Reflections from heart and mind

Today's big PEACEFUL social networking protest

2010-11-08T17:06:00.000-08:00

Let's start in this big online protest line, bring your placards and attach them to this blog or here!

Here are some placards for you; feel free to use them

NO to shortcuts and quick wins!
When? Now!

NO to procrastination and laziness!
When? Now!

YES, to action and hard work!
When? Now!

NO to self deception!
When? Now!

YES to self awareness and self respect!
When? Now!

NO to unnecessary competition!
When? Now!

YES to collaboration!
When? Now!

NO to meaningless networking!
when? Now!

BEWARE of self promoted social network gurus!
When? Now!

NO to blame games!
When? Now!

YES to taking personal responsibility!
When? Now!

NO to war and fights!
When? Now!

YES to peace!
When? Now!

NO to discrimination!
When? Now!

YES to diversity!
When? Now!

NO to wasting this beautiful life!
When? Now!

Yes to enjoy a meaningful life!
When? Now!

------End of my placards, feel free to add yours here-----

Whatever doesn't kill us can make us stronger

2010-10-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

Until now, the "whatever doesn't kill us can make us stronger" was an adage. However, a new national multi-year longitudinal study of the effects of adverse life events on mental health has found that adverse experiences do, in fact, appear to foster subsequent adaptability and resilience, with resulting advantages for mental health and well being.

They admit that these data cannot establish causation but the evidence is consistent with the proposition that in moderation, experiencing lifetime adversity can contribute to the development of resilience. The media release from Buffalo University is titled "Study Confirms: Whatever Doesn't Kill Us Can Make Us Stronger"

I don't know you but the result of this study makes me feel good. I am more grateful to make some investment on improving my AQ (adversity quotient) with the inspiration of Dr. Paul Stoltz for a number of years which cost me considerable amount of time and energy. Sometimes we know something is right through our guts even before a useful piece of research like this proves it so.

Is importance of UGC (User Generated Content) nebelous?

2010-06-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

Thank god it is Saturday, the sun is shining in a windy winter lunch time! I have some much desired breathing space in this mission [im]possible phase of my life to take things off my chest in writing from yesterday's lunch with Helen and et al.

If there is one thing in my life that I'd like to keep despite any challenges at any levels, it would be serendipity itself. Based on this strong feeling of serendipity concept and its mechanism reflected in my day to day thoughts and activities, I conducted a study on technical aspect of UGC (User Generated Content) in my field with the assistance of Associate Professor Tuncay Ercan, which was published last week in the The International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society, Volume 6, Issue 4, pp.179-188 titled "Issues in User Generated Content Process and a Proposed Model to Solve them"

Yesterday on our traditional Friday lunch (with Helen, her dad Bruce, her research mate Despina and a few members from Helen's show crew), we discussed UGC from various angles. It was interesting to see Helen being totally disagree on my views related to UGC. She said "anyone can say anything even with no context which could be so harmful at times and consequences may be very heavy and unbearable". Well, I said to Helen it could be true but anything sometimes could create something. Saying things could be better than leaving them unsaid which could have tremendous impact on our lives. My points appear to be supported by Professor David Green of Monash whom I have high respect and admiration in his studies on serendipity published in 2004 which has been a true inspiration to me since then.

Despina believed that my technical focus and my co-author Tuncay's literature search on the topic is timely and well balanced to complete the picture in a sense whilst Bruce was raising one of his eye brows with lack of the emphasis from anthropological aspect which I purposefully had hidden in the methodology section itself. However the most interesting review comment came from a CoP (Community of Practice) participant of the study who said that until we conducted this study, he even was not aware that he has been producing content which empowered his communication and maintained his connectedness in his field. For him the importance of the study was the study itself and shedding lights on this controversial and exponentially growing topic from at least one angle creating a kind of awareness. All feedback pros or cons of this study was well received by myself as they all add value for the post follow up phase of my studies.

I'd like to extend my follow up to a wider audience hence have one simple question here that may shed some lights on what UGC is or is not. My question to you is "What is the importance of UGC in your personal and professional life?" By this question, I'd like to understand how important UGC is for you, how it has been affecting your life, your profession, career and more from your own experience.... Do you believe (as Helen alluded) UGC is mainly rubbish and could be toxic for overall life?

Regards,
Mehmet Yildiz

What affects our attention so much?

2010-06-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

Attention in our lives determine our success in certain context. Attention is affected by myriad of factors. However, one of the major ones which I have been observing (and recently confirmed by a study conducted at the University of Granada) is anxiety.

The article titled Anxiety Affects Attention Processes highlights that "Being of a nervous disposition and being anxious at a given moment affects our attention to what happens. This finding will help improve the treatment of anxiety disorders, so common in our days. In fact, anxiety has become one of the most common conditions among the population, which can explain the negative connotations usually associated to this term."

Dealing with anxiety in an efficient way may have tremendous affect in our life satisfaction as I believe that attention is the key enabler of this process. Wondering what else may have as much impact as anxiety for our attention? Could it be other strong emotions like fear, love and even other shades of anxiety?

Balance between the more and the less

2010-06-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

After a complex problem resolution session, emotions on each person's face were getting more and more complex to describe with words. Definitions were mingling as obscurity prevailed. David believed in more emotions were better than less. He knew I trusted in simplicity however complex my endevours were perceived by others. Once he witnessed how I removed what was perceived as essential from a distance but were only verifiable with referencing fine knowledge and experience in specific setting. My replacement of the meaningful components in that certain context enabled him grant me such an unconditional support when I really seemed to need it at personal level to satisfy the thirst of contribution in a larger scope with higher impact. I was grateful to be given full accountability for re-engeenering a complex solution by taking possible failure responsibility with equanimity. At least by convincing the amygdala as discussed in my previous post as part of our limbic needs. My unique and perhaps the only differentiator in this ocean of talents ironically was the lack of the scary word "failure" in my personal vocabulary replaced by another word some may call it "experience". In a more simple sense, the more experience we gain the less fear we seem to experience, of course with an ongoing mindfulness of limbic systems. Having said that it is almost sunset time here...

