Strengths and Weaknesses part 3. Weaknesses

Weaknesses are the opposite of strengths on a mental level. They are not necessarily things you are bad at. You may be good, but your weaknesses are mental. You don't expect something or get satisfaction from doing it. After doing it, you feel tired and indifferent, and you don't look forward to doing it with pleasure, but try to avoid it. You can try to improve your weaknesses, but they are also your repetitive thought patterns, so you have to reprogram your brain and it's hard. One of my weaknesses is meeting half-acquaintances. I try to avoid them until the end. I'd rather walk away from another person than go towards them. The mere thought of this event makes me anxious. Dealing with weaknesses is challenging. There are ways to avoid and reduce their role. The first five that come to mind are:

1. Do not do it

2. Develop yourself in it

3. Partner up with someone

4. Develop a support system

5. Change your weakness into strength

As I already mentioned, I use the first method to avoid encounters with half-acquaintances. I spend more time avoiding them than I would spend on the encounters themselves. This is not reasonable, but I have to admit that I don't always act rationally. I try to strive for it, but weaknesses are often unconscious behaviors. You can't avoid all things. Then develop your weakness. This requires greater mental effort. That's why investing time in this doesn't make sense if you don't have to. This wastes resources from your more useful activities.

You often need other people to overcome a weakness. There are many people in your close circle whose strengths are your weaknesses. At workplaces, it is worth investing in forming such partnerships. You can help those close to you with your strengths if they are their weaknesses. Developing a support system takes time. You can use tools to develop the system. Automate your actions if you lack the desire for something. If you want to save money regularly, set up a continuous direct account transfer for saving. Sometimes you may have a weakness that you can hide with your strengths. You can get rid of the tension by imagining that you are somewhere else. A stand up comedian can create a sketch character by exaggerating his weaknesses. He thinks about the role on stage, imagining that he is just acting.

If you cannot avoid or work around your weaknesses, you must improve them to tolerable levels. You can't let them ruin your whole life. Get over yourself and improve them. Your journey may be painful, but your weaknesses may produce the greatest waste in life. You can achieve great results with smaller effort. The advantages and disadvantages of strengths and weaknesses vary from person to person. You have to work things out yourself. Remember that by changing a few critical things, you can achieve big results, whether they are about strengths or weaknesses.

Strengths and Weaknesses part 2 Strengths

 Your strengths are combinations of your knowledge, skills and talents. You need them all to bring out the best in you. Of these three, the most important part and the one that clearly sets you apart from the rest is talent, i.e. repetitive thinking patterns. They are your unique talents. You are different because the impulses of your brain are brought in different ways. Acquiring knowledge and skills are essential, but they can also be acquired by others. It is impossible to copy your personal filter. You are different from others, so find your own strengths. They have common features.

I use four different parts in the book. The last three are more or less psychic similarities and success tells about how well the strengths come out:

1. Success

2. Instinct

3. Growth

4. Need

Success is the most obvious feature. Success tells you that you have some ability. There is still a long way to go from ability to strength. I can drop anything and catch any item myself before it hits the ground better than most people. It is difficult for me to refine this ability into a strength. If you know how I can do this, please tell me. The mere ability to do something and succeed in it is not enough if certain psychological criteria are not met.


Utilizing strengths based on instinct is more common than conscious action. This says a lot about the uniqueness of the strengths. You act strongly on your instincts. It is a condition of your existence. Instincts make you volunteer for things you're good at.


Growth means the ability to learn things very quickly and to refine one's ability to do things quickly. Abilities are things that seem easy to you. They do not require your special concentration but feel natural. You can lose track of time during them. This means the so-called flow state. In this case, you will be happy and you will accomplish a lot without realizing it. Growth takes place by utilizing strengths.


A need means how you feel a moment after an action. You are e.g. satisfied, happy and you feel that you have reached a peaceful state of being. Strive for the same state over and over again. You feel mentally strong even though you are physically exhausted. Your need to do something was stronger as a child. Then, you mostly try to do things that feel good. As an adult, you will have many mental obstacles that reduce the need. Strengths are the things you do that make you feel strong, and your weaknesses are the things that make you feel weak. You can be good at something, but still feel mentally drained. This is a sign of your weakness. Use your strengths because they work with less effort. Utilizing them gives you an edge over those who don't.

Strengths and weaknesses part 1. Knowledge, skill, and talent

 You have strengths and weaknesses. Their meaning for you is personal. You might focus on doing things through your strengths, while others focus on improving their weaknesses. For some reason, most of us believe that developing our weaknesses is more important than our strengths. You can get the performance of a Skoda by successfully tuning your truck, but you should focus on tuning your Ferrari. The latter is a wiser option, because in today's world, you cannot do without your strengths.

Knowledge, skill and talent


You can learn the first two. Talents are natural abilities that you cannot learn. You can refine them. Your talents refer to your natural and repetitive thinking patterns and cannot be taught. A talented accountant has e.g. the noble skill of being , i.e. he wants to get all the numbers right. Due to different levels of talent, students starting from the same starting point produce different results. The top level can only be reached if the talent coincides with what one does. This does not mean that learning is not useful for the gifted. Of the strengths, talent forms the essential parts. Knowledge and skills can be acquired, but unique thinking patterns cannot be acquired.


Knowledge means things you are aware of. You can gather information yourself and it can be taught to you. Information can be divided into two parts: facts and information based on experience. You have read the facts and your knowledge based on experiences are the things you have learned along the way. Facts can and should be taught. Knowledge based on experiences is learned by thinking about what was done and how the action has affected either you or others or by following the actions of others. A skill is how you do something. The best way to learn a skill is to break it down into pieces and put them together. The best way to learn is to practice by doing it consciously. Each skill and its parts should be learned in the right way at the right time in the right order.



