Good Stuff! The future, Service Depot, Bear Lake ice cream shops

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Huge changes are coming to our world soon.

They’re going to affect your health, wealth, and job. They’re going to take us back into space and make us live longer. They are changes that almost blow the mind. And they’ve already begun.

Michio Kaku is a world-renowned physicist that has always been fascinated with all sorts of science. And in Physics of the Future, he looks at what’s currently happening in computing, robotics, biotechnology, medicine, energy, and engineering, and explains how it’s going to affect our daily life between now and 2030, 2030 to 2070, and 2070 to 2100.

The insights are awesome. The book’s a feast. Page after page.

Did you know, for example, that there are parts of our DNA that have genes for certain traits, but those genes are turned off? For example, humans have genes for growing fur all over our bodies, but they’re turned off. Snakes have genes for legs that have been turned off. Chickens, one of the distant progeny of the dinosaurs, have genes for growing tooth buds in their beaks (imagine the grandchildren being chased by one of those bad boys). There are many more such dormant genes, and in the not too distant future, we’ll be able to turn them on.

Did you know that today we can regrow organs? So far scientists can grow skin, blood, blood vessels, heart valves, cartilage, bone, noses, and ears from your own cells. They’ve be able to grow windpipes and bladders. Imagine damaging your eye and being able to grow a new one that your body won’t reject.

Did you know that we’ve already been able to hook people up so they can move objects with their minds?

And what about computers and robots? Many futurists fear the robots will become smarter than us and take over the world. Will they? Kaku explains why this isn’t likely with the technology we currently have and what really makes up intelligence.

These are just a couple of the dozens of thrilling topics Kaku explores. And he makes it all so easy to understand and entertaining.

A new world is coming, full of perils and exciting opportunities. An Kaku gives us an intelligent sneak peek.

If you wonder what our world will be like in the near future, if you enjoy science and technology, if you want to be informed, then you will love this book. When you finish it, you can then move onto his book The Future of Humanity, which delves deeper into what we can expect in the near future in space. You can then move to The Future of the Mind, in which he explores in more detail what we can expect in understanding, enhancing, and empowering our minds.

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I’m not a handy man. I’d like to be one. I respect folks who know how to fix things immensely. But I have a million other things on my plate and don’t have the time to learn how to be one. And so when our oven and gas range started having problems, I was staring at spending around $2,000 to replace it.

But then I found Service Depot in Logan, Utah. They do handyman, appliance, HVAC, and plumbing repairs. I called them. They send out someone all the way to Bear Lake to look at the issue and give me a bid. He was clean-cut and smiling. When I invited him in, he stopped to put booties on to make sure he didn’t track dirt into my house. We arranged an appointment, and a few days later another fellow who was equally clean-cut and pleasant to deal with showed up and fixed the range for about one-fourth of what it would have cost to replace it.

These folks were prompt to respond, friendly, and bootied. If you need repairs done around your house, my experience with them was great.

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If you enjoy ice cream and are in the Utah Bear Lake area, I have two recommendations. For soft-serve shakes and cones, you can’t do better than Zipz in Garden City. Some soft-serve is icy and thin. Not enjoyable at all. But Zips uses a soft-serve ice cream with a higher fat content, which makes it deliciously smooth and creamy. And when you add flavors—oh baby! We recently went there as a family and got shakes. They have a lot of different flavors, but I got the Nutella and pretzel mix and floated up a bit toward heaven. If you like chocolate at all, you have to try that shake.

The other place is in Laketown. The Sinclair gas station turned their old car wash into a hard ice cream shop called, ta-dum, The Car Wash Ice Cream Shop. It’s bright and clean. The youth scooping the ice cream there are smiling and friendly. And they have a flavor called Coconut Castaway that’s scrumptious. Think of a Mounds chocolate bar, but in ice cream. More heavenly floating. What makes it even better are the reasonable prices.

If you’re in the mood for ice cream, if you want to get a bit closer to heaven, then do yourself a favor and get yourself to one of these shops.

Good Stuff! Some Calm on the Climate

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Is the sky falling?

When we politicize science it sure seems that way.

For example, a while back I reviewed The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz. What she found in her research about fat and sugar was that we followed the exact wrong diet path over the last 40 years by (1) rushing to judgment on the science in a field that was tricky and (2) politicizing it. This, in turn, affected the science. And not in a good way. Here’s a quote from the book.

“Once ideas about fat and cholesterol became adopted by official institutions, even prominent experts in the field found it nearly impossible to challenge them. One of the twentieth century’s most revered nutrition scientists, the organic chemist David Krivtchesky, discovered this thirty years ago when on a panel of the National Academy of Sciences, he suggested loosening the restriction on dietary fat. “We were jumped on!” he told me. “People would spit on us!…they were so angry that we were going against the suggestions of the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health”

“This kind of reaction met all experts who criticized the prevailing view on dietary fat, effectively silencing any opposition. Researchers who persisted in their challenges found themselves cut off from grants, unable to rise in their professional societies, without invitations to serve on expert panels, and at a loss to find scientific journals that would publish their papers. As a result, for many years the public has been presented with the appearance of a uniform scientific consensus on the subject of fat, especially saturated fat, but this outward unanimity was only made possible because opposing views were pushed aside.”

