#and now i can go sleep. it's 6am and my brain is turning to mush

[sleepy-aletheas]

"The value of language is not limited to words. A unified language helps to govern thoughts. Language is the bottom line, rules, weapons, and violence. By making our language unique, we can open up a special path to the relative completion of minds.

Governing thoughts may appear meaningless to some, but to others, it has a very significant meaning. Individuals' pursuit of uniqueness gives rise to various languages and media. People are controlled by language under many circumstances."

-- excerpt of Alhaitham's Vision Story

The more I stare at this, the more Alhaitham makes so much sense in a thematical way. This was from a book he read on a research trip. Was it during his Akademiya days? Post-graduation? Both make sense in their own ways.

If he was still a student, him latching onto the possibility of expressing himself in different, unconventional ways that fitted him more could explain the dissonance between him and everyone else (especially Kaveh, who obviously struggles with this).

If it was after he graduated, it would make sense he would ingrain this into himself, because he lost his best friend (his only friend) when he couldn't clearly communicate his concern when it mattered (they were young, they were stubborn, they didn't know how to deal with this type of battle between truth and grief).

Him finding wisdom, him finding ambition and hope, to communicate with someone else (someone who could show him different perspectives on life and complete his worldview) in ways that came more natural to him. It seems so easy, so trivial. There are people losing loved ones, almost their lives to get visions, and he was like "Ah, yes, communication is key."

It's ridiculous, just like him. And it's utterly lonely when no one even tries to look deeper than surface level, than from the lens of common etiquette.

And it's the perfect narrative foil to Kaveh, who praises himself for being an aesthete, who follows passion and art and values uniqueness. But communication? That has to follow strict social rules. You should be pleasant, and try to not step on anyone's toes. You should try be friendly and accommodating and helpful.

It's fascinating, that a character so set in trying to be good and find good in everything and everyone, cannot for the life of himself acknowledge that his roommate is capable of kindness and honesty, just because it doesn't follow the conventional paths.

It's mindboggling, that a character who tried his best to change the mind of a nation about art and its practical appliance to architecture, to life, and yet cannot phantom that communication also doesn't have to be just pragmatic, stiff, scripted sequence of socializing.

The absolute dissonance, the mirroring is so good, and so heart-breaking, and so frustrating. It makes me wanna curl up under my bed, and weep over these stupid geniuses.

[pinkguacamole]

Horse Poop, Craters, Sulfur, and Ash

What is this? A band from the ‘60s?

Nope, it’s my story about two days of hiking volcanoes on the Island Java in Indonesia. Mount Bromo and Mount Ijen. 

The natural flow of travel towards Bali from the city of Yogyakarta passes by these two volcanoes. There are tours leaving from Yogyakarta or Bali, or in other towns near these mountains that I’d seen advertisements for, but since I am stubborn and thought I could save money, I tried to make it all happen on my own. 

I took the train from Yogyakarta to the closest station to Mount Bromo: Probolinggo. I found a place to stay on booking.com that was more expensive than the usual hostel but it’s all I could find ahead of time and I hate showing up somewhere without a place to stay if it’s late in the afternoon. The train arrived at 4pm. I wanted to go to a town closer to the mountain called Cemara Lewang but I couldn’t find a place to stay online and it would have been dark by the time I arrived. As a general rule I avoid looking for hotels in the dark. (I have had some miserable experiences).

As I researched the towns surrounding Mount Bromo and Mount Ijen ahead of time, I was realizing that lodging wasn’t as cheap and getting from places was probably going to start adding up…

When I got to my hotel in Probolinggo, which is still 2 hours away from Bromo, I decided to ask the the staff what they knew about getting to Bromo. Obviously this is their main activity so they had a company all set up to come and chat with me and explain their package. 

A guy popped in and told me that the trip to Bromo would leave at 2 am so we could watch the sunset over the crater, then hike into it once day had broken. 

I mentioned I also wanted to visit Mount Ijen where you can see blue fire of burning sulfur at 600 degrees Fahrenheit. The guy said they did that trip too. Since the Bromo trip ends early in the morning, by noon they would drive everyone to a mountain town for lodging near Mount Ijen and the group would wake up at 1 am to hike to the crater through the night and then head to the ferry to Bali, arriving in Bali by the afternoon. 

