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Written by John Rozewicki
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Sunday, 14 May 2006 |
Once again, for those that don't know, the Sunday Book Review is a column I started to not only pump money into my site (hopefully) through Amazon but to direct people to very thoughtful well-written books. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values is exactly that.
A Slightly Misleading, But Accurate, Title
The title of the book is slightly misleading on many levels. I'm not much into motorcycles and I don't really care too much about discussions of personal values. Thankfully the book is not really about either of those concepts. Motorcycle Maintenance is a very heavy fiction book with some, also very heavy, philosophy attached. The word ‘values’ in the title is meant in the strictest sense of the word. It really is an inquiry into what values and quality are as concepts.
The book is a first person narrative that follows a very subtly mentally disturbed man, his son, and his alter-ego Phaedrus on motorcycle trips. This book is not a light read and the plot points are sparse and may at times feel unrewarding. This book is a puzzle. The rewarding parts come when you actually start deciphering the meanings of the long strings of babble the author is using to mislead you. This book has many layers. I wouldn't be surprised if readers have picked up the book and then dismissed it as meandering drivel without realizing the multilayered nature of the writing. It's a little like a practical joke you have to be in on to truly appreciate.
Challenging Nuance, Not Just a Sexy Dance
The layering is so nuanced that I believe that even if I'm making this book sound completely unappetizing to you, that you will be able to get something out of it. Please read this book. Oprah will never recommend this book and I'm not sure it has ever been a bestseller because this book is not targeted at a demographic that is the majority. This book is targeted at the segment of the population that is intelligent and curious. You should read this book to support authors who do much more than the bare minimum. You should read this book to support authors who do their part to further the craft of writing and expand peoples' ideas of what fiction can be.
I loved this book so much that I loved it even in the moments I did not understand it. Everyone knows that it takes genius to craft something that everyone can understand, but it also takes a certain level of genius to write certain passages that no one understands. Reading has become a trivial exercise for me. I welcome any book that can make the experience of reading feel new and challenging.
Buy This Book
You can get this book, all the other books I plug, and the sequel to this book Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals at Amazon. It's cheap, it's good, you should read it. You might not like it at first, but you will definitely be smarter for having read it. You'll know more about philosophy and maybe a little more about motorcycle maintenance; which happens from time to time in the book as I imagine it does in real life.
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Written by John Rozewicki
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Wednesday, 10 May 2006 |
The State of University Undergraduates
I've noticed since coming to university that people are very apt to settle. Most of these people don't view their progress in life as a smooth slope upward. They seem to view it more as being tiered. Right now they're on the tier where they're going to university. They won't be off that tier until they've finished. As such they can't move up any higher, and so they settle in. They do only what is expected at the university and feel as if they can worry about their future when it creeps up on them.
Reasons for Complacency
It's not that these people are dumb. Most of them are not. They just lack insight. They don't realize what I said before about progress in life being a smooth slope upward. They don't realize that when they graduate they will be dumped in to the work force with every other schmoe who graduated that year. Many of them will have the exact same transcripts, recommendations, and skills as other people in their major. They don't realize that as it stands for them now there's no reason for an institution to hire them over anyone else.
Branding
This article is a semi-followup to my hilariously unsuccessful article from last week, You Are For Sale; A First Step to Worthwhile Employment. One of the most important parts of selling a product is developing a brand. Kleenex is a concrete example of a brand that has been so successful it is now synonymous with tissues. McDonalds is slightly more abstract branding, but is now synonymous with cheap processed food that is the same in every location worldwide. The book, Fast Food Nation is a great read that describes in detail the branding strategy of the fast food industry. My point is that branding can be as vague or specific as you like.
It is possible for a person to develop their own brand. Donald Trump has invented himself as a brand. No matter how successful(or unsuccessful) he might be people will still gravitate towards him because of the strong branding he has created around himself. He's synonymous with token ruthless business tycoon who speaks his mind and says, "uuuhge!" This is how Donald Trump can have multiple business ventures be complete failures yet still get paid $1 million dollars per speaking gig for The Learning Annex. He's The Don, The Donald, or The Trump or whatever.
