5 Important Books That Will Give You Better Ideas, More Innovation, and Greater Success In Life

There aren't many hours in the day. Sometimes I try to drain the day to its dregs, reading or writing until I drift asleep. It's thus important that we are intentional with the things we read; that we get the information we need at the right time for the right purpose. Innovators are readers--period. 

In these times of rapid change and complexity, there are more books coming out on the importance of innovation and the garnering of new ideas. In a previous post, I laid out 5 books that will give you a leg up on the future. These next five might give you a leg up on new ideas. Of course, as each of us approaches a book from his or her unique vantage point, you may glean other insights than simply about new ideas--that's my hope, at least.

1. Abundance

Peter Diamandis is one of those radical entrepreneurs. And Steven Kotler is co-founder of Singularity University, along with mega-inventor Ray Kurzweil and the Google founders. When you watch Diamandis speak, his confidence in future technology holding out a cornucopia of wealth is no less than contagious. This book lays out and examines a series of emergent technologies that will open up the possibility for enormous wealth, advancement, and well-being: robotics, artificial intelligence, infinite computing, etc. You see, according to Diamandis, the world isn't going to get any simpler, and indeed there will be economic crises, pandemics, and other bumps along the way of human development; nevertheless, as technology grows, standards of living grow, and with a growing population of educated and technologically enhanced people, those problems will become tremendous business opportunities. Again, Diamandis is a radical entrepreneur. Indeed, he maintains a maxim I heard once during a meeting at the World Economic Forum: A pessimist sees a threat in every opportunity; an optimist sees an opportunity in every threat. If you're an entrepreneur, business owner, or thinking about launching your own enterprise, you've got to read this book. It's followed up with a sequel, entitled "Bold," which is number two on my list.

2. BOLD

What sold me on the book as one to read--not necessarily agree with these people, but certainly be piqued by them--are the endorsements. Check these out: "Bold is a visionary roadmap for people who believe they can change the world. . ." -- Bill Clinton. Here's another one from Ray Kurzweil, whom I mentioned above: "If you read one business book in the twenty-first century, this should be the one. Bold clearly explains how to apply exponential technologies to change the world." And here's Eric Schmidt who not only helped run Google, but also sat on the board of Apple for a time: "Abundance showed us where our world can be in 20 years. BOLD is a roadmap for entrepreneurs to help us get there." Whether you agree with these people or not, these are very bold endorsements of the book. What these and others understand more so than most is that to be on the right side of change means you position yourself on the right side of emergent technologies and business practice. In fact, Diamandis uses the term "exponential entrepreneur" for those who leverage emergent technologies for entrepreneurial and world-changing objectives.

3. The Idea Factory

This book challenges the status quo on innovation and innovative thinking. The Bell Labs of the 1920s right up to the 1980s was a dazzling centre of innovation and invention. It was known for attracting the greatest minds of America and even Europe. It was known for putting scientists on salary as pure researchers to do experiments and play with inventions that were completely unrelated to telecommunications. What astounded me was the intellectual culture of the the labs. In fact, it had its own department called the Institute of Creative Technology for which not only were the best and brightest scientists and engineers required, but also a "critical mass of people to foster explosive ideas." One of the ways the Labs did this was to train their employees beyond their advanced graduate degrees, even to the extent of creating and offering its own graduate-level classes in house. As well, the institute for creative technology needed to house all the engineers and thinkers in the proximity to one another to allow the ideas to bump into each other, not unlike the idea factor of the Manhattan Project at MIT. And, the institute needed to have all the finest tools. This book is a wealthy 'how to' for collaborative innovation and the explosion of new ideas within a corporate setting. 

4. Innovation to the Core

This is a great book out of Harvard Business Press that lays out the basic blue-print for creating an innovation department in your company or among a nascent group of collaborators around a new idea or enterprise. It is a highly informative and at times technical book, given that it's put out by Harvard Business Press of the Harvard Business School; nevertheless, it's very well laid out that a non-academic lay person can understand it and put its ideas to work. The book does a nice job in providing a series of 'case studies' of companies that have had to amp up its innovation to remain competitive and maintain leadership in the marketplace, such as Nike, Proctor, IBM, and Whirlpool. This is a great book for entrepreneurs, business owners, and executives who are on the hook for growing innovation in their enterprises. 

5. Mindset

This is a favourite of mine simply because it impacted me to a great extent about the power of the mind. Carol Dweck is a professor of psychology at Stanford University, and was a collaborator with the renowned psychologist Albert Bandura. The point of Dweck's book is there are two kinds of mindsets: fixed and growth. A fixed mindset believes that change cannot happen, that one cannot become better, that life happens to one rather than one happening to life. A growth mindset, conversely, maintains that one can do anything one puts one's mind to, that change is possible, that through hard work and persistence one can accomplish anything. One of the stories I found amazing was of the Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner Kersee who when running one of her olympic races felt herself going into a seizure. Instead of buckling under it, she kept her mind focused on fighting the seizure and persisting to the finish line--not only did she prevent herself from going into the seizure, she won the race! You can change. If you are in a situation right now that seems dire or overwhelming, you are not alone. The brain is a muscle: it grows the harder we try and the harder we work at something. Don't give up. Pick up this book. 

