7 Habits

Who am I?

I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do you might just as well turn over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed-- you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great individuals and, alas, of all failures, as well. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a human. You may run me for a profit or run me for ruin-- it makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

      A book that begins with this riddle is bound to attract anyone, of any age. My dad gave me this to read and I thought it would be another one of those pretend-to-understand-you ones which actually tell you how to act and what kind of person to be. That wasn't what I was looking for, but after opening the first page I was hooked and finished the thing in a month. WARNING: READERS ARE PRONE TO PARADIGM SHIFTS.

      The seven habits are:

1. Be Proactive

2. Begin With the End in Mind

3. Put First Things First

4. Think Win-win

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood

6. Synergize

7. Sharpen the saw

      Here's the movie book review.

Yours truly,

Shepherd's Shame

The wolf with his evil trickery,
And his bloody bitter history,
With sheep cannot be trusted.
For he had an abyssal hatred,
A feeling deep as the ocean,
Of the sheepdog and his devotion.

Wolf comes stealthily in the morning,
Sheepdog barks a loud forewarning.
Shepherd screams a terrible “Shush!”
And imprisons the sheepdog with a push.
Then the shepherd goes to sleep,
Abandoning all the innocent sheep.

The wolf runs out from the dark wood,
And gobbles sheep like no one ever could.
The sheepdog imprisoned in his cage,
Watched on helplessly at the carnage.
The shepherd dozing through the wolf’s deceit,
Allowing the angelic sheep’s defeat.

Then suddenly the shepherd awakes,
And roars like a million earthquakes.
“Why ever did you not protect my flock?”
The sheepdog answers, “How about the lock
You chained me with so willingly?”
Shepherd glares at him chillingly.

Leaders around the globe today,
With fame and wealth are led astray.
Practicable advice they heed not,
Revealing to enemies their weak spot.
Tragedy knocks at the citizens’ door,
Then leaders are silent no more.

Instead they furiously blame
Activists for their own shame.

Book Review: 100 Essential Things

      Hi everyone! Each month I'll be reviewing a book on my YouTube channel, and this time it's the incredible 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know  by John D. Barrow.
      It's a math book.
      Please don't freak out.

ISBN 978-0-393-33867-6

      The first thing you see on the interesting graphic-filled cover is a humongous 100 made of different objects: coins, a bear, a tennis ball, playing cards and a diamond. What do they have in common? The next thing that catches your eye is the phrase "MATH EXPLAINS YOUR WORLD". Intimidating, eh?
      I know, I know, don't judge a book by its cover. However for visual people like me, and obviously my mom, who picked this up from the bookstore, book covers play an important role in attracting readers. Which in my case, I think was very worthwhile!

      The back-of-the-book-thingamajig (which I have found out is actually called the synopsis, commonly called the blurb, from my wonderful first subscriber Lauren) reads: "Have you ever wondered why you always seem to get stuck in the longest line? Why two's company but three's a crowd? Or why there are six degrees of separation instead of seven? ..." My attention captured, I read on in rapture as Barrow explained different aspects of life with a small problem, often not more than two pages each, accompanied by simple ink, hand-drawn diagrams.

      If you don't have time, do what I'm doing: Read a problem a day and you'll be finished in 100 days!

Here's the video:

Yours truly,