The Open Road is a book by Pico Iyer about the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Iyer is a non-Buddhist journalist who has covered Tibet for publications like Time, The New Yorker and The New York Times for over 20 years, and has known the Dalai Lama for over 30. Perhaps because of this unique combination, he’s able to give us an intimate yet critical look into the Dalai Lama’s life.

I deeply enjoyed this book. I didn’t know much about the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism or the recent history of Tibet before reading it, and The Open Road opened my eyes (pardon the pun) to the three topics. Iyer combines power and poetry in his writing; he has the ability to lay bare the realities behind the myths while never losing respect for his subject.

It’s not an easy task, especially when Iyer doesn’t shy away from the multiple paradoxes in the story. For example: How can the Dalai Lama encourage non-violence while his own country is being ravaged by violence? How can the Dalai Lama stress reason over faith while his entire existence owes thanks to prophecy? He contrasts how many want to see Tibet as Shangri-La – an otherworldly heaven on Earth – with Tibet’s bloody history – when the Fourteenth Dalai Lama was a small boy, civil war erupted and the monks of one of the great monasteries killed more than two hundred people.

An Intimate Portrait of a Singular Life

When Iyer writes about the Dalai Lama, you feel as if you’re in the same room with him. It is as close a window into the Dalai Lama’s life as most of us will be able to get, and Iyer manages to give you a strong sense of the humanity behind the legend.

The book is a revealing portrait of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of his people who describes himself as “a simple Buddhist monk.” Iyer reveals the simple human being behind a man many have called “a living Buddha” and the day-to-day struggles he has to go through, not least because many people see him as “a living Buddha.” Between uncovering the Dalai Lama’s life and the Tibet question, Iyer manages to cover vast areas of territory, cutting across science, politics, religion, media, philosophy and Buddhism in an always entertaining book.

The Open Road is many things. It is a close-up account of Tibet’s recent history and the changes that have been wrought upon it. It is a behind-the-scenes look into the life of a singular individual. But most of all it is a wonderfully written book.

1. Anger is the Ultimate Destroyer
2. Facing Violence by Rory Miller

Since I got my first iPhone three years ago, I’ve used iXpenseIt to keep track of where my money goes. iXpenseIt is a personal finance app that lets you input and save your daily expenditures, helping you to see just how much you’ve spent on what over time.

iXpenseIt is a great app, with a lot of functionality, but there were always bits about it I didn’t like. Ever the geek, I kept my eye out for other personal finance apps, but none caught my eye until Saver. I’ve been using Saver for the past month, and since then I’ve deleted iXpenseIt off my iPhone.

Like the comparison between Things & Omnifocus, iXpenseIt and Saver sit on opposite ends of the spectrum. iXpenseIt is complex but powerful, Saver is simple but easy to use. But whereas I chose complexity over simplicity in the case of Things and Omnifocus, I chose simplicity over complexity in the case of iXpenseIt and Saver.

Using Saver is just easier. It feels like Saver’s designer has put more thought into making the app as frictionless as possible. To enter a ‘Food’ entry for a lunch of $5, for example, takes six steps in Saver, but takes eight steps in iXpenseIt. Two extra steps may not sound like a lot, but add that up over the multiple times you’re using the app in a day, and that’s a good number of steps you shave off.

The second reason ties in with the first, and it’s that Saver is just so much more visually polished. It’s a visual delight to use, something that iXpenseIt never was.

Saver's entry screen (left) and iXpenseIt's (right).

When I first installed iXpenseIt, I figured the confusing app icon and silly expenditure icons were birthing oversights which would be overcome, but they never were. Instead, the app icon got more and more confusing over the years – if you took a look at iXpenseIt’s icon (the icon on the right in the opening graphic) without being told what it was, could you have guessed what the app does? In contrast, Saver’s icon makes it obvious what the app is about.

In general, iXpenseIt feels like an app made by engineers, while Saver feels like an app made by designers. I appreciate iXpenseIt‘s flexibility, but I’d always hoped that they’d overhaul the fit and finish of their app, and they never did. Saver, while not as complex, does just enough to satisfy my needs in a more pleasant way, so it gets my vote.

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I used to be a Things man, until I got an iPad and wanted a to-do app that could sync between it and my iPhone. That’s when I switched to Omnifocus, and I haven’t looked back since.

This isn’t a Things versus Omnifocus review – those have been done long in breadth by writers better versed than I – this is a broad impression of  both apps and why I’ve chosen one over the other.

