Why Africa is booming: Further watching and reading on the economic turnaround of the continent

Global Issues TEDTalks Economic growth in Africa is about to climb off the charts, says Charles Robertson at TEDGlobal 2013. Photo: James Duncan Davidson

In today’s talk, economist Charles Robertson turns up the heat on an idea that’s been simmering for several years: that Africa is seeing rapid economic growth. Charles Robertson: Africa's next boomLooking at statistics and at the precedents set by China and India, Robertson brings this idea to a full boil, saying that economists haven’t been nearly optimistic enough in their predictions for the continent. While Africa is currently a $2 trillion economy, by 2050 it will be a $29 trillion economy, he says — bigger than Europe and America combined. It’s a bold talk, full of inspiring graphs all pointing up, up, up.

Africa has, for a long time, conjured up images of famine, disease, poverty and war. But increasingly, entrepreneurship, technological innovation and investment in education are becoming part of the outsider’s mental picture.

Here, a selection of TED Talks fueling that shift:

Euvin Naidoo: Why invest in AfricaEuvin Naidoo: Why invest in Africa. Kicking off TEDGlobal 2007, themed “Africa: The Next Chapter,” South African investment banker Euvin Naidoo takes a data-driven look at the investment opportunities in Africa. The signs he sees that the economy is in a turnaround: decreasing inflation, currencies stabilizing and a growing middle class.

And below, resources where you can read much more about what’s happening in Africa now:

Charles Robertson is the chief economist of Renaissance Capital and a co-author of the 2012 book, The Fastest Billion: The Story Behind Africa’s Economic Revolution. Written by a panel of African economists, this book is great stop for anyone looking to read more about the economic explosion in Africa. Even better, the book’s regularly-updated website, which has detailed reports on African agriculture, the middle class in Nigeria, and how China is influencing Africa through investment.

In which country does Guinness sell more of its flagship beer than any other? The answer, as of two years ago, is no longer Ireland — it’s Nigeria. Check out this article in The Telegraph about how the multinational alcohol brand has seen compound annual growth of 13 percent on the continent since 2007, and how it is rebranding Guinness as a result.

The Economist first began to notice change in Africa in the 2008 article “Booming Africa,” noting that the Sub-Saharan region was bucking the global trend and appeared unaffected by the U.S. economic slowdown. Three years later, in the story “Africa’s Hopeful Economies: The Sun Shines Bright,” the magazine reversed its infamous diagnosis that Africa was the “hopeless continent” with the revelation that 6 of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies were in Africa. Most recently, in March of this year, the magazine ran a package titled “Africa Rising: A Hopeful Continent,” and declared, “African lives have already greatly improved over the past decade. The next ten years will be even better.”

The May/June issue of Foreign Affairs took a more tempered look with the article, “Africa’s Economic Boom: Why the Pessimists and Optimists are Both Right.” Authors Shantayanan Devarajan and Wolfgang Fengle write, “At first glance, these two narratives seem irreconcilable. It turns out, however, that both are right, or at least reflect aspects of a more complex reality, which neither fully captures. The skeptics focus so much on the region’s commodity exports that they fail to grasp the extent to which its recent growth is a result of economic reforms (many of which were necessitated by the misguided policies of the past). The optimists, meanwhile, underestimate the degree to which the region’s remaining problems — such as sclerotic institutions, low levels of education, and substandard health care — reflect government failures that will be very difficult to overcome because they are deeply rooted in political conflict.”

Another indication of growth in Africa—a booming travel industry. This summer, Bloomberg News shared that Starwood, Hilton and Marriott hotel groups were all greatly expanding their presence in Africa. (Marriott, for example, increased the number of hotel rooms it planned by 55 percent over the course of a year.) Meanwhile, Skift.com noted that tourism in Thailand grew from non-existent to employing 15 to 20% of the workforce in just a few decades, and predicted that the same would be true in African countries. “In 50 years, Africa will be talked about with the same fervor that global hotel groups and tourism marketers now use to fawn over Asia,” the article predicts.

In July, Yes! Magazine declared an “African economic renaissance” in an article titled “What the US Can Learn from Africa’s Booming Economy.” The lessons here that the West can take, according to the author? Provide local service for local communities, use technology to level the playing field, and consider creativity a major strength.

In January, Jake Bright of The Daily Beast noted a major shift in how Africa was being discussed in global investment circles in the article “Africa is Rising: Inside the Continent’s Great Economic Leap.” The piece begins: “In corporate boardrooms and global-investment seminars, more CEOs and business leaders are talking about Africa. That much was evident at a recent New York Stock Exchange investor conference, where along with references to Africa as the ‘new Asia’ or ‘home of the next Google’ there were forward outlooks by Wall Street analysts, representatives of the continent’s 29 stock exchanges, and presentations on Africa’s tech industry, now claiming mobile-banking innovations outpacing the United States and Europe.”

Others have also noted that Africa is fast becoming a source for technological growth. Check out the Businessweek slideshow, “Digital Innovation is Booming in Africa,” published in May. It looks at the continent’s mobile phone banking technology, cheap solar paneling for villages, and touchscreen tablets’ increasing presence in schools.

Last month, the International Business Times took a look at the latest in Africa and identified “Seven Drivers That Could Transform Africa into the World’s Economic Powerhouse.” Among them: the prevalence of cities on the continent, increased stability, growing trade, the world’s biggest workforce, increased spending on education, the explosion of cell phone use and loads of uncultivated cropland.

And finally, BBC News takes a deep dive look at, “Africa Rising — but Who Benefits?”

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You Can Achieve Your Fitness Goals With These Health, Diet And Exercise Tips For The Busy Modern Man And Woman

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Useful Advice for Your 14-Year-Old Self

How many times have you mused about the wisdom you would have liked to be privy to when you were a teenager? If you had an opportunity to hop in a Tardis and scoot back to have a heart-to-heart chat with your 14-year-old self, what advice would you give (assuming that the younger you would listen)? It’s more than likely that we’d all have different bits of guidance that we’d share with our younger selves, but these are 14 tips that I’d personally try to encourage a teenage “me” to consider seriously.

Ignore what other people want you to be, expect you to be, or encourage you to be. There is only one YOU in the entire universe, and you’re perfect just as you are. Don’t try to act like someone else or look a certain way just to make others happy: just be the most authentic you that you can be. Period.

Trust me, in twenty years, your body will thank you a thousand times over for having established a solid yoga practice while you’re in your teens.

Whether it’s through mindful meditation practice, keeping a stone in your pocket that you squeeze when your imagination starts to run wild, or through another technique that works best for you, learn to be in the present moment as much as possible. Let go of stupid crap as soon as it happens, and don’t dwell in “what if?” land: the past is ash and the future doesn’t exist. All we ever have is the current moment, so learn to inhabit it fully and you’ll never have to deal with anxiety about future events, or depression over what may have happened last week.

It’s important to have a strong sense of self, but it’s just as important to be a voice for those who can’t speak for themselves. This could be as simple as defending someone in your school who’s being bullied, or you might want to get involved in activism to help animals, the homeless, or a different cause that you believe in. Your voice carries far more weight than you can imagine.

Knowledge can never be taken from you, and the more you learn, the more it will help you in life. Learn languages, learn to cook, to code, to can vegetables. Turn off the TV and go do some free classes, or read articles and books, or even spend some time learning from your grandparents. You’ll treasure this knowledge in the future, trust me.

The only person whose opinion matters is you. End of discussion. Other people can think whatever they like, but just because someone thinks something, doesn’t mean that it’s true, or valid, or should have any impact on how you live your life. There may be people who think that the Earth is flat, but just because they have an opinion about a subject doesn’t mean they’re right, or that you’re required to share said opinion.

Love is a beautiful thing, but people change, and so do intimate relationships. There will be many crushes in your lifetime; many opportunities to have incredible connections with people, and each relationship has its life span. All things come to an end, and it’s far healthier to learn how to let go with grace than to cling to something that’s unhealthy just because you’re afraid of losing it.

