Exam & Concentration Tricks

I used to think that a desk was a desk, and it didn’t matter where I worked or studied as long as I had a good chair and a good desk. But I found myself struggling immensely to study after doing some work, or vice versa, while working at the desk I have in my room. Leading up to my exams this was getting infuriating. I’d do an hour’s work after school, then try and study for a few hours, but just couldn’t concentrate. My mind would keep wandering back to the work I’d been doing, no matter how hard I tried to concentrate.

Someone suggested that I set up another desk in a different room and use it to study, while continuing to use the one in my room for work. I took the advice, willing to try almost anything.

It worked brilliantly.

By physically moving desks and location when I switched from working to studying, I found myself not as distracted and able to concentrate more on whatever I was studying. It seemed weird initially – I didn’t quite understand how the desk I was working at could make such a difference to my concentration. But the results really were great.

I’ve thought about it afterwards, and talked about it with a few people. It seems that the reason why this works so well is because our minds attach a certain activity or task to a physical location. Therefore trying to do a different task from the same location where your mind is trained to do a different activity just doesn’t work well. But by moving locations, your brain can attach the new task to that location, and you won’t be as distracted.

Another problem I was having was that I needed to use my computer for studying, but really didn’t want to have to use it as it’s so easy to be distracted by other websites and applications. I searched Google for a program that could allow me to block certain applications and websites when I’m studying. I discovered an application called Concentrate (http://getconcentrating.com/).

It’s fantastic.

Concentrate lets you create a “task”, and then set “rules” for that task. So, for example, I created the “Study” task. Then for this task, I set rules of blocking all social networking and general distraction websites, and blocked Twitter and Mail applications. Then when I hit “Study”, these rules are applied and you can no longer access any of those websites or applications that you’ve blocked.

You can also set Concentrate to open certain applications for you, or do things like change your computer background. And the best thing about it is that once you’re finished with a task, like studying, Concentrate will return your desktop to the way it was before you began that task, by re-opening applications that it closed when you applied the rules. So it really just removes all the hassle from closing applications etc.

If you think you have enough willpower to avoid clicking on Twitter or Mail while studying, I’d like to see you actually do it. It’s only a few second click – but the number of times you’ll click it while studying will amaze you. Concentrate just removes the temptation.

These two tricks really helped me study for my exams, which ended last week. If you’re doing exams, I hope they help you too! And if you’re a few years past exams, these tricks can help with anything else in life too.

Making Things Interesting

One of my least favourite subjects is biology. It just has no relevance to my interests, and I find all the explanations just painful to remember. In saying that, I’ve done quite well in biology exams. This week I have a biology internal over two full days, which you’d expect to be two horrible days for me. But I’m actually quite enjoying them.

How am I enjoying biology even when it bores me to death? By making it relevant to my interests. And this method applies to any subject and almost everything in life.

For example, this biology internal. We were tasked with coming up with a project to carry out experiments on and then do a report on. There were lots of things that could have bored me to death. But I thought about what I was interested in and wanted to find out, and came up with something that I’d enjoy doing experiments on.

What I came up with was a series of tests to determine the effectiveness of different materials on keeping temperature and heart rate stable over a short run. Those of you who read my blog often will know I absolutely love Icebreaker merino – and so through this experiment, I wanted to see whether Icebreaker really is the best, or if I should be wearing different materials.

We carried out the experiment yesterday, and I’ll be reporting on results on Twitter later today. I’m sure hoping Icebreaker comes out on top, or near it, so I can stay faithful!

My point is that by thinking about all of my interests, and something that I want to discover or prove, I made a boring project very interesting. And you can do this with almost everything in life.

I think there are two types of people who succeed the most in exams. Firstly, there are people who are so insanely motivated to get good grades that they will study huge amounts and remember everything they need to, no matter how much it bores them. Secondly, there are people who are also insanely motivated to get good grades, but not as able to study for huge lengths of time. These people succeed through making boring topics interesting to them.

Just some food for thought. This strategy has worked for me over the past few years, and I’m confident it can work for you too, provided you have clear interests and things that excite you.

The Time Value of Experience

You’ve no doubt heard of the Time Value of Money, a theory that explains how the value of a dollar in your pocket today is more than the value of that dollar if you receive it tomorrow. If you own that dollar right now, you have the opportunity to receive interest on it before tomorrow, which means that the dollar is more valuable to you by the amount of the interest that you receive before tomorrow (and tomorrow can represent any date in the future).