Getting Things Done in Same but Different Ways

Things and Omnifocus are both iOS apps built upon the Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity system created by David Allen. But the two apps present the same principles in different ways; Things is slim and elegant, while OmniFocus is full-bodied and muscular.

Things is simpler, and strikes me as an app that anyone can use and pick up as a to-do app, even if they don’t know about or use GTD. OmniFocus sticks more rigidly to GTD, which makes it more difficult for non-GTD practitioners to use, but which makes it a better fit for GTD-ers.

Elegance vs. Power

OmniFocus requires a steeper learning curve but offers more flexibility and power with the corresponding complexity. This isn’t to say that using OmniFocus is a daunting task, indeed I’d say that the Omni Group has found a balance between complexity, power and ease of use with OmniFocus’ design for the iPhone and iPad.

Things is elegant and easier to use from the start, but it doesn’t has the flexibility that OmniFocus possesses. Generally, adding a task requires less work in Things, but tasks are better sorted in OmniFocus.

For example, the due date setting in Things is limited to date only, so that the task shows up during the entire day in the Today list. Due dates in OmniFocus however, let you input specific times for when the task is due. It sounds like a little thing, but helps when I have a list of things to do during and after work, and I don’t want the after work tasks to show up during my workday when I can’t act on them.

OmniFocus has its drawbacks as well; Things is beautiful in a way that OmniFocus is not, and I miss the lack of a dedicated Someday/Maybe space, which is a part of the GTD process and present in Things.

Sync Seals the Deal

While I enjoy Things’ elegance, OmniFocus’ ability to sync over the air seals the deal for me. OmniFocus syncs your to-do lists with their servers, so what I do on my iPhone OmniFocus app is automagically mirrored when I open my iPad OmniFocus app. Despite having switched devices, it’s as if I never left.

At the moment, you can only sync Things through Wi-Fi when your devices are on the same network. Things Cloud Sync is currently in beta and open via invite only.

Why Pay $19.99 for an iPhone App?

Neither Things nor OmniFocus are cheap apps, but Things is more affordable than OmniFocus. Things for iPhone costs US$9.99, while Things for iPad costs US$19.99. In contrast, Omnifocus for iPhone costs US$19.99, and the iPad version costs US$39.99. Both Things and OmniFocus have Mac versions which cost US$49.99 and US$79.99 respectively. A full suite of Things will cost you nearly US$80, while the OmniFocus suite will cost you near US$140.

So why pay so much for a to-do app?

I can’t answer for you, but the answer is easy for me: My memory sucks. I often remember things to do only to forget them moments later. So I need a dependable device to offload what’s in my head into. Omnifocus does that for me, and it keeps me productive by helping me remember what I need to do, when I need to do it.

To borrow from the famous photography quote which says ‘the best camera is the one that’s with you’; the best information capture tool is the way that’s with you and my iPhone is always with me. I’ll admit that OmniFocus for the iPad was an extravagant buy on my part, but I enjoy reviewing my tasks using the iPad’s larger screen – it’s as if seeing more of the screen helps me see the larger view.

One app winning a place on my iPhone doesn’t mean the other app has lost. After using the two apps for some time; two years with Things for iPhone, half a year with OmniFocus for iPhone & iPad, I still enjoy the both of them – they’re just tools with diverse emphasis.

1. Saver & iXpenseIt
2. Things Which Take Up Space

Do you believe that there is an inherent purpose to your life? I don’t believe that we’re given a life purpose at birth, but I do appreciate the focus that even a consciously created life purpose can provide.

I was feeling a little burnt out a few weeks ago, and came across Steve Pavlina’s review of the book Life On Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life by Brad Swift. The review sounded interesting, and I felt like I could use the clarity, so I hunted the book down (only copy remaining!) at a local bookstore.

I had a week of leave this week and decided to spend most of it working through the book. (Turns out powering through the book may not be the best way to go through the material, as Brad advises the reader to take some time in between some exercises for thought and reflection.) Did the book deliver on its promise, to “take a major shortcut on the road to clarifying your true purpose” and “infuse the inspiration of purpose into every aspect of your life”? Yes, but not in the way I expected.

Inherited Purpose vs. True Purpose

I appreciate the distinction that Brad makes between an inherited purpose and true purpose. Your inherited purpose is the purpose full of ‘shoulds’, all the things you think you should do instead of what you want to do, and is driven by fear.

Going through the exercises, I could see in my own life how my inherited purpose has driven me to play small, stay safe and not rock the boat, making sure I didn’t shine by telling me I didn’t deserve the attention or to be better than others.