8 Crushing Symptoms Of A Technology Hangover And What To Do About It

We live in a technological world--alas. And while our devices facilitate all kinds of social interaction, our connectedness to global consciousness, and even helps us get from point A to B, there is a growing awareness that these things we have taken for granted as being helpful and useful and beyond any other human accomplishment might be causing major health issues. And while the jury is still out on the cause of cancer from cell phones, there are other health matters that need to be considered, namely technology hangover (which I have abbreviated as TH) Here's how you know you have it:

1. Headaches: This is one of the common threads of TH, which comes from staring at a glaring screen for hours on end. How many hours are you clocking on your various devices? 8, 12? Are you beginning to suffer from headaches? You may just have TH.

2. Sore eyes: How good can LED light be for your eyes for 8-12 hours? The problem is it's not just when we're working at our computer stations, but it's sitting in front of our computers, the on our phones while driving home, then on our tablets in our kitchen, living rooms, and bathrooms, then not our massive TVs at night till we fall asleep. 

3. Exhaustion: There's nothing normal about being plugged into millions of pages of information all at your beck and call within seconds of being loaded. It's like working in the Library of Congress all day having immediate access to every book there, but they're coming at you in a split second almost as quickly as you're thinking about them. Totally overwhelming. We aren't hard wired well enough to handle information in such vast quantities in such whiplash efficiency. 

4. Low self-esteem: Social media sites, Facebook especially, can create depression and low self-esteem. In the past, you had to hear things through the grapevine: what your neighbours were up to, how much money they were making, what kind of trips they were going on, what new toys they purchased. But now, you just tap your FB app and you are immediately up to speed on all the drama. Forget soap operas of the past--you can vicariously live through all the people in your network. This kind of real-time gossip leads to low self-image, shame, and envy. 

5. Trouble turning off: You see it in your friends and loved ones--but rarely in yourself: the inability or struggle to turn the darn thing off, to unplug yourself from the matrix. It's really hard, isn't it? And how do you feel when you turn the phone or computer off? Like the world is almost standing still, that there is quiet--too much quiet--that there is little of interest. Feel that way? Like the real world is on your computer and the simulated world is what exists outside of that. That's the problem: our technology creates a world that over time we have adopted as the really real world; and the real world, the physical world, is merely an offshoot of the real world. Very strange. 

6. FOMO: This is one of the great symptoms of the TH: Fear Of Missing Out. Do you ever get that? I get it sometimes when I'm not following news as closely as I like--as if being a few hours off the news sites I'm going to miss the big one. We can feel that way with all kinds of things: what our friends are talking about on FB, job opportunities on LinkedIn, new followers on Twitter. 

There is something wrong with the TH. We are being dehumanized by our machines, which is why we have hangovers in the first place. We don't even know or understand their long-term impacts on human life; and yet we carry them in our pockets, hold them in our hands for hours, place them on our nightstand while we sleep. . .  We have a hangover because we are not feeling human. We are substituting life for a flat screen 

If you have TH, think of it as a blessing in disguise and a time to really put your desire to un-plug to the test. Get away from your computer more each day. Incorporate books into your work to increase your learning while giving your eyes a rest from the strain of the screen. Your TH is telling you something; your body's not happy, there's something wrong. 

Don't be dismayed. Just get out from the technology for a while and reclaim your humanity. 

8 Reasons Why People Love To Fish And Seem Hooked On It Beyond Belief

I'm not a big fisherman--and this statement is not about my physique. I hang out with people who do it all year round, highly enjoy it, and are quite good at it. I've been fishing in boats, on docks, and from river banks; I've fished for Salmon in the middle of Lake Ontario, and for Bass and Pike and Perch on various other Ontario lakes; I've been ice fishing in a -20 degree celsius windstorm in a small insulated fishing hut and froze my hands off pulling perch off my line. I've fished in the early morning and later in the evening. I've had many bite my line and skip away, and reeled in more. In fact, there was a time when I actually wondered if there was something wrong with me for being unable to catch a thing--went countless times with many on the hook, but nothing reeled in the boat. In spite of this emerging hobby of fishing, I'm not entirely hooked. I don't know what it is, but often I'm fine setting my rod down and enjoying my surroundings. So I got thinking: Why do people like to fish? And here's what comes to mind:

1. Catching stuff: Fishing is about catching--plain and simple. And it's about catching something pretty cool: this slippery, colourful creature flipping and flapping for dear life. There's something primordial about it: humans have been catching fish for millennia. In our modern world, most of what we catch are sales on consumer items. We love to consume--it's what we do. Fishing just amps the whole thing up. 

2. Challenge: Someone put it this way: that fishing is about trying to use artificial gear to figure out how to catch a live creature in the most efficient way possible. Fishing involves a lot of trial and error. You're not catching anything? Try a different lure, or swing the boat out to a different part of the lake, or use a different approach. It's all about trying and failing and trying again. There's also a social challenge: who's going to catch the biggest fish? I've been in on some of these challenges, and they're fun. 

3. Gear: We love gear. Anytime we can take a pastime and get some gear around it, it's golden. And there is no shortage of fishing gear out there--just a simple stroll through the fishing aisle at Canadian Tire will give you the gist. If you have an attention deficit issue, I would avoid the lure section entirely. I was there once with my son and spent an hour just pacing up and down wondering where to start and what to even consider. I've also been to other stores with my fishing buddies, and seen the competition ensue over finding the best lures for the types of fish we were going to fish for. Did you know there are so many different kinds of fishing line it'll make your head spin? We love it!

4. Social animals: I'm not talking about the shoals of fish--I'm talking about us. We are social animals. We like to be in community. We like to belong. Fishing with people you care about and enjoy being with is a great bonding experience. And if you're guys, it's a great way to hang out without having to talk too much. There's a shared experience around the water, the sun rippling off the lake, the fish flying off the line, the boat roaring across the lake that can be wonderful. 

