred to give themselves electric shocks rather than occupy
themselves with their own thoughts for 15 minutes.

Pascal believed that the height of human dignity is thought, and that the order of thought begins with
oneself, ones creator, and ones end. He linked this kind of thought inextricably to genuine rest and
happiness. Avoiding a cellphone allows, for me, space for thinking and so enables a richer, more fulfilling
way of life. With fewer tasks to perform and preferences to satisfy, life slows to a pace compatible with
contemplation and gratitude.

A cellphone-free life not only helps to liberate the mind, but also the body. The ancient Greek philosopher
Anaxagoras presents a different view of human nature from Pascal: It is by having hands that man is the
most intelligent of animals. We can be pretty sure that Anaxagoras was not anticipating the advent of
smartphones. On the contrary, refusing a cellphone enables one to use ones hands to carry out
meaningful activities (playing the piano, gardening, reading a book) in such a way that one is fully absorbed
in those activities, so that they reach their height of meaning.

Without a mobile phone, it is easier to concentrate on what is in front of me: my spouse and children, my
work, making dinner, going for a walk. I try to choose my activities thoughtfully, so when I do something, I
dont want to be somewhere else. What cellphone users call multitasking does not interest or impress me.

Of course, its true that cellphones can be used responsibly. We can shut them off or simply ignore the
incoming text. But this takes extraordinary willpower. According to a recent Pew survey, 82% of Americans
believe that cellphone use in social situations more often hurts than helps conversation, yet 89% of cell
owners still use their phones in those situations. Refusing a cellphone guarantees that I wont use it when I
shouldnt.

Some people will insist that if Im going to refuse a cellphone, I should also refuse a regular telephone. It is
true that using a landline introduces similar disembodying, mediated experiences as to mobile phones. But
there have always been natural and physical limits placed on the use of a regular phone, which is clear
from the name landline. The cellphones mobility introduces a radical form of communication by making its
alienating effects pervasive. I want to protect what unmediated experiences I have left.

The original meaning of connect indicated a physical relationshipa binding or fastening together. We
apply this word to our cellphone communications now only as metaphor. The connections are ethereal;
our words and thoughts reach the upper regions of space next to the cell tower only to remain there, as our
devices disconnect us from those with whom we share space. Even though we have two hands, Im
convinced that you cant hold a cellphone and someone elses hand at the same time.

This article originally appeared at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons. Learn how
to write for Quartz Ideas. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

27
FREE ADVICE: The practical, unsexy steps it takes to actually become a
millionaire

Save some. (Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus)

You think the titles a bit much, huh? Dont blame meblame Thomas J. Stanley.

Whos that you ask? Thomas was a writer who spent 20 years studying American millionaires and patterns
in their habits. The result of all his research was the bestselling book, The Millionaire Next Door.

If you dont have time to read the whole thing, youre in luck! This post is for you. I tried to condense the
books ideas into five rules.

Rule #1: Think long term

If you study Warren Buffett youll find out hes someone whos in it for the loooong term. Harnessing the
power of compound interest and picking amazing businesses, Warren is today the third richest man in the
world.

But none of it was overnight. Heres a basic overview of his net-worthover the years:

$20,000 by age 20

$1 million by age 30

$25 million by age 40

$35o million by age 50

$3.8 billion by age 60

$36 billion by age 70

$55 billion by age 80

Todays hes 86 years old and worth $73 billion

Now, it takes a lot of factors aligning perfectly to get anywhere near that level. And even if you nor I dont
have access to all of them, we domost certainly have access to some of them! In this case, Im talking
about patience and thinking long-term.

Most experts on wealth agree that the earlier one starts investing ones income, the greater the opportunity
to accumulate wealth.

Thomas J. Stanley

28
By the way, long-term thinking doesnt apply only to your savings. It also applies to your expenses. You
shouldnt think of your $100 phone plan as just $100 a month. Instead, you see it as stealing $1,200 from
you every year and $17,300 from you every decade.

This is an outrage! As we learned before, having $17,300 extra dollars can remove years from your working
life.

From now on, to calculate any expense long-term, use these two formulas (borrowed from this post):

To calculate a weekly expense compounded over ten years, multiply the price by 752.

For a monthly expense, multiply by 173.

This will help you with silly spending. Think your daily $5 Frappuccino is harmless? Well if you drink it five
days a week, thats $25/week. Which means youre stealing $18,800 from your future self and giving it all to
Starbucks!

So from now on, you wont think about savings or expenses just in terms of this week or this month, but in
terms of the next 10 years.

Your goal is to sacrifice high consumption today for financial independence tomorrow. Think long-term.

Rule #2: Live well below your means

Twenty years ago we began studying how people became wealthy. Initially, we did it just as you might
imagine, by surveying people in so-called upscale neighborhoods across the country. In time, we
discovered something odd. Many people who live in expensive homes and drive luxury cars do not actually
have much wealth. Then we discovered something even odder: Many people who have a great deal of
wealth do not even live in upscale neighborhoods.

Thomas J. Stanley

This might be the most important rule of all.

Frugality is probably the number one thing most wealthy people have in common. Especially before they
became rich.

One thing Thomas noticed is that a lot of millionaires live on something like 10% of their income.

Everything they own, their house, their cars, even boat, doesnt surpass 10%.

You can apply this thinking too! Its all relative to your income at any given moment. Doing any differently
means you care too much about how you lookwhich brings us to our next point.

Rule #3: Know that financial independence is more important than displaying status

If Instagram is any indication, this is probably where most people struggle.

Did you know that people spend money they dont have just to look good in front of other people? One of
my biggest pet peeves is the concept of credit, but thats for another day.

For now, lets take the insane concept of leasing. If you lease a car, this clearly means you cannot afford it.
The silliest statistic is that 45% of people with fancy cars are leasing. Most people you see driving
unnecessarily fancy cars cannot even afford them!

But the lavish lifestyle sells TV time and newspapers. All too often young people are indoctrinated with the
belief that those who have money spend lavishly and if you dont show it, you dont have it.
29
Thomas J. Stanley

Firstly, you now know that really wealthy people are frugal. Especially before they become rich.

Secondly, know that advertisers spend millions of dollars hiring psychology experts just to make you think
you want to buy something you dont need.

And it works!

Ill try to break this spell. From now on, whenever you think about buying something you dont really need, I
want you to think of Kanye West.

Why Kanye West? Heres why:

Kanye in 2012:

Break records at Louis, ate breakfast at Gucci

[]

You know, white people get money, dont spend it

Or maybe they get money, buy a business
Id rather buy 80 gold chains and go ignant!

