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Sunday, 13 November 2016

Najmorbidniji način da se naterate na vežbanje pali kao nijedan drugi

Svaki način na koji možemo da se motivišemo da vežbamo više je dobar, zar ne? A šta ako bi ta inspiracija dolazila od razmišljanja o smrti?

Smrt može da vam pomogne da bolje vežbate, Foto: Screenshot Istraživanje koje je sproveo Žurnal sporta i psihologija vežbanja tvrdi da razmišljanje o smrtnosti može da nam pomogne da bolje vežbamo.
Sudeći po rezultatima, sportisti sa Arizona univerziteta davali su više poena na košarkaškoj utakmici kada su im bila postavljana pitanja o smrti ili davani suptilni nagoveštaji o njoj.
Možda ste skeptični i pokušavate da skapirate kako smrt može da vas dovede u bolju formu, ali čini se da postoji način da se te dve stvari spoje.
Istraživači su koristili teoriju teror menadžmenta kako bi objasnili bolje rezultate sportista kojima su postavljana pitanja u vezi sa smrću.
„Sudeći po ovoj teoriji, naše samopouzdanje raste naspram nervoze od smrti. Zato što sport dozvoljava ljudima da steknu samopouzdanje, podsetnici na našu smrtnost mogu da poboljšaju naše sportske rezultate. Naša podsvest pokušava da pronađe razloge da porazi smrt, da učini da one ne bude problem – a rešenje je samopouzdanje“, tvrde oni.

Međutim, kako ovu teoriju možemo da iskoristimo u našim svakodnevnim treninzima?
Ako tokom izvođenja neke vežbe koja čini da se osećate dobo razmišljate o smrti, telo će prirodno poboljšati vaše rezultate.
Ako se mučite da se pomerite iz fotelje, razmišljajte o smrti i možda ćete na nekom podsvesnom nivou pronaći motivaciju da se bacite na vežbanje umesto da samo sedite i čekate neizbežno.
Ništa vas ne košta da probate, zar ne?

Saturday, 12 November 2016

Should I move to Canada if I'm a disappointed U.S. citizen?

Mohamed Farah 09:04

Some background: I moved from the US to Canada in late 2004. I chose to move mostly because I’d recently been laid off from my job, and my best job offer was in Vancouver, and anywhere on the coast looked like a nice change of scenery from Dallas. But the fact that I’d also become increasingly disillusioned with how post-9/11 America was shaping up, and that this job was in Canada and a chance to try out life on the other side — that certainly contributed and gave it an edge over another offer based in Chicago.

The pros: For me individually, moving to Canada has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. There are a number of things I really love about Canada, some of which I didn’t even fully appreciate until after I was here. A sampling:

Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and many other places in Canada are world-class cities in their own right, and great places to live regardless of what nation they’re in.
Diversity and multiculturalism. Particularly, women, LGBT, and non-white people are treated way more like equals in Canada than they are in the US. It’s not perfect, but definitely better. And when you have a population where multiculturalism and acceptance already the norm, racial tensions and sexism and homophobia have far less of a foothold.
MUCH less violence and violent crime than the US. I regularly walk on foot through objectively the “worst” neighbourhood in Canada, whereas there were plenty of places in in the US that I wouldn’t even drive through in a car, let alone walk around on foot.
Healthcare, parental leave, general health benefits, higher minimum wage - Just about everyone you meet is happier, healthier, and more productive. Doesn’t mean it’s perfect, but it’s better, and I also suspect this is a huge reason behind the lower crime rate. When people are healthy and have the right support structures to get and keep a good job, there’s less reason for them to rob you (among other things), and the economy in general is stronger.
Better community resources. The libraries, community centres, public programs, festivals, etc, are really terrific here. More than in the US, people’s lives happen outside, in public places, with each other.
More rational political climate. I think the 4+ party system helps with this, but maybe it’s cultural, too. Canadians as a rule are far less polarised, less angry, and less dogmatic than Americans tend to be. It’s refreshing.
Not a militaristic nation except for peacekeeping and defence. The world sees Canada as a country that swoops in and saves the day (WW1, WW2), promotes the peace otherwise, and is never a big bully that other nations need to fear, hate, or retaliate against. Canada is a respected nation almost everywhere in the world, and Canadians are proud of that.

