Max Mednik

In Steve Jobs' bio, it said he read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda every year. So I figured there must be something to it. (I had also heard of the book several times from other yogis and figured I would give it a try.)

The book was slow to start (and sometimes included way too much detail), and I had trouble getting used to the writing style for a while. I also didn't really understand the overall point or trajectory of the work. Then, part of the way through, I began to enjoy it, and I noticed more and more pearls of wisdom on the pages.

The book is about religion, but it's also not about religion. It's about faith and spirituality and the common one-ness uniting everyone, and I like those ideas. (The book is not about doing yoga sports exercises. It's about meditation and mind control, some of the most difficult and rewarding activities a human can apparently engage in.) The book featured many accounts of supernatural episodes (visions, reincarnations, levitation, and teleportation); those didn't sit well with me, but I will tolerate it as there's enough good elements in the book ignoring the supernatural events.

After reading the book, I'm wondering what parts of it appealed most to Jobs. Meditation? Spirituality?

Below are my notes. I apologize for butchering the spellings of many of the people and places mentioned in the book; I was listening to the audio version (which again unfortunately but understandably featured a reader with an English accent).

Ch. 1: My parents and early life

• Bengali
  
• Life as infant
  
• Born 1/5/1893 near Himalayas
  
• Kshatriya caste parents
  
• Aversion of instant acceptance
  
• Due reflection
  
• Recreation in spiritual practices
  
• No luxuries
  
• No pursuit of money
  
• Started bank but didn't want shares in it
  
• Man arrives penniless and departs same way
  
• Magic power of man's words spoken confidently
  
• Guru photo 
  

Ch. 2: Mothers' death and amulet

• Saw vision of mother dying and was true
  
• Powerfully drawn to Himalayas where yogis and swamis lived from vision
  
• Guru told his mom he would be yogi and bring souls to light
  
• Magical amulet materialized for mom who gave it to son
  

Ch. 3: The saint with 2 bodies

• Second pension from divine of peace
  
• Story of transportation/2 bodies of swami
  
• Yogi Lahiri Mahasaya
  

Ch. 4: Interrupted flight to Himalayas

• Escape failed
  
• Got tutor at home
  
• Deep meditation
  
• Learned Sanskrit
  
• Kriya yoga
  
• Magic healing
  

Ch. 5: Perfume saint

• Perfume magic
  
• Electrons and protons manipulated by prana lifetrons
  

Ch. 6: Tiger swami

• Fought tigers with hands
  
• Mind and determination control body
  
• Tamer of wild passions
  

Ch. 7: Levitating saint

• Only true way to know divine is love
  

Ch. 8: Indians great scientist JC Bose

• Botany and physics research
  
• Uniform plan links all life
  

Ch. 9: The blissful devotee

• Classroom boredom
  

Ch. 10: I meet my master

• Unprepared for school finals
  
• Finished school and ready to leave home to seek divine
  
• Had to detach from family
  
• Finally met guru
  
• Had to leave ashram
  

Ch. 11: Two penniless boys

• Passed tests to show faith in divine
  
• Went without money, found people who provided for him
  

Ch. 12: Years in my master's hermitage

• Guru told him to get university degree so would be more accepted in future by westerners
  
