5 Things to Do Before You Play Your First Concert

5 Things to Do Before You Play Your First Concert 5 Things to Do Before You Play Your First Concert For musicians,  playing live music for the first time is a life-changing experience. Its exciting and terrifying all at the same time. Being comfortable on stage can make or break a musician since some people with musical ambitions would instead give up than face an audience.Theres not much you can do about nerves before your first show; youre likely to discover that theres not much you can do about nerves even when you become a seasoned live performer. If you cant keep the butterflies at bay, there are some things you can do to increase the odds of enjoying your live performances. Before you play your first note, put these five things on your to-do list. 01 Ensure You're Ready MStudioImages  / Getty Images For your first show, chances are youre first on a two-, three- or four-band bill. Dont show up without knowing anything about your fellow musicians.Spend a little time online learning about their music and what they do. You dont have to become their biggest fan, but knowing about others shows professional courtesy.Even if the other bands may not show you the same courtesy, its these little things, like showing interest in other artists and their work, that get the attention of the industry heavy-hitters who matter.It doesnt hurt to brush up on your opening band etiquette, either. Again, its the little things that add up to big breaks.

The 9 worst mistakes you can ever make at work

The 9 worst mistakes you can ever make at work The 9 worst mistakes you can ever make at work No matter how talented you are or what you’ve accomplished, there are certain behaviors that instantly change the way people see you and forever cast you in a negative light.We’ve all heard of (or seen firsthand) people doing some pretty crazy things at work. Truth is, you don’t have to throw a chair through a window or quit in the middle of a presentation to cause irreparable damage to your career. There are so many things that can kill the careers of good, hard-working people. Honest mistakes often carry hard-hitting consequences.“You can’t make the same mistake twice, the second time, it’s not a mistake, it’s a choice.” â€" AnonymousThere doesn’t have to be a single, sickening moment when you realize that you just shoved your foot firmly in your mouth, either. Little things can add up over time and undermine your career just as much as (or more than) one huge lapse in judgment.Self-awareness is a critical skill in the workplace. It’s the foundation of emotional intelligence, a skill set that  TalentSmart  research shows is responsible for 58% of your job performance. If you remain self-aware, these mistakes are all things that you can control before they creep up on you and damage your career.Follow Ladders on Flipboard!Follow Ladders’ magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more!Over-promising and under-deliveringIt’s tempting to promise the moon to your colleagues and your clients, especially when you’re honest and hardworking and believe that you can do it. The problem is that there’s no point in creating additional pressure that can make you look bad. If you promise to do something ridiculously fast and you miss the deadline by a little bit, you’ll likely think that you did a good job because you still delivered quickly. But the moment you promise something to someone, they expect nothing less. You end up looking terrible when you fall short, which is a shame, because you could have done the same quality work in the same amount of time with great results if you’d just set up realistic expectations from the beginning. This is one of those situations where perception matters more than reality. Don’t deliberately undershoot your goals; just be realistic about the results you can deliver so that you’re certain to create expectations that you will blow out of the water.Having an emotional hijackingMy company provides  360 ° feedback  and executive coaching, and we come across far too many instances of people throwing things, screaming, making people cry, and other telltale signs of an emotional hijacking. An emotional hijacking demonstrates low emotional intelligence, and it’s an easy way to get fired. As soon as you show that level of instability, people will question whether or not you’re trustworthy and capable of keeping it together when it counts.Exploding at anyone, regardless of how much they might “deserve it,” turns a huge amount of negative attention your way. You’ll be labeled as unstable, unapproachable, and intimidating. Controlling your emotions keeps you in the driver’s seat. When you are able to control your emotions around someone who wrongs you, they end up looking bad instead of you.Sucking up to your bossSome people suck up to their boss and call it managing up, but that isn’t the case at all. Sucking up has nothing to do with a real relationship built on respect; it is sneaky and underhanded. Suck-ups try to get ahead by stroking the boss’s ego instead of earning his or her favor. That doesn’t go over well with colleagues who are trying to make it on merit. Yes, you want to bolster your relationship with your boss, but not by undermining your colleagues. That’s the key distinction here. For a boss-employee