5. Feeling alive: When you're out there on a big open lake, feeling the water splashing across your face, getting a tug on your line as the sun pours its warmth over you, there's a sense of being alive, of being at one with creation. It's a beautiful thing. In the modern world, like the city for example, we are estranged from our environment--even our office buildings stare back at us. We can be among so many people on the street and still feel isolated and alone. On the water, rod in hand, friends around, and the whip of the water, you are one with the universe. 

6. Improving yourself: Learning how to catch fish, getting better and feeling the tug on the line and reeling it in, can boost your self-confidence. Fishing is a metaphor or symbol for other aspects of life. Being able to cast a line in the water and draw a fish up into the boat or your net is a skill that by virtue of being able to improve upon can increase your self-esteem. 

7. Mentorship: Again, this is about knowledge being passed on for generations--it's another primordial thing we humans do. When you are an experienced angler, you are able to pass that knowledge along to others, which is a boost to you and to those you're mentoring. This shared knowledge around water and air and sun and fish is highly primordial and thus something that touches us as humans in a deeper way than we might initially think or expect.

8. A Symbol for life: Fishing is a symbol for many things in life: marriage, business, relationships, opportunities. It's all about being present in the moment, setting the right conditions for a particular outcome, and doing the most with the opportunities that come your way. This is the reason why I went through a hard time when I wasn't able to catch fish over a period of time. It's like the batter with the poor hitting streak who might be fouling out in other areas of his or her life. But there's something else about this symbol of fishing: regardless of what you're dealt, you can always adjust your approach, and continue on. If you're having problems luring fish onto your line, you can always read up on what attracts them. If you're having problems with your relationship, you can adjust your behaviour, seek guidance, and try again. If you're on a big streak with attracting business clients, your approach and technique is probably quite solid--and now you're in the position to mentor others. 

Now that I've written this down, I might be reconsidering my feelings about fishing. I might just take these findings with me the next time my fishing buddies head down to the boat. If you're an experienced angler, you've thought about this stuff for a long time. If you're a beginner, perhaps this is giving you a different perspective on why you might enjoy it so much. If you don't fish, and don't think you'd ever want to, I encourage you to go with people you know are doing it. Give it a try. It might be a highlight of your life.

5 Common Mobile Device Habits That Are Destroying Your Creativity and Innovation

Habits are important ways for us to go about our lives--a way for us to move around on autopilot and not have to think about every little part of an activity. One common form of habit is your trip to and from work, the destination of which often comes with little to no recollection of how you got there. 

But there are habits that just aren't good; and our technological world are foisting behaviours on us that while seemingly normal are actually terribly unhealthy--and can kill your creativity.  Here are only a handful of them:

1. Binge-Watching TV Shows: One of the conveniences of Netflix is the way it lets you watch six episodes of a show in a row without viewer having to click a button or find the next one on a menu. If you fall asleep during a show, who cares--it'll just continue on without you, and when you wake up you can just keep following the plot-line. The problem with this is it can totally mess with you in a number of ways. First, if you're eating the whole time, you can gain tons of weight. Binge eating and binge-watching typically go together. Second, if you're binge-watching at night, you're likely to stay up later--it happens to many of us. And if you're staying up later, you're not getting as much sleep, which will seriously mess with your health. Third, it's not good for your brain. As psychoanalyst and creativity researcher, mihaly csikszentmihalyi claimed in his book Flow, your brain is more active while sitting on the toilet than watching TV. Think about that one for a moment...

2. Phone Notifications: You've got to turn that thing off. Mobile phone notifications are a form of behaviour modification that pulls you away from the present moment into that of the fantastical (who's getting a hold of me? Did someone like my post on FB? and so on). When you are in the creative moment, such distractions can be damaging. When it's at night while you're sleeping, you're breaking your natural sleep patterns and thus a channel for new and fresh ideas. Take a moment to reflect on the percentage of notifications that actually are urgent--1-5%? Think also of the millennia of life that existed prior to mobile notifications and the kinds of things people were able to accomplish without them.

3. Staring at your device too much: When you've got your head buried in your phone, you're looking down all the time. There are actually health risks with this posturing in which people are actually straining and causing long-term damage to their neck and back--it's ridiculous. But what's even more problematic is in the act of looking down, you're no longer looking up at all the beauty and potential of what is all around you. There is an importance in gazing up at nature and being present and open to it and taking it all in that is part of being a creative individual--indeed a human being. It should not surprise us when reports come out that humans have lost the ability to see in 3D. And indeed it reminds me of a story about Picasso: he was on a train once, during which a stranger next to him criticized his paintings for being too abstract and thus not real. "What is real?" Picasso asked his interlocutor. "This!" the man exclaimed, holding up a picture of his wife. "Oh--" replied Picasso, "she looks quite flat..." 

4. Posting everything you think: Social media can be a good vehicle for getting some of your ideas out there to connect with others; however, when all you're doing is posting everything you're thinking, you're doing more harm than good. When creating new ideas or strategies or works of art, there is something about holding onto a good idea and letting it germinate in the mind before committing it to paper or canvass or proposal. It's best to carry around a notebook and pen to put your ideas into when they come to mind--not putting them out there for the world to see half or one-quarter baked.

5. Using device to fill every free moment: When you're thinking about ideas or strategies, it's good to get away from your work, to pull away from what you're working on, and get out into the world. Taking a walk is a great way to do this, whether in a field or along a busy street. Taking a nap is another. Spending quiet time just sitting with your eyes closed can be good as well. But now that we have mobile tech attached to ourselves, we tend to fill every free moment with news feeds, social media boredom, or video games, rather than giving our body and mind the variety they need. It's most often when we've broken away from our work that new fresh insights come. Unless we can break from the mobile device, we will not have the variety of experience necessary for ideas and insights to develop. 

