Monthly Archives: January 2014

What is the likelihood of making 1 million dollars from starting/being in a startup vs. trying to be an author of a best selling book?

This is an answer to the question What is the likelihood of making 1 million dollars from starting/being in a startup vs. trying to be an author of a best selling book? on Quora.

Firstly, if you want to make 1 million dollars, the highest likelihood of success is by working hard on your everyday job and saving every penny possible. This is true in most professions in developed countries.

But if you must choose between a startup and a bestseller, then there are some things to take into consideration.

What is your capital within these two areas? Do you have business knowledge within the field of your startup? Do you have an extensive network within the field? Have you read a few thousand books? Have you written for 10000 hours? Are you a famous person which are more likely to get published and sell books? Answers to these questions and other similar ones will give you a fair view on which option is best for you.

But there is one more thing which should be taken into consideration. It’s not just about what you might win. It is much more about what you will lose, since that is the most probable outcome.

In which of these cases is your loss worst? Is it the financial loss of an unsuccessful startup, or is it the loneliness of writing, and the lack of social contacts following that?

Also, which knowledge is more valuable to you? Is it the ability to write a book? Or the ability to run a company?

So, the choice should be about personal possibilities and preferences. But if we take a more objective view on the question?

I’d say that you should start a business.

Let’s take a look at writing. First, you need to read books, so that you have an understanding of what works and doesn’t in writing. Then you need to write. It will take a long time before you get proficient enough to write well. Gladwell is referring to the 10000 hours rule. When it comes to writing, I believe that it takes 10000 hours reading and 10000 hours writing, until proficiency.

Then, let’s say you write. Since it takes a lot of time to write, you really should have another job, unless you have an understanding spouse or some kind of heritage (but then you wouldn’t need to write that bestseller, would you). This other job might lead to you becoming weary and less likely to finish your book. Actually, most people writing a book never finishes it.

There is also the feedback problem with writing. Most of the time you get feedback once for each book, or perhaps once for each rewrite of a book. Well, of course you might pester your friends with unfinished manuscripts, but then you will most probably notice a slight unwillingness from their side after a while. The absence of feedback will most certainly harm your chances of writing a great book.

If you try to publish your book the traditional way, then you send your manuscript to publishers. If you are lucky someone will read your manuscript for more than a few seconds at these publisher houses. So, if the first reader actually reads your manuscript and likes what she reads, then a few more persons will have to agree on publishing your book. Most books are never published.

Disregarding how many times you have rewritten your book, the lecteurs will suggest major changes to it. Since you have no authority at all within the field, you must accept these changes, disregarding what you have learned by reading a few thousand books. So you make another rewrite, based on the whim of your lecteurs. But if your lecteurs are not bestselling authors (they never are), your book’s chances of becoming a bestseller hasn’t improved much by that.

So, you have a book written and published. Then you need a lot of luck in order for your book to be picked up and bought by book buyers. A vast majority of books don’t cover their costs. Yet another step where the odds are against you.

Today, you also have the possibility to self publish your book. This raises your odds from abysmally small to slightly abysmally small. By self publishing you may choose to publish more unique books, for the good and the bad of it.

There are so many persons involved in the creation of a bestseller, that I don’t recommend anyone to try. If you must write a book, then write it. But if you do it for the money, there are much more lucrative businesses elsewhere, like cleaning toilets and changing diapers.

Conclusively, it is much better to start a business. If your business ever becomes a success, then you can write a bestseller about that.

What effect does the shape of a glass have on the flavor of beer?

This is an answer to the question What effect does the shape of a glass have on the flavor of beer? on Quora.

The most important effect of any beer glass shape is aesthetical. How things look is important for most beer drinkers. For example, that’s the main reason why most beer producers filtrate their beer. By filtrating you remove certain flavors, to the advantage of a clear looking beer. The looks of the beer create expectations which in its turn influence the drinker’s taste of the beer positively, even though an unfiltered beer tastes more.

So, by using different beer glasses you create a visual stimuli, which in itself influence how the beer tastes.

