Obsession #6: Inspiring the innovators of tomorrow

I happened to end up at a meeting with the swedish minster of IT in March and when asked I spoke my mind - all children ought to learn programming - just like any other second language or creative subject taught in school. Programming is a way of thinking. Programming is a way to learn how others understand things (computers are the dumbest pupils). Programming is a way to create things. The response I got was meek. So I felt that I had to try for myself. So - I gathered a bunch of entrepreneurs in Malmö and we created Mixtra (Facebook, "internal" Tumblr, Youtube) and went to six schools and talked about programming and entrepreneurship and let kids aged 4 to 15 try programming. We got wonderful responses and had a great time.

For a kindergarten class of four year olds - no programming but tinkering (more info on clay here):

For 100+ seven and eight graders (14 and 15 years old):

Most pupils said they liked it (no input from last school of 110 students or kindergarten class of 10 children):

Period: 2012-04 to 2012-08

Twins = sleep craving

We got twins October 2011 so the main obsession was to get sleep... :)

Period: October 2011 - March 2012 (when things got a bit better)

Obsession #5: Donations by speaking

I did a lot of speaking at conferences and started to get a lot of interest to come and talk at companies and events. I felt I needed some kind of "threshold" to make sure they really were serious, but I didn't feel that I wanted money. So - I realized that I could require of them to donate money for a good cause instead. It wasn't all smiles as it was not trivial for them to set-up (and all asked me to invoice and that I could donate), but eventually all accepted it. So far I have done 15 speeches, averaging close to 11000 SEK (+ four columns at about 1000 a piece).

Period: 2010-06 to 2012-05 (not saying it is over, but it felt like the "obsession" is)

Obsession attempt: Modal focus

To not spend too much time by my computer I started subscribing to three serious and rather wordy magazines - Monocle, Fast Company, and (swedish) Filter. The rule was - when it lands in the mail I can read articles online (I can do mail) - until I had enjoyfully finished the magazine. It worked for less than two months. I did read Filter, most of Monocle (but paused to read news online) and didn't even have time to open Fast Co... Fail.

Obsession attempt: Bikram Yoga

Tried Bikram Yoga four times. Loved the "we survived"-feeling of shared experience, but didn't feel too good to sweat liters and just fill up with new water... So - no obsession.

Obsession #4: Barefoot running

I hurt my knee at an earlier (undocumented) obsession attempt of just running. And since that day I felt that even though I though I would hate running (as there was no stimuli) I actually liked it. And I tried again and again, and even if I used to run 20+ km I wasn't able to do 3 km before it started to hurt... And one day I started to read a book - Born to Run. The book started with a story that sounded like mine - that the author hurt himself and wanted to get out in the track again. And he found barefoot running. I felt: Obsession Time!

So I went and bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers - and started running. 

Excruciating pain in my calves told me that I wasn't use to run that way - BUT - I had no pain in my knees and the pain in my calves (even if it was burning and intense) passed after a day or two - and felt more "natural". (And yes, I started a bit too intense.) Then I read & watched everything I could find - some good video clips (Nature Magazine,  Terra Plana, TED) and an OK book (The Barefoot Running Book - main takeaway: run with a big necklace or key strap and run so that it does not bounce).

Of course I tracked my progress and I can happily say that I ran 10-20% faster and was without injuries. And realised that you can run barefoot in any weather and climate - I did -15C Canada, -2 slushy snow covered Sweden, -10 two meters of snow Sweden, +25 spanish beach - and any surface - snow, beach, grass, and my old enemy concrete too. No injuries.

I kept running and I think I will for as long as I enjoy it. Even when the obsession resides.

Obsession #3: Mindfullness

During xmas of 2009/2010 when I my stepparents I didn't bring my sourdough and as I broke the chain the habit died. So when I got home I threw out the sourdough base.

I started doing research on what to get obsessed about and stumbled on a great talk by David Rock at Google. That made me think that this thing Mindfullness might be interesting to silence all the buzzing thoughts in my head and get some focus. But how? Rock pretty much only said that I should do it.

I found this Swedish (actually it is a Dane speaking in Swedish with danish accent) recording from a yoga institute. It was very hard for me, but I gave it 10 minutes practice every day for a week. And it felt good just to try.

Of course I Googled mindfullness and looked at stuff I found on YouTube, but a lot was just telling me to try it - like this good talk by John Kabat-Zinn, also at Google. A friend of mine recommended a lot of things and one thing, Erich Schiffmann's dry texas voice worked. I found an iPhone app and also a as mp3 tracks. I spent almost every evening doing at least one Schiffmann exercise. After two weeks of this I got skilled enough at being mindful so that I could bike and just bike. When I left my son at kindergarten I heard the bell chime inside my head and biked to worked. As soon as I got off my bike and stopped the mindfullness I felt how relaxed and at the same focused I had been.

I also tried swedish Ola Schenström and found that to add yet another angle.

I really liked mindfullness, and I learned a lot. I'll write that another day when I feel less mindful.