Biggest worries

One of my biggest worries always was to get the children born healthy and sane. Now, with the birth of our second child I am very happy and thankful that both are well.

Thinking of the family I do notice that it is extremely important to me that my loved ones stay well - healthy, sane and happy.

But the other very, very important thing mostly underestimated while everything runs (still) fine: Having a job is a key major need and doing a good job is the best insurance of keeping it.

Remaining without a regular work / day job is one of my key worries. It is a requirement to get settled with your family and have enough money/resources for food, roof, clothes and medical support.

The next biggest worry is that my loved ones get ill, rubbed or knocked down for example. I want to know them being sane and save. Having a good job and enough income is a key requirement to get everything needed for a living.

Although quite logical and most should know, sometimes I have the impression that people's life is so full of things that the most primary priorities lack attention...

Related posts: The most important things to know, Knowledge is freedom.

Knowledge is Freedom

You might have noticed that I currently do less posts on this blog lately. This is not due to less interest or that I don't have opportunities to learn general lessons of life. - The reason is: I am in a heavy upgrade of my knowledge in the branch of my main profession - the IT.

In relation to that I want to point out some general important considerations:

1. Knowledge is creating/increasing job security!
   In a downturn many people fear to get laid off. People with a high level of knowledge simply have a higher value for a company (if the knowledge is not just focused in a very limited area - although even this can make sense).
   
   
2. Knowledge is creating more options!
   Expanding your knowledge is opening your mind to other - new - things in general. Especially when gathering knowledge in other (completely) new areas you get a more complete view of the world. You begin to see more and more options: More options to solve a single problem, more job opportunities, more benefits and even risks - that all helps you to find your way in life that fits best for you.
   
   
3. Knowledge is boosting creativity and efficiency!
   Especially when you get more knowledge in very different areas of life you are increasing your creativity because of the linking of different approaches taken in different branches or areas. For instance physicians often look at biology to find more efficient solutions in their realm. By getting more creative you also find better options for using your time efficiently.

There are some side effects of knowing much that you may like, such as:

• When learning you have the opportunity to get in touch with other people.
• Your opinion is appreciated when people begin to notice that you know much.
• You get more self-esteem and feel more inner security.
  

Some of the challenges are:

1. Work-Life-Balance
   To get more knowledge often implies that you have to gather that outside of your daily job - in the evenings, nights or early mornings. While the family can often understand that for a while, you most likely get into trouble, if it gets usual that you spend your spare time more working than dedicating to your family.
   
   
2. Overwhelming amount of knowledge
   The more you know the more you get aware how tiny your knowledge is. There is not enough time to gather and learn all available knowledge (not talking about the not-yet-available knowledge). So: You have to choose wisely what to learn to not waste your time!
   
   
3. Efficiency in learning
   There are several different approaches to learn something new: Read books, ask experts (coaching), take courses, play around and try (experiment), ...
   Attending a course is not always the wisest choice, especially if you want to offer a unique service or product as a follow-up. In many cases, if you want to be at the frontline of some new technology or movement there is either not much offer in courses or books.

Related posts: The most important things to know, Transferable know-how, Hunting for degrees, Information overflow, Show respect to the team, What to learn from the Borg, Biggest worries.

Peoples history

It happens so easily that we label other people being idiots or behaving in a strange way. A broad minded way of looking at others is often missing and we are often not very "fault-tolerant" when it comes to our social living.

Just to give an example: How often does it happen that you drive by car and find yourself arguing about others in front or behind you doing stupid maneuvers?

Usually we look at people (or even on everything else also) in a quite limited way. While labeling others we put our own limited view and experience onto them and on this poor base we start with heavy interpretation and wild guessing.

But we usually know very little to nothing about the personal history and experience of others (even of our friends and neighbours)!

Prior to labeling and criticizing others we should do a lot of listening and asking for reasons! Maybe we can learn a lot!

Related post: Crappy Guesswork.

Ice Age

When I heard Al Gore talking about the global warming a good while ago (therefore I can't find the link again of that particular talk), something that kept being on my mind since then is:

While he was explaining world history, melting of ice and the increase of temperature he also mentioned that a next step (talking in millions of years) after a global warming is an ice age.

So, if we do now have have to expect a global warming of a size and speed that never has happened before in world history - couldn't it be possible that the next step is following as fast?

If I think of control engineering and if I would be able to control the world, what would I do NOW? - Knowing that people created massive reasons for global warming, I would do everything to cool down the world. - Al Gore mentioned that after global warming the typical way weather happens then change and all the ice is rebuilt (not only on the poles). So if I would be mother nature I would already in advance do some change to advance too much of global warming.

When people talk about global warming I often get the impression that people believe that world reacts very slowly to all changes and is always behind. I don't think that changes in the world are always just lacking behind.

What, if the triggers for the next ice age already have been initiated? What if our massive contribution to causes of global warming are already also triggering the next ice age in the same speed?