Furthermore, there are cultural expectations on how different beers should be drunk and how they should look like. The best example of this is that some beer glasses are called weiss bier glasses (since they are supposed to be used drinking wheat beer).

Though, these cultural choices have surely derived from taste preferences for different types of beer.

Simply put, beer reacts differently from being poured and drunk from different glasses.

The general rule is that most prefer to drink fresh and stingy beer types, as wheat beer and lager, in high, slim glasses. The reason is that high glasses better manage to contain the carbonic acid of these beers than pints and big round glasses (i.e. wine glasses). Both wheat beer and lager gains in preserving the carbonic acid, because of their lighter flavor.

Some beer glasses are slim, but have a bulge at the top of the glass. The reason for this typical beer design is to better keep the carbonic acid within the beverage, while at the same time concentrate the smell at the drinker’s nose.

More heavy and flavory rich beer types, as ales and especially stouts, gains from a streamy pouring into big glasses. Such procedure mixes the beer, which awakens flavors which otherwise might stay dormant. Carbonic acid isn’t that important when drinking stout, since the beer is rich in flavor. It’s even an advantage to lose some of the carbonic acid, in order to bring out other fragrances.

Also, by having a bigger contact area between the beverage and the air, the beer lets go of more fragrances, which enhances the drinker’s experience considerably. By using a wine glass (a glass with a lower bulge which narrows into the top), you maximize the contact area, while at the same time concentrating the fragrances to the drinker’s nose. This works perfectly for wine, but is not a very good design for i.e. lager, since it leaks carbonic acid at a very high rate while lager doesn’t smell very much.

Another thing to take into consideration is how much beverage you’d like to pour into your glass. Slim glasses contain less liquid than pints, which also is an argument for using them for lagers, since it takes less time to finish them which leads to less loss of carbonic acid at the last sip.

Though these general rules apply, what matters in the end are personal preferences. Beer flavors behave differently in different glasses, and the best way to understand what you like is by experimenting. You might be surprised how much visual and cultural preconceptions shape our tastes.

Don’t Read Writing Books

I have read my fair share of writing books during my life, and I have two main reflections regarding that kind of literature.

The first thing I have found out is that books about writing are quite meaningless. There are two things you need to know to write well, and neither of them are learned by reading writing books.

The first thing you need to learn to write well, is how good writing looks like. To try to learn that by reading writing books is equivalent with learning how delicious food tastes, by reading recipe books. The only way to learn how good writing looks like, is to read good and bad books and register the difference between them.

The other thing you need to learn to write well, is to write. And you learn to write, by writing. To try learning how to write by reading writing books is like trying to learn to ride a bike, by reading a bicycle riding book. Not a good idea.

The other thing I have learned from reading writing books is that they influence your writing.

I learned my lesson when I read Stephen King’s On Writing, which I must say is one of the better books within the genre. The lesson I learned was that: If you use the same methods as another writer, then your writing will look like his. I used the exactly same methods as King described in his book. My text sounded exactly like King himself.

Now, creating literature like Stephen King might not be the worst thing possible, but being a copycat is still nothing I would like to do. Therefore I abandonded the idea promptly.

Every author has their own set of rules on how good work should look like, and which methods they should use to get there. If you copy someone else’s methods, your writing will look like that person’s too. So, you should only use someone else’s methods, if you are willing to write texts which sound like his.

One more thing. If the person who has written the writing book, is not an otherwise acclaimed author, then your writing will be influenced by that as well. You will then unconsciously write prose which is more shit than hit.

So, don’t read writing books. The best thing you can do instead is to read and write, read and write, and then write some more.

Spiritual Enlightenment is Permanent

This is an answer to the question Is spiritual enlightenment permanent? on Quora.

Interesting question. Instinctively, I’d say that it is not permanent. You need to do something to keep up enlightenment.

But heuristics has proved me wrong. I became enlightened in my late teens, haven’t done much about it since then, and still am enlightened.

I’d like to explain it like this. Enlightenment is a choice. You choose to disregard yourself. This choice will effect all other choices in your life thereafter.