Something Important You Need To Know About Growing Robot Intelligence

Robots are chewing up more newspaper and magazine headlines as we continue on this transition to a new society. The articles run a continuum of utopian and dystopian scenarios--I tend to be attracted to the dystopian ones. Why? Because it's easy to be optimistic about something that's new. It's easy to accept technological changes as, by virtue of being technological, better, more advanced, and of a higher state of art--but this is simply wearing rose coloured glasses while a member of the march of folly. 

Robots for decades have been mostly presented as these endearing tin cans bursting with personality; and there is a sense in which that remains the case. In a recent article in MIT's lay-person magazine, Tech Review, an algorithm out of Stanford is providing robots with an ability to learn from its interactions with humans and adjust its behaviour. 

[Stanford researcher Silvio] Savarese and colleagues developed a computer-vision algorithm that predicts the movement of people in a busy space. They trained a deep-learning neural network using several publicly available data sets containing video of people moving around crowded areas. And they found their software to be better at predicting peoples' movements than existing approaches for several of those data sets.

The only existing precedent for predicting such movements is Google's self-driving car, which has had its share of accidents as a sign of the difficulty of teaching robots how to maneuver around the caprice of human freedom. Questions such as how to share a road or sidewalk, or when to take your turn and when to wait remain issues for robots as they learn about interacting with humans. 

One company, Starship Technologies, makes robots for delivery service companies. It's been testing robots in the UK and the U.S., and claims that interactions with human beings remains the biggest challenge. Starship Technology's robots have come in contact with 230,000 people, and they're mock deliveries are closely monitored by engineers. 

But the real leap in technology is going to be creating learning algorithms that give robots the intelligence to blend in and adapt to human behaviour, thus replicating the norms of human behaviour. What stands out for me in this scenario is the distinction between human and robot/computer behaviour may growing slimmer--not because robots are adapting to us, but because we are adapting to our devices. In many ways, we are becoming different kinds of human beings with different kinds of behaviours. Go back to the child who tries to swipe at a magazine believing it's an iPad--this is merely a model of how human behaviour is shifting. And this is where I tend to side with the dystopian scenarios when I think about the future of artificial intelligence.

I read and research a lot of books. Nevertheless, there are certain books that simply slip my awareness that are touted as monumental. One that has recently flown under the radar is Yuval Noah Harari's work on the history of the human race and the emergence of AI technology. His first book Sapiens was lauded by Bill Gates, and put on Mark Zuckerberg's personal booklist for 26 million people to read. And his forthcoming book Homo Deus: A Brief History Of Tomorrow offers a glimpse into the future of humanity--and it doesn't look good. A fundamental question he asks in the book is how do we protect our world from destruction by our own hands? 

In a recent article in the Guardian, Harari claimed that the human species really hasn't changed much over 10,000 years, but the rise of AI and cyborgs (the merging of humans and machines--also called the Singularity) is about to change all that. And the problem is only a handful of people have a vision for these technologies and how they will benefit or hinder humankind. 

Harari's argument is based on the unintended consequences scenario: that we have no idea what these technologies will do, and thus may very well be creating our own demise. He also claims that the rise of AI and cyborgs will push homo sapiens into extinction and replace with a bio-engineered post-human capable of living forever. And I agree with him. In another recent article, scientists are coming out with predictions that robots will put lawyers, accountants, and doctors out of business; and if Harari and others are correct about the emergence of artificial intelligence, this is highly plausible. 

I've written about these issues before. It's important that we understand where the world is going and how technology, the engines of our creation, are changing us. Education isn't a relieving answer to all of this simply because we can't possibly know what jobs will be available 20 years from now, and thus everything we're teaching children may already be obsolete. How do we prepare for this future? 

When dealing with an addiction or emotional problems or issues, it's important to name it; for once it's named, you can start to deal with it. What do we name this period of human history when robots remain these endearing engines of creation; when we're just at the cusp of the exposing of AI and the great disruptive shift to a new economy? How do we name our issue? Hubris? The White Swan? The importance is admitting we have an issue, and then finding ways to correct it. But for Harari, and others like Elon Musk, it could be too late--then what?

9 Amazing Things That Happen When You Stay Up Late Into The Night

As I'm writing this line, the clock stretches to 12:06--AM. I was a night-owl for many years--loved it. But then I had kids and came to the whiplash realization that if I'm not rested by 7AM when they wake up, I'm hooped the rest of the day. So, over a period of about a month, I transformed from a night owl to early bird, rising between 5:00 and 5:30 to work on things for which I need plenty of time and (quiet) space. 

It's now 12:09AM, and I'm not a night owl. I've been up since 5:30 this morning, and I'm getting sleepy. Being up like this reminds me of my years as a night owl and the benefits thereof. Here are some that come to mind:

1. It's quiet: When you're up past midnight, it's likely you're alone and the rest of the family is in bed. It's peaceful. One can get a lot of thinking done with such peace and quiet. 

2. Coziness: OK, probably a cheezy way of putting it, but there's a way in which the night has a cozy factor--it's a time when blankets can be placed over you while you're huddled over a book, TV or computer screen. This kind of coziness is a by-product of peace and quiet. 

3. Productivity: As mentioned, you can get a lot done when there's no one to bother you. As well, the darkness of night provides a frame of deep focus--you're not distracted by salubrious sunbeams or frolicking squirrels across your roof, or bird songs out your window. You're in. 