• Vegetarian
  
• Morning strolls with guru
  
• Be comfortable within your purse
  
• Sri Yukteswar
  
• Yogic trance with no vital signs
  
• Super conscious state
  
• Mosquitos: just change consciousness and will not bite
  
• Thoughts heal, placebo
  
• Every natural passion can be mastered
  

Ch. 13: A sleepless saint

• Thought would have to go to Himalayas to study
  
• Guru told him does not need to do so
  
• What one does not find within cannot be found outside
  

Ch. 14: An experience in cosmic consciousness

• Cosmic vision of connection to all life
  
• Soul must have cosmic reach while body does daily mundane work
  

Ch. 15: The cauliflower robbery

• Importance of music
  

Ch. 16: Outwitting the stars

• Astrology
  

Ch. 17: Sasi and the 3 sapphires

• Divine responds to urgent prayers
  
• Astrological bangles
  

Ch. 18: A Mohammedan wonder worker

Ch. 19: My master

• Teleportation
  

Ch. 20: We do not visit Kashmir

• Got sick when wanted to go to Himalayas
  

Ch. 21: We visit Kashmir

• Guru finally blesses him to go to Himalayas
  
• Physical transfer of disease to cure others
  
• Lots of mentions and comparisons to Jesus
  

Ch. 22: The heart of the stone age

• Reformed brother in law through example of spiritual miracle
  

Ch. 23: University degree

• Little time for study
  
• Repeatedly doubted divine and then was saved
  
• Received degree
  

Ch. 24: I become monk of swami order

• Guru finally allowed him to join order
  
• Selected new name
  
• Yoga and swami orthogonal
  
• Yoga is science of mind control
  
• Patanjali Yoga Sutras
  
• Eightfold path
  
• Yama: moral
  
• Viyama: religious
  
• Asana: posture
  
• Pranayama: breath
  
• Pratyahara: withdraw from external
  
• Dharana: concentration
  
• Dhyana: meditation
  
• Samadhi: super conscious experience
  
• Yoga ok for worldly people
  
• Hatha yoga just one branch
  

Ch. 25: Brother and sister

• Brother died and he felt sad
  
• He and his guru healed sister
  

Ch. 26: Science of Kriya yoga

• Cause and effect
  
• Rejuvenates body
  
• Transmute cells into energy to teleport
  
• Christ used it
  
• Life force control
  
• Neutralize lungs and current
  
• Om sound to concentrate / Amen
• Life force controlled by breath action
  

Ch. 27: Founding yoga school

• Man must have some family, either wife or school
  
• So founded school
  
• Class instruction outdoors
  
• Yoga and agriculture
  
• True development of body and mind
  
• Death doesn't end all
  
• Unattachment: let dead move on to higher role
  

Ch. 28: Reborn and discovered

• Relocated reborn child
  

Ch. 29: Compare schools

• Visited other school
  
• Also outdoors, child's natural setting
  
• All learn yoga concentration skill
  

Ch. 30: The art of miracles

• Maya world of illusion
  
• Relativity
  
• Unified field theory
  
• Light
  
• Duality of nature
  
• Light speed only world constant
  
• Matter energy duality
  
• All matter light, yogi can manipulate
  
• Motion pictures directed by people like yogis can direct real light and matter
  
• Miracles are just natural to masters
  
• Everything is a miracle
  

Ch. 31: Interview with sacred mother

• Wife of Lahiri Mahasaya
  
• Levitation in lotus pose
  

Ch. 32: Rama is raised from the death

• Account needed in west of Lahiri Mahasaya
  

Ch. 33: Babaji Christ of India

• Guru of LM
  
• Avatar: body free from material bondage
  

Ch. 34: Materializing a palace In the Himalayas

• Spiritual enlightenment comes to worldly people who still fulfill civic responsibilities
  

Ch. 35: Christ like life of LM

• Life of balance
  
• Kriya initiation to worldly
  

Ch. 36: Babaji's interst in the West

• Saint told author to write book equalizing Christian and Indian beliefs
  
• LM reincarnated
  

Ch. 37: I go to America

• 2 legged newspaper (word of mouth)
  
• Invited to speak at conference in Boston
  
• Chosen to spread message of Kriya yoga to West
  
• Meant to unite nations under one holy father
  
• Lectured throughout America
  
• Started Self-Realization Fellowship at Mount Washington in LA
  
• Spent 15 years in America 
  

Ch. 38: Luther Burbank

• Plant breeding from talking to plants and love
  

Ch. 39: Therese Neumann

• Eager to meet saint in Germany
  
• Saint who lived without food
  
• Stigmata wounds on hands
  
• Weekly trance of Christ's Passion
  
• Visited holy sites of Europe
  

Ch. 40: I return to India

• Return to see guru
  
• Created permanently endowed school
  
• Free hospital
  

Ch. 41: An idyl in south India

• Wanted to have best exchange between East and West
  

Ch. 42: Last days with my guru

Ch. 43: Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar

• Went to be prophet of astral planet
  
• Detailed description of astral beings and logistics
  
• Anything can be created from thought like we create any image on TV
  

Ch. 44: With Gandhi

• Weekly day of silence to devote to correspondence and spirituality
  
• Husband as guru of wife
  
• Worship of all religions equally
  
• Taught yoga to Gandhi
  
• Nonviolence
  
• Forgiveness is holiness
  

Ch. 45: The Bengali joy-permeated mother

Ch. 46: The woman who never eats

• Was at first over-eater
• Stopped eating at age 12
  
• Lives by external light
  
• No bodily excretions
  
• Uses Kriya breathing technique 
  

Ch. 47: I return to the West

• Lecture in London
  
• Christmas mediation in LA
  

Ch. 48: Encinitas California hermitage

• Retreat by the ocean
  

Ch. 49: The years 1940-51

• East West magazine
  
• Hollywood temple
  
• Translated New Testament and Bhagavad Gita
  
• Saw vision of Jesus
  
• Kriya yoga: breath as key to world and spirit
  
• Leave a few mysteries to explore in eternity
  

Afterword

• After died, his body did not decay (in mortuary records)
  