Kanye four years later:

I write this to you my brothers while still 53 million dollars in personal debt... Please pray we overcome...
This is my true heart...

Stop trying to appear wealthy. Its much better to become wealthy instead.

Rule #4: Allocate your time, energy, and money toward building wealth

On average, millionaires spend significantly more hours per month studying and planning their future
investment decisions, as well as managing their current investments, than high-income nonmillionaires.

Thomas J. Stanley

This is pretty self-explanatory: Building wealth is the result of studying wealth and applying those principles.

This reminds me when Lewis Howes asked Daymond John (from Shark Tank) what three
things Daymonds billionaire friends have in common. Out of his three answers, my favorite was:

They [Billionaires] write down everything. [] They physically write down everything. I remember one of
them said to me the dullest pencil will always remember more than the sharpest mind. OMG OMG

[] Usually what do they write? I noticed that they write how to save the most on taxes. They usually write
that because tax codes change often and investments have certain tax benefits (or not).

They look at it like this, Well I could put in my pocket $200 million a year. I could either go and start a new
business, [] or how do I save 3040% on taxes that Im gonna have to pay away? I already have the
money, why lose it?

Daymond John

Study. Study. Study. Invest your time in learning and studying how to save or make more money. Youre
already off to a good start reading this series.

30
Rule #5: Have more than one source of income

This is the hardest one for most people so I left it for last.

It all comes down to reducing risk. If youre only living off of your salary, youre being risky.

What is risk? Having one source of income. Employees are at risk. They have a single source of income.
What about the entrepreneur who sells janitorial services to your employers? He has hundreds and
hundreds of customers hundreds and hundreds of sources of income.

Thomas J. Stanley

James Altucher has calculated the average millionaire has seven sourcesof income. I can see how that
might make sense for the average successful business owner. Off of my head, here are seven sources of
income she might have:

Earned income (salary)

Profit income (business profit)

Rental income (real estate)

Royalty/patents income (depending on your business)

Capital gains income (if you sell an asset for more than you bought it for)

Dividend (4% every year on average in index funds)

Interest (lending money to someone else)

However, I want to be clear. Business is not for everyone.

If a business is not for you, remember that anyone can become financially independent by saving money
and investing it for a long time. However, since the book was about millionaires, I had to mention this part:
The best way to become a millionaire is by being self-employed. After all, 62% of American billionaires are
self-made (the rest had some inheritance).

It makes sensea salary wont make anyone rich. Financially independent, yes. Rich, no. I talk about
financial independence, the book talks about rich people.

Relax, it all depends on your personality. Which is why I left this part for last.

Bonus:

One final detail I noticed from the book was the effect your partner will have on your finances.

Ive seen several cases of someone starting with a lot of money and losing it a few years later because
their partner was a hyperconsumer. Can you think of one?

Most people will never become wealthy in one generation if they are married to people who are wasteful. A
couple cannot accumulate wealth if one of its members is a hyperconsumer. This is especially true when
one or both are trying to build a successful business.

Thomas J. Stanley

Remember Jim Rohns words: You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

Well dear, youve officially acquired new knowledge! This covers todays lesson.
31
This post originally appeared at Medium. You can find more at RichardReis.me.

32
 KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY: I spent $1,200 on
books in one dayand it was a totally
worthwhile career investment (Unsplash/CC 0)

A few days ago I ordered 61 books, most of which youve probably

never heard of. I didnt even flinch when Amazon stopped
incrementing my shopping cart at 50 items. And the final tally of
$1,201.40 represents only a small percentage of the money I routinely spend on books in any given year.

You might ask why I spend so much money on books when I could just borrow them from a library. First,
my local library is unlikely to have all the books I want to read (more on that later). Second, when Im
reading a good book, I want to read it actively. I want to write in the margins. I want to make notes. I want to
make it my own. If you get a library book, you cant do that.

I buy every book I want, with few exceptions. As someone who reads over 100 books a year and has
an anti-library with thousands of titles that I havent read, I can assure you my habit gets expensive. Yet this
doesnt bother me at all.

Books contain a vast amount of knowledge, and knowing what most other people dont know is how I make
a living. While books can be expensive, ignorance is costlier.

I also go out of my way to read books that are flying below the radar. AsHaruki Murakami put it, if you read
what everyone else is reading, youre going to think what everyone else thinks.

But in our competitive world, being average isnt an option. You need knowledge and ideas that other
people dont have. You need to make yourself into a scarce resource.

In his book Average is Over, economist Tyler Cowen talks about what is scarce and what is not in todays
global economy. Intellectual property, he writes, or good ideas about what should be produced is scarce
and valuable.

So if youre trying to get ahead, skip the bestseller displays at the front of the bookstore and head to the
stacks at the back. Bestselling books, almost by definition, rarely help give you an edge. Sure, they might
help you sound smart at a cocktail party, but thats only because everyone else is reading them and they
want to seem smart, or worse, current. Personally, I spend a lot of time with the dead. Thats why my cart
was full of books that are out of print. Books like Unended Quest, Inside the Record Business, and Roman
Honor: Fire in the Bones. Interestingly, this habit typically makes the books either ridiculously cheap
$0.01 plus shippingor ridiculously expensive.

The most expensive book I ever bought was Henry Miller on Turning Eighty, which was over $800 but
resulted in learning a lot about why life is the best teacher and the complicated relationship
between friendship and getting older.

I might not read every book I buy. I might never even crack the spine on a few of them. They might turn out
to be a waste of money. But I keep spending money on them because I know the right book may change
my life.

Reading is a long-term investment I make in myself. I cant afford not to.

This post is adapted from a piece that originally appeared on Medium. Subscribe to The Brain Food
Newsletter. You can follow Shane on Twitterand Facebook, and read more of his work at Farnam Street.
Learn how to write for Quartz Ideas. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

33
34
This happiness hack from a wildly popular Stanford class can help you create
a life you love

Pay attention to the things that make you feel good. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

Thanks to master organizer Marie Kondo, many of us now evaluate our belongings based on the principle
that things we love should bring us joy. But too often, we fail to bring the same level of scrutiny to the rest of
our lives. Just as passivity can leave us buried under a lot of junk we dont need, so can we aimlessly fall
into patterns of behavior that dont serve us well and wind up leading a muted life.

In our new book, Designing Your Life, we draw from design principles and techniques to explain how to
create a life you love. The first step in this process is to understand yourselfwhich means taking a close
look at how youre faring in the areas of health, work, play, and love.

