Month: July 2013

The World’s Largest Building is Four Times the Size of Vatican City

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The world’s largest building is located in Chengdu, China and recently displaced Dubai airport from atop the #1 spot:

The New Century Global Center, which recently opened in Chendgu, China, is 328 feet high, 1,640 feet long, and 1,312 feet wide. That’s roughly 20 times the size of Sydney’s legendary Opera House, four times the size of Vatican City, and three times the size of the Pentagon. And its 420 acres in floor space is nearly the size of the entire country of Monaco (499 acres).

The world's largest building is in Chengdu, China

The world’s largest building is in Chengdu, China

For more photos of this monstrosity, check out this link.

Not to be outdone in the height department: China is currently building the world’s tallest building.

Byron Wien’s Notes on Life in His Eighty Years on Earth

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Byron Wien, of Blackstone Group, has published a list of twenty tips on living the good life. Presented in its entirety, here, this is some of the best life advice I’ve read in a single blog post:

1) Concentrate on finding a big idea that will make an impact on the people you want to influence. The Ten Surprises, which I started doing in 1986, has been a defining product. People all over the world are aware of it and identify me with it. What they seem to like about it is that I put myself at risk by going on record with these events which I believe are probable and hold myself accountable at year-end. If you want to be successful and live a long, stimulating life, keep yourself at risk intellectually all the time.

2) Network intensely. Luck plays a big role in life, and there is no better way to increase your luck than by knowing as many people as possible. Nurture your network by sending articles, books and emails to people to show you’re thinking about them. Write op-eds and thought pieces for major publications. Organize discussion groups to bring your thoughtful friends together.

3) When you meet someone new, treat that person as a friend. Assume he or she is a winner and will become a positive force in your life. Most people wait for others to prove their value. Give them the benefit of the doubt from the start. Occasionally you will be disappointed, but your network will broaden rapidly if you follow this path.

4) Read all the time. Don’t just do it because you’re curious about something, read actively. Have a point of view before you start a book or article and see if what you think is confirmed or refuted by the author. If you do that, you will read faster and comprehend more.

5) Get enough sleep. Seven hours will do until you’re sixty, eight from sixty to seventy, nine thereafter, which might include eight hours at night and a one-hour afternoon nap.

6) Evolve. Try to think of your life in phases so you can avoid a burn-out. Do the numbers crunching in the early phase of your career. Try developing concepts later on. Stay at risk throughout the process.

7) Travel extensively. Try to get everywhere before you wear out. Attempt to meet local interesting people where you travel and keep in contact with them throughout your life. See them when you return to a place.

8) When meeting someone new, try to find out what formative experience occurred in their lives before they were seventeen. It is my belief that some important event in everyone’s youth has an influence on everything that occurs afterwards.

9) On philanthropy my approach is to try to relieve pain rather than spread joy. Music, theatre and art museums have many affluent supporters, give the best parties and can add to your social luster in a community. They don’t need you. Social service, hospitals and educational institutions can make the world a better place and help the disadvantaged make their way toward the American dream.

10) Younger people are naturally insecure and tend to overplay their accomplishments. Most people don’t become comfortable with who they are until they’re in their 40’s. By that time they can underplay their achievements and become a nicer, more likeable person. Try to get to that point as soon as you can.

11) Take the time to give those who work for you a pat on the back when they do good work. Most people are so focused on the next challenge that they fail to thank the people who support them. It is important to do this. It motivates and inspires people and encourages them to perform at a higher level.

12) When someone extends a kindness to you write them a handwritten note, not an e-mail. Handwritten notes make an impact and are not quickly forgotten.

13) At the beginning of every year think of ways you can do your job better than you have ever done it before. Write them down and look at what you have set out for yourself when the year is over.

14) The hard way is always the right way. Never take shortcuts, except when driving home from the Hamptons. Short-cuts can be construed as sloppiness, a career killer.

15) Don’t try to be better than your competitors, try to be different. There is always going to be someone smarter than you, but there may not be someone who is more imaginative.

16) When seeking a career as you come out of school or making a job change, always take the job that looks like it will be the most enjoyable. If it pays the most, you’re lucky. If it doesn’t, take it anyway, I took a severe pay cut to take each of the two best jobs I’ve ever had, and they both turned out to be exceptionally rewarding financially.