Getting the Edge
Branding is what separates someone from someone else. Branding is being able to easily state in one sentence what type of person you are. In another sentence what your skills are. In one more sentence what your goals are. Unfortunately, nothing else about you matters. Doing anything outside of trying to improve the contents of these 3 sentences will go unnoticed upon first impression. The people who are able to make a great impression are the ones who get hired. In the long term it will help to be more nuanced but your employer won't see that if they don't hire you.
Attitudes
Personal Branding is an attitude in the way that other concepts I've created such as Personal Entrepreneurship and Professional Smart Person are. People who are self-starters tend to have these qualities. They also tend to have more success than other people because they advertise and put themselves out there. I feel that working on developing a personal brand is something that puts me ahead of most people in my class. I've only met 4 or 5 other people in my classes who have this same attitude. I don't think that it's an accident that they're usually the most skilled people in the room.
For those of you in the work force, what specific things did you do to make yourself more attractive to employers while you were still in college or at university?
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Written by John Rozewicki
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Wednesday, 03 May 2006 |
At a personal level we're all unique snowflakes. Unfortunately, to employers, we're all just resumés; just numbers. We are our years spent in the industry, university GPA, and often our typographical errors. It is a tough and cruel world, and the only variable you can control is yourself. Short of lying on your resumé, the only way to make yourself more than a number to employers is to realize that you are a product for sale.
A Numbers Game
In the past it took a decent amount of work to find people that were hireable. There were only so many candidates to choose from. With the advent of sites like Monster.com, it is now trivial to find people looking for employment. Job applicants must now compete with many times more people than they did before; making the competition as fierce as ever.
More people applying means it takes more time and work for human resources personnel to evaluate resumés and job applicants. The less resumés they have on their desk the less work they have. They are literally looking for any reason to throw out your resumé.
Your Resumé is Not Who You Are as a Person
If you can get past the obvious caveats of submitting your resumé in the proper format and free of typographical errors there is one thing you can do. The trick is to be a compelling person. Everyone's resumé is boring no matter the length or the quality of the accomplishments. The people who are ultimately hired for jobs are the people who interview well.
If you can get an interview you can get a job. A company would not waste time interviewing you if you did not meet the minimum qualifications. They've already done their job. It is up to you to prove yourself to be a worthwhile person during the interview. They've already seen your resumé. Now they want to see what you're like as a person.
Advertising and Selling Yourself
Bask in the fact that you are just a number. Let it wash over you, and then do all you can to advertise the hell out of yourself. Advertising works for products. It will work for people too. You can take control of a situation that many people don't feel they're in control of by doing these things:
Have a good product. There will be backlash if a product does not meet expactations. Keep this in mind when deciding exactly how best to advertise yourself. Don't sell yourself as something you're not. Make yourself look better through advertising; not different.
Be well-dressed and well-groomed. Products with better design and more attractive packaging sell better. Apple puts research and development money in to their product packaging because they know it helps sell hardware. You can do the same with yourself.
Do not be shy. You will not ever see product packaging that doesn't disclose the strengths and even perceived strengths of what it is you're buying right out in the open. Do this as a person. Be up front about your strengths. Don't be afraid to spin relatively ordinary things in to an extraordinary light. It's all advertising.
Products with more features sell better even if the added features are not critical. Consumer automobiles with more horsepower are more attractive, but beyond a certain number horsepower ceases to become important as you'll never be able to fully realize that potential in everyday driving situations. This doesn't matter.
The car with more horsepower still looks better than the one with less horsepower even though the outcome is the same. Having useable skills unrelated to the job you are applying for will make you a better candidate. It means you'll be more robust as an employee. Their investment will have less of a chance of being wasted. Additionally, they'll want to invest more money in to you; i.e. pay you more.
The Overall Concept
These are really ways in which a person can take control of the interview process and use it to benefit themselves. Doing this will probably land you a better job than was possible before and even a better starting salary than you were expecting. These are not merely jobs you're applying for. They are stepping stones to greater things. Treat them and go after them as if you really want them.