Another stimulating phone conversation with Helen

2010-05-21T21:54:00.000-07:00

It is a warm autumn Saturday in Oz. I have never heard Helen so enthused before to tell her dreams to me on the phone in the early morning. In fact it was the first time she told one of her dreams to me on a phone conversation like this surprisingly with a tag of importance. Helen has committed suicide in her dream last Thursday. She lucidly remembered to throw herself to the large ocean entry around the Cape Schanck Lighthouse Reserve in the Mornington Peninsula then turned into a Lavagirl in the middle of this vast ocean.

I knew why Helen was telling me this dream and she also told it to another friend (David). This dream triggered a number of memories and thoughts in me when I was listening to her on the phone. Four years ago in a warm January day, one of our most interesting collaborative idea was emerged whilst having a cup of tea with Vegemite sandwiches in the Keeper's Cottage after filling our lungs with fresh ocean air in over 2 hours of walk. Still remembering a fiery discussion between our joint friend David (a retired cognitive scientist) and Helen’s father Bruce (retired professor of anthropology) whether amygdalae were considered part of the limbic system. Helen was pressing Bruce’s sensitive buttons with evolutionary nonsense and I was pressing David’s with artificial intelligence theories ironically to witness how their amydalae were in function in this discussion which we called kind of a meta dream or type of dream in dream like life itself. And, when we finished drinking our tea, Helen mentioned later a piece of research news from Monash Uni where she did her first degree and where I did my masters. The study then revealed that patients with more severe social phobia showed a correlation with increased response in the amygdala which David re-iterated as “a marker of the effectiveness of pharmacological and psychological treatments”.

I knew the main reason of this dream for Helen was her recent initiative to prevent youth suicide in Australia which has been an important phenomenon. Helen made a number of shows to raise funds for her research in this area. As a person of golden heart, Helen also directly interacts with the disadvantaged young people in streets and loves them "until it hurts". She listens to their dreams and dreams about their dreams. And Helen, unlike mythological Altjira of our aboriginals, will not seem to retire when the "Dreamtime" vanished!

In my view, jumping over the ocean is a fascinating symbol for Helen as those who knew her resembled her shows to, a number of times, close to committing suicide. Of course, this was nothing new to Bruce when David who also heard Helen’s story and started conversation this morning with Bruce saying “Helen committed suicide” as a teaser. But Bruce is now immune to or more tolerant to uncertainties attacking his amygdala about Helen. What else could he choose in these circumstances! Don’t you think oceans and uncertainties tell us poignant and incisive stories about volcanoes in our minds and hearts!

Importance of compromises in our lives

2010-04-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

As Emerson said for everything we have missed, we have gained something else, and for everything we gain, we lose something else. Life is about ongoing compromises. We trade off our resources constantly for our survival and add new meanings. Sometimes they are tangible and sometimes intangible.

It is interesting and important how we make decisions what to trade off. And it is important to be aware of this universal principle reflected in all walks of our lives. There are many factors affecting our decisions from constants to variables. As highlighted throughout the history, compromise can be seen a kind of sacrifice of a right or good thing in the hope of obtaining another one. The sad part (which we need to be cautious) is that we may end up losing both, I mean the compromised and the compromising goals; hence we need to be careful when we are making decisions and apply an intelligent risk assessment process based on the relationships of our needs, gains, goals and what we compromised. For example we see that through our compromises of tactical gains we neglected very important parts of our humanity such as human rights in some countries, collective creation and transformation which may lead us towards enlightenment.

Last week, I had to compromise my blogging and online social networking time to gain some different perspectives in life which will be important for me in the long term. There were almost no other areas for me to cut time and spend for my new transformation activity hence I have deliberately chosen blogging and social networking time because their impact on my life is seen less than the impact of my other goal; at least as an indication of my own risk assessment for this decision. Even though I missed the interaction of blogging and other social networking activities last 10 days, I am grateful about my choice, decision and the progress which produced satisfactory outcomes for me. How about you? How and what do you trade off for what reasons?

Philosophical clarity with atheistic pessimism for diagnosing unhappiness

2010-04-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

I was talking with my wise yet controversial friend Helen whose real life stories I used to blog in another site but stopped with her final request. Even though she is very young (at her early twenties), Helen looks at things from multiple angles and has vast knowledge of philosophy and human psychology within sociological context with the practical sharpness. Her capabilities even challenge her father's many years of academic and corporate experience in dealing with a number of life situations.

When I asked Helen about recent issues related to her father, she diagnosed her father's recent unhappiness with two words (boredom and pain)which later I found borrowed from Arthur Schopenhauer who is known with his atheistic pessimism and philosophical clarity. She said Bruce was recently unhappy due to excessive boredom at emotional and severe pain at physical level.

First it was hard to conceptualize the scope of these two words and interrelationship for one's unhappiness within such complexity. When she gave me a number of examples related to her father's situation with thirst of unfulfilled material desires and link to our previous discussion on whether reason alone can unlock key answers about the world, I started seeing an unexpected yet pleasant light upon a dark issue in my perceived world too.

It was easier to relate to Helen's challenging thoughts as I used to read theories of Schopenhauer's in my early twenties as well. It was inspiring to understand views of an aesthetic pessimist relating to teachings of well known Buddhist, Vedanta and ancient Greek Stoic philosophers. And more importantly, Schopenhaeur always reflected something familiar for me with the intellectual and emotional taste of my favourite thought leaders like Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, Borges, Wagner, Camus, Wittgenstein, Schrödinger, Einstein, and more...And his philosophical clarity was evident with sharp and wise remarks like "The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him” or metaphorically "Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.”

