“Authentic Happiness” was written by Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology in 1999. Most of conventional psychology was focused on the negative – helping people overcome their problems. Seligman wanted more focus on the other half of the equation, which is to help people become better: more optimistic, more productive, happier.

I first read this book as part of a positive psychology course conducted by University of Pennsylvania. I was part of the inaugural batch of students in 2009. Since then, the interest in this genre has exploded.

“Authentic Happiness” remains a core text of positive psychology, and I highly recommend it. Here are some links you can check out:

1. Official “Authentic Happiness” web site
2. University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Centre

Recommendation (Rated 9/10)

getAbstract.com highly recommends this work by Martin E. P. Seligman, the founder of “positive psychology” and the author of Learned Optimism. This book combines the erudition of psychological research with the accessibility of a self-help text. The author explains why happiness matters. He recapitulates and takes issue with the flawed deterministic assumptions that guided much of twentieth century psychology. He is careful to emphasize the importance of your individual control over your feelings and thoughts. The idea that people actually are in control of their fate marks a departure from Freudianism and behaviorism. Seligman argues, instead, for an understanding of character and virtue rooted in early Greek philosophy. However, his book is not merely theoretical or descriptive. He offers guidance on how you can change your way of thinking to change how you feel – and, thereby, get on the road to achieving long-term happiness for yourself and for others, especially your children.

I did a mind map of “Authentic Happiness”:

Mind Map of "Authentic Happiness" book

If you have a minute, click on image for full-sized mind map.

If you have 10 minutes, check out the quick 5-page abstract.

If you have 10 hours, read the book.

MindMaple is a new company. At the moment, MindMaple is offering a 50% launch discount off their regular price of USD199. They have kindly offered me a complementary copy of their software and I have been using it regularly for the past week.

Let’s start with what I liked about MindMaple. Three things stand out for me.

Firstly, it’s very easy to learn the ropes of this programme, even if you are new to mind mapping. Many commands can be executed through the mouse or keyboard. The commands are neatly organised into tabs, and MindMaple does not overwhelm you with too many features. It gives you enough to get the job done. I especially like the ability to balance the map. After adding many new nodes, the mind map can become lop-sided. The “balance” command instantly recalibrates the mind map automatically.

Secondly, MindMaple looks good – better than many of its competitors. It is stylish, elegant, and has visual appeal. Each level of nodes has a distinctive style for up to 5 levels whereas most competitors stop at 3 – 4 levels. It makes it that much easier to see, at a glance, the relative importance of each node.

Thirdly, MindMaple has a focus on task management. Most of the features you expect are present, such as priority, completion level, duration, and notes. It’s comprehensive except for one glaring miss, which is the ability to export to Microsoft Project.

And that brings me to some of the other cons of MindMaple. My number one gripe is the lack of support for FreeMind files. FreeMind is one of the most popular mind mapping software out there, not just because it’s free as its name implies, but it’s good enough to meet the needs of most people. I am not comfortable with the idea of being tied into a proprietory format, just in case my needs change in the future. (Note: The MindMaple folks have indicated that they will be adding a FreeMind import feature in a future version).

Secondly, in this day of social networking and crowd-sourcing, there is a lack of online collaboration features. It would be nice to be able to work on a mind map together with a colleague half way round the globe, which is especially important for the corporate customer. There is a nicely implemented commenting feature in MindMaple, but that’s no substitute for collaborative mind mapping.

Thirdly, some of the commands are not quite intuitive. For example, I press Ctrl+F3 to collapse all the nodes but Ctrl+Shift+A to expand them. It would be much simpler to assign a single command e.g. Ctrl+Shift+A to toggle between the two states instead. (Note: I’ve sent this feedback to MindMaple, and the friendly folks there have agreed to update this.).

By default, you click and drag a node to create a new child node. If you wish to move the node, you have to position the cursor over a particular location of the node where it’s linked to the parent branch. I find this confusing, and often end up mistakenly creating a new child node when I had wanted to adjust the location of the node instead.

Lastly, the software is still rough in the edges. I was unable to launch the help file, the HTML help executable file crashes. The update feature doesn’t work, I had to download the installation file directly from the MindMaple web site.

