The first bit is all about the history behind JS, and that is covered pretty well in the last post, but the second part goes a bit further down into the types and variables of JavaScript.

Most of this is pretty much the same as I was taught in Calculus: Multiply First, resolve everything above the division, then divide… its simple arithmetic and should be straightforward to anyone that paid attention in math (if you didn’t… you should have, it was fun).

But to tell the computer how you want the data processed, you need to define what are called Variables; think of these as the “names” you give to the stuff that gets thrown around in your program.

There are many kinds of variables in JS, but because it is a “loose typed” language, you can pretty much throw anything in the “var” bucked and JS will figure out what to do with it afterwards… actually JavaScript is pretty permissive with how you develop, even though I have no experience with it I guess that it can lead to some fast development, and also some sloppy code if you don’t mind your standards and conventions.

Some basic stuff:

• Use && when you want to check if both conditions are true in an argument
• Use || if you want to check if either of the conditions are true
• Use == to check if two things are alike
• Use != to check if two things are different

The rest of the chapter goes on to define some other basic functionalities of development, the famous IF statement that has been around for aaaaages and its variations (If else, for, while, etc.) where it really starts to get complicated in is functions (chapter 3).

To me the most difficult part to understand was the bit about recursion, I never seem to understand how the program knows when to stop, but I guess I will pick that up in further chapters, for now the basics are that you use functions as segments of code you can call up at any time to solve the different problems you come across during your program, They are there to help, but in a non-obtrusive way: variables defined within functions can use any name without interfering with other variables, they can be nested within each other to create complexity but still be unobtrusively tucked away in the “stack”.

Complex themes like recursion and “closure” took me a bit of a read to understand, but I hope as we delve deeper into the book the exercises help understand the rest. For now, here are my assignments:

Ex. 2.1:

((False) || (True)) &&

! ((False) && (True))

(True) && ! (False)

(True) && (True)

(True)

Ex. 2.2:

var base = 2;
var power = 2;

while (power <=10 ) {

power = power + 1;
base = base * 2;
}
print (base);

Ex.  2.3

var line = ”";
var count = 0;
while (count < 10) {
line = line + ”#”;
print(line);
count = count + 1;
}

Ex. 2.4

var base = 1;

for (var power = 0; power < 10; power = power + 1) {
base = base * 2;
}
print(base);
—–

var line = ”";

for (var count = 0; count < 10; count = count +1) {

line = line + ”#”;
print(line);

}

Ex. 2.5

var result = 4;
var answer = Number(prompt(“2 + 2 is…?”, ”you can do it”));

if (answer == 4)
alert (“whow!”);
else if (answer == 3)
alert(“Almost!”);
else if (answer == 5)
alert (“Almost!”);
else
alert (“Something Mean ”);

Ex. 2.6
var answer;
while (true) {
answer = Number(prompt(“2 + 2 is…?”, ”you can do it”));
if (answer == 4) {
alert (“whow!”);
break;
}
else if (answer == 3 || answer == 5) {
alert(“Almost!”);
}
else {
alert (“Something Mean ”);
}
}

Ex 3.1

function absolute(number) {
var result = ”";
if (number < 0)
result = number * -1;
else
result = number;
return result;
}
show (absolute(-3))

Ex 3.2

function greaterThan(number) {
return function Test(argument) {
return argument>number;
}
}

var input = greaterThan (90);
show (input(100));

The assignment was to watch a video (here), a brief introduction to JavaScript and blog about it.

First, i want to clear something up… i finally understood the joke “Java is to Javascript as Car y to Carpet”.

The main reason why i was never interested in JS was that i thought it was just an version of Java, which through the video y learned has nothing to do with each other, which is a very unfortunate mishap for the language as it gets a very bad rep.

It is important also to state that i am not a web developer, as such this is all a bit daunting for me, but also necessary. I did not know about “loose typing” Vs. “strong typing”, seeing as how Java ys a Loose Typing language (i.e. the “Types” of the variables don’t have to be set when you initialize them) i can understand both the benefit of added flexibility and coding speed, as well as the dangers of misstyping a variable and having the code blow up in your face.

The second assignment was a simple alert bot, (which you can find here) and the first thing that happened was that i concatenated using the + sign instead of adding, you have to be very careful of that as the sign has multiple uses and if you don’t add the proper syntax you can end up with cases like “2″ + “2″ getting 22 as a result.

All in all it was a fun morning, the video is very entertaining, and i hope i am accepted into the program.

