Computer Guy

Computer Guy
Sunset at DoubleM Systems (DBLM.com), Del Mar, California

Friday, June 21, 2013

Testing: Big Five

To learn about the Big Five (free, anonymous) personality test, 
read more on the Wikipedia page.


Take this psychology test to find out about your (and your potential hires') personality! This test measures what many psychologists consider to be the five fundamental dimensions of personality.
  • Learn more about the Big Five by reading answers to commonly asked questions.
  • Read the consent form, which explains the benefits of this free, anonymous test and your rights.
  • There are no "right" or "wrong" answers, but note that you will not obtain meaningful results unless you answer the questions seriously.
  • These results are being used in scientific research, so please try to give accurate answers.
  • Your results will be displayed as soon as you submit your answers.

I took the test last week, and here are the results:



Wednesday, June 19, 2013

50 Ways Ordinary People Get World-Class



  1. Know what you want. Clarity is power. And vague goals promote vague results.
  2. Remember that every problem has a solution. Maybe you just can’t see it. Yet.
  3. In this Age of Dramatic Distraction, the performer who focuses the best wins the most.
  4. Before someone will help you, you need to help them.
  5. Become the most passionate person you know. It’ll be contagious.
  6. Know more about your craft/the work you do than anyone who has ever done the work you do…in the history of the world.
  7. Join The 5 am Club. Your most valuable hours are 5am-8am. They have the least interruptions.
  8. Devote yourself to learning something new about your field of mastery every day. Success belongs to the relentless learners. Because as you know more, you can achieve more.
  9. Remember that when you transform your fitness, you’ll transform your business.
  10. Don’t check your mobile when you’re meeting with another person. It’s rude. And rude people don’t reach world-class.
  11. Every time you do what scares you, you take back the power that you gave to the thing that scared you. And so you become more powerful.
  12. A problem is only a problem if you make the choice to see it as a problem.
  13. Stop being a victim. Your business and personal life was made by you. No one else is responsible. To make it better, make better choices. And new decisions.
  14. You can lead without a title. Don’t wait to get a position to stand for excellence, peak quality and overdelivery on every expectation.
  15. Find your own style. Be an original. Every superstar differentiated themselves from The Herd. And marched to their own drumbeat.
  16. Understand that when you play small with your success, you betray your potential. And the birthright you were born under.
  17. Eat less food and you’ll get more done.
  18. As you become more successful, stay really really hungry. Nothing fails like success. Because when you’re successful, it’s easy to stop outlearning+outOverDelivering+outthinking and outexecuting everyone around you. (Success is Beautiful. And dangerous).
  19. If you’re not overprepared, you’re underprepared.
  20. The only level of great manners to play at is “Exceedingly Polite”. In our world, this alone will make you a standout. And differentiate you in your marketplace.
  21. Remember that the moment you think you’re a Master, you lose your Mastery. And the minute you think you know everything, you know nothing.
  22. To double your results, double your level of execution.
  23. Invest in your personal and pro development. All superstars do.
  24. You don’t get lucky. You create lucky.
  25. When you push through a difficult project, you don’t get to the other side. You reach The Next Level.
  26. Smile. And remember to inform your face.
  27. Spend time in solitude every day. Your best ideas live there.
  28. Debrief on how you lived out your day every night in a journal. This will not only record your personal history, it will make you uber-clear on what you’re doing right and what needs to be improved.
  29. If you're not being criticized a lot, you’re not doing very much. Ridicule is the price of ambition.
  30. Develop a monomaniacal focus on just a few things. The secret to productivity is simplicity.
  31. To get the results very few people have, be strong enough to do what very few people are willing to do.
  32. Rest. Recover. It’ll make you stronger.
  33. Buy a smaller TV and build a larger library.
  34. Remember that the bigger the goal, the stronger a person you must become to achieve that goal. So goal-achieving is a superb practice for character-building.
  35. Food fuels your body. Learning feeds your mind.
  36. Don’t ask for respect. Earn it.
  37. Finish what you start. And always end strong.
  38. Breathe.
  39. In business, don’t play to survive. Play to win.
  40. Protect your good name. It’s your best asset.
  41. Remember that words have power. Use the language of leadership versus the vocabulary of a victim.
  42. Give more than you take. The marketplace rewards generosity.
  43. Know that if it’s not messy, you’re not making progress.
  44. Be a hero to a kid.
  45. In business, aim for iconic. Go for legendary. Make history by how awesome you are at what you do.
  46. Please don’t confuse activity with productivity. Many many people are simply busy being busy.
  47. Your doubts are liars. Your fears are traitors. Stop buying the goods they are attempting to sell you.
  48. The best anti-aging remedy in the world is working really hard.
  49. World-Class performers have no plan B. Failure just isn’t an option.
  50. You have the power to change the world—one brave act and one person at a time. Please use it.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Never Hire Friends or Family