• One of India's great saints
  

The high holydays this year have passed, and it was a time of deep introspection and re-thinking of life for me and my family.

I particularly enjoyed hearing my rabbi's sermon this year, and I wanted to share it with anyone interested. It's a lot more wisdom than religion, and I think it has something for everyone. Below are my main takeaways from it; the full speech can be read here.

• Life isn't always fair.
  
• Whatever befalls us, life is still good.
  
• Life is short; cut your losses earlier.
  
• Let go of your desire to accommodate difficult people or situations.
  
• Only do what enhances you spiritually and morally.
  
• The time to plan for retirement is when you're young.
• Develop your passions and interests.
  
• Make peace with your past so it won't confound your present.
  
• One doesn't have to win every argument.
  
• Love the people close to you.
  
• Don't compare your life to anyone else's. You already have all you need.
  
• Who is happy? One who is content with his own portion.
  
• If you can't publish what you want to say or do, don't say or do it.
  
• You don't need to publish all your thoughts -- no need to over-share.
  
• Don't gossip. Guard your tongue.
  
• Speak the truth but only when you know you can be effective and only when it won't do harm; otherwise, stay quiet.
  
• Don't procrastinate seeing your doctor. Eat less and better; exercise more.
  
• Carpe diem
  
• Joy and happiness come from humility, gratitude, and generosity.
  
• Breathe deeply as it calms the heart, mind, and soul.
  
• Take your shoes off wherever you are.
  
• Too much alcohol dulls the mind.
  
• To know the purest and sweetest love, get a dog.
  
• When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
  
• Over-prepare, strive for excellence, and then go with the flow.
  
• Loosen up more to release yourself from entrenched habits.
  
• It's not what you say, it's how you say it.
  
• Stand up to bullies, wherever they are.
  
• Time does heal all wounds.
  
• Change is natural, necessary, and an opportunity for growth.
  
• Being outdoors is always better.
  
• Be modest.
  
• Be forgiving.
  
• Be kind.
  
• Be generous.
  
• Be grateful.

As a fan of Penn and Teller, when I heard that Penn released a book, I knew I had to read it. I didn't know it would turn out to open my mind to new ways of thinking about religion, science, and magic, and make me laugh so much.

It was especially a treat to hear Penn himself read the book in the audio version.

Below are my main notes and takeaways from Penn Jilette's G-d, No!.

Atheism

• Being atheist means saying I don't know
  
• Richard Feynman said I don't know
  
• Work hard to learn but state clearly the limit of your knowledge
  
• Not the belief that science knows everything
  
• (Lots of jokes and curse words omitted.)
  
• Humility of saying I don't know and being an atheist
  
• Believing in G-d means saying you know and understand
  
• If you say, "I don't know," it means you don't believe until you see evidence. It doesn't mean you say it will never happen.
  
• Believing in prayer that can change the world is arrogant since you believe you can make G-d change his mind. (I'm curious what Penn says about some studies that purport to have studied prayer's effects.)
  
• Started with a dishwashing job as a kid
  
• Suggestion: The highest ideals are human intelligence, creativity, and love. Respect these above all.

Art and magic

• The purpose of art is to inspire.
  
• The purpose of art is to stand naked on the stage.
• Loves the purity of Siegfried and Roy
• S&R created the big Vegas magic show; before, everyone just toured.
  
• Even though he made fun of them, they were the true artists.
  
• He stood by Roy's side in hospital
  

What's the g on the joint?

• What's the gaffe, the trick?
  
• Likes word "trick" because any trick is an illusion, and it should be that way.
  
• Should never lie to audience and want to make them believe; should lie and make it really obvious you are lying
  
• Penn started as juggler
  
• Can't fake or lie in juggling
  
• David Blaine, Chriss Angel wanting to make others believe when they lie
  
• Even if he really did some stunt, it doesn't matter.
  
