Shawn Lankton Online

CNN and FOX news can’t stop talking about it.
You may have seen someone ‘tweet’ in real-life.
You feel like you might be missing out.

Despite all the hype, twitter seems unbelievably stupid…

I thought so too when I first tried out the service, but by taking a different approach it is starting to seem like a useful tool.

If you’ve never used twitter: It is essentially the same technology as facebook status updates. Short messages from people you ‘follow’ get collected in a single stream for you to quickly review when you’ve got a spare second.

Twitter as a micro-blog

I keep this blog to write long-ish articles and posts about topics that interest me and that I think can help you, the reader. However, on a good day there are lots more ideas and discoveries than time. Enter, the microblog.

Twitter provides a medium to post very short ideas, comments, and links to interesting content found elsewhere. I endeavor to make each tweet a stub for a potential blog post… just without my elegant prose. That means every time I post something I want it to be useful to the reader, not just some pointless info about my life. This suddenly transforms twitter from a self-indulgent distraction into the realm of useful tools for recording ideas and adding value.

Lots of people I follow use this same formula.

Twitter as ubiquitous content capture

When you find a link, hear a quote, or get an idea that you’d like to remember and share, you may not be near a computer. Twitter can be your ubiquitous information capture tool in those cases. By sending an SMS or updating twitter via iPhone the content gets sent to a centralized, searchable, shareable place to be found or referenced later.

Twitter as a social tool

Right now my list of followers and follow-ees is rather short. To really leverage the power of the medium there need to be lots of connections between friends and colleagues interested in similar subject matter. This gives you the opportunity to get quick answers and collaborations by asking questions of your followers and responding to their questions.

You should follow me on twitter (@shawnlankton).

If you want to see my microblog without joining twitter, an embedded version can be accessed via the μblog tab at the top of the page.

Any other ideas on how to use twitter? Leave a comment.

Knowing about new research in my field helps keep my work informed and relevant. However, I rarely remember to log into IEEE Xplore, Springer, or Science Direct to see what’s new in top computer vision journals. Recently, I saw mention of using RSS to keep up with research on Productive Scholar.

It took a bit of searching, but eventually I found RSS feeds for many of the journals I’m interested in and loaded them into google reader. It is now quick to scroll through new abstracts as papers appear on-line prior to publication. Below are links to RSS feeds for some computer vision journals I’m keeping up with.

RSS Feeds for Computer Vision Journals

Finding RSS Feeds for Other Journals

It takes a bit of hunting sometimes, but I can’t imagine that a journal would not have RSS these days. IEEE Journals are easy to find, and I found that inezha.com was a good resource for finding some of the other ones I have listed.

Any good feeds I missed?
Other good ideas for keeping current?

Leave them in the comments.

When I really need to concentrate I listen to brown noise. I find that it boosts my productivity and keeps me from getting distracted by sounds around me. This is most useful in coffee shops or noisy offices, but I even do this when it’s quiet.

Brown noise is similar to white noise; it sounds like random static. However, brown noise is at a slightly lower pitch so it’s easier to listen to. That means that I can work for hours without hurting my ears!

You can download some free random noise MP3s to play on your computer or iPod, or listen to some right from your browser. Both work great.

This works better than my previous method (using ear plugs) because the sounds aren’t just blocked, they’re all scrambled up by the static. I get so much input from my ears that my brain ignores sound all together and focuses on work!

Anybody else tried this? How else do you keep focused?

I finished Tim Ferris’s book, The 4-Hour Work Week. This book is very inspiring, and takes a very different take on entrepreneurship than most books you’ll find on the subject. Tim suggests increasing efficiency in everything you do (both personal and professional) by applying the 80/20 rule and setting deadlines. (The 80/20 rule says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts) When you only do 20% of the things you were doing before, and you set deadlines so you complete them faster than you normally would… efficiency ensues.

So in addition to this efficiency point, Tim also suggests setting up little-to-no effort income streams in the form of small niche-market internet-based businesses. He recommends outsourcing everything to a handful of companies so that your only “job” is making sure everybody plays nice together.

