Daily Ramblings – Thinking Thursday

Tags

Amazon, Case Western University, Coursera, Curious.com, Groupthink, Hillsdale College, Netflix, Patton

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” – George S. Patton

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/george_s_patton_130444?src=t_thinking

I enjoy reading broadly and trying new things. Recently I ran across a website called www.curious.com. It is a site that provides stimulating ways to exercise your brain with puzzles, interesting articles, a word of the day, a poem of the day, and a whole lot of other activities. I am not an affiliate but highly recommend it if you are ok with the $40/year or $10/month subscription. I was because I like a diversity of things to do and look at each day.

Patton was a stickler for out-of-the-box thinking and pushing his subordinates to come up with their own solutions. He was well-known for pushing the envelope with his commanders during all his exploits in WWII. Patton is referring to a term we now call “groupthink”. Groupthink occurs when a group of people all think alike without refuting one another or challenging each other’s ideas. You typically find this type of thinking in organizations where politics reign and people are stifled or ostracized for coming up with ideas that are not in alignment with a leader’s or organization’s thinking. Some of the results of groupthink have been devastating.

We can do this with ourselves as well. We stifle our own ideas before we entertain them. When you brainstorm individually give every idea an equal weight during the session. You will evaluate each idea later. Use every resource you have at hand when you are seeking a solution. If you keep an open mind, you’ll be amazed at the ideas that come in. Some of them will be exactly what you need to solve your problem.

Here’s my progress on key reading, learning, and entertainment activities for this week:

Books:

Ethics, Aristotle

The Shariyat Ki Sugmad, Paul Twitchell

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe

Classes:

Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential, Coursera – I just finished this one. This is sort of a continuation of the Learning how to learn course I finished a bit ago and it was terrific. Learning how to learn and Mindshift are both worth your while if you are interested in taking them. They can both be found on www.Coursera.com.

Western Heritage, Hillsdale College

Mini-Habits Course, Udemy

Designing Your Own Weight Loss Plan – Case Western University – Coursera – Just finished week 1—pretty good so far.

Documentaries:

Movies:

Fun:

The West Wing (Currently on Netflix)

I’ve been playing a video game with my Army buddy called StarCraft II. It is great fun.

Ozark – Netflix (in the cue)

Jack Ryan – Amazon Prime (in the cue)

U.S. Open Tennis (when I have time to catch a good set here and there).

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thinking Thursday

Tags

Books, Coursera, Courses, Hillsdale College, Movies, Netflix, Reading, Udemy, Weightlifting, Writing

I don’t know about you folks, but weightlifting is therapeutic for me. It relaxes me, helps me build on my focus, and I just feel so accomplished when I walk out of the gym. Currently, I am doing a full body workout. Here’s what it looks like:

Exercises are all 3 sets of 10. Since I am working out every day I am not working to failure, simply burning off energy and stimulating the muscles. It’s working quite well. I’ll provide you with weigh-in results on Monday.

• Leg Press
• Standing Leg Curl
• Leverage ISO Row
• Seated Back Extension
• Leverage High Row
• Machine Bench Press
• Machine Shoulder Press
• Leverage Shrug
• Dip Machine
• Machine Preacher Curls
• Calf Press on the Leg Press Machine
• Ab Crunch Machine
• Elliptical Trainer (25 minutes)

I also got a good start on my book. I’m currently working through content ideas using an online app called Asana. It works well. I’m going to keep plugging away on the content headings, ideas of what I want to talk about and continue organizing. The goal is to get this skeletal outline completed by the end of the month. In August, I begin the actual writing.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Books:

The Shariyat Ki Sugmad, Paul Twitchell

The Orion Plague, David Vandyke – Finished. This is a book in a series. If you are interested, check out David’s books on Amazon. He’s terrific!

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe

The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace D. Wattles – Just finished this one. It is old but has some interesting points in it.