4. No where to go: You have nothing scheduled at this time--it's time out of (scheduled/arranged) time. As such, you can relax, be in the moment, think, do. 

5. Stretch the day out: If you feel you don't have enough hours in the day, usurp your usual 10PM bedtime for 1:30AM. There is indeed a sense that night owls have that the day is something whose every droplet one must squeeze and drain out. 

6. Sleep is better: When you hit the hay after a late-night work session, and you're head feels like it's going to split open, and your heart is beating heavy, the bed just feels that much better. 

7. New ideas: There is something strange that happens when you're up late--you have different kinds of insights. It's like the profound fatigue you're feeling opens up another dimension of thinking. If you want an altered state of consciousness, don't sleep for 24 hours. 

8. Sleep in: Night owls tend to sleep in more, which creates the conditions for fresher ideas. There's something about lying around in bed that gets the brain moving and conjoining all kinds of disjointed thoughts. I find laying around an extra hour in bed in the morning to be very productive--if I have a notebook near by.

9. Be in good company: By becoming a night owl, you can join the ranks of Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, and yes even Keith Richards. There is an entire history of night owls--those who have plumbed the depths of night to emerge with great jewels of creativity and imagination. 

What George Clooney, Woody Allen, and Quentin Tarantino Have In Common That Should Change Your Life

Are we living totally distracted lives? Are we able to think deeply and reflect meaningfully on the rhythms of our lives, or are we being hurtled on waves of information that take us away from the moments of our lives that we'll never get back? It's a loaded question, I know; but it should be one that gives us all pause. 

An article in the Washington Post lays out several studies, one in 2003, another in 2014, and a recent one showing that students who use laptops in class actually perform worse than those who don't. A new study conducted by MIT at the United States Military Academy compared the exam results of students in classes that allowed laptop use and those classes that prohibited them. An economics professor allowed 1/3 of his economics class to use laptops to take notes, another 1/3 to use tablets, and another 1/3 to use no technology at all in the classroom. The students who were prohibited from using laptops had an average score 18% higher than their lap-top wielding counterparts. The research also tested tablet-only classrooms, but the result was not markedly different from the laptop classrooms. And even though students were not allowed to check email or play video games, the technology still seemed to interfere with their learning. 

The study in 2014, performed by a researcher from Yale and another from Princeton showed that students who used laptops in classrooms retained less information than those who used longhand; that somehow in the process of typing, there wasn't the strong neural connections to the learning than those who went through the process of writing. One insight was that students tended to type out the lectures word for word, whereas those writing in long-hand had to process the information into their own words, which required a higher level of thinking than simply flicking ones hands across the keys. 

Such insights seem to be intuitively understood by a number of famous writers and even movie producers. George Lucas maintains he has avoided the Internet for 15 years. The prolific movie producer, Woody Allen--whose made a movie a year for the past 50 years, it seems--doesn't have a computer, doesn't use email, and has a "limited-use cellphone." Similarly, George Clooney doesn't use a computer, and Quentin Tarantino writes all his movies by hand in fresh notebooks and black and red pens. The same can be said for the Game of Thrones author, George R.R. Martin, and the proliferous Danielle Steele. 

What these, and many other, writers understand is that their work requires tremendous focus: all you have is a blank sheet of paper to stare into and create an imaginary world with. If you are distracted at all, you're done for. 

So how is that different from any other activity that requires focus? It doesn't. And this study by MIT is on the way to proving it. And not only are there continuous reports and studies emerging about the distracting nature of technology, there are others claiming that our brains are literally being re-wired, such as the book The Shallows by Nicholas Carr that argues that as we're surfing the net and googling ourselves into oblivion, we're losing our ability to think deeply. 

So what to do? We live in an emergent technological age. There is more technology today than at any other time in the history of the human race. And we have only lived with the Internet for 25 years, and with remote devices about 15 years, and the results of all this technology use will not be in for another 20 years when we look back and see how it's all changed us. We are becoming a different species. In many ways, the past 30,000 years of human existence are being rewritten: when once we were largely agrarian people, now the majority of us couldn't light a fire from scratch, or hunt and cook basic food. In fact, the most deaths in the wild are caused from starvation in spite of the ample availability of food. 

So what do we do? We have to somehow reclaim our lives, our memories, our focus, our reliance on the knowledge and wisdom passed along from generations of people who have lived before us. We have to have greater discipline over our technological tools. We have to see them as they are, and not what we want them to be. As Wired Editor and famous techno-thought-leader Kevin Kelly argued in his book What Technology Wants, we have to think of technology as an overgrown hedge and just cut it all back to a manageable size. We have to in the meantime reclaim our lives, and have our heads in the present moment of relationships and memory making (not picture taking) and reflection; we need to have computer prohibition movements in our lives and homes--at least for a time--in which we unplug ourselves from them and breathe in some fresh air without the positive ions from a computer screen. We need to reclaim our sleeping patterns by turning our phones off and refusing to stare at their screens when we can't sleep. 

Our children is another issue. I've written before about the importance of shutting off the television, and about executives of the fortune 5 tech companies who don't let their kids use tablets or iPhones or computers; whose grade five children have never done a Google search. Are we getting the picture yet? This stuff that we take for granted and spend tens of thousands of dollars on is compromising our lives. And there are those, like the celebs above, who understand this reality, and a vast majority of those who don't. 

Consider us warned. The data are out there. We are waking up to this reality. We now know. But will we listen?...