Just as it’s important to recognize when it’s time to end a romantic relationship, it’s also vital to realize that friendships can have limited life spans as well. People can come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime, and they’ll grow close/drift apart like the tides. When relationships no longer work, end them with love and respect, and move on. Friendships can grow toxic, and it’s important to recognize warning signs of friendship deterioration, and act accordingly.

Don’t play red rover on train tracks at night, don’t have unprotected sex, don’t walk home alone after dark. Be sensible, realize that irresponsible actions can have dire consequences, and use common sense.

We all need help on occasion, and there’s always someone who’s willing to help you if you reach out to them. Never feel that you’re totally alone, especially when dealing with a difficult situation. It’s okay to be vulnerable, and it’s more than okay to talk to someone you trust when you’re going through hell.

This mostly applies to school, but it can also refer to extracurricular activities. High school sucks, but it’s over in a few short years, and what you do with your time there can have major influence on the rest of your life. Try your best to do well in your classes, switch schools if the curriculum and atmosphere in your current school aren’t right for you, and take advantage of opportunities as they come along.

If you have the opportunity to do a foreign student exchange program, do it: it’ll widen your worldview exponentially.

Remember that acts of kindness are remembered and appreciated for a lifetime. How do you want to be remembered by your peers? Think of amazing, wonderful things that others have done for you, and how they’ve made you feel, and then pay the beauty forward.

For some people, the family that they’ve been born into isn’t anywhere close to supportive. Some are neglectful, some are cruel and abusive, and some try to be functional but just can’t be. Some people find their “family” as they move through life, while others are fortunate enough to be born into a group that they mesh with well. Treasure those whom you consider family, and never put up with any measure of cruelty from someone just because you happen to be related to them by blood.

Don't make yourself regret, you're young once only! 7 Reasons You Should Travel While You’re Young

Featured photo credit: group of happy young people dancing and spraying at the beach on beautiful summer sunset via Shutterstock

Wordsmith. Lana likes to play with words and punctuation marks, arranging them into aesthetically-pleasing shapes that tell stories. When she isn't writing or editing, she's either immersed in illustration and design for Winter-Hébert—the design studio she runs with her husband—or curled up under a tree with a book.

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20 Spooky-Yet-Healthy Halloween Recipes

Halloween may be associated with people stuffing their gullets with sugary snacks and junk food galore, but there are ways of celebrating this festive night that won’t result in a diabetic coma. There are plenty of recipes that are as healthy as they are delicious, and you don’t have to skimp on the creep-out factor either.

Whether you’re throwing a party, bringing a contribution to a potluck, or celebrating in blissful solitude, here are some fabulous Samhain snacks that any ghoul would be happy to snack on.

Photo: The Tree Apprentice, via Flickr

It’s great to start your day off with a smoothie, and a frothy, green, bubbly drink is just perfect for Halloween breakfast. There are countless green smoothie and juice recipes out there, but if you don’t already have a favourite, try this one out:

2 cups fresh baby spinach1 cup coconut water2 cups frozen green grapes2 peaches, sliced

Puree all the ingredients in a blender until the mixture is gorgeously smooth. If you find that it’s a bit too thick, add a bit more coconut water, tap water, or even a splash of non-dairy milk.

Another great breakfast dish: Take half an avocado and remove the pit. Poach an egg until it’s well set, drain it with a slotted spoon, and plop it into the hollowed avocado. Sprinkle with black salt and cracked pepper (even some black caviar if you’re feeling extravagant), and serve warm.

Slice a wedge out of an apple, and then cut a smaller wedge into it to make a mouth. Fill the cavity with nut butter or fruit preserves, and then push slivered almonds into the apple flesh to make craggy teeth.

Photo: Sallypenut via Flickr

Have you ever eaten candy corn? They’re those unbelievably sugary niblets that are yellow at one end, orange in the middle, and white at the tip. Hideous. That said, you can make a splendidly healthy parfait in these very colours, by layering fruit or vegetables with toppings of your choice. Here are a couple of options:

A base layer of crushed pineapple, mid layer of mandarin orange slices, and low-fat yoghurt topping.Chopped pineapple base, middle layer of crushed cantaloupe, and low-fat cottage cheese on top.Reversed candy corn colours with an herbed yoghurt dip on the bottom, followed by layers of baby carrots and sliced yellow pepper.

Wrap pickle wedges or spears of steamed white and green asparagus with ham or smoked turkey.

Photo: Nichelle Stevens, via Flickr

To create a spiderweb pattern on a hard-boiled egg, just boil a dozen eggs for 10 minutes in 8-10 cups of water, along with 2 cups of blueberries. Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon, tap one side of each lightly so the shell crackles, and then place them back in the berry water. Keep the saucepan in the fridge for a few hours until the eggs are completely cool, and then peel them: you’ll find a lovely spiralling web etched onto each egg. (You can also use black tea for this for brown webs.)

Photo: Mike Dory, via Flickr

There are a few ways to go about creating a dip that looks as though it’s been created from cemetery dirt: one is to make a tapenade from dark olives (like Kalamata, or Spanish black) with capers, garlic, oil, and lemon juice, another is to create a spicy black bean dip, and some people might even prefer to use guacamole or spinach/artichoke dip as their base. Let’s use a recipe for the black bean option, shall we?

1 large can of black beans, drained and rinsed1 roma (plum) tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped1 tablespoon fresh lime juice1 small chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped1 garlic clove, chopped1/2 teaspoon ground cumin1/4 teaspoon chili powderSalt (to add later)

Pulse the first 7 ingredients in a food processor until the mixture is fairly smooth, and well combined. Add salt to taste, and feel free to adjust the acidity (with the lemon juice) as well as the spice level as desired. To serve, pour the dip into a shallow bowl, and tuck melba toast squares, Crispers or vegetable chip “headstones” into it, with extras on the side.

A large platter that’s covered in black, purple, and grey tidbits can look incredibly creepy, but so delicious. Items to place on yours can include:

Black and purple grapesBlack figsDeep purple plumsBlack radishesBlack and Kalamata olivesBlackberriesBlack currants

Spread layers of prosciutto and other cured meats on a large wooden cutting board, and jam a meat cleaver vertically into the board for effect.

Photo: Nicole McGuire via Flickr

Sounds scrumptious, doesn’t it? Basically, this is just tomato soup with a little extra added to it. To make the eyeballs, get yourself some of those bocconcini balls that are 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter. Use a small paring knife to hollow them out, and then pop a couple of pimento-stuffed eyeballs into the cavities. When you serve the soup, float the cheesy eyeballs in it so they’ll stare at whoever’s digging in.

On that same note, you can carve away at a lychee or longan fruit to expose the dark inner pit to create interesting eyeballs, or you can pop capers into hard boiled quail eggs.

Did you know that you can get gluten-free black bean pasta? I only found this out recently, and it’s bloody brilliant. The noodles are a deep grey colour, which is perfect for a Halloween dish. You can also get black rice noodles if you can’t get your hands on the black bean ones.

As far as a recipe is concerned, just follow the directions on the black pasta package, and then top with your favourite sauce and vegetables. My personal favourite is a simple sauce of roasted eggplant and tomato, but you can can slather yours in vodka rosé sauce, a simple dressing of olive oil and garlic, or make a sea witch proud by covering the pasta in seafood and marinara sauce.

Peel some small apples, and then carve them to look like faces/shrunken heads. Float these in a large punch bowl that you’ve filled with apple cider, or your autumn drink of choice.

Photo: Bradley H, via Flickr

Take a whole-wheat flatbread, half an English muffin, a pita, or any other flat, round, bread-like substance that you’re fond of. Spread on something fabulous as a base, and decorate it with items that could conceivably be mummy-like, then devour.

For savoury options, you can try the following:

Pizza sauce base, with sliced mushroom eyes and slices of mozzarella as bandages.Hummus for the bottom layer, strips of grilled zucchini or eggplant, and olive slice eyes.