The Good Time Journal is a technique to facilitate this process. The goal is to make you notice which
activities make you happy and give you energy, and which ones dont. The journal gives us a framework for
reflection so that we can better tease out whats working in our lives and use that knowledge to shape our
futures.

To get started, we recommend thinking about the last time that you were on cloud 9an experience that
gave you a glimpse of adrenaline-induced ecstasy, if only for a moment. It could be the feeling you had
when you got a great new job offer, fell in love, finished a marathon or traveled to a beautiful country. This
kind of memory is called a peak experience. Examining it can help you to look at events in the future,
designing a more fulfilling life in the process.

Write down a peak experience youve had. For our friend Savannah, who well use as an example, it was
delivering the keynote speech at a large international technology conference.

Now apply the AEIOU method. Ask yourself the following questions and
write down your observations. You can apply this framework to future
reflections you do on your activity log as well.

Activities: What were you actually doing? Was this a structured or

unstructured activity? Did you have a specific role to play (presenter, leader,
researcher, etc.) or were you simply a participant in or attendee of the
experience?

In Savannahs case, the event was structured. The keynote had been
planned for months and her role as a presenter was clearly defined.
However, she was able to make changes to her content up until the night
before the event, which is unconventional and unstructured compared to
most speaking events. She found that she really enjoys that spontaneity
and would be bored if she had to deliver a speech that was in the can

35
weeks before the event.

Environment: Our environment has a profound effect on our emotional state. A crowded football stadium
will bring some people joy; others will find happiness in a cathedral. Notice where you were during the
activity. What kind of place was it, and how did it make you feel?

Savannah is admittedly a bit of a ham. She delivered this presentation in a large theater. She, unlike most
of us, feels at her best when public speaking and finds her flow moments on stage, when she feels
connected to her audience. It also helped that this event happened in New Zealand, one of her favorite
countries, and that travel is always the greatest gift to her as a presenter.

Interactions: What were you interacting with during this experiencepeople, animals, machines? Was it a
new kind of interaction or one you are familiar with? Was it formal or informal?

There were over 500 people in the audience for Savannahs talk, a large crowd for her. She gets energy
from inspiring other people, so the balance of a formal presentation followed by informal follow-up
conversations after the speech brought her joy.

Objects: Were you interacting with any objects or devices, such as smartphones, tools or toys? What were
the objects that created or supported your feeling engaged?

Savannah sound-checked the presentation the day before and made sure that the remote/laser pointer had
fresh batteries. She always uses a certain remote and wears her lucky shoes. When the tech team asks
Savannah to mic-up, she knows its go-time. Knowing that she has all her tools ready to go energizes
her.

Users: Who else was there, and what role did they play in making it a positive or negative experience?

It is not often that Savannahs friends and family can attend her speaking gigs. But shes spent a lot of time
in Auckland lately and, because this event was booked so far in advance, many of her friends were able to
make it. This made this gig particularly special for her.

The upshot

Zooming in on this experience with the AEIOU method allowed Savannah to see how much her friends and
family really make a difference when shes presenting. She also became aware that, while she is often
lonely on the road, she draws energy from building deeper relationships with people in the cities she visits
all over the world. She can apply this knowledge by making sure to book her return flights on business trips
a day later, so that she can stick around after giving a presentation to mingle and have informal
conversations with the people she meets rather than rush off to the airport.

Once youve gotten the hang of the AEIOU method, start logging the activities that punctuate your days.
The more detailed your reflections, the more insightful they will be. Push beyond Staff meeting left me
feeling great and aim for more Presenting at the staff meeting gave me energy and increased my sense of
purpose at the office. Filing expense report was annoying might become Entered business expenses
into Excel, which always takes longer than I think that it should.

Start with a few easy and weekly engagements. Did you exercise this week? How did you feel while you
were working out, and afterward? Did answering emails in the evening help you feel more prepared for the
next day, or did it only make you more stressed?

Write these down in a notebook. This is where youll track the things you do daily. Carve out some time
weekly or bi-monthly where you can page back through the entries and look for patterns.

36
And continue challenging yourself to be more granular and deep in the activities you log, noting what
surprises you. For example, you might discover that youre in a particularly good mood after taking your
dog for the nightly walk, and start incorporating a long stroll into your workday in order to make more space
for solo contemplation. Or you might find that youre especially cheerful after grabbing lunch with a
particular coworker, and schedule a regular weekly catch-up session.

When you identify the tasks that suck your energyyour daily commute, for example, or paying bills
experiment with ways to minimize the impact on your mood. Perhaps setting up auto-bill pay can relieve a
significant amount of stress from your life, or listening to Jane Austens repertoire via audiobook on your
way to work will help you get through your car rides. These are the kinds of changes that go hand in hand
with designing a well-built, joyful life.

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans are the authors of Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful
Life and teach in the design program at Stanford University. We welcome your comments
at ideas@qz.com.

37
WORDS FOR LIVING: If you want to get smarter, speed-reading is worse than
not reading at all

Stop trying to read fast, and focus on reading well. (Unsplash/CC 0)

We all know that reading is important. But were also busy. So we try to optimize by reading more quickly.
And in this way, we miss the point of reading entirely.

Ive noticed this tendency since I began posting about what I learn from reading over 100 books a year.
One of the most frequent questions I get is about how to read faster. Inevitably this request includes a link
to a book, scientific article, or random blog post declaring that theres a way to read 10 times faster. But if
you care about more than bragging rights, the point of books isnt how fast you read, or even how much
you read. Its reading for deep understanding.

A good book, like a good meal or a great vacation, is something you shouldnt want to end. Youre not
rushing to the finish. Instead, youre totally immersed in the experience; you want it to last forever. Reading
is supposed to take some time.

Moreover, while reading is the key to getting smarter, speed-reading is really just a fancy way of fooling
yourself into thinking youre learning something. In reality, youre just turning pages quickly. A May
2016 review of studies on speed-reading, published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest,
reported, there is a trade-off between speed and accuracy. It is unlikely that readers will be able to double
or triple their reading speeds (e.g., from around 250 to 500750 words per minute) while still being able to
understand the text as well as if they read at normal speed.

If youre reading fast, youre not engaging in critical thinking. Youre not making connections
between Infinite Jest and other post-modern texts; youre not challenging a historians version of the
American Revolution. Youre not having a conversation with the author. And if youre not doing the work,
youre only walking away with surface knowledge. Reading should be mentally demanding. As Alexander
Pope once wrote, A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; there
shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.