relationship to work, it has to be based on authenticity. There’s no substitute for merit.Eating smelly foodUnless you happen to work on a ship, your colleagues are going to mind if you make the entire place smell like day-old fish. The general rule of thumb when it comes to food at work is, anything with an odor that might waft beyond the kitchen door should be left at home. It might seem like a minor thing, but smelly food is inconsiderate and distracting- and so easily avoidable. When something that creates discomfort for other people is so easily avoided, it tends to build resentment quickly. Your pungent lunch tells everyone that you just don’t care about them, even when you do.BackstabbingThe name says it all. Stabbing your colleagues in the back, intentionally or otherwise, is a huge source of strife in the workplace. One of the most frequent forms of backstabbing is going over someone’s head to solve a problem. People typically do this in an attempt to avoid conflict, but they end up creating even more conflict as soon as the victim feels the blade. Anytime you make someone look bad in the eyes of their colleagues, it feels like a stab in the back, regardless of your intentions.NegativitySometimes when you’re feeling negative and down, your mood can leak out and affect other people, even if you don’t intend it to. You were hired to make your boss’s and your team’s jobs easier, not harder. People who spread negativity through their department and complain about the work or other people complicate things for everyone else. If people always have to tiptoe around you so as not to dislodge that massive chip on your shoulder, they are unlikely to be willing to do it for very long.GossipingPeople make themselves look terrible when they get carried away with gossiping about other people. Wallowing in talk of other people’s misdeeds or misfortunes may end up hurting their feelings if the gossip finds its way to them, but gossiping will make you look negative and spiteful every time, guaranteed.BraggingWhen someone hits a home run and starts gloating as they run the bases, it’s safe to assume that they haven’t hit very ma ny home runs. On the other hand, if they hit a home run and simply run the bases, it conveys a business-as-usual mentality, which is far more intimidating to the other team. Accomplishing great things without bragging about them demonstrates the same strong mentality- it shows people that succeeding isn’t unusual to you.Announcing that you hate your jobThe last thing anyone wants to hear at work is someone complaining about how much they hate their job. Doing so labels you as a negative person and brings down the morale of the group. Bosses are quick to catch on to naysayers who drag down morale, and they know that there are always enthusiastic replacements waiting just around the corner.Bringing it all togetherThese behaviors may sound extreme and highly inconsiderate, but they have a tendency to sneak up on you. A gentle reminder is a great way to avoid them completely.Travis Bradberry is the co-author of  Emotional Intelligence 2.0  and the cofounder of  TalentSmart. This artic le first appeared on LinkedIn.You might also enjoy… New neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happy Strangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds 10 lessons from Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule that will double your productivity The worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs 10 habits of mentally strong people The 9 worst mistakes you can ever make at work No matter how talented you are or what you’ve accomplished, there are certain behaviors that instantly change the way people see you and forever cast you in a negative light.We’ve all heard of (or seen firsthand) people doing some pretty crazy things at work. Truth is, you don’t have to throw a chair through a window or quit in the middle of a presentation to cause irreparable damage to your career. There are so many things that can kill the careers of good, hard-working people. Honest mistakes often carry hard-hitting consequences.“You can’t make the same mistake twice, the second time, it’s not a mistake, it’s a choice.” â€" AnonymousThere doesn’t have to be a single, sickening moment when you realize that you just shoved your foot firmly in your mouth, either. Little things can add up over time and undermine your career just as much as (or more than) one huge lapse in judgment.Self-awareness is a critical skill in the workplace. It’s the foundation of emotional intelligence, a skill set that  TalentSmart  research shows is responsible for 58% of your job performance. If you remain self-aware, these mistakes are all things that you can control before they creep up on you and damage your career.Ladders is now on SmartNews!Download the SmartNews app and add the Ladders channel to read the latest career news and advice wherever you go.Over-promising and under-deliveringIt’s tempting to promise the moon to your colleagues and your clients, especially when you’re honest and hardworking and believe that you can do it. The problem is that there’s no point in creating additional pressure that can make you look bad. If you promise to do something ridiculously fast and you miss the deadline by a little bit, you’ll likely think that you did a good job because you still