Talent can be divided into three different categories. Motivational talent explains why you do something. It tells you the reason why you do what you do. Thinking talent tells you how you think, i.e. how you consider options or how you draw conclusions. The unifying talent tells you who you trust, who you work with and who you reject. Talent is made up of the connections in the brain that control its activity. Thinking patterns are different from others because all brains have billions of connections that work in different ways. They are different for everyone. Connections are mostly formed during the first three years of life, and by sixteen years, half of your connections are dead. Connections form mental networks that filter the information the brain receives. The network decides how to react to certain situations.


If you don't know about your talents, find them by following your natural reactions. They are reactions you cannot learn. They are at their best in stressful situations. In addition to natural reactions, you can think about things that you constantly miss. In addition, you can think about things that give you satisfaction and things you learn quickly. The things you were interested in as a child are probably the ones you are talented at. You have felt an attraction to them even at an older age. You'll learn faster the skills you're good at. Embracing them comes more naturally to you than to others. Satisfaction is also a sign of your talent, because those things have the strongest connections in your brain. Think about the things that make you happiest. It is one of the best tips for finding talent.


Anders Ericsson made a study that proved that talent alone is not enough for success. The end result was that getting to the top requires an average of 10,000 hours of focused and purposeful training. The average does not tell about individuals. In reality, the number of hours varied from a few thousand to twenty thousand. The need for hours depends largely on talent. When the number of hours in question is so large, it is clear that without talent, few people can cope with that amount of work. Since the amount of talent tells about repeated thought patterns, such an amount of hours is almost impossible to perform without talent. The interest in doing something ends quickly without the satisfaction of doing it, which is one of the hallmarks of talent.

Changing habits

 You can begin to make changes to your habits when you understand their anatomy and how you create new habits. Your old habits are automated in your brain, so changing them is harder than creating new ones. You have to understand how habits are formed in order to change them. Your habits never leave your brain, so changing them is your only chance. Changing habits requires four steps:

1. Identify the routine

2. Try different rewards

3. Isolate the clue

4. Make a plan for execution

Identifying the routine is the easiest part because it is a habit that needs changing, such as biting nails, eating sweets or shopping. Trying out rewards takes more work. The real reward may not be immediately noticed. The reward can only last for milliseconds, like a momentary change in hormone balance. Finding the right reward is the most important thing, because without it, the habit is not born. Sensations produced by the different rewards must be observed. You can either use the person following your routine or alternatively write down first feelings after receiving each award. This process can take longer, so don't be discouraged if you don't see the prize right away. The longer you wait after trying the reward, the more likely you are to make a mistake. Make a plan where you mark the prizes you tested and how you make your observations.

Once you find the right reward, you can start isolating the clue. They have similarities. They can be linked to a place, a company, a mental/physical state, the time of the clock or a previous activity. The clue is likely a combination of factors. The best way to isolate a clue is to write down all the events and conditions day after day. Let's use the example of buying sugary treats after a working day.

• Physical clue (store or kiosk logo)

• Location (proximity to your grocery store or kiosk on your commute)

• Company (alone or with significant other / children)

• Condition (hunger, fatigue after work)

• Time (17.05 weekdays)
  
  

What to do beforehand (Travelling in a full and noisy means of transportation) Repeat marking the clues until you notice similarities. Note that these five things are not always the same. Clues can also be about single factors. After completing the first three parts, you can begin to change the habit. Understand that not all habits change easily. Reprogramming your brain is difficult. It can take a long time. You need to make a plan for change that you will implement for a long time. Since you implement your habit as follows: you notice the cue, you perform the routine to get the desired reward, for example, when buying treats, your plan must be:

• When I am tired after a day of working and jump a bus full of people and can see a store logo (clue)

• I Walk in and buy a product x instead of a product y (altered routine) to get a reward z

In this case, a product x is something delicious and unhealthy, while the substitute y is, for example, a banana. The received reward is the feeling from the right level of blood sugar. Repeat the aforementioned plan until you have automated it. It will take some time. The more often you have repeated the habit you want to change, the more repetitions it will need to achieve the change.

Improving chances of success

Change your habits one at a time. That way you have the best chance of success. Be patient because changes take time. The first days after the decision are easier because you are at your most determined. According to American professors who study habits, the worst moments come about three weeks after starting. When you start, modify your environment in such a way that it favors change and keeps temptations away. You can't just put treats in the cupboard at home and rely on willpower or buy them at the store and trust that you won't start eating them. Throw the temptations in the trash or donate to better homes. Don't give yourself easy opportunities to fail. Changing your environment is the single most important thing. Without it, the chances of success decrease. Later, the role of your environment will decrease.

The longer you try to change a habit, the more likely you are to fail at first attempt. Be prepared for momentary failures by thinking in advance how you will react to them. The first one doesn't mean you've killed your chance for change. Failures make you human. According to US researchers, it takes an average of seven attempts to quit smoking. Be kind to yourself when you fail and decide in advance that you will try again immediately after the trip. Make a plan for the trip as well.

Each habit is different and their formation has not yet been studied much. A study conducted at the University of London in 2009 has reached some conclusions. The study measured habit formation to the point where 95% automation was achieved. In other words, at that point the habit required no effort. The study measured changes in students' exercise habits and diets. In the study, the average result was 66 days, with the results varying between 18 and 254 days.

Habits and creating new ones

On average, about forty percent of the things you do are habits. It is impossible to determine the exact number to any individual because it would require a constant monitoring of brain activity. Most of the habits you just perform. Some of them are helpful and some harmful. Their sum can be anything. My personal experience is that changing even one bad habit can have a big positive impact. Why modification and not elimination? For the simple reason that habits are almost impossible to remove, as we will see later. Different habits have similarities and being aware of them can be beneficial. Noticing the similarities will improve chances of changing the worst habits and developing new ones.

The definition of a habit is roughly: it means a choice made in the past that you continue to make without thinking about it. Habits are formed by tasks that take place in your brain. Your brain is constantly conserving energy. The longer you perform tasks, the less the brain needs to consume. Habits can be called processes where the brain turns a series of tasks into routines. There are hundreds of task sets every day. Habits are either simple or complex. They form because your brain is constantly working to conserve energy. They reduce wasted energy and make it easier to focus on more difficult things. This means that habits don't go away, they are in our brains to stay. They can be changed by reprogramming brains. They need to be understood in order to change them.