• Still all just show biz stunt
  
• Never science or reality
  
• (Blaine still his friend)
  

King of the ex-Jews

• They always greet the audience after their show.
  
• Amazing Randy was his mentor.
  
• Richard Dawkins was his idol.
  
• Penn married stalker fan girl he met after show.
  
• Met ex-Orthodox Jew who became atheist after reading his book
  
• Atheist baptism naked parties with no alcohol or drugs; just celebration of loving and life
  
• Ate traif together
  
• Suggestion: Do not put things or ideas above human beings.
  

Fake tits, tattoos, and autotune

• Fake tits: all that matters is how much the owner of the tits likes them
• Never judge a stripper; she is showing herself better than you can.
  
• No real magic secrets; all secrets ugly.
  
• Real secret is that magicians are guarding an empty safe.
  
• Likes tattoos and big fake tits because they're a celebration of technology, humanity, and individual control
  
• Autotune technology makes all voices sound in tune with music -- amazing
  
• All of these are atheist
  
• Proselytizing is a moral imperative
  
• If you believe in truth, you must share it.
  
• Robert Houdin first came up with magicians dressing as audience (hat and tails) instead of like wizards.
  
• Agnostic is an intellectual term, not a religious one.
  
• Is there a G-d? You can say "I don't know."
  
• Do you believe in G-d? You must give a yes or no answer.
  
• Must speak what you think; spit it.
  

Learning to fly, strip, and be weightless on a 747

• Vomit comet: airplane ride going up and down to make you feel weightless.
• ZeroG company
  
• It's easier to be yourself when you decide there's no chance you will be a supreme court justice.
  
• Went to Club Baths gay bath in SF just to prove he could and wasn't a pussy
  
• No one approached them or hit on them; was pissed at rejection and didn't understand.
  
• (Funny story about sex underwater while diving omitted.)
  
• Suggestion: Love your family. Love is better than honor.
  

Libertarian atheism

• Celebrates secular commercial "X-mas" tradition
  
• Libertarian atheist
  
• Be open with your agenda.
  
• Both of his parents died when he was performing.
  
• It's ok; keep performing, joke, embrace pain of life and live on.
  
• Lies are ok when for good purpose like family health.
  
• Libertarian: Should help others yourself; don't use government to force people to do something for you.
• You don't have to do anything for your country; just love your family and take care of others yourself.
  
• Hates TSA
  
• Wants to start a Pork, Bacon, and Kiss Airline
  
• 9/11: people attacked liberty, and we lost more liberty.
  
• Most people in the world are good.
  
• Allow people to bring anything they want on planes, and let the bad guys racially profile others. Good people will defend each other.
  
• Blame faith, not specific religion, for terrorism.
  
• "The Amazing" conference in Vegas

My second year is off to an incredibly busy start. Though my class load is not heavy, working on launching Ridacto, being a career coach, and TAing a class together make life pretty crazy.

Below are some of my biggest takeaways from my classes last week:

Ethics

This is a really challenging class that poses way more questions than it answers. In TAing the class, I'm lucky to hear the varying opinions of my classmates and consider my own viewpoint on how to act in various difficult situations.

• Integrity between personal and company values is key.
• Leadership and the Quest for Integrity argues that having prejudices or predispositions to handling various scenarios in specific, predefined ways can help solve many of the most challenging dilemmas.
• Three styles of leadership: political, directive, value-driven
• Ethics, optimization, and public policy (strive to find the intersection)
  
• Matrix to consider: 3 viewpoints (utilitarian, contractarian, pluralist) and 3 targets (individual, company, society)

Behavioral Finance

This class basically overturns everything taught in traditional finance classes and explains how the "real world" works in terms of actual trading behavior and stock performance results. We're going through the main academic articles in the field over the past 20 years and combining finance with psychology to better understand how people make (and should make) investment decisions.

• CAPM and APT are blatantly wrong (they aren't good theories for explaining or predicting reality).
  
• Market does not have any level/strength of efficiency.
• Psychology of investors and company fundamentals much better determining factors of performance
• Size and book-to-market ratios much better at explaining why returns vary from stock to stock than beta
• Characteristics of stocks (like fundamental ratios) have much more power to explain returns than risk factors (like beta).
• Value and contrarian investing work.

