Just keep shipping ~ a secret of creative and productive people

"The reason I've managed a modicum of success is because I just keep shipping." ~ Seth Godin in 99% Conference, 200804

In a broader context, "shipping" here means creating and sending stuff out. You "ship" when you deliver something.

The definition includes when you:

1. transform your consumption of knowledge into productions of designs, prototypes and masterpieces
2. file patents
3. deliver a talk / workshop
4. sell a (beautiful / useful / innovative) product
5. send your creative / fiction / scientific manuscript to publisher(s)
6. perform your (music, singing, dancing) talent into tangible digital pieces
7. release your work to the world 
8. debut your latest artwork in a gallery 
9. startup a company
10. ... and the list goes on.

Those who ship, after perspiring sweats (and sometimes tears and blood), are admirable. A reason is that shipping, as the final act of execution, happens much less than people expect.

For you who pursue creative endeavors, the requirement to ship is even higher than ever.

To ship with high frequency, you know that you have to overcome some of major emotional barriers in your inner rugged landscape.

The barriers are like high hills and mountains when you are trapped in a valley, or strong currents when you have to move toward the opposite direction. The barriers of insecurity, fear (of failure, imperfection, criticism), inertia (due to procrastination or perfectionism) and resistance will always be there. Sometimes, we forget that we can cross over the barriers, because we are occluded by them.

You, however, have learned strategies to cross over the barriers.

You may have heard of the roles of amygdala, an almond-shaped structure found deep on either side of the brain, that evolved in early vertebrates.

Your amgydala is a wonderful ally. It links sensory (mainly visual and auditory) experience with emotional significance.  The emotionally-arousing memories that are formed and stored in amygdala, include those related to fear. For example, if you see a danger approaching, your amygdala learns about the fear stimulus and  mediate the associated fight-or-flight responses.


Undeniably, fear is an emotion essential for the survival of our ancestors and ourselves. However, we also subconsciously experience fear in situations when this emotion is inappropriate and discouraging creativity and productivity.

Now, you may be tempted to quiet your amygdala.

While it is impossible to live without fear, despite the adage of "have no fear", you can choose to embrace your fear wisely.

Prioritize your fear. If you can allow your fear of being unproductive to rule over your fear of criticism or perfectionism, you will ship more often.

♥♥♥

The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can be converted from one form to another, but that it cannot be created or destroyed. Since all energy forms are (in principle) interconvertible, it is highly possible to convert your fear into positive energy. The process can be effortless, for the experienced creative converters.

The next question is how to convert the fear into positive energy.

Remember that our body, plants and animals are made up of molecules of atoms. When we eat plant- or animal-based meals, the chemical energy present in their molecules is converted into thermal motion, known as heat energy. The heat energy in turn catalyzes reactions inside our cells.

In an analogous way, you can convert your fear into positive energy, by carefully internalizing the (right) fear and selecting the optimum catalysts to harvest its energy. Think of inner strength such as self-control, discipline, and openness to constructive feedback.

♥♥♥

In Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (which was rejected many, many times in its shipping attempts to the right publisher), Susan Jeffers highlights that "the initial stages are the most difficult and require the greatest concentration."

Be determined enough to leave the port of your comfort zone.

Ship by the end of the hour, the day, and the week.

A step by a step, even if it is just a tiny one, you weather every rack of internal and external storms and thunders.

Remember to sprinkle and drizzle your journey with a little more courage, passion, perseverance, and patience. You are almost there.

"O Captain! My Captain!"

Be a captain of your ships who just keeps shipping (better and better)!

Many thanks
ServicefromHeart
20140624

Interview: Professor Athene Donald on connecting people and interdisciplinary scientific fields

In 2009, I helped a student-run publication to interview and photograph Professor Dame Athene Donald. When I embark on a (lifelong) project to learn about being creative and transforming our creativity into a reality, I strongly feel that her story of connecting her body of work is inspiring courage and creativity in others.

In her office at the legendary Cavendish Laboratory in West Cambridge, she generously shared her insights (some are applicable to life) and hopes for our future creative generations, especially those who are interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

♥♥♥



In the 800th anniversary year of the University of Cambridge, Professor Athene Donald of the Cavendish Laboratory, has received the 2009 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award. The awards established by the cosmetics company L'Oreal jointly with UNESCO, on the premise that the world needs science ... science needs women, have annually celebrated the achievements of five leading women scientists - one scientist from each continent. Dubbed as the Nobel Prize for Women in Science, the award aims to change the perception of women in science.

Could you please tell us about your scientific contributions which have led to your L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award? 