Therefore, if you perceive enlightenment wrong, you might think that you need to do all those other choices to keep up the enlightenment, hence, not seeing enlightenment as permanent. But those choices are just sheer deductions of your earlier choice: to accept enlightenment.

But shouldn’t it be able to change one’s mind? It should be perfectly possible. Perhaps someone has. But such action will probably never find its way into the Great Books of History.

I have revalued my decision about being enlightened. Several times. But always, when it has come down to that initial choice I made twenty years ago, I cannot change it. Trading ego for divinity and nothingness is the right thing to do every day of the week.

Prerequisites to Reach Enlightenment

This is my answer to the question What does it take to reach enlightenment? Permanent happiness? on Quora.

I believe that there are many prerequirements needed to reach enlightenment. But permanent happiness is not one of these. I believe that happiness have nothing to do with enlightenment.

Sure, I got happy when I became enlightened, but that was an effect of discovering enlightenment. Happiness was by no means causing my enlightenment. Rather the opposite.

For example, recount the famous tale of Siddhartha Gautama. It wasn’t him being a happy prince and all that, which made him become enlightened. First he had to see someone sick, a corpse and then live ascetical for several years, before he could hit the right train. He had to have his share of unhappiness.

If the reincarnation theory is legible, then perhaps you even can’t reach enlightenment within this life, but only do your best to get a “better position” in your next.

I believe, as several persons already have stated, that the road to enlightenment is individual. I can’t tell you exactly how to become enlightened. Nobody can. You can only become enlightened by making your own separate choices how to live your life. And by that I mean choices of action, not choices of belief.

Decisions. You need to make your own decisions.

Honesty is an important prerequisite. You need to be honest to other people, but it is ultimately more important to be honest to yourself.

Acceptance is crucial.

Several answers contain introspection as an alternative. I do not agree, although it might be semantics. Enlightenment is ultimately to reach out to everything but yourself. It is about eradicating yourself. Introspection is the opposite, and therefore not so great tool for reaching enlightenment.

Responsibility for your actions.

Love.

The Feeling of Enlightment

This is my answer to the question How does it feel to experience the state of nirvana? on Quora.

I reached enlightment by four separate steps of insight while I was 17-18 years. Each and every of these insights where filled with a joyous, fantastic feeling of bliss together with amazement and oneness with everything. A great feeling.

The thing is that I didn’t fully realize that I was enlightened. Yeah, from time to time I thought that I might have reached nirvana, but I didn’t thing so much about it. It is not a big deal to me, since I am not a Buddhist. It hasn’t been until the recent years of my life, that I have realized that I am enlightened (I am 38 now).

So, the feeling of discovering enlightment is hilarious (at least it was for me). It’s like ten thousands orgasms.

But being enlightened is totally empty. It doesn’t make you feel anything. It curbs feeling, although curbing is the wrong way to express it. It is the feeling of nothingness.

Why I Write About Abusive Relationships, and Pretty Much Everything

After reading the post To the Abused, a friend asked me why I had written it.

The simple answer is a risk/reward analysis. The few hours it takes to compose, write and rewrite that blogpost, as well as its predecessor, are well worth the time if they will help a single victim of intimate partner violence to change her life to the better.

But I guess the question wasn’t meant that way. The emphasis of the question might have been why I had written it, since I have never been in an abusive relationship myself and my profession has nothing to do with the subject.

My answer to such implication is that I am an intellectual. My life is about recognizing and understanding underlying structures and create explanations and thought structures, which will help people confront different situations during their lifetime.

Which is fanzy words for saying that I am dedicated to thinking and solving problems. It’s deeply buried into my nature, and I can’t do much about it. Other than freeing as much time as possible to write here and thereby free myself slightly of the weight of being intellectual.

Publish Your Mistakes on Your Blog

You might have noticed that my two last posts, To Victims of Abuse: Take Your Responsibility and To the Abused, actually is the same post written in two different styles. Let me explain why I have written two posts about the same thing.

It was while I was writing the first article, that I found that it wasn’t sufficiently emotionally compelling. As much of my writing, the post had a teaching tone rambling through it. I have no problem with that myself, I can enjoy reading that specific style.