These ways listed here are just a few of the main beats. I'm sure there are more comparisons to be made between advertising products and advertising yourself in an interview. Please write your own in the comments below. I am curious to see interesting ways in which people might do this and how far this idea can be taken.
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Written by John Rozewicki
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Sunday, 30 April 2006 |
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The Sunday Book Review is a column I decided to start to recommend books that are of interest to smart people. As this site is about the process of becoming a professional smart person, they will be books I feel are helpful for people on this path. The first book in this series is Do It! Let's Get Off Our Buts: A Guide to Living Your Dreams.
First I must say that this book has an absolutely horrible title. So much so that I didn't even use it in the title for this article because I thought it would turn people away. I would have never even picked this book up if it weren't for it being recommended to me, but I'm glad I did. It's a book that can be helpful for pretty much anyone because of the style it is written in.
You won't find any long-winded explanations in Do It!. Even at 496 pages it is an ultra fast read. The book is comprised of short sections that illustrate ideas and methods that might be helpful for becoming a self-starter. I would be surprised if someone could read the book without gaining something from it. It is written on the premise that not every method will work for every person. What will give some people a kick in the ass might only drive another to fall asleep. The idea is that you read the whole thing(it will take less than a day or so, I promise), take what you like, leave the rest, and then move on with your life.
It's a great book to keep around to flip through for ideas on how to improve personal productivity. Reading this book will help you ask the right questions about why you're not doing what you want to do. It's not so much a book about how to start things as it is a book about how to continue. It is a book about breaking down mental barriers to doing things. The want is already there otherwise you wouldn't be reading the book. You're already revving your engine, but this book will help you take your foot off the brake.
The companion book, Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned About Life in School--But Didn't focuses more on personal emotional growth and is also very good. Probably the best part about the books in this series is that they're essentially free(or literally, even). Not only do the used copies on Amazon only cost a penny, but the author has put the text of the books on his website for anyone to read at no charge. There's really no excuse not to give these books a try. If you don't like it you will not have wasted much time, and you'll certainly not have wasted any money.
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Written by John Rozewicki
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Thursday, 27 April 2006 |
I've gotten a few requests that the female residing at the top of each page of this site be removed. I hear it makes the site look unprofessional, but I couldn't disagree more. Just like with most of my early content, it deserves explanation to fully understand.
The URL?
I crafted the domain and title of this site to answer the two most common complaints people have about someone like myself; those who write about what it means to be a person who is smart, talented, interesting, exceptional, etc. You get the idea. I had a feeling that some people might not respond well to my writing, and that their responses would be very predictable. I chose notarrogant.com because it would make anyone coming to the site to accuse me of being arrogant feel very silly. What can you really expect from a site with the url notarrogant.com?
The Title?
The title Supreme Narcissism answers the other criticism; that I'm a narcissist who writes nonstop about why they're such a great person and how successful they should be. I felt that instead of pulling back and trying to avoid it that I should instead, embrace it, and make it a part of my branding. It stems from something Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Pinsky used to say quite a bit on the radio show, Loveline. When they would get in to a discussion about types of people, the following phrases would be used at some point:
"They/You must have some sort of supreme narcissism to..."
"They/You must be some sort of supreme narcissist to believe..."
It was a pairing of words that really stuck in my head. I loved the way it flowed together; especially when the 'u' in supreme is pronounced like the 'u' in super.
The Blonde?
This how the blonde lady adorning the top of the site fits. She's a symbol of narcissism. I admit that it's a stereotype, but it just so happens that stereotypes are very useful when developing the look and feel of a brand. Young blonde women are a symbol of vapid self-centeredness in American culture. She's putting herself on display similarly to how I put my thoughts and ideas on display with every post I write. She's confident and knows she's beautiful the way I know that I have some worthwhile ideas.
The Trifecta
None of the elements of this site were thrown together haphazardly(except maybe the early content). Each of the pieces I've described here were carefully chosen with a specific purpose in mind. The inital tagline to this site was, "A personal fan-site." It's a pseudo-parody of someone who is ultra confident to the point of arrogancy, except deservedly so. Notarrogant.com answers the first criticism that runs through most peoples' heads upon first reading. Supreme Narcissism works together with the blonde to provide an air of confidence. I like all these elements. Even if the direction of this site has changed and I've become a bit more humble since the beginning, I still find the initial elements this site was built upon to be a strong foundation.