I learnt through Schopenhauer's analysis that emotional, physical, and sexual desires can never be fulfilled! And it was amazing how empowering to have such a fundamental yet powerful piece of knowledge in early twenties which may even shed lights on senior citizens' complex issues.

What kind of privileged knowledge or insights have you obtained at your younger ages which you still use in your life for enlightenment or other purposes of your life?

Transforming from ivory tower to collaboration maker status

2010-04-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

The term "ivory tower" holds a negative connotation for some academic and research institutions.

There are some efforts to overcome or change this perception. For example, it is great read about some movements from the impression of being an "ivory tower" to developing and implementing partnerships with local communities to foster research efforts that address social problems by new research from North Carolina State University mentioned in Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work.

The media release explaining this effort and guidelines could be obtained from this link titled "Research Lays Guidelines For Real World Scholarship"

Are there any collaborative efforts in your locality to exemplify moving from ivory tower to collaboration maker status? How do they contribute to your community?

Recent blog posts diversity from Ecademy business network

2010-04-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

I like reading blogs to gain different perspectives, insights and individual views from various people coming from various geographies and cultural backgrounds. Today, my focus is on Ecademy network. I observed extra richness in Ecademy blogs within last few days. I am impressed by the content and diversity in general; for example the following categories and representatives took my attention:

1. Injection of business in social context by Jan Mulder, Bernadette Doyle, Martin Bamford, Ty Tyson, Cornelis de Maijer, Penny Power, Bob Nicoll, William Buist, Mark Lee, Marco van Velthuisen, David Winch, Anthony Mullinder, Annabel Kaye, George Emsden, Anna Stephens, Jason Collins and James McBrearty...

2. Challenging social observations and prompts by Wayne Bisset, Stuarte Harris, Sam Borrett, Simon Ellinas, Ann Andrews, Nighet Nasim Riaz and Andreas Wiedow...

3. Exotic cultural input from Fatimea Tedora, Zahir Shamsery, Dr Das Suman, Martin Dewhurst, Nick Dutch, Bernard Bonvivant, Michael Oon...

4. Interesting personal input from Norman Feiner, Mark Mandel, Elizabeth Malouvier, Demos Flouri, Carolyn Williams, Phil Shepherd, Jon Hansen, Keith Whitney, Dr Gaby Cora, Solveigh Calderin, Richard Derwent Cooke, Nic Oliver, Jet Rotmans, Maki Kosaka, Maurice Poole, Hans Terhurne Freddy Daems and Joy Webber ...

5. Highlights from various interesting media types by Richard Perry, Jeff Mowatt, Rajesh Ananda, Daniel-Flavius Lucica, and Tony Hine

6. Sudden breeze from famous Nikki Pilkington and a sad farewell from insightful Andrew Peel...

7. Social media flavour from Alan Stevens, Georgina Lester, Thomas Power, Steve Hall, Andrew Wilcox, Roger Vanstone, Zara Lockwood, Ivor Kellock, Steven Healey, Francois Hotte, Chris Ogle, Marcus Fielding, Nick Tadd and Vanessa Warwick...

8. Superior philosophical, realistic and thought provoking observations from Michael Heaney and Steve Holmes...

There were more interesting posts but it was the ones I enjoyed in my limited time and tagged some of them for future reading. What posts did you enjoy last few days and how did they impress you?

Regards,
Mehmet Yildiz

Importance of cognitive problem-solving ability for happiness

2010-04-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

Why do I highlight importance of cognitive problem-solving ability today? Problem solving is a broad topic and observed in all walks of life and it is a lifelong process. Cognition is a core survival system for human being. When we connect these two large concepts covering multi-disciplines such as Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, it automatically makes it a complex topic to deal with. However, my aim is to focus only one aspect of this topic today: happiness!

According to a study conducted at Iowa State University, they found that diminished cognitive problem-solving ability was a significant predictor of depressive symptoms in octogenarians, while living in a nursing home and greater neurotic tendencies increased depression among centenarians. The title of the media release explaining the study is "Iowa State researchers identify secrets to happiness, depression among oldest of old".

The research also confirmed that worry and anxiety contribute to depression in centenarians. And one of the things they're worried about, according to Martin, is the direction the country is headed and the world they're leaving for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

So based on the findings of this study, one may ask that if we maintain our cognitive problem solving abilities and learn to eliminate or at least reduce worry and anxiety in our lives, does that mean we can catch happiness? Or could there be more to happiness from psychological point of view even in such a narrowed scope; let alone neglecting myriad of other compound factors and unknowns in our larger parts?

A preliminary and informal study on seven online tools for professional and business use

2010-04-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

In this post, I'd like to share my findings for a preliminary study as a partial requirement of a paper to be published. It is related to the use of some popular online tools for business and professional purposes.

Study Approach: I selected 10 active online profiles from my networks. These are the co-networkers whom I established personal trust via a number of correspondence over 12 months. The sample is gender agnostic, representing only English speaking countries (USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand) with business and professional background. I interviewed these 10 people via Google, MSN, Skype, Yahoo, and Facebook chat tools in an informal way approximately half an hour. I also confirmed some of conflicting and contradictory views via email follow-ups. My key questions were about their current beliefs on Ecademy, Facebook, Google, Linked, Twitter, Yasni and Youtube in terms of the contribution of these tools to their business or profession.

