Grown-ups make things way too complicated. This is the toddler’s approach to getting everything you want.

1. Mastering six words is enough
   Yes — No — Mama — Papa — That — Bah
   Those are all the words you need to get around and get things done.
   Variation in volume seems more effective than variation in vocabulary.
2. Don’t ask, just do
   If you want to do something, don’t ask, just do.
   If you want to have something, don’t ask, just get it.
3. Don’t listen, just don’t do
   If you don’t want to do something, simply don’t do it.
   If you don’t want to have something, simply don’t take it.
   Have it already? Drop it instantly.
4. Pointing gets the message across
   If you want something but can’t reach, just point and say “That”.
   If you don’t want something, point and say “No” or “Bah”.
5. Turning your body away gets the message across
   If you really don’t want something, turn your body away.
   Out of view is out of existence. Treat it as such.
6. Ardently waving and repeatedly saying “No” has effect
   If your parents decide that you have to do something and persist,
   turn away your body while waving your hand ardently at them.
   Now say “No” repeatedly and walk away.
7. Add screaming, tears and stamping your feet for more emphasis
   When your parents are really persistant,throw yourself on the ground.
   Start crying and screaming “No” loud and repeatedly.
   Stamp your hands and feet, throw stuff around.
   Slam doors and smash stuff.
   For added effect: do all of this in public spaces.

8. Make sure to spend your energy wisely
   Tantrums cost energy. Conserve it when there’s no obvious effect.
   Go full blown and flat out of your mind, when effect is guaranteed.

9. Saying “Papa” or “Mama” during a spontaneous hug afterwards works wonders
   After all of the above, walk towards your parents in a quiet moment.
   Climb on the couch, and hug them spontaneously and say “Papa” or “Mama”.
   This seems to erase all negative effects from the above instantly.

Passwords! My God, don’t you need a frigging shitload of them these days? I have a love/hate relationship with Digg, I keep forgetting the password I have there (it’s because they don’t allow special characters like ? @ ! &), forcing me to go through the annoying process of resetting it, confirming that via email, rethinking a new password, working my way through all the errors caused by special characters, compromising me in a password that I’m bound to forget again.

I was listing the passwords I use online, and it was plain scary. The list is enormous, and I haven’t even finished it yet (scroll down for the list). Argh!

A lot of them share passwords, because my brain capacity is limited (or I’m just too lazy to have different ones for each site). Most of them I use only once in a while, but some of them I use daily. And these are where you can put your passwords to work for you. You can turn them into a fun and productive event, rather than an annoying but necessary event.

Passwords you use frequently, should change frequently as well (how annoying is that!?). And they should be strong passwords too, if you care about the content they are protecting (or to satisfy the IT guidelines). This can sometimes be a real challenge, but with these simple tips you can turn them into assets, instead of a nuisance.

List your goals

This is something I’ve used a lot. Whatever goals you have, use them for your passwords. I’ve used passwords like:

• Finish2ndFloor!
• GrowBlogNow
• Get2500RSS

They’re pretty strong passwords, and when you’re typing them you get reminded instantly of what you want to achieve.

Prevent pitfalls of bad habits

When you log into one of your biggest time wasters for instance (IM, gaming, Twitter, Facebook, whatever), remind yourself that it’s a time waster. Use a passwords like:

• OneHourIsEnough (upper and lower case, not too bad)
• RUsure? (special character added, pretty strong)
• 1h=Q2>1h=Q4 (yay, Covey in action with a very strong password)

Learn spelling

Pick a word you have trouble spelling word and use that as a password. The sheer repetition will make sure you’ll never spell it wrong again.
Examples: Definitely – Opthalmology – Massachusetts – Prolificacy

Learn (a couple of words in) a foreign language

It can be fun to add some foreign words to your vocabulary. Want to know how to say beer in 20 langauges? Just look them up and use them as passwords:

• Spanish:Cerveza
• French:Biere (okay, accents are a problem)
• Italian:Birra

Or use the real translation:

• Merde=Damn
• Giornale=Newspaper
• Freizeit=LeisureTime

Extend your vocabulary

Use a new word and it’s meaning as the password. The trick is to find synonyms here, because the dictionary meanings tend to be long.

• Prolificacy=Fruitfulness
• Defiance=Resistance
• Superfluous=Redundant

Use affirmations

Affirmations are a popular technique to get you (back) in a productive state, or a harmonious state or whatever state you want to be in. In a lot of self improvement books the use of positive affirmations is advocated, but how often are you going to sit and read them out loud to yourself?

