Idea #8: Create a log of story ideas

Description
Recently, I flipped through my journal and stumbled across an idea I had come up with for a story. Nothing crazy or detailed, just a quick blurb that could be fleshed out in the future into a complete plotline. I had jotted it down quickly, the handwriting a scribble, thinking that it would make for a good story and I didn't want to lose it. Then I promptly forgot about all about it.

But this is the point of keeping a journal, right? To capture those ideas that drift out of the smoke in our pre-frontal cortex, before the wisps drift off again into the ether. Our minds are always changing - fail to record an idea, and it might never come back from the hidden lands of inspiration. The problem is, these story ideas are buried in amongst the pages of sketches, grocery lists, designs for furniture or other items to build, dream logs (a future blog post on that shortly), and other mishmash. With no key word or date search capability.

So I just have to go back through my journals, one page at a time, and type them up.

Steps
1) Dig up old journals from the basement.
2) Find the story ideas and type them up.
3) Select the most promising and flesh them out into a complete story.
4) Get them published.

Enthusiam: Moderate. Much like the jotting down of story ideas, enthusiasm for reading through these ideas fades as soon as I get them typed. But at least I have them for the future, right?
Practicality: I'd forgotten how many journals I've kept over the years. And that's not counting the ones from high school (dare I step back into that mindset?)
Difficulty: I had to flip back through years and years of notebooks and journals. And sit down and actually type them up. And I'm still haunted by the feeling that I've missed a few.

And I did. I went back and dug out my journals, flipped through them, and typed them into a Word doc. I now have a list, a sampling of which includes:
- A man with Alzheimers in a nursing home who sends postcards about places he had been to with his wife when she was still alive. His granddaughter puts them together into a story of his life, a biography she would have never known had she not read the postcards.
- A boy who is a thief and punk, but wears a Boy Scout uniform to look wholesome.
- A short short about a lottery winner who sets fire to his own house to fake his death so he can finally shake all the people asking him for money.
- A future in which the government has mandated public servants to have electrodes implanted in their brains to force them to make policies according to laws and regulations, removing emotional thought from policy decisions. Based on a new technology using nanofiber cables implanted in mice's brains, successfully making them turn in certain directions when the light in the cables turns on.
- Based on a man I met in the Philippines, who long since went "off the grid," who is now dying and teaching his lessons to an American who happened by chance to meet him while on vacation.

And that's just a quarter of the story ideas I dug up out of these journals. Someday I'll type them up and get them published.

Idea #7: Study neurology to better understand why I do things

Description
"Why do we do what we do?"

Google that phrase. You'll bring up self-help speeches by Tony Robbins, the Amazon page for the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, an article on a New York Times blog, a Harvard Business Review blog, and many other references links to blogs, book reviews, news articles, etc. There's no shortage of pondering about the reasons behind our actions. But up until a few months ago, I thought of the answers only in terms of philosophical conjecture, with theorized assumptions about human behavior.

But then in March I stumbled across a neuroscience textbook in a small thrift shop while driving through the frozen and snow covered plains of Idaho. And I'd just been thinking about reading a book on neuroscience! I thought to myself as I thumbed through the pages. I'd been planning to read something more friendly to the liberal arts student, but if it was going to land in my way, I was going to read it.

It was published in 1996, but I figured I could catch up with some other, more recent things that had happened since then. As it turned out, there was quite a lot - the textbook doesn't even mention the MRI or fMRI until the last chapter. Any neuroscience book on the shelves today will be at least 75% filled with references to lessons from MRI studies.

But I learned a hell of a lot anyways, since much of our knowledge comes from animal studies. Like it or not you animal rights activists, but most of the time what we know about how the brain works comes from sticking electrodes into the brain of monkeys (or other primates, like college students) and mice. And then I kept it up with more books that report on what we've learned about the brain and what we can do with that information: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, Imagine by Jonah Lehrer, Brain Rules by John  Medina, and An Alchemy of Mind by Diane Ackerman. Let me tell you, I recommend any of those books even if you haven't read a neuroscience textbook, but I was just glad I had read the textbook so I was already familiar with the parts of the brain these authors reference in their books.

And after all this studying up on the science of the brain, you know what I've learned: most of what we do is more reaction than action.

Think about it: our brains are wired to react to events in split-second increments. Most of the time, we rely on instinct or on learned habits. Something happens, our brain defaults to previous patterns, and we act based on past behavior. Or we experience a flood of emotion (i.e., a flood of chemicals flowing from our neurons) and we act in response.