Findings: There were a number of interesting views that I will make available in a paper progressing on these tools. However I'd like to share the key common findings for each online tool related to their profession and business as of 7 April 2010 to validate my findings with a wider sample:
1. Google is the main source of information for their profession and business. They use it everyday.
2. Youtube is secondary source of information for their business. They use it everyday.
3. Twitter has done nothing for their business as yet. However they see it as third important source of information.
4. They all are in Facebook. They believe to have some potential for their profession and business even though they haven't used it for business purpose as yet.
5. Linkedin is seen as a business card or CV collection and they sometimes use it to check some contact references.
6. Ecademy is only known to them by the blogs they saw in Twitter and some email invitations. They have no idea so far how Ecademy can help their profession but they all are interested to explore the possibilities further.
7. Yasni was heard by 4 of them in various online sites but none of them knew its scope and contribution for their profession and business. They all indicated interest to explore the possibilities further.

I have some impressions, perceptions and personal views established based on my experience but what do these findings tell or mean to you? Can you comment on the points you are familiar with? If you prefer your views to be kept confidential; please send me a personal mail linked to my Google profile.

Regards,
Mehmet Yildiz

Back to basics and cost effective solutions for our sanity

2010-04-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

Solutions in technology and science to help us survive, feel better and stay sane are ubiquitous. The progress is fascinating to follow. Each day I explore new studies, new approaches, new ideas leading towards desired solutions.

Interestingly, we appear to go back to basics; natural, simple and cost effective solutions. For example, "exercise is a magic drug for many people with depression and anxiety disorders, and it should be more widely prescribed by mental health care providers, according to researchers who analyzed the results of numerous published studies". This was highlighted by the SMU Research recently.

In addition, cost effective and simplistic solutions are attracting our attentions. It is great to know that researchers in Penn State University developed a low-cost behavioral assessment that can clue someone in to Alzheimer's disease at its earliest stage. More information could be obtained from this link.

I'd be interested to obtain your views and examples of basic, natural, simple, inexpensive yet efficient solutions from your experience that you can comment here.

Would attitude for everyday activities make us healthier?

2010-04-02T19:58:00.000-07:00

Exercise is an inevitable part of our lives. It is essential for us to stay healthy. We are recommended 150 minutes of aerobic activity throughout the week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. My health consultants so far recommended at least an hour of walking which I have been following and enjoying the outcome.

What I found more interesting is the research through gaining exercises at unconscious level. I'd like to highlight a recent study conducted by the Penn State University. The media release is titled "Attitude toward everyday activity important for healthy lifestyle". David Conroy (associate professor of kinesiology) said "It wasn't the overall level of activity we focused on, it was specifically the unintentional activity -- those little things that you don't even think about that help you burn those extra few calories. If you aren't in the habit of being physically active, you can run out of energy trying to force yourself to do it everyday but if you can make physical activity habitual, being active becomes a lot easier."

What I am more interested in their further research is "exploring whether there are ways to promote or encourage physical activity without a person knowing it".

Another factor or manifestation of smoking : Low IQ and its implications

2010-04-01T16:57:00.000-07:00

IQ (intelligence quotient) is a measure of a person's intelligence as indicated by an intelligence test; the ratio of a person's mental age to their chronological age (multiplied by 100).There are many factors believed to be affecting IQ such as genetic, environmental, parental, schooling, breastfeeding, external stimulus, malnutrition, and so on.

It is interesting to read about a media release titled "Proof: Smoking Is Dumb" by Tel Aviv University which shows links between cigarette smoking and lower IQ.

I was thinking whether it may mean that lower IQ could be a cause of addictions? Or does that mean something else? The answer was provided in the article. Interestingly, Prof. Weiser claimed that "People with lower IQs are not only prone to addictions such as smoking, these same people are more likely to have obesity, nutrition and narcotics issues. Our study adds to the evidence of this growing body of research, and it may help parents and health professionals help at-risk young people make better choices."

This study is a kind of warning and targeting certain groups who are at risk. This sounds good in theory but the practice of this may have many implications on young people's lives. Your thoughts on putting this knowledge into practice by addressing the implications in a favourable way? I also posted a discussion blog on Ecademy asking "Is smoking dump" from a different perspective; you are welcome to participate with your views and experience on this.

Impact of words in pain

2010-03-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

Words and pain...a lot could be said about these two words and their relationship.

I'd like to highlight an interesting a media release about a recent study titled "Do Words Hurt?" by the Institute of Psychology of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena in Germany.

For the first time, the this science team demonstrated that painful memories and associations set our pain memory on the alert for example when a nurse say "don't worry it will not hurt" whilst injecting a needle to a patient. Prof. Weiss said "even verbal stimuli lead to reactions in certain areas of the brain. As soon as we hear words like "tormenting", "gruelling" or "plaguing", exactly those areas in the brain are being activated which process the corresponding pain."

Of course having a memory of painful experiences is beneficial for human being in order to avoid painful situations however what their research results shown that verbal stimuli have a more important meaning than they have thought so far. There is a discussion of this on chronic pain. The team will further study the conversations and their impact on pain.

From your observations, do you think words have strong impacts on your feelings and emotions? Are there any words making you feel instantly uncomfortable or instantly putting you at ease?

Regards,
Mehmet Yildiz

Relationship between overlooking and tolerating

2010-03-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

My choices make me who I am and who I want to be.

According to William James, "The essence of genius is to know what to overlook". Life is complex and hectic for most of us. It is made harder to live when noise pollution become a matter. I can hardly bare extreme noisy environments. People like me will either neglect those environments or overlook the situation if they had to be in it.

What else we could overlook? I think mistakes or so called failures as I don't believe in failure. The word failure still does not make sense to me after many years of hearing the word almost everyday. I have come across an interesting saying from Doug Larson who claimed "a true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your success.”

There may be some kind of relationship between overlooking and tolerating. Have you notice yourself tolerating something which you were supposed to overlook? Or vice versa?

Are we responsible for effort or outcome?

