knowledge

Using Personal Accountability to Succeed in Everything You Do

Why does the story of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion touch us? Like all great entertainment, their journey resonates. We see ourselves in the characters and likewise wish we possessed the power, the brains, the heart, and the courage to make our own dreams come true.

So what are your dreams? What do you want? Is it a promotion? Improving a relationship? Rescuing a child? Finding a new job? Saving a marriage? Getting a degree? Finding the love of your life? Making a difference in your community? This book will help you get whatever you consider worthwhile in life.

Simply put, when you unleash the power of personal accountability it will energize you in life-altering ways, giving you a concrete boost that enhances your ability to think, to withstand adversity, to generate confidence, and to increase your own natural emotional, mental, and intellectual strength. Roger Connors and Tom Smith know this because they’ve seen it work in their own lives and witnessed it in the lives of some of the most successful and influential people in the world.

The authors first introduced this powerful accountability philosophy in the New York Times bestseller The Oz Principle. Since then, millions have come to know them as “The Oz Guys” and they have gone on to help leaders all over the world teach and apply the principles you’re about to learn. Principles that have generated billions of dollars of wealth—along with a host of even more important results. Devotees of The Oz Principle have brought lifesaving medications to market, created better education in community colleges, greatly surpassed charity fund-raising goals, and improved medical practices in battlefield hospitals.

In The Wisdom of Oz, Connors and Smith present the practical and powerful principles of personal accountability in simple, down-to-earth terms that you can apply in your homes, schools, communities, churches, and volunteer groups. The book will help you strengthen family relationships, improve friendships, motivate children, increase value on the job, improve health and financial well-being, or achieve whatever it is you most desire.

Drawing on engaging stories about those who have overcome great odds—including South African president Nelson Mandela, Polish WWII hero Irena Sendler, and everyday men and women—Connors and Smith demonstrate that by taking personal ownership of your goals and accepting responsibility for your performance, you also take control of your success.

You will hear stories about people just like you who learned to beat their struggles, like the New York area fisherman who fell off his lobster boat and was adrift at sea for twelve hours in the chilly Atlantic . . . but survived. You will learn the traits that allowed a college senior who landed flat on her face in a 600-meter race to jump up and win. Or a thirteen-year-old soccer player who moved from the bench to the starting lineup.

You will discover that while no one will ever wave a wizard’s wand and magically solve all your problems, there is a way to experience the near magical impact of personal accountability.

The Wisdom Of Oz by Roger Connors and Tom Smith—Excerpt

It will always be hard

On Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The American Scholar” lecture (1837) and his essays “Self-Reliance” and “Circles” (1841).

How should we live? Emerson thinks that conformity, which includes most of what passes for ethics, jobs, and scholarship, makes us less than truly human. Be true to yourself! But since we’re all ever-changing, that’s a moving target, right? But Emerson thinks that when you get really truly honest about what you think and feel, it turns out that you’ve tapped into something universal, something beyond just you, something eternal.

But don’t expect Emerson to really explain that part; the upshot of these essays is primarily social, not religious, much less metaphysical. Trust yourself, stop bullshitting, stop living according to others’ expectations! Mark, Wes, and Dylan argue over whether this is tired cliche or acutely perceptive, and whether Emerson’s poetic language provides helps or distracts.

Go to blog

Emerson on Wisdom

When I was in Beijing last summer I dropped by the Microsoft research campus to talk with  Dr. Yu Zheng. He studies the air pollution in his city, and the noise pollution in mine. Using algorithms he is able to predict what kinds of noises New Yorkers are most likely to hear in their neighborhoods. His algorithms could one day help city planners curb air pollution and noise or as Christian Sandvig notes they could be used by the GPS apps on our mobile devices to keep us from walking through neighborhoods perceived to have loud people hanging around outside. 

Christian Sandvig studies algorithms which is hard to do, most companies like Facebook and Google don’t make their algorithms public. In a recent study he asked Facebook users to explain how they imagine the Edgerank algorithm works (this is the algorithm that powers Facebook’s news feed). Sandvig discovered that most of his subjects had no idea there even was an algorithm at work. When they learned the truth, it was like a moment out of the Matrix. But none of the participants remained angry for long. Six months later they mostly reported satisfaction with the algorithms that determine what the can and can’t see. Sandvig finds this problematic, because our needs and desires often don’t match with the needs and desires of the companies who build the algorithms. 

