My $50,000 Dog

I got a dog from the pound about 4 years ago as a puppy. Her name is Lola.

Recently I hired someone to play with Lola for a 1/2 an hour per day for $10.

Now $10, doesn't sound like much until you run the numbers.

$10 * 5 days per week = $50 per week

50 weeks per year * $50 = $2,500

I need to earn $5,000 per year minus 50% taxes to have the $2,500 to spend.

10 year of this = 10 * $5,000 = $50,000.

She's worth every penny.

How to Solve the Problem of too Many Books to Read

I have a problem.

I have too many books to read.

Right now I've got 12 books out of the library and at least 500 books on my shelves and another 500 pdf books on my computer.

The answer is pretty simple. I can only read one book at a time, so I should read the book that's most useful to help me reach my goals.  So the question is:

What are my goals?

Once I know what my goals are I need to know what's my most important goal.

Another problem is that after I read a book what do I do with the information. I need to add tasks to my to-do list and other items that help me reach my goals.

The current book I'm reading is Cialdini's Pre-suasion.

I've also just finished listening to Leil Lowndes' book How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships (H2T2A).

Another thing is that the books I have are an insight into what my goals are. Each book's title persuaded me to put down my hard earned money for the promise that the title and sub-title.

I've identified 3 goals that I have and believe everyone else has:

1. $ecurity
2. Longevity
3. Fun

So the Pre-suasion book relates to $ecurity and Fun and the H2T2A has $,F. 

The hardest thing about picking which book to read is assess how well it will bring me closer to my goals. 

Now, library books have an increased value as they have a deadline to read. So it pays to prioritize these. But at the same time I can take library books out that aren't aligned with my goals.

Books to Goals

1. Pre-suasion - Cialdini
2. The Small Big: Small Changes that Spark Big Influence - Cialdini
3. TED talks:the official TED guide to public speaking 
4. Invisible Influence - Jonah Burger
5. Smarter, Faster Better: Secrets of productivity in life and in business
6. Stand Out: How to find your breakthrough idea and build a following around it
7. The Idea Hunter
8. Dilbert and the way of the Weasel
9. Small is the new big - Seth Godin
10. Why diets make us fat
11. The age fix:Plastic surgeon reveals how to really look 10 years younger

So these books tell me my goals are:

1. Become a master persuader - $, F (3)
2. Improve Public speaking - $ (1)
3. Be more productive - $, F (1)
4. Idea success - $, F (2)
5. Fun 
6. Health - dieting
7. Looks - $, F (1)

Goals to Books

I'll continue to talk about my Goals in a future blog post.

Scott Adams (Dilbert) challenges Sam Harris to Debate because of Me?

My two favorite people on the internet are Scott Adams the Dilbert creator and Sam Harris. Did I just get Scott Adams to challenge Sam Harris to a debate?

Here is a tweet I set to them on ....

Could be greatest #debate of all time
.@ScottAdamsSays vs .@SamHarrisOrg
Please RT to get this to happen #Hillary vs. #Trump

— Alec Berg (@alecberg) September 23, 2016

Then today, 9/24/2016 while watching Scott Adams Periscope broadcast I asked him to debate +Sam Harris and Scott challenged Sam.

I thought I was getting fired but got a promotion instead.

Today I accepted a new position at my job. I start it on Oct. 17th.

It all started during my semi-annual review a few months ago. My boss asked me if I'd be interested in a position in another group at my company.  Now this scared me because it felt like he was asking me to leave.

One thing about the job is that it's very similar to my current job except instead of the technology department it's part of the risk department.

One weakness of my companies interview process was that they didn't ask me any technical questions.  Part of the reason was due to the interviewer knowing me from previous encounters at work.

Another strange thing is that I didn't meet the boss in person, but I was interviewed by my new boss and his boss, both over the phone.

Early in the interview process I was asked how much money was I looking for so I blirted out a roundish number that was $15,000 more than my current salary.

One of the key reasons I got the job is due to my Excel/VBA skills.  The risk department needs help in automation of report creation for various parts of my company.

One thing that came out of the new job was that I got a promotion because the salary I was asking for was too high for my current level.

I've been reluctant to tell people that I'm getting a promotion, especially one of my co-workers. He will go ballistic when he finds out that I'm at a higher level than him.

There were a lot of things I liked about my old job that I will miss. The clinching point was the promotion. I don't know how I could turn one down and stay where I am.

One wrinkle for me is getting access to my current machine when I move to my new department. I've been at this job for 9 years and over that time I have an enormous amount of useful tech that I would hate to have to develop again.

Now one of things I believed helped me was Scott Adams' the creator of Dilbert and his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. In this book he talks about persuasion techniques that appeared to work.

My last day at work

On my way home from work I had an urge for pizza.

So I stopped at Mario's and got an eggplant and Sicilian slice. 

Now this was against my diet. But this morning I lost more weight than I expected and I'm down to 166.6. 

I think I took some Metformin but I'm not sure.

Yesterday was my last day at my job at my old department and I start my new job at my new department on Monday. It wasn't that sad to leave as most of the people weren't in the office because it was Friday. I moved my computer on the subway from Wall St. to Midtown and set it up myself.  I'm a little nervous because I left my new office at 6 PM and many people were still there, especially senior managers.  Also, my co-worker Olive seemed to imply we would be very busy next week. She was also wearing jeans and talking in Russian to someone. This is already a minor annoyance for co-workers to speak a foreign language in front of me. Makes me feel excluded.