The Time Value of Money theory is the basis of fundamental finance and economics. It explains the core reasoning behind why people act rationally with regard to money and how people make investment decisions. There is no arguing with the importance of this theory in our society.

I propose that there is another theory which is arguably more important than the Time Value of Money. It’s a theory that is relatively obvious, but often forgotten. The theory explains the core reasoning behind how we act, and how we make decisions in life. And because it encompasses much more than money, it’s something that people should be made aware of, so that they don’t forget it.

Let’s call it the Time Value of Experience. It describes how experiences we have are more valuable the earlier that we have them, because those experiences can then be applied to all other parts of our lives in the future. It’s about knowledge and lessons that we’ve learned – so perhaps those terms are interchangeable.

If I make a mistake today – let’s say I screw up a negotiation with someone, or make a bad decision – then the lessons that I’ve learned through this experience are valuable, as they help me to avoid making similar mistakes in the future when perhaps the stakes are higher. By making these mistakes today, that experience is more valuable than if I made the mistake tomorrow because I’ve had a day with which to apply that experience to my life. Later that day, I may have avoided making a similar mistake because I already made the mistake earlier that day.

Therefore, experiences that I have today are more valuable than that same experience tomorrow by the difference of mistakes that I would’ve made before tomorrow if I hadn’t gained that experience today.

Obviously, the Time Value of Experience is not as easy to measure as the Time Value of Money. It’s intangible, and non-numerical. But by being aware of this theory, we can attempt to gain as many experiences as we can, as soon as possible.

This theory explains why many entrepreneurs love making mistakes, and look upon mistakes as a huge achievement. By screwing up, you’ve successfully gained experience and knowledge which you can apply to everything you try in the future.

The Time Value of Experience also helps me to explain the importance and value of my project They Don’t Teach You This In School. If people can pass on their knowledge and experiences through TDTYTIS, then young people can learn from that right now and benefit from it into the future. On the other hand, if the only way for someone to learn something is through personal experience, then society is slowed down because everyone is making mistakes that could be avoided.

I believe everyone should bear in mind the Time Value of Experience. You should try to gain as much experience as you can in whatever it is you do every single day, because that experience is more valuable the sooner you gain it.

My Kindle experience so far leaves something to be desired

I’ve been trying to decide recently whether to stick with physical books, or go to e-readers. It wasn’t that hard to make that decision – I’ve been trying to make my life paperless, and have done quite well so far, so I figured an e-reader would help even more with that goal. Then the harder decision was which e-reader. Kindle, Kobo, Sony…? Each had their advantages and disadvantages, especially to people in New Zealand (Kobo is linked more directly with New Zealand booksellers). But I eventually decided on the Kindle because they have a larger range of books and lower prices, and I liked their design better.

The next decision was which Kindle to get. Amazon had just brought out the new Kindle Touch and normal Kindle. I figured I’d go with the Kindle Touch, but then saw that people were frustrated with the touchscreen, and it wasn’t shipping to New Zealand yet. But I wanted a keyboard to be able to annotate what I read (I annotate a lot), and the normal Kindle didn’t have that. So, that left me with the Kindle keyboard.

But that’s not all. I then had to decide between the WiFi only version and the WiFi plus 3G. I read up on it, and found out that the 3G could be very useful as I could use it as emergency Internet access if I was traveling and couldn’t get WiFi anywhere. Amazon made it seem as though I could access the Internet (Facebook, emails, in basic form) through the experimental browser in any country in the world for free. So, it seemed like that made sense considering it was just less than $100 more for the 3G access.

Finally. Decided on the 3G Kindle Keyboard, and went and got it. But that wasn’t the end of my frustration.

I’m writing this post to say two things. Firstly, to explain my experience. And secondly, to suggest to Amazon that they make the Kindle experience better for international buyers.

So I fired up the Kindle as soon as I got home, and immediately opened up the Kindle Store to search for some books. I’m reading The Godfather, by Mario Puzo, at the moment to take my mind off of studying when I need a break (it does it very successfully). I searched for that – nope, not available on my Kindle. I then searched for The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand, which I’ve been wanting to read ever since reading Atlas Shrugged. Not available. I searched for The Gatekeepers, a book about the US college admission process – not available.

All three of these books were ones that I had searched for on the Amazon website prior to getting the Kindle. They all said they had Kindle versions. But once I get my Kindle, it turns out I can’t get them. Why? Because I live in New Zealand. For whatever reason, they aren’t available on Kindle when you live down here.