Athene: "I found this a very difficult question, because I think it's a lot of different thing and it's the sum of all that I do. I have had a career where I have worked in lots of different area, and my strength is making connections between different fields.

I have done lots of works in electron microscopy, developed a technique known as environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) for samples which are traditionally very difficult to look at using an ordinary scanning electron microscope, which works in a vacuum.  If you are looking at wet or biological samples, you have to do a lot of sample preparation first. ESEM allows you to look at biological materials without drying them out and killing them.

We have also been looking at how native proteins stick together. When we deliberately denature proteins, they unfold and start to behave like synthetic polymers (plastics), which formed part of my earlier career. We use the ideas of polymer physics and apply them to biological materials.

By moving from traditional physics to non-traditional areas, you open up a lot of new opportunities. One of the things that I am very proud of is that we used Small Angle X¬–ray scattering to study the starch granule. We developed a structural model for how the starch granules are put together, and at one point this was being taught at Part IB Plant Sciences. I thought it was wonderful to be able to bridge into a different discipline!"

How do you nurture inter-disciplinary collaborations? 

Athene: "Within the university, we have a lot of brilliant people. One of the challenges is finding someone to spend some time talking to you to the point that they understand what you are saying and vice versa. Sitting in committees with different people has helped to find new contacts. It takes time to do inter-disciplinary work. A key thing in my inter-disciplinary work is finding people who you like, who share ways of thinking about the world, and who are prepared to commit the necessary time."

Athene is also the director of a newly-established Physics of Medicine Initiative in the University. She continued, "We try to bring physicists, biologists, and clinicians together. The traditional medical physics discipline is aimed at developing techniques, such as MRI and ultrasound, and to apply them in clinics. That's what I would refer to as Medical Physics, and is not what we are doing.

We intend to take a different set of tools to solve biological problems, for example to use lasers to deform cells in order to distinguish healthy from cancerous cells. This is one step back from the clinic, but will give us a profound insight into what is going on. This is rather different from traditional medical physics. It is harder to find clinicians than scientists, who are willing to share what they need with us."

Her secret is to be constantly innovative.

"I have never stayed working in a single area for very long. I always started working in a new area before I drop one. For me, I have never wanted to know absolutely everything about a very small area. I am much more interested in taking a broad approach. It's risky.

Sometimes I am not always successful, but that way you get new ideas and new challenges. I started researching starch in 1986, it went on for 20 years, and now I am not working on it at all.

Knowing when to stop is important. Now, I am working on proteins, cells, and also photovoltaics. My projects tend to have about a ten-year lifespan. We take a technique, start off in a very simple system, and then make it more complex."

How can we attract more female students to pursue science? 

Athene: "The first challenge is in school. Science is not a very popular subject, it seems hard and people don't know what it can be used for in a career.

The second challenge is not to lose women at the later stages, when you are 25 and upwards. You talk to up and coming female researchers, who ask how can I manage to have a family and an academic career?

You don't necessarily get your permanent position until you are in your 30s. There are too many people out there saying you can't do it.

We need to counter that view, and there are many different ways of achieving your goals. If you want to be an academic scientist, it's very hard work, you probably have to give up other things like much of a social life, but it's not impossible."

How do you combine family and work?

Athene shared, "my family is very important to me. My husband is a mathematician, so we can understand each other’s science up to a point. My husband has been fantastically supportive.

As a woman and a scientist, you really need a supportive partner. My husband actually stopped his career, he became the primary carer. Not every couple will find that solution acceptable, you have to find the right solution for you, and that's going to vary for everyone."

On renewable energy, Athene thinks that we need to do a better job in researching on energy, because the world is going to have problems if scientists can't solve that. If we don't solve the energy crisis, we may end up having to go back to living in something like Victorian-time conditions.

In the next ten years, Athene will continue to use microscopy and microrheology (a non-invasive technique to analyze the visco-elastic properties of complex fluids) for understanding particle diffusion in cellular systems.

At the time of this interview (200902), Athene and her collaborators, Viji Draviam at the Department of Genetics in the University of Cambridge, have just begun a project to make patterns on which to stick cells and to investigate on how the patterns affect cell divisions and the implications in cancer.

You may be interested in their 2013 publication on live imaging of the spindle orientation during cell division (mitosis) to determine the function of LGN - a protein that is critical for spindle positioning.

A final take home message : Athene advised that everyone should know that it’s okay to ask questions. Most people need help.

This piece of advice also reminds me on a Chinese idiom 不耻下问, which literally means No Shame To Question. 

