Disqus - Latest Comments for Duff

Re: Update on a blog transition…

Duff — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:08:23 -0000

I personally prefer the deeper stuff than the social media stuff. Hopefully this will also bring you the kind of results you are wanting from your blog too.

<abbr>Duff´s last blog post..The Religion of Personal Development</abbr>

Re: Science and the Problem of Subtle Energy

Duff — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:47:55 -0000

Great article. I've been thinking lately about the use of the word "energy" in reference to chi/kundalini/etc.

"Energy" is a word that refers primarily to physics, as is "force" as in "life force energy." By using the metaphors of physics, we subtly reinforce the materialist reductionist paradigm, the idea that all of the universe is reducible to physics. This pisses off scientists--because one can't measure "subtle energy"--and confuses the matter. "Subtle energy" is not objective...but then again, neither is physics, as "objectivity" continues to be revealed as being a myth.

What are some alternative words for "energy" which capture the subjective reality of this phenomena? Well, we could simply use chi, kundalini, n/om, shakti, etc., or we could use English words like vitality, aliveness, or even *gasp* spirit.

Personally I think we should strongly advocate for subjective language like spirit instead of attempting to fit into the fundamentalist materialist paradigm of physics, thus solving the problem of subtle energy by rejecting the frame of the discussion.

Re: Science and the Problem of Subtle Energy

Duff — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:50:27 -0000

Most people in our materialist culture tend to want to defend their interior experience (which is more direct) with the indirect knowledge of science, saying things like "eventually science will catch up and prove that subtle energy/mind/love really exist." But I think that's backwards.

I say, "eventually science will catch up--and it is beginning to catch up--and realize that the whole notion of objectivity is flawed, that there is no observed without an observer, and that therefore subjectivity and interconnectedness is more primary and real than this abstraction called objectivity."

If science finds ways of detecting subtle energy, that's great. But science can't even detect or understand love! Most psychological science still believes that mind is an "epiphenomenon," a myth created by neuronal activity. Are we to argue that love is biochemical and neurological to justify our care for each other? Seems ridiculous to me! It's time to say my experience is real, dammit, and I'm not justifying it through that-which-can-be-measured.

Measuring is also good to not get too carried away, which is why I appreciate people like Dean Radin who are looking into the effectiveness of things like distance healing/prayer, psychic phenomenon, etc. Integration of mind and heart is very important so that you don't make an ass out of yourself! :)

Re: The Ego Economy: Why the Freedom Economy Is Passing You By

Duff — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:04:10 -0000

Rant on, brotha!

Re: What is the Meaning of Money?: A ‘Philosopher,’ a 4-Year Old and a Path

Duff — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:26:08 -0000

This kicks ass. Love the quotes, and the story.

The methodology of Core Transformation that I've recently discovered and practice regularly personally and with coaching clients is one method for getting this kind of alignment on a regular basis.

Be happy first, then make money.

Re: In a Past Life, Social Media Turned Me Into a People Hater (But Now I Love People Again :-)

Duff — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:30:09 -0000

Great video. The first time I've seen a self-shot video on a blog that was outside! :)

Our social spaces online and off have all-too-frequently become places where we lead with our well-crafted "personal brand" in an attempt to turn our friends into customers. It's becoming difficult to find places where we can just hang out without selling anything or being sold on anything.

Having boundaries with people and being real (e.g. stumbling things you actually find value in) are wonderful ways to approach this problem.

Re: What’s Been Keeping Me Up At Night

Duff — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:56:07 -0000

Congrats on the move, Clay! :)

I'm sure your businesses will do fantastically well.

Be well,
~Duff

Re: Why I Don’t Make Good Points Very Often

Duff — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:16:15 -0000

You still sound revolutionary to me. There is a time for figuring out and stating your ideas, and a time to act on them. Everyone has a somewhat different way of doing that.

I've also--for the time being--stopped writing and podcasting and Twittering so much, because I've been doing the thing instead of talking about the thing. The thing isn't necessarily entrepreneurship for me right now, but it is following my own path wherever it leads.

Keep on following your bliss, Clay,
~Duff

Re: Monetization is For Amateurs

Duff — Sat, 09 May 2009 19:01:06 -0000

I agree that if you want to have a business that makes money, monetization isn't typically an effective strategy.

However, if you started doing something without the intention to make money, and it took off far beyond your expectations, your surprising success can be utilized towards the creation of a business.

I also think that it's ok to do noncommercial things in life, to have a blog on Buddhism or digital photography or Medieval art that doesn't make any money and doesn't intend to.

On the internet, I think why many people want things to be free or even just offer things for free is because part of us deeply wants a commons again, a place where something (ANYTHING) is free again. Social media in my opinion is largely driven by the interest in creating a commons. Our live communities are devoid of places where we can just hang out, for free, with other live human beings, so we have tried to create online communities that are free and counter-cultural. Social media marketing represents the opposing force, the drive of late capitalism to seek new markets in order to sustain infinite exponential growth.

So yes, start an intelligent business, and also have your free blog for a hobby if you want, but it may be smart to keep them clearly differentiated...unless your free blog has tons of traffic and your business is suffering, and if only you could sell your products to your blog readers.... (sometimes it's complex, eh?)

Re: How to Not Fuck Up a Public Launch

Duff — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:37:24 -0000

Congrats on the launch, Clay! Now get some sleep. :)

Re: Personal Suck #2: Shyness

Duff — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 14:04:23 -0000

Hey Rick,

I know this comment is coming a bit late, but I just happened upon your blog today.