The space at my desk is much smaller than I had for the last few years. 

One thing I'm a little worried about is losing access to my data and software as the company deletes and recreates accounts when you change your dept. 

While setting up my computer I started sweating due to the high temperature in the office. Luckily I also brought my fan which worked well to cool me down.  My neighbor to my right had her garbage can blocking my desk and has some of her stuff encroaching my desk. She's moving so I'm okay with it for now.

One thing I know is to set up a proper confirmation bias my first days at work.  There are many sayings that point this out "You only get one chance to make a first impression." I wrote about this in How to pass the drivers test were I discuss my "Jersey Driver" experience.

On the way in I made my first long Periscope video of my walk from Penn Station to Wall Street.

I decided to not go to  a Squeeze concert on Sunday night just so I could be fresh on the first day of the job.

I'm moving from the tech department to the users area

My dog just got me angry for the number of times she's wanted to go in and out of the house.

So for today some things for me to accomplish are:

1. Read and return overdue library books
1. Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg
2. Invisible Influence - Jonah Berger
3. TED talks: the official TED guide to public speaking - Chris Anderson
2. Clean up my desk, family room and bedroom
3. Lower my blood sugar
4. Prep for Monday, first day of my new job
5. Clean up the yard

I bought a pair of new shoes from Macy's for $28 original list price was $125. These shoes are killing my feet. I can barely wear them. 

I attended a phone meeting where I introduced myself and I feel I didn't do that good of a job. One of my key principles is Preparation  I should always be ready to introduce myself.

Since I'm new I should Practice what to do and say when being introduced.

I've stopped doing a number of things at my old job that I especially don't want to do at the new job just because of the confirmation bias it sets:

• Making/Cleaning up after making Bullet Proof Coffee
• Wearing sneakers to the office
• Wearing headphones to block out a noisy office.
• Leaving too early

One thing I noticed in contrast to my first day 9 years ago was that I understood most of what people were talking about. I remember sitting in a meeting and thinking WTF are they talking about. I have to be careful because there's a limit to when a new person can ask a stupid question.  Also there's a fine line between a good question and a bad question.

In my first meeting I think I said too much shit. It didn't come out right and may have sounded critical.

One thing is a new person sees shit that no one else can see.  When you're new to a situation the bad process is very easy to spot. But after years of participating in the bad process you can become blind to it.

Something I need to do is introduce myself to senior managers who sit right near me.

So I'm on an adventure. I've stepped outside my comfort zone, and will have some excitement back at work which after 9 years became too habitual.  I'm going to try to reserve judgement as long as I can and try not to make the same mistakes I've made before.  Shyness doesn't get you ahead. 

Daily 5 Minute Journal - September 10, 2016

911

Day before Sep. 11th.  15 years ago wow.  I knew 2 people who where killed in the World Trade Center. They were both at a meeting at the restaurant Windows of The World.

My wife and I were lucky that she didn't work there at the time but 5 years prior worked on the floor in the north tower where one of the planes hit.

Job Interview

I have another interview on Monday with a Managing Director at my company. Fortunately it's a phone interview which is easier for many reasons. This weekend I'd like to prepare for the interview.

New Diet

I came up with a new diet which I call the stair or maybe step diet. The basics of the diet are:

1. Weigh yourself each day
2. Try to lose one pound in the weight from start that is dropping the decimal place
1. If I weight 168.4 then if I weigh 167.8 I've reached my goal
3. When you reach your goal feel free to eat foods you normally wouldn't eat to lose weight
4. Once I get above the weight loss try to get to the next weight 1 pound less
1. if I weigh 166.8, 166.6, 166.4, 166.2 or less I've reached the goal and can eat what I want
5. Repeat until you reach your goal weight.

Some examples

start weight 170.2 goal to weigh 169.8 or less

Eat moderately and try to get to 169.8 or less

If you reach 169.8 or less eat what you want

Your next weigh in might be 170.4 and your new goal is 168.8 or less.

Eat moderately and do what you have to get to the 168.8 or less level.

Keep repeating this process until you reach your goal weight.

Daily 5 Minute Journal - September 10, 2016

911

Day before Sep. 11th.  15 years ago wow.  I knew 2 people who where killed in the World Trade Center. They were both at a meeting at the restaurant Windows of The World.

My wife and I were lucky that she didn't work there at the time but 5 years prior worked on the floor in the north tower where one of the planes hit.

Job Interview

I have another interview on Monday with a Managing Director at my company. Fortunately it's a phone interview which is easier for many reasons. This weekend I'd like to prepare for the interview.

New Diet

I came up with a new diet which I call the stair or maybe step diet. The basics of the diet are:

1. Weigh yourself each day
2. Try to lose one pound in the weight from start that is dropping the decimal place
1. If I weight 168.4 then if I weigh 167.8 I've reached my goal
3. When you reach your goal feel free to eat foods you normally wouldn't eat to lose weight
4. Once I get above the weight loss try to get to the next weight 1 pound less
1. if I weigh 166.8, 166.6, 166.4, 166.2 or less I've reached the goal and can eat what I want
5. Repeat until you reach your goal weight.

Some examples

start weight 170.2 goal to weigh 169.8 or less

Eat moderately and try to get to 169.8 or less

If you reach 169.8 or less eat what you want

Your next weigh in might be 170.4 and your new goal is 168.8 or less.

Eat moderately and do what you have to get to the 168.8 or less level.

Keep repeating this process until you reach your goal weight.