For the rest of us, the result has been the highest obesity and diabetes rates we’ve ever seen. And it seems to me that we’ve been doing this same thing with climate science.

Instead of vigorous and spirited debate and research, we’re rushing to judgment and politicizing it. The media, non-climate scientists, activists, politicians, and others have turned it into a religious eco frenzy. And so we end up with people like Bill Nye the science guy (who was a mechanical engineer and then TV host for a children’s science program, not a climate scientist) suggesting that “climate deniers” go to prison.

Prison?

I think Bill had a bad dream about Nazi Germany, socialist Russia, or ISIS.

We all want clean air and water. We all want awesome rivers and lakes. We all want good science. Is it possible to remove the politics and frenzy so we don’t go off into the weeds again? I don’t know. But I did find these short videos helpful. If you’re interested in the climate, I think you’ll enjoy them.

In the first one, Richard Lindzen, an MIT atmospheric physicist, addresses the politicization.

In the one, Will Happer, emeritus professor of physics at Princeton University,  addresses whether we can actually accurately predict the climate.

This one by Patrick Moore, an ecologist and one of the founders of Greenpeace who subsequently left the organization because of its anti-science activism, explains why CO2 is actually awesome.

In this one Moore gives more details and argues that maybe we need more CO2.

In this one, Bjorn Lomborg argues against climate alarmism. Of course, Lomborg isn’t a climate scientist. However, if his facts are correct, then he asks an important question.

The other thing to ask is so what? So let’s say the seas rise a bit and it gets a bit warmer. We might lose some beach front properties over a number of years. That’s not new. It might accelerate and reach farther inland. Okay. But nobody is going to die. They’ll just rebuilt somewhere else.

So let’s avoid prison and climate pogroms and disastrous dashes off into public policy like we did with fat and sugar. Let’s simply support our scientists in doing what they do best. Let’s promote a vigorous search for more insight.

Notes

Good Stuff! StoryBrand

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Folks running for office, especially our wonderful citizens running for local county offices, business owners, and any of the rest of us who what to persuade people to listen, I’ve got something for you.

I will bet that most of you aren’t aware that you’re muddling your message and losing votes, sales, and converts to your causes.

Of course, maybe you’re way ahead of me. I thought I knew what I was doing. I have a master’s degree in business, spent a few years in business consulting, have created a few small startups, and currently am a product manager for large software company. Despite all of that, I had somehow missed something vital. Something simple and powerful. Something that has a dramatic effect on sales, votes, and converts. On getting people to even listen to what I had to say.

And I’m not alone. I saw another company struggling with it this weekend.

On Saturday I went and watched the latest Marvel movie at a theater in Logan. One of the pre-movie video ads was for a local company called Conservice. I don’t know how many thousands of dollars they spent on the ad they played. Or how much they spent on the many other ads we’ve seen over the years. But when it finished, I turned to Nellie and said, “I still don’t know what that company does or why I should care.”

“I know,” she said. “I know.”

We were both baffled. After years of seeing their ads, we still have no idea what they do, how it would make our lives better, or what action we should take to use their service.

They have wasted thousands and thousands of dollars on their marketing.

There’s another local company that advertises during those pre-movie slots. It’s called ARS. I saw one of their ads this weekend as well. But it only reminded me of what I already know. I know exactly what they do, how it would make my life better, and what action to take.

If you have a flood, fire, or plumbing backup—whatever—they clean it up. “Got a mess? Call ARS.” That’s their one-liner.

If I ever have a mess, I will call ARS. I will never call Conservice. I have no idea what they do.

What’s the difference here?

Clarity.

And what generates that clarity?

A complete focus on the customer. The ARS ads are all about the customer and their problems and needs.

The Conservice ads, on the other hand, are all about Conservice. We’ve been in business for x years. Here’s what our building looks like. Here’s a worker planting a bush. Blah, blah, blah.

The ARS ads are all about me, the guy in the theater seat, the thing I want and the problem I have. ARS features me as the hero in my own story. They present themselves as the helper—the Yoda or Gandalf or Haymitch who helps the hero get what they want. You got a mess? We’ll help you.

The difference in the power of the two ads is night and day.

Of course this means it’s been verified that I’m a dolt. After all the years in business and education, I should have known this. But the surprising truth is that I’m not alone.

I look at the marketing we do at the billion-dollar company I work for and see this same issue everywhere. Millions of dollars spent on muddles. I look at company websites on the internet and see more muddles. I recently listened to pitches by many of our local citizens running for office and saw the same thing. It seems this communication muddle afflicts a lot of us.

About five years ago, when I began investigating an idea for a new company, I came across the Lean Startup method pioneered by a guy at Stanford and began to see the light. But a few months ago, the curtains were completely pulled aside to let in the sunshine. And wow! What a revelation.

