Nicholas Bate

Mmmm

November Redux 20

1. Escape Hatch Seven.
2. You, Only Better shipping.
3. Still Outrageous after all these years.
4. Flip It Seven.
5. Unlikely 7.
6. Liverpool.
7. Free & Budget Kick-start 7.
8. Immersion101
9. The Only Spreadsheet You'll Ever Really Need.
10. Earthlings & Facebook.
11. Get Your Business Book Published.
12. In The Future I, II, III.
13. The Chevron Way To Make Any Day, Every Day Easier.
14. Jagged thoughts for Jagged Times.
15. Words to avoid in the same sentence as love.
16. The Bicycle.
17. The graphs we need.
18. Textures101
19. HowToBeMoreIntelligent101, the first 86.
20. Build A Better Business

Bonus 1: January 2013 Redux

Bonus 2: February 2013 Redux

Bonus 3: March 2013 Redux

Bonus 4: April 2013 Redux

Bonus 5: May 2013 Redux

Bonus 6: June 2013 Redux

Bonus 7: July 2013 Redux here and here

Bonus 8: August 2013 Redux.

Bonus 9: September 2013 Redux

Bonus 10: October 2013 Redux

Bonus 11: the essential posts of 2012

Bonus 12: fresh thinking in How To Be Brilliant 

Bonus 13: be super bold in Bold 101

Mmmm

HowToBeMoreIntelligent101, the first 76 plus the next ten

1. Read staggering amounts, regularly returning to the classics both fiction and non-fiction.
2. Write your own notes of your daily learnings aiming for super concise summaries. In that way you must squeeze and reveal the essence of a subject.
3. Stay active during the day. That's not just 'go to the gym'. Stay active; you'll notice the ideas flowing so much more quickly and easily.
4. Reduce TV watching drastically. Talk, write, cook, listen to music, walk, shoot ball, hold hands....Instead.
5. Find a mentor. He/she inspires. He/she can spend some time with you. He/she will challenge you.
6. Develop other parts of the brain. Reading loads? Take up art.Writing loads? Take up the guitar. Playing in a band? Cook more simple, fresh food.
7. Write your personal manifesto. What do you believe in? What do you stand for? What are your resolutions without needing a New Year...Bonus: Zen & The Art of Cubicle Freedom.
8. Ask deeper questions and thus build your knowledge base upon which your best thinking-and intelligence-is dependent.
9. Multi subject. Read some chemistry along-side some marketing strategy. Some Cubism along-side some leadership coaching. Be amazed at how synergy comes into play, ideas spark and smartness is boosted.
10. Play with scale. Go smaller; consider the minutiae; go bigger: consider the landscape.
11. Change your environment and notice how the dulled, 'not smart' feeling will leave you.
12. Write a list of what you believe to be fundamentally true. And now ask what if everyone of those 'facts' were in fact malleable...?
13. Sit quietly on a beach for 1h with a blanket wrapped around you and watch the waves crashing. And now through boredom, through oh why? through meditative experiences will arise one or two epiphanies. Maybe some genius.
14. Sort out your music by mood and use it to change your mood; make sure there is 'I feel pretty damn smart' category. Keep it to yourself; humility allows smartness.
15. Start travelling again.
16. Admit that you make mistakes, errors and crazy decisions. But you are learning. And fast.
17. Go back to the primary source of your data more often. Read the wikipedia article. But then note and certainly read some of the sources quoted.
18. Every 45 minutes stop, stretch and ask: what is truly important at this point?
19. Create a virtual advsory team: assemble your heroes from all fields, alive, dead, imaginary and when you want inspiration, ask: what would they do?
20. Watch the World at War, the Ascent of Man and 2001, A Space Odyssey. Summarise each episode of the first two. Reflect on the third.
21. Stop the relentless interrupts to your quality thinking.
22. Go back-packing: climb high, breathe deep and take no photos. Just be there.
23. Crack algebra once and for all.
24. Read the history of the Periodic Table.
25. Review your week and intemise what could be improved for next week. Focus on when you were smart.
26. Focus on some of the other elements of intelligence apart from numeric/linguistic e.g. spatial (go shoot ball), musical (borrow a keyboard and learn some basics) and artistic (sketch with some charcoal).
27. Learn Chess and/or Go for mental stretch. And hopscotch for mind-body co-ordination.
28. Sleep until rested. Do not press snooze. Get up and stretch into activity. Fatigue causes stupidity.
29. Focus on the task for the time.
30. Work in intense pulses of application, say 90 minutes. Then take a proper break.
31. Develop your thinking: treat it as a skill.
32. Observe your thinking to refine it and get more bang per buck.
33. Use proactive thinking: what do I need to anticipate?
34. Use critical thinking: what do I need to do better?
35. Use lateral thinking: what do I need to do differently?
36. Get to grips with the subjunctive case in Spanish.
37. Listen to personal development audio books while driving between business meetings.