Now the more tricky considerations:

Most importantly, you can’t just up and move to Canada. There’s a process. You may not even be approved at all. It’s easier than immigrating to the US, I think, but not negligible. It’s hard. For all the thousands of Americans who TALK of moving to Canada for political reasons from time to time, the reality is that in the past twelve years I’ve met 1) a couple dozen 1970s Vietnam-era draft dodgers (BC seems to be full of them), and 2) only one (ONE!) couple who moved specifically because of politics. And they’re the same couple who are also regularly interviewed by CBC, The Guardian, and so on about packing up and moving to Canada, which really reinforces the idea that they really are the only couple most other people have ever met, too. I do know rumours of a few others, friends of friends, but only a few. So that tells you something about the cost and difficulty of actually following through on this plan rather than just talking about it.
Most people in general immigrate to Canada because they already have a job here. Very few (other than refugees) move first for some other reason (politics, you say?) and then job-hunt later. And the ones that do it that way really struggle. There’s a reason for that….
Immigration is expensive. You know how some landlords expect a huge deposit + first two months rent? Imagine that, for basically every aspect of your life (housing, car, telephone deposit, electric company deposit, new driver’s license, fees for new government IDs, 90 day healthcare premium period, new job expenses, etc). It takes a tremendous amount of cash, which you also need to convert into the new currency, which incurs a penalty. Also, still paying for your car? Prepare to pay it off or sell it; you can’t take that US loan with you. That 2 or 3 year cell phone plan that seemed like such a great deal at the time? Using it in Canada now means $2/minute or more in roaming fees — set aside some money to pay off that device subsidy balance or early cancellation fees. And if that weren’t enough, like any other move, you may also need new clothes. And housewares. Especially if you’re moving in wintertime.
But I can just rack up some debt at first, right? Surprise, no. You have no credit rating here, and you may even be considered an international default risk when applying for new lines of credit. Mortgage lenders are usually willing to check international credit ratings, but literally no one else is (credit cards, auto loan lenders, banks, phone company, electric company). They literally have no idea who you are, as if you were born yesterday. So strengthening the point above, 1) be prepared to pay a cash deposit for EVERYTHING, 2) including locking some much needed cash behind a cash-secured credit card, because it’s the only kind you’re allowed to get and you’re going to need one for certain kinds of purchases, and 3) okay, you can keep your US credit cards for a while to carry some debt, but remember that every time you use them there’s one currency conversion to convert the CAD purchase into USD for your card, a second currency conversion the other direction to change your CAD earnings to USD to pay the card balance (unless you stashed even more cash away in a USD savings account), and then further international purchase fees on top of that — a $100CAD purchase can end up costing you $140CAD or more after all those fees and currency conversions.
Temporary worker status. Until you become a permanent resident (like a US “green card”), and eventually a citizen, each of which can take several years, you will likely be living in Canada on a temporary work visa. That means all that money you paid to move your stuff up here? Well, if you lose your job, commit the wrong legal infraction, etc, etc, etc, you could be paying that same money all over again to move right back to the US where you started. It’s like a Damocles Sword that hangs over your head every single day. “I hate this job, but if I quit, I could be deported. If I don’t do well enough and get fired, I could be deported.” Think about it. Also listen to the news in the US with this in mind: Every time you hear people talking about wanting to reduce the number of temporary foreign workers, about someone being deported for whatever reason, about immigrants stealing Americans’ jobs . . . imagine that’s now you, and imagine how you’ll feel hearing those kinds of stories from the opposite perspective. You need to be ready for that.
One more thing on worker status. There’s a significant chance your spouse won’t be approved to work at all. Say goodbye to that dual income for a while. Exactly when you need it most.
Travel. Another thing new immigrants to Canada fail to fully account for is that now any trip to the US is an international flight. At international flight costs. With international border-crossing restrictions. And related to work visas, permanent residence applications, and so on, there will even be large blocks of time (a month or two at a time) during these processes where you’re not allowed to leave the country, or if you do, you may not be let back in. Ageing parents back in the States? Other emergencies that could pop up and demand immediate travel? You’ll have to make some tough choices from time to time. Even a phone call is an expensive international call now, unless you can teach them how to use Skype or Facetime. You’re a lot farther away.
Professional considerations. The US has better standing than some other countries when it comes to professional certifications and experience, but it’s not perfect. Don’t expect all your “credits” to transfer. Add to this the context that the Canadian hiring culture puts a huge premium on specifically Canadian work experience, even for English-speaking white American male applicants who unknowingly take for granted the special edge they get back home. Now you’re just another of those immigrants “stealing people’s jobs” so to speak, and official government policy supports employers in legally discriminating against you in favour of Canadian citizens. Expect that you’ll likely have to take a lower-paying, lower-title job when you arrive, and that may last for a while. Or, if your chosen field already suffers high unemployment numbers, your immigration application may be rejected entirely.
General culture shock. Canada is a lot like the US, but just different enough that you’re guaranteed to feel homesick about SOMETHING: missing your favourite foods or your favourite places, already knowing the processes for renewing license plates and driver’s licenses rather than constantly having to figure out new bureacracy, missing your family as you work through US Thanksgiving and other mismatched holidays, not having to deal with the constant reminder of being an outsider when people joke about your accent and spelling and pronunciation (I personally focused on quickly assimilating in that regard, because otherwise people’s comments, even when well-meaning, were a constant painful reminder that I didn’t fit in here — you’ll feel it, too), general differences in social habits, and generally just a lot of little things that feel foreign or a little weird. It’s like those parallel universe sci-fi shows where the guy thinks he’s home but keeps having an odd feeling, and sooner or later goes outside and realises the sky is green instead of blue. For the first week, the little differences are fun, but then they really start to wear you down until you finally learn them and accept them. Navigating from day to day in even a marginally different environment takes far more work than you think.
And generally, you’re really starting from scratch: no friends, no family other than those you bring with you, not even a favourite place you like to go eat or hang out when you’re at the end of your rope. It sounds silly, but most people are totally unaware of how many safety nets they have in their current life until they lose them.