I have referred often to the limits of human short-term memory, but on this occasion I wanted to delve a Little deeper to evidence exactly why we forget our commitments.

“The role of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths such as weaknesses become irrelevant”

-       Peter Drucker

Understanding the memory is essential to make, as Drucker says, its weaknesses irrelevant.

Memory… What memory?

The first thing that needs to be clarified is that the brain has different kinds of memory, to simplify we will divide them in two types: “Working Memory” and “Storage Memory”

Working Memory: is the part(s) of the brain that keeps things within reach of our reasoning, it is what we “have in mind”

Storage Memory: is the filing cabinet of our brain, where everything is stored so that we can recall in the long term. The thing is, we cannot function with the information in Storage Memory, it just doesn’t work that way. In order to co-relate or “use” different data, it has to be retrieved from storage and put in Working Memory.

Studies done by Timothy Brady have proven the massive capacity of our Storage Memory, in it is contained virtually all information you have come across in your life.

So… why do I forget things?

The is a wide range of factors, but the most important are:

1. Bad Encoding: Working memory captures the stimuli that we receive and evaluates which one is the focus of attention, then tries to figure out the reason why is should be stored so it can properly encode the information and pass it to Storage Memory. Think of it as a filing process where you add a couple of labels to a file, if you put the wrong labels its impossible to find the file.A good example of this is a study performed by Dr. Cowan, where he presented people with a series of coins and asked them to remember the denomination of the currency; a very large percentage of people remembered right when asked the pertinent information, but when asked, almost no one could recall the year that was minted on the front.In this case, the coins where coded as “denomination 5, Denomination 25… Etc.” and thus there is no information on storage of the minted year.
2. Interference: The process of memory recall is directly related to the code or stimulus that fired the process, if more calls come in at the same time, the mind can wander in search of different memories; this is known as interference and is one of the reasons for the “tip of the tongue” effect, where the memory was already recalled but has not yet been delivered.
3. Interception: Memories are stored all over the brain, and as such its hard for the human body not to react as if it was re-living the event all over again, if it was a traumatic moment the recall will be intercepted by the negative reaction of the body

Why do things slip away?

Have you ever had an important call to make, and after a very busy workday you get home only to remember with anguish that to forgot?

The reason for this is that Storage Memory doesn’t allow us to reason, think of it like a DVD filled with videos on the shelf of your house, its all there but cant actually do anything with it.

You can only “think” (deducting, correlating, task execution, problem solving, pattern recognition, logic, etc.) with the things you can hold in Working Memory, here is where the limitation comes in: according to Dr. Millier, and later corroborated by Dr. Cowan, the maximum capacity of your Working Memory is between 4 and 7 “chunks” of data.

People that seem to remember more are just very adept at encoding, or can memorize large sets of data into a single chunk, for example the digits 584246609978 are biologically impossible to maintain in working memory without losing focus or sending something else over to Storage. However, the phone number +(58) (country code for Venezuela), 424 (cell phone code), 660 (area) 9978 (number) are a lot easier to remember, because in reality its just 4 “chunks” of data.

Working memory maintains information for 10-15 seconds before sending it over to storage, so what you are doing most of the time is just juggling the different stimuli you receive throughout your workday.

So if I ask you to do 7 things, then during 15 seconds I ask you to memorize a 7 number string of digits, you no longer have the biological capacity to maintain your tasks in operation; they are now filed and stored away, and unless you happen to randomly come across the proper stimulus, then recall the proper encoding, you wont remember them.

To beat this limitation you have to do one of two things:

1. Spend years training in advanced mnemotecnic methods and coplex encoding exercises to maximize recall capacity or…
2. Write things down.

Do you have any encoding tricks? What stimuli do you use to recall? I’m eager to hear from you in the comments section or on my twitter @alexmrv.

Photo by  red ice

“When life demands more of people than they demand of life – as is ordinarily the case – what results is a resentment of life almost as deep-seated as the fear of death”

- Tom Robbins

What do you demand of life?

David Allen used that quote in his “Getting Things Done” book, and I remember reading it and thinking about the amount of work that I did for others, and how little I demanded in return.

I don’t refer to compensation; money by itself does not represent anything real. Neither do I mean getting something back out of a gesture… a good deed that demands something in return stops being good and becomes a service.

I’m referring to how many of your initiatives you do for yourself, and what do you ask in return of your sacrifices.