Doing Deals

This class is a very interesting blend between business and law and covers both the theoretical and real-world aspects of "making it rain [not in the club]." We work in teams of 2 business students and 2 law students to dissect unedited deal documents for a different deal each week, varying from financing, to acquisitions, to partnerships in a variety of different industries. I absolutely love being able to see real-world documents and understand how they evolved and see how the negotiations progressed. It's also really neat to hear from the principals of the transactions in each class what it was like from their perspective and what lessons they learned.

• Key elements in every deal: risk, reward, control, duration, trust
• View of the firm as a nexus of contracts
• Deals/acquisitions often purely to thwart competitor moves (one of us will buy, so it should be me)
• Structure returns based on performance hurdles.
• Ethics of pulling out of deals (it's interesting how this class ties in with my ethics class)
• Ethics of full disclosure
• Establish trust first. Trust is often the most important factor in determining who does deals with whom.
• Desperation hurts. Should your vacation rush your deal close?
• Keep backup deals in place through closing.
• Don't shortcut the documents (pay your lawyer a little now or a lot later).
• Time and lifestyle can't be recovered, so those are often more important than negotiating the best possible deal.

I still can't believe I'm an adult. I feel like I'm constantly learning and constantly so much less knowledgeable or skilled than those I admire and aspire to be like. Growing up is hard; being an adult-sized kid is a lot more fun. (And our toys are bigger and cooler now that we've grown up.)

Inspired by the author of The Happiness Project, I decided to write down my own secrets or lessons of adulthood that I've gathered over time. I'm sure this list will expand and morph, and it'll be interesting to see how that happens.

1. Most often, the most likely explanation is the right one. But you have to be prepared to be wrong.
2. It's much better to feel pleasantly surprised than disappointed. That's why I always operate under the assumption I'm failing and can improve; if I succeed in something, that's then a pleasant surprise. So when I take a test, I always prepare for failure and assume I got a low or average grade; if that happens, it's as expected; if I do better, it's a pleasant surprise.
3. Find advisers and service providers you can trust. Life is a lot more fun and educational (and a business can grow a lot more quickly) when you have people you can trust to help you or give advice. Doing everything (or even most things) yourself is not the right answer.
4. People are so much more important than content. Huge business deals, politics, careers -- they're all driven so much more by who knows who and networking than by talent or merit. Talent and merit are required for execution, but people and personal connections are what create the opportunities for execution.
5. Everyone thinks about themselves so much more than they think about others; everyone is just as self-conscious as you are, even (sometimes especially) extremely beautiful women. So cut yourself some slack; no one will notice all the hundreds of things you're afraid they'll notice; they're too busy with themselves.
6. Enjoy life your way; you don't have to fit in all the time.
7. Do something extremely difficult every day. Do the most difficult, annoying, bothersome task on your list every day early. It's the only way to grow.
8. Exercise is a lot more fun when it's accompanied by really good music and/or a crazy instructor or buddy.
9. Nothing calms you down and reconnects you with nature like the ocean.
10. Step up; no one else will. 99% of people don't have their shit together enough to do what they promise. Learn what you don't know, do what you promise, and get difficult shit done off your tasks towards your long-term goals -- formula for success.

Inspired by the author of The Happiness Project, I decided to write down my own top personal commandments that came to mind quickly. I'm sure this list will change over time, and it'll be interesting to see how that happens.

1. Respect and support my family and close friends.
2. Nothing is more important than health.
3. Live life for today, and cherish each moment.
4. Love exists, and it's worth a lot of work.
5. Optimism is the best attitude; there is always room for hope, and a positive demeanor can lift spirits.
6. Show your talents through behavior; be modest in your words but not your actions.
7. Strive for perfection and optimization, but be wary of premature optimization, and be ok with satisficing when it doesn't really matter. (It feels sort of zen/yoga-ish to strive towards opposite, impossible goals, but that's what creates growth.)
8. Keep myself and others to the highest standards.
9. Learn to accept myself as enough.
10. Follow through on each and every promise.
11. Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous.
12. There is something to be learned from each and every living creature. There are many people in the world who are so vastly different from me, and that's cool.
13. There is way more that I don't know than I know, and there is way more that I don't even know that I don't know than I know.
14. Never discriminate or jump to conclusions; there are always multiple possible explanations, and I should acknowledge my many natural and unavoidable biases and consciously keep them in mind.
15. I can do anything with the right effort and the right people.
16. Money is earned so it can be spent, not hoarded. It should be enjoyed for what it can produce. It is earned only so it can be spent on things that make you or others happy (including by giving it away). It is only a means to an end; learning, growth, health, improving the lives of others, family, and happiness are the bigger goals in life.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the audio version of The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Like books by Gary Vaynerchuk, it was read by the author, which added richness to the experience.