In conclusion, I’ll reiterate that in the long term, moving here turned out to be one of the best choices I ever made for my own life. But I can’t emphasise enough how hard it is, and that it may not be the right thing for many people. My company was hiring a bunch of people all at once for a major project, and of the Americans who moved for the job, roughly 70–80% couldn’t hack it and moved back within 3 years or so. What Americans forget is that moving to Canada makes you an immigrant, just like the immigrants coming to you. Look how hard their lives are. Ask yourself honestly if that’s the life you’re willing to sign up for in order to get the benefits you’re hoping to find in Canada. The benefits are here, but they don’t come to the weak of heart.

But I do guarantee: if you do it, you will totally rethink the way you see immigrants and refugees, foreigners and minorities, outsiders in general, all around the world. You’ll realise they’re not the villains in this story; they’re the lonely voyagers, the fearless adventurers, the faithful mothers and fathers, the loyal friends, the people who sacrificed everything for themselves for a better life for their families. That’s one of the things I value most about my move here. It’s a gift that can be earned few other ways than by becoming an outsider yourself. Decide well, and good luck. If you make it here, I’d love to meet you.

Thursday, 10 November 2016

How did Donald Trump win the 2016 US Presidential Election?

Mohamed Farah 00:46

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/rts7ux4.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1600

He middle fingered the establishment and acted as though they didn’t matter.

A friend posted in Facebook something along the lines of “if only the blacks voted for Hillary as much they did Obama…”. Essentially he is saying the blacks care more about the race and shifted the blame. Ironically, he was supporting “race equality”. Then a guy blaming Jill for taking Green votes. As though it is a crime to support green. Leave alone the fact that the green party took away no Hillary votes in the key states.

I’m surprised that even after the results staring so much in the face, some are in denial - blaming the third parties, blaming the “fence sitters”, blaming the people who didn’t turn up, blaming the blacks for turning out enough, blaming the white females and so on. My Facebook friends have blamed each one of these groups in the past few hours.