But if you use them as your passwords, you will repeat them often. Some examples:

• I’mFinanciallyFree
• IAm@Peace
• MyBodyVibratesWithEnergy

Have fun!

Admitted, it’s only a microhack. It’s not going to massively change your world, make you more productive, increase your IQ, expand your network or whatever. But it turns passwords into fun, and you might also learn something.

The sites I need passwords for:
So far I have: StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse, Facebook, Twitter, Twitterfeed (via OpenID), Reddit, Gaia (former Zaadz), MyBlogLog, WordPress.com, How to be an Original (admin interface), WordPress DIY (admin interface), Feedburner, Joe’s Goals, Flickr, iStockPhoto, several bank accounts (4), Paypal, Neteller, Dutch State Lottery, Gmail (google, thanks for sharing passwords across ALL services!!), Lotus Notes at work, Hosting at Argeweb, Hosting at GoDaddy, Cell phone account at Orange (2), Internet Provider, alumni network of former employer, bol.com, Amazon, Text Link Ads, Linkworth, YouTube, Revver, several online poker accounts (pokerstars, partypoker, and the likes) and counting…

A little story for you to enjoy and some questions afterwards:

A little bird got lost while flying and ended up flying over the north pole. The air was so cold that the little bird got all cold and crashed into the ground. Shivering of the cold, the little bird uttered weak chirps every now and then, hoping someone would come and rescue him.

A polar bear was nearby and heard the chirps of the little bird. Curious as he was he looked where the sound was coming from and found the little bird, all blue of the cold and shivering. The bear felt sorry for the little bird and wanted to help him. So he turned around, squatted and took a massive dump on the bird.

This startled the bird, now he was all covered in shit. What did this bear do!?

But then the warmth of the shit was slowly warming up the little bird, and he felt happier as his blood started to flow again. To show this he started to chirps some more and even sang an enthusiastic song.

Satisfied with helping out, the polar bear took off. The little bird was happy with the warmth and continued chirping and singing.

This was noticed by a polar fox who was nearby. Curious as he was he followed the sounds and found this little bird in a big pile of shit.

Now that was a funny and sorry sight, and the fox took the bird out of the pile of shit and washed him in some water to really clean him up. As soon as the bird was all warm and clean again, the fox ate him.

The morals of the story?

1) Someone who puts you in shit, isn’t necessarily an enemy.
2) Someone who takes you out of shit, isn’t necessarily a friend.
3) When you are in shit…please shut up!

Are there management lessons in this story? Hardly, yet my experience is that a lot of people recognize this in the organization they work for, or know friends that are in similar situations.

Do you recognize this behavior? Please share your story.
Is something missing in the organization that makes people do this?
What do you think is needed to stop it?

photo by CoffeeGeek

I enjoy drinking several cups of coffee a day, but I never really knew whether I should or should not drink this stuff. Is it bad for me, or is it good for me? Does it really have an effect, or do I think it has an effect? I know the latter can be true, as one of my former colleagues once said to feel much more awake after drinking a decaf (without knowing).

So to put an end to ignorance, I did some research. And it contradicts a little. So for your enjoyment, 5 reasons to drink coffee, and 5 to don’t drink it.

5 reasons to drink coffee

1. It heightens your senses
   Coffee has several effects on your awareness, your senses and your mental capabilities. Albeit on a short term only, there are no lasting effects. Coffee contains caffeine, but is also known to stimulate the production of cortisone and adrenaline. These are hormones that prepare your body for a fight or flight response.

   They make you very aware! But you can feel a little stressed out as well…

2. It protects against diabetes
   Drinking coffee reduces the risk of getting diabetes mellitus type 2. This is the type where body tissues become resistant to insulin. Obesity, among a lot of other factors, is currently a major cause for diabetes type 2.
   
   Drinking coffee reduces the risk up to 50% (when ingested at 7 cups a day), but it has a linear effect. So even a single cup of coffee a day, effectively reduces this risk a little.
3. It protects the brain
   It won’t make you smarter, but studies have shown that caffeine has a positive impact on protecting from brain diseases. In this study published by the Harvard School of Public Health a beneficial effect of caffeine was found for preventing Parkinson’s disease when consumed in moderate quantities, both for men and women. For women though, the effects needed more research (sorry…).

   But it doesn’t stop at Parkinson’s, there are also benefits for preventing Alzheimer and mild memory and thinking problems for older men (no women in the tests…sorry) in general. So for men: this might help!

4. It contains antioxidants
   Antioxidants are your friends! In short, they prevent free radicals from causing cell damage. This cell damage is related to aging processes, but also to many forms of cancer. There also seem to be relations to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer, schizophrenia and other diseases of the brain.