After one week, I do like using MindMaple. It’s easy to use and I like its look. But has it done enough to justify its price tag? There are many free and cheaper mind mapping alternatives out there, and MindMaple needs to beat them convincingly. There is still room for improvement. I’ve no doubt that the MindMaple guys are working hard on their update, and I look forward to the next release.

At the moment, my mind mapping software of choice is XMind. It’s free, works almost as well, and most importantly, it can import and export FreeMind files.

If you would like a free copy of MindMaple to review, please contact me.

Appendex:

Mind map of the MindMaple review

Review of MindMaple

No wonder there has been a surge of traffic in the past week to the Android keyboard speed test – SlideIT Keyboard vs SwiftKey Tablet X vs Thumb Keyboard 4.

Unfortunately, the sale is for the smartphone version only; the SwiftKey Tablet X is still at its original price of $6.99.

Grab it now before the sale ends. Even if you’re not an Android user, you never know when you might upgrade to one from your iPhone.

I did a mind map of the book:

Workforce of One mind map

If you have a minute, click on image for full-sized mind map.

If you have 10 minutes, check out the abstract.

If you have 10 hours, read the book.

getAbstract recommendation (Rated 7/10)

If your company follows cookie-cutter HR policies, then you’re not getting the most from your employees. Talent management experts Susan M. Cantrell and David Smith make a convincing case for customizing your company’s people policies. Because your employees have different jobs, work styles, needs and aspirations, rigid, top-down management makes little sense – even if, yes, you lose some control. Cantrell and Smith offer four “workforce of one approaches,” explain how to implement each one and provide case studies of companies that have pioneered these strategies. Although at times repetitive, the book’s analyses, quizzes and checklists serve as helpful tools in determining which approach – or combination of approaches – is right for your company. getAbstract recommends the book’s main message to corporate leaders and human resources professionals: Companies that use customized personnel practices will have a more engaged, productive, satisfied workforce, because one size no longer fits all.

Many of you are probably familiar with Reader’s Digest, a little magazine that contains summarised articles. Reader’s Digest also publishes abridged versions of fiction books, mostly literary classics.

Reading abridged story books is like eating tofu – all the nutrients without the flavour.

Bad for story books, but it’s perfect for business books. We are inundated with so much information these days. We barely have time to rest, let alone read. After all, when’s the last time you finished a book you started?

I recently stumbled upon getAbstract, a company that specialises in summarising and reviewing business books.

They have accumulated a collection of over 5,000 book summaries, which is not only the largest in the world, but also more books than you or I could ever hope to finish.

The essence of each best-selling business book is condensed and distilled into just 5 pages, and takes only 10 minutes to read. It’s not perfect, but if I could get 80% of the knowledge at a mere fraction of the time, that’s good enough for me.

getAbstract works on subscription plans starting from USD89 per year, which is less than $0.25 per day.

I tried out a couple of free book summaries and liked what I saw. It turned out to be more than a summary. They are actually more of a book analysis and review. Each book was tightly written, and well-organised so that the main ideas come through clearly.

Due to the length restriction, the summaries can’t go into great detail. I feel the summaries are most effective for college students or working professionals who are already familiar with the basic concepts of business and HR, but want to learn about the latest ideas from thought leaders.

So today, I took the plunge and took up a Gold Subscription. In addition to offering unlimited downloads, I am also able to download audio versions for some titles as well. That means I could listen to them as I work out on my exercise machine. At 30 minutes per session, that’s 3 books’ worth of reading.

You can also read on the go on mobile devices such as your iPhone, iPad, and Blackberry during your morning commute. Even e-book readers like the Kindle and Sony e-reader are supported.

Only the Android platform is missing, but no problem, I can use the Kindle app on my Android tablet. (Sorry, the “send to Kindle” feature only works for Kindle devices, but not for Kindle apps.)

But not to worry, here’s an easy solution for Android owners:

1. Install Dropbox on your computer. This gives you free 5Gb worth of online storage, and makes it dead easy to synchronise content across all your computers and mobile devices.
2. Download the book summaries as pdf files into your local Dropbox.
3. Install Dropbox for Android.
4. Open the pdf book on your Android device’s Dropbox. ezPDF Reader is one of the best pdf reader on Android. 

If I like the summary and want to delve deeper into the subject, I could always buy the book at Amazon.com.

