Quickthink

Many, many years ago, I was invited for cocktails at the Eccentric Club in London. Sadly, the guests that assembled for a bit of boozing were not very eccentric by my standards. But I was grateful that the evening presented me with one rather fond memory. It was of the clock that was mounted behind the bar. What was the big deal? It ran backwards.

You may have already guessed that I have long nurtured an affinity for eccentrics, and you would be right. But I should qualify that comment. The eccentricities that I value emerge from romance - not disdain. There is a huge difference. Eccentric romance connects people to the good life. As it did, for example, for my old friend Julian who decided to become a professional painter after a successful career selling encyclopedias in South Africa, because he adored looking at naked ladies. Eccentric disdain is the polar opposite. It is the rejection of things in order to pump up one’s ego. Like Eliott Templeton from Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge. One must learn to tolerate the ensuing snobbery.

You get a feel for the life style of a romantic eccentric from this story about John Archer and his house.

Enjoy!

BTW, if you want to know more about the eccentric clock, here is a link to the story.

We all worry to one extent or another about our futures. Are we getting closer to, or farther away from what we need to have a great life? Sometimes it is hard to tell. And it is especially hard when things suddenly change. That has happened to me more than once. For example, when I left law practice in Philadelphia to come to Estonia for a year (that was back in 1994 and apparently the year isn’t over yet). And when I walked away from the professional legal training center that I had helped create.

Those situations can be rather disorienting. It is less so if you have a core skill that you know you can use no matter what.  That might be anything — but it has to be something that you do really well and that others need. This is really important and because it is so important, I find it a bit odd that among all of the self-help and productivity enhancement writing on the web, I don’t find much chit chat about it.

What do I mean? Well, I bumped into an interesting article yesterday about Amare Stoudemire.  Amare plays for the New York Knicks and is a star. But the Knicks traded for another star - Carmelo Anthony, and the trade forced Stoudemire out of his game. He could no longer thrive on pick and rolls. And his play last year suffered. He no longer had a core skill set to offer his team. So this summer Stoudemire is learning a new core skill - scoring from the low post. Great idea.

But actually, the story is less about Stoudemire than his teacher - one of the great centers of all time, Hakeem Olajuwon. Hakeem knows low post moves like the back of his hand. It is his core skill and he teaches it to a select few great players.

Since retiring in 2002, Olajuwon has become the N.B.A.’s go-to source for players hoping to develop their post skills. LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant have visited the Olajuwon ranch. So have Marcin Gortat and the Lopez twins, Brook and Robin. This month, it’s Stoudemire and Denver’s Javale McGee.

Very cool. Olajuwon may be retired but he still a “go to” kind of guy. So what is your core skill?

Perhaps this is the ultimate “self help” topic. The irony is that you can’t help yourself alone. To live longer and happier, you need to do it in a community that shares a few common values. Hmmm … what are those? BI offers a few clues.

A while ago, I bumped into an idea that has stuck with me. The idea is very simple to understand, but more difficult to apply.

Here it is. You learn a lot better if you decide in advance why you are going to the trouble. So, for example, kids who had decided that they wanted to be musicians learned much faster how to play a musical instrument than kids who just practiced. The theory is that the initial decision opens up the door to more creative thinking during practice.

And we have lots of examples of people who have lived that experience. I noticed two in today’s news. Michael Phelps did. According to the article, Phelps decided to try to transform his sport. To bring it into the mainstream. To get there, he had to become the greatest swimmer in his generation. And Marylin Monroe apparently did too. For complex reasons, Monroe wanted to be the ultimate sex goddess. To get there, she learned how to use her every movement to send the right signals.

This sounds great. But … and this is a Kim Kardashian butt … it is much easier to see this using hindsight. Phelps and Monroe have already achieved stuff. How do we come to make these types of powerful decisions in our own lives in order to get great results? To find the good life?

Hmmm … good question. More on that as we go forward.

Sneak Preview -  I know some people who every now and then get into very deep funks. Dark clouds gather over their heads and they need a day or two or even longer to get over it. When I ask “what’s happening?” they say that they started thinking about all the mistakes that they made in their lives. Ooops. The more one is imprisoned by the past, the less one can decide about the future. Right?

