The First 20 Hours

The First 20 Hours
Author: Josh Kaufman
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2013-06-13
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1101623047

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

So Many Miracles

So Many Miracles
Author: Saul Rubinek
Publisher: Markham, Ont. : Viking
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1988
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?

Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?
Author: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2019-02-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1633696332

Look around your office. Turn on the TV. Incompetent leadership is everywhere, and there's no denying that most of these leaders are men. In this timely and provocative book, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic asks two powerful questions: Why is it so easy for incompetent men to become leaders? And why is it so hard for competent people--especially competent women--to advance? Marshaling decades of rigorous research, Chamorro-Premuzic points out that although men make up a majority of leaders, they underperform when compared with female leaders. In fact, most organizations equate leadership potential with a handful of destructive personality traits, like overconfidence and narcissism. In other words, these traits may help someone get selected for a leadership role, but they backfire once the person has the job. When competent women--and men who don't fit the stereotype--are unfairly overlooked, we all suffer the consequences. The result is a deeply flawed system that rewards arrogance rather than humility, and loudness rather than wisdom. There is a better way. With clarity and verve, Chamorro-Premuzic shows us what it really takes to lead and how new systems and processes can help us put the right people in charge.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat!
Author: Lucille Colandro
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2012-09-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0545507510

This spooky twist on the wildly popular "There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly" is perfect for fun Halloween reading!What won't this old lady swallow? This time around, a bat, an owl, a cat, a ghost, a goblin, some bones, and a wizard are all on the menu! This Halloween-themed twist on the classic "little old lady" books will delight and entertain all brave readers who dare to read it!

So Many Everests

So Many Everests
Author: Victoria Webster
Publisher: Lion Books
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2012-10-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0745957617

Victoria Webster was born with cerebral palsy and that meant, for many of those involved in her education, that she should limit her horizons. But Victoria had her eyes, and her heart, set on a high peak of achievement to be a doctor. And, despite everything she tackled taking her longer than most of her peers, despite assurances that her patients would object, despite suggestions that she give up, she persevered and became not only a Casualty Consultant but the first Casualty Consultant in Sweden. Surrounded by loving family from her birth onwards, Victoria's story is also her mother's, Diana's story, and together they tell of the mountains scaled and conquered. This is wonderful, heart-warming and encouraging read. 'This is easily the most moving book I have read.' Katherine Whitehorn, journalist and columnist

Just So Many Places

Just So Many Places
Author: Jessica Stilling
Publisher: NineStar Press
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2021-11-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1648904149

Marissa and Calypso have been outsiders before. As an interracial lesbian couple from very different social classes, they’ve already experienced the odd stare. When the couple arrives on a sheep farm, tucked away in the jagged mountains of Iceland, they plan to forget all their baggage and look to the future. Marissa, an academic on sabbatical, focuses on taking care of the sheep while attempting to work on her book on Norse mythology. Calypso, an attorney, who works on civil rights cases in New York City, attempts to help her clients while in the middle of nowhere in Scandinavia—quite a feat for any social justice warrior. The added distractions of Marissa’s son Xander, who drops in on them with his entitled college friends in tow, and the constant interruptions from Marissa’s wealthy and connected ex-husband, threaten their peace. As her civil rights cases gain notice in New York City, Calypso starts to feel left out, living so far away. Two young girls enter Marissa and Calypso’s lives, complicating the solid ecosystem they’ve created in their hideaway. Tavy grew up in the same inner-city poverty that Calypso came from, and with Calypso’s help, she has the talent and intelligence to lift herself up, even when an unplanned pregnancy threatens her future. When Asta Sollilja, an Icelandic teenager with a reputation, finds herself in trouble, she relies on the kindness of the American outsiders to keep her safe. Just So Many Places captures the majesty and isolation of Iceland. It explores the enduring connections that come with unstoppable love and a sense of history as notions of race and class structures threaten to divide instead of connect. Marissa and Calypso must decide if staying in Iceland is for them or whether they can do more good by going home and rejoining the world where they feel most at home.

So Pretty.... so Many Tears

So Pretty.... so Many Tears
Author: Rose Portillo
Publisher: Author House
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2011-12-02
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1468566423

This book was written out of the feelings and some of the most sadness out of the depths of my heart and soul. It contains feelings from different times and many events of my life. So Pretty, So Many Tears has poems from many different emotions I have felt throughout my life. Some of the poems that are written in this book were written when I was 16 years old, although I have been writing since I was much younger, when I had already been physically and emotionally abused! Then I lost "The Love Of My Life." I fell in love with Tony when I was 12 years old. We got together when I was 16 and then we separated for a few years because of my family. We got back together when I turned 24 and he was 25 years old. A couple of days before he turned 27 years old, he passed away; yes, I lost my love, I lost my life, hence I lost my mind. When I finally gave my whole self to him and finally stopped worrying about what my family felt about him. Ever since then I have been truly going through years of so much denial of his death, self conviction and guilt over what happened and how it happened. I sank into the "Abyss of my empty soul," and I didn't want to be found because I knew deep inside if I found myself deep within my secretly wounded heart, I would realize and find out that I lost the only love I had ever had. He was my only friend and I knew that I would lose my mind if I ever lost him. There was no way that I wanted to live in this ugly world without him by my side, and I had told him that I would never be afraid of anything not even the end of the world, so long as he was there by my side even when the end of the world was occurring. I have been abused most of my life, first by my mother, then by my older brother, then later on when I got married to someone else other than my true love; I went through some inner hell tortures as well as physical tortures, with my husband always on drugs, such as heroine, crystal meth, and crack cocaine; when I didn't even know what all that stuff was or what it did to someone. Anyhow, the book contains all of my dreadful, melancholic, horrific details of just how much I had lost my mind. For I truly did lose my mind when Tony left my world. The only thing I had to stay alive for was my children that I already had and when "The One I Loved" left my world, I went insane but I didn't even know it, and neither did anyone else for that matter. I really didn't know how to handle living life without Tony. I needed to learn how to live again not only for myself but for my children, and the book does indeed hold the deepest fears, tears, and loves in my life. The book contains so many feelings tears and love and as one person put it, "So Pretty So Many Tears" when the tears wouldn't stop and how I couldn't stop thinking of and wanting to die! Like I said, I actually really lost my mind. There are many different poems in this book; some are regarding abuse, death, love, reincarnation and even living with physical pain as I do now and have been ever since the year of 2001; it seems as if once the denial stopped and the admission of Tony being dead occurred, the pain and suffering I had secretly been feeling in my heart and my soul, suddenly spurted out of me and showed and was now felt physically. For the secret I was holding within me was the secret I withheld even from my own self and that was that Tony was dead. I was full of secrets all of my life, first I held the secret from my family the love I had for Tony; he was my secret love. Then, I held the biggest secret from myself; the death of Tony's body but not the death of my love for him. There are also some poems from my granddaughter Vanessa Espitia and from two of my daughters, Desiree Grace and Princess Anna, both of whom I encourage to write all their thoughts and feelings from their heart, if that is what they want to do. Most of my 12 children are blessed with the talents of writing and art; along with some of my grandchildren. So Pretty