If what my fears had driven me to do in the past didn’t reflect my true purpose, then what could my true purpose be?

Creating a Life on Purpose

I like how Brad says you don’t have to do hours of soul-searching for your purpose. Instead, you can consciously create an aspirational purpose, to drive you to be the best person you want to be driven by your own values and goals.

When I discovered – or rather, part unearthed and part created my life purpose, I felt rather surprised. It felt right, as if this passage summed up how I’d always wanted to live life. But I was also surprised that my life purpose didn’t give me much clarity on what I should do with my life, and this is a critical and welcome distinction in Brad’s Life on Purpose process.

Brad maintains that life purpose is not about something you do; not some role you play or some job you have, that the things we do aren’t what define our purpose, but are expressions of our purpose. Our purpose isn’t what we do; it is what shapes what we do. Purpose is not in the what but the why, not in the doing but in the being.

I also appreciate how Brad says that a life purpose doesn’t stay static. As we evolve, so will our life purpose. I also like how he teaches that as a statement, a life purpose is all but useless until it’s expressed through action, and he gives tools in the books to help with that.

Is Life on Purpose for You?

Do I recommend the book? It’s a little new-agey for me in some parts, with dubiously fluffy statements. But overall I found Brad’s approach to be solid, and pragmatic even (as pragmatic as you could get with an intangible construct as a life purpose). I haven’t done this kind of inner work – sharpening the saw – for some time, and enjoyed learning more about myself, both good and bad, through the exercises in the book. If you’re looking for more clarity of being in your life, than Life On Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life is recommended.

My Life Purpose

Curious about what my life purpose is?

A life on purpose is one of fulfillment through growth and appreciation. It is a life of artistic expression and courageous exploration, inspired by love, wisdom and honor.

Like Brad teaches though, knowing your life purpose is just step one. I’ve still got more work to do on living on purpose.

1. Purpose is an Attitude
2. Announcing Project Monk
3. Yoga, PDR & Resisting Resistance

A sign of a good book is how much it changes you. In 2008, when I read Rory Miller’s first book Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence, it evolved the way I looked at martial arts and self-defense training so much that despite having trained in the martial arts for 15 years, I completely changed how I trained and what I trained in.

So I was definitely looking forward to Rory’s new book, Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected, and seeing what more I could learn from the jiujitsu-trained ex-corrections officer. Having read it, my first impressions are how Facing Violence differs from Meditations on Violence; Meditations was focused on showing the differences between martial arts training and real-world violence. Facing Violence explains how to train for that violence.

Note: Quotes in the post are from Facing Violence.

7

The book is laid out into seven main chapters (hence, Rory’s original title ‘7’), addressing the seven elements needed for complete self-defense training:

1. Legal and Ethical
2. Violence Dynamics
3. Avoidance
4. Counter-Ambush
5. The Freeze
6. The Fight
7. After

The seven chapters provide a solid framework for, as the cover subtitle says; “preparing for the unexpected – ethically, emotionally, physically and without going to prison.” Important goals which you think ought to be covered in most martial arts or self-defense training, but which may very well be missing.

Most self-defense training, especially martial arts adapted for self-defense, suffers from the same problem. Most of what is taught is not wrong, but it is incomplete.

There’s lots of good information covered in the seven chapters; including why it’s important to know self-defense law so you don’t train to go to prison, the difference between social and asocial violence, recognizing the pre-cues to a violent encounter, how to increase awareness and avoid violent situations, the elements for successful counter-ambush, the differences between fight training and an actual fight, and how to deal with the aftermath of a violent encounter.

Who Facing Violence is For

The book comes in useful, I think, for two groups of people. The first group are people who want to learn how to defend themselves, but have no clue how they should start and what they should learn. Facing Violence presents a frame for them to build on, with pointers on what these basic building blocks entail. It also helps to act as a shopping guide for self-defense lessons. Does the class you’re looking at cover these seven elements?

The second group is for people who are already practicing self-defense or martial arts. It helps them analyze where the holes in their training are and where they need to fill in the gaps. For example, are you great on the fight (sixth element) but not proficient on local self-defense laws (first element)? Get reading.

If you decided that training scenarios with respect to the law would pollute your pure and ancient art, you might be looking at manslaughter and prison time.