But I know that the vast majority of readers are not emotionally aroused by intellectual reflections. They have severed the bridge between their intellectuality and emotions, thus created abstract thinking. And when we read great books like The Robert Collier Letter Book, we understand that the most important for any writer is to arouse feelings within the reader.

So, my first text was bad.

But I believe that the topic is immensely important. I wanted to reach for as many people who has the need to read about it as possible.

I chose to write the other text as a letter. I was most certainly unconsciously influenced by The Robert Collier Letter Book, but also by the fact that personal writing touches people and the best way to write something compellingly personal, is by writing a letter written for a specific person. The other text is the result of me trying to write such letter.

Furthermore, I wanted to have both texts, so I could compare the two styles and see for myself, if my hypothesis was right that the letter form would be more compassionate.

I believe that my second text is better. What do you think?

Finally, there is one more reason to why I finished the first text, while I already had decided to write a better, more intimate version. That reason is that different texts will appeal to different people. There might be some people who like the first version better.

But I haven’t always reasoned that way.

Before I started any of my blogs www.torbjornperttu.se and www.torbjornperttu.com, I had no publishing arena. Surely I could have published whatever I had written on various internet communities and dashboards. But that would be to no avail.

Because I have my blogs now, I have a platform where I can launch my writing. Therefore I can afford to write several texts on the same topic. Without my selfcreated platforms, I would have to “make an impression” on magazine gate keepers. Then I could not afford to write “bad” pieces, since that might lead to false preconceptions that I am a “bad” writer.

Finishing texts is important for development into a proficient writer. Therefore I suggest everyone who wants to write today, to start a blog. The feedback you might get from your audience, by click statistics, incoming links and/or commenteries, is far more valuable than any second hand opinion made by editor readers who are trying to second guess the audience.

When you have a blog, you are free to improvise, to test and to fail. That is the most important asset any writer could have. Therefore, if you want to write, create your own blog and publish your texts there.

To the Abused

Are you the victim within an abusive relationship? Then there is something you should know. You are responsible for your situation.

This might sound harsh. It might come as a punch in your face. But you must realize the fact that you are responsible for your life. You are the one who are best predisposed of making any changes of any kind. Not your friends. Not your family. And especially not your abusive boyfriend (of course, you might be abused by a female, but statistics tell us that intimate partner violence mostly is commited by men, and I will stick to that in my examples. My dearest apologies if that is not the case for you).

The reason why you must take action in this matter, is that you are the one who best knows about your situation. Others might know something, but you are certainly the one who knows best. You are the pro.

Other persons don’t have the same level of insight into your situation. That is the main reason why you are most inclined to do something. Also, you are the person who gains the most changing your situation. Not the police. Not your BFF. And certainly not your boyfriend.

As soon as you have realized that you are responsible of your life, it is time to take action.

The first step is to make sure that you are within an abusive relationship. You can skip this paragraph and the next two if you are. This is more important than many think. Often, the reason why a separation process from a violent partner takes time, is that the victim is not sure whether her partner is abusive or not. This might sound like BS for outsiders, but an abuser is often manipulative, and puts effort in making his partner believe that he means well.

How do you make sure whether someone is abusing you or not? There is a simple solution to that. Next time, and every time after, that he hurts you, physically, verbally, socially or whatever way, you tell him how you feel. Something like: That action of yours made me feel bad. Don’t be afraid about being specific.

If the possible abuser really listens to you emphatically and tries to change his behaviour, he might not be an abusive bastard and you may decide to continue your relationship. But if he responds that he doesn’t care or blames you for your feelings or doesn’t try to change, then he is a mean motherfucker and you should take step two as soon as possible.

Step two is to seek help. One part of abusive behaviour is to isolate the victim from about everything else: friends, family, strangers and the whole society. This is done physically as well as psychologically. An abuser tries to blame his victim, make her blame herself and make her ashamed. Allt his helps him isolate her.