Never feel embarrassed to ask and learn.

♥♥♥

Many thanks
ServicefromHeart
201406

Overcome the shame of imperfection

Have anyone said "shame on you" to you before?

It does not feel good being reproved, even if you have done something wrong.

When we were younger, that someone can be a person of authority, such as parents, teachers, religious leaders or peers. Their words might made a permanent imprint in our mind.

As a grown-up, that someone can also be your inner judge, whom you may NOT aware well. The judge learn the laws through your years of experiences and past interactions with others.

To overcome shame, we must first understand shame and its relationship with guilt.

Could you please tell me the difference between shame and guilt?
In shame, we feel that we are bad.
In guilt, we feel that we have done something bad.

In my perspective, if a child makes a mistake, it is better for him to feel sorry for his inappropriate action than to feel ashamed of himself. What's your view?

In Spiritual Capital, Danah Zohar rated both shame and guilt -7 in a scale of motivation from -8 to +8, which corresponds to negative and positive motivations, emotions and drives that propel our lives and actions.

She defines shame as having no right to be here.

For individuals, both shame and guilt are more discouraging than fear (-4), craving / greed (-3), and anger (-2).

When we experience shame and guilt, it is extremely hard to listen to our inner voices, to be creative and create something out of passion.

There are many forms of shame. An extreme one is the shame of existing. Other forms include the shame of addiction, shame of illness such as cancers and diabetes.

The Confucian virtues include shame. While other Confucian virtues of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, love, harmony, courtesy and integrity appear to be positive motivators, the (lost-in-translation) shame that Confucius referred to is the judgement and the sense of right and wrong.

Sadly, many times we feel ashamed because we are not good enough in our life, work, study, look, sport, and the list goes on. We need more courage to ignore this form of shame -- the shame of imperfection.

To overcome fear (-4) or a sense of being threatened or too vulnerable, one has to first overcome shame and guilt (-7).

"We all have shame. We all have good and bad, dark and light, inside of us. But if we don't come to terms with our shame, our struggles, we start believing that there's something wrong with us -- that we're bad, flawed, not good enough -- and even worse, we start acting on those beliefs. If we want to be fully engaged, to be connected, we have to be vulnerable. In order to be vulnerable, we need to develop resilience to shame." ~ Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown of University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work

Sometimes, we may experience shame because we do not fit in. We do not always fit in to the ideals expected and determined by others (parents, teachers, bosses, society or media).

The good news is we can learn to be aware of the difference between fitting in and belonging, both concepts are often thought as being synonymous but they can be quite different and have significant influences on our choices, emotions and well-beings. Having such an awareness helps us to develop resilience to shame.

Could you please tell me the difference between fitting in and belonging?
To fit in, one assesses a situation and changes to be accepted (by others).
To belong means just be yourself, accept yourself and you will be accepted (by others who really care about you).

"The shaming culture we live in makes it harder than ever to show courage and be vulnerable" but if a person starts overcoming shame, he or she can have a viral effect to people whom he or she influences.

For example, as a big sister I would like my sister to love her healthy body (she used to idealize the very slim figures of models) and as an aunt I would love my niece Michelle to love her hair (ignore some people who said she has too little hair to grow long hair).

Instead of telling them or nagging to love their bodies and looks - the gifts that God and nature have bestowed to them, I choose to be a positive role model, a servant leader by loving my body, look, style and appearance. I am grateful for every cell, organ, part and feature of my face and body.

Let us learn from the nature. The clouds are not perfect yet they are beautiful. It is perfectly okay to be imperfect. No more shame, but more courage to be imperfect.



With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140617

Thank you post to Jen

Dear Jen

I hope you are doing very well.

This week, I attended a talk by a charming professor from Korea, who looks like a slender Korean pop star. She is 45 years old but appears as youthful as 30s.

Professor Ham immediately reminded me on you, Jen! Both Professor Ham and you are highly enthusiastic, confident and knowledgeable.



I would also not forget how Sir went an extra mile to dim the projector by climbing onto the table.  It is an inspiration for delivering service from our most sincere hearts.

Both you and Professor Ham are interested in the molecular mechanism of amyloid-beta in the Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.

Sadly, most people will develop Alzheimer’s, if they live long enough.  But again, this experience beats the other alternative – dying young. 

Of course, everyone wants to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s.  Recently, I learned that just by inheriting a copy of APOE4 allele (alternative form of the gene) on chromosome 19, increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.  About a quarter of people carry an APOE4 allele, that codes for the ApoE4 protein.