For those with a sweet tooth, you can try these as well:

Tofutti (or low-fat goat cheese, cream cheese, etc.), with blueberries or halved cherries for eyes, and gobs of jam or jelly for colour.Almond (or other nut) butter as a base, with strips of banana for bandages, and strawberry eyes.

Frothy and reddish-pink, this juice is reminiscent of something you’d see on True Blood, but it’s fabulous for nourishing your own blood cells (as well as your liver, heart, and more.) Just put 2 medium carrots, 2 medium beets, and 2 large apples (peeled and cored) through your juicer. If you like, add 1/2 an inch of peeled ginger too. Run 1/4 cup of water through to get all the juice out, and serve over ice.

Photo: Mega, via Flickr

These are just onigiri rice balls stuffed with whatever you like, or even just plain sticky rice that’s been formed into spooky shapes. Just cook Japanese sushi rice according to the ingredients on the package. If you like, you can add a bit of mirin wine and/or rice vinegar for extra flavour. You can fill the onigiri with anything from egg salad or tuna to pickled vegetables or bean paste, pack the rice into shape by rolling it in plastic wrap, and then add eyes, fangs, etc. that you’ve created by cutting dry nori (seaweed sheets) into pieces.

For a well-rounded bento lunch, add in some heirloom tomatoes in shades of black and red, some orange peppers carved into jack o’lanterns, and any other veggies you like.

Use a melon baller to scoop the flesh of honeydew melon into perfect little spheres, and then splash them with black vodka. Serve chilled.

Photo via Pinterest

This terror-inducing variation on “pigs in a blanket” doesn’t need to be filled with chemical-laden meat slurry sausages. You can create the same effect by stuffing half a crescent roll with a mixture of spinach, low-fat feta cheese and minced onions or spiced sweet potato wedges, or make sweet versions with jam or fruit. Here’s a tip: the original Pillsbury Crescent Rolls are vegan, so you can go wild creating all manner of cruelty-free screamy snacks. Just stick on some fake eyes with dabs of mustard or tofutti and a couple of poppy seeds to finish them off.

Did you know that you can get black quinoa? Use it in your favourite quinoa recipe, or try a new one like this black quinoa salad with cherries, pistachios, and watercress.

Photo: Alvin Smith via Flickr

Preheat your oven to 400-450F, depending on how hot your oven tends to get. Remove the lower leaves and core from the cauliflower, and then place it hollowed-side down onto a greased baking sheet. Use a paring knife to remove a thin, straight slice from across the vegetable, making it look like a brain. Drizzle it with olive oil, salt, and about 1 tablespoon of garlic powder, and roast it for 1 to 1.5 hours, until it’s fork-tender. Serve on a platter surrounded by pickled beets for a great, bloody effect.

What are some of your favourite Halloween recipes? Please feel free to share them with us!

More great Halloween recipes you shouldn't miss: I Didn’t Expect Halloween Recipes To Be Both Delicious And Healthy Until I See This

Wordsmith. Lana likes to play with words and punctuation marks, arranging them into aesthetically-pleasing shapes that tell stories. When she isn't writing or editing, she's either immersed in illustration and design for Winter-Hébert—the design studio she runs with her husband—or curled up under a tree with a book.

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15 Reasons To Declutter Your Home

Unless you are already an extremely organised person – if so, please tell me how you became so good at life – I’m assuming you’ve accumulated a lot of unnecessary clutter in your home. This may bother you and if so, maybe you want to get rid of or re-organise all the extra stuff you have. But it does take a lot of effort, a bit of motivation to get rid of those 500 copies of [insert magazine you subscribe to here] or boxes of junk you’ve still not unpacked since you moved in can do wonders. Well, Sparefoot have created an infographic detailing 15 great reasons to tidy and declutter your home! You’d be surprised what you can gain from all that clutter: less stress, more time even money.

So go ahead and sort out your home for less stress, more money and a happier family life!

15 Fantastic Reasons to Clear Out the Clutter at Home | Sparefoot

The modern home is far bigger than the home of just 30 years ago – and far more cluttered! How can that happen? 50 Ways to Make Your Home More Organized, More Attractive, and More Efficient

Siobhan Harmer is an English freelance writer who drinks far too much coffee, here to help you hack your way to a happier life.

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8 Free Mobile Apps Every Parent Needs To Have

In the United States, there are 14 million parents who own a mobile device and who have children between the ages zero and three. To help them become better parents, or at least to make it easier to be parents, we’ve compiled a list of recommended mobile apps. The apps included range from those that entertain kids to those that help find affordable parking near popular destinations for family outings.

Here’s our list of essential downloads to make life easier for modern parents. Hopefully at least one will win you a “world’s best parent” phone case!

Type: Task management and organization
Cost: Free
About: As a parent, you have many responsibilities and daily tasks, from managing your household, to working, and taking care of your children. The Remember the Milk app helps you manage your time and tasks easily. Stay on top of everything, and avoid endless to-do lists and post it notes. Using your mobile phone, you can take your to-do list anywhere with this feature packed app.

Remember the Milk iOS App | Remember the Milk Android App

Type: Parking/Transportation
Cost: Free
About: Outings with your children require a good deal of preparation, and where you’ll park is probably your last concern. SpotHero can help you find and reserve discounted parking near your next family outing in advance. No more, “Are we there yet?” from the kids as you circle for parking. No more spousal disputes about who can find the closest spot. And no more overpaying for downtown parking. Use the savings to buy your kids a reward for good behavior.

SpotHero Parking iOS App | SpotHero Parking Android App

Type: GPS navigation
Cost: Free
About: If you own a smartphone, there’s no need to invest in a GPS system. Waze, a free GPS navigation app, provides parents with up-to-the-second traffic updates to help them arrive on time for school, doctor’s appointments, and playdates. Never get stuck in traffic again!

Waze iOS App | Waze Android App

Type: Food – easily browse kid-friendly recipes on your smartphone
Cost: Free
About: Cooking is a “social” activity. Busy parents no longer have to stress about what to make for dinner. The iFood Assistant brings the Kraft recipe database straight to your phone with many easy and delicious meal options for your children. The app is simple to use, and you can browse through over 7,000 recipes.

iFood Assistant by Kraft iOS App | iFood Assistant by Kraft Android App

Type: Bluetooth baby monitor
Cost: Free
About: This is the ideal app for busy and active parents who don’t have a baby monitor. To quell your worries while your baby is asleep, and avoid spending big bucks on a baby monitor, you can use this app to monitor your sleeping angel. Your two iOS devices serve as the parent and baby sides. One device is placed near the crib, and the other stays with the caretaker.

iSitter iOS App

Type: Entertainment
Cost: Free
About: Parents can easily entertain their children with the PBS Kids app, which allows kids to watch their favorite shows on the go. The app is specifically designed to help keep children entertained: the short segments are perfect for kids’ attention spans, and the app is easy for children to navigate.

PBS Kids: PBS Parents Play & Learn iOS App | PBS Kids: PBS Parents Play & Learn Android App

Type: All-in-one parenting app that puts your mobile phone into “kid mode”
Cost: Free
About: Young children love using their parents’ phones. Now parents can feel safe about handing their phones to their children to watch hundreds of educational videos or read storybooks.

Kid Mode by Zoodles iOS App | Kid Mode by Zoodles Android App

Type: Entertainment
Cost: Free
About: Disney Junior offers multiple apps for parents, including WATCH Disney Junior and Disney Junior Appisodes. Parents can easily keep their children entertained with their favorite Disney shows.

Disney Junior iOS App

Do you make these parenting mistakes? Ten Parenting Mistakes That Can Negatively Impact a Child’s Future

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Too Busy? 4 Ways To Increase Productivity And Make More Time in Your Day

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Do You Have What It Takes? Take The Confidence Test!

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Never Make Someone a Priority

Never make someone a priority who only makes you an option.