There were a lot of good examples in each chapter of behaviors the author tried, and I liked her overall objective of learning about and experimenting with happiness within the context of her current life situation. It was exactly the blend of psychology and philosophy that I enjoy. I especially enjoyed her use of quotes that inspired her and scientific studies that backed up some of the practices she tried. (There were also several points in the book when she sounded like one of my MBA profs -- perhaps she also got an MBA at some point or just read a lot of business books!)

Overall, through her journey in the book, the author came to learn "Four Splendid Truths" about happiness:

Four Splendid Truths

1. To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.
2. One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy; One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.
3. The days are long, but the years are short.
4. You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy.

It was also neat to hear about her own "Personal Commandments" and "Secrets of Adulthood" -- a lot of these (and the splendid truths) resonate with me.

Twelve Personal Commandments

1. Be Gretchen.
   
2. Let it go.
   
3. Act the way I want to feel.
   
4. Do it now.
   
5. Be polite and be fair.
   
6. Enjoy the process.
   
7. Spend out.
   
8. Identify the problem.
   
9. Lighten up.
   
10. Do what ought to be done.
    
11. No calculation.
12. There is only love.
    

Secrets of Adulthood

• The best reading is re-reading.
  
• Outer order contributes to inner calm.
  
• The opposite of a great truth is also true.
  
• You manage what you measure.
  
• By doing a little bit each day, you can get a lot accomplished.
  
• People don’t notice your mistakes and flaws as much as you think.
  
• It's nice to have plenty of money.
  
• Most decisions don't require extensive research.
  
• Try not to let yourself get too hungry.
  
• Even if you think they're fake, it's nice to celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day.
  
• If you can't find something, clean up.
  
• The days are long, but the years are short.
  
• Someplace, keep an empty shelf.
  
• Turning the computer on and off a few times often fixes a glitch.
  
• It's okay to ask for help.
  
• You can choose what you do; you can't choose what you LIKE to do.
  
• Happiness doesn't always make you feel happy.
  
• What you do EVERY DAY matters more than what you do ONCE IN A WHILE.
  
• You don't have to be good at everything.
  
• Soap and water removes most stains.
  
• It's important to be nice to EVERYONE.
  
• You know as much as most people.
  
• Over-the-counter medicines are very effective.
  
• Eat better, eat less, exercise more.
  
• What's fun for other people may not be fun for you--and vice versa.
  
• People actually prefer that you buy wedding gifts off their registry.
  
• Houseplants and photo albums are a lot of trouble.
  
• If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough.
  
• No deposit, no return.
  

Below are my main notes from the book.


Introduction

• Preparation
  
• Making resolutions
  
• Keeping resolutions
  

Getting started

• Midlife malaise
  
• Learn to feel grateful for ordinary day
  
• Dedicated a year to learning to be happy
  
• Decided on top 12 resolutions, one per month (reminds me of Mussar!)
  
• Working on your own happiness allows you to be a better person for others

Ch. 1: January

• Boost energy
  
• Vitality
  
• Go to sleep earlier
  
• Exercise better
  
• Toss, restore, organize
  
• Tackle a nagging task
  
• Act more energetic
  
• 1 hr. of sleep increases happiness more than $60K raise
  
• Keep the lights low around bedtime
  
• Get ready for bed well before bedtime
  
• Carried pedometer which motivated her to exercise (sounds like my FitBit!)
  
• Exercise boosts thinking
  
• Clear visible and psychic clutter
  
• Do what ought to be done (Be a man! Do the right thing!)
  