The Spiritual Exercises of ECK, Harold Klemp

In My Time, Dick Cheney – Enjoyed this book. I like memoirs and things, particularly when I served under this guy as the Secretary of Defense and the Vice President.

Kobo: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War, Herbert Strang

The Dual Between France and Germany, Charles Sumner

Classes:

Public Policy, Hillsdale College

Learning how to Learn, Coursera

Mini-Habits Course, Udemy (putting this one on hold until August)

Documentaries:

The Staircase, (Netflix Currently) – Just finished this one. This is worth a watch if you like a courtroom drama.

Movies:

None are on my hit list this week.

Fun:

Hell on Wheels (Currently on Netflix) – Finished. This is one heck of a ride. If you like a lot of plot twists and enjoy a good Western, I highly recommend.

The Hollow (Currently on Netflix)

The West Wing (Currently on Netflix)

Workout Routines and Other Weightlifting Knowledge:

https://www.bodybuilding.com/

For access to every supplement on the market, access to the top trainers in the world, and gain access to their training routines, this is the one-stop, shop for anything related to fitness. This one will cost you if you want access to the trainers and their workout routines. It runs me about $8.99 per month.

Well, that’s it for this week folks! I hope some of this information has been helpful to you.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thinking Thursday

Tags

Books, Coursera, Hillsdale College, Movies, Netflix, Online Classes, Podcasts, Udemy, Weight Loss, Weightlifting

Hello, all! Welcome to another Thinking Thursday, where I’ll give you an idea of what I’ve learned this week, what I’m watching and reading.

This week has been tough. I’m in week 8 of Kris Gethin’s Hardcore Trainer and have literally lost between 1 and 2 pounds daily since Monday, considering the very restricted carbohydrate intake. Today, I’m only allowed a little over 70 grams. Not much. This is the equivalent of about 10 rice cakes. I’ve started the workout routine at 245 pounds and now weigh 229 lbs, with 3 more days to go.

My body thrives in a very, low carb intake type of diet, so I’m all in. This is the last week, then I’ll take a slight breather, raising my carbs up about 50 grams per day and reducing my cardio sessions from 55 minutes twice a day to 45 minutes twice a day.

I’m heading to my sisters this upcoming weekend to go to a comedy show. I’ll have access to one of the gyms I’m a member of while there, but don’t want to be in the gym the entire time I’m at my sister’s house (that’s no fun for her). Anyway, I’ll be lifting daily and hitting my cardio, but taking it a little easy, as I’ve decided to hit this hardcore trainer for another 8 weeks starting on July 3, 2018, when I’m back home. That’s about it on the weightlifting front.

Books I’m reading:

• The same as last week.

Movies I’ve seen:

• Solo (not a bad movie if you’re a Star Wars fan). They really did a great job with this one. I’m not going to drop any spoilers here because it is still in the movie theater and you may not have had time to see it yet.

Netflix:

• Still watching Hell on Wheels, The West, and The Hollow

Classes:

• Public Policy Course
• Learning How to Learn (week 3) I finished the Nonfiction Book writing course on Udemy and will be using the process this instructor used to write his book. I wanted to watch this to get some better ideas on how to start and put together the framework of the book, before getting too far into the writing. I’ve already knocked down quite a lot of content this year but wanted to really get a better handle at formulating the book into an order that would be readable. Subsequently, I’ll be kicking off this book project next month.
• Mini Habits Course is in the hopper. I’ll update here when I begin doing this one.

Podcasts:

• The Tim Ferris Show
• The Knowledge and Mileage Podcast

I wanted to add this to my weekly list because I’m a big fan of Tim Ferris and Kris Gethin, who is currently one of the weightlifting trainers I follow on Bodybuilding.com.

Well, this is it for my week thus far. I’m headed to the gym to knock out Lower Back, Upper Abs, and Hamstrings today. Today is Day 53 of the Hardcore Trainer and I’m stoked!!

Until next time…

Dave