Secondly, I found a couple of books that were available. I had seen on the Amazon website that they were either free, or 99cents each. But on my Kindle, they were $2 to $3. Not sure why that is, but I’m guessing it’s because I live down here.

In this whole process of searching for a Kindle and getting it, Amazon never made me aware that some books would not be available to me in New Zealand, or that they would be more expensive. There was specific information they showed me about using Kindle in New Zealand, which said that I would have access to hundreds of thousands of books. I figured it was the same number of books that customers in the US got access to.

One more thing. While I had been made to believe through the Kindle product page on Amazon’s website that I could use the 3G access anywhere in the world, that isn’t the case. I can use the 3G anywhere to search the Kindle Store, but not to use the experimental browser – “Access not available in your country”. Therefore one of the key reasons I opted to get the 3G version doesn’t actually exist anymore.

So, two suggestions to Amazon:

1. Simplify the process of choosing a Kindle. Take lessons from Apple about making customer choice an easy thing. Many potential customers might have given up on getting a Kindle because they couldn’t decide on which model to get.

2. Be open and honest about the experience that international customers are going to have with the Kindle. While you don’t specifically state that international customers will have access to the same books at the same prices (and 3G) as US customers get, it was implied. I felt cheated because you didn’t tell me that before I purchased. If you’d told me, I would have still purchased, but felt better about the whole experience.

The Rise of Ideological Social Networks

Facebook is just a tool. It’s a tool that allows us to communicate with people. In many ways, it tries to stay behind that process. It simply provides us with a platform, but stays as simple and behind-the-scenes as it possibly can. And in many ways that’s one of the key reasons why it’s been successful.

But new social networks being developed aren’t like that. They try and play an active role in their users’ lives. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they get in the way of communication, or take more control – in many ways they take less control than Facebook does. But new social networks are taking a stance, one way or another. In essence, they’re becoming driven by ideology. Perhaps they’re even becoming political.

I spent six weeks working with MyCube in Singapore. MyCube is a social network built around giving users complete control over their data and information, and offering people a way to monetize their content online. It runs according to what MyCube calls its “Charter” – seven principles which will remain so long as the network is running. The Charter is very publicized, and is displayed to new users as one of the reasons they should join. Immediately, we see that there is a form of ideology behind the social network, and some principles to which it adheres to.

That’s very different to Facebook, and I believe it’s the main change occurring in social networks at the moment. I also believe its the only thing that can threaten Facebook’s dominance.

Social networks are becoming a representation of who you are as a person. You follow political parties, brands, celebrities etc on Facebook, and it tells everyone a huge amount about you. But then again, you can follow political parties on both ends of the spectrum just to read their updates. It’s not necessarily that strong a statement about yourself.

With the new breed of social network, the ideology behind it is a fundamental statement about you as a person if you use it. As an example, another new social network which is having significant success at the moment is UnThink (they’ve had 100,000 signups since launch a few weeks ago). Just view UnThink’s homepage, and you’ll know if you fit into its ideology. The large photos of its typical users and the types of things they do are an immediate giveaway. But even more than that, you can view their page of “UnThinkers” to see if you are someone who will fit into the network, or you can read their “Deed” to determine if you also believe in their principles.

UnThink is taking a hugely political standpoint in trying to gain users. And it seems to be working incredibly successfully. Many people organizing the “Occupy” protests about finance worldwide have been using UnThink as a network. The network helps them to make a stronger impression about who they are and what they stand for.

I come back to my blog post about the future of social networks. In it I talked about how there may be more than one dominant social network – and the social network that you use will depend on who you are as a person and how you want to display yourself. I said that your network would also be based on the groups and communities you are a part of in the real world.

I believe in what I wrote in that post now more than ever before. I think that social networks like MyCube, Diaspora, UnThink, and Anybeat are a start of a broader shift to more focussed and idealogical social networks. They’ll never have as many users as Facebook. But they will have far more passionate users, and will gradually take power away from Facebook.

If you take one thing away from this post, it’s this: Facebook is not here forever, and ideology will be the determining factor in new social networks that rival it.

Monetizing Content Despite The Penny Gap

Here’s the problem with monetizing your content: If you offer your stuff (articles, photos, videos, whatever) for free, there is virtually limitless demand capacity. It’s a great thought, right? You could potentially have millions of eyeballs looking at the things you’ve produced. But at the same time, you’re obviously not going to make much money from it. Even if you display adverts with it, there isn’t much revenue that comes from that. But then if you want to actually try and make any money, by selling your content, the demand for it reduces by perhaps a hundred times or more. You’ll soon have no one looking at what you produce.