Woah it was fast. And there would be little sleep. I’d given myself 4 days to see these volcanoes, but the organized trip could do it in 2. 

The guy broke down the price including park fees and after talking him down a bit, I am pretty sure I paid less than what it would have cost to do this all on my own. How was I supposed to get into a crater at 1 am by myself? Sometimes joining tours is the answer. 

So I went to sleep for a measly few hours to wake at 1 and wait for the ride to Bromo. A van picked me up at 2 in the morning with a few other travelers my age from various countries. Once we’d climbed the mountain a bit, they switched us to some jeeps and mixed everyone up. It seemed like there wasn’t really a method the Indonesian drivers were following to keep track of us, but we decided to just trust them …because we had no other choice. 

The jeeps climbed the increasingly steep mountain, in the dark, and it was a bit terrifying. 

Eventually we arrived at the cold, windy top and exited the jeeps to walk up to the viewpoint where we would watch the sunrise and return to the car at 6am. 

There were a lot of jeeps. So many jeeps. 

I’d heard that these trips are super crowded with tourists, but oh my goodness there were hundreds and hundreds of jeeps lining this road. 

Up at the viewpoint I shuffled around to find a spot that was far enough away from people that I wouldn’t be smushed but close enough so that I wouldn’t be cold. I found a woman from the same jeep as me and it turns out she was a free-lance event planner from London. (She had my future job!). We chatted about events and the world and things while the sun slowly rose to reveal a heavy fog over some pointy mountains, then finally a crater below. 

By the time the sun was up, there was a layer of mist over the glowing crater and it was super cool. People were elbowing each other to get photos but most people were patient and kind. How beautiful to share such a moment with hundreds of people… It’s like a religious experience. 

Once we had the photos we desired, we made our way back to the sea of jeeps which now showed themselves as multiple colors in the daylight. It was a bit of a challenge to find the right one but I’d written down the license plate. 

We piled in and the jeep descended back down the mountain into the crater. As it sped through, ash coated the windows and views of green lava-stripped mountains came into view. 

The jeep stopped to let us out at the bottom of the volcano. Our driver told us we could either walk to the volcano or take horses. The horses did not look happy. They have to breathe that ash everyday! That can’t be good for them.

It was a 45 minute walk through windy ash up to the side of the sulfuric smelling volcano. There were some challenges along the way… it was a very crowded hike. At the top when the ashy wind picked up it was pretty hard not to fall into another tourist. Luckily no one fell down into the volcano…

The way down was harder as the wind picked up and my eyes filled with ashy dust. There seemed to be more horse poop along the road at this point. 

After we made it back to the jeep, we drove into town. The drivers shuffled us around again and magically we all ended up where we were supposed to be. 

I took a shower at the hotel in Probolinggo and a small nap to be abruptly awoken by the staff because the car taking the group to Ijen had arrived early. 

…

That afternoon was spent in a van filled with more travelers my age from all over the world (mainly Dutch!), riding through the scenery of Java. I was in the front seat which made it easy for me to soak up the views… of the driver doing some of the scariest overtaking I have ever seen. We almost clipped people on mopeds once every five minutes. At one point he video-called his family while driving. He could see I was “amused” so he turned his phone towards me so I could say hi to his kids. 

As we got father east in Java, the bright green rice fields looked so much like Madagascar that I just stared out the window in a daze, forgetting where I was and enjoying the strange comfort of familiarity. 

We arrived in a cold mountain town as the sun was setting. We were divvied up, once again without any method, into shared rooms for the (half) night. 

I chatted with some new friends for a bit around dinner time and then we all went to bed pretty early to wake up at …1 in the morning. 

After we’d been shoveled into vans again in the darkness of the night, we entered the national park where Ijen stands.

When we reached the trail head it was beginning to rain. There was some more “organized” chaotic moving around of groups and finally it was time for our group of 30, amongst an overall group of …hundreds yet again, to climb the mountain to the crater. 

We wore our gas masks ready around our necks and hiked up a super steep hill for a few hours in the moist dark.

We made it to the top of the crater around 4 am… then the most intimidating part of the trip arrived: climbing into the rocky crater in the dark. 

I slowly followed people in my group and a long line of snaking flashlights down into the crater. The deeper we got, the stronger the smell of sulfur. I could see the blue smoke of the burning sulfur come closer and closer-despite the amount of flashlights people were shining on it. Dumb people.