   And antioxidants prevent those free radicals from doing their destructive work. A certain antioxidant, methylpyridinium, has been found to specifically prevent colon cancer. Ain’t that great?

5. It makes and keeps you awake
   Coffee, or better caffeine, doesn’t take away the need for sleep. It just postpones it a little, by making sure you don’t feel you need to sleep. That’s tricky, because your body is still in need of sleep, but you’re fooling your mind into not feeling that sensation.

   But as long as you’re aware of this phenomenon, it can be very helpful at times. When you have to meet that deadline, or you have to drive that last half an hour to get home.

5 reasons not to drink coffee

1. It is addictive
   Caffeine is a drug the body gets used to very quickly, this process is called tolerance adaptation. If taken in large enough quantities (900 – 1200mg a day) this can lead to a partial or full tolerance in as quick as one to three weeks. An average cup of coffee contains 135mg of caffeine, so that’s 7 to 9 cups a day for an extended period of time.

   When you stop ingesting caffeine, you get withdrawal symptoms. Among those symptoms are headaches, irritability and generally being unable to concentrate. These symptoms fade away fairly quickly too though. Usually within a couple of days. But most likely, you’ll have a new fix with a cup of coffee before that happens

2. It disrupts sleeping patterns
   While this can be a benefit (see the section above), when taken to extremes coffee (or caffeine actually) can result in serious sleeping disorders. Two of them are linked directly to the caffeine, but there are more that have a correlation. They are classified as psychiatric disorders.
3. It increases cholesterol
   OK, usually it doesn’t. But when the coffee is made using the French Press method, the coffee contains oils that increase LDL cholesterol levels (that’s the bad one). This method of coffee making is popular among coffee lovers, as it has an authentic feel about it. But it is also commonly used among people that don’t drink coffee, as it’s a cheap way of being able to make coffee for guests.
4. It can cause headaches
   Caffeine can both treat headaches or cause them. If you consume caffeine in certain levels (around 500mg a day), you are prone to withdrawal effects when reducing the amount. One of those effects is a headache. Coffee usually is the main source for caffeine ingestion, but there are many other sources, like tea, chocolate, soft drinks and a lot of pain relieving medicine!

   The caffeine in those medicines, when used incorrectly or with too many other sources of caffeine, can lead to a phenomenon called rebound headaches. So if you suffer from headaches a lot, check your daily caffeine ingestion, you might take a tad too much.

5. It maintains unfair trade agreements with farmers
   This may not be a health related issue, but an issue nevertheless. The raw material for coffee, the coffee beans, are mainly purchased from farmers in developing countries. Unfortunately there are a lot of small coffee farmers, selling to a limited group of companies buying coffee. And the prices and conditions they get are not very fair.

   Thankfully there is an alternative with products that have been licensed by a Fair Trade organization. Fair Trade (or Max Havelaar) is a certificate that ensures that the coffee farmers have been paid a fair price for their product. This has many benefits for society in the developing countries, and it will only cost you a couple of cents extra.

My conclusion

I’ll be drinking my cups of coffee, but I’ll limit them to 3 or 4 a day. That gives me most of the benefits and keeps me clear of the potential downsides. Oh, and I’m drinking Fair Trade coffee whenever possible.

For those of you thinking that Decaf is the answer to most of the downsides, well it might be. But the decaffeinating process has several variants, most of which use rather nasty chemicals. So you might want to know what process is used…

For fun. Actions of people I actually observed during meetings and more or less in order of appearance. If you see this happening when you’re presenting, you are boring the people! Redo your story, redo your presentation or drop it altogether.

1. People start staring outside
2. People make strange faces suppressing a yawn
3. People start looking at their watch every 5 minutes
4. People start to review notes of past meetings
5. People start to discuss something whispering
6. People start processing notes in their calender or pda
7. People start to read and reply to text messages
8. People start to pour another cup of coffee
9. People start biting their nails and admiring the results
10. People are disassembling and reassembling their pen
11. People are drawing mindless drawings
12. People are yawning without any attempt to hide it
13. People start to pour another cup of coffee…for everyone
14. People start to fold papers in strange forms
15. People are cleaning their nasal cavities vigorously
16. People start daydreaming
17. People start looking at their watch…every minute
18. People are opening their laptops and start typing
19. People start to clean the table
20. People are falling asleep
21. People start to walk away

A trip down memory lane

I’m a sucker for video games. I played them a lot, starting with my brother way back in the 80’s on Apple and IBM clones with games like Apple Panic and Lode Runner. Lode Runner was really challenging, since we played that with paddles instead of a joystick or keyboard. We both had one paddle and we really had to cooperate all the time. One of us controlled vertical movement and filling of holes, and the other horizontal movement and digging holes. We had great times working our way through the levels.