During habits, there are two clear spikes in energy consumption in the brain. They are spotting a clue and getting a reward. Routines consume less energy the more often and longer you perform them. Clues can be anything, such as a certain time or a place. Also, visual clues such as candy shelves can trigger routines. Routines can be simple actions like nail biting or complex like analyzing investments. Their duration can be anything from milliseconds to many hours or even days. Rewards range from feel-good feelings such as pride to physical changes or hormone production. The size of the reward produces a constant desire and need to do the routine. The main reason for forming a habit is the reward. Understanding the anatomy of habits makes it possible to create new habits and change old ones.

Creating new habits

There are three parts to creating new habits:

1. Coming up with a clear clue

2. Defining a routine

3. Definition of an award
   
   
   

All parts above are required to create a habit. The more complicated the routine is, the more precisely it must be defined, including clues and rewards. If you want to learn how to perform a new habit in the morning, you should bring the instrument with which you want to perform the habit visible on your bedside table or another place as a clue. You can bring a toothbrush if you want to learn to brush your teeth in the morning as well. If you want to start going for a morning run, bring your sneakers to bedroom door or some other visible place where you can see them when you rise up from the bed before going to sleep. The reward can be any thing that makes you feel good. It can be the good feeling you get from sports or the old great jeans that don't fit you anymore. The main thing is that the award makes you feel good. A big enough reward is the only chance to create a new habit successfully. The cue must create a desire for the reward that you get from the routine, i.e. it must be related to the routine and the reward in one way or another.

Creating new habits is much easier than changing the current ones. Next text is about the latter.

-TT

Focus on producing the most value to you

Think about whether you can be good enough at something to be in the top ten percent. The answer is yes. It is not easy. There is no simple answer to getting there. The most effective ten percent wouldn't exist if it were easy. The process leading to it is not simple, even if there is a simple answer to the question. Top performers have the greatest efficiency. Peak efficiency means you can make more money doing less hours. This happens by doing the right things. These people generate the most added value for you and others. You can't be good at everything. You have to make wise choices.

It is better for you to be excellent at a few things than to be mediocre at many things. You should also know some things more than others. It is better than knowing as much about many things as others. Focus on core areas of expertise. Keep improving them. You're never done. Others will pass you by if you stay where you are. Nowadays, we are talking about ten thousand hours of focused training if you want to be a top performer. I agree to some extent. I believe there are shortcuts that reduce the number of hours. I also believe that ten thousand hours are not enough without talent. It can even mean double the number of hours. This may not be enough without talent if the competition is tough.

I don't think that constant training is enough to get to the top of the world if you don't have passion for what you do. Focus on your passions because they bring you the most joy and benefit. It's easier for you to enjoy the merry-go-round of good things through your passions. There are exceptions. One of them was Andre Agassi, whose father forced him to practice tennis so much that he hated it. I recommend Agassi's biography to you, where he goes through all the emotional scales that top artists experience during their lifetime.

Choose for whom and with whom you work

Work for a company or client that returns a large part of the added value you produce. In addition, work with people who can increase the value of your work with their contribution. These things rise above the rest when you focus on increasing the relative benefit of your work. Focus on getting a sufficient part of the added value you produce for yourself. You have a better chance of doing this by working for yourself. Make sure that your employer or client pays primarily for the results. As an entrepreneur, don't attract too many customers. Focus on a small number of big customers. Make sure that your customers are ready to sign long contracts and focus primarily on the most important things. According to the principle of less is more, the income from a few customers is greater than from others. Never bet on just one customer.

As an employee, you must be in a workplace where people who add value are rewarded. Then you can get paid according to your results. Work in a place where you have a lot of power over your work. Only then can you focus on the work from which you and your employer will reap the greatest benefits. Choose the freedom to do your job as you see fit. If you lack freedom and have to rely on others to figure out what you can do or how to do things, you won't be able to work as efficiently as possible. Focus primarily on results, not your workload, and work in a place where getting results is the single most important thing.

Who you work with is important. Free riders or difficult people will affect your results. There are huge differences in people's work performance. The top 1% who are capable of peak performance achieve much more than the least efficient 1%. Top performers make great results even compared to mediocrity. They get more done than you think. You can learn from them and get closer to their performance by working with them. For example, in team sports, you perform better when you play with better players. When you play with the worse ones, you also become worse. Although a team is only as strong as its weakest links, they also get better when they play with better ones.

Studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of top workers. One involved thousands of employees, from mail carriers to partners in large law firms. The support was provided by John Hunter from Michigan State University and Frank Schmidt and Michael Judiesch from the University of Iowa. It compared top performers with the least efficient percent and average workers. The study found that the value of top performers increases with the increasing demands of work.

• In simple jobs, such as the professions of machine operators and office rats, those belonging to the best percent achieved three times more than the worst.

• In moderately difficult tasks, such as retail sales and mechanics, the best were twelve times more efficient than the worst percent.

• The most demanding professions, such as insurance agents, sales negotiators, doctors and lawyers, were studied by comparing the most efficient percentage with average performers. On average, the best accomplish more than two average workers.

• Those who belong to the best percent of programmers achieve the work input of almost thirteen mediocre people.
  
  
  

As you can see from the figures above, at least one study proves the claim that the most efficient employees are by far the biggest producers of net worth. Cherish their hard work. Make sure that they are paid well. Don't whine about pay equality. In practice, top performers must reap the most benefits of their effectiveness themselves. You're not a top performer if you can't find evidence of your top performance. In this case, get into their sphere of influence.

Aim to find top performers as an entrepreneur. Their results far exceed their costs. Pay them a lot because they are wanted. You can also try to look for people who have the potential to become top performers. You can get even more benefit from them compared to your costs. Top performers have their own thought patterns and have often come up with other, better ways of doing things. Don't immediately reject a person who behaves or thinks strangely about you.