Id even go so far as to say that reading fast is worse than not reading at all. Thats because speed-reading
gives you two things that should never mix: superficial knowledge and overconfidence. Thats a recipe for
really bad decisions. And bad decisions, in turn, reduce the amount of free time we have, because we have
to run around fixing all of our mistakes. When you think about it, a lot of people spend their days correcting
their poor initial decisions. This gives you even less time to read. Whoops.

Heres the good news: you can find the time to read deeply. John Wooden, the Hall of Fame basketball
coach, has a saying I love: If you dont have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

That said, finding time to read is simple, but not easy. So focus on a system of reading that enables you to
not only read for understanding and knowledge, but that allows for large blocks of uninterrupted time. Set

38
aside an hour in the morning or evening, or during your lunch break. Block out your weekend mornings.
Dont dabbledive in.

As you engage in deep reading, youll steadily build your knowledge of the world. Knowledge, in turn,
allows you to read a little bit faster naturally, with true comprehension and retention. It also teaches you
which books arent worth your time, since theyre just re-hashing old ideas and offer little value. Hone your
radar for a great book, be a little ruthless about culling the weak, and you wont ever waste time reading.

So in the months ahead, dont worry about how many books youre reading. Instead, focus on how much
time youre devoting to them.

If you want to work smarter and not harder, join over 100,000 others and subscribe to The Brain Food
Newsletter. You can follow Shane on Twitterand Facebook, and read more of his work at Farnam Street.

Learn how to write for Quartz Ideas. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

39
RIDDLE ME THIS: The single best question to ask anyone interviewing for a
tech position is Einsteins Riddle

Show your work. (Pixabay/Startup via CC0 Public Domain)

December 15, 2016

This question originally appeared on Quora: What is the best interview question ever? Answer by Wade
Myers, Inc 5000 entrepreneur and managing director of Boldmore Growth Partners.

When it came time to interview candidates for programming, development, and strategy positions, there
was one question I always loved to ask: Einsteins Riddle. This brainteaser is a fantastic way to assess
interviewees whose roles would require structured thinking and rigorous mental horsepower.

Einsteins Riddle is a logic puzzle whose creation is often credited to a young Albert Einstein (though
there is no hard evidence to support this claim), and it demands patience and logical processing to be
properly solved. I would offer interviewees the question in writing and offer them a whiteboard and marker
to show me their work.

Heres the riddle in three pieces:

Background:

There are five houses in five different colors

A person with a different nationality lives in each house

The five owners each drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain
pet

No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage

Clues:

The Brit lives in the red house

The Swede keeps dogs as pets

The Dane drinks tea

The green house is on the left of the white house

The green homeowner drinks coffee

The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds

The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill

40
The man living in the center house drinks milk

The Norwegian lives in the first house

The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats

The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill

The owner who smokes Blue Master drinks beer

The German smokes Prince

The Norwegian lives next to the blue house

The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water

The Question:

Who has a fish for a pet?

Most applicants completely gave up in exasperation and didnt even attempt to answer the riddle because
they either thought it was impossible to answer, or they couldnt seem to figure out that you just need to
start digging in and nail down one detail at a time.

The few candidates that were really, really good with frameworks and logical processing wrote out a grid
and continued to loop through the clues until they filled it in. The reason for the numerous loops is that
many of the clues are not useful until youve filled in what you already know.

I had one 20-year-old candidate for a project manager position go to my white board and answer it in about
three minutes flat. I was stunned. Not only did I hire him on the spot, but within 18 months he was the
managing director of my entire European operationhe grew a beard to look older because he feared that
our European clients would never want to work with a 21 year old managing director. By 22 years old he
was at Stanford Business School getting his MBA (I wrote a letter of recommendation, so I get some credit,
right?). He was truly in the top 2% of anyone Ive ever met or worked with.

How to answer Einsteins Riddle

The easiest way to solve this puzzle is start with a grid like this and begin filling it in with clues:

Clues 8 and 9 allow us to fill in cells directly:

41
Clue 14 places the blue house next to the Norwegian, and the green and white houses as 4 and 5:

Clue 1 says that the Brit lives in a red house, which rules out all but 3. By process of elimination, the first
house is yellow, and clue 7 adds that the owner smokes Dunhills:

Clue 11 places horses next to the Dunhill house. The beer drinker smokes Blue Master, the Dane drinks
tea, and milk and coffee are in houses 3 and 4. So the Norwegianwho smokes Dunhilldrinks water.
And the water drinkers neighbor smokes Blend. With the only beverages remaining being tea and beer,
and knowing that the beer drinker smokes Blue Master, the second house has the tea drinking Dane:

The last beverage, beer, goes in house 5 with its Blue Masters. The German Prince-smoker must therefore
be in House 4. This leaves the Swedish dog owner for House 5, then the bird-rearing Pall Mall smoker for
House 3:

Since the cat owner lived next the Blend smoker, we can see that there is only one slot left: in the
Germans house. So it is the German who keeps the fish:

42
If you have a candidate that can solve this, you need to hire them!

43
SPACED OUT: A step-by-step guide to hacking your brain so it can remember
anything

Where there's a will... (Reuters/Enrique de la Osa)

This question originally appeared on Quora: What is the most effective way to study a huge amount of
information for one test? Answer by Jonathan Davidson, author of The College Success Cheat Sheet.

Dont despair. If you do the right things, youll be ready to crush any exam.

In order to pull this off, youll need to:

Learn and implement the best study techniques.

Study every day in a strategic manner.

Optimize your diet, sleep, and exercise habits.

Study techniques

There are a couple of study techniques that you should understand. They are the spacing effect and
surveying.

The spacing effect

The easiest way to absorb information is to use the spacing effect, a study technique that researchers have
called one of the most remarkable phenomena to emerge from laboratory research on learning.

Basically, when you learn new things, your brain stores that information in neurons. It then connects those
neurons to existing neurons that contain information you already know, forming a network of associations.

The problem is that your brain can only grow this neural network of associates so strong in one sitting. That
bears repeatingit is physically impossible for your brain to grow neural pathways strong enough in one
day for perfect retention. Thats why if you force yourself to study the same information many times in one
44
or two days, also known as cramming, youll have a hard time remembering it even though you studied for
hours.

Researchers have learned that its much more efficient to expose your brain to new information and then
wait at least a day before reviewing that same information. This gives your brain time to cement the
connections it has already built, which means it will be ready and physically able to build those connections
stronger at the second exposure.