Once you hit 20-something and over, you reach a point where your time becomes your most precious asset. A bad friendship can drain our energy, so we seek to avoid them as much as possible. This manner of prioritization tends to put our relationships into prospective, by subconsciously implementing The Two Laws of Adult Friendship.

1. I will only spend time on/with subjects of obsession – Just like your obsession with running, painting, or growing your own tomatoes, most of us will only initiate friendships with those who make the most of our time.

2. I must recognize realistic variables – Yes, adult friendship is like a real life math problem—helping us set realistic expectations. Sometimes we want to be closer with others, but we foresee responsibilities that can get understandably in the way.

What is the probability of Person X + (1 Husband + 2 Kids + 1 Kitten) /Full Time Job have of going out dancing with Person Y Friday night?

Somehow, you might find those few friends who get past this litmus test, but really aren’t worth the energy you are wasting on them. You might feel like a bad person when these types of thoughts start popping in your head. If this is a constant concern in the friendship, rest assured that it’s probably for the best. Here are the 3 facts to consider if you think someone is a bad friend.

3 WARNING Signs of a Bad Friend

Featured photo credit: Penguin gets rejectedvia Shutterstock

Brian is a Lifehacker who covers all sorts of tips for life. He is also fascinated with new technology. Contact him at brian@lifehack.org

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The Simplest Way to Fail Every Time

One day, I was reading an article and two famous quotes got stuck in my head. Albert Einstein said, ”The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.” The other quote by an unknown author simply states, “If you want to go nowhere, follow the crowd.” I asked myself a question: am I following the crowd and going nowhere, or am I following my own path? Then I realized that the simplest way to fail every time is to live the life of other people.

We are living in a culture that tells us we can learn whatever we want. All we have to do is simply sign up for a training or online course, read a book or article, and try things on our own. The internet is full of practical pieces of advice to try new things, but how often do you seek your own path through life? How can anyone be innovative if they only follow the rules of others? What worked for others may not work for you. I am not saying that we shouldn’t learn from others. However, breakthroughs come from the heart, from new ideas, from creative moments. The most amazing things are not external to you; they are already in your heart.

From time to time, you come across inspiring people that found their own way through life. These people didn’t get the experience and the knowledge on any of the courses, they found their own way. Let’s see just three examples: a man playing with lions, the king of one string, and a professional “cardstacker.”

A man playing with lions:

The King of One String:

Professional “cardstacker”, holding Guinness World Record.

I follow hundreds of other people on social media, read their articles and comments, but I have to frequently ask myself: how could I do things my own way? People often ask me about productivity techniques. My advice is always the same: there are common patterns, but there is no “one fits all” solution. The best solution is always a combination of different ones that reflect the personal style of the person asking this question.

The problem is we live in busy times. We want quick results. We read and study pre-cooked recipes. We try different techniques and stick with the one that creates the best results. But what could happen if we spent more time thinking about our own way of doing things and experimenting?

While reading The New Testament, I was amazed that so many people are mentioned by their names while “Pharisees” are nearly always referenced as a group. There is Paul, Peter, John, and others. They all have names and their own unique stories. On the other hand, the Pharisees acted the same – always as a crowd – and you can rarely find a name for any one of group. History remembers people that had something unique to share, and completely forgets the anonymous crowd.

Most people are scared to fail. They follow others and walk paths where others have already blazed a trail because they think it’s safe. But if you only follow others and do not seek your own path, you are on the shortcut to fail every time. You may say, “I tried Peter’s and Paul’s way of doing things, and they both didn’t work for me.” But what is your way?

We all have to fail from time to time while exploring our own ways of doing things. Otherwise, we may be sure that we will fail every time without even knowing it.

What is your unconventional way of acting?

Today I want to give you 9.5 ways to ensure that you fail in life. Every time. No matter what you’re doing. 9.5 Ways to Ensure That You Fail Every Time

Featured photo credit: Scarleth Whitevia Flickr

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2013-10-11 Spike activity

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

New series of BBC Radio 4's excellent internet and society programme The Digital Human started this week.

Scientific American cover surprising sex differences in migraine which seem to be almost ‘different diseases’ in men and women.

Post-traumatic stress reactions in survivors of the 2011 massacre on Utøya Island, Norway. Forthcoming study for British Journal of Psychiatry hits the wires.

ESPN have a fascinating piece on boxer Timothy Bradley whose the first fighter to admit to lasting neurocognitive problems after a fight.

Reading fiction can make you a better mind-reader said a widely hyped study. Not so fast says Language Log.

USA Today reports that the US Army has deployed software to predict suicides as way of preventing them.

Despite promising results in controlling neuronal activity, leaders in brain research still struggle turning their work into treatments reports MIT Technology Review.

Breaking – psychologist has opinion: “Men quote from films to bond with each other without having to ask any intimate questions” reports The Telegraph. No, you can’t have those two minutes of your life back.

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The Exquisite Habits of the Founder of Blue Bottle Coffee

When I sat down to interview James Freeman, founder of Blue Bottle Coffee, it was with some excitement, even nervousness. I am a big fan of his coffee, which is known worldwide for its beautiful quality.

Eva and I love to get a drip coffee or a small Gibraltar from Blue Bottle, and getting a bag of their beans is a special treat. And so, to dive into the mind of the founder of Blue Bottle … I was smiling.

In this video interview, the 3rd in my new Habits of Entrepreneurs series, I sat down with James at his office in Oakland, a block from Blue Bottle’s delicious-smelling roastery. His office is minimal, well-designed, a bit retro, with some great books on design and philosophy on his shelf.

I talked to James about how he founded the company, his habits around work and personal relationships, design, email, goals and long-term plans, and expectations.

It’s a wonderful interview — get the short version for free below, or subscribe to the Habits of Entrepreneurs series to get the full 45-minute interview (along with the other great stuff in the series).

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17 Ways To Teach Your Kids To Be Financially Independent

Whether your child is just a toddler, a teenager, or a young adult in college, it’s difficult to even think of teaching your kids about personal finance, especially when sometimes you’re not even sure yourself. The best way to learn is by teaching. So here are the seventeen essential things you must convey to your kids in order to instill the idea of becoming financially independent. Who knows, by teaching these essential things, you might learn a thing or two yourself!

It might be difficult to say this to your kids if this is what you’ve been doing all your life, but times are changing and it’s becoming increasingly clear that we must learn to adapt and find multiple streams of income, and even embrace entrepreneurship. The traditional “one job till retirement” model is not working anymore, so get out of denial fast and let your kids learn about entrepreneurship.

This is just not true. There are so many ways to invest your money that are actually safer than buying a house. (Roth IRAs, index funds, lifecycle funds, high yield savings accounts, for example!) Educate yourself about the stock market and these forms of investment if you don’t know already, and prepare your kids to go down the correct path when it comes to investing.

Experts on personal finance will agree with me on this one, (including one of my favorites, Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.) Automating your money and bills is one of the best ways to keep your finances in top shape, earn stellar credit, curb overspending, and–best of all–not stress out about paying bills on time. Automation means you siphon your income into various channels each month (or each week) such as into a high yield savings account, an investment account, a credit card, and finally all your bills. This method forces you to “pay yourself first” by saving and investing, and then pay all your bills on time–leaving you with your true budget amount to spend for other things. If you don’t do this already–start now. Why not learn by teaching your kids about it first?

Most Americans do credit cards the wrong way. The most important way to maintain good credit is to stop paying the minimum every month. Pay your balance back in full at the end of the month. If you can’t do this, it means you are living above your means, and that is no way to live. You can’t get financially independent by living above your means. Teach your kids how to use a credit card the right way, and tell them to think about paying it back in full at the end of the month whenever they want to pull out their credit cards to buy something. Credit cards, if used correctly, offer a tremendous amount of perks such a free flights, insurance, and even fee reductions, but only if your credit is in tip-top shape.

