Reading, Writing, and...more reading...

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I'm so sad that on the day I logged on without much thought and banged out a trifling post about "happiness" that some of my friends got impacted by the bankruptcy of the Epic Poker league.

It's all well and good to emote on what "happiness" may or may not be (and all, surely, just my opinion, you understand), but deep down we all know (whether we've ever heard of Maslow or not) that our most basic of needs have to be met before feelings of pleasure or satisfaction and contentment (i.e., "happiness") mean a whit.

Sadly, there's just not a lot of happiness going on in the poker industry these days. No wonder everyone's yelling and blogging serious, finger pointing posts, and hard hitting (ahem) vlogs! Indeed, it's hard out here for a playa, to paraphrase that old chestnut of an Oscar winning tune.

Martin over at Hard-Boiled Poker has a nice write up about the "epic fail." I'm looking forward to his thoughts on what he was initially going to tackle - a Village Voice article that discusses how Black Friday decimated livelihoods and a multi-billion dollar industry. Man, aren't we feeling those effects today...I hate it.

I'm now two weeks or so into my "no social media" fast and I can tell you I've learned some things during this time. I plan on sharing some of that with you at a later date, but suffice it to say that the "giving up" of anything generally just means you just fill it with something else. For me, that's meant I'm just doing a lot more reading. Of blogs and real books and e-books and even the back of cereal boxes, tbh.

One blog that I really enjoy is Brain Pickings. Spending some time there this week is what prompted yesterday's ill-timed happiness post (although I don't believe "happiness" can ever really be ill-timed, it can certainly be not-so-well-met, and given the news of Epic's bankruptcy, well...you know what I mean).

I point you to the site (that I ultimately just bookmarked) because they've always got stuff that makes me think. Today's post, in particular, has a nice listing of books that I'm putting on my "To-Read!" list (scroll down, under the third poster, the recommendations begin).

On Tuesday, I posted a link to a Seth Godin manifesto about education. In it, Godin highlights his belief that in today's uber connected world, reading and writing are the two skills most likely to "pay off with exponential results."

Now, I'm not sure exactly what he means by that, but I do get that

...reading is the way we open doors. If our economy and our culture grows based on the exchange of ideas and on the interactions of the informed, it fails when we stop reading.

Right now, I'm in the middle of a few books (ADD much?), but two are keeping my interest. One is Lisa Bloom's "Think" and the other is Gary Vaynerchuk's "Crush It." And, of course, I continually read and re-read Tendler's "Mental Game of Poker" (online poker is coming back, people. Someday...).

At any rate - there are some good works on the Brain Pickings site and I figured I'd shine a light on the listing in case anyone else might enjoy a good read during these dark days of poker in which we find ourselves.

What about you? What are you reading? Why are you reading it/liking it?

I'm always looking for good reads (and a good old-fashioned trash/beach novel is always welcome, too!) so share 'em with me! Please? For reals...this is how I'm filling my off social media time, so...help a sista out!

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The Other Side of Fear is Passion

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We’re entering a revolution of ideas while producing 

a generation that wants instructions instead.

Doing some reading while I'm off the twitters, and came across this great "manifesto" from Seth Godin. It's long, but totally worth your time. Really. Take a look...I think you'll like it.

As a parent of a kid in public school, it's definitely got me thinking. This kid...she's got two parents who love her a lot and who want her to do well, to be happy, to find her passion and stop at nothing to achieve it.

She's 7. She has piano lessons and a skateboard. A bike and two dogs. She takes an art class and plays basketball. She's got opportunities. But what will she do with them? What can she do with them? How do we help her find and nurture her own passion, to love learning for the sake of learning, to dream her own dreams and to desire and develop her own initiative rather than crave (or settle for) instruction? Especially in a world where easy and settling is the status quo.

This "manifesto" makes you think.

You know how when you're actually excited about something, you're leaning forward in your chair, eager to experience more of whatever it is you're experiencing? You go out of your way to learn more about it because it moves you, captivates you, hits all your cylinders? Godin calls that "forward leaning posture" and he believes it's teachable.

Really? Passion is teachable? What a concept.

He also talks about what he calls The Bing Detour, the Bing search engine created by Microsoft and installed as the homepage on most PCs. Turns out, the number one search term on Bing for 2011 was "Google," and then, once the user got to Google, the next most popular search term was "Facebook."

Instead of bookmarking or using the address bar at the top of the browser (or even just outright changing the home page in their settings), Godin says people:

...don’t look for tips or ways to break or open or fix or improve. They self-describe as Dummies and give up, not for lack of genetic smarts, but for lack of initiative and because of an abundance of fear. They weren’t sold on a forward-leaning posture when it comes to technology, so they make no effort, acting out of fear instead of passion. For the rest of their lives.

Ugh...right?

Right now, Godin implies, people don't care, because the don't have to. The way to save the written word, intellectual discourse, and reason is to train kids to care.

So. How do we do that?

Obedience + Competence ≠ Passion

I love this. 

Remind me I said this when my kid turns 16 (or 12...whatever). 

For now, though. Go read this manifesto!

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