At the bottom of the crater it was crowded and cold and still misty but now the air was thick with sulfur too. Seeing the blue smoke up close was awesome…but I did not need to stay down there for a whole hour while the other people in my group ran around doing whatever they were doing. I don’t know how they had so much energy at 4 am after no sleep. 

I sat on a mound of ash and watched the smoke and turned off my brain. 

Finally our Indonesian guide managed to gather all of us up. I have no idea how he did it. It was dark when he met us and there were so many people there. Even to me, our group was just a mush of white faces. But he did it. He told us to hike up the crater and wait in the middle for a good photo op. 

I usually like photos, but I, along with a few others in the group, grunted at the idea. We were tired and wet and just wanted to hike back. 

We waited on a piece of the crater’s shelf for a while. It was still dark and misty and cold and smelly and some people in the group were still running around being silly and my “old lady irritability” was starting to appear. But I sat. And I waited. 

Soon the misty sky began to lighten. After a few moments not much sun had cracked through, but the day was breaking and slowly the contents of the crater were revealed. 

Holy shit.

It was truly a magnificent moment. 

There was a huge seafoam green acidic lake there! I had no idea we were hiking next to a lake. In fact, it is the biggest acidic lake in the world. The light blue water mixing with the yellow smoke of the crater was a captivating contrast.

Okay, I am glad we waited for photos. 

Wait, maybe not. 

So it was cool to see, and yes I snapped a few photos. But then the crazy people from my group needed to do a 45 minute long photo shoot. It was mostly these two dutch boys running around doing all sorts of poses. 

Whyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Finally it was time to finish the ascent up the crater and the descent down the mountain. It was daytime now but everything was covered in a thick layer of eerie mist. We were lucky we were able to see anything in that crater! 

Walking up the rocky wall of the crater, I passed miners carrying baskets of sulfur. They work in rough conditions collecting the stuff and aren’t paid that well, though the income is more than average for people in that area. I talked to one for a few minutes. He tried to sell me a flower shaped piece of sulfur. I wanted to support him so I bought it… but then I had a piece of fart flavored rock to carry around for a few days and I eventually had to dispose of it. It stunk up everything!

There were also quite a few Indonesian men with carts to carry tourists up the hill. Phew it was a steeeep hill to push someone up. I did not see anyone use them but… Well I guess the hike isn’t for everyone and it’s an innovative way for locals to make money. 

On the way down I passed many groups of people hiking up. It seemed absolutely silly to me that they would go during the daytime and miss all of the excitement of the night. I am glad I did the tour.

Down the muddy mountain I strolled, satisfied, yet looking forward to sleeping…after a drive, a ferry ride, and another drive to reach my first destination in Bali: Ubud. 

The best adventures leave you cold and wet and exhausted, yet fulfilled. 

[foursprouthappiness-blog]

This Is The Best Time To Do Anything: 4 Powerful Secrets From Research

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/this-is-the-best-time-to-do-anything-4-powerful-secrets-from-research/

This Is The Best Time To Do Anything: 4 Powerful Secrets From Research

***

Before we commence with the festivities, I wanted to thank everyone for helping my first book become a Wall Street Journal bestseller. To check it out, click here.

***

We love to say “timing is everything” but often we sure as heck don’t act like it. (Bookstores have an entire “how to” section but not a “when to” section.)

As we’re going to find out, timing really can be everything. And often we’ve got it all wrong. Luckily, bestselling author Dan Pink has come to the rescue. His new book is When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.

It’s loaded with information on the best time to do almost anything — including the best time to get married. (You might wanna tie the knot between 25 and 32.)

From When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing:

…an American who weds at twenty-five is 11 percent less likely to divorce than one who marries at age twenty-four, according to analysis by University of Utah sociologist Nicholas Wolfinger. …past the age of thirty-two – even after controlling for religion, education, geographic location, and other factors – the odds of divorce increase by 5 percent per year for at least the next decade.

And if you’re already married, try and be extra nice in March and August — that’s when divorce filings consistently shoot up.

Ever have to give someone “good news and bad news”? Dan reports that you should deliver the bad news before the good news.

From When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing:

Several studies over several decades have found that roughly four out of five people “prefer to begin with a loss or negative outcome and ultimately end with a gain or positive outcome, rather than the reverse.”