2010-03-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

Seeing another interesting cartoon of Leunig in the Age with the following words in it, inspired me to say a few words about outcome: "The world is full of outcomes. Each day delivers more. At breakfast time there’s only two. By lunchtime there are four. By dinnertime there will be eight. At bedtime there’s sixteen; So many, many outcomes and I don’t know what they mean. And so we live our lives away. With outcomes big and small. Until the final outcome comes. With no outcome at all."

Outcome is an overused term in our daily lives. It may mean results, consequences or in more scientific terms a phenomenon that follows and is caused by some previous phenomenon.

In Information Technology or Computing fields, outcome could be the result of the performance of a function or process in the system and it is usually measurable and mapped to service levels.

In psychology, it is linked to many factors but two important ones highlighted by the grandfather of modern psychology (William James)attitudes and beliefs obviously play an important role. For example, about attitudes, he said "It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking which, more than anything else, will determine its successful outcome”. And about beliefs he said "Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture”. Let's remember that James was famous with his pragmatic approach in philosophy.

From quality perspective Edwards Deming created the principle that "we should work on our process, not the outcome of our processes”. So my question stands as whether we are responsible for effort or outcome; or both or none of them?
I'd also be interested in your views in my question here.

Reflections on exaggeration

2010-03-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

We need many filters to stay sane in this life. One of my key filters that I have to use in everyday life is dealing with exaggerations. Many of us exaggerate things for various purposes. Exaggerations could be mild, heavy or extreme. The mild ones are like making something more noticeable than usual. They could be seen as humour mainly to highlight a point and they usually give us good time with pleasure and learning. The heavy ones are sometimes bearable and sometimes go beyond the limit based on our mood or general tolerance level. The extreme ones are not easy to handle; especially the shocking images in journalism, visual media and meaningless broadcasts in recent digital social media. Showing an ant like an elephant is an example of this.

There are various interesting views on exaggeration from different perspectives that shed some lights on the topic. I like description of love by George Bernard Shaw in this context: "Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else". According to Kahlil Gibran "An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper". Interestingly Voltaire has a more positive approach to is with his definition "Exaggeration, the inseparable companion of greatness".

From behavioural perspective it may turn to habit in some people as observed by Josh Billings who said: "There are some people so addicted to exaggeration that they can't tell the truth without lying". It also reflects other habit patterns as pointed out by William Alger: "False eloquence is exaggeration; true eloquence is emphasis".

What is your tolerance level to exaggeration and how do you cope with it? Hope you can join the debate to answer my question here.

Regards,
Mehmet Yildiz

Fast food may cause impatience

2010-03-25T16:25:00.000-07:00

It was not surprising to me to read about this research finding of fast food in our behaviour. The study paper is called "You Are How You Eat: Fast Food and Impatience". It has been made available by the University of Toronto freely in this link.

Fast food is in abundance in our lives and they address our desire for speedy life styles. I provided some random thoughts on abundance and speed in one of my previous blog posts. In any design and implementation activities, quality, quantity and speed require a trade off. I believe in relativity and subjectivity in quality, quantity and time. One of the comments by Mr Stuarte Harris was notable and want to cite it here: "Whatever the clock says, whatever the advertising says, whatever anything external says, our perception of time and quantity and quality is purely subjective."

One of my friend (in his late 70s with a lot of experience in management of large corporate organisations) a few years ago asked a question of "Why we humans are in rush all the time" which still resonates in me. I am still searching an answer to this question.

Does Optimism Boost the Immune System?

2010-03-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

It is interesting to read a media release titled "Optimism Boosts the Immune System". The study provides some insights to this long debated topic.

Optimism in my life has some merit however in my profession I have to look at the worst scenarios sometimes which may look or sound pessimistic. Any design requires a holistic view of the topic both from optimistic and so called pessimistic aspects.

It is possible to come across paradoxical views on the optimistic behaviour such as to smile when it hurts most.Is this possible and realistic? Having said that, from hindsight we see blessings in disguise for the things seemed horrible to us when we were experiencing them.

Many comments were made throughout the history on optimistic and pessimistic approach. We all may have heard Churchill's famous assertion "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.". Is it really so? As I asked in my another post "Do optimists see the opportunity in every difficulty?" Whose choice may it be?

Regards,
Mehmet Yildiz

Is it possible to be transparent and authentic online?

2009-12-20T21:54:00.000-08:00

This is a discovery post rather than prescriptive on how to be transparent and authentic online. There are a number of recent incidents in various online environments which triggered some thoughts and feelings requiring associated decisions and actions for me. In this post, I’d like to discuss the environment factor.

Environment is an essential factor for success. I believe, like it is in the real world, one expect the online world to be clean and healthy to play with confidence and enthusiasm. If an environment gets toxic with mediocrity and childish behaviour, one’s enthusiasm and willingness relatively decrease. I believe authentic and transparent people instantly affected by their environments. An environment, for example for blogging, makes difference for one’s participation and collaboration.

Spirit of networking is directly related environment which play a significant role for participative actions. Who has the key impact on environment? Without doubt that the members of the environment have the key impact to keep the environment clean, healthy and pleasant to play with.

I’d like to discover how one can be transparent and authentic in this online world. How would you define and describe a clean, healthy and pleasant environment. Look forward to obtaining your insights stemming from your online experience, thoughts, and personal preferences.

Regards,
Dr. Mehmet Yildiz

Are we vulnerably designed dilemmatic machines?

2009-12-20T05:11:00.000-08:00

In one of the yesterday's blog on Ecademy a co-networker made a notable and insightful statement which I'd like to quote here "...You can't tell life how to be and you can't second guess your own unconscious mind with all its complex, interrelated and unresolvable narrative threads. These are what dominate your life, not what your consciousness happens to think it wants." I believe you can guess who wrote this statement by browsing the comments on yesterday's blogs related to goal setting.

