As a trader, I'm surprised by how different the market can look on different time-frames.
Getting a sense of scale is important. Sometimes the difference is bigger than you think.
Click the picture to launch a fascinating data visualisation created by Michael and Cary Huang. It is an interactive virtual scale of our universe that allows you to zoom in and out through space comparing the size and scale of everything from the smallest particles to immense nebulae.
Also, here is a video of tractors being tossed around like rag dolls by the Tornado.
A lot of that happened right by here. However, we were lucky and suffered relatively little damage.
Today, things are getting back to normal.
You'll be happy to hear that the capitalistic eco-system is at work again. Hordes of salespeople are going door-to-door offering to fix a roof, clean the yard, repair your fence, or suck out the dents left on your car.
Considering the alternative, I'll take that as a good sign - and be grateful for surviving the 2012 Attack of the Killer Tornadoes.
Is it possible to build a house in only two hours?
Proving that nothing is impossible if you commit to it, the 2-Hour House chronicles an East Texas builder’s quest to overcome the odds, and accomplish what was perceived to be the impossible task of building a 2,249 square foot house, from the ground up, in less than three hours.
To do so, they would have to pour a concrete slab that hardened in only 22 minutes and paint the house in the same time it takes to brush your teeth.
Plans called for a traditional home that met or exceeded code at every turn. It took two years of planning, 1,000 volunteers from every trade and more than a little luck to pull it off.
What this team learned about life, leadership and the persistence of the human spirit will motivate you to transform your own life, work and home from the ground up.
Records and "Rules" broken with the 2Hour House process:
The rules say :
2 Hour House:
• It takes a day to set the forms, dig footings and set steel.
8 min
• It takes a half a day to rough-in the plumbing.
7min
• It takes a day to pour and finish concrete.
40min
• It takes several hours to pop the lines before setting walls.
10min
• It takes at least a day to frame the walls.
15min
• It takes a day to rough-in the electrical.
15min
• It takes a day to put in the wall plumbing.
15min
• It takes a day to shingle the roof.
30min
• It takes a half a day to insulate the walls and attic.
10min
• It takes at least a day to sheetrock.
15min
• It takes at least four days to tape, bed, and texture the walls.
20min
• It takes two days to paint.
10min
• It takes a half a day to install the flower beds and trees.
10min
• It takes a day to do the final grade.
10min
• It takes a day to lay the grass.
10min
• It takes a day to set the kitchen cabinets.
15min
• It takes a day to set the bathroom cabinets.
10min
• It takes a day to install the heating and cooling.
10min
• It takes a day to do the interior doors and base boards.
15min
• It takes a half a day to install the garage door.
3min
• It takes a half a day to put in the countertops.
10min
What would it take to shift your mindset from ordinary to extraordinary? And which constraints can you re-evaluate and eliminate?
What Does The 2-Hour House Teach?
Think of the innovation, creative thinking, and break-thru communication and collaboration strategies needed to pull-this-off. What about leadership, team-building, and management expectations?
Try to imagine what type of project management process this would require?
A Chinese company just built a pre-fabricated 30-story building built in 15 days.
This energy-efficient hotel was built at a fraction of normal Chinese construction costs, with no worker injuries. And the building isn't flimsy ... It was built to withstand a 9.0-magnitude earthquake.
This is interesting because it shows what's possible. Think of how many "rules" and assumptions they had to break or get beyond to conceive and make this happen.
Imagine being lost deep in the woods, only to hear "Hello" or "What's Happening" come at you from afar. Hikers in Australia have increasingly been surprised to find no one there. Rather than hallucination, the calls have been coming from birds.
The learned behaviors could be integrated into the flock through generations. 'The evolution of language could well be passed on through the generations, says Ken. "If the parents are talkers and they produce chicks, their chicks are likely to pick up some of that," he says.
This phenomenon is not unique; some lyrebirds in southern Australia still reproduce the sounds of axes and old shutter-box cameras their ancestors once learnt.'"