38. Take any major conspiracy theory and explain why it is false/accurate in 100 words.
39. Re-invent your working environment so that (1) distractions are minimised (2) the vital few are prioritised and visible (3) the trivial many look after themselves.
40. Look after your brain. Keep it oxygenated by stretching and breathing deep into the lungs. Keep it hydrated with pure water. Avoid it getting over-heated with fresh air. Avoid it getting chilled with a hat when necessary ;).
41. Start a personal development fund: put 2% of your income towards courses, books, coaching. Spend the money. Some people spend more on their car than they do on their brain.
42. Study the masters in as many fields as possible.  You can't have Einstein's brain but you can be curious about his routine. Were their things he did which boosted his intelligence? Can you copy those?Absolutely. Reference also Kurt Harden's work on studies.
43. Produce stuff. Make stuff. Get it out there. Perhaps a poster. Perhaps a post-card. Perhaps a business card. A quiz, a board-game, a new cocktail. A better burger recipe....Test your ideas in the wider world.
44. A qualification means knowledge; it does not necessarily mean wisdom. Apply your learning every day. Ringo Starr "it wasn't suddenly Sgt. Pepper. We were a working band".
45. Much school, college and work is about social conditioning. Your true, deep and on-going smartness comes when you question the most fundamental of assumptions. For your health. For your business. For your life. For your very best work.
46. Notice the foods that wipe you out, especially at work, especially in the afternoon. Eliminate them. 100% totally. Keep them for chill out days. 
47. Set up a learning team. Three people, 1h/month, every month. Bring along ten minutes of materials to teach the other two. You get smarter by teaching and in return you learn two new subjects.
48. Struggle with the problem. Don't give up. Clarify the problem. Research the problem. Then allow the problem to incubate for a while before returning to it. When you get that breakthrough you will have become smarter.
49. Write lists. Set high numbers e.g. 25 colours to access the hidden depths of your brain.
50. Memorise more. Key numbers. Key passwords. Shakespeare. Quotes: All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. T E Lawrence
51. Just know that are smarter than you were and you can be smarter still.
52. Practise representing data in 2 by 2 matrices and graphs to get to the point.
53. Learn a meditative practice be it Tai Chi or a simple breathing meditation.
54. Eat less c**p. imagine what that corn syrup is doing to those beautifully formed neural pathways of yours.
55. Don't believe the majority of what your teachers told you about your intelligence.
56. Work at a different speed.
57. Do a psychometric such as MBTI to reveal more about your approach to life.
58. Switch off your phone in queues and watch, observe and think.
59. Mountains or Toblerone. Someone was being smart. That was a quest.Yours is a quest is too.
60. Get a set of high quality coloured pencils and use them.
61. Get that MBA off your CV and into action.
62. Use walking to overcome mental blocks.
63. Flick through your notebooks seeking inspiration.
64. Think less about qualifications and more about accelerating your real experience.
65. Eradicate any limiting mindsets such as "of course at my age I'm slowing down a lot". Age is not a chronological fact; it is a psychological choice.
66. Become so free, you can beome super-smart.
67. Regularly review to reinforce and capture detail which boosts smartness and decision-making. Review the conversation, the meeting and the day.
68. Learn a new word every day and boost your vocabulary to allow finer points of expression.
69. Become your own guru, your own thought-leader. Push to the edges of your subject be it building walls, chess or fine art and express your own unique views.
70. As you read non-fiction ask provocative questions. What do they mean? How can that be true? How quickly could I use that?
71. Stare into the night sky and immerse yourself in immensity of possibility.
72. Write down five stupid things you do. Go cold turkey and stop doing them now.
73. Sing in the shower and come out refreshed in every sense.
74. Experiment with the chewing of gum, the shot of espresso and the writing by hand on your smartness and concentration.
75. Stare at your open palm. Now imagine you have X-ray vision and can see muscle and bone. Now take it down a level and imagine that you can see molecules, atoms and vasts volumes of space. Now reverse the process. Practise the process regularly.
76. Take smartness-enhancing drugs.
77. Represent ideas visually on a whiteboard or with felt pen and paper to access a different part of the brain.
78. Work on the problem/issue in a different location. Busy (but not packed) coffee shops invariably seem to increase smartness and creativity.
79. Read this. Write your own list.