17) There is a perfect job out there for everyone. Most people never find it. Keep looking. The goal of life is to be a happy person and the right job is essential to that.

18) When your children are grown or if you have no children, always find someone younger to mentor. It is very satisfying to help someone steer through life’s obstacles, and you’ll be surprised at how much you will learn in the process.

19) Every year try doing something you have never done before that is totally out of your comfort zone. It could be running a marathon, attending a conference that interests you on an off-beat subject that will be populated by people very different from your usual circle of associates and friends or traveling to an obscure destination alone. This will add to the essential process of self-discovery.

20) Never retire. If you work forever, you can live forever. I know there is an abundance of biological evidence against this theory, but I’m going with it anyway.

What an incredible list. I hope you share this wisdom with your friends. There isn’t one bullet point above with which I disagree.

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(hat tip: @ritholtz/@explore)

On The Relationship Status on Facebook

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The title “Why I Married My Best Friend on Facebook” is ambiguous, but as you read this story of how Lilly O’Donnell changed her relationship status, you are left with a few interesting takeaways:

The virtual marriage came in handy again a few years later when I found myself in another relationship. I was happy, but after the disaster of my previous rush to labels and rings, had no desire to use the “b” and “g” words. I didn’t even tell my IRL friends about the relationship for the first year or so, let alone have any desire to announce it on Facebook. And when it ended, never having really been labeled, I didn’t have to announce that, either.

The fishbowl experience of Facebook and other online profiles seems in contradiction to this generation’s reputation for being noncommittal–to career paths, to jobs, to relationships. We live our lives out online, on full display, but we also want the freedom to change our minds every few days, to have ambiguous relationships and embrace what’s been labeled “hook-up culture.”

The simple, seemingly cutesy and trendy move of “marrying” your best friend on Facebook is a way around that contradiction–maintaining privacy without the suspicious omissions of the information-less profile.

I wouldn’t do this, but I can see why some would. This idea that everything has to be shared on Facebook is bizarre to me.

Karen Cheng Learns to Dance in One Year

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Karen Cheng didn’t know how to dance but was willing to learn. In this post on her website, she describes the process she went through to become a dancer in one year:

People who watch me dance today sometimes assume I’ve been dancing for many years. I made this video so you could see the awkward body that started just one year ago.

Here’s my secret: I practiced everywhere. At bus stops. In line at the grocery store. At work — Using the mouse with my right hand and practicing drills with my left hand. You don’t have to train hardcore for years to become a dancer. But you must be willing to practice and you better be hungry.

This isn’t a story about dancing, though. It’s about having a dream and not knowing how to get there — but starting anyway. Maybe you’re a musician dreaming of writing an original song. You’re an entrepreneur dying to start your first venture. You’re an athlete but you just haven’t left the chair yet.

When you watch someone perform, you’re seeing them at the top of their game. When they score the winning point or sell their company for millions — you’re seeing them in their moment of glory. What you don’t see is the thousands of hours of preparation. You don’t see the self doubt, the lost sleep, the lonely nights spent working. You don’t see the moment they started. The moment they were just like you, wondering how they could ever be good.

The incredible transformation in the quality of her dancing may be seen in this time lapse video:

 

I think this is a solid testament that while practice may not make you perfect, it will make you very good at something.

World Domination Summit 2013: The Blog Posts

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This past weekend, I attended the third annual World Domination Summit. I am still processing my thoughts, compiling notes, and thinking how I am going to blog about such a big event. In the meantime, however, I thought I’d highlight some of the posts by other conference attendees that resonated with me:

1) Todd Henry’s “It was Beautiful”:

The beauty of WDS isn’t the programming, or the venue (which was amazing), or the “networking” like at most conferences. The beauty is that there are several thousand people all gathered in one place, centered on one ideal. The encouragement could be scooped out of the air with a spoon and swallowed whole. Not “Oh – great! You should go do your thing, and best of luck (because honestly, you’ll need it since you’re about to fall flat on your face!)” encouragement, but the kind that is real, trustworthy, and rooted in deep experience. One of the speakers, Tess Vigeland, shared her story of leaving her “dream job” as host of Marketplace Money to start over, and was honest enough to say that it was difficult, painful, and uncertain. Not the kind of fare you typically get at conferences where the goal is polish rather than gut-level realism.