In fact, there is no proof that the third party candidates took votes from Clinton. It is more likely for them to have taken from Trump, where even many traditional republicans openly stood against. Even George Bush didn’t vote for his party candidate [Trump thinks 'it's sad' George W Bush voted 'None of the Above']. That means Trump was able to find a voice far bigger than even the Republican party.

The white women vote was nearly split even. That after all the revelations about Trump’s uncharitable comments. Surely, not all those of the women were misogynists. Something must have troubled them far more to go to the polls & vote for Trump, keeping down their disgust.

Same with the Hispanics who voted more with the Republicans than in the recent times. That after his statements about the wall. Surely, something bigger must have been there to keep down their inhibitions on racism.

This is part of the common people’s revolution against the establishment. They don’t trust their politicians. Their media. Their diplomats. Their administrators. They felt let down by their economists. They fear about their jobs and culture. They fear something existential issue about their way of life. And when people have existential fears, they suppress all other inhibitions.

The more the media talked about Trump’s failures, the more it looked like the establishment colluding. It was as though everyone was conspiring against Trump. To defeat that establishment was more important for many than their own inhibitions on gender and race issues. And it completely didn’t matter that Trump was unrefined, uninformed and politically wrong. In fact, those are the precise things that made him anti-establishment.

His blathering about nuclear triad and other topics, rather than harming him actually helped him. People saw him as an ordinary Joe and the Joes don’t go well prepared in public talking. People saw that as honest and down to earth in the same way as they saw GW Bush. In contrast HRC was super well rehearsed - almost to the level of a robot. People didn’t care about what she said, but just noted the way she said it. That reminded them of the establishment - a scheming individual.

And more the media talked about HRC’s virtues and Trump’s uncouthness, more the people saw a need to back Trump. It was their fight against the elite. And my liberal friends had no idea that they were in an echo chamber. They completely tuned out anything they find deplorable.

This revolution is hardly limited to the US. It is happening across the world. In Arab Spring, many of the established governments were toppled in the Middle East. In Brexit, the British voters middle fingered all the mainstream parties. In Philippines, the new President is completely fingering US and going straight with his executions of drug addicts. In India and Indonesia, the voters elevated promising provincial chiefs to premiers in 2014, both of whom coming from poor backgrounds.

And it is just the beginning. Across Europe and elsewhere in the world changes are happening to the post-WW2 coalitions and political arrangements.

Everywhere, there is an anger against the establishment. Anger against the status quo. Like in the late 18th century, this is the worst time to be a part of the elite.

People around the world have gotten existential worries about their culture, economic status and the ability to continue their way of life. For them it looks like the liberals are pushing the reforms way too fast and without paying heed to their opinions.

As the liberals tar them as being outdated, racists and uneducated [and as Hillary mentioned deplorables], the angry commoners often mask their anger and don’t reveal enough of their preferences in public [not a single person on my FB feed supported Trump even though I know many secretly support him]. This is why the opinion polls don’t reveal the complete picture. Also, many liberals measure public opinion through media and completely miss the fire building up underneath.

As the liberals brush aside these concerns and don’t try to address them, these voters stop trusting anything to do with the former. Historically, people have fought the hardest when their way of life is threatened. Liberals for all their alleged grasp of history, failed to go beyond endlessly quoting the 1932 elections in the Weimar republic, and failed to see the history of revolutions and civil wars.

As the words Fascism and Nazism got thrown too easily, the shock value completely evaporated. If every right wing leader was Hitler, then there was nothing special or shocking about getting branded as Hitler. If the previous Hitlers around the world didn’t end the world, why would this new Hitler?

Ultimately, it is an anger that existed for a long time and in hindsight it is not hard to see a Trump victory. He won way many states that were thought to be solidly democrat. He won far more Hispanic votes than Mitt Romney. And he won a sizable chunk of the immigrants and more surprisingly a sizable chunk of the females. So much for all the buzzfeed worthy charts posted by Nate Silver. Trump won despite his embarrassing revelations about women and despite the Republican leadership quitting on him. That should show the level of anger underneath. This anger is not all from racists, white supremacists and misogynists, KKK supporters, etc.