• Aspirational clutter, outgrown clutter, buyers-remorse clutter
  
• Donated and threw away a ton of clothes
  
• Nothing makes you more happy than an organized medicine cabinet
  
• 4 thermometer syndrome
  
• Don't postpone any task that takes 1 min
  
• 10 min tidying before bed
  
• Unfinished tasks also drain energy
  
• Act the way I want to feel
  
• Fake feelings until feel them

Ch. 2: February

• Remember love
  
• Marriage
  
• Quit nagging
  
• Don't expect praise or appreciation
  
• Fight right
  
• No dumping
  
• Give proofs of love
  
• Need many small positive interactions to offset one negative
  
• Partners' health and happiness converge
  
• No dumping of worries or minor troubles on partner
  
• Week of extreme nice
  
• Play one outdoor and one indoor game together
  
• Review resolutions each day and mark with checks (like Franklin)
  
• To be happy, need to feel good, feel less bad, and feel right in an atmosphere of growth
  
• Happiness is growth, striving for goals

Ch. 3: March

• Aim higher
  
• Work
  
• Launch a blog
  
• Enjoy the fun of failure
  
• Ask for help
  
• Work smart
  
• Enjoy now
  
• Happy people work more and better with others
  
• Was lawyer before chose to be writer to follow own desire
  
• Challenge and novelty give satisfaction (like blog)
  
• Small daily task more important than big single efforts

Ch. 4: April

• Lighten up
  
• Parenthood
  
• Sing in the morning
  
• Acknowledge reality of people's feelings
  
• Be a treasure house of happy memories
  
• Take time for projects
  
• Fog happiness: hard to see when up close but believe it's there
  
• Literally sing to kids in morning
  
• Make rhyming jokes instead of nagging
  
• Write down kids' feelings, literally repeat what they say so they feel heard
  
• If don't have solution, say will think about it
  
• Keep happy memories vivid, reminisce, keep mementos
  
• Happy experience: anticipate, savor, express appreciation, reminisce

Ch. 5: May

• Be serious about play
  
• Leisure
  
• Find more fun
  
• Take time to be silly
  
• Go off the path
  
• Start a collection
  
• You don't have to find fun the way others do
  
• Challenging, accommodating, relaxing fun
  
• Find happiness no matter what's around you

Ch. 6: June

• Find time for friends
  
• Remember birthdays
  
• Be generous
  
• Show up
  
• Don't gossip
  
• Make 3 new friends
  
• Number of friends biggest predictor of happiness
  
• Must have 5 true confidants
  
• Connect people to each other

Ch. 7: July

• Buy some happiness
  
• Money
  
• Indulge in a modest splurge
  
• Buy needed things
  
• Spend out
  
• Give something up
  
• Happiness from buying and from choosing not to buy

Ch. 8: August

• Contemplate the heavens
  
• Eternity
  
• Read memoirs of catastrophe
  
• Keep a gratitude notebook
  
• Imitate a spiritual master
  
• The days are long but the years are short
  
• Live in moment of present
  
• Inevitability of loss and death
  
• One sentence journal to keep record of experience and thoughts

Ch. 9: September

• Pursue a passion
  
• Books
  
• Write a novel in a month
  
• Make time
  
• Forget about results
  
• Master a new technology
  
• Accept own interests
  
• Compile own books and photo albums
  
• Self-publish (Lulu)
  
• Best occupations those that are least forced
  
• You're happy if you think you're happy

Ch. 10: October

• Pay attention
  
• Mindfulness
  
• Meditate on koans (Zen enigmatic phrases)
  
• Examine true rules (rules you live by or believe are behind proper behavior)
  
• Stimulate the mind in new ways
  
• Keep a food diary
  
• True rules: personal ideas on rules of life
  
• Play a hypnosis tape
  
• Laughter yoga
  
• "Drawing on the right side of the brain" class
  
• Music
  

Ch. 11: November

• Keep a contented heart
  
• Attitude
  
• Laugh out loud
  
• Use good manners
  
• Give positive reviews
  
• Find an area of refuge
  

Ch. 12: December

• Bootcamp perfect
  
• Follow all resolutions all the time
  
• Most important part of year: keeping and reviewing resolutions chart daily

There is a well-known Russian saying: "Love is not a potato." The first time I heard this, I thought it was ridiculous. It's like thinking you're smart by stating something completely obvious, like 2 + 2 = 4.

However, I've grown to love this saying over time. I love its extremely simple language that can be understood by anyone. I also love that the more you think about it, the more you realize it means.

I recently had a long, late-night discussion (with my avid commenter "S") of all the meanings to the saying. Below are what we came up with.

1. "Love" and "potato" are very different objects and concepts. This is the base, "obvious" level of interpretation.

2. You can easily throw away a potato (if it's bad or if you don't like it), but you can't easily throw away love. (This is my mom's interpretation.)

