Very interesting study.TL;DR: Olympic Lifters have higher power outputs, peak forces, velocities, jump heights, and overall explosive performance than body builders, power lifters and sprinters.

http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/asu/listing.aspx?id=7394

Throw away all the shit you don’t really like. Ditch the boring gym you go to. Get rid of the clothes that don’t make you feel awesome. Throw away the things you’re not in love with. Remove the old crappy equipment you have. Leave the boring old apartment you live in. Don’t go with your boring habits, figure out cool things to do. Don’t settle with shitty friends and shitty girlfriends. Leave the city or the country that you don’t really like. Don’t watch the tv shows that aren’t super awesome. Make every little thing in your life exciting and start living an amazing life right now!

This is mostly a transcript of a short presentation I gave in San Diego in September. Many people told me, it really made big impact on them so I decided to share it here on my blog.

Dale Carnegie is an american writer, lecturer and developer of different famous courses about self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. He is also the author of “How to win friends and influence people” – a massive bestseller first published almost 80 years ago that remains popular today.

Most of the things he wrote about back then are still valid today and improving the way we interact with other people means we would be better in both our personal and our professional lives. In this post I’m going to share 3 of his rules with you.

Benjamin Franklin, tactless in his youth, became so diplomatic, so adroit at handling people, that he was made American Ambassador to France. The secret of his success? “I will speak ill of no man,” he said, ” … and speak all the good I know of everybody.” And he’s right. Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.

Instead of wasting our time in getting better at condemning and demotivating people, it’s much better to try to UNDERSTAND them. To try and figure out WHY they do what they do. That’s A LOT more profitable and intriguing than criticism. Which leads us to our first rule…

1. Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.

Sigmund Freud said that everything you and I do springs from two motives: the sex urge and the desire to be great. John Dewey, one of America’s most profound philosophers, phrased it a bit differently. Dr. Dewey said that the deepest urge in human nature is “the desire to be important.” This desire made Rockefeller amass millions that he never spent! And this same desire made the richest family in your town build a house far too large for its requirements. This desire makes you want to wear the latest styles, drive the latest cars, and talk about your brilliant children.

If you tell me how you get your feeling of importance, I’ll tell you what you are. That determines your character. That is the most significant thing about you.

Emerson said: “Every man I meet is my superior in some way, In that, I learn of him.”

If that was true of Emerson, isn’t it likely to be a thousand times more true of you and me? Let’s cease thinking of our accomplishments, our wants. Let’s try to figure out the other person’s good points. Then forget flattery. Give honest, sincere appreciation. Rule number two – be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise:

2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.

When Dale was five years old, his father bought him a little yellow-haired pup for fifty cents. He was the light and joy of his childhood. Every afternoon about four-thirty, he would sit in the front yard with his beautiful eyes staring steadfastly at the path, and as soon as he heard Dale’s voice or saw him swinging my dinner bag, Tippy was off like a shot, racing breathlessly up the hill to greet him with leaps of joy and barks of sheer ecstasy. Tippy was his constant companion for five years. Then one tragic night Tippy was killed within ten feet of Dale’s head, killed by a lightning. Tippy’s death was the tragedy of his boyhood.

Tippy never read a book on psychology. He didn’t need to. He knew by some divine instinct that you can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. Let me repeat that. You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. Which bring us to rule number 3…

3. Become genuinely interested in other people.

So my challenge to you is to try and pick at least one of the rules to keep in mind during your next interaction with strangers and enjoy the benefits!

P.S. A bonus quote from Dale:

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

Short and masterful talk by Richard St. John. Are you missing any of the 8?

As a bonus, one of my favorite wallpapers:

One of the benefits of choosing to have amazing people to inspire from is that you often find gems that can completely shatter your world.

A collection of 13 life changing TED talks.

Thanks to Joe Rogan.

Bulgarian Stanislav Nedkov is fighting MMA superstar Thiago Silva in China on November 10th. I’m already getting goosebumps!

I’m all for delivering early versions. Historically, Apple has been pretty good at this.

That said, the Maps app early release in iOS6 puzzles me. It’s supposed to be a replacement for Google’s Maps. But… well, it is not. Not yet, anyway. Actually it’s completely broken for me:

• Not enough data. It’s to the point where I can’t even find what I need.
• The search is broken. Searches send me to weird places, different cities or can’t find results.
• There’s no information about the public transportation.

Awesome brokenness screenshots here. I’m sure they’re going to do their best fix these, but since Maps is one of the most important features for me, I would probably consider a phone with Google Maps until they do.

From my understanding of Steve Jobs desire for perfection, this software would’ve never been released like this during his reign.

It’s like getting your new BMW without wheel and with one of the tires being from a monster truck. Sure you’ll get quite a bit of feedback on what to improve, but it’s pretty obvious what’s wrong and people are obviously not going to be keen on driving it. The best part is that you also get this amazing improvements on your current BMW as well. Without any warning like “This will completely fuck up your car and render your most important feature useless.” or anything of the sort.

I think releasing this early is useful when there’s innovation. You want fast iterations and early feedback from the users as soon as you have the minimum viable product (MVP). Because of the fans expectations, in Apple’s case, the MVP is a “great product”. The only way for Apple to win from replacing the Maps app is if they raise the bar, which they didn’t do.

This can’t be a good sign for the future of the company, as its biggest success has been when they’ve innovated relentlessly. Now that competition, has caught up to them with the phones, they can’t afford to take steps backwards.

Твърде често повтаряме едни и същи грешки, а единственото което се иска от нас е да намерим 15 минути за самоанализ. По-добри решения и по-малко конфликти, в 3 стъпки:

1. Разбираме собствените си грешки.
2. Намираме решение за следващият път.
3. Поучаваме се и от чуждите грешки.

Можем да обвиняваме другите или да се опитваме да ги контролираме и да се провалим. Но ако се научим да контролираме себе си, няма да ни се налага.