FOLLOW -  And how about Oscar Pistorius? He is making history as he competes in the 400 meters race at the Olympics — as a double amputee? What decisions did he make that gave him what he needed to get this far?

2d FOLLOW -  And how about Florence Warren who “… dreamed of becoming a dancer”? She did and had a rather adventurous life as well.

3rd FOLLOW -  A while back I posted on the difference between routine and commitment. The commitment, of course, comes after a decision which is what we are talking about here. The decision opens the door to commitment, so to speak.

Before writing anything, I need to make a confession. I am a terrible gardener. To my credit, I am quite capable of cutting the grass, and I usually do it. Though my cutting routines start late and end a bit too early (around when my fourteen apple trees disgorge  …  all at roughly the same time). And worse still, grass cutting and getting rid of the apples is about it. Weeding, trimming, planting, and the rest are pretty much off the radar screen. And that big dead fir tree in the back yard? Oh dear.

This year I promised myself that I would do a bit better. And I have. A tiny bit. I started by trimming the hedge before the neighbors commented. That led me to cutting back some bushes in the front of the house and then at the side of the house. After that I had a go at thinning out the branches  of one of the apple trees. Then I fell of the ladder.

Falling off a ladder is definitely something that I would not recommend. But I look on the bright side. It was an embarrassment. I don’t deny it. But I carry the memory as a sort of an odd badge of courage. I was wounded at the front lines. And my few bruised ribs were not so serious a thing as the deletion Jake Barnes suffered to his unmentionables. Using a gaming framework, the experience has allowed me to level up. And to learn a lesson - no more planting the ladder in soft ground. Bravo!

But there is more to this gardening thing. A feeling started to take hold even before my battle with the ladder. As I started looking for challenges in the garden, I realized that the garden is active. It is more a verb than a noun. It lives with me and I with it. And it is inherently unruly. With a sense of humor.

With this in mind, I laughed out loud reading Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer’s piece that the economy is more like a garden than a machine. Perhaps I am already moving into my own post mechanized world.

Apparently, humans did not always have such an acute sensitivity for time. In the bad old days, seasons came and went and life went on without much change. But around 5,000 years ago, mankind broke through to another dimension: that of abstract thought. Mankind discovered the use of mathematics and written language. Since then, we have become more and more sensitive to the notion that our train of thought can outpace events. Step by step, we gained confidence in our reasoning powers. This changed and continues to change our sense of what is possible to achieve over time. So in a sense, time has been slowing down in relation to what can be achieved.

Ok, get ready, here comes the big idea: We accept now that as exhausting as it may be, adhering to routines and scheduling are better than doing stuff when we feel like it. Too bad for Rousseau. He didn’t like that. But like it or not, learning how to use longer term perspective and building routines around it is the key to adding value these days.

Still, it can be exhausting. Especially so if we get overly done in by the pressure of achieving short term results. And I think this is the key to understand institutional burnout. Patterns of work become more and more organized around short term goals rather than longer term story lines. And gradually the vision fades and confidence sags. Even the strongest relationships can be broken.

Ok, we all live these days with the risk of burnout. But accepting this is not an argument for opting out. Why not? Because that gives us even worse results (BTW, this was one of the comments made by Sir Kenneth Clark about the superficial allure of barbarism — “there is no escape from it”). The trick is to learn how to opt into more productive longer term patterns of doing things with people who share your capacity and vision. With internet, you are who you are connected with.

BT offers a glimpse of the value of long term thinking. The story is about various children learning to play a musical instrument. Some had a long term commitment to learning. Others did not.

A graph shows that

With the same amount of practice, the long-term-commitment group outperformed the short-term-commitment group by 400 percent.

Here is the key thought

Progress was determined not by any measurable aptitude or trait, but by a tiny, powerful idea the child had before even starting lessons.

Via The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown.

As I said, our aptitude for learning is based on our confidence in our use of time.

Looking at Mathew Ingram’s post today from Giga, I am reminded of something important.

In the old days, one had to “be there” or “be an expert” in order to have the credibility to make media. These things are still pretty cool. Just as cool, however, is to provide filters for the rest of us that help us to keep up with niche story lines.

In other words, curation is the new “black” in platform development.

