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Mindfire: Big Ideas For Curious Minds (2011)

by Scott Berkun(Favorite Author)

3.78 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0983873100 (ISBN13: 9780983873105)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Berkun Media

review 1: The tagline of big ideas is spot on, though the fact that this can easily be read on his blog detracts from its value-add somewhat. The notes at the end are a nice read though, to see the behind the scenes work of the essays.Take a moment to list your beliefs. If you're careful, you'll find wants lurking inside them. It's good to want things and fight for them, but misplaced belief is not the way to wisdom.Questions help us discover the ideas that bind us.It's good to think differently about life than you did before, it's a sign future progress is possible.How do you know what you know?Great teams and families help each other find truth, both in others and themselves, as sometimes the real deceptions we need to fear are our own.When you behave oddly on purpose, others feel... more more embarrassed than you do. They don't know how to respond, so they'll leave you alone.Most are worried more about standing out than enjoying this world. This is the challenge of indifference.They are fully present, and give us a chance to join them in the moment, but only if we stop to listen.I learned I could outwork people who were better than me, provided I converted my passion into work.If you want to find your passion, put yourself in different situations, with different people, and see how it makes you feel. Pay attention to your own sense of excitement, not others, and write down your responses. Some of what you try will bore you, some of it you'll hate. You may notice you take pleasure in something, but its the approval of others that's the source, and not the activity itself. But with each experience you'll have a growing sense of who you are, what you actually care about, and what you're good at doing.Pick something. Do it with all your heart. If you can't keep your heart in it, do something else.If all you know is judgement, that's all you'll express even when you're trying to love, and on it goes.To make a difference you simply need to question the value of what you're doing and do something about your answers.Annoy me with praise! It made me think about how many times I'd seen or read things that mattered to me, yet how rarely I had offered any praise.The gift of shared time.If you're not sure what you're doing, you're following.They're afraid of revealing themselves to others and are uncomfortable with being accountable for decisions that effect other people.Leading means you shape the opinions and decisions around the greater good of the project you are responsible for. This requires sacrificing your own interests and wants in favour of the project's needs, and the people who work on it. Of course it's possible to find ways to match your interests with the needs of the project, but it's the project, and the people on it, that comes first.The value of a leader is their positive effect on the team, not the force or power they have at their disposal.To be street smart means to have situational awareness. You can assess the situation you're in, who's in it, and the available angles.You'd have to risk all you care about to explore a new belief, which is scary. It's safer to avoid questions, or to pretend and keep your beliefs to yourself.Perhaps the true greatness, or a truly great person, is someone who does the right things for the right reasons without expecting grand rewards.Good criticism generally comes with some degree of humility and respect for the other equally valid points of view. The better the critic, the more holistic their sense of how their own perspectives and tastes fit into the diverse pool of informed opinion.It is entirely possible to offer criticism, commentary and advice without attaching negative energy.If you can't separate your personal preferences from more abstract analysis, you will rarely provide much useful feedback.Admitting you need help and asking for it often requires more courage than trying to do it on your own.If you saw something stupid happening, you were obliged to raise your hand and say "I think this is stupid" and explain why.An idea is a combination of other ideas.Creative people simply filter our fewer ideas than the rest of us.Half the challenge is experimenting to find out which ones work best, the other half is honouring them despite how inconvenient or unexpected they might be.The more open-minded, creative and courageous a group is, the wider the pool of ideas they'll be capable of exploring.Actually experience life by going to places you don't usually go, spending time with people you don't usually spend time with. Be in the moment and be open to it.Some call this wisdom, in that the wise know what to be thinking about, whereas the merely intelligent only know how to think.(On pool) He'd watch me miss easy shots because I tried to force them in with authority. I chose speed and power over control, and I usually lost.What matters are the deep, intimate moments that refuse division.If you participate in potentially intimate activities, like sports(?), conversation, or non-casual sex, treating them with split attention will inevitably make them non-intimate experiences.The compulsion for more is driven by lack of confidence in what we already have.Every important ambition for your life is best served by treating your attention with the conservation it deserves.To make God and faith about yourself violates the principles of every religion I've ever studied, yet it's common practice that goes uncriticised.
review 2: I got this book for free as a "gift" from the author himself via Twitter and I must say it really impressed me. You know that kind of things that you have no expectation and they turn out to be great?! That was exactly my feeling. I'm the kind of guy that really like questions and points of view and this book has a lot of it. And also a lot of silly jokes. I had lots of fun reading it and some nice insightful moments. less

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