Shanti’s Dispatches

Or — as I like to say (quoting some Zen dudes) — Eat when hungry, sleep when tired.

Several months ago, there was a huge linkfest on the lifehack/43folders blogs about Polyphasic sleep.

While I had never really heard of this term before, it sounded an awful lot like a sleep pattern I found myself drifting into when I was doing my own thing for about 6 months, back a year++ ago. (No regular 9-5 gig or any set work schedule to speak of.)

The Edisonian Sleep Schedule

Basically, I found myself drifting into a very Edisonian sleep schedule consisting of lots of little naps combined with a longer rest every 30 hours or so.

Some people’s biological clocks, I believe, are just not hard-wired for the 24-hour daily cycle that your typical 9-5 work environment demands. (I’ve written about this before but just wanted to revisit upon it… since running “virtual companies” via telecommuting & more flexible schedules is a topic I feel passionately about.)

People who do seem to be hard-wired for a set 9-5 schedule, or have possibly just conditioned themselves for this environment, cannot seem to understand the fact that maybe other people only need 4-5 hours of sleep at night, but might require some downtime naps (like Edison) of 20-30 min. throughout the day.

Out of Whack

The problem for Zen/Polyphasic sleepers occurs when you get out of whack with everyone else… and are waking up from your longer rest at 2am. Well, even if you try and get a nap in before the 9-5 rush… you’re still going to be dragging when 5pm rolls around. Especially if the possibility of a quick mental defrag by laying down to rest is not an option.

If you’re in NYC or Tokyo, you might be able to rent a sleep pod.

Of course, that’s not exactly the same as walking fifteen feet into the other room and crashing, but I guess it could do in a pinch.

Steve Pavlina’s Polyphasic Experiment

Steve Pavlina has reported back on his Polyphasic sleep experiment after 60 days. He seems like an incredibly disciplined guy, so I had no doubt, if it was working out for him, that’d he’d be able to pull it off. (unlike many others who reported that they tried and “failed”)

Like Steve, I’ve found that once you get used to this schedule, It’s tough to go back. In the future I’ll have to try his suggestions of cutting down on the meat & caffeine. The biggest problem I’ve found is having the discipline and ability to time your schedule so that you can workout / attend classes if that’s a goal of yours.

Sure, you can go for a jog 24 hours a day in many neighborhoods, but you’ll have to be up at the right time to hit that Yoga class.

Postscript

While googling for the funny T-Shirt slogan, Alarm Clocks Kill Dreams to end this post with, I discovered that the once funny catch-phrase has been co-opted by the humorless Work Less Party.

It’s not about the work, silly rabbit, it’s about pursuing the kind of work you love … in the way that you love to work.

[+] My review of Peopleware on All Consuming

Sorry, it must.

I realize it might be a great business model. Maybe it’s just the way it’s bantied about… either I’m not getting the sarcastic nature of each reference to “user-generated content,” or I’ve just lost my capitalistic, web 2.0 edge.

Someone pitching a VC on their new user-generated content play:

See, mr VC - here’s my business plan idea. All these naive users of ours are silly enough to generate ‘user content,’ that is, ‘user-generated content’ for us. We then monetize said content by providing an Open API into our ad-serving system, while leveraging existing exigencies and core competencies of AdSense and other third-party systems. You see, it’s all very open. We’re an ‘open source business.’

Here’s a question: when was the last time you generated some content?

Is that what I’m doing now? Is that what I’m doing over on my Flickr account?

Sorry, it may just be the wording. But ick.

…next post will be less ranty, I swear!

Whenever I keep hearing about a book, from multiple trusted sources, it’s always a clear signal to me that I should check it out.

This was the case with Robert B. Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

It appears on Joel’s Book Recommendations page as well as the newly revised Personal MBA list by Josh Kaufman.

After reading the first third of the book, I’ve developed a nauseating feeling… thinking back on all the times I’ve been unwittingly duped by psychological mind tricks. (whether the parties knew they were using these or not… most likely not)

… that, as well as noticing all the times where I’ve attempted to use such techniques, not fully knowing what I was doing at the time.

This generally relates to working with people, such as our Human Capital Investment Group, Menlo Park 2.0, the Niner Niner weblog network, and other various ventures that involve recruiting, building and championing a team.

More and more… especially after reading this book, I’ve realized that I don’t want to have to resort to any mind tricks. (consciously or not)

I just want to do a few things, and do them well. These are:

• Build Something That People Love
• Build Something That People Use Regularly and Willingly (duh!), and Love to Tell Their Friends About
• Keep Making It (the Something) Better and Better Over Time

There. No jedi mind tricks. Just a simple formula…

… that’s incredibly hard to achieve in practice.

Assert(Simple != Easy);

Just saw this article on Boing Boing about “lifestyle center” shopping malls.

Mark Frauenfelder quotes this Slate piece by Andrew Blum:

More incredibly, lifestyle centers do all the things that urban planners have promoted for years as ways of counteracting sprawl: squeeze more into less space, combine a mix of activities, and employ a fine-grained street grid to create a public realm‚Äîa “sidewalk ballet,” in Jane Jacobs’ alluring phrase. The irony is almost too perfect: Malls are now being designed to resemble the downtown commercial districts they replaced. What sweet vindication for urban sophisticates!

