(this post is the worksheet side of my notes in the previous post from an online "Success" seminar by Ramit Sethi)
The executive summary:
Dimension 1: Subject: Child and machine interaction in natural language with context and learning.
Dimension 2: Stories: Being human and sharing struggles.
Dimension 3: Strategy: Improve life by helping in the discovery of unknown information, and areas where you don't know that you don't know.
Dimension 4: Sellable products: Smart-phone applications, server applications, desktop applications, consulting, support, subscriptions.
Dimension 5: The sales process: Hire a service company provide the site infrastructure and shopping cart; put the content in myself and setup the automatic stuff myself via a service provider.
Dimension 6: A social presence online: YES.
Dimension 7: Self Confidence: There is no greater joy in life than empowering and helping other people be more than they could have otherwise been.
Dimension 8: Self Discipline: I think about it and work on it every day.
Dimension 9: Service mindset: If people weren't excited about what it's doing for them, I wouldn't consider it a success.
The worksheet:
Dimension 1: Subject - this is the topic/skill/product.
What is it that I love to learn about?
1) Algorithms - sequences of instructions on a computer that accomplish something.
2) Methods to discover and define common vocabulary in interactive communication (i.e. how to understand people from wildly diverse backgrounds and life experiences).
3) Truth - things that are obvious once you know them, true thousands of years ago, and not going to be found false in the future.
4) Hard problems - great puzzles of nature, physics, psychology, math, etc. that no one has figure out yet.
5) Ontology - How to define a language without referring to something that's not defined.
What do you love to preach about?
1) Paths - Consistent actions/activities that will inevitably lead to specific circumstances. Both good and bad, desired and undesired. One of the greatest problems in the world today is the lack of self-knowledge individuals have about which path s/he is currently on in each area of life.
2) Simplicity and effectiveness - Often times a simple solution outperforms a complex one.
3) Methods - The process used to solve a problem has a huge influence on the potential outcomes. A) Why use only one? and B) Which ones produce the best results for a particular problem type? and C) How do you figure out what type of problem you're looking at?
4) Freedom - Big money and happiness are not the same; there is a price (not necessarily in money) for everything. It's important to figure out the whole price.
5) Presence - Being present at a specific time and place changes the environment there because of who you are (i.e. your character). A high crime area becomes a low crime area as soon as enough residents say "I'd rather die than see my neighbor get hurt, and I'm paying attention." Children grow up with good conscience and good character when a parent refuses to do the wrong thing even when no one is watching and/or there's no possibility of being caught.
What could you do and be happy about even if there was no money in it?
1) Help people live better lives.
2) Protect the innocent.
3) Teach children.
4) Demonstrate honesty, consistency, persistence, hard work, and joy in my circle.
5) Explore the world of knowledge and knowledge representation, looking for unrelated connections and fundamental discoveries.
6) Create tools to solve the infamous "Expression Problem" - i.e. "How you represent something has a huge influence on on the types of modifications to that something that are easy and that are (in some cases) extremely hard."
There is a good bit of overlap here, in spirit more than words.
What area could I OWN online in the next 12 months?
That's a great question; the major successes in my life have take years of hard work, but that was in the old world, where there was very little change for decades. We're in the new world now, where six months is an eternity of chaos in the market place. In this environment I will concentrate on the known (not changing any time soon) trends, human nature (hasn't changed in a couple thousand years), and increased availability of technology (particularly handheld) to billions more people. No need to concentrate on a specific brand (i.e. Android/iPhone - they'll be Spicket/iBuzz overnight); no, concentrate on technique and function/independent of physical implementation, easily convertible between physical implementation.
What area could I concentrate on for the next five years with all my available time and energy?
If I could make it possible for a child to interact with a computer (device) in a natural language where the device would know the history of all previous interactions and be able to guide the child to 1) the actual question or reason for the interaction and 2) a reasonable result giving the child good information, that would be an amazing accomplishment that would (potentially) change the world for the good. Especially in light of the fact that millions of adults will be coming into the digital age with only a child's education at best.
Dimension 2: Stories - this is what you say/tell/do that connects your expertise/skill/product with people.
Which of each story type best fits your personality/experience/skills?
Story 2-2 fits me live a glove. I was born brilliant in certain few areas and challenged in most others. On the brighter side, I couldn't figure out why so many people were so stupid and took so long to understand simple things. On the dark side, I spent so many years struggling to try and figure out why I couldn't even approach the below-average area of existence. It was like being broke and having nothing to offer that anyone wanted. It took decades to figure out how my initial (very inadequate) start led to feeling insecure, which led to self sabotage self dialog which led to even worse ability to learn enough to start climbing out of the inadequacies.
How do I connect with people?
I connect through (brutally honest) example. I can relate to someone who's frustrated that they know they're smart but simply can't figure something out, and can't figure out how to even make progress in a positive way. I am learning to communicate the message effectively.
Dimension 3: Strategy
Which strategy best fits your situation?
The strategy that best fits me is the "improves life" or "improves personal growth" area. I want the product to be an interactive process of learning and discovery; directed by the child into areas of his/her interest, but augmented by a higher understanding of advanced knowledge, enabling learning by both the child and the product.
Dimension 4: Sellable products
What are your sellable products?
I start with (internal) server based interaction via subscription and expand to selling external server based platforms to organizations who want to control and manipulate proprietary data, then expand to smart phone and desktop applications, automated support, expert analysis, and training.
Dimension 5: The sales process
I have an online web site that does all of the following:
1) Adds value; online community contributed content and feedback.
2) Captures leads, follow up - the site automatically promotes like products to people likely to be interested.
3) Makes money - the site encourages recurring revenue via subscriptions, reminders, promotions, sales.
4) Is Automated, The site requires very little of my time.
I have a site system and structure in place to collect payments, auto-respond, sequence of interaction.
Dimension 6: A social presence online
I have a presence and a following on all the major social media web sites:
1) Facebook
2) Blogging
3) Twitter
4) LinkedIn
I integrate social media tools into full automated online marketing campaigns, create bigger dialogs, etc.
My site uses the Facebook comments plug-in.
Dimension 7: Self Confidence.
I am confident and believe from the bottom of my heart that this product makes a huge difference in peoples lives.
I can see the company going global and being able to help people from many cultures and many languages.
It's huge to open someone's eyes to knowledge that they didn't even know existed.
Dimension 8: Self Discipline
I work on the product every day.
Dimension 9: Service mindset
An amazing number of people are propelled into greater greatness by this product.
I use the product to make it better.
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