So, check the free book summaries today. I guarantee you that you will be able to finish each one you start.

To me, learning consists of two processes:

1. Seeing patterns of related information, and
2. Making connections between existing knowledge (what you already know) and new knowlege (what you are learning).

A great tool to facilitate this dual-process of seeing patterns and making connections is mind mapping. I first learnt about mind maps in the early 1990s. Tony Buzan was the acknowledged mind mapping guru, having written books and popularised this concept. (More than 20 years later, he’s still going strong. Tony Buzan has even established a learning centre in Singapore.)

A mind map is a visual summary of concepts, spreading out from a central topic. It is a collection of nodes and sub-nodes, linked together by branches and arrows. The mind map allows me to see at a glance how all these ideas link together. It helps me to see new patterns and related connections much more easily.

Unfortunately, mind mapping with paper and pen is a huge pain. I usually run out of paper at one side while there’s still acres of blank space on the other. Or I find that a node is better placed elsewhere.

Why a mind map is better than scribbling notes on a notepad

You might ask: If mind mapping is so much trouble, why not simply scribble notes with a pencil instead? After all, that’s how most of us have taken notes all our lives and it seems to have worked out OK.

But you don’t just want “OK”, you want something better. Right?

Let’s start our comparison between mind maps and conventional notes with how they look. Below is an introductory user guide to a mind mapping software in both formats.

MindMaple quick user guide (mind map format). Click image to see full-size image.

vs

The same user guide in Word .doc format. (Click on image to open the file)

The mind map works better for 3 reasons:

1. Radial, not linear

In a text file, the information is linear. It goes in one direction, from up to down. There is a mental road block which makes it hard for us to go back up again. It feels like we are going backward and regressing.

In a mind map, the information spreads out from a central node like rays of light from the sun. It’s easy to double back along the links and go down another path. There is no one “right” direction.

2. Seeing and drawing connections

The radial pattern of a mind map makes it easy to see how the information breaks down into different levels. We can easily draw connections between related nodes.

Now, try drawing arrows to connect points that are 3 pages apart on a text file. It’s harder, isn’t it?

3. Visual appeal

The mind map just looks more inviting and appealing.

A dense block of text, on the other hand, is intimidating.

Mind mapping software

I got really excited when mind mapping programmes started appearing, but the quality back then was disappointing. So I stopped using mind maps.

Recently, I decided to take up mind mapping again. And wow, there are so many great mind mapping software out there now. So far, I’ve only tried XMind. I will download and try out the others shortly.

Here’s a quick summary below:

1. iMindMap 5 by Tony Buzan.

Started by the guru himself. I tried an earlier version years ago but it wasn’t that fantastic. But this current version looks to be much improved, though I’ve yet to download it. Starts from USD67, 30-day free trial available.

2. FreeMind.

One of the most popular mind mapping software. It’s written in Java, I find the interface clunky and not aesthetically pleasing. Even their web page is ugly. But hey, I can’t complain about the price tag. Get your free download here.

3. MindManager by MindJet

This slick mind mapping machine stands out with its collaboration features. It is targeted at businesses, as evident from the hefty price tag. There’s even a web-based mind mapping feature called MindJet Connect, but I have trouble getting authenticated. Starts from USD399, 30-day free trial available.

4. XMind

XMind for Individual is a pleasant surprise. It has a simple interface that didn’t take me too long to pick up, with a few features that I appreciated such as graphical markers, the ability to add notes and hyperlinks, and even share your mind maps online.

Best of all, the Individual version is free. I used this nifty software to create the following mind map of a book I just read (titled “The PC is not a typewriter“):

Creating such a mind map helps me to organise my thoughts and ideas. Rearranging the nodes was relatively painless, as was drawing arrows between related ideas.

5. MindMaple (Read the MindMaple review here)

MindMaple is the newest kid on the block. According to their Facebook page, the software was officially launched just a few months ago on 19 Sep 2011. They are currently selling it at a launch discount price of USD99.

The guys at MindMaple have kindly given me a review license key, I will be doing a full review of it very soon.

I’ve got some extra keys to give away, so if you would like to review the software, just get in touch with me.

None of this is to deny the power of practice. Nor is it to say that it’s impossible for a person with an average I.Q. to, say, earn a Ph.D. in physics. It’s just unlikely, relatively speaking. Sometimes the story that science tells us isn’t the story we want to hear.