Not quite. Lifestyle centers are privately owned space, carefully insulated from the messiness of public life. Desert Ridge, for example, has a rigorous code of conduct, posted beneath its store directory. The list of forbidden activities includes “non-commercial expressive activity”‚Äînot to mention “excessive staring” and “taking photos, video or audio recording of any store, product, employee, customer or officer.” “Photos of shopping party with shopping center d√©cor, as a backdrop,” however, are permitted.

As a resident of Phoenix (who has visited the Kierland Commons and Desert Ridge marketplace, as discussed in the article), I can assure you that people are not being “duped” into visiting a mall.

In Phoenix, it’s not like you’re just walking along a bustling Manhattan-esque avenue, and come upon one of these “lifestyle centers.”

Any drive to a center (*cough* mall) like this requires a good 20+ minute commute from just about anywhere in the valley.

If you’re visiting one of these, it’s not like you don’t expect to do some shopping, eating, or other various mallish / commercial activities.

As for the rules like “non-commercial expressive activity” - I don’t know about that one. I’ve never seen a street performer, anywhere, period, in my time here in Phoenix. So I’m not sure what their reaction would be if someone like that setup shop in their strictly pro-capitalist agenda “lifestyle centers.”

My honest take? Another Slate reporter drumming up an article on a non-issue. Welcome to Suburbia, mate. Stick to NYC if you can’t deal with the corporate sprawl of the rest of America.

If the previous two posts were utterly lost on you (or you disagree vehemently),

Warning: you may have been fooled by randomness.

Proceed cautiously.

Your best guesstimates of the local optima turn out to be true (as of now), and can be agreed upon.

… Only optimizations over a given set of variables.

Heck, they’ve already done it with search, mail and maps - why not calendaring?

One blogger has noted some heavy traffic on his Church’s calendar website.

Apparently, the iCal calendaring standard really makes Googlebot horny baby, YEAH!

People, let’s all just sit down one of these goddamned days, wake up, and smell the fucking coffee. We’re all just a bunch of Napoleons, even if we go the pacifist route and let the world swallow us up whole. Either way, we’re trying to prove something to someone, to “win” in whatever weird kind of way we all choose to go about doing it.

I’m a man, I need missions to get me through the day. We no longer kill wild beasts and drag them back to our base camp with the subtle intention of being the alpha male to impress that one hot tribal chick who skins the animal hides and always seems to be batting her eyelashes at you. No, we don’t do that anymore. But that doesn’t mean that that human animal is no longer part of me, dwelling just beneath the surface of my 21st century Billabong / Gap jeans costume. I’m fucking tired of denying that reality. You should be too. Get over it. We’re fucking animals. We have equal capacity for compassion and cruelty. When someone threatens to destroy us, we fight back and destroy them. This is the nature of survival. Bring it on, world.

Ani Difranco - Napoleon

they told you your music
could reach millions
that the choice was up to you
you told me they always
pay for lunch
and they believe in what i do
and i wonder
if you miss your old friends
once you’ve proven what you’re worth
yeah i wonder
when you’re a big star
will you miss the earth

and i know you would always want more
i know you would never be done
‘cuz everyone is a fucking napoleon
yeah everyone is a fucking napoleon

and the next time
that i saw you
you were larger than life
you came and you conquered
you were doing alright
you had an army
of suits behind you
and all you had to be was willing
and i said i still
make a pretty good living
you must make a killing
a killing

and i hope that you are happy
i hope at least you are having fun
‘cuz but everyone is a fucking napoleon
yeah everyone is a fucking napoleon

now you think, so that is
the way it’s gonna be
that’s what this is all about
i think that that is
the way it always was
you chose not to notice until now
yeah now that there’s a problem
you call me up to confide
and you go on for over an hour
’bout each one that took you for a ride

and i guess that you dialed my number
‘cuz you thought for sure that i’d agree
i said baby, you know i still love you
but how dare you complain to me

everyone is a fucking napoleon
yeah everyone is a fucking napoleon

Baby, I’m an Anarchist

Through the best of times,
Through the worst of times,
Through Nixon and through Bush,
Do you remember ‘36?
We went our seperate ways.
You fought for Stalin.
I fought for freedom.
You believe in authority.
I believe in myself.
I’m a molotov cocktail.
You’re Dom Perignon.
Baby, what’s that confused look in your eyes?
What I’m trying to say is that
I burn down buildings
While you sit on a shelf inside of them.
You call the cops
On the looters and piethrowers.
They call it class war,
I call it co-conspirators.

‘Cause baby, I’m an anarchist,
You’re a spineless liberal.
We marched together for the eight-hour day
And held hands in the streets of Seattle,
But when it came time to throw bricks
Through that Starbucks window,
You left me all alone.

You watched in awe at the red,
White, and blue on the fourth of july.
While those fireworks were exploding,
I was burning that fucker
And stringing my black flag high,
Eating the peanuts
That the parties have tossed you
In the back seat of your father’s new Ford.
You believe in the ballot,
Believe in reform.
You have faith in the elephant and jackass,
And to you, solidarity’s a four-letter word.
We’re all hypocrites,
But you’re a patriot.
You thought I was only joking
When I screamed “Kill Whitey!”
At the top of my lungs
At the cops in their cars
And the men in their suits.
No, I won’t take your hand
And marry the State.

‘Cause baby, I’m an anarchist,
You’re a spineless liberal.
We marched together for the eight-hour day
And held hands in the streets of Seattle,
But when it came time to throw bricks
Through that Starbucks window,
You left me all alone.