Why is that? You give your content away for free and you can get huge numbers of viewers. But the moment you charge anything for it, even mere cents, demand for it will be decimated. It doesn’t quite seem logical. After all, virtually everyone can afford a few cents for your brilliant article/photo/video.

The answer is found in a theory pitched by Josh Kopelman, from First Round Capital (a big US-based venture capital firm). He pitches what he calls the “Penny Gap”. In this post I want to explain the penny gap theory, and then talk about how you might go about decreasing the elasticity of demand for your product, which will mean trying to maximise the number of readers or viewers of your content who will become paying viewers when you start charging.

The basis of the penny gap theory is that most people assume a linear demand curve. They expect a straight line right from a price of zero. In other words, people believe that the demand for a good that costs ten cents is a proportional amount less than the demand for the same good at a price of zero.

But that notion is fundamentally flawed. On the surface, it may look correct, but then human nature and perceptions come into play. The demand for a good at a price of one cent will usually be many, many times less than the demand for the same good when it is free. It’s not a linear relationship. Demand may have dropped by tens, or even hundreds of times.

That’s the penny gap. It’s the difference between the demand for a good at price zero and the demand for a good at price one cent. It’s a gap in a demand curve. Below is the chart that Kopelman used in his initial blogpost – all credit to him.

Why does the gap occur? A few reasons. Firstly, there’s the consumer perception of cost. Something that is free is automatically more appealing. Even if something costs one cent (and remember, one cent is just a symbol for any low price), the fact that the thing costs something automatically makes people feel that they may not want it. If you see an article that interests you on a website, and it doesn’t cost you to view it, you’ll likely read it. But if that article costs you say ten cents, you may think it’s simply not worth it.

The other key reason is the friction involved in making a payment. If the content is free, all you need to do is click on the link and view the content. Done. But if it costs, you’ll need to go through a process of making that payment. It will likely involve viewing multiple screens, entering your credit card details and payment information, and then viewing an email for confirmation. That friction will automatically reduce a huge amount of demand.

Now, Kopelman discussed this theory solely with regard to entrepreneurs charging customers for premium versions of their web apps. He talks about how entrepreneurs would come to him with financial models that were fundamentally flawed because they failed to take into account the penny gap.

Here, I want to talk about the penny gap in relation to you selling your content. You may be a private photographer, or a large media organisation, and your content can be anything from an article to a video. I think anyone working on building an online payments system might also find a few of the following points interesting.

The question in all of this if you’re trying to sell content online is “How do I reduce the size of the gap between price points of free and one cent?”. If you can reduce the size of the gap, then your total revenue will increase as you’re charging the same price but more people are purchasing it. Therefore, I want to talk about methods to go about reducing the size of the gap.

There are two key parts to this, and they relate to the reasons that the penny gap occurs, as I wrote about just above. I’ll tackle them each in turn.

If people will stop demanding an item of content simply because of a perception that it costs money, even if it’s just a few cents which they can easily afford, then you need to go about changing that perception. This could be done perhaps by stating obviously that it’s only a few cents – reminding people of their ability to afford it. But probably more effectively would be to tell people about the extra value that they’ll get out of your content because it costs money.

If someone is paying for something, they expect value out of it. You don’t necessarily expect to receive much from a free article online, but if you’re paying for it, you definitely expect something good. So if you’re trying to attract new viewers to pay for your content, just blatantly tell them how your content is better than anything that is free. Use the fact that your content costs to your advantage – make it seem better. Use words like “exclusive”, “premium”, “limited”, in order to give people the feeling that by paying just a few cents for your content they’ll be getting something many, many times better. It’s mainly about the language you use when you’re pitching people.

The second key part regards making the actual payment for your content easier. You need to reduce the number of screens viewed when going through the payment process. The best way to do this in my opinion is to have solely two screens in the process. Once someone clicks on “Pay”, or “Subscribe”, the screen will display information about the purchase in the sidebar, and will ask them for their details and credit card information on the one page. The next screen will be confirmation. That’s it. It doesn’t need to be anything more.

The second core part is to set up a recurring payment system, such as a subscription model and encourage people to pay for it, or to get people to let you store their payment info and purchase things with 1-click. Therefore people won’t have to go through that payment every time they want to view your content – they’ll only need to do it the once, then after that viewing your content is as easy as if it were free.

That’s it. If you focus on those two things and test them with regard to your content and payments system, I’m sure you’ll see results. There are of course many other ways to reduce the size of the penny gap, but I believe these two ways are the most effective.