And today there was an interesting research finding reported in many news networks as recorded by google "The use and misuse of alcohol and marijuana can be traced to a common set of genes". In addition to the main theme of genes' impact on our lives, it is really eye-opening to know that "41.8 percent of 12th graders reported having used marijuana". This is of course very complex to create a scientific profile considering all aspects but I want to discuss a specific point here.

My point is, if we have this vast, dark, unknown unconscious mind at emotional and higher levels coupled with so many unknowingly inherited genes at physical level running the show of our lives; what is left to us to manage at conscious level? How can we keep responsible for things beyond our control? Is this dilemma or what? What are our responsibilities for our lives? Feel free to share your optimistic, neutral or pessimistic views [which who knows] may shed some lights on this dichotomy in our limited knowledge process.

Regards,
Mehmet Yildiz

Promoting+healthy+skepticism+-+Ecademy

2009-11-20T19:29:00.000-08:00

Promoting+healthy+skepticism+-+Ecademy

Are you a bower bird? Guess whose fault is compulsive hoarding and clutter making?

2009-11-02T05:35:00.000-08:00

Are you a bower bird?

If so this blog can be a sign from the Big Giant Head in the Third Rock from the Sun!
Oh thank God it is a British study rather than an Australian one!:-)

Guess who we can blame for being a bower bird? I mean having a compulsive urge to collect and clutter our homes and offices with junk; at least a partly scapegoat for this amazing habit!
Good guess! Yes our genes! Who else could it be?

Here's the link to the study report titled "Genes to blame for clutter compulsion"

Do you have this urge to keep your old clothes, magazines, junk mail, furniture pieces, school reports, A+ assignments, and many other things that you may be attached?

Do you ever remember a special feeling when you clear clutter in your life? How was that? Have you heard people creating F word disciplines mainly from Asia to deal with this phenomena?

I'd like to obtain your personal view on dealing with clutter in your life from multiple angles and any context you may like to choose. For example, physical clutter, emotional clutter, even spiritual clutter or any type of clutter that you may think of!

Feel free to clutter my blog with your thoughts today!!

Regards,
Mehmet

Dr. Mehmet YILDIZ || IBM || IT Philosophy || Future|| Leadership || Twitter || Linkedin || Yasni || Naymz|| Superfan

Outliers: the story of success! [Point 1: 10.000 hours rule]

2009-10-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

On Saturday whilst discussing the characteristics of Blackswans here, William Buist suggested the importance of this book (Outliers) as a response to one of my comments and wanted to see my analysis of this book. William's suggestion of the book, my second reading of it recently, and the importance of Blackswans have inspired me to create this blog series to reflect and learn from important points in this insightful book titled Outliers by Malcom Gladwell.

After reading the book twice with fascination (because it provided considerable insights to my cognitive hypotheses with interesting findings), I believe there are important arguments to be considered in this book and to be followed up with further discussions. Since the scope of the book is comprehensive it will not fit into one blog; hence I will focus on one key point in each post.

One of the most important lessons learnt from this book is repeatedly mentioned as the "10,000-Hour Rule". Gladwell claims that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours, 10 years or a decade! He provides well proven examples. I believe him because they are very well known and documented cases.

I fully agree with this 10 thousand hour rule as a person observing how thoughts and concepts are processed and make progress in very complex environments. It took me approximately 10 years to certify globally in my discipline in IBM. It took me over 10 years after my master's degree to start authoring advanced research papers in peer reviewed and refereed scientific journals. It took me 20 years to start my first invention to be patented! It took me over 20 years to learn English which I am still feeling shaky!! I can see that it took 11 years Thomas and Penny to bring Ecademy to this level. Based on this first hand experienced based knowledge confirmed by Malcolm's observations, I have difficulty in understanding anyone who declares expertise on a topic less than 10 years. For some reasons, I kept thinking a lot about Edison and Tesla whilst digesting this rule!!

Let's watch the following 2 clips interviewing Malcolm on this book. These clips may help understand the coverage and importance of the book for those who haven't read it yet. I believe you will laugh at what the male interviewer is good at in the second video; and pay attention to what Bill Gates used to do secretly and why Mozart's early works were crap!:-)

Let's be mindful that this is an eye opening, realistic [an anti-self help] book therefore...! I'd love to obtain your views on this 10 thousand hour rule!

Regards,
Mehmet

Dr. Mehmet YILDIZ || IBM || IT Philosophy || Future|| Leadership || Twitter || Linkedin || Yasni || Naymz|| Superfan

Paradoxically, food insecurity may be underlying contributor to...

2009-10-11T06:50:00.002-07:00

What is the importance of food security and insecurity? What does it mean?

Food security "refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Worldwide around 852 million people are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty, while up to 2 billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degrees of poverty".

The article "Household food insecurity contributes to overweight in children" According to the article: "Both household food insecurity and childhood overweight are significant problems in the United States. Paradoxically, being food-insecure may be an underlying contributor to being overweight. A study of almost 8,500 low-income children ages 1 month to 5 years, published in the October 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, suggests an association between household food insecurity and overweight prevalence in this low-income population. However, sex and age appear to modify both the magnitude and direction of the association."

Is this a mental or physical problem? I'd be interested to obtain views on what other implications of food security/insecurity could be?

Regards,
Mehmet

Dr. Mehmet YILDIZ || IBM || IT Philosophy || Future|| Leadership || My blog || Twitter || Linkedin || Yasni ||Google || Naymz|| Superfan

Are arranged marriages panacea for preventing divorce?

2009-10-11T06:50:00.001-07:00

Arranged marriage is a large and complex topic spanning multi-disciplines with many implications in many walks of life. This is only an exploration blog as I have no experience in the area apart from my curiosity to learn and a cursory review of the literature from social networking aspect to catch some patterns.