Learning from the best + Blood, Sweat and Tears

The best in their fields are rarely products of the system for everybody. They mostly go through their own paths. No system can develop an individual better than taking personal needs into account in the best possible way. Often they want to share their path with others or someone else wants to know the secret to their success. With this, you can get better too. This can happen in many different ways. Learn from the opportunity if you get one. Today, the easiest option is to take advantage of videos, interviews, or books.

If you want to get to the top then you can’t gather advice from mediocre people. Not even good individuals can help you with that. Focus only on the information provided by top individuals. Absolute best is often difficult to measure. It can be considered a matter of taste. A good gauge e.g. the arts have sales volumes and sums of money from individual works. Don’t copy one hit wonders but the ones that have been at the top for a long time. Without long-term success, it can only be about happiness. Explore talent from many different fields. Often, many things unite many things. The clearest examples are a passion for an object of interest and following one’s own path. In addition to them, there are many other commonalities, but they are the most important.

It is easy for you to follow the development paths of the champions in your field today. You can find a lot of their interviews on the internet. They have shared their life through biographies as well. Autobiographies are the best options. Two of the best I have read are ”Open” from Andre Agassi and ”On Writing” by Stephen King On Writing. They tell about how their thoughts on their lives and professions have been thrown from one emotional state to another. The failures that are necessary for everyone are best highlighted in autobiographies. They are widely available from libraries or at low prices online.

Blood, sweat and tears

Staying put is not your problem if you are happy with your situation and are able to arrange it so that you do not have any problems. Today, this is not easy. Escape from your comfort zone often enough if you want to move forward. This may not require extra work from you but new ways of doing things. Without resistance, there will be no development. It occurs in many forms and can be divided into external and internal resistance. Development often happens by hitting your head on the wall over and over again until you succeed.

Your ego is your biggest problem when you stay put. Going to areas of discomfort is your biggest hurdle. It makes you believe you don’t need a change. You are often the victim of your habits. Routines wire your brain without you noticing. You’ll have a hard time getting up if you’ve been staying on your couch for a long time. You need to transcend yourself and endure a certain amount of pain in order to develop into excellence. Top athletes have to put everything and a little extra into the game. Few are willing to go far enough. However, development requires crossing your borders in one way or another. It requires a head-on struggle. It is not a question of quantity but of power. Increasing the amount of exercise above a certain point does not help because the limits of development come into play.

Your battle inside your head can also be due to pressure from your environment and friends. It can also be called external pressure, but you decide how you feel about it. The most important way to reduce external pressure is to find out the reasons for the opposition. If your changes don’t suit everyone then reduce their company. External pressures can also become unknown. For some, this pressure is easier to deal with, but it is unique. You need to understand that you cannot live up to the expectations of others if you want to get the most out of your life. In the world of pioneers, the resistance is tougher because no one has done the same things before. By pioneers I mean e.g. top scientists and record-breaking athletes.

Understand that development is not just an uphill but it includes downhills and long journeys on a flat. Many times running towards the wall often makes the mind quit as well. Sometimes you should go around the wall or try a completely different route. Failure in one battle does not mean losing the war. Setbacks are necessary because without them you may never try in the most sensible way. They can hurt, but still don’t give up. That is the surest way to fail. You can prepare for setbacks mentally, physically, and financially. The masters and pioneers in their field have always been a little crazy and have suffered from it.

The lives of the mediocre people can be much easier and recommended for many. The crazy often do more and going to the frontiers of nonsense can produce disasters. However, don’t underestimate them because they are moving the world forward. You learn well from failures, so don’t be afraid of them. They will be for everyone. How you react to them will determine your future success.

Everybody has intelligence

Not all people are endowed with the same intellectual gifts. You may not be aware of your strengths but focus on things you don’t benefit from. Utilizing ingenuity is easier than ever. You can make yourself more easily known to the public, e.g. Via Youtube. This means e.g. an easier and more lucrative path for the best musicians and other performers. The flip side of the coin is the increase in the number of competitors. The following sections are intended to explain to you how strength ranges or intelligences can be broken down. The division makes them easier to understand. Intelligence can be divided in many different ways. In the book, I use seven different types of intelligence from Harward Professor Howard Gardner. They give a clear picture of people’s intelligence. You can be smart in many ways. Different intelligences are not mutually exclusive. Gardner's intelligences are:

• Logical-mathematical

• Linguistic

• Musical

• Bodily-kinesthetic

• Spatial

• Interpersonal

• Intrapersonal

Logically-mathematically intelligent people analyze problems logically, know how to use math, and study things scientifically. Such intelligence is most favored at the expense of others. Unfortunately, many of the gifted in this area are put to solve problems for which they do not have enough intelligence.

Linguistic intelligence describes the ability to understand and produce both spoken and written language fluently. Learning foreign languages is also easier. Lawyers, speakers, writers, and poets are linguistically average. Such genius is emphasized in education in Finland. The Finnish way of teaching foreign languages ​​through grammar may not be right, because the most important thing abroad, i.e. speaking a foreign language, is forgotten.

Musical intelligence means being able to perform music either by playing or singing and understanding how well someone else practices their musicality. Gardner believes this is the most questionable area of intelligence because he says musicality is close to linguistic genius.

Physically intelligent people have the ability to use a body or part of it to solve problems. Physically gifted are certain top athletes, such as gymnasts. Good builders, surgeons, and mechanics are also physically gifted.

Spatially intelligent refers to the ability to detect and manipulate large or smaller spaces. The rulers of large spaces are e.g. pilots and air traffic controllers. Rulers of smaller forms can be found e.g. sculptors, chess players and architects.

Intrapersonally intelligent people are able to understand the intentions, motivations, desires of others and are good at working with other people. The best examples are good salesmen, teachers, nurses, politicians and Actors. Their role in society is often underestimated, even though you are helpless without social skills. My personal opinion of Finns is that we are not socially talented. This may be due in part to teaching us to believe in it.

Interpersonally intelligent people feel good about themselves are able to understand themselves, create the behaviors that are best for them, understand their desires, fears and abilities. They take advantage of the above to regulate their lives for the best they see fit. I consider this skill to be the most important.