In college, one of my teachers spoke of “Responsible Egoism”; this was a concept that changed me in a fundamental way: “Not feeding your ego, taking care of those that surround you, but never forgetting yourself”

There is this social stigma with individual thinking, the threat of being called “egoist” and the way we demonize the “taking care of #1”  concept, leads us into being embarrassed any time we try to care for our future and interests.

It’s just that there is so much more to life than getting up in the morning to go to work, chasing the “Friday” rainbow for the “weekend” pot of gold, and every time it just goes 7 days away again. This total lack of attention to things that make you happy generates the anxiety that leads to our generation’s favorite addiction: work.

“If I only got a raise, I would have enough money for…”, “It’s just for a little while then I can focus on my dream”, “the economy is tough”.

Yeah, ok, many of those things are true in certain situations, but what I ask is: What are you demanding in return?

“I demand to spend more time with my kids”, “I require respect at work”, “I need that all new project teaches me something”, are all valid responses to any sacrifice you have to make in a particular situation.

Money is important as a trading tool, but on a “reality” level, its hard for our brains to wrap around the concept of a million bucks, even if I transferred them to your account today, it would not provide a feeling of wholeness and completion. It would probably be very exalting, and surely it would be key to achieving many dreams, but the mere existence of the cash in your account does not provide self-realization, this can only be achieved with goals that transcend the material and a number, and must be demanded out of life.

So take stock of how much you are giving away, and make a balance of what you are asking in return, and in some way, try and get more out of life.

What is the third wave?

In 1979, futurist Alvin Toffler wrote a book called Future Shock, where he goes into the process of change in social, political and economic structure.

Alvin describes three “waves”, the first one being the Agrarian Revolution (8000 A.C.  Until the 17^th Century), during which we built the social paradigms needed to end our nomadic phase and construct the cities that gave origin to our civilization.

The second wave  was the industrial revolution (1650), changing the way the world was organized by replacing human effort with advanced tools, thus empowering mass production and expansion, the caveat was that it led to a unification of products, media and ideology, all because of the inflexibility of our tools at the time.

According to Toffler, in 1979 we were in the cusp of a third wave, in which the tools become flexible enough to bring about a change in production paradigm oriented towards individuality and self-expression.

The advent of customized products coupled with the recently established Internet would bring about an important change in human society characterized by decentralization, demassification and personalization… all necessary to satisfy the human need to differentiate.

Riding the third wave

It’s no longer important to manufacture 1.000 objects of a single model, but rather 100 objects of 100 different models… examples like the giant success of Dell computers, where each computer is built under user specifications, are key to the definition of any third wave effort.

It’s also crucial to understand that the Internet will impact every medium in every field of every economic sector in the world…without exceptions. A good example is NetFlix, a company that “rents” movies online for the user to watch whenever he wants through video streaming,  this disruptive change devastated Blockbuster, the largest movie rental chain in the U.S., in a single quarter.

The challenge presented by the Internet is the velocity of change: The entire world is exposed to the same information, presenting equal opportunities for any organization.

At any time an equivalent of “Netflix” will appear in your market, with a disruptive innovation so profound that you must be able to adapt with agility and be willing to re-structure your Business Model in less than a quarter.

To summarize, if you want to ride the third wave you need:

• Creativity and flexibility to generate products that promote differentiation and adapt to the users Identity and need of self-expression.
• Productivity to cover needs on a global scale by inserting your product/service/industry on the Internet before somebody else does… and if the competition is already there, you must have the flexibility to adapt quickly.
• Adaptability to change your business model with excellence when the market thus dictates.

The key to success

First you need to change a few paradigms:

• Today’s technology is accessible to almost anyone, and there is an open solution to most problems, trade secrets are no longer the key.
• All providers are just one Google away from potential distributors, controlling the chain of supply is no longer the key.
• Business processes have escalated to a level of speed and complexity that no single person can effectively manage, individual leadership is no longer the key.

If not the recipe, or the kitchen, or the cook… What else is there?

There is the sum of all the parts in a multi-disciplinary team that is motivated, focused and committed; the key to the third wave is the people.

It no longer suffices to have “employees”, because these will not have the level of commitment and motivation necessary to survive in the market.

Another paradigm shift: Variable payments don’t work either. Of course you have to provide a just wage for the work and get the money issue out of the way, but systems based on monetary rewards are still second wave and recent studies have demonstrated that they do more harm than good.

In the third wave you need a team that is intrinsically motivated, driven forward by the primary factors that Positive Psychology and Neuroscience have determined as optimal:

1. Autonomy: If there is something that differentiates us from the rest of life on earth, is our impulse to be free. This motivator has generated enormous acts of nobility and courage that we remember as pivotal points in history.