Being like a child

In personal development blogs I read a lot about being like a child increases creativity and happiness for example. I have also seen people having serious psychological problems when growing up and facing an increasing amount of worries.

Indeed, when remembering childhood I can recall fewer worries than later on when in a relationship, in business world or after starting a family. But the point is that there were not less reasons to worry when I was a child. I was just not aware of them! - I could have worried about my future job, if I would earn enough money to keep my family fed and so on. Growing up I got aware of more and more things that can go wrong, more and more important decisions that could be life changing.

Returning to be like a child for me in some way would seem like just fading out most of the worries I am now aware of. And in fact some people when facing themselves in the middle of job, family and future worries, get into midlife crisis or just put their had in the sand (or their nose into the alcohol or whatever).

The blogs or people recommending to return being a child do mean particular properties that children usually have, such as curiosity, being themselves (what they say and do fits together), worry less etc. - But I think that you can't tear these things out of context. You usually can't do something experiencing just the positive and not the negative aspects that come with your decision. For example: With the comfort of going by car you have to refuel it which costs money. Or a more related example: "The all done status" - I am usually the more happy the more I feel that I have the impression that all my duty has been done. I had that impression much more often in childhood than nowadays. But in reality there were a lot more things uncertain and not finished in those times. I just did not know. I could have said that it is just not the right time for more - but I could have done more to be well prepared for life. And what holds me from saying that now - "it is not the right time for more"?

They say, the wise people are again more like a child. I think the key does not lie in the intention to return to childhood. I think the key lies in mastering the uncertainty and worries by surpassing a certain level of wisdom. Others will then notice a light heartedness known from childhood but the background of such wise people must be completely different.

Sometimes an effect cannot be reached by just focusing on the desired effect, because the effect is created in a totally different way. As a sample I think it is very hard to achieve lasting happiness without knowing what real suffering is.

Related posts: All done status, How to be happy, Highly happy people, There is suffering.

About management

In these times at least some companies do recognize that it is important to have enough Indians to do the work. In the last years many have grown too big in administration and increased the amount of chiefs in favor of operators.

And especially the managers often eat up the most of the money a companies earns. But I guess even more money is wasted when performing big mergers that go along with a rebranding.

Another observation reveals that most people are somehow managers. A person that cleans up the room is treated as "facility manager". Sounds good, isn't it? - Well, my special honor goes to everyone who does a hard and dirty work, they don't need to be any form of manager to get my respect. Everyone who does a good work has my full respect for that. My doubt is that many companies do "job rebranding" to attract people. For a job (title) that supports (self) esteem people may also accept a lower income and therefore this might be a good strategy of companies to save money. And further there are a lot of jobs that only a few people accept to do.

The very strangest thing that my experience shows is that although everywhere it is full of managers, it seems that since economical crisis started (or even already before) many services are not provided in the quality any more that I got used to. The efficiency in many places seem to go down instead of getting better.

I think the reason is that calling every action being management and calling everyone a manager does dissolve the whole meaning of management. Real good management may already be absent in many places.

Luckily as long as Wikipedia and other sites are around we can be full of hope that the important knowledge of management does not get lost. From Wikipedia about management:

Management in all business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, facilitating and controlling or manipulating an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources.

If you look at this definition you notice that management is an activity that requires

• having a very good overview of the whole thing that is being managed
• good social skills
• good organizational skills (many think that this is something you get automatically when getting adult but this is not necessarily the case)
  
• ability to resolve conflicts
• accounting skills
• ...
  

A good manager must be able to do accounting (at some level) and even must be half a psychologist (I talked to a manager who told me that sometimes it is also necessary to help employees to solve their private problems to get them productive again).

Management is important to have a company working efficiently! While reducing number of managers in the downturn it is important to increase or at least maintain the quality level in management.

It is important to have as many Indians for the war as you can feed but it is important that they are motivated and run against the right target(s)!

Related post: Management by Customer.

Speed

Imagine the situation: There is a dog dropping. A women is approaching in bicycle and in the hand holding even a plant. She does not notice the waste and drives right through.

I walked slowly instead and noticed it long before.

What to learn from this?

Beware of your speed! - Whatever you do, whatever decisions you are about to take, keep in mind that being too fast is a bad idea - it drives you right through the mess!

Taking decisions too fast without watching and evaluating the situation or operating too fast reduces the quality of your output. Take into consideration that with every mess that you produce you are not only failing to achieve the goal, you are creating additional work for you - needed to clear up the mess.

Again I do remember what the doctor told me:

Nobody is dying within 60 seconds. You always have at least 60 seconds for analyzing the situation doing nothing. (There might be some exceptions, e.g. when a very lot of blood is extruding around.)

When the patient has got a medicine in a dose somewhat too high trying to get back equilibrium might be difficult.

Should this not be enough to calm us down?

Related posts: Slowing down, Transferable know-how, Reduce the stress factors, How to instantly change a habit.