delivered quickly. But the moment you promise something to someone, they expect nothing less. You end up looking terrible when you fall short, which is a shame, because you cou ld have done the same quality work in the same amount of time with great results if you’d just set up realistic expectations from the beginning. This is one of those situations where perception matters more than reality. Don’t deliberately undershoot your goals; just be realistic about the results you can deliver so that you’re certain to create expectations that you will blow out of the water.Having an emotional hijackingMy company provides  360 ° feedback  and executive coaching, and we come across far too many instances of people throwing things, screaming, making people cry, and other telltale signs of an emotional hijacking. An emotional hijacking demonstrates low emotional intelligence, and it’s an easy way to get fired. As soon as you show that level of instability, people will question whether or not you’re trustworthy and capable of keeping it together when it counts.Exploding at anyone, regardless of how much they might “deserve it,” turns a huge amount of ne gative attention your way. You’ll be labeled as unstable, unapproachable, and intimidating. Controlling your emotions keeps you in the driver’s seat. When you are able to control your emotions around someone who wrongs you, they end up looking bad instead of you.Sucking up to your bossSome people suck up to their boss and call it managing up, but that isn’t the case at all. Sucking up has nothing to do with a real relationship built on respect; it is sneaky and underhanded. Suck-ups try to get ahead by stroking the boss’s ego instead of earning his or her favor. That doesn’t go over well with colleagues who are trying to make it on merit. Yes, you want to bolster your relationship with your boss, but not by undermining your colleagues. That’s the key distinction here. For a boss-employee relationship to work, it has to be based on authenticity. There’s no substitute for merit.Eating smelly foodUnless you happen to work on a ship, your colleagues are going to mind if yo u make the entire place smell like day-old fish. The general rule of thumb when it comes to food at work is, anything with an odor that might waft beyond the kitchen door should be left at home. It might seem like a minor thing, but smelly food is inconsiderate and distracting- and so easily avoidable. When something that creates discomfort for other people is so easily avoided, it tends to build resentment quickly. Your pungent lunch tells everyone that you just don’t care about them, even when you do.BackstabbingThe name says it all. Stabbing your colleagues in the back, intentionally or otherwise, is a huge source of strife in the workplace. One of the most frequent forms of backstabbing is going over someone’s head to solve a problem. People typically do this in an attempt to avoid conflict, but they end up creating even more conflict as soon as the victim feels the blade. Anytime you make someone look bad in the eyes of their colleagues, it feels like a stab in the back, re gardless of your intentions.NegativitySometimes when you’re feeling negative and down, your mood can leak out and affect other people, even if you don’t intend it to. You were hired to make your boss’s and your team’s jobs easier, not harder. People who spread negativity through their department and complain about the work or other people complicate things for everyone else. If people always have to tiptoe around you so as not to dislodge that massive chip on your shoulder, they are unlikely to be willing to do it for very long.GossipingPeople make themselves look terrible when they get carried away with gossiping about other people. Wallowing in talk of other people’s misdeeds or misfortunes may end up hurting their feelings if the gossip finds its way to them, but gossiping will make you look negative and spiteful every time, guaranteed.BraggingWhen someone hits a home run and starts gloating as they run the bases, it’s safe to assume that they haven’t hit very many home runs. On the other hand, if they hit a home run and simply run the bases, it conveys a business-as-usual mentality, which is far more intimidating to the other team. Accomplishing great things without bragging about them demonstrates the same strong mentality- it shows people that succeeding isn’t unusual to you.Announcing that you hate your jobThe last thing anyone wants to hear at work is someone complaining about how much they hate their job. Doing so labels you as a negative person and brings down the morale of the group. Bosses are quick to catch on to naysayers who drag down morale, and they know that there are always enthusiastic replacements waiting just around the corner.Bringing it all togetherThese behaviors may sound extreme and highly inconsiderate, but they have a tendency to sneak up on you. A gentle reminder is a great way to avoid them completely.Travis Bradberry is the co-author of  Emotional Intelligence 2.0  and the cofounder of  TalentSmart. This article first appeared on LinkedIn.  Looking for an inspiring way to start your day? Sign up for  Morning Motivation!It’s our friendly Facebook ?   that will send you a quick note every weekday morning to help you start strong. Sign up here by clicking Get Started!