There’s no way I could cover all the great insights in the book, so we’re going to focus on how to use Dan’s findings to be more productive and effective during the day.

All your hours are not created equal — not by a long shot…

  Do Think-y Stuff In The Morning

Anything requiring you to be at your most rational and analytical should be done early in the day. This is a very robust finding with mountains of studies to back it up.

Researchers usually just present data — they don’t often give explicit recommendations. But the writers of one paper Dan cites found their results so overwhelming they just came right out and told people what to do — make important decisions early.

From When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing:

“[A]n important takeaway from our study for corporate executives is that communications with investors, and probably other critical managerial decisions and negotiations, should be conducted earlier in the day.”

Maybe you’re thinking, “Meh. I’m sure it’s not that big a deal if I wait until after lunch.” Wrong.

You might as well pound a few beers before sitting down to work — that’s how big the performance difference can be.

From When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing:

“[T]he performance change between the daily high point and the daily low point can be equivalent to the effect on performance of drinking the legal limit of alcohol,” according to Russell Foster, a neuroscientist and chronobiologist at the University of Oxford.

And this jives with previous research. Dan Ariely of Duke University found that mornings really are magical for getting stuff done:

…it turns out that most people are productive in the first two hours of the morning. Not immediately after waking, but if you get up at 7 you’ll be most productive from around from 8-10:30.

You know what else Ariely’s research found? We usually waste most of that golden time with email and Facebook. Bad. Mornings are when you want to handle your most important tasks.

(To learn more about the science of a successful life, check out my bestselling book here.)

So mornings are magic. But what’s the latter half of the day good for?

  Afternoons Are Sluggish — But Insightful

One study found that 2:55PM is very likely the most un-productive moment of your day.

Researchers refer to mornings as the “peak” and afternoons as the “trough.” You’re probably thinking about how that negatively impacts your work. Well, don’t just yet…

Think about how it affects other people’s work. I, for one, am never going to a doctor’s office in the afternoon for the rest of my life.

Anesthesiologists commit three times as many errors that result in patient harm during the latter half of the day. (Errors by a surgeon are pretty scary. Errors where somebody puts you to sleep and you never wake up are terrifying.)

The number of studies that show just how much stupider and less in control we are during the afternoon is staggering.

The #1 time for sleep-related car accidents is, unsurprisingly, late at night when people are exhausted. Guess when #2 is? Not rush hour or morning commute when the most cars are on the road — it’s between 2PM and 4PM. All around the world.

From When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing:

In the United Kingdom, sleep-related vehicle accidents peak twice during every twenty-four-hour period. One is between 2AM and 6AM, the middle of the night. The other is between 2PM and 4PM, the middle of the afternoon. Researchers have found the same pattern of traffic accidents in the U.S., Israel, Finland, France, and other countries.

After the morning ends, we’re a bit of mess. But there is an upside…

When your brain is tired, creativity jumps. Those misfiring neurons aren’t as rational but they’re much more likely to come up with new ideas.

From When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing:

Some have called this phenomenon the “inspiration paradox” – the idea that “innovation and creativity are greatest when we are not at our best, at least with respect to our circadian rhythms.”

So you might want to come up with new plans in the afternoon — and execute them the next morning.

(To learn the seven-step morning ritual that will make you happy all day, click here.)

I know there’s a group of people right now who are vigorously shaking their heads at all of the above: “I am not sharper in the morning; I’m a zombie. It’s takes four hours before my brain even starts working.”

I’m not talking about the sleep-deprived (they’re a mess all day long.) I’m talking about night owls. And guess what? They’re right…

  “Strike That — Reverse It”

If you’re a night owl, take everything I just said and reverse it.

(Night owls who only read the very beginning of this post received some really bad advice. I feel no guilt. That’s what you get for not reading to the end. Nyah.)

“Larks” (early risers) and “third birds” (people who are neither extreme) peak in the morning, have a trough in the afternoon and then experience a period of recovery. For night owls, it’s recovery, trough, peak.

From When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing:

In short, all of us experience the day in three stages – a peak, a trough, and a recovery. And about three-quarters of us (larks and third birds) experience it in that order. But about one in four people, those whose genes or age make them night owls, experience the day in something closer to the reverse order – recovery, trough, peak.

And sure enough, night owls get into more car accidents during their morning commute.

