Millionaire Meditation

I still cannot believe I downloaded this book by Paul Farrell for free. The Internet has been the best response to those who say there is nothing in life that is free. Farrell used to be a highly stressed and highly paid investment banker before he walked away and pursued his true passion - writing. The book is a compendium of nearly every type of activity that can be considered as meditation - running, martial arts, writing, painting, acting - anything at all that allows one to lose oneself and be one with the moment.

Farrell agrees that meditation is one of the best ways to reduce stress and live a full, wakeful life, but argues that traditional sitting meditation may not work for everyone. Indeed, even for someone like me who has read several books on meditation and Buddhism, it is still a challenge to concentrate and watch my thoughts while meditating. Farrell gives countless examples of active meditation where any activity, provided one is focusing on what one is doing at that moment and nothing else, can serve as a path to enlightenment.

I like Farrell's approach. He shows true compassion for the predicament of millions of individuals who feel trapped in the relentless pace of corporate life. He does not tell us to run away and live in a monastery. He gives us hope that we can see our work for what it is and be happy. Reading his book has itself been a great meditation for me.

Multiple Intelligences

As a parent of two small boys, I am concerned about the intellectual development of my children. My wife and I are both academically intelligent, having first met as members of the debate club of the premier university in the Philippines. Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences has become so popular it is almost taken for granted that verbal and mathematical intelligence do not constitute the full range of human intellectual capacity. It may have been revolutionary when it was first published, but today, like many parents, I find it normal to want to raise multidimensional children able to think logically, but also to express themselves creatively.

Multiple Intelligences is a an assessment of the status of the theory 25 years after it was first expounded. Parts of the book, especially those detailing the mechanics of pedagogy, were not particularly interesting for me, but the first few chapters, which critiques the limited approach provided by IQ tests, pave the way for a broader and deeper understanding of human faculties. As someone who has read about and seen the success of people with low verbal and mathematical intelligence, this really sounds like common sense. It also reminds me to be open minded about the talents of my children. They may not turn out be as good as me when it comes to standard IQ tests, but might turn out be geniuses in the arts or in sports. Ultimately, I think, MI engenders a more tolerant and inclusive attitude to talent, providing more opportunities for growth and recognition to those who would otherwise have been branded as not being smart enough by narrow measurements of intelligence.

Essential Foucault

When I was in college, postmodernism was the religion of many social science majors, and Michel Foucault was their patron saint. So many students were dropping words like discourse, metanarrative, and contingency. I had the sense so many were enamored with postmodern ideas without really understanding what modernity was and why it was worth reacting against. I had always felt uneasy with ethical relativism and anti-foundationalist thought especially if it was unclear to the interlocutors what exactly constituted the foundation.

Here I am, a middle manager in a global company working in the outsourcing industry and spending my lunch break reviewing a book on philosophy. I will not claim I have mastered the foundations: there is still so much to read with so little time. Reading Foucault did make me more wary about Enlightenment ideas of inevitable progress and understand how particular ways of thinking are likely to be determined by history rather than necessary consequences of progress.

Still, I keep the skeptical attitude of a conservative. Foucault has contributed to a richer historical understanding of punishment, sexuality, and knowledge, but I will reserve judgment about the value of postmodern thought. It is yet unclear to me whether shaking the foundations of thought has done much to increase our wisdom.

Difficultes du francais

J'essaie d'enseigner le francais a mon fils meme si j'ai a peine l'occasion pour l'utiliser. Lisant ce livre m'a permis d'augmenter ma connaissance des nuances du grammaire francais, mais il faut le parler pour le maitriser. C'est une belle langue, le francais, mais il fault la discipline pour assurer que je parle, je lis, et j'ecris la langue. Je pense quelquefois que c'est a cause de ce manque de pratique que mon fils ne parle pas encore. Il a deja 3 ans et six mois mais il refuse de repondre a nos questions ni en francais ni en anglais. Ce qui m'inquiete de plus, c'est qu’il recitait l’alphabet, il contait jusqu’au cinquante, et il connaissait beaucoup de mots francais il y a un an. Mais, maintenant, il ne parle plus.

J’ai peur qu’il ait un handicap mental. J’espere que ce n’est juste un retard de developpement . Je continuerai a observer ce mois-ci, et si sa condition reste le meme, nous allons consulter le medecin. Je viens de lire que faire partie d’une famille multilangue n’est pas une cause de retard. C’est bien possible que c'est normal. Alors, je lui parlerai en francais mais je ne le forcerai pas de repondre car cela n’ajoutera q’au stress qu’il se sente. Ce critique du livre de Jean-Michel Robert est devenu une conte des difficultes d'etre un parent.

Millionaire Mind

Thomas Stanley's Millionaire Mind validates many of the lessons I have learned from Richard Kiyosaki. Stanley's research shows the wealthy do not buy a lot of doodads. They usually have their shoes resoled instead of buying new ones. They buy houses in good neighborhoods near good schools, but they do not usually buy them brand new.

Rejection of conspicuous consumption is also consistent with Stanley's finding that most millionaires marry spouses with old fashioned family values, and prefer to spend time playing with grandchildren instead of shopping during their leisure time.

One useful nugget for me was that millionaires are not fans of do it yourself repair work at home. I have always said to my wife that the opportunity cost of fixing the toilet was not worth the time lost for reading the newspaper. Besides, I have botched replacing the faucet several times I really should leave it to the professional. Anyway, my wife remains unconvinced despite Stanley's book.

The most important point is perhaps the most trite. Millionaires focus on their strengths. By doing what they love most in ways that earn money, then getting rich does not have to be so hard after all.