9 great flexible and remote jobs for adventurous people

9 great flexible and remote jobs for adventurous people 9 great flexible and remote jobs for adventurous people Some people are attracted to an adrenaline rush and if you’re one of them, you may be pleased to know that you can incorporate adventure into your daily routine through your job! If you crave excitement and new experiences, there are many  flexible and remote jobs for adventurous people and thrill-seekers.For those who crave excitement and want to inject it into their daily routine, there are many jobs that offer adventure in the industries of journey biking, outdoor adventure, sailing, adventure trip planning, and more!Many of these positions offer remote opportunities, as well as flexible work arrangements.  A  remote position  is one that allows you to work off-site and away from the office, but you’ll also find flexible adventure jobs that offer  part-time hours,  seasonal work, and  freelance opportunities.Check out these nine flexible and remote jobs for adventurous people:Adjunct Professor â€" Outdoor AdventureUse your background in adventure to launch a career as an adjun ct professor in outdoor adventure. Teach adventure curriculum using team-building techniques and high ropes courses. Engaging presentation skills are a plus.Camp SpecialistWork with groups ages 14 to 16 years old to find their own inner thrill-seeker. Assist with outdoor adventure trips, boating, archery, high ropes, ultimate sports, and more. Help students find new outlets to restore their energy and sense of adventure.Content Editor for a Journey Biking BlogAs one of the remote jobs for adventurous people, you’ll develop and edit content for a journey biking blog in this remote, full-time position. The online content makes the outdoors accessible for those who love adventure and nature in this job that combines editing with your passion for the outdoors.Context DocentAn international urban tour company is seeking a context docent to provide walking seminars and tours for groups interested in learning about the culture and history of a city. Currently operating in 45 cities from Bangkok to Boston, this tour company works to deepen travel experiences for globetrotters, backpackers, and sightseers.Flight Instructor ISoar through the air while providing flight instruction to students. Work to prepare flight students to become proficient and experienced pilots in compliance with the Federal Aviation Regulations.Group Leader for Adventure TripsManage and facilitate  adventure  trips to provide an excellent outdoor experience for customers (and yourself). Help city-dwellers enjoy the great outdoors through group tours and activities. Tourism or tour guide experience is a plus.Head Sailing CoachPerhaps you enjoy your adventures on the high seas. Get your daily thrill by teaching others as a club sailing head coach. Manage the club sailing program, plan and direct team practices, coordinate team travel, and attend all home and away competitions.Marine Technician, OceanographerExcitement and adventure can be found in the ocean as well through the study of marine lif e, topography, and underwater infrastructure. Use your engineering experience and marine expertise to assist with hydrographic, oceanographic, and topographic survey planning and data collection. Foreign and domestic travel required.Race DirectorProduce and coordinate races and events for this race organization that puts racing enthusiasts’ endurance to the test. If you long to travel, this could be the right position for you. Coordinate races with obstacle courses and other events, which includes traveling for 11 or more days at a time.This article was originally published on Flexjobs.