The one caveat is that Facing Violence provides a broad overview with good arching principles, but less on specific details and techniques. Rory explains that writing more than an introduction to each of the seven elements wouldn’t have fit in a single book – and it’s true, each chapter’s subject could have been expanded to a book in themselves. The book provides the overview, the specific homework is your own. Still, there’s so much packed in the book already it’s worth several readings for the material to sink in.

Avoidance, Training & the Aftermath

Like Meditations, Rory opens my eyes and makes me think with Facing Violence. The world of violence isn’t one I’m familiar with, and I aim to keep it that way, which is why the chapter on avoidance; how to scan for danger and de-escalate a situation before it becomes nasty, was especially interesting to me.

Rory already went into the ambush and the freeze in Meditations, and those were two missing pieces in my own self-defense training which inspired me to start training in Tony Blauer’s SPEAR system. I still got a lot out of the chapter on the fight, making me think about points I need to work on in my training. Reading the chapter on the ugly aftermath of a violent encounter was enough to put any fantasies of testing my fighting skills in the real world to rest.

There are a lot of differences between the Threat or Threats that you will face in an assault and the partners you train with. First and foremost, Threats are not your friends. You care about the people you train with and they care about you. A Threat does not care if you make it to class next week or not.

What I missed from reading Facing Violence is that there’s less of Rory than in Meditations. Not that it’s a bad thing, but I enjoyed reading Rory’s, well, meditations in Meditations on Violence, which let me a little into the author’s world. Facing Violence is written more like a textbook, with a emphasis on the teaching material rather than the author’s personal experiences and thoughts.

To sum up, if you’re a practicing martial artist who wants to understand the difference between martial arts training and real-world violence, read Meditations first for the distinction and then read Facing Violence for the specifics of how to prepare for that violence. If you’re someone who wants to learn the general principles of what a complete self-defense course should cover and isn’t a martial artist, read Facing Violence directly.

Of course, both are highly recommended.

1. Martial Arts is Dealing with Self-Defense Failure
2. Self-Defense: Fighting Under Stress
3. A Question about Psychological Self-Defense

As a photographer, it’s both inspiring and maddening to see a beautiful photograph and wonder just how the photographer did it. I mean, there are photographs that are really good, with excellent composition and beautiful light. And then there are photos that transcend the really good; you don’t just appreciate them with your eyes alone but respond to them with your heart. Those are the photographs I wanted to learn how to take.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a single book that talked about that. There were a lot of books about composition, technique and gear – which were great, but nothing about how to distill moments of feeling into a single frame.

Until I found Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision by David duChemin. To be honest, I’ve wanted to write about this book for the longest time, but I kept putting it off because I have no idea how to summarize a book which I’ve learned so much from. In the end, I think the best way for me to put it is to put it bluntly; this book changed my game.

It helped me move up from taking photos like these of Japan in 2008:

To photos like these in 2009:

I’m not sure if the difference is as obvious to you, but it sure is to me. Without having read Within the Frame just before I left for Japan in 2009, I couldn’t have improved as much as I did. I’m pretty sure of that, as I purposely set out to apply what I’d learned from the book.

duChemin is probably best known now as the “gear is good, vision is better” guy, and he lays out that idea in Within the Frame. It doesn’t read so much as a “how to shoot” book as a “how to think about what you shoot” book. How do you shoot what moves you? How do you use universal themes and conflict to tell a story within a frame? How do you shoot people, places and cultures in ways that are specifically your own?

In short, Within the Frame is a gem. I didn’t just learn how to tell stories within a frame – to make a photograph not of something but about something – but also how to sharpen, express and chase a personal photographic vision. Highly recommended.

Note: David duChemin has two sequels to Within the Frame; VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography, which I’m reading now, and Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, which was just published and I’m eagerly waiting for. He also runs an insightful blog and an ebook store Craft & Vision, which sells great photography ebooks at very low prices.

1. The 3 Decluttering Boxes

Suppose somebody wants to make a movie about you. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Except what happens when you realize your life’s so boring it makes for a pretty bad movie? A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life is the true story of how that happens to best-selling author Donald Miller, and what he does to re-write his life into a better story.

Miller is a beautiful writer. The first few chapters had me thinking he was a little whimsical, but his poetry builds into a tour de force deeper into the book. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is a story about stories; what stories are, how they affect us, how we all live stories, how to live a better story, and how better life stories make for better characters. With raw honesty and wit, he tells us the story of his own journey to create a story-worthy life, using the principles of good story-telling to guide him.