Revolutions often turn up leaders who are far worse than the establishment they toppled. But, they also help heal things over the long run.

In a way this is good for the US. Like a pressure cooker releasing pressure, this is an election to let out that built-up pressure & anger in a less violent way. Hopefully this is an election that will let both sides see the other’s point. The “us vs them” attitude and the uncharitable attitudes of the other side has to end.

Thursday, 3 November 2016

How can I be as great as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk or Sir Richard Branson?

Mohamed Farah 04:35

10 THINGS I LEARN FROM RICHARD BRANSON

The other day I went out at night and fell asleep on a park bench near the beach in Miami.

When I opened my eyes I pretended I had just landed on the world. I knew nothing. Now I had to learn everything.

That's the way I should've been when I was younger. Maybe I would've avoided many problems if I just realized I knew nothing.

ALL SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE started off knowing nothing.

They studied the people who came before them. Who studied the people who came before them. And so on.

I really admire Richard Branson. He's one to study.

Richard Branson is the perfect example of "Ready. Fire. Aim." He starts something. He does it. Then he looks to see if he hit the target. If not, he starts something new.

I love the story of how he started Virgin Airlines. He was already successful from Virgin Music. Note that now he has nothing to do with Virgin Music.
I don't even know if Virgin Music still exists. All that is left is Virgin Air.

A plane had gotten cancelled. Everyone was upset.

But Branson wasn't upset. He found a plane that would take him. But he didn't have the money.

One good thing to start with always is to imagine the obstacles gone. Imagine, "if I wasn't worried about money, would I still make this trip."

I call this IDEA SUBTRACTION. Subtract the perceived obstacles to an idea and (BAM!) you find that many more ideas are born from that.

First, he arranged to rent the private plane, even though he still had the obstacle ("no money").

Then he put up a sign: "$29 for a plane to Puerto Rico." And everyone signed up. Suddenly he had the money for the plane.

That was his proof-of-concept for an airline. Now that is his main business and it's worth billions.

Here's ten quotes from him that I think are valuable.

A) Richard Branson: "Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak."

B) Richard Branson: "Start making suggestions for how to improve your workplace. Don’t be a shrinking violet, quietly getting your job done adequately. Be bold, and the sky is the limit."

Note he's not suggesting start a company. You can always create inside ANY surrounding and you will be infinitely rewarded for that.

The first employee at Google is now a multi-billionaire even though nobody knows his name (Craig Silverstein). He was an employee and he created and blossomed.

C) Richard Branson: "Age isn't as important so long as you are surrounded by people you love, doing things you passionately believe in."

I truly believe this. We all have things we love to do. And it's the people around us who love us that help us unlock these dreams.

It's ONLY when you find the people you love, you can create and flourish. Henry Ford was 45 when he started his third car company and created the assembly line. He did this once he eliminated all the people who tried to control him at prior companies.

Colonel Sanders was 65 when he started "Kentucky Fried Chicken".

Laura Ingalls Wilder was 65 when she wrote her first book. The book that would turn into the series, "Little House on the Prairie".

This was after she had been totally wiped out in the Great Depression and left with nothing but she started to surround herself with people who encouraged her and pushed her to pursue writing to make ends meet.

D) Richard Branson: "What I personally know would make up a dot so minuscule it couldn’t be seen. What humanity has collectively learned so far would make up a tiny mark within the circle. Everything we all have to learn in the future would take up the rest of the space. It is a big universe, and we are all learning more about it every day. If you aren’t listening, you are missing out."

The other day someone asked me if I believed in "God". There's no answer. Always have reverence for the infinite things we will never know. Our brains are too small.

This next quote I slightly want to change:

E) Richard Branson: "To be a real entrepreneur you always have to be looking forward. The moment you rest on your laurels is the moment your competition overtakes you."

I think 'entrepreneur' can be changed to 'human'. We all have to survive and succeed first as humans. And the job description changes every day.