Racism Runs Deep, Even Against Robots

Racism Runs Deep, Even Against Robots Racism Runs Deep, Even Against Robots Racism Runs Deep, Even Against Robots Weve all heard the stories. Whether its taxi drivers refusing to pick up passengers in certain neighborhoods, store owners casting suspicion on particular customers, or landlords refusing to prospective renters based on their names, racial bias is an entrenched part of the human experience. Its unfortunate, but it has almost always been a fact of life. It now looks like the human tendency to identify and stereotype along racial lines is expanding into the world of robotics. Thats according to the findings of a recent study out of the Human Interface Technology (HIT) Lab NZ, a multidisciplinary research center at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Led by Dr. Christoph Bartneck, the study, Robots and Racism, dug into the role that the color of a robots skin that is, the color of the material they are made out of plays in how humans interact with and respond to them. The findings were... probably a little less than surprising. New research shows people have similar biases towards darker-colored robots as they do toward people with darker skin color. Photos of two robots holding a simple object (top) and a gun (bottom) were used in the experiment. Image: University of Canterbury We really didnt know whether people would ascribe a race to a robot and if this would impact their behavior towards the robots, Dr. Bartneck said.We were certainly surprised how clearly people associated a race to robots when asked directly. Barely anybody would admit to be a racist when asked directly, while many studies using implicit measure showed that even people that do not consider themselves to be racist exhibit racial biases. The study used the shooter bias paradigm and several online questionnaires to determine the level that people automatically identify robots as being of one race or the other. By adapting the classic shooter bias test to robots, which studied implicit racial bias based on the speed with which white subjects identified a black person as a potential threat, the team was able to examine the reactions to racialized robots, identifying biases that have not been uncovered. For You: Robots Use Environmental Clues to Build Structures In shooter bias studies, participants are putinto the role of a police officer who has to quickly decide whether to shoot or not to shoot when confronted with images in which people either hold a gun in their hand or not. The image is shown for only a split second and participants do nothave the option to rationalize their choices. They have to act within less than a second. Its all about instinct. As in the human-based versions of this test, reaction-time measurements in the HIT Lab NZ study revealed that participants demonstrated bias toward both people and robots that they associated as black. We project our prejudices onto robots. We treat robots as if they are social actors, as if they have a race. Dr. Christoph Bartneck, University of Canterbury We project our prejudices onto robots, Bartneck said. We treat robots as if they are social actors, as if they have a race. Our results showed that participants had a bias towards black robots probably without ever having interacted with a black robot. Most likely the participants will not have interacted with any robot before. But still they have a bias towards them. Part of the problem is that robots are becoming more and more human-like. They exhibit intentional behavior, they respond to our commands, and they can even speak. For most of us, we only know this type of behavior from other humans. When were faced with something we rationally know is just a computer on wheels, we socially apply all the same norms and rules as we would toward other humans because it seems so human to us, Bartneck said. Ironically, even as we are reflecting our worst impulses onto robots, those robots are learning negative biases toward us as well. Its happening because artificial intelligence and Big Data algorithms are simply amplifying the inequalities of the world around them. When you feed biased data into a machine, you can receive a biased software response. Last year, for example, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group in San Francisco studied algorithms that are used by police departments to predict areas where future crime is likely to break out. By using past crime reports to teach the algorithm, these departments were inadvertently reinforcing existing biases, leading to results that showed that crime would be more likely to occur in minority neighborhoods where police were already focusing their efforts. To Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe, an assistant professor of ethics and technology at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and president of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics, these findings reinforce long-held concerns about the future of human-robot interaction and should raise questions for robotic engineers as they create the next generation of humanoid machines. Researchers have shown that American soldiers become so attached to the robots they work with they do not want a replacement; they want the robot they know, she said. Other studies show that people put their trust into robots when they absolutely should not, that they are aroused at touching robots in private places, that they are loathe to destroy them, etc. People project characteristics onto robots that simply are not there. This tendency is referred to as anthropomorphization. In the case of the study were discussing here people are simply projecting some human characteristics onto robots and seeing them as a particular race. The answer isnt more diverse robots, she argued, but rather robotics manufacturers and designers need to better understand their customers. They should actively be trying to prevent such biases from creeping into the robot space by avoiding designs and functions that lend themselves to easy anthropomorphization. We arent biased towards black or white dogs because we dont see them as human, she said. Along those same lines, its important that robots are viewed as robots, not as pseudo-humans. Intentionally giving robots features that deceive us subconsciously into associating them with a particular gender or race is a slippery slope, and were already seeing what problems robot bias could create in the real world, thanks to Bartnecks study. After all, attempting to design a robot for a particular race could, in some cases, be seen as racist. We believe our findings make a case for morediversity in the design of social robots so that the impact of this promisingtechnology is not blighted by a racial bias, Bartneck said. The development of an Arabiclooking robot as well as the significant traditionof designing Asian robots inJapan are encouraging steps in this direction, especially since these robotswere notintentionally designed to increase diversity, but they were the resultof a natural design process. Tim Sprinkle is an independent writer. Listen to ASME TechCast: How Engineers Close the Communication Gap with New Colleagues