It is paradoxical to see arranged marriages still continue with success. According to Kinjo "Twenty-five to 30 per cent of all marriages taking place in Japan at present are arranged marriages". The rate of arranged marriages are higher in South Asia and Middle East compared to Europe, America and Australasia. Through my observations, I believe this rate is much lower in Australia. However, our divorce rate in Australia is so high; at least 40 thousand couples get divorced each year.

Even though arranged marriages are believed to have a lot of negative connotations, I know a few families with arranged marriage reached their 50th and even 60th anniversaries, whereas a number of marriages based on love and prior trial ended up within a year or so. Many of my friends have less than 2 years of marriage duration. I'd like to understand this paradoxical situation. I am wondering whether arranged marriages can help with the divorce?

If we get back to social networking context, would you consider people getting married through social networking without seeing each other can be considered an arranged marriage? What is your definition of arranged marriage? Let's explore this topic from multiple angles with your personal thoughts, experience and cultural impacts in your countries on the topic.

Hope you will enjoy this funny commercial related to this topic with futuristic flavour:

Regards,
Mehmet

Dr. Mehmet YILDIZ || IBM || IT Philosophy || Future|| Leadership || My blog || Twitter || Linkedin || Yasni ||Google || Naymz|| Superfan

How do you deliver bad news to others?

2009-10-11T06:48:00.001-07:00

There are daily many bad news at homes, in schools, in hospitals, in workplaces, in press including offline and online social medium. We call them bad news because we believe they are bad with unwanted consequences. The heart of this issue is that we jump to the conclusions too quickly sometimes; without knowing the overall consequences and understanding the purpose behind them. Some of them could be blessing in disguise when we look at them from the hindsight. There are of course some realistic heart breaking events too.

The article titled How to deliver the news? made me think what the best way to deliver bad news. It is a complex situation when dramatic emotional events are the matter of the news. We are sensitive creatures. Our mind play a lot of trick on our body and psyche. Using neutral language is recommended rather than starting the conversation with "I'm sorry" or "unfortunately I have some bad news" etc.

We all of course have different views and experience on dealing with bad news. This is also very contextual and may vary according to the situation. Maybe we can learn from each other by identifying some practical patterns and handy hints. How do you usually deliver bad news to the related parties who are expected to suffer from or be disadvantaged by the intended severe bad news?

Regards,
Mehmet

Dr. Mehmet YILDIZ || IBM || IT Philosophy || Future|| Leadership || My blog || Twitter || Linkedin || Yasni ||Google || Naymz|| Superfan

Using Ants as Security Model

2009-09-29T04:29:00.001-07:00

Intruders, viruses, Trojan horses, fake accounts, and many more ever growing malicious software and disturbing practices in our networks! It is a never-ending battle to protect our computer networks from them. They cost us so much! Our businesses are affected by their real and eve their imaginative impact! I'd like to introduce a fresh new approach to computer security modeling nature; from the Wake Forest University! Two keywords scent and ants! Yes, as you may guess, security experts are deploying a new defense modeled after one of nature's hardiest creatures — the ant as reported in this article titled "Ants vs. worms Computer security mimics nature"!
This study report highlights that unlike traditional security devices, which are static, these "digital ants" wander through computer networks looking for threats, such as "computer worms" — self-replicating programs designed to steal information or facilitate unauthorized use of machines. When a digital ant detects a threat, it doesn't take long for an army of ants to converge at that location, drawing the attention of human operators who step in to investigate. The concept, called "swarm intelligence," promises to transform cyber security because it adapts readily to changing threats. Professor of Computer Science Errin Fulp says "In nature, we know that ants defend against threats very successfully. They can ramp up their defense rapidly, and then resume routine behavior quickly after an intruder has been stopped. We were trying to achieve that same framework in a computer system. Our idea is to deploy 3,000 different types of digital ants, each looking for evidence of a threat. As they move about the network, they leave digital trails modeled after the scent trails ants in nature use to guide other ants. Each time a digital ant identifies some evidence, it is programmed to leave behind a stronger scent. Stronger scent trails attract more ants, producing the swarm that marks a potential computer infection."

I know we mimicked a number of animals for computer security in the past. Even some mythological characters such as three headed Cerberus watching Hades! What other animals or even plants could we model for computer security? Please illustrate your thoughts with your real and/or imaginative animals and their cognitive expertise such as smell, taste, touch, bite are a few for the consideration of your imagination!

Regards,
Mehmet

Dr. Mehmet YILDIZ || IBM || IT Philosophy || Future|| Leadership || My blog || Twitter || Linkedin || Yasni ||Google || Naymz|| Superfan

How do you deliver bad news to others?

2009-09-29T04:27:00.000-07:00

How would Einstein, Darwin, Freud, Marx and Hemingway use email?

2009-09-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't fully make up the title of this post, it came from Northwestern University, a research report for media. Their title is "How Would Einstein Use E-mail?". They believe that we are not as different from Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin after all, at least when it comes to patterns of correspondence! I had to take this piece of research serious because it is published in the prestigious Science Journal. And also the National Science Foundation supported the research.

I found their method very interesting and unusual because they examined extensive letter correspondence records of 16 famous writers, performers, politicians and scientists, including Einstein, Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and Ernest Hemingway, and found that the 16 individuals sent letters randomly but in cycles. They said "No matter what their profession, all the letter writers behaved the same way. They adhered to a circadian cycle; they tended to write a number of letters at one sitting, which is more efficient; and when they wrote had more to do with chance and circumstances than a rational approach of writing the most important letter first."

I am unable to find more on this behavioural study however added this paper to my to read list as soon as it becomes available. Related to this topic, I noticed Mark Rhodes posted an interesting blog on Friday titled "Emails can be dangerous, make sure it doesn't happen to you". In the meantime, based on the thoughts from this report and Mark's post, I would like to understand what other email writing styles are available amongst us? For example, how often do you send email messages? How often do you check and respond your emails? How do you deal with myriad of spam messages if you don't have a spam filter? Do you use specific tones in your email? Do you keep it short and to the point or is it like a journal? Do you see e-mail the major communication tool? What are your overall thoughts about email in business and social life? Does email style has anything to do with the claims in the video cited in the future of communication:-)?