Later came newer computers with newer games. We loved the adventures like the King’s Quest series, Leasure Suit Larry-series and the likes. They in fact formed a large part of our early lessons in English. We got very creative when we had to type in commands to get things done. Imagine the look on our parents faces when we were discussing what on earth we should do with a “Spanish fly”

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe brings back great memories as well, and Wolfenstein 3D was quite a hit too. After that the magic faded in time. Sure there were Doom, Quake and Duke Nukem 3D (deathmatch on university LAN…yeah!) loads of other games, but I grew old I guess and the wonder faded. I played games a lot, but after Quake II the video games disappeared pretty much from my field of view. Got an XBox two years back, loved it for a while, but it’s gathering dust in the mean time.

Last week I stumbled upon something new

When we visited family from my wife’s side, her nieces had a Nintendo DS. On it was the “game” Brain Age. I liked it! You already know I love lateral riddles and other brain training exercises. This was so much fun to do, shout colors in the stupid thing, solve sudoku, do simple math exercises as fast as you can and so on. I have to admit I tested at 38 instead of 31. So I’m more mature than I thought But less is better (so they say). I need to practice! That’s in the game as well, but if you want more there’s also Big Brain Academy for the DS.

The same game (or similar?) is also available for the other Nintendo console: Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. This version is meant for the Nintendo Wii, a very cool game console that sets people in motion. This is a game console that I might just buy, it would be a great combo to get some exercise and relax playing video games at the same time. And have a game to train your brain.

A very useful waste of time

My previous post with riddles turned out to be my most popular post so far. In the meantime all the riddles have been solved, so it’s time to present new ones. Enjoy!

1. She has tasteful friends
   And tasteless enemies
   Tears are often shed on her behalf
   Yet never has she broken a heart
2. What goes with a wagon that
   doesn’t benefit the wagon
   but the wagon cannot move without it?
3. Passed from father to son
   And shared between brothers
   Its importance is unquestioned
   Though it is used more by others
4. Never resting, never still
   Moving silently, hill to hill
   It does not walk, run nor trot
   All is cool where it is not
5. Though easy to spot
   When allowed to plume
   It is hard to see
   When held in a room
6. Brought to the table
   Cut and served
   Never eaten
7. Has feather
   But can’t fly
   Rests on legs
   But can’t walk
8. This side of a cat
   Has the most hair
9. What has keys that open no locks
   space but no room
   and you can enter but not go in
10. I am slim and tall
    Many find me desirable and appealing
    They touch me and I give a false good feeling
    Once I shine in splendor
    But only once and then no more
    For many I am “to die for”
11. This old one runs forever
    But never moves at all
    He has not lungs nor throat
    But still a mighty roaring call
12. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?
13. A man dies and arrives at the Pearly Gates of Heaven. He finds himself in a long corridor with two doors, and he knows that one leads to Heaven and one leads to Hell. However, he doesn’t know which is which! Sitting next to these two doors, at either end of the corridor, are two men: the truthful man and the liar. The liar is not deceitful, because he can’t help but lie when asked a question. However, the man can always rely on what the truthful man says. However, they look identical and he cannot tell which one is the liar and which one the truthful man. To find out which is the door to Heaven, he can ask either the man on the left or the man on the right just one question!
14. A traveller comes to a fork in the road which leads to two villages. In one village the people always tell lies and in the other village the people always tell the truth. The traveller needs to conduct business in the village where everyone always tells the truth. A man from one of the villages is standing in the middle of the fork, so there is no indication of which village he comes from. The traveller approaches the man and asks him just one question. From the man’s answer, he knows which road to follow.
15. You are visiting an island on which two tribes of natives live. One tribe has black soles and always lies; the other tribe has white soles and always tells the truth. There are three natives standing near you. You can’t see the bottoms of their feet, and indeed you find out it is extremely rude to look at another’s soles, but you are curious so you ask the first man, “Sir, what colour are your soles?” Now he happens to understand English, but he can’t speak it, so he replies in his native tongue, “Glub Glub.” You turn to the second man and ask, “Sir, what did he say?” The second man replies, “He said he has white soles.” Now to be sure, you turn to the third and ask, “Sir, what colour soles does this second man have?” The third man replies, “Sir, he has black soles.” Now the question is, what colour are the third native’s soles?
16. A man lives in the penthouse of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. Upon his return, however, he can only travel halfway up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way – unless it’s raining.
17. A police officer saw a truck driver clearly going the wrong way down a one-way street, but did not try to stop him. Why not?
18. There was once a recluse who never left his home. The only time anyone ever visited him was when his food and supplies were delivered, but they never came inside. Then, one storm winter night when an icy gale was blowing, he had a nervous breakdown. He went upstairs, turned off all the lights and went to bed. Next morning, he had caused the deaths of several hundred people. How?
19. You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you eat?
20. What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?
21. I never was, am always to be,
    No one ever saw me, nor ever will,
    And yet I am the confidence of all
    To live and breathe on this terrestrial ball.