All goals are problematic? for you  except for one

All goals are problematic? for you â€"  except for one All goals are problematic? for you â€"  except for one The late physicist Richard Feynman famously won a Nobel Prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics. But here’s something most people don’t know about him: He was also a world-class safecracker.In the 1940s, in the New Mexico Desert, Feynman was bored while working on the Manhattan project that would birth the atomic bomb. Naturally, then, he decided to occupy himself by pulling pranks on his colleagues.Knowing that most of them were relatively careless when dealing with the safes that stored top secret documents - whether forgetting to lock them, or leaving them on factory settings, or choosing obvious dates as their codes - he began leaving notes in the place of their work like:“I borrowed document no. LA4312 - Feynman the safecracker.”Eventually, he got so good at it that the Colonel in charge of his unit began advising people that if Feynman had been anywhere near their safe, it was a part of their job to change their combination lock once more.This story is one of m any stories Feynman tells in his autobiography Surely, You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!, where his playful nature gets the better out of both him and his attention.One of the things I’ve personally always admired about Feynman is that he was so deeply curious about things that the only purpose behind what he decided to commit himself to was what he found interesting.He had general aims, I’m sure, and given the complexity of the work he put out, he was obviously an insanely focused person, but the orienting impulse that guided him was beyond goals and simple ambitions. He was far more interested in getting somewhere past the known.Goals as orientation are common in almost all of our pursuits. We look ahead, predict what may make us happy in the future, and we then narrow down towards something specific. But what if that’s not the way?Is living goal to goal the answer?When dealing with the future, an orientation of some sort - however vague or specific - is necessary. If we didn†™t have one, we would be entirely shaped by the current of luck and randomness, which isn’t always a blessing.To exercise some semblance of agency over our lives, then, we often resort to goal-setting. We are taught to do so early on so that we can keep up with the world around us. Later, corporations, for example, even have acronyms, like SMART goals, that have us continuing to do so.Now, whether we are setting SMART goals or personal ones under our own framework (or no framework), the one thing that they have in common is that they are relatively concrete. You want to be married by 30, earn an executive position by 40, and be retired by 50. That’s how they usually go.For the most part, my inclination is to say that having these is better than not having any, and certain people have a genetic disposition to find satisfaction in specific accomplishment more so than others, but there are also problems that come with spending an entire life living goal to goal.For one, it attempts to predict an unpredictable future. Who is to say that what you want tomorrow or the year after is the same thing you want right now? More critically, what if what you want right now isn’t even oriented in the right direction over the long-term and you’re actually going the wrong way? Life changes, we change, and none of this is evident without hindsight.Secondly, and just as importantly, it creates an anchor: You bind your expectations of happiness and contentment onto something so singular that you often forget that other things in your life are capable of adding just as much joy to your experience than the thing you’re so fixated on.Everybody knows that the ultimate reward is the process, not the goal, but what we forget is that the virtue of even having goals makes it very hard to stay honest to a process that often deviates day to day.This creates a strange tension: On one end, goals of some sort are necessary, and giving the future its due attention is the right thing t o do; on the other hand, the act of creating these goals and worshiping them, as we often do, leads to a conflict that we can’t easily get away from.To solve this tension, we have to move towards something more nebulous.The pursuit of interestingnessThe really fascinating, and even admirable, thing about Feynman was that if he ever had a goal, it was simply this: to learn as much as possible in any direction that his innate curiosity took him.For brief periods of his time, working on one problem or the other, he may have had more specific goals, sure, and he certainly took the time to focus on them as he needed without distractions. But broadly, his orientation was pointed towards the most interesting thing he could find.The pursuit of interestingness, I think, solves the predicament that is inherent in goal-setting. It’s vague and nebulous enough to be honest about the unpredictability of the future, without being hopelessly lost in the chaos of pure luck and randomness.Through out life, we all see things, learn things, and pursue things. This process is different for each of us, but as we do so, we also develop a very strong intuition of what we, personally, find fascinating about the world - something that aligns with our deeper nature while respecting that we change over time as human beings, letting us adapt accordingly.Interestingness isn’t hedonism or materialism or the chase of anything new and shiny that seeks to distract us. It’s deeper than that. It’s taking on that random project you had no plan to take on because you have a feeling that you might just learn something you didn’t know about yourself. It’s seeing a person you just met not as a potential partner or someone who can do something for you but simply as an individual who may open up a new, unknown, and unique dimension in your life.The great thing about pursuing this kind of interestingness is that it has a far shorter feedback loop than specific goals. You keep doing somethi ng for as long as it’s interesting, but if you were mistaken about your initial impulse, you move on, without too much lost.Naturally, not everything or everyone is interesting all the time, but generally speaking, if something maintains its interest over a period of time, it’s likely worth dedicating some energy to.By making interestingness the goal, you give your actual goals a fluidity, one that can better accommodate new information. This also better amalgamates the goal with the process, rather than the goal being a distinct thing that battles to keep your attention off of the process.More than anything, however, the pursuit of interestingness honors a simple truth about the human experience: The best things in life are by-products. They come when they come, as you commit yourself honestly to a process, not when you spend time striving for imagined perfection.The takeawayThe future demands attention, and while focusing all of our energy on it is self-defeating, we do need t o be intentional about directing some of our effort towards it as we orient ourselves in the world.Goals are one way to do that. They give us a way to make concrete what is otherwise uncertain so that we can make progress without losing ourselves to anxiety. The problem, however, is that they often mistake what exists to provide orientation as a thing of value in itself.The best way out of this trap is to pursue what is interesting - to use our intuition for what it is that we find novel in this world to make the process and the goal one and the same thing; to continually update our sense of what is worth pursuing without being confined to false certainty.Interestingness seeks out the riddle of life. It gives us a reason to turn the next page, to see the next scene, to give form to the unknown.Feynman embodied this, but he also once said something that captures what it is that differentiates such a pursuit from mere goals and certainties:“I think it is much more interesting to li ve not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives… In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.”Goals, incorrectly, assume that we already know what it is that we want. Interestingness is more humble. It makes up its mind as it moves, slowly blowing from one thing to another, until it eventually grasps something that lies beyond prediction.Looking ahead, imagining scenarios that we think may be worth our time, has a place, but at the end of the day, what is most relevant is unfolding around us right now, and it doesn’t care what we thought about it yesterday.Want to think and live smarter? Zat Rana publishes a free weekly newsletter for 30,000+ readers at  Design Luck.This  article  was originally published on  Design Luck.

