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“people don't buy what you do they buy why you do it” a ted talk reaction.

In this ted talk by Simon Sinek he talks about how businesses like apple are leaders in their industry even when their products are not much different then their competitors. Sinek states many times over that people don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it. This doesn’t make much sense at first but the logic behind it he supports by giving the example of the wright brothers being first in flight. In the story  of the wright brothers being first in flight he states that many people were striving to be the person or group that invented the plane and many people were funded heavily, but the people who were funded heavily were only trying to make a plane so that they could become rich and famous. The wright brother were people who were after being the first to be in flight and had a passion for flight, they had little money and no body knew who they were but when they were able to show the world what they could do and how determined they were they became the icons of flight. This is what leading companies today show, how they are proud of what they do and will not stop until they have completed what they want and selling, and monetary gain is just a result after they create and do what they set out for. Sinek’s saying about how people buy why you do it makes perfect sense because if two different people make a similar product is only make sense to purchase the product created by the more determined manufacturer. When people buy into why you do it this also builds your brand and brings loyalty from customers which intern will generate more revenue allowing for more innovation, and the cycle continues. This idea of selling “why you do it” is a great idea because the customers will feel more connected to a company or person rather than just receiving a product or service.

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5 way to become a better listener

Julian treasure starts off by explaining that as time goes on people are becoming worse at listening, but we need to get better. He explains how listening and retaining the information is becoming harder because of the bombardment of information from the media and other people every day. Treasures first tip to becoming a better listener is practicing silence, he says to find a place for just a few minuets a day and just sit and think and enjoy the silence so that when you get the chance it will be peaceful during the day. His second tip to better listening he calls the mixer and that is to go to a crowded place with many people talking and try and find out how many different sounds you can hear and distinguish from one another. His next exercise to better listening is find patterns in simple sound like running water or the wind through the trees. His 4th tip to becoming a better listener is to find places with many sounds and try to think about where they are coming from and what they mean, he used the example of birds chirping from different trees and thinking about how the bird sound different and alike. His last tip to becoming a better listener is an acronym R.A.S.A receive, appreciate, summarize and ask questions. This is to become engaged in when you are hearing. It is important to become a good listener to better yourself because when you can listen to people and retain everything, they say it will speed up processes of learning and figuring things out for yourself. With the bombardment of information from today media, news, and whatever else people must be good listeners to hear what is important and ignore what is not needed.

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reaction to “are athletes getting faster, stronger, and better”

In a ted talk by David Epstein he explains how athletes are getting better over time but not how you would think they are. First off athletes are getting better equipment that gives that a competitive advantage, for example Usain bolt runs the 100-meter dash starting on a set of blocks on a track that is designed to help people run faster and Jesse Owens was running on ash where he dug out his starting lock with a shovel. Football players are wearing gloves that are sticky and aid in catching the football. Another reason on why athletes are becoming better is that their body types are changing to become more specialized. Basketball players are becoming taller with longer arms and runners are becoming skinnier with longer legs and shorter torsos. the optimization of bodies for sport has made the mechanics of athletes better for each sport, it was an interesting fact that he said on how Michael Phelps and a Kenyan runner are 7 inches apart in height but have the same length legs and they excel in their respective sports but would not do well in the others sport. Another reason that athletes are becoming better is because people are now understanding the human body more and know how to train better and push themselves farther. As Epstein says athletes are becoming better over time because they now have advantages in technology, body optimization, and a better understanding of the human body. I think that there is another reason why athletes are becoming better is because of the opportunity for money and popularization of these sports are inspiring younger generations to play and excel at them. When the younger generations are exposed to the sports younger and train earlier they become better quicker than athletes used to.

