My favorite TED talks - happiness, future, learning, people, life and lifelong learning

One of my hobby is watching TED talks.

Robert Thurman: We can be Buddhas
Matthieu Ricard: The habits of happiness

Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days
David Steindl-Rast: Want to be happy? Be grateful

Ken Robinson: How schools kill creativity
Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!
Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley

Ray Kurzweil: Get ready for hybrid thinking
Ray Kurzweil: A university for the coming singularity
Ray Kurzweil: The accelerating power of technology

Shai Rashef: An ultra-low-cost college degree

Clint Smith: The danger of silence

Amanda Palmer: The art of asking

Jamie Oliver: Teach every child about food

Apollo Robbins: The art of misdirection

Dan Pacholke: How prisons can help inmates live meaningful lives

Michael Shermer: Why people believe weird things

Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness
Dan Gilbert: Why we make bad decisions
Dan Gilbert: The psychology of your future self

Ben Dunlap: The life-long learner

Lean management, links, and resources

Since I read a book about the lean manufacturing at Toyota I've fallen in love with the idea of lean management. I'm not an expert of lean manufacturing, I just decided to collect the references for everyone who also interested in this topic. 

The core idea is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. (source: Lean Enterprise Institute)

YouTube
TOYOTA Lean Manufacturing
Four Principles Lean Management - Get Lean in 90 Seconds
Lean manufacturing Boeing

Lean manufacturing: Picking activities and kanban line events

To be continued..

Language learning info, websites, ideas, and so on..

I decided to learn new languages. Why? Why not? Just for fun.

My favorite videos about language learning:

• How to learn any language in six months: Chris Lonsdale at TEDxLingnanUniversity
• 5 techniques to speak any language: Sid Efromovich at TEDxUpperEastSide

My favorite tools:

• duolingo.com

Useful websites:

• Fluent forever 
• ielanguages.com free tutorials
• How to Learn Any Language in Record Time and Never Forget It

Language learning training videos:

• Speak English With Misterduncan

Blogs

• English with a Twist - A Blog About Learning The English Language

I will add more later.

Personal efficiency trick that I learnt from Tim Ferriss

Optimize your day

In an effort to actually get work done, I'm testing a new email policy. I'm checking and responding to email only twice a day at 11am and 4pm.

If you need a response before one of these two times, for anything urgent, please call me on my cell phone.

Thanks for understanding this move to greater effectiveness and efficiency.

Spirituality and business. Does your company still makes you happy?

How does a spiritual company look like? How does the spirituality fit into the business life? Market, money, sales, margin and spirituality, can they live together at all? Is it possible to build a spiritual business? Is it possible to change an existing business to a spiritually driven business? If yes, then how?

What do you do when you live spiritual life?
- you are grateful
- you are helpful
- you are mindful
- you love
- you are peaceful
- you are aware
- you let the life flow
- you accept what the life brings in
- you know happiness is a journey
and so on and on.

Let's assume the company is yours and you have all the rights to change everything if you want within your company. In this case the good news is that everything starts with you, and it is easier than you would think.

Step back a little, and think over the main purpose of your company. Why do you do what you do? Mission, vision and values? Check if these are aligned to your spiritual life? Products? Customers? Projects? Your people, your partners? Atmosphere of the meetings? How does the daily routine look like now and how do you want to see it in your new spiritual company? Change the strategy if required. Make new high level goals if required. Ask yourself a question if your company still makes you happy?

Perfect day

Wake up between 6-7
Breakfast 7-8
Fitness 7-9
Quick tasks 9-12
Siesta 14-15
Self study, language learning 15-18 or Physical work 15-19
Intellectual awakening 20-22
Go to sleep 22-

The fire maker

The fire maker

A few thousands years ago the fire maker was one of the most valued people of the society. The ability to control the fire to generate heat and light made it possible for everyone to live more comfortable life to eat more delicious foods and not last but least to stay warm on cold nights and days. Nowadays if we want fire we need to press a button and the fire is on. We could change the temperature of the room with our mobile device if we had a modern house.
We don't need fire makers anymore, but what if you are a fire maker? All you know is how to make fire. All you know is how to keep the ember live. All you know is how to make the next fire, but that is all. Your skills are the skills of the fire maker. What can you do these days?