CFOs Split on Employees Earning CPE Credit on Company Time

CFOs Split on Employees Earning CPE Credit on Company Time CFOs Split on Employees Earning CPE Credit on Company Time */ Read the infographic text. CFOs SPLIT ON EMPLOYEES EARNING CPE CREDIT ON COMPANY TIME CFOs were asked, “Do you allow employees to attend continuing professional education (CPE) courses during business hours?” 26% Yes, we support and accommodate employees to seek more education, even if classes are during business hours 24% Yes, dependent on if the employee has a proven track record for success 23% Not generally, but we have made exceptions in the past 27% No, we do not accommodate employees taking classes during business hours Source: Robert Half Finance Accounting survey of more than 2,200 CFOs in the United States © 2017 Robert Half Finance Accounting. An Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/Disability/Veterans.

The Little-Known Secrets to Non Specific Resume Objective Examples

The Little-Known Secrets to Non Specific Resume Objective Examples Life, Death, and Non Specific Resume Objective Examples For a person who is just beginning in advanced academics or in the expert world, he must have a career objective which is normally employed for freshers. In the main resume, you want to abide by a particular format and there is absolutely no scope of explanation there. You might not know where to start in regards to writing a resume objective. In a lot of ways, an objective replaces a lot of the detail you would place in your professional experience section. Resume objectives can be somewhat controversial. The target of your resume must be eye catching as it is believed to be the opening statement for your resume. A resume objective that could apply to anybody or any sort of job isn't valuable. A resume objective can explain why you're qualified for the job, even should you not own a lot of related experience. Some are extremely descriptive and others are very vague and generic. Since you'll discover, even in the event that you don't have any prior professional experiences, it's possible to still draw on your school experiences. Everyone has desirable abilities and experiences to provide employers including you! For instance, it might state some of your previous accomplishments, and move on to the sorts of accomplishments you want to achieve in the future (ideally, accomplishments you wish to achieve for the organization you're applying to work for). Employers wish to objective objectives since it indicates you have versatility. Browse thousands of Resume Objectives Samples to find out what it requires to stand out. Lists, as a rule of thumb, are also simpler to write. It is possible to also Simple Resume Template. You ought to take about 70 resumes. Interviewers select just a couple of candidates from a group, solely on the grounds of the resumes of the candidates. Top Non Spe cific Resume Objective Examples Secrets If your Objective says you're searching for a full-time job and you're asking for a part-time internship, you will probably be disqualified immediately. As stated previously need to pick skills that have some relevance to the job that you're applying for. When you first graduated from school or started searching for work, it is likely that someone advised you to incorporate an objective statement on top of your resume. Additionally, there are job seekers that are trying to find the ideal job for the short-term. Whenever you wish to emphasize that you're ambitious, that you understand what you want in a career, or you have the skills for the particular job, you could benefit from a resume objective. Therefore, if you're searching for a new job, it is vital that your resume stands from the crowd to guarantee you a spot on the shortlist. Employees generally feel that a powerful resume is sufficient to fetch them with the dream job. Such statements makes employer think what sort of work suites you instead of what you could do. Simply comply with the directions and ideas, and you'll learn just how to capture the attention of hiring managers. You ought to make sure your resume summary statement concisely demonstrates why you're a best candidate for the particular job and business. You're wondering in case you should have a statement on top of your resume to grab the hiring manager's interest. Possessing a brief statement or overview at the start of your resume is a good way to demonstrate your abilities and experience and show the hiring manager the value you will bring to the position. Be certain to tailor your resume summary to the particular job listing.