Donald Trump recently proposed a space force. Some people think it's a farce and some say "what took us so long?"  Personally, I think it is inevitable and will likely be the amalgam of several ongoing (but disjointed) projects and initiatives.  Live long and prosper!

What do you think?

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links

• 5 Recommended Summer Books that Bill Gates Thinks You Should Read. (Inc)
• Ginni Rometty: It Should Be Augmented Intelligence, Not Artificial. (ValueWalk)
• Female Velvet Ants are So Scary No Other Animal Dares Eat Them. (NewScientist)
• Trump Calls for Space Force' in Major Military Revamp. (Wall Street Journal)
• There Really is a Secret Club in Washington Whose Members Run America. (WSJ)

 

Imagine being 25 and having reached what most would consider the pinnacle of their profession. 

Sébastien Toutant is 25 and has multiple medals from the toughest competitions in snowboarding. He received two golds at the X-Games in 2011 and 2013 and just won a gold medal at the most recent Winter Olympics. 

It makes you wonder how you reach those heights and how you keep the passion once you've reached them. 

I met Sébastien while leaving an F1 race in Montréal. I had a chance to talk to him about what makes him tick and where he sees himself going from here.

Check it out.

  

There are multiple factors at work in high performance and in keeping yourself passionate and motivated. 

1. Find Your Unique Ability

"Snowboarding is my passion. I was doing it every day … Over time, It's my job, but it's still my passion. Every time I strap in on my board, I love it. You have to balance it. You have to keep the fun alive." 

Unique Ability is where there's superior skill and it gives you energy, instead of taking energy. When you have to grind every day to become the best, and it's taking energy away from you, you're not going to stick with it. 

When it lights you up, there's no limit to the hours or years you can commit to it. 

2. Maintain Good Habits and Build New Skills 

"Keep Snowboarding. Keep Training. Keep Trying New Tricks.  The sport is moving so much, so you always have to improve your riding and invent new tricks. Push the sport to the next level." 

Success is a war of attrition. You gain it every day through consistent habits and hard work. It's easy to talk the talk, but it's harder to set yourself up for success. Structure your life, and your environment in a way that makes success the default.

3. Stay Focused on the Future

"You have to make sacrifices to make it there. But it's worth it."

At my office, we practice the idea of "Measure Backwards, Plan Forwards". 

To us that means it's important to take time to appreciate how far you've come, yet, it's also important to stay focused on what you can still accomplish. 

Your edge is decaying faster than ever before. Competition is growing not just from your competitors but from technology as well.  Stay focused on next. 

By the way, there is one other lesson this encounter reminded me about … opportunity is all around you, waiting for you to notice and act!  It would have been easy for me to filter out the "kid" standing behind me in a line after an event.  Luck favors the prepared.  Stay focused on what you want and keep your eyes, ears, and mind open for ways to get it!

Onwards!

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links

• How to Succeed in High-Stress Situations. (Tim)
• This 95-Year Stanford Study Reveals 1 Secret to Living a Longer, More Fulfilling Life. (Inc)
• Robots Behaving Badly. (DataScienceCentral)
• Very Stable Genius Delivers Thousands of Flamethrowers to Adoring Fans. (BGR)
• Scientists Just Ranked All 50 States by Life Expectancy. the Results are Truly Stunning. (Inc)

It seems like more and more of my peers have found paths to their success in the unconventional routes. The zeitgeist is shifting away from traditional education and it has many people doubting the need for a secondary degree. 

Ultimately, many of my peers would argue that traditional education methods currently prioritize memorization and performance on standardized tests degree functional real-world knowledge that helps you make and keep a living. 

You'd expect a valedictorian to disagree or defend his education, but this 2016 Valedictorian went a different route. 

His speech starts:

"As much as I would like to say that I was chosen because of my hard work, dedication, and intellect … I would be far from truthful in doing so, as I have met and studied alongside individuals more diligent and talented than myself in the past 4 years.

 

Here is the full speech:

 

 

Unfortunately, today, the climb towards the upper quartiles of education is more like playing a game than striving to learn, and lower quartile students have very little reason to apply and better themselves. For teachers, funding is based on grades and standardized tests, which encourages rote memorization. For students, success is meeting or exceeding minimum standards.

I loved my college experience and felt I learned a lot, but did I learn because of the educational system or because I'm someone who is passionate about learning?

In the past, universities were the only path to knowledge, but online educational methods like Youtube, Udemy, Coursera, etc. make information and education accessible to everyone.

Degrees aren't as helpful in obtaining jobs and they're not the only path to being successful or educated … so what role do they play?

Personally, I still believe a College degree is valuable – especially as you talk about B.S. and graduate degrees. I also feel it's less of a necessity, today, than ever before. I don't doubt the value of education as an ideal – and think everyone would benefit from being more educated – but there's a difference between "education" and "an education."

What do you think it would take to increase the value of "an education" both to students and to the workforce?

Howmuch gathered data from the Occupational Employment Statistics Survey and compiled it into a list of iconic jobs per state. It also tells you the average pay for that position and what percentage of those jobs that state holds. Their analysis uses something called the location quotient to capture how common something is in a given location.

For example – 50% of jobs in Texas aren't Petroleum Engineers, but Texas does contain over 50% of America's Petroleum Engineers.  

via HowMuch

New Jersey's iconic job is Shampooer ($19,440) … kinda sad. Hopefully, your state's iconic job was better.