I was telling my friend Nico about my problem with cooking. I just don’t have the time or energy to plan very well. Nico, who is head chef at Wilde Locale here in Tartu, laughed. He said his problem is the opposite. He develops so many cooking ideas during the week that he could never come close to using them all.

Hmm … I thought. Perhaps we could make a deal. If Nico gave me one idea per week I would promise to plan for it and make it. And I could give him feedback — perhaps even improving the recipe. “No problem. And I will help you.” Nico said. This was exciting. The start of a routine. And I could get advice from the maestro as needed. Better still, I can share the adventure with you. That will make things more fun. It  will also help me “stick to it” rather than give up on the concept. So we have a deal. Last night, Nico sent his first recipe to me by email. Here it is. Onward … and hopefully upward!

FRENCH ONION SOUP WITH GUINNESS AND MOZZARELLA BAGUETTES

The picture is from Nico’s blog. And if you want, you can find the same recipe with more photos there too.

 From Nico: In France - ´´French onion soup´´ is a standard bistro fare and in Ireland they do a version with Guinness. Today I combine both recipes to do my own version of this classic soup were I will add an Italian twist. A classic soup perfect for winter, is packed with onion flavor and is delicious for those occasions when soul food is needed to raise the spirits. Make sure that you use good beef stock and allow the onions to caramelize to get the maximum flavor in your onion soup. For vegetarians, the beef stock can be replaced with vegetable-based stock.

The trick for this great onion soup is starting with good stock. Another important step is to caramelize the onion. Caramelizing onions take at least thirty minutes of slow cooking the onions over medium heat. The browning, or caramelizing, of the onions brings out the sweetness of the onions.

The recipe below make enough for 4-6 portions.
Chopping onions note
Chopping onions is a nice ‘crying’ experience! The way to avoid crying when chopping onions is tricky! Just use a very sharp knife, serrated knives are no good. When you chop an onion you break the walls of the cells, this allows the juices of the onions to go into the atmosphere. the sharper the knife, the less cells are broken.

Ingredients
6 large Spanish onions peeled and thinly sliced.
olive oil
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 ½ liter beef stock
1 of 500 ml can of Guinness
1-2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon of fresh chopped thyme
salt and pepper
12 slices from French baguettes
150 gr grated Gruyeres cheese
6 of 80 gr French baguettes with garlic butter
4 of 125gr Buffalo Mozzarella
pot of basil to garnish

In a large saucepan, sauté the onion in the olive oil on medium high heat until well browned, but not burned, about 30 minutes.
Turn the onions every minute or so to ensure they are evenly cooked.
Add the minced garlic, sugar and thyme and continue cooking on a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until the onion is well browned, stirring frequently.
Stir in the Guinness, Worcestershire sauce and stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Cook the onion until gets a light brown color so that is soft but not falling apart.
Put the French baguettes slices under the grill or into the oven, to toast them.
Rub each slice of toasted French bread with a garlic clove.
Top with grated cheese, and grill or oven backed for 3-4 minutes until cheese begins to melt and bubble. Put the cheese croutons on the top of the soup, garnish with fresh basil and served.
To make a meal on its own I served on the side with a mozzarella and garlic baguettes.
Enjoy!

So - I will make this during the week and report back here on my efforts. And I promise to be patient with the onions. Looks like I will have to make my own beef stock too. Hey! No problem …. errr …. I think.

FOLLOW -  First step, I need to think about making a quality beef stock. Here is a recipe from food52. Here is another one from BBC recipes. Here is a link to a video from videojub. Chef Jean Peirre has a video too. He saves his scraps and loves his leeks! Here is the link.  Hmmm …

FOLLOW -  I liked Chef Jean Pierre’s video (and his tip about leeks) - but I am not sure that I am into roasting the bones with tomato paste. Interesting.

FOLLOW -  I will do the beef stock on Tuesday evening to get ready for my onion soup. Why not today? Well, to be honest, I got distracted by a sexy little recipe for potato fritters with broccoli red peppers and parma ham.

Some Saturday Fun

There are quite a few food celebrities selling their ideas and personalities on the web these days. Jamie Oliver is one of them, and he has a rather dynamic website. Here is the link. They are all seem to be on precisely the same mission. To demonstrate to the rest of us that preparing food well (and the word “well” delivers the key concept here) is an essential part of the good life. I fall naturally into their target group because I enthusiastically agree.