For example, if you have an exam coming up in a week, its much better to review your notes only once a
day for those seven days than 30 times in one or two days. Even though youll have studied several times
less, youll do better because you worked with the way your brain naturally stores information.

Surveying

The second study technique is called surveying.

By using the spacing effect and surveying, youll be able to review all the information dozens of times.
These multiple spaced exposures will be key in helping you memorize everything you need to know.

Surveying is a technique to help you condense all the information into something more manageable. Im
assuming that youre taking classes while learning all this information, but if youre not, just apply this to
your textbooks.

Read your assigned chapters and other readings the day before class.

Highlight only the critical information in your textbook or other readings that isnt already bolded, italicized,
put in a box, or otherwise emphasized. Also, do not highlight anything thats in the topic sentence of each
paragraph (usually the first sentence of each paragraph that contains the main idea of that paragraph).

Go to the lecture and take concise notes by hand. Make sure to keep these notes handy so that you can
review them at the same time you review your chapters.

From now on, when you re-read your chapters, only read titles, topic sentences, any text that was
emphasized by the author, and any information that you highlighted. Finish by reading the chapter
summaries since they neatly tie up all the ideas expressed throughout the chapter.

Most of the key ideas in a reading are in the titles, topic sentences, emphasized text, and whatever you
highlighted. For instance, a topic sentence usually contains the main idea of a paragraph, and the rest of
the sentences only elaborate on and explain that main idea. So, if you have already read the chapter in its
entirety, you should have an idea of whats in that paragraph, and by reading only the first sentence in each
paragraph, youll be reminded of what else is in the paragraph.

By doing this, a chapter that would take you an hour to read may now take you only five to 10 minutes,
allowing you to review it regularly, getting those multiple spaced exposures that are so critical to
memorization.

Also, review your lecture notes once per day alongside your assigned readings. Since you wrote concise
notes by hand, these shouldnt take long to read, and the spaced exposures will ensure that you memorize
them thoroughly before an exam.

This read through will give your mind a complete first exposure to everything youll need to know.

Now your attention must turn to getting your spaced exposures, allowing your mind to see the same
information again and again, but with at least a day of space in between each exposure so that your brain
can cement the neural networks and be ready to strengthen them.

45
Remembering formulas

Having taken several finance classes, I know how difficult it can be to remember all the formulas and
functions youll need to learn.

By reading and reviewing the textbook, going to class, and doing your homework, youll be learning how to
do these, but youll still need to tap into the power of the spacing effect in order to really memorize them.
That means getting many spaced exposures to all the formulas and complete instructions for how to solve
them.

My recommendation is to create a notebook in which you write your own instructions for how to solve every
formula and equation you need to know, followed by a couple of examples. Then, as youre reviewing your
chapters with the surveying method, also take the time to read through these instructions and look at the
examples.

By completely reading through this notebook every few days for the next few months, the spacing effect will
help you memorize all the instructions. Then, when youre in your test, it will be like an open-book exam,
because all the instructions will be right there in your memory.

Test yourself

After a couple of months of spaced exposures to all the textbook pages, lecture notes, and reading your
notebook of instructions for how to solve formulas, begin testing yourself every couple of weeks. Choose
several example problems from your homework, create a test, and see how you do.

If you arent doing well, then you need more spaced exposures. If youre doing well, make sure you keep
getting your spaced exposures so that the information will truly be cemented.

Optimize your lifestyle

There are several things you can tweak in your daily routine that will dramatically increase your ability to
memorize information.

Proper sleep

Studies have shown that students who go to bed at or before 10pm average as much as a letter grade
higher than students who go to bed at midnight or later.

There are a bunch of theories as to why this works (optimized melatonin production being my favorite), but
you dont need to get into the weeds to make this work for you. Just make it a point to be asleep by 10pm
every night and try to get as close to eight hours of sleep as possible.

This is absolutely critical for your academic performance. Not only will it optimize memory storage, but
being well rested means youll have better focus when youre studying.

Proper exercise

Tons of studies also show a strong correlation between daily, vigorous exercise and academic
performance. Make sure you sweat every day. Alternate between jogging, cycling, power walking, or other
aerobic exercises one day and strength training the next. You dont have to kill yourself, but make sure
youre getting a good workout.

Proper diet

The American Journal of Medicine once published a study that showed how even one high-fat meal
(chicken nuggets) could reduce blood oxygen content by as much as 20% and cause blood to stop flowing
46
completely in the smallest capillaries. You dont want your body all gunked up by crappy processed foods.
Eat only whole, unprocessed foods. Eat lots of whole grains, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and fruits. Drink
only water.

In summary

Remember, multiple spaced exposures is the key. Use surveying to cut down on your reading time without
missing important ideas. Create a detailed notebook about how to solve all your equations and formulas.
Review everything in full as many times as you can before the test. Test yourself at two week intervals.
Always sleep well, eat well, and exercise daily.

By doing all these things, you should be able to do well.

You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

He's almost certainly carrying cash. (Fabrizio Bensch)

As banks, technology giants and would-be disruptors such as Square scrummage over the payment
system of the future, German consumers seem perfectly happy with the payment system of the past.
Germany remains one of the most cash-intensive advanced economies on earth.

On average, wallets in Germany hold nearly twice as much cashabout $123 worthas those in Australia,
the US, France and Holland, according to a recent Federal Reserve report on how consumers paid for
things in seven countries. Roughly 80% of all transactions in Germany are conducted in cash. (In the US,
its less than 50%.) And cash is the dominant form of payment there even for large transactions.

No one knows precisely why Germans have such a strong preference for cash, though survey data offer
some hints. German respondents suggested that using cash makes it easier to keep track of their money
and spending [pdf].

A glance into ones pocket provides a signal about the extent of expenses and the remaining budget. With
a large cash share of expenditures, the quality of the signal is high. We conjecture that for some consumers
this signal is of value and hence they choose to use cash, wrote ECB analysts who studied the
phenomenon.

Other responses suggest Germans like the anonymity of cash, in keeping with their general enthusiasm
for tightly protecting privacy.

But, of course, their attitudes toward currency must owe something to Germanys tumultuous monetary
history. During the Weimar-era hyperinflation that peaked in 1923, prices rose roughly a trillion-fold, as
Germany attempted to pay its onerous war reparations with devalued marks.
48
The sheer lunacy of the sums involved make this everyones favorite hyperinflation.