The story of the 100th Monkey is similar, where island monkeys learned to wash sweet potatoes and supposedly began passing on the skill.
These phenomena remind me of how human Culture becomes codified and spreads. If a wild parrot can learn to talk in the wild, imagine what humans pick up from each other.
The point: maybe it's time to notice what your organization (or team) is learning in the wild and passing-on to each other?
You never know when something like this can change your life or the life of someone else?
Every three days, more Americans die from sudden cardiac arrest than the number who died in the 9-11 attacks.
You can lessen this recurring loss by learning Continuous Chest Compression CPR, a hands-only CPR method that doubles a person’s chance of surviving cardiac arrest.
It’s easy and does not require mouth-to-mouth contact, making it more likely bystanders will try to help.
They started showing up at the gym I go to ... then someone in the office wore them when we worked-out together. Part of me thought it was "pretentious", and another part thought it was "silly"; turns out ... they are worth trying.
Here's a confession; I'm now of an age where it made sense to judge a workout by how much my feet and ankles swell. The well-cushioned athletic shoes that I have been wearing, do such a good job of masking impact that I wasn't noticing how my running form was hurting my body. Instead, I just thought the damage was simply a result of getting older.
Apparently, I just forgot how to run. A few weeks in those silly looking barefoot running shoes has made a huge difference.
Studies show that barefoot running prevents injury, and can even enhance performance! A professor at Harvard led a research team that looked at the "impact collision force" (when the foot hits the ground) of runners in shoes compared to barefoot runners. The impact was actually reduced by two-thirds by running in bare feet. Basically the difference is in how the foot lands on the ground. Barefoot runners land each step more on the ball, or the middle of the foot, which is more gentle to the foot.
In contrast, runners in traditional athletic shoes tend to land more on the heel. As a result, our thickly-cushioned modern running shoes may actually be causing stress on our joints and feet because we're not landing the way we were meant to do while running.
If you decide to try out this age-old running style, it's best to gradually transition yourself for a few weeks. Listen to the signals from your body. Otherwise, you may feel sore while you get "back on your feet" - and start using muscles you probably forgot you had.
Trying to lead a healthier lifestyle? This data visualization can help you filter-out the marketing hype to help you find the vitamins, minerals and herbs that deliver tangible benefits ... versus those that serve only as a "Guaranteed Genuine Placebo".
This is an updated interactive model of the most current research data.
It is interesting because of the health research itself ... and also because models, like this, have far-reaching applications. It comes from the site Information is Beautiful.
Daniel Simons' experiments on visual awareness have become famous. The primary conclusion drawn from his research is that we can miss incredibly obvious things, right in front of us, if our attention is focused elsewhere.
Test Your Awareness.
Watch this video and count how many passes the team in white makes.
This is worth doing so you experience it yourself.
Try to ignore the black team. Just focus on the white team, and see if you can accurately count how many times they pass the ball.
OK, click the video to do it now.
Did you get the right answer? Even though I knew what to expect, the result or effect was surprising.
By the way, there is a newer version of this video, here.
Think how often your focus blinds you to the obvious.
Change Blindness.
Missing an invisible gorilla or a moon-walking bear may seem strange. However, the next experiment may be more surprising.
This video demonstrates "change blindness". In an experiment, 75% of the participants didn't notice that the experimenter who bent under a counter was replaced by a different person.
If you liked that, here is a version done by Derrin Brown. It is quite clever and worth watching. It was even more surprising to me because it was done in public with "real people". How did people not notice a white male switching with a black guy (or an asian female) in the middle of a conversation?
Warning: Objects In Your Attention Span Are Fewer Than You Perceive.
Moment by moment, the brain selectively processes information it deems most relevant. Experiments, like these, show the limits of our capacity to encode, retain, and compare visual information from one glance to the next.
More importantly, this suggests that our awareness of our visual surroundings is far more sparse than most people intuitively believe. Consequently, our intuition can deceive us far more often than we perceive.
Clearly, in an information-rich environment, attention is a scarce and essential resource. So, pay attention (or automate the things you know need to be done right, every time).