2) Matt Fangman’s recap of World Domination Summit 2013 (there’s also this great lede: “When people would ask me what WDS was about, I really couldn’t tell them”):

I’ve been to conferences about technology, creativity and community before. Why was this one different? I think it’s simple. Faith. If it’s possible to boil WDS down to one word, it is faith.

Faith in ourselves—That we can and should live a life of meaning and take the risks necessary to walk that path.

Faith in each other—That we can connect with others on their own journey and share and encourage each other along the way.

Faith in the world—That it’s open and receptive to our dreams and not quite as scary as we think it is.

3) “To Those Who Believe” by Joseph Peterson, who attended WDS2013 because his kind friend Anna bought a ticket in his name at the end of WDS2012:

Now I’m reeling from my own WDS weekend, trying to process everything I experienced in Portland. And with the clarity of being on this end of the experience, I see the spark of inspiration Anna saw. She was someone who was in a position to make a difference in the life of someone she believed in, and luckily, she was the kind of person to act on it. Last weekend it felt like I just met 3,000 more of ‘that kind’ of person, and I can gratefully say I am the better for it.

4) Andy Traub’s recap was excellent, and these two points I found most salient:

Diversity is required
When there is no diversity there is no beauty. I spoke with a yoga instructor for an hour about marriage, parenting and faith. I spoke with a man and his life partner about their restaurant winning new restaurant of the year and how they were paying their workers a livable wage and giving full benefits. I struggled to understand a man through his heavy accent as he told his story of wanting to see his poetry published. I love a blue sky but a rainbow beats it every time. (Tweet This) The diversity of experiences, perspectives and origins created a beautiful community. If we are all the same there’s not much to talk about.

There is beauty in weakness and unfulfilled dreams
Some of the speakers were midstream. Their story was not finished. They were in the gray. They were figuring it out. I liked those speakers the most. They were so human, vulnerable and honest. They were so brave to share their struggles with us. We are drawn to one another through our weaknesses much more than our strengths.

5) Rebecca Beaton’s “How To Dominate the World.” I met Rebecca at the tail end of WDS (after-after party), and I like what she has to say about building a tribe:

I had never been in a group of people before where I felt such immediate, deep, genuine connections; and I do not doubt that the difference here was that the majority of people at this conference were living lives of self-expression, passion, purpose, meaning, creativity, adventure & freedom. The amount of self-love and self-acceptance that comes with living your life in this way leads to genuine openness and less judgement towards others.

6) Jackie Lea Shelley shares a post titled “How to Change a Life” where a number of things come together beginning with the inaugural WDS in 2011 for an intimate friendship with authors Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus (The Minimalists):

That is the pure truth. Had it not been for @julien‘s tweet, had it not been for @jfm‘s essay, had it not been for @chrisguillebeau deciding to hold the World’s Best Conference, had it not been for @AJLeon and @melissaleon and the Misfits, I would not be the @jackinessity that sits here today, chronicling the journey.

The truth is, Joshua and Ryan didn’t just change my life. They also saved it.

7) One of my favorite stories from last year’s World Domination Summit was Rami’s $100 bet (as profiled in this post). After I read his post, I knew he would be successful in getting his book published within a year. I also knew that had he achieved his goal, he would be on stage at #WDS2013 to claim his $100 prize. And he did just that. This year, Rami’s got another amazing story to tell, to the tune of recruiting some 20 people to write books of their own!

So it looks like by WDS2014, if everyone follows through, there will be 20 more finished books in this world. I’ve never been more proud of my fellow human beings, at taking on such an incredible challenge.

Seriously. It’s going to be a wild ride. I really hope they all win the bets they’ve placed with me. I may end up owing a lot of people some money, but man will it be worth it.