Once you have your life efficiently outsourced and funded with a work-free business… you take unlimited vacations and party like a rock-star! That sounds like a pretty sweet deal. I think this review came off making his book seem overly simplistic and not realistic. That wasn’t my experience at all. I really felt like he gave good information on how to make his reality come true! In fact it got me very excited about the prospect of having a “muse” (his word for a hands-free income stream). I’ve been making some moves in that direction since then. This book is definitely worth a read, and will end up in the stockings of some of my friends this Christmas.

Also, check out Tim Ferris’s Blog. It has lots of interesting stories and ideas regarding his “lifestyle design.”

In my struggle to do more, be better, and kick ass I try a menagerie of techniques, experiments, etc. Most recently, I’ve developed a set of mantra that seem to give me that extra push to get things done, and done well. I keep these three phrases in mind all day and let them spur me to action.

DELIVER

The idea that you should always deliver on what you say you will is a strong one. I want to be known as “someone who delivers.” This keeps my head in the game long-term thinking about not just actions right now, but how they will translate to tangibles later on. Deliver at work, Deliver in relationships, Deliver financially. DELIVER.

More Action!

This one comes from my friend Naomi. In this crazy world, it’s all too common to work or play to the exclusion of sleeping. When things start to drag, when my pen slumps and my eyelids get heavy, I think to myself, “More Action!” Its a great way to get going, and keep moving fast. “More Action!” at the gym. “More Action!” when programming. “More Action!” when you want just 5 more minutes before you get out of bed… “More Action!!”

Push It.

Here’s one from my buddy Jon. We tease Jon because, “he pushes it.” However, pushing it is a valuable quality. Whenever I want to quit, take a break, slow down for just a sec’ because its more comfortable… I think “push it.” This means working for 10 extra minutes when I’m stuck on a problem, or running for one extra mile when my lungs and legs burn, or knocking one more thing off of my to-do list before going to bed. I hope working just outside my comfort zone will make me stronger. Push it.

These three are short and simple enough to keep with me mentally all day long. If it were just about that though, I’m sure I’d forget eventually. Hence, I put up sticky-notes with these mantra. I put them on my monitor at work, my microwave at home, my dashboard, my laptop, you name it. Seeing them all the time reminds me to do More Action so I can continue to Push It and eventually DELIVER.

Recently, I’ve been reading motivational articles by Steve Pavlina. This guy is pretty remarkable (he finished two undergrad degrees in just three semesters!). Now he spouts wisdom about getting what you want out of life. I epically like some of his concepts outlined in these articles:

Overwhelming Force
Cultivating Burning Desire
The Power of Clarity

He makes some very good points about how setting goals and then making very strong and directed actions to accomplish those goals. From reading his stuff I’m getting a big surge of can-do attitude and am eager to try to tackle some goals I’ve been putting off for a while!

I fell like this should be known to everyone by now, but every once in a while I see an otherwise clever person looking at internet ads! I hate to tell you guys… that’s sooooo 2005.

In fact, I haven’t seen an internet ad in years. Who do I thank? Adblock Plus. This is a Firefox plugin, so if you’re using Firefox (which you should be)… you can be ad-free just moments after clicking here (to get Adblock) and then here (to get the set of filters).

I have officially banished Adobe’s “Acrobat” line from my computer. I’ve never really liked Acrobat reader (it always loads slow), but version 8 pushed me over the edge. It was so slow that it was making me crazy… even after it loaded! Also, Adobe has that whole annoying “you should pay for me” attitude for their pdf writer software. Puh-leese! That was so 90’s…

So I did a little online research and have found a new suite of pdf tools that I love…

• Foxit Reader
• CutePDF Writer

These two together accomplish everything I need (for free) and they are both super-fast. What could be better?

As much as I like to be distracted… sometimes it’s necessary to get. things. done. When that time comes it has always been a battle for me. Well, no longer my friends! I discovered a technological tool that has been around for a long, long time.You guessed it, ear plugs! Now I had seen these before, even used them on airplanes, or for sleeping though construction. Now in these cases, ear plugs don’t work. You can still hear the hammers, and you can still hear the airplane engines… What I didn’t realize is that you *can not* hear your lab-mates talking behind you.It is incredible how well this works. I actually was about to take my earplugs out because I thought everyone talking in my office had left. Just before I did, I turned around and, to my great surprise! Everyone was still there just jib-jabbin’ away. It was completely silent to me and I continued my much-needed productivity.

Also, people tend not to bug you for unnecessary stuff if you’ve got little orange guys sticking out of your ears!