If you want to get people to listen, you have got to hear what Donald Miller has to say. He’s consulted with thousands of companies on how to clarify their message so people will listen. His framework and method make clarifying your message so easy.

He calls it the StoryBrand framework, and it’s brilliant. What it does is help you clarify your message so that a customer or voter or whoever will know within three seconds:

  1. What you offer
  2. How it will make their life better
  3. And what action they should take if they are interested

But it goes beyond that. It helps you actually define what you should be offering in the first place. It’s a powerful product development tool. I’ve started using this in all my business efforts. And in my training and presentations.

For example, I just used it to develop a presentation I delivered at a huge writer’s conference last week. The results were that after the presentation, I had a line of people wanting to thank me. I had people telling me I made them cry. Others wanted to give me a hug. They were grateful. I had people tell me it was the best presentation of the conference.

This was not because I’m brilliant. I’m a dolt, remember. It’s because I used the StoryBrand framework to focus on those people. Their needs. Their problems. Their aspirations.

If you’re running for office, if you have a business, if you want to persuade anyone to do anything, then let me recommend you listen to this guy and learn about this framework.

Get the revelation. Get out of the muddle. And get people to listen.

And when you’ve finished the Miller stuff above, read How to Write Copy That Sells by Ray Edwards, the guy who has partnered with Miller. It’s all about clarifying your message as well.

Good Stuff! Wonder, Darkest Hour, Sea Wolves

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I had seen a lot of good reviews of Wonder. My wife told me a lot of her students enjoyed the book. But I thought it was going to be a heavy topic, full of sadness and heart-wrenching drama. I’m happy to report that while Wonder does indeed have some difficult moments, it’s also full of humor. And triumph.

It’s a story about Auggie, a boy with a rare medical deformity that has put him through multiple surgeries. His parents have homeschooled him, but now that he’s at the age where he could go to middle school, they feel it’s time for him to navigate the world. The perfect time, right?

But it’s not just about Auggie. The film is also about Auggie’s sister, her former best friend, and Jack, Auggie’s classmate. We get to see their stories as well, and they are woven into a wonderful, poignant story.

You’ll laugh and wince and cry and cheer. You’ll enjoy Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson, who do a wonderful job as Auggie’s parents. And you’ll enjoy the children and teens. Me, my wife, my married daughter, and my teen all loved this film. I will be watching it again. If you want a great movie to watch as a family, I think you’ll love this.

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As soon as I saw the preview for the Darkest Hour, I knew I had to see it. And, boy oh boy, this is yet another movie I can’t wait to watch again.

The phrase “The Darkest Hour” is used in Britain to refer to the time when the United Kingdom appeared to be under direct threat of invasion from Germany at the beginning of World War 2. Germany had launched its attack on France, Belgium, and the Netherlands and had smashed their armies, sweeping all before them. The bulk of the British army was trapped at Dunkirk and looked like it would be annihilated.

The British government was split between those who saw no path to victory and wanted to make a peace treaty with Hitler and those who wanted to resist him. The opposition party in parliament forced Neville Chamberlain to resign. And the only man they’d accept in his place is Winston Churchill. But Churchill was not the lion we think of him as today. He had a poor reputation among many of the leaders of his party and was not someone they wanted to elevate.

So the film starts with the ouster of Chamberlain. We then get to watch how Churchill deals with the catastrophe of what’s happening just across the channel and all the voices pressuring him to make peace.

There’s humor, suspense, and a number of one-liners that we all began repeating to each other immediately after the film ended. You get a feel for what it must have been like at the time and why so many wanted to sue for some peace treaty with the monster across the channel. You also get to see a slightly different picture of Churchill as a man. I particularly loved the exchanges between him and his wife.

If you are interested in World War 2 or Britain in even the slightest degree, you simply must see this film.

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I have now listed to the audio book of The Sea Wolves by Lars Brownworth twice.

Yes, it’s that good.

In this book, Brownworth tells the history of the Vikings. And he tells the history the way history should be told, bringing to life the old Norse world of epic poets, sea kings, and raiders, including Ivar the Boneless, Eric Bloodaxe, Harald Hardrada, Rollo the Walker—all the major figures.

And Brownworth does it in a way that helps you understand how their dominance was possible and what their effect on the wider world was. Did you know, for example, that Russia comes from the word “Rus”, which was the name for the Swedish Vikings that started that nation?

What? Russia was started by the Vikings?

Yes.

Read or listen to the book. You’ll learn that plus a whole bunch more that will make you look at that time in a different light.

And if you want to get the other side of the tale, let me recommend reading Bernard Cornwell’s historical fiction series that starts with The Last Kingdom. The series tells the story of the invasion of the Danes during King Alfred’s rule from the point of view of Uhtred of Bebbanburg. It’s a terrific series.

By the way, I do not recommend the TV series based on the books—too much sex for my tastes. But the books are fabulous. As are the audio versions. I’ve listened to six of them so far, and they have provided hours of enjoyment and interesting insights about the time and the events that took place.