14 Things About Eating Gluten-Free That You Really Need To Know

I like dessert--particularly cake and cookies. When I'm at a function, and there's a big rich-looking gluten-free chocolate cake, I gravitate right to it and cut myself a big wedge. Now I haven't been diagnosed with Celiac disease, I just happen to like how gentle a gluten-free cake or cookie can be on my stomach. And a gluten-free dessert is healthier than its gluten counterpart--isn't it?  

Here are 10 things about gluten free you didn't know, but definitely need to:

1. About 35,000 Canadians have been diagnosed with celiacdisease, an autoimmune disorder triggered by the protein. 

2. Between four and seven million Canadians are “gluten avoiders,” choosing gluten-free products because they believe that it’s a healthier choice.

3. A landmark study by researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax, published in the Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research in 2008, revealed that gluten-free foods were, on average, 242 per cent more expensive than their “regular” counterparts, and up to 455 per cent pricier in some cases.

4. A newly published study by the Dieticians Association of Australia quantifying the cost of gluten-free foods shows a family with two children can pay up to 17 per cent more for a gluten-free diet, with the cost blowing out for single men on welfare, and thus "demonstrates for the first time that a gluten-free diet is a significant financial burden for many Australian family types”.

5. In 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a regulation that defined “gluten-free” for food labeling. This regulation provided consumers the guarantee that the gluten-free food they purchased was indeed gluten-free. Gluten-free is a claim that is used by manufacturers voluntarily, but if it is used, it must conform to the FDA regulation of less than 20 parts per million (ppm) gluten. (Burdock Group)

6. Canada's gluten-free industry, in 2014, was $500 million annually.

7. The US gluten-free industry in 2014 was $4 billion annually. 

8. The British gluten-free market is worth approx US$500 Million annually and forecasted to grow to US $1Billion by 2017 

9. Unless you have celiac disease, a gluten-free diet can actually damage your health, according to Dr. Norelle Reilly, of Columbia University Medical Centre, in New York.

10. Gluten free packaged foods frequently contain a greater density of fat and sugar than their gluten-containing counterparts. (Dr. Norelle Reilley)

11. Obesity, overweight and new-onset insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome have been identified after initiation of a gluten-free diet" (Dr. Norelle Reilly)

12. A gluten-free diet adopted by people not diagnosed with Celiac disease, “also may lead to deficiencies in B vitamins, folate, and iron, given a lack of nutrient fortification of many gluten-free products” (Dr. Norelle Reilly).

13. There is no evidence that processed gluten free foods are healthier nor have there been proven health or nutritional benefits of a gluten free diet. There are no data to support the theory of intrinsically toxic properties of gluten in otherwise healthy adults and children. 

14. Gwyneth Paltrow, Posh Spice, Miley Cyrus, tennis star Novak Djokovic, Russell Crowe, Bill Clinton, Ryan Gosling are all celebrity advocates of a gluten-free diet. The author has yet to uncover evidence of endorsement monies from gluten-free corporations to these and other celebs. 

If you think you have Celiac disease, it is advised to consult your doctor for a proper prognosis. If you just enjoy eating gluten-free because you think it's better for you, or it's cool, or because your favourite celebrity endorses it, think twice. There's no issue with enjoying it from time to time at your family cook-out, but there can be health and financial ramifications from uncritically eating a gluten-free diet that are indeed unnecessary. 

These 6 Kinds Of People Will Thrive In A Post-Economic Collapse Society

There is growing tension in the global economy as of late. Many bankers and analysts and journalists are forecasting a major economic crisis for sometime this year--perhaps the Fall--as the world is poised for some kind of economic reset. 

But what would that really mean? We are already in the midst of a transition to a new civilization, as I've written before, but do we really understand what it would mean if what know about economics and money and the exchange of goods and services would crumble--if those systems we have relied upon for half a century were to be somehow reset. 

Right now, most people live in urban environments, contrary to where the majority of North Americans lived 50 years ago, namely rural areas. And most jobs have 'transitioned' from manual labour to 'knowledge work', that is, performing various roles that require working with information rather than, say, soil and seeds. This has created a system of reliance upon mass produced, mass farmed food products, and mass transit systems through which to ship it. The problem is, it's unsustainable. If the economy were ever to crater, and those 'services' went bankrupt, where would the food come from?

I've also written about the importance of up-skilling by taking college courses, etc, to stay requisite to the demands of a rapidly changing economy and work force. But that response might, however, be too late. Already we're seeing headlines like that from Financial Times that instate a call to action over the automation of jobs--and it's not just manual jobs, but knowledge work as well! 

So let's say come fall we hit an economic crisis of crises, and the economy falls apart. Who will be on the right side of that catastrophe? The following are the top-rated jobs in the event of an economic collapse (inspired by a great little article at All Self Sustained:

1. Gardener, Farmer, Horticulturist:  These are people who have knowledge of food production. I drove past a mennonite field on the week-end, in which a number of farmers were ploughing using horses--talk about master farmers! Anyone with skills in providing food will be very busy during the next economic collapse.

2. Anything to do with Water: From treatment to procurement to sourcing to storing, people will need water, and it won't be available for purchase in fancy plastic bottles. Additionally, waste management, plumbing, and construction skills to build these systems will be critical. 

3. Builders: Those who can build shelters, especially with natural materials and means will be in high demand. If you've ever seen the TV show "Live Free or Die" you know what I mean. Imagine living in a time of complete scarcity and trying to build some shelter--without modern tools? Those who are able to build homes, shelters, barns, etc will be very busy. 