Please post answers in the comments.

Warning! There will be spoilers and answers if you scroll down from this point.

Numbers 10 – 12 are from Riddles.com
Numbers 13 – 15 are from Creative Puzzels
Numbers 16 – 18 are from Lateral Thinking Problems
Numbers 19 – 21 are from Brain Food @ Rinkworks

Visit these sites for more riddles-fun. If you liked this post, I would appreciate a thumbs up on StumbleUpon very much!

Edward de Bono introduced the term Lateral Thinking. Nowadays it is used quite commonly. Lateral thinking requires an open mind and you need to be very aware of hidden assumptions. It’s an important skill in finding different solutions than the obvious ones to all kinds of questions. Einstein even took it a level deeper:

The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
- Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

Riddles are a good way to train your lateral thinking skills. Here’s a list of 21 riddles (Update: here’s 21 more)

1. The strongest chains will not bind it
   Ditch and rampart will not slow it down
   A thousand soldiers cannot beat it
   It can knock down trees with a single push
2. The one who made it
   Didn’t want it
   The one who bought it
   Didn’t need it
   The one who used it
   Never saw it
3. Buckets, barrels, baskets, cans;
   What must you fill with empty hands?
4. Five pieces of coal, a carrot and a scarf are lying on a hill near a
   remote house. Nobody put them on the lawn but there is a perfectly
   logical reason why they should be there. What is it?
5. Every creature in the world has seen it
   But to their dying day they’ll never see
   The same one again
6. Look in my face
   I am somebody
   Look at my back
   I am nobody
7. A man leaves home and makes 3 left turns.
   When he returns home he is met by two men
   one of whom is wearing a mask. Who are they?
8. We love it more than life
   We fear it more than death
   The wealthy want for it
   The poor have it in plenty
9. The light one breaks but never falls
   His brother falls but never breaks
10. Which four letter sport begins with a ‘T’ ?
11. Assume there are approximately 6,000,000,000 (6 billion) people on
    Earth. What would you estimate to be the result, if you multiply
    together the number of fingers on every person’s left-hands? (For the
    purposes of this exercise, thumbs count as fingers, for five fingers
    per hand.) If you cannot estimate the number then try to gues how long
    the number would be.
12. An archeologist proudly told that he had found four silver coins which, according to the inscription “649 B.C.”, should now be 2720 years old. The press considered him a fraud and a dreamer. Why?
13. He got it in the woods
    And brought it home in his hand
    Because he couldn’t find it.
    The more he looked for it
    The more he felt it. When he
    finally found it he threw it away.
14. This wondrous thing, though not
    An herb, can help comfort the weak
    And the dying. It can even be used to
    Rally the troops, or make one start
    Laughing or crying
15. A New York city hairdresser recently said that he would rather cut the hair of three Canadians than one New Yorker. Why?
16. This sparkling globe
    Can float on water
    And weighs no more
    Than a feather
    Yet despite its weight
    Ten giants could
    Never pick it up
17. How could a baby fall out of a twenty-story building onto the ground and live?
18. Whoever has it is angry
    Whoever loses it is even angrier
    Whoever wins it has it no more
19. This engulfing thing
    Is strange indeed
    The greater it grows
    The less you see
20. It can pierce the best armor
    And make swords crumble with a rub
    Yet for all its power
    It can’t harm a club
21. Today he is there to trip you up
    And he will torture you tomorrow
    Yet he is also there to ease the pain
    When you are lost in grief and sorrow

Please post your answers in the comments. I’m sure you’ll be able to solve all of them

Warning: If you scroll down from here, there are answers and spoilers in the comments!

Numbers 7, 10 and 12 are from Creative Puzzles
Numbers 4, 11 and 15 are from Lateral Thinking Problems
Visit their sites for a lot more riddles.

I have some challenging mazes for your brain training this time.

1. A huge collection of a variety of mazes both interactive as print-and-play
2. A 3D maze with rotating perspective
3. One billion mazes, yes you read it right 1.000.000.000 mazes
4. Two-circle mazes, use both to find the solution
5. Match symbols or colors as you go, some are very tough!

Have fun!