When a person has the freedom to work with his own rhythms, under his own terms, he will fight to retain that autonomy with all his effort and any means necessary, a company of co-creators with a shared focus will fight to maintain its competitive advantage and self-sustainability with much more energy than a group of obedient subordinates.

2. Mastery: Another primary impulse is to be masters of our craft, the samurai dedicated their lives to be supreme in the use of the sword, Zen monks are focused beyond measure in the search of enlightenment, Greek masters searched for the secrets of nature with passion and constancy…none of them had as a final objective a new pair of Calvin Klein shoes.

By empowering your team to achieve mastery in many disciplines, the result will not only be a more capable team, but also a more motivated one.

3. Purpose: What is the point of all this effort? If for the organization, company or even family, the goal is collecting good dividends at years end, the objective of the members will be equivalent in measure: Getting a good paycheck. The result is that everyone pushes on their independent directions and there will be no cohesion of efforts.

One of the biggest tragedies of our modern world is that we have lost our sense of purpose; few people today set long term goals or life objectives. The top level of Maxwell’s Pyramid of human motivation is self-realization, if there is nothing to achieve then this point is impossible to reach.

The organization must have a common end that transcends the financial, and must help its members to find their own objectives, giving a sense of purpose that provide cohesion of efforts with the determination of the Samurai Warrior, the focus of the Zen Monk and the passion of the Greek Master.

Once the organization creates a context of work that allows a team to have autonomy, mastery and purpose; leadership is there to facilitate the work, putting itself at the service of the Team to maximize its production capacity and guide efforts towards common goals, staying the course without limiting flexibility.

It’s a juggling act between structure and innovation… a difficult to achieve balance that if found will surely enable you to ride the third wave.

I invite you watch the following videos:

This is a TED talk by Dan Pink, acclaimed business author, on intrinsic motivation (20 min):

The second is a Tech Talk at the 2010 Google IO (which I had the good fortune to attend), by Brian W. Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman, about the new role of the leader: Facilitating the work of the team. (60 minutes)

Foto por: https://tigscollaborate.wikispaces.com/fc_ubiquitous

Irresponsibility can be an addiction as strong as drugs or alcohol,

It’s impressive how fast 12 weeks pass, the experience of writing these articles has been very revealing, and has forced me to retake things I though left behind and do lot of exercises I had forgotten.

I’m a defender of utopic ideals; it is part of my personal philosophy and hope to keep it that way. It doesn’t mean I consider them possible, but it’s a tragedy to abandon the search for perfection simply because it’s impossible.

For us, the naturally irresponsible, the process of taking control is cyclical. The search of a state of relaxed execution, where we are masters of what we say and do, achieving in all contexts of life with singular perfection, is a goal that seem unachievable…and it is; But we have to be unstoppable in the search for a better life, and when we achieve it, it’s time to fight for an even better standard.

The 12^th step is to return to the beginning, starting a new iteration in the way we live, act, think, love, laugh… it’s the essence of being human, the search for an elevated state of conscience where we achieve wonderful things every day, doing the impossible and living our dreams.

It’s time to review and redo our plans, accept that even though we have taken control, some things slip, processes are lost and ideas remain undone. Getting better is just a matter of practice and evaluation of what we have done in the past.

I know some of the steps are hard, each speaks to different aspects of life and as such, each of us has different opportunities for improvement, and let’s admit it…we are irresponsible.

So some of the steps have gone by with a half-hearted effort, or have remained in promises without being incorporated into the daily routine, that is ok, because nothing and no one starts out perfect.  Its only you that decides how much is “enough”  response-ability, and if you are there, then I congratulate you and wish you well, but if not, I invite you to read back to the points where there is still work to be done, and do it.

I will continue to post material to help with each of the steps, but the essence of the process is already here, I hope it has been helpful and want to remind you to carve your own path in the process, there is no “right” way, only “your” way.

Thank you for reading,

Alex.

Irresponsibility can be an addiction as strong as drugs or alcohol,

What is my purpose in life?

This question has frozen a lot of us in our tracks, the extent of the answer and its ramifications are so huge that it looks like an impossible riddle.

Any problem you tackle in life is made easy if you do two things:

1. Achieve a clear understanding of the problem.
2. Fragment it into smaller, easier problems.

If the objective is to find your purpose in life, you can divide the problem into 10 small steps, which can be done in a week each, and in only 3 months it’s possible to get a clear vision of something that was murky and hard to define.