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Sam Berns ted talk on a happy life

Sam has a simple but very effective idea of how a happy life work first he says focus on what you can do and ignore what you can’t do. He says that when you focus on what you can do you are growing yourself and not just thinking about other people. Sam has a rare disease called progeria that causes many different health issues and him saying that he focuses on what he can do and not what he can’t say a lot about people without health problems. If Sam Berns can enjoy his life and not think about the many things, he can do than able bodied people have no reason to wish they could do something because they take so many things for granted that others can’t. his second idea on how to have a happy life is to surround yourself with people you want to be around. When you are around the people who you enjoy being around your day is just better and those people will lift you up when up need it. another piece of advice is to always move forward and forget about the bad memories of your life and make some good ones. When you ignore the past, it is easier to have fun and just enjoy life. Lastly Sam says to never miss a party if you can help it, this is said jokingly which just says to go through life with a light heart and don’t take things too seriously because that would just make life too stressful and boring.

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response to “the power of vulnerability”

In the ted talk “the power of vulnerability” Brene Brown explains that in order to have the best live in terms of relationships, work, and fun in general people must be vulnerable. Brown conducted research over many years about what people are better at relationships and her results boiled down to the people what want to accept, and love people are the same people who are willing to take risks and be vulnerable. Although she expands on how being vulnerable is good for relationships it can be beneficial in many aspects of life because the people who take the biggest risk (being vulnerable) often have the biggest payoff when things work out. It is important to be willing to be vulnerable because if a person numbs being vulnerable, they also numb other emotions and aspects of life like joy or passion. Taking risks is important to getting places in life because when a person takes a risk and loses there are still good things that can come out of it like practice for the next time you take a risk. The people who take risk by saying I love you in a relationship are more often successful because that lets the other person know that they are willing to risk embarrassment and awkward moments for that other person. these vulnerable moments are what can make a person’s life better, this is like the saying it is better to have loved and lost than to of never loved at all, meaning to take the chance and be ok with failure.

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a reaction to “how to make hard choices” by Ruth Chang

Ruth Chang talks about how hard choices are hard no matter how much a person thinks about it. She explains that a choice might be hard because they have very different values that are important to people. The ideas of hard choices is very broad because hard choices can both result bad or they can both result good but a choice must be made. When madding the choice, it is harder to weight the options as if they are numbers because each choice might be comparing apples to oranges but you still must choose. When making a hard choice the only way to make a reason to picking one is to think about who you want to be after the choice has been made and what reputation that you want to have. Chang does her best to help people understand the logistics of hard choices but there is no one true way to make decisions. Sometimes it is important to make a choice and just follow through with it hoping for the best. Chang talks about how her choice between being a lawyer and philosopher was balanced on making money and living how she wants, at first, she chose to be a lawyer and make money but later changed to a philosopher to enjoy her life more that as a lawyer. She says that she made the wrong choice so she switched jobs but that really could have been the best choice because she made her money at first to be comfortable financially and then after becoming a philosopher became happy also where as if she went with philosophy from the start, she might still have financial problems.

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reply to “why 30 is not the new 20″

In this ted talk Meg Jay talks about how when you are in your twenties is the best time to change your life for the better. She explains that when you are in your twenties is the best time to find who and what kind of relationship you want because even though now people are settling down more and more in their thirties it is way better to figure out your future now rather than jus making it work at the last minute. As Meg tells a story about how one of her clients always says at least you can pick your friends, she explains that having a small group of tight knit friends will pigeon hole you into not finding new people. Another piece of advice she gives is to build yourself as much as you can In you twenties by doing work that will mean something to who you want to be in the future. Building yourself up will help to solve your personal issues whether it is in terms of relationships career decisions or just any way to developing your future self. Meg talked about helping a few people through relationship issues and her most important piece of advice is to make it happen yourself and don’t let anything happen by chance. This is how people should take all aspects of life they don’t need to let thinks happen by chance because they might just never happen, making what you want to happen in life happen is the only way to guarantee the life that you want.

