memoryloot

If there was one book that you must read this year make sure it is Confessions of an Economic Hitman. I recently “read” this book on CD. This was a great listen! Kept me captivated from beginning to end. It basically went through the life of a guy who is hired by a private company which works really close to the government such as Bechtel and Halliburton.

This guy is sent out as an economist to third world countries to promote the modernization of their society. He would run estimates which favorably show how bringing modern technology will help a country prosper. The countries sign on and only a few get rich while the rest of the country is worse off than before. These countries end up being in debt to the US for billions and billions of dollars. So instead of paying the US back they return the favor in the form of giving US access to oil or other natural resources and sometimes UN votes. If a country refuses the deals from the US, they send what Perkins call “Jackals” in to do some convincing. If that doesn’t work, the US uses the military to pursuade them. That’s basically what happened in Iraq.

Conspiracy or not, this book opened my eyes on the impact of our selfish ways are leading to the eventually downfall of our empire. It is no wonder why so many people outside the US hates us so much. We should really be ashamed for our consuming ways and the fact that we ignore other countries who are suffering from a level of poverty that nobody here can imagine. Instead we hide behind the false pretenses of helping a country modernize but in reality is looking to take advantage of their natural resources. Our government starts wars now for the sake of terrorism and to free the people from terrorists. But in reality they have a different agenda. In exchange for the lives of soldiers, we are relentlessly trying to gain control of a country and use up its natural resources.

I’m typically neutral when it comes to politics but this book has opened up my eyes. It is no wonder why the author had mentioned that writing and publishing this book was a dangerous thing. He basically revealed what most conspiracy theorists could only imagine.

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been reading Timothy Ferriss’ book “The 4-Hour Workweek”. I’m half way done on a 300 page book. It’s only amazing since I don’t read that much or that fast for ANYTHING.

What peaked my interest was his section on Automation. He proposed that everyone should have a VA - Virtual Assistant. You’re probably thinking what I was thinking, “I can’t afford an assistant.” Yes you can. According to Tim, the productivity you get from an assistant far out-weighs the time spent doing things on your own. He sited examples of using a VA to basically do the nitty-gritty work for you and you use the fruits of their labor to do what you need to do. For example, researching for a project or even researching for various things like blog posting.

The cost range from $5 – $20 an hour. The more expensive ones are located in the US or Canada. The middle of the line and cheaper ones are located off-shore in India, China, or Shanghai.

I think I can afford to pay someone to do some of my work and reclaim some of my time back. This realization is almost as big as the time I realized, “Hey! I can learn to ride a motorcycle and not worry about what my parents thought.” Exciting stuff!

I just started reading again tonight. The reason this time was that I have 2 books to read by September 17th. I plan on finishing those well before that deadline. In fact the book, “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferris I’ve already completed 100 pages. I realized since I replaced my PS2 with my Xbox 360 console, I’ve been playing alot more games. I haven’t picked up a book since April of this year, when I bought the new system. I need to read more so hopefully reading these books will help me get back into the book-reading mood. So far so good.

So many distractions these days with the Xbox, birthdays, weddings, and other social functions. The only device that has been good for me is my iPod. I use that the most but listening to music and podcast doesn’t get in the way while I’m doing other things.

Ever feel that your life is so disorganized and you don’t know where to start or end? Not a problem if you follow the Getting Things Done (GTD) method. Ever since reading/hearing this book, my life has been more calmer and I’ve actually “gotten things done”. David Allen sure knew what he was talking about when writing this book. Not only have I’ve been productive, I am feeling much less stressed for the last month. I also feel I am using my Palm Tungsten to its full potential using The PigPog method approach to GTD.

GTD gives you a way to collect, process, organize, review, and make choices on what to do. When done correctly, one can unload all their thoughts and ideas in one bucket, whether it being a Palm Tungsten or a sheet of paper. The idea is to have all things that you are stressing over out of your head so that you can deal with it as you go so that you’re not constantly stressing over it. This system allows you to organize and deal with your issues in a calm manner and keep thinking about the next steps for all your tasks. I urge those who feels overwhelmed with all the daily tasks and stress of life to give this a try. I have both the paperback and CD-ROM for those who want to borrow for a read. Please share any ideas you may have. Also visit 43Folders, and entire blog developed because of GTD.