Brendan gets more good ideas before lunch than I do all year. In kindergarten, he asked me, “Dad, how do we know we’re not really just a bunch of puppets, and somebody else is pulling our strings?” His biggest concern lately is trying to decide between Harvard and MIT.

You go, boy. Make Daddy proud. (Dean Kamen, watch out.)

You would not believe how much opportunity is out there for those who do things and tell people. Its how you travel the entrepreneurial landscape. You do something interesting and you tell everyone about it. Then you get contacts, business cards, email addresses. Then you get contracts, job offers, investors, whatever. You make friends who think what you do is cool. You make a name for yourself as “the person who did that cool thing.” Then, the next time someone wants to do something in any way related to that cool thing, they come to you first.

via Carl Lange – Game Developer

Every day we wake up a new person. We can forget that and too easily reattach to our past:  “I’m too old. I’m too ugly. I didn’t get the right education. I don’t live in the right city. I don’t have the right contacts. I don’t have any skills. I don’t know how to even get started.” And so on. We give ourselves excuses so we can continue our life of depressive misery…

But anything can change at any time.

So… what’s your excuse?

via I Get No Respect – Altucher Confidential

Yes, gluten is a real problem.  But the problem is not just gluten.  In fact, there are three major hidden reasons that wheat products, not just gluten (along with sugar in all its forms) is the major contributor to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, depression and so many other modern ills.

via Three Hidden Ways Wheat Makes You Fat

Michael Hyatt currently has more than 110,000 followers on Twitter. He says he adds, on average, 73 new followers per day and gets re-tweeted 260 times per day, for a daily reach of 418,908. 

Twitter is one of key tools in my platform toolbox. It represents about 21 percent of my blog referral traffic. In terms of the return, I don’t know of a better investment.

Here’s how he does it:

How to Become a Twitter Ninja in Less Than 30 Minutes a Day

…mobile device users are addicted to their devices. Nokia reported at MindTrek 2010 that the average person looks at their phone 150 times a day, or once every six-and-a-half minutes of every waking hour.

via: textually.org: The average person looks at their phone 150 times a day

While most of us are “addicted” to our mobiles, apparently some have it so bad that they’re receiving treatment. Two children (ages 12 an 13) were admitted to a mental health clinic to cure what’s been labeled as cellphone addiction.

via: Cellphone Addiction Treated at Mental Health Clinic

…a house that Simon Dale built for his family in Wales. It was built by him and his father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting they were moved in and cosy. He estimate 1000-1500 man hours and $5000 put in to this point.

He also said this about tools he used: “Main tools used: chainsaw, hammer and 1 inch chisel, little else really. Oh and by the way I am not a builder or carpenter, my experience is only having a go at one similar house 2yrs before and a bit of mucking around inbetween. This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverence and a mate or two to give a lift now and again.

I am inspired.

via Build a house for less than $5000 | Cira Car.

It’s a best seller! Everyone’s recommending it! How could all those people be wrong?

What’s wrong with me?

I think I found my answer. Finch nails it with his closing line: “Common sense looks like genius when it’s viewed from a cesspit of stupidity.”

This book, shockingly ranked #1 on Amazon for Personal Finance, might as well have been called Rich Dad Poor Dad Hopelessly Deluded Author. It’s so far detached from real-life wealth generation, that you should probably confine all future Robert Kiyosaki works to the Fiction section. He clearly specialises in talking out of his arse.

via Rich Dad Poor Dad Review « Motivation For Entrepreneurs « Finch Blogs – Secret Diary of an Internet Marketer.

More:

• John T. Reed’s analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad
• Is Robert Kiyosaki full of shit?

I may as well tell you that once youve chosen a specific goal, and begin to legitimately work towards it, you may then find a different path suits you better; but that kind of insight is only possible after activity, after doing. Less thinking, more doing.

via The Last Psychiatrist: “My fiancee is pushing me away and Ive lost hope”.

Looking at the data from more than 1/2 million users, they came to the following conclusions:

…the mind of the white man is the world’s greatest sausagefest. If I had to choose over-arching themes for white people’s lists, for men, I’d go with “frat house”…

Ok, but where the white women at?

As for the interests of white women, you have romance novels, some country music, and a broad selection of Good Housekeeping type stuff.

Fascinating. What else does OkCupid reveal?…

• Latin men like to talk about their sense of humor (I’m a funny guy, very funny, outgoing and funny, etc.) and have an interest in industrial strength ass-kicking (mma, ufc, boxing, marines, etc.)

• Both Asian men and women have a tendency to choose “I’m simple” as their go-to self-description.

• While soul food is important to both black men and women, it’s really, really important to the women.

• Jesus’s most vocal followers are black, and are more than twice as likely than average to mention their faith in their profiles.

• The second most typical phrase for black men is “I am cool.”

As an aside… In a previous life, I ran a marketing promotion in Florida where we’d take a giant ice cream truck to big events and give out free samples of Breyer’s ice cream to the public (back when Breyer’s didn’t suck). What I remember most about the experience is that black people in Florida:

1. Hate chocolate ice cream

2. Enjoy vanilla

3. Love butter pecan

…while the white folk preferred chocolate and vanilla evenly, but wouldn’t touch the butter pecan.

Draw your own conclusions.

via The REAL ‘Stuff White People Like’ « OkTrends.

Blink. It’s over.

So here’s the big question:

How should you spend the remaining time you have left, your most precious asset?

Being good at something is not sufficient reason to do it for the rest of your life. But loving it is. Work on the things that make you stare out car windows or not even hear someone say your name repeatedly. The things that make you forget what time it is. Be certain that what you do for hobbies and vacations are not the gasps of a suffocating man but your common breath. Learn how to love many things, simple things, and it’s even easier to do them all the time.

via Be a good person; Do what you love | RyanHoliday.net.