Defining the seven intelligences is not the only right way. More important than considering the accuracy of the classification is to evaluate how different forms of intelligence describe you. If you are a complete failure in some intelligence then you should learn how to improve it. It doesn’t become your strength even with hard training. It will make your life a lot easier as your biggest problems will diminish. Only the things you are really talented can get the most out of with the least amount of input. Of course, the smart ones have to practice. Becoming good requires less practice from them. Invest in things where you are the smartest. You get the most out of them. No one is intelligent in everything. Do not strive for the best in all things. It reduces your overall benefits and you do unnecessary work. It makes sense to move from a full-length to a mediocre one, because then you get great benefits with less investment.

You should always invest in self-knowledge. Without understanding oneself, one does not know one’s areas of strength and punches one’s head in the wall unnecessarily. Examples of this are singers aspiring to compete in Idols, who sound like they are scratching a metal surface with a screwdriver. When one of the judges tells the truth then it is left unbelievable and barked by the professionals. Self-knowledge also helps when you are praised in vain by loved ones. Unnecessary praise can cause great harm. Don’t neglect to develop this skill. You can take it for granted, but it’s not for everyone.

Simplicity also requires prioritization

Simplicity also requires prioritization. You have your passions and order of priorities. The most important things are often overshadowed, because your time is often determined by external factors. Focus on prioritizing the tasks you are left with after elimination. You can’t do many jobs efficiently at the same time, so you’re forced to prioritize. For most, even one job is too much. Remember, prioritization is your responsibility because others don’t know you better. Don't follow the herd. You live in a world of choices. Choosing the right things will improve your chances of getting the most out of yourself. Think about priorities. Things to prioritize have common denominators, although they vary by personality. Think carefully about your priorities. Some are self-explanatory and others are surprising.

Think of yourself first. The most important tasks are the ones that take you forward and that you’ve always wanted to do or try. Figure out things that produce results and more joy. They are based on the less is more principle or those with great potential. Also, things that require your creativity or are considered impossible by others will rank high. The only way to do some things is to prioritize tasks with high value. Prioritize them at the expense of your routine. Eliminating vanities is more important than prioritizing because they have a greater impact on quality of life. Start prioritizing step by step. You will probably fail in everything if you try to do too many things at once. Don’t forget that loneliness can be a virtue. Don’t forget it, even if the desire to change all things right now is great.

The most important task

Don’t forget that even the most important tasks have their order. Outline the most important thing for each day and prioritize it. Always put it first. Determine it through maximum benefit. Also assign a purpose to the task, because without good reason, the task is not the most important one. If you can't get the most important task done in one day, divide it into parts. Prioritize smaller parts. Set aside your most efficient hours for the most important task. They vary depending on the personality. Most are most effective 2-4 hours after waking up. They have had time to shed their sleep and their worst fatigue has subsided. You will find your best working hours best by testing, i.e. doing the most important tasks at different times.

In addition to reserving the most efficient working time, minimize potential disruption to the most important tasks. Close email notifications, set the phone to silent, and focus on the most important task. This may be easier said than done. Still, try to minimize interference. This will greatly increase your efficiency. Set a deadline for the most important task. If you book a longer time period for your most important tasks than a day, set aside moments on your calendar for your most important tasks. I do not recommend a vague definition of the most important tasks, such as “I will graduate as an engineer next year”. In this case, the priorities may be unclear and leave too much room for interpretation.

When you define the most important tasks, you must first determine the next physical task and what you want to accomplish. The relevance of the next physical task is to make the most important task easier to do. Example: You have a toothache that interferes with your daily life. In this case, your most important task is to make an appointment and go to the dentist. The first physical task is to look up a dentist's number. In reality, the first physical task is probably to open a browser or computer. Mark the desired result as a hole patch and end of the toothache. Apply this mindset to every major task. Simplify the thing you want to do. Often the most important task is multifaceted. Therefore, clearly define the desired outcome. Determine the desired result before the first physical step.

Simplicity part 1 Simplicity and Complexity

Simple is beautiful and it shows in many things. The modern world is moving towards complex structures. This trend is wrong. Keeping a product simple as it enters the market makes it easier to make more money. Simple products have started to attract more and more recently. Ease of use has risen to a major role in purchasing decisions. The imperceptibility of the role of simplicity is often due to the fact that it is not as intellectually interesting as complexity. The problem with Finnish engineering is that a technically superior solution is not always the best if it is complex. This was one reason why Nokia could not compete with Apple.

Simple is always beautiful. The exception may be someone with an ugly and simple soul. Not hanging on to exceptions. Focus on the beauty of simplicity. The beauty of simplicity is one reason less is more of a principle to work. Simplifying aspects of human life can be helpful. Automatic Monthly Savings in Index Funds can save you large amounts of work exams and bank brokerage fees. Simple, simple and straightforward. Your job is to make complex things simple. This is an ongoing process. It never ends the first time. Don't compromise on it. Always keep in mind that a simple product, thing, message or service is high quality. If you are unable to simplify then strive for elimination. If this does not work, remember the lowest possible minimum dose and make sure that you do not consume more of your resources than necessary.

Life is constantly becoming more complicated. That doesn't have to be the case. Focus only on the things that bring the most benefit and enjoyment to you and your environment. Eliminate every thing unrelated to the above if you can. Unnecessary and important things will always fight for their living space in your headroom. This war is difficult to detect because unnecessary as well as important things fought inside your head. By giving up things that do you little or no harm, you can simplify your life with pleasure and great results. Awesome and excellent things often mean simple results. Reducing complexity leads to a more beautiful end result. If you want to make something big going forward, you need the courage to simplify. Few have the resources to do so. That is why simplicity is so rare and beautiful.

Simplification requires both the elimination and the prioritization of unnecessary issues. These are never fully understood. It is still worth continuing this process at regular intervals. The time interval is up to you. There is no exact rule of thumb. Aim for it at least a couple of times a year. The beauty of simplicity is not easily noticed without experimentation. Take action now and see how your quality of life improves.