The motive behind each article in this program has been to find the pieces of the puzzle that is called your life. So if you have been following the series of articles during the past 3 months, it’s now time to sit down and put it all together, on the contrary I invite you to start at step one.

For this step you only need a quiet place to think, your lists, pencil and paper.

The process is:

1. Check your commitments list to make sure that your projects lists is complete, an inventory of the end points of all current efforts.
2. Read the projects list carefully, trying to find the inherent pattern inside it, this is akin to decoding a cipher: there is no recipe that always works. But I can assure you that there is something your projects have in common, a series of Macro-Projects that are almost never more than 7, they can be in the type of “Getting a promotion” “Be a better father” or “keeping my spouse happy”.
3. When you find the 7 Macro-Projects, imagine that 10 years have passed and every one of them was successfully completed, visualize that future self and ask the question: Is this who I want to be?
4. If the answer is affirmative, I congratulate you and admit to some envy… in my case it was very different, I noticed that my Macro-Projects, the things that all my tasks had in common, was a road that others had chosen for me and was leading to someone who I did not want to become. I didn’t know what I wanted, but at least I was clear that my life was being led down the wrong road.
5. Once you get the big picture clear, try to relate this pattern with the journal, finding entries in common with the Macro-Projects. Evaluate which of the entries are happy, and which are sad… remember that our feelings are like an internal compass that helps us find the correct direction. Now ask yourself: Which of my Macro-Projects gives me the most joy? In your life and in your actions there is happiness, and in it is the key to discovering your mission and destiny.
6. Think of the Macro-Projects that point you in the happiest direction, and try to find the pattern contained within them. There you will find your purpose in life.

This exercise was one of the most revealing moments in my life, and even though a lot has changed from that day, every time I do the exercise I’m surprised to find out that my end goals have not changed, even though I do.

It’s like a central anchor point, where you can always return in times of trouble, part of my purpose is to help others find that center and even though the actions I take to achieve this change over time, the final objective remains the same.

Never lose sight of that goal, even though it may sometimes seem unattainable and frustration makes you want to give up, someday a surprise will come and you will find out that no step was taken in vain.

I would love to read your goals; you can post them on the comments section of this post or at my @alexmrv twitter.

Happy decoding!

Alex.

Irresponsibility can be an addiction as strong as drugs or alcohol,

How many times have you been unable to remember a face, a gesture, a moment that was an important part of your life?

Our memories are stored in different sections of the brain through a complex process of segmentation. For example, visuals are stored in the occipital cortex, but that doesn’t imply sounds, smells, or tastes… all of which are stored in different areas of the brain, the result is a fragmented memory that is hard to access.

As a species, we have recognized the importance of having some kind of external registry: Historians dedicate their professional lives to keeping alive the image of our culture, as archeologists try to reconstruct the pieces of how we used to be.

We could hardly learn from our mistakes if we didn’t have the capacity to remember and analyze in what moment we deviated from the intended road, or reacted inadequately to a completely new situation.

Its key, to create our own story through a series of processes that allow us to access in an easier way our memory during the course of our lives, it doesn’t have to be written, every person should manage information in their own way. The important thing is to create a system with an easy to use method. Some recommendations are:

• Mnemonics: Consists of a series of mental processes, systematic exercises, repetitions, etc. to facilitate remembering something. A common example is: Keep Pond Clean Or Frogs Get Sick, which is a mnemonic device to remember the classification methods in zoology: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species).
• Scrapbooks: The idea is to have a notebook to glue together a mashup of pictures, magazines, books, news, etc. All relative to important events in your life.
• Personal Journal: Are the more traditional method and consist of having a diary with a brief description of what happened in the day. A lot of people do this through Blog platforms, to share their life with others.
• Picture Albums: Are more structured spaces to place images of particular events and thus trigger the memory process.
• Voice Notes: Very common with healthcare professionals, a series of spoken registries of the day. They were usually hard to maintain because of the tapes, but with digital recordings it’s much easier today.

Personally, I use evernote for my journal with a little of all the things mentioned above, and highly recommend it.

A common mistake is to create entries only for events that seem important at the time; our perception is always modified by the conditions of the moment, so having an external memory can give us a different point of view, I recommend making a daily entry even if the fact seems trivial at the time.

So take note of everything, you don’t know at what time it may seem useful, and if it doesn’t, I can guarantee it will be a valuable resource to your future generations: What wouldn’t you give to know what your ancestors throughout history did or thought in their daily lives?

