Curious Jordy?: Archive

Nov 26th

The Secret of the Gifted

Excerpt from The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell: After all that fancy talk, you might be wondering whether game design is really for you. You might have noticed that skilled game designers seem to have a special gift for this work. It comes easily and naturally to them, and though you love games, you wonder if you are gifted enough to succeed as a designer. Well, here is a little secret about...

Jul 27th

4 tags

“There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with...”

– George Shinn

Mar 28th

My goal for this week

My goal for this week is to add two features to http://www.habit-changer.net http://www.goalmafia.com, the motivational website I’m working on. 1. Be able to set a goal of your choosing (right now you’re limited to just exercise goals) 2. Integrate with Facebook Connect to start using social motivation. i.e. publish your progress and whether you met your goal to your Facebook News...

Feb 23rd

Get a grip!

Traction is key. I came to this realization on my jog through Golden Gate Park this morning, when I crossed a wet log and promptly slipped. Running in dry weather, it’s easy to take traction for granted and assume that all you need to get from Point A to Point B is power. WRONG. You need power + traction. Power without traction can lead to movement, but it is often not in the direction...

Dec 28th

Curious Jordy Goes To Get PRK Laser Eye Surgery

(the pic is an Optomed photo of my left eye, before surgery) Big news in Curious Jordy land, folks! Your humble correspondent has just gone in for PRK Laser Eye Surgery so that you, my esteemed readers, get a chance to know what this procedure is all about. Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ll admit, the main reason I went in to get PRK was to get my eyes fixed because I’m...

Dec 24th

What I Learned At The Psychotherapy Conference...

Q: How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb? A: Only one, but the light bulb has to want to change. —— This is the first in a series of posts where I describe some of my experiences, impressions, and takeaways from the Evolution of Psychotherapy conference. Psychotherapy is a huge and diverse field This was a MASSIVE conference. 5 days, dozens of speakers, over 150...

Dec 17th

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Some highlights from the Evolution of...

http://www.evolutionofpsychotherapy.com/ Check out more pics here. Albert Bandura: help people succeed despite themselves most of our successes come from learning from mistakes Motivation gurus teach you how to achieve success, but not how to manage failure, which is you get to success Change at a societal level: we need to scale up interventions so we can reach vast numbers of people. ...

Dec 13th

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Nov 23rd

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Nov 9th

11 tags

5 Books That Changed My Life (Recently)

I’ve been reading a LOT over the last few months. Here are 5 of the most enjoyable and positively life-changing books I have come across. Enjoy! 1. Getting to Yes A hugely influential and useful book for me. No joke, this has helped me improve ALL the relationships in my life. “Like it or not, you are a negotiator… Standard negotiating strategies involve an attempted...

Nov 5th

4 notes

8 tags

Oct 17th

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Three steps you can use to help anyone grow (yes,...

So there’s this general theory about life, and how it’s balanced… There is balance everywhere. Yin, yang; life, death; man, woman; light; dark; blah, blah. Everything has its opposite. Let’s apply this to the concept of personal growth. Everyone has some characteristic strength(s) and weakness(es). In fact, in someone’s greatest strength, you will find the...

Oct 11th

6 tags

How to win friends and influence people (by...

Intro: why I love pets I was playing with a friend’s cats this weekend when I figured out why I love pets. I love pets because they want my love. They *need* my love. Giving my cat Josephine things that *she* needs (food, water, cuddling) makes *me* feel good. Essentially, I have a certain need, personally, which is the need to feel needed, to love something which appreciates my love,...

Sep 29th

“The concern with reality - with “how I really am” and “who I...”

– Stephen Cope, Yoga and the Quest for the True Self.

Sep 28th

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Aug 8th

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Recap from tonight's Mobile Monday on monetization

I attended tonight’s Mobile Monday at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco. It was totally packed and a seriously classy affair this time around. (Not to say that it’s not always classy, but this time the sponsors Quattro and GetJar chipped in for an open bar. ) Huge props to the organizer Kate for hosting such a smoothly-run event! It was great seeing MoMo founder Mike Rowehl...