Complexity is the scourge of today. Simplification is the best weapon against complexity. This is easier said than done, but it is all the more valuable. Complexity causes greater inefficiency. Remember that simplicity alone is not always effective or interesting. Repeating the same thing from day to day starts to taste like wood before long. Keeping things as simple as possible is the best option. You can also think of it through the MED I mentioned in the second chapter. The purpose of this chapter is to find out how things are simplified and how complexity creates problems.

The world is complex. It is becoming more and more complex. The more complex things become, the more inefficient they go after a certain point. The problems caused by the phenomenon are often not perceived when they are hidden. They are difficult to analyze. Instead of improving things, one should think about whether they work at all, instead of thinking about how they could be improved. This also applies to business in addition to individuals. The increase in complexity can be compared to a snowball descending a slope and growing from protective snow. Costs are accelerating as complexity increases. The growth of the rolling ball accelerates until it stops at an obstacle and disintegrates. The best way to fight is to break up the snowball into smaller pieces and destroy the unnecessary ones before they go downhill. This is not always possible in time and simplification is becoming more difficult.

The more complex the system, the more it needs to be dealt with. A simpler system works better. A simple system works better without supervision. In business, simplification reduces the need for expensive managers and additional costs. Simplicity helps focus on relevant things, such as adding value. Large size does not always mean complexity and cannot be reduced by minimizing size. Rather, it is easier to grow simpler products profitably. Let's even compare Nokia and Apple. Nokia offered many different phone models to its customers. Apple, on the other hand, did not have many different models. Apple also managed to simplify the user experience that facilitated sales. The simpler the product, the easier it was to use. This maximizes the added value experienced by the user, which made it easier to charge a higher price for the product.

Be the loser of your own life

 We only have one life. We are responsible for that ourselves. Adulthood is a milestone, but some individuals need guardianship for longer. More important than this moment is creating rules of the game that you can follow when you decide for yourself. Laws impose their own restrictions on the rules. Despite these, we have the opportunity to create the living conditions we want, especially in Western countries such as Finland. The world is not always a fair place. We can lose even if we create our own rules of the game, as permitted by the restrictions of the law. Today, we cannot blame our society today for our failures, even if it steers individuals in the most favorable direction for the system. The system is often wrong. It does not take into account our individual needs. Then you have a responsibility to take care of your life as well as you can.

Creating your own rules of the game requires critical thinking. Not everyone's rules of the game are the same. The difference is good because the world would be a boring place for everyone to do the same things in life. Today, our most prestigious life paths are the following: elementary school, high school, college studies, and transitioning from an employee to a large and well-known employer. This is followed by a family, a mortgage, working until retirement age paying taxes and a slow movement towards the inevitable goal. This is a slightly exaggerated and deliberately painted negative outlook for the future, as it is intended to evoke the idea that this is not an inevitable outcome. By creating our own rules of the game, we can have a better chance of enjoying our lives more as an individual and not just as part of the overall machinery. The world is full of opportunities and we should exploit them to improve our quality of life.

There can be hundreds of rules of the game and each situation has its own. Instead of detailed rules of the game, we need to create rules of the game that focus on the big picture. In these texts, we’ll go through how we can create rules of the game for important areas of our lives, such as time, relationships, health, and money. We can reduce our burden in every area with clear rules. We can use Less is more concept. It can be exploited in the rules of the game to improve our quality of life. We can play a different game than 95% of people by creating our rules. Most work like others. It is possible to be a pioneer, but it will not work for many. Shortcuts exist and we can use them. This requires us to walk our own paths. It can feel like you are alone and a loser’s path for a long time.

We must define our own success. Being at work 24/7 and making large sums of money can be a loser´s path if it leads to a collapse in personal life, such as divorce and bitter offspring. Even making small sums of money can be a success. This is not the path most choose. Choosing a path for the general public is not a bad thing if it is a path you really want to follow. These texts are not for this path but for creating your own rules of the game and enforcing them. If things go down the drain, you should leave them unchanged. What is not broken should not be repaired. There is no point in making a small improvement because the input-output ratio is not growing enough.

It makes sense to follow different rules when things don’t go the way you want. We all have our strengths and weaknesses in some jobs. We often do not use them enough to our advantage. By utilizing them, we not only improve our own quality of life, but also benefit our environment. There are many solutions to the problems. The most commonly used are not always the best but almost always imitated by mediocrity. Utilizing them, the results are mediocre at best. This may mean more work, but utilizing your own thinking will yield better results than utilizing generally accepted paths.

Less Is More Thinking is non-linear

Less is more thinking is non-linear. It means that using small investments in it brings great benefits. It increases the time used for thinking, but it creates benefits for our lives. It is important for us to be able to think about things that are important and interesting to us. People are individuals. We cannot do everything as others do, producing fun and benefits for both ourselves and our environment. The core idea is that only a small portion of our efforts yield us most of our benefits. Ratios vary by subject. The number can be 80/20 or even 99/1. 20% of the products can generate 80% of the company's sales. An even number is just a number. Actual ratios can be as high as 50/1 or 97/20. The latter could mean that 20% of authors sell 97% of books in the United States. Radical fluctuations are due to the non-linearities of life and the world. This is important in social outcomes.

The difference is very large, which means that by exploiting the great effects, we can maximize the power of small things. We should start by thinking about the small core issues, those that produce the greatest benefits in relation to their size. After that, we can reduce our workload by focusing only on core issues, or we can try to keep our workload the same by increasing their share, thus increasing our benefits. We must not just focus on them. It is equally important to get rid of harmful things from our lives. The less is more principle also works in terms of negative effects. A small part of our lives produce the biggest negative effects. Eliminating them is difficult. We need to pay close attention to those efforts.