At the end of it, a loaf of bread cost 428 billion marks, a kilo of butter would run you roughly 6 trillion.
Employers would halt work in the middle of morning to pay out bales of banknotes to workerswho
sometimes collected them in laundry basketsand the workday would be suspended for an hour or so as
employees were given time to run around and purchase as much as they could before the money became
worthless. (They would barter it later.) And, of course, people were using the worthless banknotes for all
sorts of silly things, such aswallpaper, furnace fuel and kites.

Weimar wallpaper, 1923. (Deutsches Bundesarchiv)

But this wasnt the last time Germanys currency was rendered
worthless in the 20th century. After World War II, the reichsmark was
again in disarray. Hitler had largely financed the war by printing money,
keeping inflation at bay through a uniquely fascist policy of strict price
controls and violent threats. (Inflation is a lack of discipline, Hitler
once said. Ill see to it that prices remain stable. Thats what my storm
troopers are for.)

During the postwar occupation, the Allies kept wage and price controls
and rationing in effect. But more and more economic activitymoved to
the black market. Packs of Camels and Chesterfields, nylon stockings
and Parker penswhich US
servicemen stationed in
Germany could easily buy at
their basesbecame de facto
currencies.

A man lights his pipe with a useless reichsmark, on June 20, 1948,
the day the deutsche mark was introduced. (AP Photo)

The currency reform of June 20, 1948, in which Germans were forced
to convert their cash into the newly introduced deutsche marks at a
rate of more than 10 reichsmarks to the D-mark, was painful too,
vaporizing more than 90% of an individuals savings(paywall).

But the new currency help pull hoarded goods back into shops and
tamped down on the enervating effects of the black market. It was
widely viewed as a tough, but necessary step that put Germanys
post-war economic resurgence in motion.

49
As such, the deutsche mark became a point of pride, first for West Germany, and in 1990 for those who
lived in the former Communist east as well. (They were able to exchange their worthless ostmarks for
deutsche marks at a generous rate of one-for-one.) It was with some consternation that Germany changed
over to the euro in 2002.

So what role does this history play in the preference for cash?

One explanation is that, as researchers have found, memories of hyperinflation have quite a bit of staying
power. People in countries that suffered banking crises quite sensibly often prefer to save in cashthough
typically in foreign currencies such as US dollarsrather than put money in the bank. (Federal Reserve
Bank of New York economists found that demand for US dollars rises for at least a generation in countries
after they suffer a searing experience with high inflation.) And countries such as Bulgaria and Romania,
which have recent histories of currency instability and financial crises, also are quite heavy users of cash.

But the real point isnt that Germans love cash. Its thatfor the same historical reasonsthey loathe debt.
(Armchair anthropologists have also long noted that German word for debtSchuldencomes from the
word for guilt, Schuld.)

Levels of consumer debt in Germany are remarkably low. German aversion to mortgage debt is part of the
reason why the country has some of the lowest homeownership rates in the developed world. Just 33% of
Germans said they had a credit card back in 2011. And most of those hardly ever get used. In 2013, only
18% of payments in Germany were made via cards, compared to 50% in France and 59% in the UK.

The national preference for cash, then, seems to be the flip side of aversion to debt, which, in turn, can be
interpreted as a sign of deep-seated doubt about the future. (German businesspeople are alsonotorious for
their pessimism about the future.) And fear of the future, of course, is rooted in the past.

In other words, the German tendency to settle up in cash undeniably reflects the fact that for much of the
last century, Germany has been either on the brink of, in the midst of, or struggling to recover from,
disaster. And traumas like that are bound to leave, if youll excuse the pun, a mark.

50
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Your brilliant Kickstarter idea could be on sale in China
before youve even finished funding it

Shenzhen, China's hardware manufacturing hub. (Reuters/Bobby Yip)

Shenzhen, China

Yekutiel Sherman couldnt believe his eyes.

1 The Israeli entrepreneur had spent one year designing the product that would make him richa
smartphone case that unfolds into a selfie stick. He had drawn up prototypes, secured some minimal funds
from his family, and launched a crowdfunding campaign. He even shot a professional promo video,
showing a couple taking the perfect selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower.

(Stikbox) (Stikbox)

But one week after his product hit Kickstarter in December 2015, Sherman was shocked to see it for sale
on AliExpressAlibabas English-language wholesale site. Vendors across China were sellingidentical
smartphone case selfie-sticks, using the same design Sherman came up with himself. Some of them were
51
selling for as low as $10 a piece, well below Shermans expected retail price of 39 ($47.41). Amazingly,
some of these vendors stole the name of Shermans productStikbox:

Sherman had become a victim of Chinas lightning-fast copycats. Before he had even found a factory to
make his new product, manufacturers in China had spied his idea online, and beaten him to the punch.
When his Kickstarter backers caught on, they were furious. You are charging double the price for what the
copycats are charging, yet I seriously doubt the final product will be any better than the copycats, one
person commented.

Years ago, experts in the hardware industry would have had more sympathy for Sherman. Now, no one
doesnot even Sherman himself. While discussions of intellectual property in Chinas manufacturing
centers once focused on how brands and investors could protect their designs from Chinas rapacious
copycats, things have changed. Startups and foreign manufacturers are embracing a new reality
someone in China is going to make a knockoff of your unique invention, almost immediately. All any
company or entrepreneur can do is prepare for it.

The origins of copycat culture

Chinas knockoffs come in many different forms, and can affect businesses large and small.

In some cases, factories will make products that physically resemble ones made by prominent brands.
Quality may varyan Android phone with rounded edges and a stamped-on Apple logo will never come
close to replicating the feel of an iPhone. But a counterfeit Gucci bag might easily pass for the real thing.

Sometimes, as was the case with Stikbox and the hoverboard, a factory or design team will spot a fledgling
new product on the internet, figure out how its made, and start churning out near-identical products. Other
times, a Chinese partner factory will produce extra units of a product they agreed to make for another
company, and sell the surplus items themselves online or to other vendors.
52
Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, drew criticism when he told investors in June (paywall) that fake goods are of
better quality and of better price than the real names and come from exactly the same factories as
authentic goods. But theres some truth to his comments. Fake goods are of better quality and of better
price than the real names, Jack Ma said.

Many analysts and historians have attributed Chinese counterfeiting to perceived aspects of Chinese
culture like its emphasis on memorization in education, or anauthoritarian government that stifles
innovation. But rather than these reductions of culture, it has more to do with the evolution of Chinas
gadget and electronics manufacturing hub of Shenzhen, explains Silvia Lindtner, who researches Chinese
entrepreneurship culture at the University of Michigan.