Don’t use the brick and mortar banks anymore. The key here is online banks. The lower overhead of not having physical buildings means that these online banks don’t have ATM fees and overdraft fees, and they certainly don’t charge you for a checking account–even if you don’t have direct deposit! These fees are such a scam. Stop paying useless fees to the banks. You can also start by setting up an online, free checking account for your kids (when it is the right time), and help them set up a high yield savings account online as well, so they can have fun watching their money grow. Contrary to popular belief, money does grow–if you let it. My favorite online checking account is the Charles Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking Account, and my favorite high yield savings account is American Express Personal Online Savings Account with a current steady yield of .85%.

What? You don’t know how the stock market works? Well, neither do most experts! If you don’t know how to invest yourself, you should learn. But don’t worry–it’s pretty easy. There is such a thing as automatic investing, and it’s not about picking stocks. It’s all about automatic diversification of stocks. You need to stop being afraid of investing. There are many great resources to learn about this now, so start. Even if you are not doing it, your kids should as soon as they are old enough. There are some very easy and safe ways to invest in the stock market. Life-cycle funds automatically diversify your investments between stocks and bonds based on your age, while index funds offer a bit more customization. It will take one weekend to learn more about all this, and then you can teach your kids.

Stop buying things you don’t need and accumulating crap. Kids learn by osmosis. If they see you doing something, they will copy. You need to show them what smart buying is all about. First of all, have a budget and stay within it. Your budget can include calculated indulgences, of course! The point here is: you can’t teach good personal finance if you don’t at least try to practice it yourself.

Encouraging your kids to learn useful skills is one of the best ways to secure their financial future. Professions that will be beneficial in the future are not what parents have traditionally thought fruitful, such as studying to become doctors and lawyers. It’s actually more beneficial these days to learn creative skills such as design, art, and computer programming (yes, programming is quite creative.) Creativity is not so easily outsourced. Start with online schools such as skillshare, code academy, skillcrush, and code.org.

It may not be 100% beneficial for the next generation of kids to all go to traditional colleges and get formal education. MOOCs (massive open online courses) are changing the way we view traditional education, and so is the abundance of student-loan debt enslaving the whole millennial generation. Your child’s generation doesn’t need to go through this. There are better ways!

Personal branding online these days is essential for creating wealth. Kids are well prepared for this if you teach them how to curate and edit what they say and how they say it. Remind them that their online persona cannot be erased, and they need to avoid embarrassing mistakes. Each person should have a message to the world–help them start developing it. They may only be telling it to their friends now, but in the future it will be to co-workers, clients, bosses, and investors. Teach them how to manage their public image instead of completely discouraging the use of social media. It will be a necessary tool for the development of their careers later in life.

Leadership capability is a pretty accurate indicator of success in an individual. Leadership skills include proactivity, responsibility, empathy, creativity, vision, and public speaking skills. Don’t underestimate the importance of teaching these types of skills, even if you believe your child is an introvert. Some of the best and most influential leaders are self-proclaimed introverts. Introversion doesn’t mean they won’t be natural leaders.

Someone once said average people think emotionally about money while rich people think logically–like a puzzle game. Talk to your kids about money–don’t make it a taboo subject. Show them how to think about it logically, and make their allowance and wealth accumulation into a game. For example, create a good incentive: “If you make ten dollars selling lemonade, I will double it or triple it.” Encourage working for money using creativity, so that it is not always associated with exchanging time for money but associated with creativity instead. Help them create something, and sell it. Don’t only teach them to sell, teach them to leverage their skills to create something of value. The lemonade stand lesson is so important. These days, it can also be done online (i.e. set up an online shop, help them create a blog.) Tell them to use their allowance to create more money, instead of spending it all away.

It is important to plant the seed of inspiration. Growing up with a vision–however small–is what differentiates the ones who make it big from the average ones. If your kids get inspired, they will want to create something of value and importance in the world as well. Kids are idealists of the best kind, with beautiful imaginations of endless possibilities. Don’t block this, enhance it by showing them the world of possibilities, not the world of fear, stability, security, and living only for yourself. Give them something to dream about, and someone to help.

Your kid loves games and movies? Well, that’s a really good thing! These industries are creative powerhouses. You can use this to your advantage. Kids love to see how things are made, the behind-the-scenes, how things are put together. Capitalize on their love of games and movies by showing them the processes behind how these creative projects get made. Show them documentaries about the sets, the teams, the artwork behind it all. Take them to studios or movie sets, find YouTube videos explaining how their favorite games are made, the technologies behind them, the budgets. Before you know it, they will be interested in the craft behind everything instead of just consuming things mindlessly. This will give them so much more to work with when deciding on what they want to do with their lives.

Your kid will probably need time to figure things out. But don’t assume you know best. Encourage their natural talents, interests and habits, and let them know it is OK to make money by doing what they love. This is how every successful person is doing it these days. Don’t judge them by your own measures of what it means to be successful. Take a good look at your own advice and life and see if 20 or 30 years ago you would have taken the same path. Maybe, maybe not. Figure out what their strengths are and help them craft their own path to riches–even if it goes against your fundamental beliefs about making money. The game changers of today’s business world are authentic creatives doing what they love. Don’t let you kids fall behind.

Don’t teach them to be afraid of accumulating money. Wealth can be used to do good in the world. We need more philanthropists and innovators in our world. There are so many important problems to solve and places to go. If everyone settled into living a safe life with a steady job, there would be no advancement. Don’t forget that safety is only an illusion and no amount of “job security” can keep your kids safe. They have a chance to learn from you now–not the hard way by losing a job or by being in massive debt.

The road to riches is paved with persistent, accumulated actions. Sometimes even mini-actions. Don’t tell your kids their dreams are too big. Don’t tell them the only way to do that is by winning the lotto. It’s simply not true. Help them take the first steps by having 100% faith in their wildest dreams and showing them ways to start on that path.

Some practical tips to save up your money: How Can I Save Money? 25 Tips on How to Save Money Fast

Featured photo credit: VividImageInc via Flickr

Jesicka Labud is co-founder and editor at Two Non-Techies, Empowering Non-Techies to Learn to Code and Build Awesome Start-ups. She tweets at @TwoNonTechies and is founder of Tipabl, a social giving platform. She is also a member of and former V.P. of Public Relations for Toastmasters International.

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200 Ways to Make Money From the Internet

As the name might imply, there are a lot of items on this list of ways to make money from the internet (over 200 to be more specific), so be prepared for a lot of scrolling because this is one seriously long infographic. That being said, there’s nothing wrong with a long infographic if there’s plenty of useful information in it -and there certainly is in this great graphic.

If you’re ready to make money from the internet, you’ll first need to decide on the general method you intend to use, whether that be selling your old stuff, freelancing or site flipping. Then you’ll need to find the right sites to give you the tools you need to make money from the internet, such as eBay, Elance or Sedo. Fortunately, this infographic features information on both the general logistics and the tools so you can develop a plan to make money from the internet in no time.

200 Ways to Make Money Online | Make Use Of

By playing your cards right, you can make some easy money online doing things you’re already doing. 24 Easy Ways To Make Money On The Internet

Jill Harness is a freelance writer, amateur chef, and a sucker for animals. She writes for a number of websites, including Rue The Day, InventorSpot, Oddee and Mental Floss. While not typing on her computer, Jill spends her time playing video games, cuddling with her dog and visiting Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo.

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Bring Windows 8′s Start Screen and Charms Bar to Windows 7

Are you a Windows 7 user jealous of the fancy tiled Start screen Windows 8 users get to play with everyday? You could upgrade your OS and get that tiled goodness for yourself, but that isn’t cheap. If you’d rather get the look and feel of Windows 8 without having to leave Windows 7 behind, you have an option.

Ryan Dube of MakeUseOf recently posted an article describing a unique Windows 8 theme you can install over Windows 7. This theme, called the Windows 8 Transformation Pack, allows you to install a pseudo Start screen complete with bundled apps, modern Chrome and a Charms bar if you want it. It doesn’t exactly work like Windows 8, you don’t have the ability to download apps from the Store and you can’t customize the tiles as you can in Windows 8, but it’s a great option if you want the look without the upgrade.