80. The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. F. Scott Fitzgerald.

81. Represent the idea/problem/concept in photographs on your phone. 
82. Work in the kitchen whilst cooking.
83. Give yourself an Indian head massage. Even better, get someone who loves you to do it.
84. Sharpen ten pencils. Now write on the issue until all need re-sharpening. 
85. Copy Rudyark Kipling: 

    I keep six honest serving-men
    (They taught me all I knew);
    Their names are What and Why and When
    And How and Where and Who.

86.  

    Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. Stephen Hawking.

  

In The Future III

1. Sat Nav will have a 'conversation' function for those long boring motorway stretches.
2. Decaffeinated coffee will taste good.
3. We will have found a practical alternative to politicians.
4. Art, philosophy and yoga will be mandatory throughout secondary schooling.
5. The BBC accepts there is nothing left in their Beatles archives.
6. Elevators/lifts will not work between adjacent floors, encouraging more taking of the stairs.
7. Men and women will accept that they truly are very different and that's where all the fun lies.

Bonus 1: In The Future I

Bonus 2: In The Future II

Bonus 3: Be Bold 101

The List You Needed From DJ Kurt Harden

Thirty outstanding essential mixes, now with added Bowie.

Textures101

HowToBeMoreIntelligent101, the next twelve

1. Eradicate any limiting mindsets such as "of course at my age I'm slowing down a lot". Age is not a chronological fact; it is a psychological choice.
2. Become so free, you can beome super-smart.
3. Regularly review in order to reinforce and capture detail which boosts smartness and decision-making. Review the conversation, the meeting and the day.
4. Learn a new word every day and boost your vocabulary to allow finer points of expression.
5. Become your own guru, your own thought-leader. Push to the edges of your subject be it building walls, chess or fine art and express your own unique views.
6. As you read non-fiction ask provocative questions. What do they mean? How can that be true? How quickly could I use that?
7. Stare into the night sky and immerse yourself in immensity of possibility.
8. Write down five stupid things you do. Go cold turkey and stop doing them now.
9. Sing in the shower and come out refreshed and focused in every sense.
10. Experiment with the effects of (1) the chewing of gum, (2) the shot of espresso and (3) the writing by hand on your smartness and concentration.
11. Stare at your open palm. Now imagine you have X-ray vision and can see muscle and bone. Now take it down a level and imagine that you can see molecules, atoms and vasts volumes of space. Now reverse the process. Practise the process regularly.
12. Take smartness-enhancing drugs.

The first 64 here.

7 Ways To Increase The Chances of Your Business Book Being Published.

1. Don't just send the pitch (which is theoretically sufficient), send a sample chapter.
2. Double the data they ask for. If you are asked to fill in a template marketing plan, do more, so much more. Send in video interviews with your target market. Take a current best-seller and position against it. Show you are passionate about your baby.
3. Follow-up. Politely and persistently. They are vastly under-staffed. You have to get their rare attention onto your manuscript. Niceness will win the day.
4. Read this.
5. Take any feed-back you get to improve your submission next time.
6. Work out a way to guarantee the sales of 1000/2500/5000 books. Ears will prick up when they realise you are serious. You are, aren't you?
7. Show that you understand that you will own 95% of the selling and marketing of your book post publication. Because you will.

Textures101