Therefore, many victims don’t seek outer help, since they are ashamed and afraid etc. It is he who should be afraid. There are loads of people who would be glad to help you, if they knew about your situation.

Therefore, the first step of seeking help is telling people. As many as possible, which would be pretty much everyone. If you are afraid of physical retribution of any kind, like assault or manslaughter, you might want to be discrete with contacting others until you have taken the precautions necessary for your own safety.

Thereafter, leave him. Try to reach this phase as soon as possible. Swiftness is important, since living with an abusive person is draining and a sad mess. It is not the happy life, you are supposed to live.

Please, take responsibility of your life. Communicate. That is your greatest weapon. Yes, and your inner power too.

Now, go live the life you are meant to live. Best luck to you.

To Victims of Abuse: Take Your Responsibility!

I am currently reading Provocative Therapy by Frank Farrelly, which has led me to an insight regarding abusive relationships, since the subject is fresh to me.

A most common mantra about abusive relationships is that no blame should be cast on the victim. The responsibility of an abusive situation lies solely on the perpetrator. I’d like to oppose this view and take a different stance: the victim has full responsibility for being abused.

This is nothing new.

I’d like to explain my statement further. The person who is most likely to notice and apprehend an abusive relationship is the victim. The person most likely to change an abusive relationship is the victim. Therefore it is the victim’s responsibility to acknowledge and change her abusive relationships.

I have met some people who has been victims of abuse. I have noticed one striking similarity between these people. They all have a tendency towards timidity and not speaking their minds.

Well, it is easy to claim that their personalities have been shaped by the abuse, and therefore they have become introverts. But I believe that the behaviour of not speaking one’s mind, is a prerequisite for becoming abused. It is by disregarding communication you become a victim.

The main problem is that people who are refraining their social responsiveness, do so because it has been a successful strategy. Curbing social responsiveness is usually a successful strategy for the individual, as long as they work within an friendly environment. But within an abusive relationship, nonresponsiveness is devastating.

First of all, any abuser chooses victims who don’t speak their minds. He knows that silence and timidity is cruical, since he need to lock up his victim to passivity and noncommunication. A victim who speaks her mind, will put up more of a fight, and are more likely to speak with friends, family and authorities.

Simply by being communicative you will fend off many potential threats at an early stage. For example, if your boyfriend does anything incriminating, simply announce it loudly publicly, at a moment he is present: You know what? When I tried to pick up knitting as a hobby, Steve thought it was such a bad idea, that he threw away the whole starting kit. Wasn’t that childish?

The first problem with abuse, from the victim’s perspective, is to identify the situation as abuse. The refrained persona will keep her thoughts and doubts to herself, and therefore create imperative for abusive tendencies to continue, even before she recognized them as such.

Instead, anyone who takes her own responsibility in any situation, will react to abusive tendencies. Any reaction will do. The easiest way is to say that a specific action is hurtful, and kindly ask the abuser to stop. By taking this one single responsible action, it is possible to value the intentions of any behaviour. If the other person, who has caused the hurtful action, actually does something, that person is caring about you. Otherwise he isn’t.

If a hurtful action is repeated, without any efforts from the hurting side, the responsible person will tell the other to stop. To indulge oneself in passivity and noncommunication is the irresponsible thing to do.

Finally, the responsible victim takes action. She asks other to help her, she contact the authorities if the abuser’s actions are unlawful and she gets the hell out of there.

It is the irresponsible person who falsely believes that everything will be ok. It is she who doesn’t clearly state how she feels. It is the irresponsible person who doesn’t take action and it is she who believe that he will change, other than superficially.

Therefore, if you are within an abusive relationship, it is your responsibility to change. The person who is abusing is gaining from your dysfunctional relationship and will not stop by himself.

You are responsible to seek help from other, may it be your family, may it be the police, may it be a stranger. There are lots of people willing to help victims of abuse.

So, to be perfectly clear about it: you have responsibility for your life and to make the best of it. You have responsibility to communicate with the abuser, with other people. You have the responsibility to take action and to leave him. Because nobody else can do that for you.

Take your responsibility. Change your life.