Every day there is room to finish this sculpture that began the moment our mothers released us into the world.

F) Richard Branson: "There is no such thing as a boring person: everyone has stories and insights worth sharing. While on the road, we let our phones or laptops take up our attention. By doing that, we might miss out on the chance to learn and absorb ideas and inspiration from an unexpected source: our fellow travelers."

Every day has stories hidden inside of them, like a treasure hunt. When you find those stories, you get rewarded. Not by money, but by...I don't know. Something. You feel it when it happens.

G) Richard Branson: "It can be easy to find reasons not to do something. However you might be surprised by how much help is at hand if you put yourself out there and commit to a project. It doesn’t have to be a case of struggling along by yourself."

We live in a world of connection. The barriers we've erected by storytelling (religion, nationalism, corporatism) are breaking down.

You can crowdsource a revolution with a single tweet now. There are a million ways to ask for help and a million people who want to help you.
But it's hard to ask. There's the old fears of rejection. Fears of people viewing asking as weakness. Fears of infringing on someone by asking.

Offer value in your ask and then the reasons to not do something start to go away until there are none left.

And again, Branson is referring to "idea subtraction" which has constantly propelled him from success to success.

H) Richard Branson: "When most people think about taking a risk they associate it with negative connotations, when really they should view it as a positive opportunity. Believe in yourself and back yourself to come out on top. Whether that means studying a course to enable a change of direction, taking up an entry level position on a career ladder you want to be a part of, or starting your own business – you’ll never know if you don’t give it a try."

Another example of how Branson would use "idea subtraction" to come up with tons of ideas.

For instance, sometimes people say, "If only I knew how to program I could do X". Well, imagine you could program. Subtract that worry. Now what ideas would you implement?

You can always subtract a worry. Whether it's putting up a sign ("$29 to get to Puerto Rico") or, as Branson suggests above, taking an entry level position.

When I started my first successful company my job title was, "Jr. Programmer Analyst" at HBO and I had $0 in the bank.

I took an entry level job so I could move to NYC and start making connections. I stayed at that job for three years while building my network.

For more than half of those three years I had my first company on the side, building up.

I was afraid all the time I would get caught doing two jobs at the same time.
But I did learn that these almost insurmountable obstacles were the EXACT reason I had huge opportunities.

When people think a problem is impossible they value it at zero. Successful people buy ideas low (zero) and sell them high.

You ask "why can't I?" as in the following quote from Branson:

I) Richard Branson: "I’ve always had a soft spot for dreamers – not those who waste their time thinking ‘what if’ but the ones who look to the sky and say ‘why can’t I shoot for the moon?’"

Does he really mean the moon here? Or does that sound cliche? Let's look.

When Branson was a teenager and started his first magazine devoted to music, I doubt he was thinking about shooting for the moon.

But who knows? Now his biggest investment is Virgin Galactic. That magazine (which he started despite severe dyslexia) literally turned into a company that is now shooting to land a ship on the moon.

Why not? Why not?

J) Richard Branson: "Together we can make the products, services, businesses, ideas, and politics for a better future. In this ‘new power’ world, we are all makers. Let’s get making."

Sometimes people write me and say, "not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. Some people like being employees."

I agree with this. There is nothing wrong with being an employee. It's what you make of it.

I've been an employee many times. The key is to realize that an "employee" doesn't mean you give up on creating, on making, on coming up with ideas.
In fact, an employee often has more opportunity for abundance than an entrepreneur. The playing field is much larger in a big corporation where everything is possible.

I went to graduate school with Astro Teller, who was recently on my podcast. He runs the special projects division at Google called GoogleX. He's an employee at Google.

He was asked to "dream" at Google and now Google, a software company, is making driverless cars. It seems insurmountable: "What if we can make a car without a driver?" But that's where the opportunity is.

Every day I wake up and it's a constant battle in my brain against obstacles. Usually not business obstacles but emotional ones. Fears. People. Ideas. Hopes. This is life. A stream of obstacles and fears in a tough world.