If you think this is a cool theme, spread the news. Let your friends try it out.

Original Source – MakeUseOf – Windows 8 Transformation Pack can Make Windows 7 Turn Modern

Below are some of the Windows 8 apps that are most loved by users: Have a Look at 8 Killer Apps for Windows 8

Robert Kingsley is a former IT Support Engineer with a degree in computer networking. He left his desk job in 2011 to write full-time and has never looked back. You can check out more of his work on About.com where he is the Guide to Windows operating systems.

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Announcing: “The Tim Ferriss Experiment” on Primetime TV (And How to Join Me)

After ages of planning, I’m VERY excited to share big news with you all.

Starting this December 1st, I will have my own primetime TV show, airing Sundays at 8pm on HLN, formerly known as CNN Headline News. I’m both host and co-executive producer, and I’m currently filming my ass off. It’s all part of a big Turner Broadcasting initiative called Upwave.

Here are the basics:

Name of show: The Tim Ferriss Experiment (TFX)
The premise: Showing viewers how to become superhuman through better tools and tricks, not better genetics.
Easily thought of as: “Anthony Bourdain meets Jason Bourne” or “Jackass meets A Beautiful Mind”
Production company: Zero Point Zero (ZPZ), the team behind Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations and Parts Unknown.
Spirit animal: Ocelot.

Synopsis:

In his #1 bestsellers, “The 4-­Hour Workweek,” “The 4­-Hour Body” and “The 4-­Hour Chef,” Tim Ferriss proposes radically counter-­intuitive solutions that take readers from zero to hero in minimal time.

Newsweek calls him “the world’s best human guinea pig,” as he tests the extremes for the rest of us. He believes that nearly any skill can be “hacked” and learned in 1/100th the time most people expect… but can he do it in a matter of days?

The Tim Ferriss Experiment (TFX) will push Ferriss to the breaking point as he attempts just that.

In each episode, Tim will find the world’s most unorthodox teachers and – together — demystify some of the world’s coolest and most dangerous skills. Sometimes he’ll succeed, and other times, he’ll fail spectacularly while risking life and limb.

Tim believes that there is the potential for greatness in every “normal” person, and as he overcomes his own fears each week, he’ll help viewers do the same.

[TIM NOTE: Sorry I can't share exact episodes yet, but just imagine Jason Bourne + my biggest fears + my personal bucket list, all wrapped into one. What would *you* like to see me tackle? Please let me know in the comments, as we still have a few open slots!]

Would you like to join me for a week? Here is one opportunity, which expires tonight (Sorry!) at midnight: Swim with Tim. There will be more fun opportunities if you miss this one.

Next: would you like to interview me about TFX for your TV show, magazine, radio program, podcast, blog, e-mail newsletter, or other? It would mean the world to me, and I have plenty of insider stories and takeaways. If interested in discussing options, please fill out this short form here.

More details coming soon!

Thank you all so much for your support. It’s what keeps me going.

Posted on October 13th, 2013

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How To Avoid The Most Common Mistakes Leaders Make

In some cases, employees within a company start out at the bottom and work their way up over time. In other cases, people are hired directly into management. Whatever the experience has been for you, opportunities are to be had along the way. As the below infographic will show, there are different levels to each individual’s abilities. Below I will explain the moments of opportunity that you have as an individual to grab hold of along the way and how you can be a leader no matter what level you find yourself in today.

Level 1 Highly Capable Individual

This is where the molding of an individual happens in the workplace.

Level 2 Contributing Team Member

Once you have time to begin feeling comfortable in level one, then you can begin contributing more to your team. This is where the buy-in to the company’s vision takes place, and you can not only improve yourself, but you can begin to show others what you have learned.

Level 3 Competent Manager

After a contributing team member spends time honing in and crafting their knowledge and expertise, it won’t be long until this individual will be looked at for advancement. Have your work be so excellent that it speaks for itself and moves you higher into a position of authority.

Level 4 Effective Leader

The main difference between a leader and a manager is that a leader leads people while a manager manages things. I don’t know about you, but influencing people sounds like it has a lot more impact than managing things. Don’t settle for being a manager, but focus on how becoming a leader will set you apart from the crowd.

Level 5 Executive

When you find yourself at this level you are usually very knowledgeable, have a sense of ownership with your company, are invested in the people that work for you, are self-motivated, and are very driven to expand your company to places that it has never been before.

Of course, the above example is the natural progression of someone who is in a company over a period of time who works their way up the company ladder. But again, the main point to take from leadership here is that no matter what level you are in as described by the infographic, you can be a leader. Leadership is a daily choice that each one of us makes. A common misconception is that leadership is a title and that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Leadership is a mindset that an individual has to influence others in either a negative or a positive manner.

In contrast, each of us face a few key points along our leadership journey to either exceed expectations or fail miserably in. While in some things it is okay to fail because we get the opportunity to learn from our mistakes, there are a few areas in which there really is no room for error. It could be the rise or fall of a company’s existence.

Listed below are some of the most common mistakes that leaders make and how you as a leader can avoid them:

This is key point number one because it’s usually black or white on this subject and not much gray area. Leaders are either okay with confrontation or they aren’t. They either want to deal with the issues that they need to or they shy away from them, hoping somehow they deal with themselves. The situations that I am describing happen most often when leaders like to avoid confrontation.

So, can leaders learn to face problems head on even if they aren’t wired for confrontation? Absolutely. Leaders who are in the “trenches” on a daily basis need to see the issues at hand that are causing real problems. When leaders see first hand the magnitude of why something needs to be done immediately to solve a problem, they will begin to realize why confrontation is a must, even if they aren’t a confrontational person.

Leaders can avoid denial by not only being available to see that what is happening within the company, but aware, self-motivated, and passionate about what they are doing.

When passion is lacking from a leader, they are not the only ones that are affected. Company employees feel the brunt of a leader’s inability in their day-to-day work environment.

When responsibility isn’t given away to others, it does two things. First, it will cause quick burnout in the lives of leaders. Second, it makes others feel useless. A lack of teamwork and communication ensues.

You can avoid this by developing trust with your team.

Trusting others by delegating necessary tasks and empowering others to make decisions is a step in the right direction. Delegation should always be a top priority when possible to maintain focus on your top daily plans. Leaders, begin to mentor others instead of keeping all of the responsibility to yourselves.

Create a team mentality in your endeavors. When people feel they can add value, it creates a feel of ownership that cannot be replaced.

To avoid a lack of vision, you need to have the right vision. You first need to know the “Why.”

As a leader, you not only need to know the WHY behind why you are doing what you do, but you have to communicate it to those around you. Do you do what you do because of your customers? Because of your staff? Because you want to be your best? Because it is fun? Whatever your reason is, it needs to be contagious. Once you have the idea behind the why, you need to write out a mission statement. Let this be your motivation. Let this be the motivation of those around you. You will need to look at it on those days you just don’t feel like it, so keep it handy.

Once this step is taken care of, it is time to make a few plans. First, make a five year plan. Where do you want to be in five years? Dream big. Now, work backwards. What is a realistic plan for three years from now to get you to that five year plan? More importantly, what do you need to be doing this year, this quarter, this month, this week, and today to get there. What is your plan for this year to get you to your wildest dreams? This is yet another piece of important information that you need to keep in front of you to drive you through those times that you feel that mediocrity is okay.

It is important to know that those feelings of mediocrity, but it is even more important to know how to push through these moments.

If you do what I have mentioned previously, you will avoid the downfall of taking everything as it comes instead of planning. It is easy to find yourself here, if not careful. When your schedule fills up because items weren’t taken care of, unnecessary stress is soon to follow. Avoid this stress that doesn’t have to happen by planning ahead, making a clear plan, and communicating it to your team. This is another step that will make your life easier as a leader and will help your team stay motivated and committed.