4. Alternative Energy: We'll need energy--that's for sure. Barring there isn't access to oil and gas, we'll need to heat our homes. Those who understand how to build solar panels and create geo-thermal systems, among other solutions, will be in high demand.

A Forest Dweller, from the TV series Live Free or Die

5. Protection and Security: In the event of a collapse, there will be chaos. The super-rich are already preparing for this by building high-end bunkers and 'panic rooms'--in fact, industry sales have increased 30% over the past year alone. If you're a police officer, and/or have military experience. you will be highly valuable for helping people feel safe, as well as provide security systems that will ward off looters and other criminals. 

6. Medical professionals: This is pretty obvious when you think about all the various things that could  go wrong, and how people's safety could be compromised. Consider also what happens when pharmaceuticals are scarce and millions of people on anti-depressants are in cold turkey mode. People who can care for others' physical well-being will be in high demand.

If you're able to care for basic needs, you'll be in a good position to transition to this new civilization. For the rest, if you're reading this and wondering how to up-skill, consider taking one or more of the above skills and learn them. Gardening is one easy first-step: you can grow one in your backyard and practice. Other skills might take some time, such as building and nursing, but there's value in it. 

10 Things Every Soccer Mom and Dad Need To Know About The Perfect Game

It's summer soccer season, and for all those who not only pay the high price for admission to the perfect game but also give up two plus nights per week watching your kids, this is a big thumbs up for your courage and self-sacrifice--even though it gets you out of the house and some time to catch up on hourly shifts in Facebook traffic, and perhaps post some glam-shots of your son or daughter. One of the most difficult things about being a soccer parent is realizing that your child is not you and you're not your child--it's hard behaving ourselves sometimes, especially when the coach isn't playing your kid, or the ref is acting like a time-bomb, or the coach on the opposite team has something in for your child (happened to me once--in U5, of all things!). 

Hence, to celebrate the opening of soccer season, and as a refresher, here are some rules of engagement for soccer moms and dads everywhere:

1. Be positive: It's not the World Cup or the Euro Cup, or the English Premier League Championship--it's your kid's soccer. They're going to feel as good about their performance as they believe you do. Be good and positive. If you're in a grouchy mood from work, kick a ball around a bit on the sidelines, or do some chin-ups at the cross-bar of one of the empty goals. Positive support of the coaches and refs is important also: if you call the coach a doofus, what do you think your child will call him or her?

2. Children play for their enjoyment not yours: Guess what--your kid's soccer isn't about you. They're not showing up to give you a show and make you feel like you're nurturing the next Lionel Messi--you're most-likely not. Let your child have fun, regardless of how that effects performance on the field.

3. Encourage rule-keeping: One of the big take-aways of sports is learning to play by rules in a group.  Your child will have to have this skill growing up--even if part of that skill is knowing which rules to break at which time. Boundaries are important. Even if you want your son to be the next Donald Trump or your daughter to be the next Marissa Mayer, it's important that they learn to play by the rules--at least when they're 9 years old. 

4. Be present: The number of parents I see at games with their heads down staring at their mobile devices while their child is kicking butt on the field is astounding--not to mention looks absolutely ridiculous. It's a beautiful evening, you're there with your child--it's a good time to be present for him and her and put your phone away. 

5. Don't play movie trailers: Yup--I was on the sidelines just this evening when a couple of soccer moms stuck up the movie trailer for some romance comedy as loud as they probably played AC/DC out their Camero window in high school. First time I had experienced that--crazy. For the love of all that's good and decent in the world, keep YouTube off--or at least share headphones.

6. Applaud all good plays: I know, it's hard: the opposing team's secret weapon just ripped-curled a brilliant strike past your son in the top corner of the net. You have to admit it was an extraordinary play. Applaud your son's effort and the child who scored Beckham style: it'll make your kid feel better about letting it in, and you'll keep the game in better perspective. 

7. Reward effort, not skill: It's typical of parents to tell their kids how brilliant or gifted or skilled they are; but guess what? It messes them up, leaving them to think that if they screw up once or twice they're no longer smart or skilled, so they try less and less. The best thing to do is tell your child how hard he/she worked, how much effort you saw them put in, and how the more they try and work hard, the better they'll get. That's how winners think.

8. Don't be a car coach: It's easy to slip into coach mode on the way home from the game, telling your child what he/she should've done, how they could've improved their scoring chances, how they're played too far back in goal, and so on--but it's not good for your child's esteem, and it puts you in the position of judge and critic rather than supporter. It's best to, again, to reward the effort, the hard work; to reflect on those plays in which he/she really played hard. All that other stuff will just sound critical, and possibly demoralize your child. 

9. Leave coaching to the coach: "Run to the net!" "Get in position!" "Take it up!" "Shoot it!" "Support! Support" "Pass pass pass!" What's a child to do with all that shouting from the sideline? The coach yells "Pass!", you yell "Shoot!" and the child thinks "Get me outta here!" I've done it; I've seen others do it; and it's just not great. Even if you think the coach is a bit too passive, it's best just to  let him/her coach your child. They often have a much better attitude about it than you do, and are there to provide a context for your child to have fun. Tell your when he/she has had a nice play, but leave it at that. 

10. Rise to a higher level: Sport is important for building the body, heart, and mind--it's why humans have had some kind of competition for millennia. As you're taking your child to soccer, share with them the importance of being a good sport, of playing competitively but with dignity, of having honour and a strong sense of solidarity and camaraderie--these are the higher ideals of sport; those universals that transcend scoreboards and media attention. Teach them the importance of failure in overcoming boundaries; of effort in the face of adversity; of greater victory that comes even with defeat. As you raise your children to that higher level of ethics, of those universals that transcend a particular game, soccer and those evenings on the field will take on a completely different resonance: for it won't be about you, it won't be about Wednesday evening at 6:30--it'll be about authentically being human, and sharing that humanity with your child. How much better can it get than that.