I wish I had paid attention to the many wonderful virtual mentors, the Richard Bransons of the world, when I was younger.

To simply admit, "I don't know" and reap the benefits of curiosity.

I hope I learn something today. If not I'll go back and reread these quotes and maybe sleep on a park bench.

What is on the secret menu at McDonald's?

Mohamed Farah 04:31

The thing about "secret" menus at restaurants is that they are completely unofficial, which means that the folks there are not trained on how to make them. Whether or not you can get it depends entirely on who you get working the store that day. That includes the person who rings you up, who has to figure out how to charge you for it, the manager, who generally gets asked whether or not it's allowed, and the line person who has to figure out how to assemble it.

That being said, here are some things I know how to make that are not on the menu:

A grilled cheese sandwich. There are two different ways of making this, either on the grill or by running the whole sandwich through the bun toaster. I've done both. Busy restaurants won't do this for you because it ties up the equipment for just one sandwich, and the cheese has pretty high odds of messing something up.

A McGangBang. I think Reddit made this up, and it became briefly popular. It's a McDouble and a McChicken on one bun.

A Big 'n Tasty. It used to be an official menu item, but it hasn't been for years. It's not so much a secret menu item as some people don't pay enough attention to the menu to realize it hasn't been on offer for five years (ten, in some locations) but all the ingredients are still in the store and the vets remember how to make it.

Sometimes you can get them to grill the quarter onions for you before they put them on the burger. I wouldn't try this at a busy place, and it helps to know people in the grill, but it's so much better.

At my first restaurant, if you knew the manager and Joyce (who had probably been working the grill since before there was electricity) you could get eggs however you liked them. But since McDonald's doesn't officially cook eggs to order they're not covered if you ask for eggs over easy and get salmonella, so this doesn't work for just anyone.

Here are some tips that are not secrets, but people don't seem to realize:

You can get anything in the restaurant on anything else in the restaurant. You can add an extra beef patty, you can get just a plain bun, you can get a Quarter Pounder on a regular bun or a chicken sandwich on a quarter bun or whatever the heck you want. But it will cost you extra, and it's going to take a minute while the person at the register figures out how to ring it up. It may even cost different prices depending on how you say it and how the person rings it up.

If it's slow, order your beef patties with no salt. I think they're better that way, but more importantly they have to make them fresh, so you're not getting patties that have probably been sitting in the warming tray for however long. You can just order fresh instead of no salt, but I recommend you try them unseasoned. I really think they're better. Also, it takes less than a minute to make fresh regular patties. If you ask for fresh chicken, you're going to get some people upset with you because it takes six minutes to make. If you ask for fries without salt and then immediately salt them, you're going to get people upset with you because trying to get fresh hot fries into a container without getting them covered in the salt that coats the fry station is a good way to burn yourself really bad.

If you're going to go experimenting at your local McDonald's, here are some tips to keep people from hating you:

Don't order anything weird in the drive-thru. Drive-thrus are for convenience orders and you shouldn't go through there if you don't know what you want, if you are ordering something that will take a long time, or if you have a very large order. Drive-thru times are monitored so closely I've actually had the franchise owner show up at our store because they could see on their central station that we had taken three minutes for a drive-thru order.

Don't order Crispy or Grilled chicken and demand it be fresh. It ties up a grill or fryer for over six minutes, which may not seem like a lot to you but is orders of magnitude longer than anything else the grill does and it can completely throw off their cycle and delay orders. If you have reason to believe you won't get fresh chicken, order something else.

Don't order more than six McChickens. That's how many can fit in a fryer at once, and ordering more will have people thinking happily about how to kill you. I had someone order 16 McChickens during the lunch rush once, and he worked at the restaurant. Next time he came in he spent his shift scraping down the wheels on the carts and cleaning the traps in the dishwasher. If you've never done those, they are two of the most disgusting and difficult things I've ever done in my life.

Don't get pissed because your custom or "secret" order is taking too long. McDonald's is built around delivering a limited menu with great efficiency. You broke that, and now you're going to have to wait.

Smile, and remember basic courtesies. You can get away with a lot of crap at McDonald's if you treat the people there like people.