The citys rise throughout the 90s and early 00s coincided with a boom in outsourcing among global
multinational corporations. Instead of overseeing all the manufacturing of all the parts inside a product,
large global hardware companies signed contracts with local manufacturers in Shenzhen to make and
design products piecemeal. These contractors would then turn to smaller sub-contractors to help fill orders.

Many of the factories involved in these fragmented supply chains were small, family-owned entities
operating without government approval. As they worked together, they realized they could do more than
just supply parts that ended up in name-brand hardware. They could create rival products on their own, and
reach customers who were too poor to buy a Nokia phone or Apple iPod, said Lindtner.

They banded together, at times sharing the recipes for specific electronic devices on online message
boards. Thus began the shanzhaiphenomenon, a word that literally means mountain fortress, but came to
stand for products that skirt existing intellectual property laws. Phones and consumer electronics with
names like aPod and Nokla flooded the market in the late 00s.

A <em>shanzhai</em> iPhone lookalike tablet running (likely a pirated version of) Windows
software. (Reuters/Bobby Yip)

Open-source manufacturing

The shanzhai era in consumer electronics gradually faded as incomes rose and brand-name smartphones
became more affordable. But it enforced a culture of knowledge-sharing among manufacturers, wherein no
single product design is sacred. Lindtner compares the culture of Shenzhens manufacturing ecosystem to
the open-source movement among software developers. Much like how programmers will freely share code
for others to improve upon, Shenzhen manufacturers now see hardware and product design as something
that can be borrowed freely and altered. Success in business comes down to speed and execution, not
necessarily originality.

53
Its understood that re-iterating or copying is part of the culture, and whoever is better and faster is going to
make the deal, said Lindtner.

Nowadays, Chinas copycat phenomenon extends well beyond multinational corporations like Gucci or
Nokiastartups are affected too. Thanks to the internet, factories and designers looking for the next hit
product can easily turn to Kickstarter, Amazon, or Taobao to see what gadgets are hot. They message
each other instantly using WeChat, Chinas dominant chat app, or Alibabas chat software, which makes
sourcing and assembly line planning even easier than in the pre-smartphone days. Factories turn to
Kickstarter, Amazon, or Taobao to see whats hot.

The whole Chinese system has developed around the idea that you have instantaneous communication
and basically infinite information, said Bunnie Huang, author ofThe Essential Guide to Electronics in
Shenzhen. Back in the 80s people were talking about just-in time manufacturing as something to aspire
to, he said. But now, the Chinese dont even know any other way.

Enforcement is impossible

Businesses can take certain legal precautions to reduce the risk of getting copied. A first, crucial step,
according to Song Zhu, who litigates IP disputes between US and Chinese firms at California-based law
firm Ruyak Cherian LLP, is to apply for utility and design patents for a product thats valid in the US, China,
and anywhere else one hopes to sell.

Entrepreneurs should also sign NNN agreements with potential Chinese partners before revealing any
intellectual property. This contract prevents partner factories from using the intellectual property themselves
after first view (non-use), sharing it with others (non-disclosure), or inking a partnership and then selling
extra units on their own (non-circumvention).

But even with these protections, theres no guarantee that you can stop someone from copycatting your
product. Zhu said that the problem lies not in Chinas courts, but enforcing rulings. Winning a case against
one factory is relatively easy. But suing every factory and winning is expensive and time consuming. Suing
every factory and winning is expensive and time consuming.

There are probably hundreds of small factories who might see a product on the internet and think Hey I
can do this, said Zhu. How are you going to shut down all of them? How can you even find out where they
are? And the money you spend suing them is more than you can get out of the lawsuit.

This is now the position Sherman finds himself in with Stikbox. While he hasnt pursued legal action yet, he
said he spends 20% of his time tracking down copycat factories through Chinas giant e-commerce sites. It
sometimes takes him up to five days to figure out one factorys location.

The copycat factory doesnt show its address on Alibaba, only a trading company who represents them.
Sometimes you have to track down two or three trading companies before you get to the actual factory, he
told Quartz.

Your great idea doesnt matter

The spread of copycat manufacturing isnt just creating headaches for hardware companies and startups.
Its challenging traditional notions of intellectual propertyspecifically, what type of ideas are valuable, and
what type of ideas are not.

Decades ago, a company or entrepreneur might come up with an idea and then spend years securing the
patents, completing the design, devising a manufacturing plan, and bringing it to market. Enforceable
contracts with partners helped ensure these ideas wouldnt leak to competitorsbut so did the high cost of
starting a factory, sourcing components, and managing assembly lines.

54
Moving the worlds manufacturing center to China makes the latter hurdles nearly disappear. Factories are
set up in makeshift buildings. Cheap labor is abundant. Sourcing components is easy because of online
marketplaces like Alibaba. As a result, smart ideas that are easy to turn into physical products become
commoditized quickly.

Businesses are now forced to come to terms with this new reality. Its not enough to create a product with a
groundbreaking design or features, like a smartphone case that turns into a selfie stick. Companies dealing
in the creation of physical goods now must make products that are impossible to copy exactly from the get
go, by focusing on a special feature they can protect, or creating a coveted brand name consumers will pay
more for.

If you have a simple product that has some market demand, you will get copied, said Benjamin Joffe, who
works with hardware startups that are manufacturing in China at HAX, a venture capital fund. The question
is more, what do you actually have thats defensible? What do you actually have thats defensible?

Companies can defend themselves from copying by investing in software that complements physical
hardware, and then guarding it. Apple, for example, does this with the iPhone, which carries the proprietary
iOS operating system thats unavailable on other phones. Or they can invest in well-crafted branding and
marketing. GoPro, for example, has made a name for itself among its target user base of sports and
photography enthusiasts. This can help insulate it from competition from Koreas LG, Xiaomi, and small
Chinese knockoff factories. (Sure, there are plenty offake GoPros out there, but some consumers will pay
more for the real thing.)

Alternatively, a company can make a product that requires sophisticated manufacturing know-how, so that
the average factory wouldnt bother trying to copy it.

Hong Kong-based startup Native Union, for example, created an earpiece for smartphones that looks like
an old-fashioned, crescent-shaped landline phone receiver. It was clever, but got copied immediately.
Founder Igor Duc later changed the companys direction and began making a totally different product
smartphone cases made out of Italian marble that sell for $80 each. Theyre more difficult to make than the
average consumer electronic device, which prevents copycats from surfacing.

When you use complicated raw materials like marble you need to have a lot of expertise about what is
good quality, and you need to shave it with a very specific machine, said Duc. Whereas a plastic injection
is easy to copy, what we do now is more complex.

