I'm just back after a nice trip to Hyderabad. I talked to the company who developed the multimedia courses for the portal. I also met a bunch of people to talk about the portal and see if they were interested in it. I'm quite enjoying this task of marketing the portal - kind of work I've not done before. One of the groups I talked to was WASSAN, a very nice group of people. Curiously, several past connections came alive during the talk with them. They also work closely with Timbaktu.
I also visited a chap at the Administrative Staff College of India, a curious organisation housed in a very regal oldstyle building. I talked to some of Siddhu's professors at his college without a great deal of success. Siddhu has been very interested in my portal marketing efforts and gave me some good ideas :-)
Perhaps the most interesting thing I came across in Hyderabad was a book that I bought after casually browing at a bookstore: "What do I do when I want to do everything?". Its about a personality type that the author names "Scanners". These people have too many things that interest them and they are not able to focus on thing and feel guilty/frustrated etc. The book's theme is to embrace the gifts of being able to find so many things interesting and manage creatively to embrace all your interests instead of making a choice. The book struck a strong chord in me immediately. Palls -- you MUST check it out immediately. Some of the symptoms that the book mentioned are very very typical of you. A curious thing is how books are customised to different countries nowadays -- the subtitle for the book on Amazon is : "A revolutionary programme for doing all that you love", but my copy says "A Leading Life Coach's Guide to Creating a Life You'll Love"
8 comments:
i tend to be a bit suspicious of self-help books (excuse the phrase). not because the problems we face are "deep" but, rather, because often the solutions suggested are "shallow". it often seems like a random draw (from several personality features) that the author wants you to accept or cherish or whatever. you can almost see the niches being filled as authors keep targeting these various personality features. if feature x is a "problem" its rarely that x occurs in isolation. understandably, in these books, things are usually dealt with in isolation. but that means either the problem gets replaced by a variant of the original or doesn't get addressed at all.
sometimes i wish i had some remaining naivete about these things...
I am *very* suspicious about self-help books myself, something that didn't come across at all in my post. But I dunno, sometimes something clicks, and it did for me with this book.
Here's my way of looking at it: most 'problems' are deep and the only real way to understand them is self-awareness so you see the way you react to events and people and that knowledge itself is powerful enough to trigger fresh responses instead of the same dead-ends. But sometimes, change can be easier -- someone who can provide some ideas or techniques that work for you, but that you just didn't or couldn't have thought of yourself.
I think both you guys are full of yourselves and full of shit.
Here's the problematic thinking that you both suffer from - "I am so cool, I dont fit into any box, no common solutions for me please, my problems are deep, so please send me to the vip room of the mental hospital." In reality, none of the problems you face are deep and the solutions to them are surprisingly simple. Patro, just get over your dumb aesthetic hangups and you will experience a whole new world. Despo, get rid of your deep seated need to feel cool about yourself and you too will experience a whole new world.
Now regarding self help books, the right attitude to deal with them is to ask yourself is there anything useful to take away - not is there a ready made solution for me. Part of the reason you find them shallow is that you confuse shalloweness with familiarity. The solution is a familiar one, and just because you have not implemented the familiar solution you call the solution shallow.
On one count, of course, you are right. You both need self help books less than others because I can set you straight with my precise assessment and treatment for your magnificient array of stupidities. Not only am I full of myself, I also love being that way. As the great Smullyan might say - the Tao is egoistic not ego assertive.
Arvind
Palls -- kindly shut up and read the book.
Your request was considered but denied.
Arvind
Now I am all curious, so list some of the things that you thought were "very very typical of me" - so I can muster enought enthusiasm to go read the book.
Arvind
The thing that was very very typical of you is that I (and presumably other people) are cynical about you and greet a new enthusiasm of yours with a : "I know he'll never develop it to any extent". And yes, you indeed don't, but the book is about being comfortable with that and letting yourself explore as your interests dictate. Perhaps you already do that -- certainly when I try to needle you about starting something new, you never seem to let that bother you. But perhaps it does at some level in your thinking in which case you might want to pursue this.
Here are some random quotes from the book.
"I'm fascinated by something new every week"
"I start so many things but finish almost none of them"
"I enjoy finding out how to do new things but get bored once I understand them"
"Few things are more demoralising than believing you're running your life the wrong way and feeling helpless to change it. If you keep failing at your attempts to be like all the "normal" people around you, you might often feel like a misfit or even a failure.
Scanners can't have fewer interests. Holding them back is like tying an athlete to a chair or putting a 2 year old child in a small confined space.
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