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“body language changes who you are”- Amy Cuddy

This ted talk on how peoples body language effects them and those around them does make sense as Amy Cuddy’s observations are easy to notice in everyday life. Cuddy talks about how people in powerful positions are more likely to succeed in what they are trying to do. This is obviously correct because when a person is giving a presentation and you can see their confidence, they are almost always going the be successful in their presentation. As Cuddy explains her studies putting people in powerful and powerless positions the results are exactly as expected resulting in the powerful postured people having better results. I like her findings of fake it until you make it because is anything faking it is just practicing for when the real opportunity occurs. In her presentation she explains about how it is beneficial to have a leader that is confident but also laid back, here is where I think this idea of a leader is very situational because there are times where a leader needs to be aggressive and emotional. I think that the ideal leader just has an abundance of confidence that they are able to distribute to their team and this can be done effectively by that person body language. Amy Cuddy also tells a story about how she lost her identity as a smart person after a serious car wreck, but if anything, she proved that your identity is what you make to be. This is true because she went to many prestigious colleges and just was invited to have a ted talk, changing your body language and way of thinking can get you anywhere that you want to be as long as you are persistent.

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“Do schools kill creativity” ted talk reaction.

This ted talk brings up a few points that I agree with for the most part, but I can also see the argument of the other side also. Sir Ken Robinson main point was that in public schools all over then world the arts and creative subjects are not taught as much as they should be and are looked down upon. One of his points was that children grow out of creativity and not into it, he explains this by telling the story of how the little girl who was drawing god and he teacher said that nobody know what god looks like and the girl replied that they will know in a minuet. This shows that children are willing to take a chance at being creative while the teacher was thinking that your cant draw god. After this story Robinson says “if you are not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original” and I completely agree with this statement because if anyone is going to try and make something new they will have to be wrong at least on the first try. The only part in his entire ted talk that I can see the argument to is that he says that the arts should be taught to children just as much as math or other important subjects. I think that the arts should always be available to students, but math, science and other highly regarded subjects are more necessary. The reason why I think they are more necessary is because these are the subjects that aid in developing the new technology in the world and have the possibility to save lives where as singing and dancing are great to watch and listen too they will never impact a life the same way a new surgical technology will.

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a reflection on “ why writers are the worst procrastinators”

This article by Megan Mcardle makes perfect sense to me because it breaks down why and how we procrastinate. As a person who procrastinate too often myself the ideas of being fixed minded and growth minded resonate with me. In my English classes I always ended with and A or B in school but not because I tried really hard but because I just did what was asked and nothing more. This shows how I had a fixed mind when it came to English and reading classes. but in my science and engineering classes in college and high school I am more likely to spend extra time and find out every little thing that I can. In my mind writing is easy to procrastinate because the hardest part is just doing it the hard part for me is finding out what to write about and doing the proper research, after the research and background information is done I think I can just write it down whenever now and don’t think it will take too much time further giving me a reason to procrastinate more.  One thing the Mcardle said that got my attention was when she talked to a famous writing colleague that said his first step to writing a paper was to put it off for a few weeks, then clean the garage, and then talk to his wife. This is how I am when I have a writing assignment to do, I just think of anything else that I could possibly be doing and go do it no matter how important or unimportant it is. I will check everything off of my to-do list and more before deciding that I only have one hour before the assignment is due.

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my reaction to “the shadow scholar”

This article from Jonathan Barkat is very interesting because I have heard of students doing this before but never knew how it actually occurred. Barkat explains how he made a living off of writing papers for students and made a fair amount of money by just writing and using google to find out what he doesn’t know. Although he knows that he is ultimately hurting the student’s chance at actually learning the material they need to know he is smart in taking advantage of this need to pass. One thing that surprised me was when he mentions all the different types of papers he had completed and how some of them are extremely long and require and expert’s knowledge. The fact that a person can write a 50+ page paper on a topic they are not completely familiar with and help somebody get a degree or certification on that topic is just a ridiculous to me. In his article he also shows a few emails he received from his clients that showed complete lack of writing ability which brings up the question of how long this person has been using cheating methods to get by, and if the person has been using them for so long how they have not been caught cheating. Although the use of paper writing services is wrong in all ways I cannot blame the companies and people who will write for another person because money motivates and as Jabr clearly stated he made a fair bit of money by just googling and writing.