Regards,
Mehmet

Dr. Mehmet YILDIZ || IBM || IT Philosophy || Future|| Leadership || My blog || Twitter || Linkedin || Yasni ||Google || Naymz|| Superfan

Future of Communication

2009-09-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, we will shake it like Shakira in Moscow today; I mean shake our thoughts like that!

Communications technologies, processes, approaches, and tools are rapidly changing. Internet and associated technologies added a mask, a painful flavour to digest, and a huge confusion! It is unknown where we are going! Let's do some brain and heart stretching today and see what we come up with!

We need to ask a few predictive warming questions to start shaking in the attractive rhythm, drums must start beating hard, hands clapping with passion, and move brain ~~hips~~ muscles slowly :

1. How likely to use digital tongues to speak, to taste the quality of communication!
2. How likely to sniff communication with electronic nose!
3. How likely to hear the most juicy global gossips with our digital ears!
4. How likely to have a digital brain embedded to our body using paper batteries I mentioned here yesterday.
5. How likely we will give meanings to life with our digital hearts!
6. Do you reckon we can figure out how to touch, hug, kiss each other digitally.
7. What is the position of digital or electronic spirituality in this rapidly changing universe.

What other digital occurrences and things we can introduce to our end to end communication process and tools? You are free to stretch your prediction up to 2050 safely and for the remaining years and centuries, I will facilitate another blog soon.

You may check this video to get some insights and inspiration before commenting on this post today, it starts with "man is god, anyone and everywhere!":

Regards,
Mehmet

Dr. Mehmet YILDIZ || IBM || IT Philosophy || Future|| Leadership || My blog || Twitter || Linkedin || Yasni ||Google || Naymz|| Superfan

Adding NEW meanings: mixing FUN & business with popular media: My recent top 20 items ACCEPPTED in Superfan

2009-09-23T00:40:00.000-07:00

New social media is stretching the scope and blending the borders of business and pleasure!

You can be fan of anything at superfan accepted by the assessment committee using an objective criteria. If your favourite items are not there, you can create your objects and first you become the superfan of that object then invite others to be fan of it. It is also possible in some cases others may steal your superfan and then the whole fun starts. The objects gain value and visibility. For example, Ecademy, Yasni, Hereke Silk Carpets, Megan Fox and IBM are a few famous ones that reached to very high scores in very short time. It is up to the fans to promote their items.

I introduced the following items to the Superfan recently which they were not available in there and they were accepted successfully:

1. Nasreddin - A historical humorous character

2. Manuka Honey - strong antibacterial honey from New Zealand

3. Oil Wrestling - Traditional Turkish Sport

4. Semiotics - the study of how meaning is constructed and understood.

5. Cloud Computing

6. The University of Melbourne

7. Orhan Pamuk - Turkish Nobel laureate in Literature

8. Kevin Rudd - current Prime Minister of Australia

9. Seymour Papert - one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, as well as an inventor of the Logo programming language.

10. Hyacinth

11. Mindfulness

12. IBM AIX - Server Operating System

13. IBM System z10

14. Hookahs - Nargile (this is only for cultural awareness purpose, I am non-smoker but can connect to smokers:-))

15. Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me - Penny Power's recent book. (just introduced yesterday)

16. Karagoz and Hacivat

17. Mayapple - plant native to the eastern part of North America.

18. Meet the Robinsons - my son's favourite show

19. Sertab Erener - 2003 Eurovision winner represented Turkey

20. Blue Gene - Enabled IBM to be a winner of National Medals of Science, Technology and Innovation

You can see and become fan of my current 69 items from this link.

What are your recent favourite top 20 objects, concepts that you may want to share with your networkers?

Through this post, I'd also would like to obtain your views on use of this new medium for both business and pleasure. What could be the implications from your angle?

Regards,
Mehmet

Dr. Mehmet YILDIZ || IBM || IT Philosophy || Future|| Leadership || My blog || Twitter || Linkedin || Yasni ||Google || Naymz|| Superfan

Taking a shower can damage our health - Ecademy

2009-09-20T07:38:00.001-07:00

Taking a shower can damage our health - Ecademy

More and more followers in Twitter

2009-09-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed I was missing my little bird a.k.a. Twitter in Superfan. I got it back as alluded in yesterday's blog.

It was fantastic a to connect with a few networkers from Superfan who have Twitter accounts. Look forward to connecting more friends from here in Twitter. It is fun and useful to enhance networking. Tremendous tweeting is going on in Twitter!

Come and join us....let's tweet together for collaborative learning! I can be followed by myil1.

Why don't rich people need friends? - Ecademy

2009-09-19T09:39:00.001-07:00

Why don't rich people need friends? - Ecademy

AddThis - Sharing http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=135059

2009-09-19T09:35:00.001-07:00

AddThis - Sharing http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=135059

Shared via AddThis

A blog about Twitter in Superfan

2009-09-18T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

This is a new blog series which I called it reflections from heart and mind. I would like to update my online activities here.

Day by day, I find the Superfan fascinating with new objects and concepts. I started blogging in there. Today, I teased about Twitter which is an object stolen by a member as a game. The title of the blog is "Follow game: Are you a twitter geek? Let's follow each other"

I have also posted a blog to Ecademy titled "Why 44789 people to die?"

It was great to see a number of Follow Friday for my Twitter Account. I felt honoured.

I posted only one article to Linkedin and read my messages in Naymz. Adding new items to Yasni tonight...

Great to start blogging in the Blogger too.

Cheers,
Mehmet Yildiz
Melbourne, Australia