A very successful serial entrepreneur gave a talk recently and this was one of his screens.  Under "Building The Team", the second point, after Trustworthy, is listed "Never Hire Friends or Family".  You rarely see it so unequivocally stated, or with such a high priority, but there it is.

The phrase "Friends or Family" is the term used to describe the first source for funding for startups.

Therefore, when it comes to Friends and Family, it's OK to take their investment money, but don't hire them.


Friday, June 14, 2013

Smartphone Button Hall of Fame: Voice to text, iPhone 5


Speech recognition has finally come to Everyman.  Free!  Speaker independent, no training necessary, highly accurate, and a built-in part of the operating system so that it can be used in all apps.  This feature also enables multi-language translation.

This single button brings the power of the computer without the tedium of typing.  Generations to come will look at the keyboard as a curiosity from a time when computers were still evolving.  Voice recognition takes a lot of processor cycles, and that means Time.  It's just no good if it takes more than a second to understand what you are saying, and until recently computer chips just weren't fast enough to keep up.  Software, of course, has improved as well, and now we have this enormous power in the palm of our hands.

This allows huge increases in productivity by speaking emails and text messages because voice is so much faster than typing.  Additionally, if more gets done, it should result in higher profits.

Recent offerings by Google allow instantaneous translation to text, so that you see the words appear as you speak them.

What fun!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Motivation: Think twice about your technique



The Law of Unintended Consequences applies to all of our actions.  Motivation has been described as being composed of both "carrot and stick".  This image shows a variant of the stick approach.  I am not a proponent of this method.  The Law of Karma is another of the universal laws, possibly the mother of all of laws.  

For other posts on the topic of Motivation, click here.


Monday, June 10, 2013

Testing: Know yourself, know your people



A key requirement for success is to Know What You Want, and to that end there are many helpful resources, not the least of which is my little contribution at Think - Plan - Do - Repeat, and the book that I usually recommend First Things First.

But even if you (think) you know what you want, the best first step in achieving it is to Know Yourself. That may not be as easy as it sounds, because we are biased, being both the observer and the observed. This violates a basic scientific principle of objectivity.

Thankfully, there has been much work done in this field of knowing oneself. There are tests that have been created to learn a lot about people in a short period of time, the length of time it take to undergo the test. These tests are great for businesses looking to hire certain sorts of people who would be successful in certain sorts of jobs.

Do you use personality/temperament tests in your business?  Have you taken one or more?  Do you find them accurate and useful?

One of tests that I recommend is the Keirsey Temperament Sorter http://www.keirsey.com/. I have taken this test myself and found it to be almost creepy-accurate when I read the results. They summarize the test results with a detailed text, and a catchy headline. If you have an interest in seeing how I was rated, check out this link: Rational: Portrait of the Mastermind (INTJ). Enjoy the read.

Take the test yourself. It's free. And then have your key people take the test. Don't worry about the results because there are no wrong answers!  Let me know what you think, ok?