8 Easy Things To Do When You Just Need Some Sleep

We all need a good night's sleep. How often do you hit the sack totally exhausted, at whit's end--especially if your a parent of young children--only to find you feel much better the following morning? This all sounds axiomatic, but sleep is becoming harder to come by these days. In a study by Statistics Canada, the longer hours you work, the less you sleep. As well, if you are a parent, you sleep less than those without children. If you are married or live with a partner, you sleep less than those who live alone. If you feel rushed at least several times a week, you tend to sleep less. All these factors lead to less sleep. As well, more people are using electronics in bed, which are also contributing to disturbed sleep patterns, and thus less sleep. 

So what can we do to get ourselves calmed down and ready for bed? What are some good  soporifics (sleep inducers) that can help us? 

1. Technology: This is a big one. We are so accustomed to using technology that we don't realize its effects on sleep patterns through radiation and other means. Turn off your wifi before bed--or just leave it off when you aren't using the internet. Also, keep cell and cordless phones away from your body, unless they are completely powered off. Don't use your tablets and phones in bed. Avoid any bluetooth technology as well in and around your bed or body. Shut down all bluetooth on your devices if you are leaving them on. 

2. Electrical devices: Keep all electrical devices away from your sleeping area, including TVs, refrigerators, WIFI modems, stoves, stereos, phones, etc. 

3. Hot water and honey: The elixir from bees is an amazing soporific. Dilute a tablespoon in some hot water and drink before bed. Apparently the glucose in the honey will signal to the brain to turn off the neurotransmitters linked to alertness.

4. Warm milk: A classic--for those who aren't lactose intolerant, or who are but don't mind. 

5. Half banana, handful of almonds: combination of tryptophan, carbs, and magnesium might do the trick. Substitute cherries for bananas, which will release melatonin.

6. Complex carbs: It's probably why many people like to snack on potato chips before bed or a bowl of cereal. The body produces serotonin as it breaks them down.

7. Deep breathing: Sometimes our brains are so fried from work that we can't settle it down. Deep breathing can relax the mind and body. 

8. Reading: This is a favourite of mine, but the choice of book is critical: nothing scary--it'll give you nightmares; something lengthy, and convoluted; a book that is interesting enough to keep you reading, but long-winded enough to put you to sleep, such as a biography or a history of some major battle. 

5 Things To Do When You Feel Like A Complete Loser And Nothing's Going Right

So you're bored tired and sick. Nothing's working for you. You feel like a wreck and can't get a clear idea through your head. You've got deadlines and projects lining your cubicle, but can't get your head into it. If you were a baseball player, you'd have struck out every time at bat; if you were an engineer, your bridge would've collapsed; if you were a painter, you'd try to peddle a blank canvas off as just darn good post-modern art; if you were a salesperson, you'd be offering people money to buy your product; if you were a cartoon character, you'd be E-Ore; if you were in a movie, it would be Dumb and Dumber. Woody Allen put it best: I never want to be part of a group that considers me a member. Well this is you. What are you going to do about it?

1. Sit back: Ok...you've got stuff piling up everywhere, you have demands on you from deadlines to picking up the kids to walking the dog--and you can't see your way through it. It's ok. Sit back, relax. Life isn't about that deadline or all those responsibilities seemingly hanging over your head--it's really just perspective. 

2. Breathe: When you breathe, you bring oxygen to your brain. When you're stressed out, cortisol rushes from your kidneys to your brain causing temporary brain impairment--yes, you actually become dumber! Breathing is going to get oxygen back into your brain, and will help calm the nerves. Now don't breathe yourself into hyper ventilation--just breathe.

3. Look inside: You're all stuffed up in your head--you've got issues pressing down on you from all sides, and your brain is rushing through databases of worries at a terabyte per nanosecond. Get out of your head, and look inside--into your heart. What's going on? How's it beating? What does it want? Does it want the same as your head? Chances are, it doesn't. It's hard to get your heart and your head together--they're often on entirely different wave lengths. Our head is all about our egos, which makes screwing up difficult--we all do everything we can to preserve that fragile little image we manufacture every waking moment of our life. The heart often wants something else: community, to be loved, to love others, to live for purpose and meaning, to be in the moment. When you look inside your heart, you see things that you couldn't when you were all in your head.

4. Be grateful: There's so much research coming out about the importance of gratitude. Even while you're sitting in that pallid cubicle at work, or reading this on your iPhone in a packed out subway train, you have so many things to be grateful for. Look at those things--inside. Now count them. How many can you count? 3, 5, 35, 100? Can you keep going? Breath, life, health, a job, family, an amazing partner or spouse, sunlight--on and on you can go. Continue looking in; continue being grateful. 

5. Put it back in perspective: You've sat back, breathed, looked inside, and noted what you're grateful for. Now you're ready to put it all back in perspective. Does that project you're in really seem that important to lose your health over? Do your responsibilities from picking up kids to cooking to walking the dog open to you opportunities to build your relationships with those you love most? Have you found a quiet moment of solitude that has opened you to a different way of experiencing life? Continue breathing; continue looking in your heart; continue being grateful... 

See--things aren't that bad. In fact, they're probably pretty good. They probably could be a whole lot worse--something definitely to be thankful for. Now return to your work, your obligations, your to-do list; but do so with that grateful heart.