What you hear in your brain from that endless self-talk telling you why you're doing what you're doing? That's just the language center in the left side of your brain lending a voice to describe what you're feeling and what you're doing about it. But the fact is, that language center (most likely Broca's area, just above your left ear, FYI) is playing catch-up: you're in the act long before you describe to yourself what you're doing. Hence the reason we often reply "I don't know!" when someone asks us why the hell we did what we just did in a heated moment of panic. We haven't had time to tell ourselves why we did it.

So you know what this means to me? I don't know what actions could legitimately be called "original." We think we're doing things for our own original reasons. But you know what? It's not original We're reacting. We're responding. We're acting out of habit, just the way we did it last time. Maybe we'll try something a little different this time, hoping for a better outcome. But is that an original idea? Did we come up with that ourselves, or did we borrow it from something we read about, heard from a friend, or saw in a movie?

We are big, organic robots, and yet the best computers still can't perfectly replicate our actions. Perhaps it's because they act from rules of logic instead of rules of learned habit.

Okay, my essay is over. So what's the goddamned hare-brain idea?
Figure out how to act not from habit or emotion, but from that deep, untapped well of insight in my brain.

Steps
1) Understand better my reasons for doing things. Identify cues, responses, and rewards.
2) Figure out where to substitute better responses.
3) Meditate, and therefore learn to separate myself from the responsive mind (the mind that only reacts to impulses, emotions, and cures).
3) Act with original, untarnished intention.

Enthusiam:  On-going. I devour any book, magazine article, or news report on brain science.

Practicality:  Depends on the consistency of practice.

Difficulty:  When is self-discovery ever as simple as it sounds?

One note: the image of the brain pasted above is from the newest, most advanced and detailed high-definition 3-D imaging of the human brain ever created. In case you think I'm exaggerating, consider this: for most of human history, the way we have viewed the brain was either with a corpse (with no brain activity to observe) or through images of the living brain that showed clusters of activity. PET scans, MRIs, fMRIs - all of these shows bright lights where clusters of activity in the brain respond to things like questions asked of the subjects or images viewed by the subjects, or actions made by the subject. (Fun fact: we've learned about the brain on sex by putting people in MRI machines and having them masturbate).

But you know what each bright light on one of those brain images represents? Millions of neurons firing at that moment. Neurons fire for very specific reasons: one fires when it recognizes a line you see at 90 degrees, another fires when it recognizes a line at 95 degrees, and so on. One fires when you see the color red, another fires when you see a different shade of red, and so on. Add that up, and you can imagine how many neurons are involved in looking at just a red square. Multiply that by millions more, and you can see why scientists estimate the number of neurons in the brain to be in the 100's of billions. And all we can do right now is make a rough estimate as to what parts of the brain respond when you ask someone a question, or show them a picture, or have them perform an action.

So my point is that we are finally getting to the point of narrowing our views of the brain down to extremely tiny proportions. That high-def 3-D scanner can view brain structures as small as 20 microns, which is 50 times smaller than than images from the best MRI scanners. Fuckin' amazing, no?

http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/brain-ultra-high-res-3d-130620.htm

Idea Updates

Description
I decided to write follow-up post to the ideas posted to this blog over a year ago, to give readers a sense of what happened with these ideas. I try to make sure that no idea is ever wasted with inaction, but some action lasts longer than others.

Kick-off Idea: Start a blog
Well, here we are. It's been a year since my last post. We'll see how long it lasts this time. Still, I've got a good feeling about this second try.

Lottery Scratchers: An Investment Plan
This initiative lasted nearly three months, from early April to the end of June 2012. I maintained a tracking sheet, logging my scratcher purchases, and whether I won or not. I actually achieved a win rate of 32.3% - nearly 1 in 3 resulted in winning at least the cost of the ticket back. Score! But then I needed money for other things (i.e., credit card bills) so I put a hold on the game. Months went by, then I started to turn the idea over in my head again (much to the chagrin of my girlfriend, who doesn't like any form of gambling). I sat down and ran the numbers: if I spent $10 each time on scrathers, three days per week for a year, then even if I won the maximum amount of money I could I would still end up in the red.

Actually, I think it's possible to win one of the larger prizes, or even the top prize, before that year is up. But still, the numbers shook my confidence. I haven't returned to the game yet. Just stuck with boring old stocks and bonds.

Roommates: A Saga of Intrigue and Despair and Beer and Dick Jokes
I moved out of that place the next month. That pretty much ended the need to ruminate on a play about living in a bachelor house.