The bright side of copycats

Joffe, the venture capital investor, argues that some companies might even benefit from copycatting, as it
can bring more awareness to the product itself. If you have more customers buying the fake product then it
creates more awareness for the real product, and it becomes an aspirational thing. At some point they
might be able to afford the real thing.

This is what Sherman reminds himself of, as he scrambles to fulfil orders while his empty-handed
Kickstarter backers ponder buying a fake from Taobao instead.

There are other selfie stick cases but we are the only ones that have been copied. So it shows that our
product is worth being copied, he said. The quote that comes to mind is, Imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery.

Yet Sherman estimates that he has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential revenue due to
copycats. Imitation isnt just a sincere form of flattery, its an expensive one as well.

55
The 10 most challenging things about the Navy SEAL's 5.5 mile swim

A Navy SEAL recruit swimming.

Many here on SOFREPincluding this authorhave expressed
emphatic lamentations over the level of suck inflicted on those
foolhardy and courageous enough to attend Basic Underwater
Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training. It is nothing new to say that the
training program is a kick in the proverbial bangers.

BUD/S is, of course, the U.S. Navys basic training course for men
desiring to become Navy SEALs. It is a well-documented fact that the training taxes men physically, mentally,
emotionally, and in all other ways ones body and mind can be taxed. The instructors take a substantial levy out of the
hides of all those who enter their hallowed training facility in Coronado, California.

US Navy SEALs train during an exercise on how to board an oil or gas platform.
They relish their duty as Naval Special Warfares gatekeepers. They are the sentinels barring entry into of one of the
militarys most elite forces. Theirs is to protect the integrity of the standards, to guard against the encroachment of
mediocrity. Theirs is to beat back the forces of convention and degradation. BUD/S instructors cherish this duty, and
work tirelessly to guard the integrity and intensity of BUD/S.

One of the evolutions that is most responsible for making BUD/S such a calamitous beat-down of ones physical being
is the five and one-half nautical mile swim along the Pacific coastline of Coronado during Second Phase. This brutal
undertaking has a maximum time limit, and falls a short time after the end of Hell Week. To put it in perspective, a
healthy time frame, post-Hell Week, to accomplish this swim would probably be three or four months, minimum. No
such luck.

So, why does it suck so much? In absolute terms, a 5.5-mile swim does not sound terrible, does it? It is manageable,
right? Yes. Yes, it is. In a scenario where one does not have 12-14 weeks of BUD/S preceding the swim, it would
probably be none-too-gruesome. If only that were the case.

BUDS training can be pretty draining.

The swim is inflicted upon men broken down and battered by the rigors of not only
months of BUD/S training, but by the particularly punishing period of Hell Week,
which can take some trainees many weeks from which to fully recover. In other
words, BUD/S students are not exactly starting the swim fresh, rested, and ready.

In addition to the fact that they kick off the swim already physically
degraded, there are ten other factors that can, and do, make the
swim a Rousey-level smack down for those going through BUD/S.

Navy SEALs in training endure the cold water.

Cold water. That water is chilly, yall. The temperature can

range from some 50 degrees in winter to 70 degrees in summer. It
56
 aint never warm. It is sometimes notas cold. The swim took this author about four hours to complete. That is a
long time to spend in the cold water. But, hey, we got to wear wet suits, right? Yes, that did help some, but also
created

Chafing. Chafing is one of the most dastardly and insidious evils of BUD/S. Men chafe in spots they never
thought capable of irritating. One favorite friction spot is under the arms, near the armpit, when wearing a wet suit.
The thought even now makes me shiver. Imagine the friction occurring over the course of four hours, in the same
spot. But hey, at least it takes your mind off the

Boredom. There are not many activities that are fun to do for four straight hours. Swimming sure as hell aint one
of them. Find your happy place, friends, and set up camp there. Its gonna be a while. Although, one way to
prevent boredom is

Sharks. Yep, as if swimming 5.5 miles did not suck enough already, there is the possibility, however slight, that
you might be eaten by one of the numerous great white sharks known to frequent the coast of California. Four
hours is plenty of time for a giant, finned hunter to find you, sniff you out, and decide to take a bite. Nor does it
help when you are chumming for the sharks because you are suffering from

As if there wasn't already enough to worry about on your 5.5 mile swim.

Seasickness. Seriously? Yes, seriously. As if it is not enough to be cold, chafed, tired, and dreading having your
leg removed from your body by a large man-eater, some also have to deal with vomiting and nausea caused by
the rolling swells of the Pacific Ocean. This author was one who suffered from said seasickness. At the time, all I
could do was think to myself, I am chumming for sharks, and if one eats me, at least my swim will be over. Of
course, I had the hope that the vomit would be swept away quickly by the

Current. You guessed it, the Pacific Ocean does not remain placid most of the time. The water flows north and
south, depending on the time of day and other factors (I am no oceanographer), and you had better hope to God
you have the benefit of a friendly current for the majority of your swim. Otherwise you will be struggling to make
the time, and relying much more heavily on

Finning. Fins make it easy, right? On balance, yes they do. I would definitely rather have them than not.
However, anyone who has ever had to swim that far in fins can attest that, over time, it taxes the leg muscles. It is
a workout: a four-hour long flutter-kick workout. It can also lead to

Using fins is taxing on the legs.

Cramping. No matter how much water you try to

ingest before the swim, some cramping is inevitable.
One must simply hope that he does not suffer debilitating
cramps during the swim. Minor cramps are unavoidable.
If you have bad ones, then you might be relying on a tow
from your

57
 Swim buddy. Again, on balance, this author would rather have a swim buddy than lack one. At a minimum, he is
one other person who might get eaten before you, right? However, if your swim buddy slows down, gets cramps,
or otherwise prevents you from making the maximum time, you fail. That blows, and you have to push each other
to make it. Fortunately, driving you onwards is the knowledge that, at the end, you can eat. Because, my friends,
you are suffering from a mighty

Hunger. I do not know how many calories one burns on a 5.5-mile swim, but it has to be in the multiple
thousands. By the end, you will be ravenous. Thankfully, as you crawl out of the surf zone at the end of the swim,
you will be met by an instructor who, for once, is not torturing you. He will offer you two 2,000-calorie (each) Meals
Ready-to-Eat, and you will wolf down every bite. They will never taste so good again.

Read the original article on SOFREP. SOFREP is an apolitical news site run by former military special ops and
intelligence professionals. Become a member of SOFREP Underground. Copyright 2015.

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