Thinking outside the box is necessary for any kind of growth to happen. It is more important than ever for continuous momentum so that growth is top-of-mind for leaders, both personally and in the business world. There is more competition than ever before and other important factors that will either help or hurt you in your journey.

Avoid a lack of creativity by facing your fears and stepping out.

Trying new things is a necessity in the creativity process. Don’t be afraid to step out and push others to reach inside themselves to find the most potential. Learn that it is okay to make creative mistakes along the way to find greatness and to become a better leader.

Maybe you are doing all the right things, but haven’t looked at the team you are leading. Don’t get comfortable where things are when you could be increasing your reach to even more than where it is right now.

Avoid becoming stale by always having a fresh perspective on the state of your team.

Do you have the best people on the team? If you do, then great. They may just not be in the right spot. Team chemistry is too important to overlook. Is your team cohesive in their pursuits? If not, it may be time to look for other teammates.

Are the wrong people on the bus or are they just not in the right seat?

People will want to do more for you when they like you rather than when they are afraid of you or just don’t know what to say to you.

Relationships are key to having a flow of communication. Trust comes through strong relationships, and that is when people will be able to open up and add even more value than they are right now. Go out of your way to create one-on-one time with each individual on your team to further engage on a personal level. Doing this will open dialogue both in your personal and professional environment.

Avoid connection problems with others by creating strong relationships through genuinely wanting to know other people on a friendship level rather than just a surface, business level.

Ask yourself,

Who am I leading, helping, and inspiring?

If leadership is influence, then you need to know who you are leading.

Through this one question you can begin to really grasp the magnitude of your reach as a leader.

Yes, being a leader is an incredibly important role that deserves your attention. But, even if you see that you possess one, a few, or even all of these traits, it isn’t too late to switch your leadership style and begin making less leadership mistakes. Begin using these six laid out steps to improve your leadership level and become a better leader starting today.

How to be a productive leader that people look up to? 9 Habits of Highly Productive Leaders

Featured photo credit: Chess, playing with white pieces via Shutterstock,Leadership Chart via Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Adam Smith is an editor/blogger in Boulder, Colorado. He is the author of the ebook, Discipline: The Art of Achieving Greatness.

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3 Mistakes You Need To Avoid To Reach Your Life Goals

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5 Mistakes You Can Afford To Make When You’re Young

Being young is great. Most of the parts of your body still work great, you have a full head of hair, you’re energetic, and you have a world of opportunity in front of you. However, there’s going to come a time when you start to get older. And as you get older, you’ll have new responsibilities, complete independence, and perhaps most importantly, less time to recover from mistakes.

You see, we all make mistakes in life. Maybe you spent more money than you should have on a car, you passed up on a great job opportunity, or you didn’t try as hard as you could have in school. It’s a part of life and we learn from it. But there are certain mistakes that are much better made while you’re still young and have plenty of time to recover.

I’m definitely not telling you that you should purposely go out and make these mistakes (because they’re a pain to recover from). But these are all mistakes that are much better made when you’re younger so that you can learn from them and not have them ruin your entire life.

Wouldn’t you hate to be 45 years old and discover that you absolutely hate what you do for a living? It’s a reality that a lot of people face and it can be difficult to fix. You see, when you’re 23 and find out you don’t like the career path you’ve chosen, you can easily explore new career options.

We no longer live in an age when people are expected to stay with one company until they retire. You can bounce around a little bit and find out what you want to do. When you get older, just switching careers whenever you want isn’t as simple.

You have to consider your family, retirement, the difficulties you might run into with starting from the bottom in a new industry, and plenty of other issues that someone in their early 20’s just doesn’t have to deal with.

The divorce rate in the U.S is extremely high. Other parts of the world aren’t doing too much better either. While everyone gets divorced for their own reasons, I think we can all agree that it’s better to find out that the person you’re with is wrong for you sooner rather than later.

Hopefully you find out whether or not the person you’re with is right for you before you tie the knot, because around 50% of first marriages end in divorce.

Ruining your credit is never a good idea. Even if you ruin it while you’re young, it could affect you in the future. The upside of having bad credit while you’re young instead of older is that you have time to build it back up.

It can take 7-10 years to rebuild your credit if you have a history of late payments, loan defaults, foreclosures, or bankruptcy. During those 7-10 years, you’ll have a hard time financing anything unless you have a cosigner or put down a substantial down payment.

Most people tend to make most of the bigger purchases in life when they get older such as a house or their dream car. If you have bad credit, you can kiss all of that goodbye.

If you’re investing money for your retirement, making bad decisions can mean you’ll be working your entire life. Whether you choose to pay someone to do the investing for you or handle it all yourself, it’s a lot better to take risks when you’re younger.

If you invest in stock or even real estate while you’re young and the market takes a hit, you’re not ruined. Investing is a long-term venture, so the younger you start, the more fluctuation you can withstand and still come out with a positive return.

What would you do if you went broke at 60 years old? You would be working your behind off when you really should be relaxing and getting ready to retire soon.

But if you’re 25 and broke, you still have plenty of time to earn more money. Also, nobody will judge you because it’s not unusual for people in their 20’s to not have money these days. You might have blown your money on a nice car or have an obsession with all the newest gadgets.

When you get older, you’ll be able to look back and realize how dumb you were for spending $20,000 on a brand new car when you were only 20 years old. But when you’re older and waste your money, you’ll REALLY have nothing to show for it.

Learn from your mistakes; learn from your life: 13 Lessons Life Has Taught Me

Featured photo credit: a dropped rainbow colored ice cream cone lays upside down on the sidewalk at the feet of a young child via Shutterstock

Dominique Jackson is a freelance writer, blogger, and student. He writes about technology, health, and internet marketing. You can follow him on Twitter and Google+

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How to Enable Quiet Hours in Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 makes it very easy to configure alerts for all sorts of things. It can beep when you’ve got a new email, bong when you’ve got an upcoming appointment or make all sorts of noises when you’ve not a new call on Skype. All those things are great during normal business hours, but what about those quiet times when you just want to watch your cat videos in peace?

Windows 8.1 implements a new feature called quiet hours that will help you out. 7tutorial’s Ciprian Adrian Rusen explains in a recent article that you can select times where Windows will stifle those annoying alerts and even silence Skype calls to keep things quiet. This is great if you’ve got your computer running all night while you sleep or even during work hours when you don’t want to be bothered.

If you think this feature is as useful as we do, share it with your friends.

Enable quiet hours in Windows 8.1.

Original Source – 7tutorials – Introducing Windows 8.1: What are Quiet Hours & How to Configure Them?

Most people enjoy a good nap now and then, but are you really utilizing their full power? How To Design The Perfect Nap

Featured photo credit: Tired man sleeping at work with computer. Office people sometimes dozing on workplace.via Shutterstock

Robert Kingsley is a former IT Support Engineer with a degree in computer networking. He left his desk job in 2011 to write full-time and has never looked back. You can check out more of his work on About.com where he is the Guide to Windows operating systems.

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TED News in Brief: Chip Kidd writes a design book for kids, Young-ha Kim on spirituality in South Korea

News Chip Kidd, who spoke about book cover design at TED2012, has written a children’s design manual. Photo: James Duncan Davidson

Over the past week, we’ve noticed a lot of TED-related news items in the ether. Here, some highlights:

Chip Kidd (watch his TED Talk) has just released a new book: a how-to guide to graphic design for kids. Read The New York Times’ Q&A with him in which he says, “I was utterly floored [when an editor wrote me about the book idea]. I said: ‘I don’t know anything about kids. I don’t know how to talk to them effectively. I don’t have them. I don’t even like them. This puts me out of my comfort zone. And so I’ll give it a shot.’”

Meanwhile, Young-ha Kim (watch his talk) has written a great op-ed in The International New York Times about the practice of South Korean businessmen consulting spiritual advisers on their decisions.

This week, The Economist takes a look at a troubling phenomenon in science — that the results of many studies fail to be replicated — and asks a scary question: is science self-correcting? Psychologist Daniel Kahneman (watch his TED Talk) is quoted in the opening sentence saying, “I see a train wreck looming.”

