My Perspective Josh Waitzkin is the child prodigy Junior Chess Champion whose early life formed the book, and later the film, Searching for Bobby Fischer. In his early twenties Waitzkin’s focus moved from chess to martial arts, specifically Tai Chi. He subsequently went on to win several US national medals and become the 2004 world champion in Taiji Push Hands. I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of either chess or martial arts so you might…
Introduction: Giving blood is something I have thought about doing a number of times over the years but never seemed to find time to actually do it. I finally managed to break a habit of a lifetime when I booked an appointment in December 2016, and had my first experience giving blood a couple of months ago. It wasn’t until the time approached that I started to look into the benefits of doing so, obviously there were the altruistic reasons,…
Introduction It often feels that not a day goes by without reading about another scary prediction that robots, artificial intelligence (AI) and other types of intelligent technology are going to rise up in the next few years, taking over our jobs, then our minds and reducing humanity to nothing more than a pet or play thing of super intelligent technology. Whilst this a somewhat tongue in cheek opening line, the headlines and articles – from highly credible sources – aren’t…
Introduction Incrementalism is truly awesome and despite the relatively significant press coverage it has received in recent years, too few people really understand it or know how to harness the power of it. What is Incrementalism? Wikipedia defines it as: ‘a method of working by adding to a project using many small incremental changes instead of a few (extensively planned) large jumps’ My renewed interest in incrementalism was sparked by listening to an excellent Freakonomics podcast episode; ‘In Praise of Incrementalism’. It reminded me…
Introduction: On a holiday to Cote D’Azur in 2016, a post on which you can find here, I finally had the time to read Nassim Nicholas Talebs thought provoking book ‘Antifragile’, available to buy here. His book is part philosophical thesis, part whinging and complaining, however reviewing it in detail is not the scope of this piece. The focus of this piece is on the role of optionality and the importance of having optionality to be antifragile, leading to a…
Introduction: This book was gifted to me by a family member around 5 years ago, and although I read it around 3 years ago, I only recently stumbled across my notes. Having this gap between reading the book and reviewing my notes was really interesting, as it provided me with the opportunity to understand what content from the book I’d naturally kept and what I’d forgotten, fortunately more was remembered than I expected! Whilst I am not currently investing in…
Introduction Skiing is not only incredibly fun, it’s also very physically demanding and can help you (even force you!) to focus on muscles and exercises you often neglect when engaged in other sports, for example flexibility and joint support. When you hit the slopes in Europe the chances are you have spent the Christmas period over-indulging and you’re not in your usual physically optimum condition. This is a position I’ve found myself in more than a few times, so I decided…
Introduction There is so much information available relating to weight loss it is ludicrous, especially around this time of year. In a quick 5 minute google search you can have different sources claiming opposite things are the very best for losing weight, most are absolute rubbish. I fully appreciate that by publishing this article I am adding to the volume, but I’m hoping to make it obvious and easy to understand, helping people to see the wood between the trees….
Introduction The aim of this blog is to explain the three reasons why I think podcasts are so useful and why everyone should listen to them. In short these are: The fact they are free They don’t require a constant internet connection You get a large spectrum of content After covering each of these in more detail, I’ll explain when I listen to podcasts and why, showing you how they can easily be fitted into your busy day. Back in…
Introduction We are taught from a very young age that we should say ‘yes’ to things and embrace the positive outcomes associated with saying ‘yes’. Saying ‘yes’ makes you a fun, courageous, dedicated, social and risk-taking person. Equally we are actively discouraged from saying ‘no’ and as such there are a number of negative connotation associated with saying ‘no’. These negative connotations include being classed as: selfish, lazy, boring and uninteresting. I want to challenge these stereotypes, not to argue…