Story-telling is real, it’s not a new 7-step product cooked up to making someone rich. The story of story is as old as mankind. We all tell stories. We make sense of our world through story. I’m a writer. I’ve read the classics on story-writing, plot-building and act structure. I never expected someone to weave the elements of story-writing into a book that teaches them to you, while showing you how the author used them to live a better life at the same time, and have it be beautifully written.

And make you think too – Miller’s made me think, really think, about the story of my own life while reading his book. I love how human the story is; Miller’s no superman, he gets things right and gets things wrong too, but manages to find beauty in all of it. It’s not a book that’s all light and glory, he writes about death and suffering also. It helps me relate, and I find the realness inspiring.

To be sure, the book goes into the subject of God and Christianity a fair bit, and that might or might not be your thing. I’m not a Christian, but I was fine with it; the revelations were lovely and relevant all the same.

I loved reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. If you want a book that teaches, inspires and challenges you, skip the next self-help book and read this instead.

1. A Meaningful Story & A Meaningful Life
2. Facing Violence by Rory Miller
3. Within the Frame by David duChemin

My favorite blogs of 2009; the signals amongst the noise that taught me new things, made me think different, and made me want to write better.

43 Folders

To me, Merlin Mann is the sanest voice in all of productivity blogging (well, most times). He pointed out that if you’re spending a lot of time reading productivity blogs about how to be more productive, you really just need to get your ass back to work. Amen. I love this man’s honesty and the way he writes; funny, conversational and chocked full of thought.

Try Real Advice Hurts, The Problem with “Feeling Creative”, and NaNoWriMo: A Pep Talk and a Warning. If you have 37 minutes and 22 seconds, watch Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now). Long, but awesome.

Chiron

Rory Miller wrote the excellent Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence and Chiron is his personal blog. It’s not always an easy read, he writes about aspects of violence and psychology that I think most of us living in cosy, peaceful lives don’t want to know about. But it’s real, and it opens my eyes. He recently wrote that “Chiron isn’t about growing readership and I’m not writing for you. We all know that.” I love that. Ironically, I think that commitment to honesty on his part is what drives people to read his blog anyway.

Try Teaching for Chaos, Glitches and Denial, All In, Through the Looking Class and Caveat Lector (Four-Way Breakdown for martial artists).

Gaping Void

For a while there, I thought Hugh had lost it – a lot of his posts early in the year seemed to be all about selling his prints. Not a bad thing mind you, I’m happy to see him doing well, but I missed his kick-ass cartoons and writing. I shouldn’t have worried, because he’s back in full-force, and remains in my must-read list.

Try “Evil plans” are not products. “Evil plans” are gifts, “Fight like hell. This is it.” and More thoughts on “evil plans”. If you like his work, grab a copy of his book Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity (my review here).

Rands in Repose

Whenever I read something that Rands wrote I feel inspired, because I want to write like him, and depressed, because I don’t write like him. His reflections on the tech life are spot on (you really need to read The Nerd Handbook if you own one), but he also writes on varied topics like management, work life and creativity.

Try The Makers of Things, Up to Nothing and The Art of the Tweet.

Personal Development for Smart People

Which list about favorite blogs from any self-respecting (even semi) personal growth blog wouldn’t include The Steve? He’s become the poster child for personal development blogging mad success. Sure, some of his stuff is a little too new age-y for me, but you know what? He’s honest, original, and I learn from him. Compared to a lot of other personal growth bloggers, Steve’s operating on a whole different level, and I still look forward to his new posts.

Try How to Make Lots of Money During a Recession, How to Be a Man and Creating Abundance (video).

Pixelated Image

David duChemin wrote Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision, a book I love lots and credit for raising my game when I went shooting photographs in Tokyo this past autumn. His blog is full of real-world, practical and inspirational advice from someone who’s gone from bankruptcy to commercial success, great not just for photographers, but for anyone living the creative life. His blog isn’t new, but it’s my favorite find of 2009.

Try Credit Where Credit is Due. Or Not, Woulda – Shoulda – Coulda? and Just?

The Blog that Ate Mind Chatter

Bill Harris’ blog posts are really long, but worth reading all the way through. Less the motivational-type posts about how to succeed, make millions and triple your sex life, The Blog that Ate Mind Chatter deals with bigger questions like the meaning of life, and how to navigate sanely through this one limited life from a larger spiritual perspective that’s very Buddhist (the philosophy, not the religion).

Try News Flash: There’s No Escape, It’s All about Awareness and Where are you going? And Why? (Pretending like crazy that what you’re doing really matters.)

Updated: Included Bill Harris’ The Blog that Ate Mind Chatter in the list.

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