What is the best thing your teacher ever told you?

Mohamed Farah 04:24

'Get out of my classroom, NOW,' shouted my history teacher, a kind and calm man whose raised voice I had never heard.

He was shouting at two older kids who'd suddenly burst in and interrupted our lesson on the Romans, or the Germans, or the Gold Rush (you get the picture). They were yelling, quite aggressively, to my sheltered 13-year-old mind, about how unhappy they were with something. It was a long time ago so forgive me but it was something like their recent test scores and how Mr McVeigh (I still remember his name now) was to blame.

Us younger students sat aghast at the heated exchange. This was unusual to say the least and I started to feel really sorry for our lovely teacher.

The shouting went on for a bit and just when I seriously thought it might turn physical, Mr McVeigh told them to leave NOW and they turned and marched out the classroom, slamming the door hard enough to make the glass panel shake.

'I am so sorry about that,' said our teacher (such a nice man). 'This is all very embarrassing.'

'I need to let the headteacher know. Please can you take a new sheet of paper and write down what just happened and a description of both of them.'

I scribbled away - two guys, think they're in sixth form, came in and loudly shouted, one was wearing a blue shirt... Etc, etc.

We handed the sheets in. And what happened next has stayed with me since.

You might have guessed...

Our lovely Mr McVeigh had stitched us up good and proper. The 'aggressive older students' were acting.

He was about to teach us an amazing lesson about the trustworthiness of history's eye witnesses.

He started to write all the conflicting descriptions and accounts on the whiteboard. Blonde hair... Brown hair... Jeans... Khakis... Said he was gonna sue... Said he'd burn your car... Blue shirt... Grey shirt...

'Few of your descriptions match, and that's about an event which happened only a few minutes ago. Imagine you are being interviewed about an historic event you witnessed, days, weeks or even years later. You can start to see how - although important - the eye witness does have some weaknesses.'

Blew my little mind.

Update: Wow thank you for reading and for the comments. Kudos and thanks to all the teachers like MrMcVeigh out there.

Sunday, 23 October 2016

How Can I Learn to Code at Home Without Losing Motivation?

Mohamed Farah 06:33

Make a special productivity-only space in your home. Then barricade yourself in there.

When I first started coding, I could only gather the motivation to code if I was in a public place, like a cafe or a library. There were too many distractions at home.

I spent a lot of money on overpriced coffee, and hours each day commuting to these public places and fighting for a table close to a power outlet.

Everyone I knew who was learning to code did the same thing. I would see them in cafes after work and over the weekend. Many of them even paid hundreds of dollars each month for a desk at a co-working space.

Well, all that changed one day when I bumped into a guy at an event who I swear looked just like Richard Stallman.

I introduced myself, and he exclaimed, “Man, it feels so good to be here! I haven’t gotten out of my house in over a month.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t left your house in a month?”

“Not even to get the paper off my front lawn,” he said, laughing proudly.

I probed deeper, and found out that this guy was a highly productive (and highly-paid) software developer. I asked him how he had built up the discipline to get so much work done from home.

He told me: “I have a separate room that I go to whenever it’s time to work. When I’m in that room, I’m in work mode. All I allow myself to do is work. No exceptions.”

Now, I definitely wouldn’t ask this guy for fitness or grooming advice. But when it came to coding, I somehow got the feeling that he knew what he was talking about.

So on my way home, I stopped by Ikea and picked up a $10 table. While I was waiting in line, I found a $100 used monitor on Craigslist and picked that up, too.

Within a few hours, I had converted a small walk-in closet filled with coats and shoes into what my wife now calls the “Fortress of Solitude.”

Now whenever I need to get some coding done, I barricade myself in this closet and get to work.

I’ve done this for the past three years. Every time I step into my closet, it gets a little easier for me to focus and work productively from home.

In fact, I’m sitting in here right now typing this Quora answer during a quick break from coding.

I don’t know who that guy was, but if I ever run into him again, I’ll thank him for saving me from all those long commutes and overpriced coffee.

I only write about programming and technology. If you follow me I won’t waste your time.