Focusing on core issues and eliminating unnecessary things requires constant thinking. We can’t avoid it if we want to get more out of our lives. Detecting them requires independent action and the use of your own thinking. On average, we are wrong all the time, even in important things. This is done by following the herd. It is sometimes right, but not nearly always. Cause-effect relationships are key. Often the consequences are considered to be the causes, even if they are not. For example, when one muscle is sore, the pain may radiate to another that is treated without failure. Pain is usually corrected with an analgesic that takes away the pain but does not eliminate the problem. The most important thing to think about is to find the main cause that will be put in order and through it we will get great benefit with less effort. We do not have to solve all our problems at once, but we can think of those that will bring the greatest benefits.

This way of thinking is much different from how we often see things as linear, that is, one by one. A small portion of actions will always be of the greatest value to us and others. We need to think about which action produces the most value. It is not found in mediocrity but under a deeper layer. We need to think new and get under the surface. The surface is our way of thinking linearly and traveling with the herd. Focusing on the same insignificances as the others, we create the same outcomes. To quote Mark Twain, “When you find yourself doing or thinking like the majority, it’s time to stop and think again.” For us, the best way to get to the highest value is to create a mindset where we often reject the opinions of the majority. They include dominant states of mind, consensus thinking, traditional wisdom, and easy answers. These obscure the reality from us, that is, the things that bring the greatest benefits. Giving up mediocre wisdom brings great benefits, but it is difficult. Changing our thinking is the hardest thing for us because it is hard for us to admit to ourselves that we are wrong.

The Minimum Effective Dose (MED)

The term means the minimum dose required to achieve a wanted result. We can use it in almost everything. We should not focus on increasing investment, but focus on taking into account the unnecessary consumption of energy after certain amounts. The balance of benefits and harms must be maximized to get the best results. It is achieved with the Minimum Effective Dose. In medicine, the term is used to prescribe as little medication as possible because they cause side effects that can be worse than the ailments for which medications are prescribed. The minimum dose is not just a useful term for individuals. It is suitable for larger crowds. For example, we should only clean enough of our house for the person who needs cleaning the most. If it were done according to another amount, the consequences would be too great and the benefits non-existent. We can use the minimum dose in almost all walks of life. It is worth sacrificing a lot of our thinking to take advantage of it.

It is easier for us to give up or reduce things. This way of improving our lives reduces mental burden. Giving up reduces the wrong kind of stress and makes things easier. Giving up everything is not the best solution. Therefore, a minimum dose is the best option. Cause-effect relationships are important when thinking about the minimum dose, because everything has good and bad effects. Cleaning improves cleanliness and reduces the number of bacteria. The negative effect is the time spent.

The usefulness of the term is not a simple matter. We are so different that the same rules do not apply to everyone. We need to find out our own resilience. We can only do it by experimenting. It may take time to experiment, but it is worth the time. We can use some stimulants too, like coffee. Testing the right amount is done by drinking different amounts of coffee a day, observing your own reactions. For myself, the optimal amount is two cups a day. At this level, my level of alertness is at its best. A larger amount causes mild restlessness. A smaller amount does not have enough good effects. By enjoying two cups a day, I get the best night’s sleep relative to the level of alertness of the day.

The Minimum Effective Dose also applies to social epidemics. It describes the number of people to get the epidemic spread around. In other words, the MED means enough people to reach the tipping point in social epidemics. Some businesses require the MED of money to finance successful investments, etc.

-TT

Key concepts part 3 Sticky messages

Infectious messages are universal and have stood the test of time. We can call them sticky. They have similarities. In the following paragraphs, I will explain how we can take our messages better. An infectious message needs to be understood, remembered, and effectively changed in opinions and behavior. Infectious messages have more than one of the following characteristics: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotional, and are usually told as stories. (You can read more about these characteristics from Dan and Chip Heath´s book Made to Stick.) 

Simplicity


A simple message contains an easy-to-understand royal idea around which the message is based. We find the core for stripping our message to its core. We do the stripping by removing many ideas from the message and letting the main thing shine. It is about our limitations to receive information. The more we are able to compress the information into a concise message, the better our message will stick. Our message must also be relevant. One way to make a message concise is to use the information that the recipient can already find. It’s easy to succeed in creating a short and concise message, but it’s hard to create a profound purpose in the same package.

Unexpectmess

We must ask ourselves whether the audience will be surprised after they receive our message. We have to deliver something the audience do not expect. We must focus on the unique characteristics of our message. We must tell the audience something they have no idea about. If we tell a story, we must make sure its end is completely different than most stories about the same thing or have a completely different conclusion.

Concreteness


If we can sense things with our senses, they are concrete. Concrete language helps us to understand concepts. The language used by many experts is full of ambiguous concepts that we do not understand. Specific things are easier to remember and that is why we should use concrete terms. One of the best concrete tools is photography. Images and sounds connected to the message makes it more concrete.


Credibility


We get to fight for the credibility of our messages with the beliefs, prejudices and social pressures of the recipients. There are several ways we can improve the credibility of our messages. Good and bad examples are some of them. Precise details also work to increase our credibility. The details are intended to support the core of our idea. We may also use statistics to support the post. When using them, they must be presented in a way that is comprehensible to the recipients.


Emotionality


Relying on our feelings is a good solution because it encourages us to act. We need to appeal to the feelings that the recipients of our message already have and connect them to our message that they don’t care about yet. After all, the most important thing for us is our personality. If we are able to combine the creation of emotions with our own interests, we will achieve the best result. Everyone usually asks themselves first, “How do I benefit from this?” Admittedly, this may not be a conscious choice. A message combined with our personality also brings results.


Story form


The stories work in two ways. They mimic reality and motivate us to act. These things create action. Mental simulation works because we were not created to imagine events without the action of the brain blocks that function in the actual doing. Mental simulations help in emotion management, problem solving, and visualization of the future. Stories realize abstract things. They inspire us to implement our ideas. They often help us get over old habits and presuppositions. They are concrete and for the most part they have both unexpected and credible elements.

