I Interviewed Myself
Yesterday I posted about three books that have influenced my life. Today I’m going to take a look at some of the other questions that Tim Ferriss uses in his book Tribe of Mentors. I’ll throw the disclaimer in here again that I’m definitely not one of the “world’s top performers” like the people in the book so take my answers with a grain of salt, but I’m still curious to see what I come up with — and I think all of us have interesting experiences that enable us to make some interesting recommendations.
The full list of questions from Tribe of Mentors can be found in this post in case you’re curious, and below I picked a couple to answer myself.
What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)? My readers love specifics like brand and model, where you found it, etc.
I’ll just focus on a couple gadgets that I really love. The first is the Philips Wake-Up Light ($97.55, plus $25 off with the coupon). I had my eye on this for awhile, and then finally decided to buy it a couple years ago. It makes getting on an earlier schedule so much easier. It wasn’t uncommon in my job in LA to have to wake up at 3 am or earlier, and this thing was a life saver.
You set the alarm like with a normal alarm clock, but 30 minutes before the alarm the light will gradually turn on. I pretty much always wake up before the actual alarm goes off, and they have a collection of soothing sounds to wake up to instead of a jarring buzzer. I haven’t had this with me for the past few months and I really miss it — it honestly makes a huge difference in my experience.
The second thing is more random, but I’ve still find it really useful, particularly because of the problems I’ve been having with my hands/wrists. There might be a better alternative at this point, but I’m using the EasyAcc Premium Gooseneck Cellphone Holder ($22.99).
I use this thing to hold my kindle while I’m reading on the couch or in bed, to hold my iPad while watching YouTube videos in bed, and to hold my phone while I’m watching a video or reading a longer article. Ever since last year when I started having some problems with fatigue in my hands, I’ve realized how much of a toll holding all of these devices can take. Certainly not life-changing, but I’ve still found this thing to be pretty useful.
If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it — metaphorically speaking, getting a message out to millions or billions — what would it say and why? It could be a few words or a paragraph. (If helpful, it can be someone else’s quote: Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?)
I’m going to follow the lead of someone else in the book who said he wouldn’t make a new billboard, he would take down all of the existing ones. I hate the barrage of messages and advertising that is shoved in our faces every day, and I’m excited about the potential of things like STEEM to reduce the need for advertising dollars to support all of our entertainment. I feel like it will be more peaceful to walk around outside without billboards, and more peaceful inside while browsing the internet and watching TV without the barrage of ads.
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made? (Could be an investment of money, time, energy, etc.)
Definitely the time I put into learning Japanese. In reality it hasn’t paid out directly yet because I haven’t turned it into a career in translation like I was originally planning, but I’ve learned so much about learning in general, and what it’s like taking on a big project. It also ended up taking me to Japan for a year, which was an amazing experience, made much better by the time I spent learning the language.
What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?
I'm not sure if this is unusual, but I tend to almost exclusively watch unscripted TV. Terrace House (in Japanese) is still one of my favorite shows ever and it’s just a silly show about people living together. I tend to gravitate towards YouTube videos and reality TV, or things like talk shows and documentaries for most of my entertainment at the end of the day.
In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?
I’ve always been pretty good about keeping to a consistent schedule of exercise to stay in shape, but my production job in LA was way too crazy and I wasn’t able to stay active. I’ve been much better about it for the past ~8 months (recently just 20 minutes on the elliptical machine 4-5 days a week) and I think it has helped me feel better in a lot of ways besides just being more physically fit.
What advice would you give to a smart, driven college student about to enter the “real world”? What advice should they ignore?
I’ll give some advice to a student that’s still in college: do everything in your power to get first-hand experience of what it’s like to work in an office within your desired profession. When you’re there, talk to the people that work there. Are they happy? Can you see yourself leading a happy life if you worked there? What do you like about it? What don’t you like about it? If it's not great, is it a worthwhile stepping stone on the path to something better? Try to spend some time working around people at that next step also if so.
Listen to yourself — if the office you’re in doesn’t seem like a place you’ll want to be after you graduate, don’t assume other offices will be better. It might be worth making a drastic change and pursuing something else. Don’t graduate from college until you’ve worked in your desired field for at least a couple months. You’ll save yourself so much time and energy if you do this while in college.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do? (If helpful: What questions do you ask yourself?)
If I’m feeling unfocused, it’s usually because I haven’t given myself clear enough goals. With web development recently I’ll try to break up a bigger project into smaller tasks so they feel more manageable. With Japanese I would try to focus on smaller wins like a number of pages to read in a day. I think having large, unclear goals is also a culprit for when I feel overwhelmed (unless I really just have a crazy amount of stuff to do in a short amount of time).
If I’m working at home and feel like I’ve lost focus, usually I’ll step away from the computer, sit on the couch, set a timer for about 15 minutes, and close my eyes and listen to music.
I’d love to hear the responses to these questions from some other Steemians! Let me know in the comments if you have some of your own advice to give! 🙂
You've answered all the questions in an informative way @jeffbernst. I like the gadgets that you are using. It looks cool!, You gave great advice to the college students.
By the way, I like your this point.
Yeah, I agree with you because I'm also working every day on my product and set a small task to accomplish within a certain amount of time in a day and I feel it more manageable.
I'm glad you found it helpful! 🙂 Yeah, last week I was having trouble making progress on a couple tasks, and I realized it was because I didn't really think about what I was trying to finish. So I kept jumping around between things.
Thanks for reading!
Glad to hear that you figure out your issues.
Yeah, It is always hard to accomplish something, If you don't set a specific goal. Setting a goal is something that motivates us to do a couple of tasks.