But even though I have followed their blogs, read their articles and watched their videos every day for years, I have a problem. I rarely have the time or the energy during the day to develop a decent food plan for the week.  There is a persistent gap between what I know and what I do. So I find myself staggering about the food store wondering what I am going to make for dinner that night. I tell myself that I am better than this, but I have to admit. I am usually improvising rather than building up a better kitchen routine.  And I can understand why pre-prepared dinners sell well. At least the photos on the packages look like one is about to get a decent meal without much fuss. It looks like a step up and one can be momentarily tempted to go for it, even when you know how this will play out when you get back home. Sadly, you can’t eat the photo.

Surely there are ways to do this better. Here are two thoughts that I throw out for some fun on a rainy Saturday morning. One is to deliver great food preparation ideas and images at the food store (not just sell food products).  Put up kiosks in the store that offer food preparation ideas and recipes via the web so zombies like me can get find a resource at our moment of greatest need. Get us inspired to buy better. For example, I would love to see Amanda’s cream of roasted tomato soup post from food52 when I am passing by the tomatoes. Why don’t food stores do this more often? Or do I have to buy an IPad to carry with me when I shop?

A second thought is to develop more local web sharing resources. I would like to know, for example, what Nico and Bianca are cooking during the week. Why? Because I know they are serious when they enter the kitchen. If they are doing something, I want to do it too. And I would even be willing to pay them to share their routines. Well, not a lot, but you get the idea.

These are just a few thoughts and perhaps there are much better ideas around to better use our digital resources. What would you like to see that could help you step into a digital food life style?

 FOLLOW - Some readers of QT will recall that I started posting a while ago about my kitchen computer. This was my first effort to use the web to better plan out my kitchen routines. I still think this is essential. Sadly, my old laptop gave its life for the cause.

FOLLOW -  There is a related problem in translating food expertise into routines and it has to do with the idea of “recipes”. They give the impression of precision, when in fact no one really cooks this way. Pete Wells says in his Cooking for Dexter column

The recipe, one of the most strictly formulated genres of writing, has to open up a little to make room for real life.

Here is a link to Pete’s entertaining piece on why thinking about “mise en place” is silly. I agree.So why do we feel somehow compelled to think this way?

FOLLOW -  Another issue goes to proper cooking technique. I confess. I get sloppy when I am cooking on my own. There are web resources on how to do the simple things right. Like peeling peppers. Here is a link to Ideas in Food that discusses this rather narrow topic. A while ago, Green Kitchen and Alice Waters did a series on simple techniques. Here is a link to my post on this. I watched one episode, but got distracted. Mea culpa. But come on! My digital tool box should make this easier!

At age 103, Judge Wesley Brown is the oldest active US District Court judge. That in itself merits congratulations. Great, but why post about him? The reason is that it seems everyone loves Judge Brown. He is not just an old man. He is an inspiration. Here is the link to his story. BTW, I enjoyed this funny quote from Judge Brown

At this age, I’m not even buying green bananas.

That is why he no longer takes on cases that will produce lengthy trials.

Here is my question. Do we dare strive to achieve this inspiring manner (even though we have not achieved Judge Brown’s seniority)? I think we can and should. Why? Most important because people all around us need the inspiration. Life ain’t easy and for most of us, it ain’t getting any easier. So this is a valuable goal to take over. To be inspiring. But can we achieve it? Why not? As long as we commit to learning a step at a time what goes into the effect that Judge Brown provides.

Here are some initial thoughts.

First, Judge Brown is not trying to assert himself just for the hell of it. He is glad to be playing the game in the role that he has, and he shows that pleasure.

Second, Judge Brown slows things down to a manageable speed. He doesn’t need to hurry. He just needs to get things right.

Third,  Judge Brown shows sympathy for the human condition based on his experience.

Hey! I can do that! Hmmm … and so can you. Thanks to Judge Brown for raising the bar just a bit for deciding what is possible in life!

FOLLOW -  One might contrast this with the dreadful near final scene of the old television series Upstairs Downstairs when, after an extended series of stinging humiliations, Major James Bellamy decides to take his own life. He lost his inspiration and had no one to help him get it back. Here is a link. Indeed, people do need inspiration.