I have kept the story idea filed away, however. I may break it out again some time in the future.

Apprendre le Français en 15 Minutes Tous les Jours
 I went to Mexico for vacation a couple months later. I dropped the French and started re-learning my Spanish to prepare for the trip. At the time, I told myself it wasn't permanent, I would pick it up again soon. Over one year later, I haven't touched that French book. As a matter of fact, I've been getting the itch to get back to studying my Russian again. Ce la vie, the life of the periodic linguist.

Become a Bike Merchant
Throughout that summer, I put hours upon hours of time over the course of six months into transferring all the parts from an old bike who frame was bent out of whack (I struck a pizza delivery guy - but that's another story) to a nice, expensive frame my father had given to me. I put a couple hundred dollars into taking having a professional bike shop install a new stem, but otherwise the work was completed with my own two hands.

A month later, a guy with bolt cutters clipped it from the bike rack at the Metro. Bike merchant dreams - crushed.

Stemming the Invasion of Kipple
This idea faded after a few months. Life moves on, and stuff gets stashed in the corner. I moved a second time eight months later, and took the opportunity to trash unnecessary stuff. So I'm going t file this under the "Completed" column.

There - old news is taken care of. Now I can move forward.

Steps
1) Force myself to look back over this old blog.
2) Remember why I thought this was a good theme for a blog.
3) Remind myself that it's still a good theme for a blog.

Enthusiam:  Renewed.

Practicality: Done.

Difficulty: Low - months of delay for only 15 minutes of work.

Idea #6: Stemming the Invasion of Kipple

Description
I've been following through on the long-held idea to buy a car and move to another place, so I've been too busy to mull over hare-brained ideas. But while unpacking my stuff, I came up with one for getting rid of old stuff. I got rid of as much stuff as I could while packing, by put it out on the lawn with an ad on Craiglist saying "Curb Alert: Free shit!" (which is surprisingly effective - people [with horrible psychologically-based hoarding issues, no doubt] troll Craigslist for those kinds of ads), and dropping everything else off at Goodwill. But I still have all this stuff.

So I thought, "You know, if a fire rips through your home or a burgler puts his gun to your temple, there's really not much stuff you care to think about, other than your life." I wondered what I would choose to keep if someone put a gun to my head and said, "Is that really something you need?"

An extreme situation? Yes, definitely. But if this were some kind of new revival of the Saw films, and  Jigsaw were mind-fucking me to make me see some deeper meaning in life or something - what would I choose to get rid of in that dire situation?

The idea: each week, pick 10 things that are unnecessary to the continuation of my life and toss them in the trash. They could be big or small, like when playing strip poker and choosing to take off the watch or a sock so my shirt doesn't have to come off. But eventually, just like strip poker, I'd get down to the bare essentials. Every week, I'd get closer and closer to the smallest set of things I really needed.

Steps
1) Look around my room full of unpacked boxes.
2) Pick 10 items as I see them.
3) Throw them in the trash. No excuses.
4) Repeat the next week, moving to the various drawers of junk I have.

Enthusiam: Right now, with tons of stuff clogging up my smaller room with no basement to store junk in, it seems like a fantastic idea. I think my enthusiasm will wane as soon as I allow myself to make excuses for the things I keep.

Practicality: Seems incredibly practical, until some time in the future when I look around for something I decided to throw out during this life overhaul excercise. Whoops - there I go making excuses already.

Difficulty: Maybe humans are born hoarders - it's as difficult to let go of things as it is to accumulate them.

Idea: #5: Become a Bike Merchant

Description
I could fix up downtrodden bikes I find on the cheap and re-sell them on Craigslist for a small profit. I've been working on my own bikes for years, but it wasn't until I completely disassembled, painted, and reassembled a tandem bike I found abandoned by the metro. (For the record, it in terrible shape: completely rusted, and left unlocked several feet from the bike rack. Therefore, I maintain it was abandoned).  After obsessively working on it for two weeks straight, I have a glorious new bike, and ambitions to do the same with others.

Steps
1) Salvage bikes found on craigslist or elsewhere, where the owners are practically giving them away to get rid of them.
2) Fix them with new parts, maybe even paint.
3) Resell them on craigslist or elsewhere.

Originality: I would have said High a few years ago. Then bike-obsessed hipsters came along.

Enthusiam: I was on a high after finishing that monster of a project with the tandem bike. Now, it just seems like a lot of unnecessary work for only a little profit.

Practicality: Depends on the bike. I'm sure there are some hipsters out there who want old bikes, right?