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thinking about “why walking helps us think” by Ferris Jabr

“why walking helps us think” is an article in the new Yorker published by Ferris Jabr that links physically walking to mental thought. In this article Jabr tells how movement can aid in a person’s ability to think and put ideas together. He talks about how this is similar to how when a person listens to a fast-paced music they tend to run faster unconsciously. This is similar because when a person is walking, they receive more blood flow to the rest of their body including their brain. There is also different benefits to walking in different places, Jabr explains that when a person walks through a big city they are exposed to many different stimulus. Having these different stimuli while walking will cause the ideas to come rapidly but this also makes keeping the ideas in your head harder to do. Some writers who go on walks prefer to walk in peaceful nature setting so that they can clear their mind and focus on one thing that they want to. In Jabr’s last paragraph he explains how walking, thinking, and writing all come together when a person has done their walk and finally sits down to put their ideas onto paper and let the pen start moving.

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A response of “From Degrading to De-Grading”

In Alfie kohn’s magazine article he talks about how the grading systems in todays schools are putting too much emphasis on what the student receives as a grade compared to actually teaching them. what he says makes sense for elementary and younger students because they need to challenge themselves and find out what kind of school subjects they like. when the grades become more important to the student than the material they are not learning to their full potential. kohn also brings up the point that when a student is required to get a grade on a subject that the like the grade might overrule the passion for that subject and losing that eagerness to learn. The only place that I disagree with the idea of getting rid of grades is for higher education, because if the doctor you go to did not get an A proving he knows about the human body than why should he be allowed to perform a surgery on you. if a person is wanting to become a working professional they should be tested on what they know and can do in the field. so to finish it all up grades are not important to kids who are just finding out what they are interested in and aren't interested in but are absolutely crucial to those who want to be regarded as professionals. 

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response to “don't stay in school” and “why I hate school and love education”

these two videos are thought out well in attempting to persuade people to follow their dreams but I agree with Suli break’s video better. break’s video is saying the after a person has achieved their general education that college is not for everybody and I agree with this because in the real world many necessary jobs do not require a higher education. Suli states towards the end of the video he found out that there is more than one way to be an educated man after watching a free kick in a soccer match, and I could not agree with this more because it applies to any profession. for example, a plumber is not usually thought to be an educated job but the fact is that the job exist because people can do it as well or at all compared to a “professional plumber”. The only statement that I disagree with Suli about is when he says that if you don't build your dream you will be paid to help somebody build theirs. this point does not make sense to me because sometimes people need a job to make money and survive and their dream just needs to take a backseat for a while until that person is able to pursue their passion. another opposition to this statement is that people must work together to complete great things and surly not everyone involved is 100% passionate about every project.

the video titled don't stay in school is something that I can disagree with a lot easier because he says that a person should not be taught anything they will not use in everyday life. when kids are in school it is extremely important to teach them about many different subjects because they must find out what they are interested in. in the video he also makes it appear that it is extremely hard to find out how to buy a house, pay taxes, and know the laws where you live. this is wrong because anybody can do research but he was just unwilling to find out these things for himself, it appeared to me that he wanted the hard things needed in everyday life to be presented to him without putting in any of his own effort. it is important to learn these things but if it is really important to a person they have all the opportunity to find it out, all it takes is will power and motivation.

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“Shitty First Draft” reaction

the passage “shitty first draft by Anne Lamott is an article that stresses the importance of rewriting anything that is being published of shared. when Lamott talks about making a bad first draft the idea is to just get ideas flowing, these ideas are most likely not going to make it to the end result but the writer creates a basis for the next revision. Another part to the importance of a “shitty first draft” that the next daft has no possibility of getting worse. Lamott states that nobody will see the first draft multiple times because she is emphasizing that you should write down anything that comes to your mind even if you don't want others to see it, because that embarrassing thought could spark a great idea that leads to an entire paragraph of great writing. Lamott even states that professional writers have trouble starting sometimes and that nobody should be discouraged from writing and to try and do it whenever you can.