Irresponsibility can be an addiction as strong as drugs or alcohol,

Between 1337 and 1452 occurred a series of events historians call “the war of the 100 years”.

The 113 years of conflict between England and France is a period that defined our global reality, and I take it as an example of persistency and focus.

The war was eventually “won” (if such a thing can be said about war), by France. This victory wasn’t the consequence of one heroic encounter between two majestic armies, like in the movies, but the sum of battles beyond count, not only in the field of war, but also in politics, religion and economy.

Our modern culture of “immediate resolution” has taught us that things get resolved within fixed timeframes: Soccer matches get won in 90 minutes if the allotted time runs out we go to penalties to resolve the issue… our relationships have shorter courtships (sex on the third date) and our food gets served in 90 seconds. Even websites highlight what we should read and products offer immediate and easy solutions to all kinds of problems.

I believe this is the reason we react to badly to a defeat, we think it’s the end of the war; we have lost the ability to see our efforts as the sum of a series of small victories during a span of time.

In the war of the 100 years, England had the strategic, economic and military advantage. Their advanced technology (the long bow) and their revolutionary government of centralized parliament gave them the abilities they needed to take most of France.

But, just when Orleans was under siege, Joan of Arc arrived and led to a series of events that eventually ended with the expulsion of the English army from French territory.

If we see this story from different points of view, we can extract different lessons:

1. The English: It doesn’t matter if you have a position of power, if you overextend and commit with more than you can achieve, its only matter of time until someone finds your weak point and exploits it to defeat you. Advance should be timely, calculated and inexhaustible. 100 years of victory count for nothing if you are defeated in the next 13, we have to be patient and constant in our goals.
2. The French: You haven’t lost until you are defeated. Even if there were only a square foot of French territory, they didn’t give up. Morale was low and everything seemed to be lost, but the inspiration of Joan of Arc arrived, then Burgundy made a change of alliance, then the war ended with Jeans Bureau.

During the Second World War, Sir Winston Churchill said of the potential German invasion of England: “We will fight them in our beaches, we will fight them in our fields, we will fight in the hills and in the streets… we will never surrender!”

This is a war, have no doubt of it. A continuous struggle between the will to be better than we are and the temptation to just let go, so reward yourself for the small victories, and don’t punish the small losses; Down the road you will find a lot of both, but as long as the conviction is firm and the step is constant, I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but I can guarantee you will emerge in glory as conqueror of your life.

Irresponsibility can be an addiction as strong as drugs or alcohol,

Failure has become the greatest Taboo of our generation.

The obsession of our modern society with winning (being competitive if you want more subtlety), has created a whole generation of human beings that measure their success in quantifiable terms: Account statements, Increments in Percentages and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

I admit I’m a big fan of data, as a Project Manager i know it’s very hard to control, review or improve things that cannot be measured…I am a data junkie and my work at 42 Soluciones reflects that.

But it’s important to recognize the difference between valuable data and actually trying to measure success; Trying to define life in that way leads to ignoring key factors like the smile of a loved one, the joy of being with friends, and the amazing value of failure.

In Agile Software Development, the experts say: “Fail fast, fail often, and learn quickly”.

I love the agile approach to development, and consider that the same principles can be applied to anything; implementing “Agile Living” is fun and gives you a lot of breathing room: Treat everything as if it were simple, and see failure as a chance to learn.

But, sometimes things go wrong.

There will be days when the chaos is so large that even thinking of organization makes you laugh.

When this happens, the solution is simple: Don’t worry about your system. Sometimes you simply have to adopt the necessary flexibility to get to the end of the day, keep calm and remember that your notebooks and lists will be there tomorrow morning when the storm passes.

There is one thing you should do though: Get at least 2 minutes (even if you need to lock yourself in the bathroom), to take a breather and consider if any of your previous commitments are completely vital today; if so, set up and alarm in your cell phone… do not trust your memory in any way! Days like these are full of children forgotten at school, credit card payments overdue and anniversary gifts waiting in the stores.

There will also be days when you find out your plan had a fundamental flaw and that you have been working in the wrong direction for an important amount of time, the sense of failure will lead you to not wanting to do anything anymore.

These days it’s important to understand the cyclical nature of life, for every “good” moment you will live a “bad” one, by learning that only you define those terms, the good can be found in every bad and the joy in every sorrow. It’s much more than simple optimism; it’s the comprehension that every instant we are surrounded by blessings and messages that can only be seen by keeping calm during the storm.