Difficulty: Also depends on the bike. Now that I think about it, I've only fixed up three bikes in my life. There are professionals out there who do this all time, and with good bikes. 

Final Note: Know anyone in the market for a tandem bike?

Idea #4: Apprendre le Français en 15 Minutes Tous les Jours

Description
I studied German in high school, Russian in college and grad school, and Spanish off and on over the years with a few books here and a few classes there. What's one more language? Here's the idea for those who do not know enough French already to read the title of this post: learn French in 15 minutes a day.

Granted, I can't speak any of these languages fluently at the moment as I am out of practice (especially my German, which I've barely touched since senior year in '99). Not long ago I heard an interview on NPR with the author of Babel No More, Michael Erard, who talked about "hyperpolyglots" he wrote about - people who have learned dozens of languages. There was another author on the show who talked about people who picked up multiple musical instruments over their lifetimes - the similarity between musical instruments and languages being that there is an underlying structure to the sounds used. Erard talked about learners of multiple languages or instruments seeming to have "plasticity," or the flexibility and desire to focus on learning new things. I also remember hearing somewhere about a person who studied multiple languages at a time by only studying each language 15 minutes at a time, then moving on to something else for the rest of the day. It's sort of a tortoise vs. hare approach.

And some might think: It's not possible to learn a language without a teacher. Actually, many of the languages these polyglots picked up are self-taught. Now, the degree to which they actually could use the language may very, but a teacher is not required so long as their is practice and the ability to learn from mistakes. I learned that from reading the blog of Tim Ferriss, whose opinion is that classes are more like training wheels - the sooner they come off and you start practicing for reals, the better.

Diligently studying French in the Metro

So I thought, how about I just start learning French? I've always wanted to, so how about I start with a book on my 20 minute metro rides to work?


Steps
1) Purchase a decent book that teaches French.
2) Spend 15-30 minutes each day studying the underlying grammar, and most-needed vocabulary, listening to the CD that comes with the book for pronunciation.
3) Improve on the basic French ability: Read blogs or Twitter feeds from French speakers to get a beeter sense of common French usage. Watch TV shows and movies in French.
4) Practice: write sentences in French. Have short conversations with French speakers. 

Originality: Doesn't everyone say they want to learn a language? Buy a few tapes, go to some classes, and then before long it's dropped and the tapes and books collect dust on the shelf. In fact, I've got those for Mandarin Chinese and Philippines Tagalog on my shelf.

Enthusiam: So far I've kept it up for a couple months. But I've also been thinking of doing this for years - now is just when I seized the initiative.

Practicality:  The key here is that I also studied other languages. That means I have already learned three things that first-time language learners (or rather, first time second language learners) have to figure out:
1) How a language is structured; i.e. the basic grammatical concepts of any language;
2) How to go about learning a language: listening for proper pronunciation, common words to study, etc.; and
3) What works best for me: Flashcards, grammar books, writing practice sentences, and (when I can bring myself to) speaking with others.

Difficulty: Learning a lnaguage to any point of actual proficiency is hard - it takes a lot of time and practice. Sure I can learn French - the question is rather "how well?"

Idea #3: Roomates: A Saga of Intrigue and Despair and Beer Cans and Dick Jokes

Standard sink condition
if it were set in the kitchen

Description
A play about living in a house full of roommates. The setting would be entirely within the living room, so it would be ideal for a play because scenery changes would be unnecessary. Set the stage so that the couches of the living room would face the audience, as though the people in the play were looking at the TV, and the audience would be looking at the actors as though through the television screen. The actors could enter and exit through the sides of the stages as though they were entering and exiting through the front door, bathroom door, bedroom door, kitchen door, etc. The play would focus on the various stories behind each roommate, some that would include the other roommates, while others would be secret from the roommates altogether.

Steps
1) Outline the story.
2) Learn how to write in the format of a play.
3) Dedicate time to writing and bang out the scenes.

Originality: This would be like the stage version of Australian author John Birmingham's non-fiction book of the best stories from his years living with dozens of roommates, He Died with a Felafal in His Hand, except set in one living room. Although it would be really tough to compete with Birmingham's stories.

Enthusiam: Medium. I've had this idea before. But I have yet to dedicate any time to thinking about the stories that would drive the play.

Practicality: Not very, considering I consistently dedicate my time to other pursuits. But something to keep in mind for the future.

Difficulty: Very. Have you ever tried to write a play? I really don't know how Shakespeare banged out so many in his lifetime.