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Written by John Rozewicki
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Tuesday, 25 April 2006 |
Discovering and Chasing Your Dreams
There's a lot of discussion about discovering yourself and finding a path for your life in our society. It's especially prevalent in people around my age. We're told that you should try new things all the time so that you may better understand what you want to do with the rest of your life.
What if we already know what we want to do before we ever start thinking about a career? What if the experimentation serves only to confuse us and make us doubt? While I'm sure there are many people who legitimately don't know what they want to do, I have found that many more people already knew.
Guitars and Self-Esteem
We're told constantly to broaden our horizons and try new things. When I was 15 I decided I wanted to play the guitar. I had some money burning a hole in my pocket, and one of my friends was really into playing. I thought about it for a while and constructed elaborate fantasies where I would become a musician. By extension I would gain fame, fortune, happiness, women, etc.
So I bought my guitar. It was a used Crate in good condition, not too expensive, with an unfortunate Playboy bunny sticker adorning the front (a gift from the previous owner). I took it home, put some new strings on it, pulled out a pick and discovered that playing was damn hard.
The Mistake/``I hate practicing"
My fantasies hadn't involved practicing at all. I never thought I would be bad at it. I just wanted to be able to play. I wanted to have the skill. After making this mistake of buying a guitar I would never play, I sat down and thought about why I really wanted a guitar. I should have thought about it before, but I didn't. I didn't like playing the guitar. It hurt my hands. I got depressed when I found that I wasn't very good. I hated practicing, and I was never very inclined at writing music. I shouldn't have bought the guitar, and now it sits in my closet as a reminder.
The lesson I was taught with this incident was two-fold. First, very simply, the guitar is not for me. Second, more important and elaborate, I must think deeply before I act. I must discover what I actually want to do in a very concrete way and then evaluate whether or not my proposed method will meet the need. Really, at 15, I just wanted to feel better and be considered worthwhile as a person. A guitar I didn't really like playing nor want to play probably wasn't the best option.
You've Probably Already Discovered Your Dream
A few years later I discovered the things I really wanted to do. I wanted to produce films, write, and learn Japanese. I can remember being enthralled with cinema at a very young age while Japanese was discovered a little later. I remember liking writing in high school because I was told I was good at it. The dreams I have now are the same dreams I've always had. They're more concrete, but looking back on them I can see how inevitable it was to be where I am now.
So maybe instead of trying new things randomly, such as the guitar, we should be thinking about how to make the things we already do work for us in our lives. This is, I think, one of the smart things I've done that I don't really see other people doing. It sounds simple, but I still see people in every one of my classes chasing dreams of things that they don't really want.
There are video production students who say they want to direct, but don't actually like editing, shooting, lighting, or even giving people direction. I've met other Japanese majors whose only interests in the language are anime series they watch. I can tell by the way they study that they're not really all that interested in actually using the language. It's unfortunate because they're going to be unhappy. They may both achieve their goal but they will hate every moment of it.
Insight, perspective, and introspection are the 3 virtues that I hold most sacred. Put simply, think before you act, especially if 'act' consists of the rest of your life. You might already be doing the things you really want do. In fact, you probably are. The catch-22 is that if it's something you want to do then there should be little reason why you're not already doing it. Most people tend to do the things they want to do at first opportunity. So stop chasing the things you only think you want to do, and focus on making what you're already doing profitable.
The Difficult Questions
Of course this is only one way of looking at it. This article is only in response to a line of philosophical questions which I've tried to answer. The questions are these:
1. If you say you really like Z then why aren't you already doing it?
2. If you're not doing Z then can you say you like it more than things you're already doing?
3. Will Z definitely bring you closer to your end goal(your dream)?
4. Should you start new things, or focus energy on things you're doing already?
Is there a way to rationalize these statements in a different way?
Update: After looking around I've found that Steve Pavlina's recent article is a fantastic companion to this one. I've also clarified my list of questions by adding another.
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