“Ada’s algorithm” is the title of James Essinger’s new book. It tells the remarkable story about Ada Lovelace the woman who wrote the first computer program (or as James puts it - Algorithm)  in 1843. He believes Ada’s insights came from her “poetical” scientific brain. Suw Charman-Anderson, the founder of Ada Lovelace day, tells us more about this remarkable woman who was known as the Enchantress of numbers.  

Enchanting by Numbers

Author and leadership educator Liz Wiseman shares why cultivating a "rookie mindset" is an advantage in a rapidly changing world. Wiseman presents insights from her books, Rookie Smarts and Multipliers, including frameworks and techniques for how entrepreneurs, leaders and employees can embrace a life of constant learning and build a passion for multiplying the genius of those around them.

Liz Wiseman - The Power of Not Knowing

Marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Berlin Wall of Sound is an acoustic reconstruction of the Berlin Wall. 
Its duration of 7:32 minutes reflects the time sound needs to travel the 
155 kilometres length of the Berlin Wall. Its sound wave’s shape mirrors 
the wall of concrete and its watchtowers. There are no comments – 
the tags depict the victims and mark where they were killed.
 
The Wall of Sound is not easy to bear. But 27 years locked behind 
the concrete Berlin Wall were unbearable.
 
Back in 1989, SoundCloud’s headquarters would have been part of 
the Death Zone next to the Berlin Wall. We dedicate the Wall of Sound 
to the 120 women, men and children, who lost their lives in their 
attempt to live in freedom. We will not forget.

Major original quotes used:

Walter Ulbricht (former leader of the GDR and responsible for the construction) saying a few days before the construction started: „Nobody has the intention to raise a wall“ 

Heinz Hoffmann (former GDR secretary of defense): „To those, who don’t respect our border – they will feel the bullet.“

Erich Honecker (longtime and most powerful leader of the GDR) celebrating 
40 Years of the GDR in 1989: „The German Democratic Republic will exist another 40 years and beyond.“

The Berlin Wall of Sound

Allen Kurzweil discusses how he came to write WHIPPING BOY, a childhood memoir and literary thriller that chronicles Kurzweil's forty-year-search for his twelve-year-old nemesis, a bully named Cesar Augustus, who went on to lead a mad-cap life of international crime and financial fraud.

Allen Kurzweil

Mark Linsenmayer introduces Jaspers’s essay, “On My Philosophy” (1941) on Existenz and the difference between philosophy, science, and religion. Watch for the full discussion to be released in a couple of weeks.

Precognition of Jaspers on Existenz

This week's Number of the Week from Mona Chalabi of FiveThirtyEight.com is... 38. 38% of American wives earn more than their husbands. 

Number of the Week, Feb. 8, 2015: Women Out-Earning Men

On Paul Ricoeur’s “The Critique of Religion” and “The Language of Faith” (1973).

Last episode taught us about hermeneutics, but how can this best be applied to the text for which hermeneutics was originally developed, i.e. the Bible? For Ricoeur, it’s a two-way street: We need to change our understanding of the text (i.e. read it historically, recognizing for example that it was common to mythologize heroes in texts at the time), but also “put at risk” our own evaluative presuppositions, which under the tutelage of science have blinded us to symbolism and so left us unable to even sensibly ask the question “what is it to be saved?”

The regular four are joined by Lawrence Ware to figure out what this “hermeneutics of suspicion” is all about. Read more about the topic and get the essays.

Support the podcast by becoming a PEL Citizen or making a donation.

End song: A live performance (recorded via camcorder) by Mark Lint and the Fake from Dec. ’98 in Austin, TX of the Elvis tune “Suspicious Minds."

Ricouer on Interpreting Religion

Background, transcribed highlights, and more: http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/26/sense-of-nonsense-alan-watts-tao-of-philosophy/

knowledge

Shagor Aziz Rahman