The ApoE4 protein strongly promotes the deposition of amyloid-beta in the brain, and ApoE are made by neurons under stress. No matter what happens, let us calm down and be stress-free. Choose and decide on happiness.

In the middle of Professor Ham’s talk, she gave us a quiz. Simply put, she asked a question to reinforce the concepts that she was sharing.

While a student, I have been trained rigorously to find patterns (including similarities) in my study projects. I could not help noticing that both Prof Ham and you have beautiful eyes and long delicate fingers with a ring and polished nails, that both of you use aptly to explain some (difficult) concepts. 

Recalling how we met, it was a serendipitous one for me at the staircase outside the CyberCafe that encircles the pyramid. Thank you for offering your help in the technical details of my projects. You were a God-sent angel to me, then a struggling student.

I must also credit you for introducing me to Andy, from whom I get to know other awesome mentors.

Herein, I express how much I am thankful for your early guidance in my formative years in Cambridge.

Many thanks
ServicefromHeart
20140602

chocolate milk agar pudding with Cheerios

In the early spring 2014, I received a request to prepare two types of desserts for a friend's birthday. The first one is for adults only: Irish cream Baileys tiramisu (an easy recipe here). The second one is for little guests, so it must be children-friendly.

After a brief brainstorming on a MRT train ride, I designed a dessert of chocolate milk agar pudding with Cheerios.



***

Agar has multiple uses, from culinary to scientific ones.

Agar is a gelatinous substance derived from the polysaccharide agarose, which forms the supporting structure in the cell walls of particular algae / seaweed (e.g. Gelidium amansii).

Agar (a Indonesian / Malay word) is also known as:
kanten / 寒天/ かんてん, literally means cold winter in Japan
China grass in India

About a decade ago, I was fortunate to have a brief experience of using agar, as a culture media, to grow some harmless bacteria to express proteins of interest. The particular proteins were then purified prior to subsequent experiments. To prevent the proteins from denaturation (melted) and hence unfunctional, I did the purification in a cold room at 4C! The experience made me appreciate agar even more than ever. Thank you Dr. Tan!

In term of its biochemistry, agarose is a linear polymer made up of the repeating monomeric unit of agarobiose. Agarobiose is a disaccharide made up of D-galactose and 3,6-anhydro-L-galactopyranose.

For culinary uses, agar desserts are relatively easy to prepare: bake-free. Agar is also a less heaty choice of children-friendly snack.



Agar desserts (jellies, puddings, and custards) can be prepared the day or the night before birthday parties, casual parties, Christmas, Easter, Halloween or Valentine's Day or barbeque (BBQ) events. Serve chilled.

An alternative to the animal-derived gelatin, agar is also suitable for our friends and family members who are vegetarians.




Since agar is 80% fiber, it is good for laxative purpose. When our little ones suffer from constipation, I will prepare agar desserts, which are more appealing than medicines.



***

For all of you who love chocolate drinks, including MILO lovers, I lovingly present a recipe of chocolate milk agar pudding with Cheerios.

Servings: 8
Preparation & cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 4-5g agar seaweed powder
♥ 8 tsp glucolin
♥ 2 tsp cocoa powder
♥ 250 ml fresh milk*
♥ 250 ml water
♥ Cheerios O rings, to taste

* If you want a creamier version of the pudding, use 500 ml fresh milk and no water.

Directions:
1. Dissolve agar powder in water & milk.
2. Bring to a boil over low heat & simmer.
3. Stir in glucolin and cocoa powder.
4. While the mixture is hot, pour it onto containers / moulds.
5. Decorate with Cheerios O rings.

Glucolin is suitable for days when we have poor appetite and feel low on energy. When we suffered from diarrhoea, our parents used to feed us glocolin water. Please consume in moderation because an excess intake of sugar can lead to unintentional weight gain.

You can substitute glucolin with sugar. I used glucolin because
1. Glucolin is mainly glucose, but it also comes with calcium and vitamin D3. For every 100g, glucolin has 0.5 g and 500 IU of calcium glycerophosphate and vitamin D3, respectively.
2. It is finer than sugar so it will dissolve faster.
3. I have a tin at home. 





Tips:
♥ Have fun in your kitchen, engage your little ones if they are interested to join in. Mix and match with agar jelly / pudding of similar / contrasting flavors.
♥ Please ensure dissolving agar powder in enough water or other liquid, to minimize the risks of bowel blockage & trouble swallowing. While the packaging of agar powder that I used for this recipe suggests dissolving 10g agar powder in 1 liter water, sometimes I use slightly more liquid.  

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140601