The stickiness of our ideas has many enemies, such as losing too much information at the core, focusing more on presenting our ideas than on content, paralyzing decision-making, and too much the curse of knowledge, the power of presuppositions. When we have a good idea in mind, we can use a checklist for stickiness:

• Is it all about the core message? (Simplicity)

• Does it attract attention? (Surprise)

• Does the audience understand and remember it? (Concreteness)

• Is the audience able to identify or believe the idea? (Credibility)

• Do people care about the message? (Emotionality)

• Can people act on it? (Story form)

Messages do not need all characteristics to be sticky. Some of them are necessary. 

Key concepts part 2 The tipping point, the significant few

 The moment after which there is no return to the social epidemic, i.e. the situation after which the pace of change begins to accelerate on its own, is the tipping point. The point is also familiar from virus epidemics. The virus spreads when the spread reaches a rate that cannot be limited. It is moving forward at such a rapid pace that there is no choice but to worry about the consequences. Scientists can also call this point, the critical mass. Before you get to the point, things look linear and after that the pace of change is fast. The point also applies to commercial trends, the spread of new technology, and anything that changes rapidly like a virus. Sudden change in the concept is the core issue. Much of people’s behavior is contagious, whether it’s buying behavior, voting, or anything else. Even small things can cause an epidemic. Epidemics have three parts:

• People spreading the epidemic

• The epidemic or its message itself

• The environment and conditions under which epidemics spreads

The significant few

Throughout world history, there have been people who have had a greater impact on others than others. They spread epidemics faster than others. Sometimes they have been in more prominent roles and sometimes they have been under the surface. In these cases, a lot also depends on whether a particular person is in the right place at the right time. Being in the right place at the right time is not enough if a person does not have social gifts. Few influencers are united by social gifts. They form epidemics effectively. If you want to sell something or influence others then I would recommend persuading them to your side. People who influence the opinions and actions of others can be divided into three different types:

• Connectors

• Experts

• Salesmen

The most important condition for connectors is to know a lot of people. They all know. They have innate abilities to get to know others. They are important not only because they know a lot of people but also because of who they know. Many word-of-mouth epidemics materialize when they spread the message to those who influence the opinions of others. The more complex the message is, the harder it is for these people to create a critical mass for the message. Connectors also matter more when the message has already spread.

Connectors are not the only human type that affects others. In addition to them, there is a need for sources of information that are not always the same people as the connectors. Data sources are called experts. They naturally become acquainted with new things and pass on new information. Representatives of this type of person are always ready to correct misinformation. They not only collect information but also share it immediately. These people are the ones who most often find new information to spread.

Salesmen are the third initiators of epidemics. Many have heard the saying “could sell ice to Eskimos”. This describes salesmen. There is something extra about them that makes them agree with them. They are convincing in what they do no matter what. Salesmen are adept at justifying their case. Charisma cannot be bought in a store. Salesmen can find it. Charisma can arise from small gestures that are invisible to outsiders, such as nodding your head. Small gestures are more important than verbal output. The main reason for the persuasiveness of salesmen is not these little gestures but their timing in the right rhythm with the other party. In addition to their gestures, they are able to regulate their volume and speech rate according to the other party. This is an innate ability.

Connectors, experts, and salesmen are individuals who know how to convert desired messages into formats that make them spread. The messages do not need to be changed much but small changes can cause the desired reactions. In the case of some connectors, the above types combine and their influence increases.

Key Concepts, part 1.

 

Degrees of freedom

Degrees of freedom mean e.g. in science, the amount of variables that are not directly dependent. If we think of vehicles, then the train on the rails has one degree of freedom. It only gets forward and backward. Cars have two degrees of freedom. In addition to the previous directions, they also move in a circle clockwise and counterclockwise. Planes have three degrees of freedom because they move up and down in addition to the previous directions. Some industrial robots have up to six degrees of freedom or more.

An employee who receives his income from one employer has one degree of freedom. We can increase the degree of economic freedom in different ways. The number of degrees of freedom applies not only to movement or economic matters, but also to many others. If we control more things, we can increase our freedom. The usefulness of increasing the number of degrees of freedom does not directly mean that more is more. Often one degree of freedom is too little and four too much. The more degrees of freedom, the more deeds, time and money are needed to exploit them. Our systems are also becoming more complex as we increase the degrees.

Couplings/Connections

Couplingss mean the interdependence of things. The world is not very dependent on one person except perhaps the heads of state of the nuclear powers. We can have both tight and loose couplings. Most often, the truth is found somewhere between them. A tight coupling can be found between the steering wheel and the front tires. A connection between them is necessary. The front wheels can also move forward or backward by putting the Reverse on and depressing the throttle or forward without reversing. Tight couplings break more easily than loose ones. As they break down, the whole system breaks down. As the size of the system grows and the connections become tighter, it will sooner or later lead to problems. At the same time, the probability of the entire system breaking down increases. When the tight system breaks down, it is more difficult to keep the damage small and it is more difficult to limit it. Repairing some parts will result in greater damage and worse collapse in the long run. Minor repairs can dramatically speed up system crashes.


Examples of tight links include large banks that are too big to fail because it would lead to the collapse of the current debt-based system. An example of a loose connection is a person whose expenses are much lower than their income, because then the loss of income does not immediately lead to disaster. The problem with loose connections is that we have to compromise on efficiency because not all resources will be used. One of the biggest problems in today’s world is too tight connections. Especially through the internet, most things are interconnected. Today, most investors can be connected, no matter where they are in the world. Almost everyone can buy shares of the same companies through their brokers.

Linearity

A linear system is one in which the input impulse affects the result without feedback. The result does not affect the result of the next impulse in any way. Such a system is very predictable, but by no means particularly effective. A linear system of a fixed-rate bank account because you have a fixed and predictable interest rate that does not change. A fixed rate bank account is not very efficient because it is independent of changes in interest rates during the savings period.

In a nonlinear system, the input pulse also affects the outcome of the next input pulse, changing the system. The outcomes of such systems are difficult to predict. This is because the dependencies of inputs and outputs are not easy to assess as the systems change all the time. The world and its events are mostly non-linear. This is the reason why less is more, the principle works in most of the things we face.