Source: Sorry, Strivers – Talent Matters – NYTimes.com.

Malcolm Gladwell pushed the debate of how experts became experts into the mainstream with his highly successful book “Outliers: The Story of Success“.

I remember studying expertise behaviours and acquisition in my undergraduate psychology course, and most of the cited references were from the 1980s. So there’s nothing new about the ideas, they were just repackaged and marketed to the public.

The cited study in the NY Times article above is from the SPMY (Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth). Here are the links for the SPMY web site and one of the published studies.

If you had read it, you would have realised that the study is conducted on youths who scored highly on SAT, and their achievements are measured by the attainment of a PhD. Can the result then be generalised to other fields such as music, art, business, engineering, medicine, IT, and so on?

Perhaps some fields more than others, we should be cautious about over-extending and over-interpreting the findings of scientific studies.

We always have to be careful about how data and results from scientific experiments are interpreted. If possible, it’s best to go back to the root source. Don’t rely on a newspaper journalist to interpret for you.

Photoshop Lightroom 3 is one of the most highly regarded software programmes for organising and editing your photographs. I’ve spent the last couple of months getting familiar with Photoshop Lightroom 3, and I must say, it is simply a pleasure to use. Lightroom 3 was designed from the ground up with the workflow in mind, and the ease of use shines through.

Lightroom 3 is a non-destructive photo editing software, that means it doesn’t make any changes to the original photographs. Instead, it keeps a record of edits made to each photograph. This is great because I could easily revert back to the original shot without keeping duplicate copies. At a typical 10Mb per photo, that is a lot of hard disk space saved.

A bit of background

Photography is a new hobby for me, I only picked it up at the start of 2011. I started with Google’s free photo organising software Picasa. It works in a similar way to Lightroom 3, but is obviously less powerful. Fantastic for beginners.

I then progressed to Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 (the latest version is now 10), which came bundled with my laptop. Photoshop Elements 9 consists of an Organiser and an Editor. The Organiser isn’t too shabby, but it’s simply too unwieldy for my liking.

Finally, I moved on to Photoshop Lightroom 3. This also came bundled with my computer, I realised the fact belatedly after purchasing an original copy from Amazon (I still have it on my book shelf, just buzz me if you wish to take it off my hands).

I now use Lightroom 3 for the organising and simple editing, and Photoshop Elements 9 for more complex editing. I don’t need the full-fledge Photoshop CS5 as I’m not a professional.

There are more powerful software programmes for editing your photographs. But for organising them, Lightroom 3 is one of the best on the market. If you’re an Apple user, Lightroom 3 is also available in the Mac version, though you would also have the option of using the exclusive-to-Apple Aperture 3. However, I prefer using cross-platform software which does not tie me to a particular OS.

I would now like to share my current workflow, from importing photographs to sharing. This will probably change as I develop a better understanding of the software. Short-cut keys are indicated in brackets.

My recommended workflow in Lightroom 3:

Importing

1. Import from memory card, and Copy the files onto my computer.
2. All my photographs are located in a single folder called “My Lightroom Photos”.
1. There are various sub-folders, such as Events, Family, Places, Exports.
2. I usually create a new folder for each import, e.g. My Lightroom Photos -> Events -> Bali Trip 2010.
3. The following steps are all done automatically during the import process.
1. Change file names to “hunboon_import date (YYYYMMDD)_original file name”. I occasionally import photographs taken by other people, and I find this to be the easiest way to differentiate among them.
2. Apply meta data which includes the creator’s (that’s me) personal details e.g. name, email, web site, and also copyright information.
3. Add general key tags e.g. Holiday, Bali. More specific key tags are done later.
4. Apply “General – Auto Tone” preset in the Quick Develop section of the Library module. My photographs are usually slightly washed out, and this preset helps to add more punch and make the colours more vibrant.