3. Potatoes are easy: skin (optionally) and bake. Love is not easy. It takes a lot of work.

4. Potatoes are pretty much homogeneous. Yes, there are lots of varieties of them, and I'm sure no two potatoes look exactly the same. But my sense is that there are way more varieties/qualities/types of love than potatoes.

5. Potatoes are static. You park one on your kitchen counter, and it will sit for as long as you want. (Yes, it will rot after a while, but that's very slow and gradual.) Love is not static; it is constantly changing and evolving.

6. Potatoes are a staple: a very simple, everyday food item. Love is not a staple; it is unique and celebrated every time it occurs (weddings, anniversaries, Valentine's Day, etc.). More on celebrations later (apparently, people celebrate potatoes too).

7. Potatoes are finite, concrete objects. Love is infinite, a concept.

8. Potatoes have pretty much one dimension. Love has many.

9. Potatoes are easy to mold and fit to your recipe. Love is not easy to mold and takes a lot of care in "harvesting."

10. Potatoes are a side dish. Love is the main course.

11. Potatoes must be salted, or else they're bland. Love is amazing as is.

12. Potatoes have many "eyes." Love is blind.

13. Potatoes have an expiration date. Love (hopefully) does not.

14. You pick the potatoes you eat. Love, more often than not, picks you.

15. Potatoes satisfy the lowest level of your needs on Maslow's hierarchy. Love satisfies needs that are 2 levels higher up the pyramid.

16. You can't make potatoes (nature makes them). You can make love.

17. Finally, thinking about the saying at a meta/philosophical level, it seems similar to Magritte's image of a pipe. "This is not a pipe," he writes. "Love is not a potato." It is an image of a potato. (?)

After coming up with this list, we realized that this was somewhat of a stupid exercise. We wondered what object in fact could be more different from love than a potato.

Thinking about that made us actually realize that love and potatoes, after all, have a lot in common as well:

A. People have fought over both: potatoes and love.

B. Both can go stale if left untended.

C. Both have holidays: potatoes and love.

D. Too much of both can be bad.

E. Both are best when hot and sizzling.

F. You can crush both if you try.

G. Both can be enjoyed by many people together (sharing potatoes over a meal, sharing a sense of joint love in a family).

What is your interpretation of all this nonsense?

A few days ago, I was trying to remember a line in a song I had heard about 9 months ago. I heard the song at a karaoke event, and the singer had a funny accent and demeanor. I vaguely remembered the line contained an alliteration, and with that clue, combined with the funny accent, I was able to remember the moment after about 30 seconds of thought.

It was those 30 seconds that then caused me to wonder how my brain did that. First of all, I was quite surprised I even could conjure up the memory, which was quite unimportant. Thus, the fact that I could do it in 30 seconds was surprising; however, why did it have to take 30 seconds? What was going on inside my skull? Was some huge table being scanned? Some map-reduce operation being done? Were old neural connections being dusted off and re-energized with electrical current for my old memory to be resuscitated?

What's neat is that our brain consolidates memories and continues to work on solving problems and answering search queries while we sleep. What's crazy to wonder about is what part of "us" controls it while we sleep....

As far as I know, the brain doesn't operate at a typical "clock speed" like computers do (where the clock speed dictates how often a CPU goes from instruction to instruction). But what does control how quickly our brain works? Clearly it changes in speed and function over time as we age, and its speed can deteriorate with various diseases. So there must be something biological/physical that somewhat resembles clock speed. IQ? From a quick search, this article tries to tackle this question, but at a very high level (and the article's somewhat old).

That got me thinking about another clock in our body, something a lot more like the clock on our wall and in a computer: our body's internal clock (circadian rhythm). I bet there are lessons both biologists and computer scientists can learn from each other in examining the parallels between our body's clock, our brain's "clock," and our computer's clock.

And finally, how does parallel processing work? In a computer, it's like having separate little brains that can do very basic tasks like read and store numbers and arithmetic; but in our brain, is it that multiple neural connections are being formed continuously and it's just a matter of which ones happen to grasp our attention at any one time? As far as I know, people aren't really able to take a large problem, split it up into many parallel parts, and assign those different sub-problems to separate mini-brains. Or are we? Is that what intuition does? Or does intuition just leap ahead magically to some final answer and not worry about sub-problems at all?

All of these questions fascinate me and make constantly wonder how our brains function deep inside.