Conrad Wolfram (watch his talk) is hosting a Computer-Based Maths Education Summit in New York next month, and it’s being hosted in collaboration with UNICEF. The event will address the question: “How do we improve life opportunities worldwide by rethinking the math curriculum?”

Alissa Walker of Gizmodo took inspiration from Jeff Speck’s recent TED Talk on making cities more walkable, and gathered websites, apps and initiatives designed to make walking more viable as a form of transportation. Why? Because, as she puts it, “I live in L.A., a land of 20-lane interchanges, parking lots the size of football stadiums, and mind-bending, soul-crushing, life-altering traffic … because, a half-century ago, my city decided to redesign itself for cars, not humans.”

Over at Forbes.com, contributor Erika Andersen uses Dan Gilbert’s TED Talk “The Surprising Science of Happiness” as a leaping off point for the piece “5 Ways To Get Happier — Starting Right Now.”

Julie Taymor (watch her TED Talk) is bouncing back from Spider-man with her new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring 17 fairy children and a simple flying machine. The show premieres at the new Brooklyn Theatre for a New Audience this week.

Andras Forgacs (watch his TED Talk) and his bioprinted meat got a mention in a great article via Phys.org called “The ultimate iron chef: When 3-D printers invade the kitchen.” Part of the discussion focused on whether printed meat would be considered halal, kosher or vegetarian. (See our TED Blog piece asking vegetarians if they’d eat this meat.)

Jeff Bezos (watch his TED Talk) is the subject of a new book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.

And finally, the website DC.StreetsBlog.org gives a shout-out to Janette Sadik-Khan’s talk, “New York’s streets? Not so mean anymore.”

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Are You Putting Your Future Health At Risk? You Need To Know The Top 5 Overlooked Sports Injuries and Why They Shouldn't Be Ignored.

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The future of facial recognition: 7 fascinating facts

Technology TEDTalks What’s on the screen in this photo? All the information that can be gleaned just from an image of someone’s face. Alessandro Acquisti speaks at TEDGlobal 2013. Photo: James Duncan Davidson

Alessandro Acquisti thinks we are about to have an Adam and Eve moment, where all of a sudden we realize that we aren’t wearing any clothes. Up until now, we have — for the most part — willingly offered up our personal information online without thinking too much about it. Alessandro Acquisti: Why privacy mattersBut as Acquisti puts it in today’s talk, “any personal information can become sensitive information.”

To illustrate what he means, he focuses our attention on facial recognition software and a study he conducted in 2010, when about 2.5 billion photos were uploaded to Facebook in a single month, many of them tagged. For the study, Acquisti and his fellow researchers snapped photos of students on a college campus and found that more than 30% of them were identifiable by off-the-shelf facial recognition software. From there, using data mining algorithms, the researchers were also able to identify the first five digits of many of these students’ Social Security numbers.

To hear about Acquisti’s latest research — which examines how employers judge the kind of information they find about potential employees online (hint: it’s not good) — watch this talk. Then below, take a closer look at the latest developments in facial recognition to see where this technology is headed.

Identifiable online daters. An important part of online dating is, of course, anonymity. You make up a screen name because you want an element of surprise when you meet someone — and because you don’t want creepers showing up at your office uninvited. In 2010, Acquisti published the study, “Privacy in the Age of Augmented Reality.” He and his fellow researchers analyzed 6,000 online profiles on a dating site in the same US city. Using four cloud computing cores and the facial recognition software PittPatt, they were able to identify 1 in 10 of these anonymous daters. And remember, this technology has improved three-fold since then.
.Better tools for law enforcement. After the Boston Marathon bombing, the Boston police commissioner said that facial recognition software had not helped them identify Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, despite the fact that the two were in public records databases—and photographed at the scene. Only, those images were taken from far away, the brothers were wearing sunglasses and caps, and many shots of them were in profile — all things that make facial recognition difficult. Experts say that technology can overcome these difficulties. In an interview with Salon.com, Acquisti said that the increasing resolution of photos will help (hello, gigapixel!), as will the improved computational capabilities of computers and the ever-expanding mountain of data available from social networks. In a fascinating article via Yahoo, Paul Schuepp of the company Animetrics shares a more specific advance: software that turns 2D images into a simulated 3D model of a person’s face. In a single second, it can turn an unidentifiable partial snapshot into a very identifiable headshot. He claims the software can boost identification rates from 35 percent to 85 percent.
.Full body recognition? Allyson Rice of the University of Texas at Dallas has an idea for how facial recognition software could become even more accurate for law enforcement purposes — by becoming body recognition software. In a study published this month in Psychological Science, Rice and her fellow researchers asked college students to discern whether two photos — which had stumped facial recognition software — were indeed of the same person. They used eye-tracking equipment to discern how the participants were making the call. In the end, they found that students were far more accurate in their answers when the face and body of the subject was shown. And while participants reported judging based on facial features, their eyes were spending more time examining body build, stance, and other body features. “Psychologists and computer scientists have concentrated almost exclusively on the role of the face in person recognition,” Rice tells The Telegraph. “But our results show that the body can also provide important and useful identity information for person recognition.”
.A face scan for your phone. “Face Unlock” is a feature that allows you to unlock Android smartphones using your “faceprint,” i.e. a map of the unique structure of your face. This is just the beginning of face-as-security measure. In June, according to eWeek.com, Google patented a technology that would turn goofy facial expressions — a wink, a scrunched nose, a smile, a stuck-out tongue — into a code to unlock devices. The hope: that this would be harder to spoof than a faceprint. Turns out, apps such as FastAccess Anywhere, which uses your face as a password, can reportedly be fooled with a simple photo, says USA Today.
.Facial recognition as advertising. Could facial recognition technology be used to influence what we buy? Very likely. In 2012, an interactive ad for Choice for Girls was launched at bus stops in London. These billboards were able to scan passersby, judge their gender and show them appropriate content. Girls and women got a video, while boys and men got statistics on a subject. This ad was for a good cause, but this technology will no doubt expand — and could allow corporations and organizations to tap into our personal lives in unpredictable ways. Personalized ads as we walk down the street, a la the classic scene in Minority Report, yes. But as Acquisti notes in his talk, there’s a potentially more subtle application of this technology too: ads that can identify us and our two favorite friends on Facebook. From there, it’s a snap to create a composite image of a person who’ll star in an ad targeted just to us. For more in what’s coming in the facial recognition advertising realm, check out Leslie Stahl’s 60 Minutes segment “A Face in the Crowd: Say goodbye to anonymity.” Among other fascinating tidbits, it introduces us to FaceDeals — which notes when you’ve walked into an establishment, mines your Facebook likes and text messages a deal created just for you.
.Shattered Glass. As Acquisti notes in his talk, the fact that someone’s face can be used to find out private information is especially disconcerting given Google Glass’ emergence on the scene. In June, US lawmakers questioned Google about the privacy implications of the device and, in response, Google stressed that they “won’t be approving any facial recognition Glassware at this time.” But of course, it’s not completely up to them. In July, Stephen Balaban announced to NPR and the world that he had hacked Glass in order to give it facial recognition powers. “Essentially what I am building is an alternative operating system that runs on Glass but is not controlled by Google,” he said. On a similar note, one Michael DiGiovanni created a program called Winky for Glass that lets the wearer take a photo with a wink, rather than using the voice command.
.Your face as currency. In July, a Finnish company called Uniqul released a video of a project in the works, a pay-by-face authentication system. The idea? At a store, rather than paying with cash or a credit card, you give a “meaningful nod” to a scanner to make a purchase. A Huffington Post article describes this new tech, and also gives a peak at the Millennial ATM, which uses facial recognition as its primary security method.

Facial recognition is evolving rapidly. What here sounds cool and useful to you, and what sounds like a trip to Scarytown? For me, I may well be investing in these custom t-shirts, which claim to trip up facial recognition.

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