Organising

1. In Library module, go to Grid view (G). Increase the panel size by closing the side panels (Shift + Tab) and going into full screen mode (F).
2. For the first round, select the photographs which are obvious rejects e.g. blurred, out of focus, hand in front of lens. I delete them from the hard disk (Lightroom 3 gives you the option of removing them from its catalogue)
3. For the second round, go into Loupe view (E) and apply flags. Add a flag to the photographs you like (P), and reject the ones you don’t (X). The Compare view (C) is useful to selecting among similar shots e.g. repeat shots of the same scene.
4. Filter to show only the rejected photos. Unflag those you intend to keep (U), and delete the rest (Ctrl+Backspace).
5. Filter to show only the flagged photos, and narrow the field further. You might wish to use the Survey view (N) here. I find the Survey view helpful only when there are few photos remaining e.g. fewer than 15 or so.
6. Save these photos as a Collection (album).
7. Narrow your photos further to those you wish to showcase (these are the best ones from the Collection). Apply a colour label, I use Red as it’s the first colour. I usually end up with around 5% to 10% of the photos at this point e.g. 8 photos from a shoot of 160. The fewer I showcase, the more care I can take with them (Editing can be time-consuming).

Editing

1. Start with Cropping and Straightening, which is done with the same tool. I use Lens Correction to compensate for the more blatant perspective errors.
2. I usually stick with the As Shot white balance, unless the colours look strange.
3. I then do basic colour editing, working from top to down on the right panel. The preset “General – Punch” is useful for photos that need more help despite the “General – Auto Tone” already applied during import.
4. For tone adjustment, I use the auto feature before making manual adjustments while using the histogram as a guide.
5. I apply Sharpening only during export, so none is used here.
6. Noise reduction is great for those high ISO shots in dim conditions. It really makes those pesky blotches disappear, you have to try it to believe it. This is one of my favourite features in Lightroom 3.

Sharing

I share the photographs in 2 ways:

1. Uploading to blog
1. I export to hard disk. Apply Standard Sharpening.
2. Reduce size to 550 pixels along long edge of the photo (so that the photo will fit within the column in my 2-column layout).
3. Add my web site URL as a watermark.
2. Uploading to photo-sharing web sites
1. Lightroom 3 has a Publish feature for sharing web sites such as Facebook, Flickr and SmugMug. You need to install a free external plug-in for Picasa but it’s very simple (took me just 2 minutes). I use Facebook for public photos and Picasa for private photos.
2. Apply Standard Sharpening.
3. Reduce photo size to 1000 pixels along long edge of the photo (reduces file size but still big enough to fill up most monitors).

That’s all from me. If you have any suggestions or tips to share on how to improve the workflow in Photoshop Lightroom 3, please let me know.

In psychology, we learnt about the dual-coding theory. This theory says that we encode information in our working memory using two channels: one visual, and the other auditory. The new information is then transferred to our permanent, long-term memory.

This means that if we utilise both channels, we get twice the “bandwidth”. How can we put this to use in the real world?

I found two software programmes that will read out the text to you. You can copy the text from any application, such as emails, web sites, or e-books.

The first software is NaturalReader by NaturalSoft (confusingly, their web site is spelled “naturalreaders” with an “s”). The software is pretty basic, but it comes with a price tag of free. You can pay to upgrade to a premium version, which comes with more natural and human-sounding voices.

The second is called TextAloud by NextUp. You can download a fully-functioning 15-day trial version of the software. It comes with more features. I especially like the Internet Explorer add-on, which allows me to listen to web sites without having to copy-and-paste.

What I am experimenting with now, is to copy excerpts from e-books into TextAloud, and listen to the words as I read them. After every section, I write down a summary into Evernote.

This is a slow approach for me as I am a fast reader, and can read much more speedily than the software could pronounce. I could always alter the speed of the reading, but that just makes it sound weird.

But I believe the deeper learning I get in return increases the speed and level of my understanding. I hope you will try the above software and let me know how it works for you.

p.s. After checking out these software and listening to many voice samples, I find “Bridget” (female UK English) and “Julia” (female US English) to have the most natural-sounding voices. I prefer Bridget as Julia sounds creepily chirpy to me.

With some practice, I am now achieving typing speeds comfortably over 200 characters per minute using the Thumb Keyboard 4. This was considerably faster than the average of 172 char/min in the initial test. I did not include the SwipeIT keyboard in the video, but the speed had stagnated at around 160-170 char/min.

SwipeIT remains the most fun to use, but the Thumb Keyboard 4 is now the fastest keyboard on Android by some distance.