8) One of the most inspiring moments from World Domination Summit was a performance by Steve  Schalchlin, a musician who’s discovered music while as a way of coping with a diagnosis of HIV. When an experimental drug worked for him, he called music his savior. Writing in a blog humbly titled Living in the Bonus Round, he shares his thoughts about World Domination Summit in two posts:

I went to the website, hoping it wasn’t some weird religious thing. (It wasn’t). Well, then, what exactly was it? There were videos and they resembled the TED Talks. Motivational and inspirational speakers talking about self-empowerment, etc. Okay, I like that.
 
Even more, no commercial sponsors. No corporate donors logos allowed. Double really? He turns down money? In fact, there was a video from last year. A donor insisted on giving him money, anonymously, and rather than keep it, he gave each of the 1000 attendees an envelope with $100 in it. What? He gave away $100,000 that he could have kept for himself?
 
Who IS this guy? 
 
I also checked another page: “If you are a manager or agent or a performer and you would like to submit for an appearance, the answer is we don’t take submissions. We will find you.”
Sketch courtesy of @rohdesign.

Sketch courtesy of @rohdesign.

Steve’s performance at WDS was raw, emotional, and beautiful. One of the songs he performed was “Somebody’s Friend,” and it resonated with me deeply. The video from WDS isn’t available yet, but here he is on stage in NYC a week prior, singing this very song.

9) Sarah K. Peck’s excellent post likens WDS not to the college experience, but to an extended family. Her post is well worth the read:

The college metaphor, however, doesn’t quite fit. Because, more than college, the community at WDS is like a family to me. New faces approached me nervously, wondering how they were going to meet everyone and do it all. “You’re not,” I told newcomers, “It’s improbable that you’ll meet all 3,000 people.” But there are so many wonderful souls with “yes” attitudes that meeting a handful of them – five, ten, fifteen – and staying in touch with them over the years is the perfect thing to do at a conference like this. Start a few conversations. Connect with people and tell them you story. Share a lunch. Compare notes on the speakers. Talk about what you’re working on (or struggling with, or proud of). Say hi in person to someone you’ve been listening to online.

For those of you who came for the first time, over the next year I bet you’ll find the magic keeps happening. It doesn’t necessarily happen in the form of a job opening that falls in your email inbox the next day (although perhaps that might happen!)—but sparks start. Seeds are planted. A few months later, as you’re working through more of your world domination plans (or quiet, far-less-glamorous plans to stock your savings or launch a product), you’ll remember someone you met or recall a piece of advice or a story that will hit you and make you smile. You’ll email a friend you met and say, shyly, “Hey, can I bother you to ask a question?” And then you’ll notice that things start happening a little quicker. A little more urgently. With joy.

And then there’s this bit of wisdom: that it’s okay to have a day job, even if the majority of the people you meet at WDS appear to have blazed a path of their own:

Not everyone quits their job. I think this is really important to say. Sometimes WDS feels like a club for job-quitters, and it’s not always the right time for you or the right thing for you to do. Your life is not everyone else’s life. Sometimes it seems so hard to watch everyone quitting their jobs or starting their dreams and you wonder, “when is it going to be my turn?” Something that’s often overlooked in the shiny-internet-spaces is how long it can take to build an idea, a project, a community, a following, or a dream. There can be a distinct separation of time between knowing what you want to do and putting it to reality. It is not a bad thing to be practical and pragmatic (keeping your day job to pay the bills for a while can actually be a smart move, for example)–up to a point.

I’ve been following Sarah’s blog for over a year, and like me, she’s one of the folks who’s come to every WDS since 2011. The conference this year was six times as big as the one in 2011, but I made it a goal to find Sarah and give her a hug at the conference after her incredible effort to raise more than $30,000 for Charity:Water. And she did it!

10)

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Note: this post will be updated a few more times until I profile between five and ten blog posts.

Desert Bus: The Worst Video Game Ever Created

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I’d never heard of Desert Bus before, so I read with fascination this piece in The New Yorker touting it as the worst game ever created. It is remarkable how the game was able to pivot many years after its release and become a major fundraiser for Child’s Play, a charity that donates video games and consoles to children’s wards in hospitals around the world

The drive from Tucson, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada, takes approximately eight hours when travelling in a vehicle whose top speed is forty-five miles per hour. In Desert Bus, an unreleased video game from 1995 conceived by the American illusionists and entertainers Penn Jillette and Teller, players must complete that journey in real time. Finishing a single leg of the trip requires considerable stamina and concentration in the face of arch boredom: the vehicle constantly lists to the right, so players cannot take their hands off the virtual wheel; swerving from the road will cause the bus’s engine to stall, forcing the player to be towed back to the beginning. The game cannot be paused. The bus carries no virtual passengers to add human interest, and there is no traffic to negotiate. The only scenery is the odd sand-pocked rock or road sign. Players earn a single point for each eight-hour trip completed between the two cities, making a Desert Bus high score perhaps the most costly in gaming.