Aug 4th

Is life a zero-sum game?

I was thinking about the concept of predictability yesterday. Sometimes it is beneficial to be predictable, sometimes not. First, here’s how I’m defining predictability. Being predictable means: planning to do something communicating what you plan to do honestly, clearly and with plenty of notice doing it Being unpredictable means: planning to do something (or not) not...

Jul 17th

My notes on Steve Blank's "Customer Development...

Steve Blank posted a link to a great video recently, where he outlines his customer development principles to entrepreneurs at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. For those who haven’t yet heard of Steve, he’s the author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany, which has been recommended by people I trust as a must-buy book for anyone starting a company. I bought a copy, and now I’m going to read...

Jul 9th

Do you eat to live, or live to eat?

Hey, you: do you eat to live, or live to eat? Seems obvious. Almost insulting. *Of course* you eat to live. Right? Now imagine this exchange with a high school student who is working hard to get into a good college. - Why are you working hard? - To go to college. - Why go to college? - To get a job. - Why get a job? - To get money. - Why get money? - To get food. - Why get food? - To...

May 9th

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About

Hi, Curious about Curious Jordy? You’ve come to the right place. You can email me any time, or find me on Facebook (frequently) or Twitter (occasionally): @curiousjordy. ———- About me… I played a LOT of chess as a kid. In fact, at the age of 10, I earned the title of US chess master, breaking the record previously held by Bobby Fischer. I also broke the record...

Apr 28th

5 Patterns for Persuasive Web Video

This is a homework assignment for a class I’m taking on Persuasive Web Video at Stanford. (Ok, technically, I’m sitting in on the class as I help out with the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab - more on that later!) The assignment is to: Find and name 3 patterns you see that related to persuasion. The challenge here is to find the most interesting patterns. For example, in the...

Apr 17th

5 tags

I saw London, I saw France...

NB: This is a guest blog post for the fantastic fffabulous fashion blog which is currently celebrating Guy Week. This is my first post for them so I’m not entirely sure how it works, but the basic concept as far as I can tell is: one week of fashion-related posts written by dudes. Enjoy! In my last post, I tackled a subject near and dear to everyone’s heart: love. Today, I will...

Nov 14th

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Transitive Relations(hips), or, a Mathematical...

I had a mini-revelation yesterday while talking to a good and recent friend of mine. Let’s call her Midge. No, screw it, let’s just call her Maria, because that’s her name. Honesty really is the best policy. *Especially* when dealing in matters of the heart. We were talking about — wait for it — love. Or should I say, Love. Or, should I say, LOVE. Yeah, that one. It...

Nov 13th

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Watch

Bear, the dog

Sep 17th

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Isaac Hayes’ gold-plated Cadillac

Sep 16th

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Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Memphis TN

Sep 16th

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Corey Osborn ROCKIN the Star Spangled Banner, BB King’s Blues Club, Memphis TN

Sep 16th

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Elvis tribute video, Graceland

Sep 16th

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Graceland

Sep 16th

7 things I love about flying Air France

1. Pretty flight attendants coming through the aisles with bread baskets. 2. The bread. Mon dieu the bread. It’s *airline food*, for crying out loud, and it’s better than any bread you can find at the finest bakery in the states. How do they do it? 3. The coffee. See point #2. 4. People speaking French all around me. (Even though they switch back to English when I try to start a...

Jul 20th

I met a lady in the meads/Full beautiful—a faery’s child/Her hair was long, her foot was light/And her eyes were wild.

Jul 20th

Summertime. Ella fitzgerald and louie armstrong. Beat that.

Jul 20th

Yeah we gotta live in paris at some point. Gotta happen. In the not too distant future.

Jul 20th

Perfect summer afternoon at the lardin du luxembourg with marion and charlotte, my french cousins.

Jul 19th

Who knew, you can buy the most beautiful sunflower in the world for only 3 euros.

Jul 19th

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses...”

– Thomas Edward Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia - Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Jul 19th

rendezvous avec le fameux momon and niot niot, 21h30 @ métro vavin

Jul 19th

Jul 18th

Jul 16th