From When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing:

…even though it’s obviously more dangerous to drive at night, owls actually drive worse early in the day because mornings are out of synch with their natural cycle of vigilance and alertness.

If you’re a child of the night, plan creative tasks for the morning and critical thinking for the afternoon. And don’t drive anywhere near where I’m at until 2PM.

(To learn how to stop being lazy and get more done, click here.)

While very interesting, all this information can also be upsetting. If you have little control over your schedule, you’re going to be doing a lot of stuff at suboptimal times. And if your job doesn’t involve much creativity, is half the day just wasted?

How do we turn that trough into more of a peak? The answer is simple: take breaks. But what’s really interesting is there is more than one type of break that we need…

  The Two Types Of Breaks

You’re a night owl and you’ve got a big presentation at 9AM. Or you’re a lark and it’s scheduled for 2:55PM, the Productivity Minute of Doom. This is when you need what Dan calls a “vigilance break.”

Vigilance breaks are “…brief pauses before high-stakes encounters to review instructions and guard against error.”

Stop what you’re doing. Don’t just barrel forward with your brain feeling like mush. Take a moment to review everything that needs to be done and how you need to do it. A checklist made during your peak hours can really help here.

One year after the Veterans Hospital Administration implemented vigilance breaks for doctors they found that the surgical mortality rate had dropped by 18%.

Now if vigilance breaks are great for marshaling your defenses against errors, “restorative breaks” are what you need to recharge and improve performance. Instead of reviewing a checklist, you want to get some distance from your work and relax a bit.

Students that take standardized tests during their trough perform worse than those who take them during their peak. But when allowed restorative breaks, the afternoon group actually got better scores than the morning students.

From When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing:

Danish schoolchildren who take the tests in the afternoon score significantly worse than those who take the exams earlier in the day… When the Danish students had a twenty-to-thirty-minute break “to eat, play, and chat” before a test, their scores did not decline. In fact, they increased.

What’s the best restorative break? Combining the insights from many studies, Dan recommends “a short walk outside with a friend during which you discuss something other than work.” And another study showed that the highest performers usually worked for 52 minutes and then took a 17 minute break.

I know, I know: it might not be realistic for everyone. In that case you want to make sure to maximize the break that is built into everyone’s schedule — lunch. It can be a big performance booster if done correctly.

From When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing:

The most powerful lunch breaks have two key ingredients – autonomy and detachment. Autonomy – exercising some control over what you do, how you do it, when you do it, and whom you do it with—is critical for high performance, especially on complex tasks… Detachment – both psychological and physical—is also critical. Staying focused on work during lunch, or even using one’s phone for social media, can intensify fatigue according to multiple studies, but shifting one’s focus away from the office has the opposite effect.

If you leverage breaks properly, your trough can actually be more productive than your peak.

(To see the schedule that very successful people follow every day, click here.)

Okay, we’ve learned quite a bit about how to be more productive. Let’s round everything up and learn the best time to implement these changes…

  Sum Up

Here’s the best time to get stuff done:

Think-y stuff in the morning: If you’re reading this at midnight, you’re breaking my heart.

Afternoons are sluggish — but insightful: Creativity peaks when you aren’t thinking straight.

Night owl? Strike that — reverse it: I wrote this post during the evening, but don’t worry — I’m a night owl. Hoot. Hoot.

The two types of breaks: Vigilance breaks are when you take a step back and review your checklist before an important moment. Restorative breaks are when you relax to recharge your dwindling batteries.

Okay, ready to make some big changes in your schedule? Want to feel like you’re making a fresh start? Dan has the right time for that as well.

Yes, you could begin implementing all this tomorrow but the research shows we are actually more likely to follow through when we start on what are called “temporal landmarks.”

These are natural turning points on the calendar when you can open a new mental account and feel like a “new you.” Best example is New Year’s Day, that time when most of us make resolutions — but it’s not the only one. There are two kinds: social and personal.

From When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing:

The social landmarks were those that everyone shared: Mondays, the beginning of a new month, national holidays. The personal ones were unique to the individual: birthdays, anniversaries, job changes.

So pick your temporal landmark and start fresh.

Align your schedule with how your brain naturally works and time really is on your side.

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The post This Is The Best Time To Do Anything: 4 Powerful Secrets From Research appeared first on Barking Up The Wrong Tree.