Fascinating and worth reading in entirety.

The Purpose of Nostalgia

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A nice New York Times piece summarizing the purpose of nostalgia:

Most people report experiencing nostalgia at least once a week, and nearly half experience it three or four times a week. These reported bouts are often touched off by negative events and feelings of loneliness, but people say the “nostalgizing” — researchers distinguish it from reminiscing — helps them feel better.

To test these effects in the laboratory, researchers at Southampton induced negative moods by having people read about a deadly disaster and take a personality test that supposedly revealed them to be exceptionally lonely. Sure enough, the people depressed about the disaster victims or worried about being lonely became more likely to wax nostalgic. And the strategy worked: They subsequently felt less depressed and less lonely.

Nostalgic stories aren’t simple exercises in cheeriness, though. The memories aren’t all happy, and even the joys are mixed with a wistful sense of loss. But on the whole, the positive elements greatly outnumber the negative elements, as the Southampton researchers found by methodically analyzing stories collected in the laboratory as well as in a magazine named Nostalgia.

I’ll forever associate nostalgia with this Mad Men bit on “The Carousel”:

Adrift: A Love Letter to the San Francisco Fog

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Almost three years since Simon Christen released “The Unseen Sea” (still one of my favourite timelapse videos), he now unveils his most recent project, Adrift. It is a visual love letter to the fog of San Francisco.

In his own words, Simon writes:

“Adrift” is a love letter to the fog of the San Francisco Bay Area. I chased it for over two years to capture the magical interaction between the soft mist, the ridges of the California coast and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. This is where “Adrift” was born.

The weather conditions have to be just right for the fog to glide over the hills and under the bridge. I developed a system for trying to guess when to make the drive out to shoot, which involved checking the weather forecast, satellite images and webcams multiple times a day. For about 2 years, if the weather looked promising, I would set my alarm to 5am, recheck the webcams, and then set off on the 45-minute drive to the Marin Headlands.

I spent many mornings hiking in the dark to only find that the fog was too high, too low, or already gone by the time I got there. Luckily, once in a while the conditions would be perfect and I was able to capture something really special. Adrift is a collection of my favorite shots from these excursions into the ridges of the Marin Headlands.

Stunning.

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(hat tip: @Colossal)

Sonkers, Grunts, Slumps, and Crumbles

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I had no idea that there were so many variations of pie in the United States until I read this interesting New York Times piece:

A big, deep, soupy mess of warm fruit or soft sweet potato, the sonker was made to feed everyone who happened to be working at the farm on any given summer day. Like the many other players in the loose-knit team of dishes based on cooked fruit and bread, it began as a way to stretch fruit that was perhaps past its glory or make use of economical fillings like wild blackberries.

A big pan of sonker was easy to haul to the church supper or the event in the South known as the “covered dish.” It is less fussy than a traditional round pie, and easier to serve to a crowd.

At this point, the astute reader is probably thinking this sounds like a cobbler with a funny name. But what is a cobbler, really? Is it the freewheeling cousin of the crisp? The Southern answer to the thrifty New England brown Betty? A pan dowdy with integrity? A pie for lazy people?

If you are looking for clarity, I apologize. Unlike a classic pie, which everyone can pretty much agree on, the broader category of baked fruit desserts like cobblers and crisps is at once specific and general. These dishes are so regional that people within the same county will disagree on the proper form, but so accessible and varied in interpretation that no one has a lock. A proper cobbler (or a crisp or a Betty or a sonker) is what you grew up eating.

I’ll take a side of cobbler, sonker down, crumbling my way to food heaven, please.

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Related: Wikipedia’s list of pies, tarts, and flans.