I too was once a shy, fear-laden geek! (And the geeks shall inherit the Earth....)

My main technique for getting over shyness (really social anxiety or fear) was outrageousness. I attack my fears head-on by blowing them out of proportion on purpose. For example: if I'm feeling particularly geeky, I'll go out and buy some UBER-geeky clothing from a costume store or thrift shop and wear THAT as a joke!

The metaphor I use is "finding a way to turn fear into fun."

The other thing that I've found useful is improv theatre and dance, which is basically structured outrageousness! And anything that gets you into your body and into fun social environments (dancing especially) will be beneficial.

Enjoy!

~duff

Re: Perform a 2007 Year-End Personal Development Review

Duff — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:05:01 -0000

Congrats, Cody! You're doing great!

I learned a ton from my goal-setting for 2007. Here are some of my lessons learned.

Re: The Secret to Life, the Universe, and Everything

Duff — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:42:48 -0000

I too have been greatly influenced by Think and Grow Rich.

By the way, in case you didn't know already, Earl Nightengale beat you to your summary sentence of the Secret. I forget his actual wording, but it's something like "you become what you think about most of the time."

I'm generally in favor of people getting clear on their goals and creating written plans for their accomplishment. On the other hand, there are many examples of wealthy people, famous people, and other high achievers that did not utilize this strategy, and examples of people using this strategy that do not ultimately achieve very much. For example, my friend's wealthy relatives do not have nor did they ever have written goals or plans to achieve them--they just somewhat ruthlessly and obsessively pursued the acquisition of wealth without much concern for others (not necessarily what I'd recommend, but it's a counterexample).

Certainly a definiteness of purpose is critical for high achievement, if that's your outcome.

Re: Time Management Guru-itis: Mark Hurst vs. David Allen and Tim Ferriss

Duff — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:33:04 -0000

Yea, Mark is a bit hard on GTD at times. I think he doesn't quite understand the need for or joy of a complex model. I enjoyed interviewing him though--he's one smart cookie!

Many people have a difficult time with GTD because of all the moving parts, even though it's simply making explicit what people are already doing.

You said in this article "GTD is, however, a bottom-up approach to time management that — used in isolation — can lead to becoming very efficient (doing things well) but decreasingly effective (not doing the right things)."

I disagree from interviewing David. On my interview I asked him directly about this and he said that many people can't really focus on being more effective (getting perspective) until they have control, but he also emphasized flexibility to go to the higher altitudes whenever your intuition calls you to do so.

Just like your 4HWW method is often reduced to personal outsourcing and selective ignorance, GTD is often reduced to efficiency, even though David has a very robust model for effectiveness (the altitudes).

Similarly, Bit Literacy is reduced to bit levers and getting email to 0, and the 7 Habits is reduced to buying Franklin Covey planners and putting your big rocks in your weekly calendar.

It's my belief that if we all chatted we'd see more similarities than differences. I'd love to get all the gurus to dialogue together on Precision Change sometime.

Re: Time Management Guru-itis: Mark Hurst vs. David Allen and Tim Ferriss

Duff — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:31:13 -0000

The anti-Mark Hurst comments seem harsh to me, and seem to perpetuate misconceptions of Bit Literacy vs. 4HWW vs. GTD vs. 7 Habits vs. ZTD etc.

In my opinion, Bit Literacy is very much compatible with techniques from 4HWW, including email batching, personal outsourcing, etc. Merlin Mann also recommends getting your inbox to 0 daily. David Allen seems to also lean in this direction. The gurus are in agreement!

If you don't wish to learn the inbox 0 discipline, you can always outsource it, but in that case, your VA is then doing the inbox zero processing for you. Help me out--I just don't see the conflict here.

In my last startup venture, we applied principles from GTD, 4HWW, Bit Literacy, and other sources as a team. As a company we cleared our email inboxes to 0 nearly every day, and we decided what kinds of things would be handled via email vs. phone vs. meeting. We found no fundamental conflicts between the various systems, although the implementations do vary at times.

I personally found Mark's terse writing very enjoyable. I also enjoyed Tim's writing, and David Allen's, and Stephen Covey's, and Leo Babauta's. Every author has a different voice and can be enjoyed for their own unique qualities. I found the clarity of Mark's writing put me into a meditative state.

When I interviewed Mark, I found him to be flexible in his thinking, and open to however someone wants to solve the problem of email overload for themselves. Of course he also had his own preferences, as we all do.

There is value in all of these books and approaches. However you want to handle your life and your work is ultimately up to you, and I think each of these authors get this.

Re: No Schedules, No Meetings—Enter Best Buy’s ROWE - Part 2

Duff — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:21:40 -0000

God I love when common sense finally makes it's way into business. :)

In some cases, greater results are met by core hours, regular meetings, etc. But so often hours and meetings are mindlessly followed.

Re: Post from the Comments- Passion is Fuel

Duff — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:00:45 -0000

Are we machines, or animals? Perhaps passion is play, creativity incarnate.

I find that feeling passionate is often a sign I'm headed in the right direction, and lacking passion is a sign that I need to adjust or change course!

Re: Five Ways Productivity Can Turn You Into a Real Nutjob

Duff — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:37:43 -0000

Oh boy, this is fun.

Re: The Cult of Abundance, Goal Autoimmune Disorder, & Abundance 2.0

Duff — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:54:12 -0000

Very well said, Clay.

I've been thinking a lot about optimization, as opposed to maximization, and ecology--in the context of personal development.

To optimize one's finances, for example, one might aim to make as much money that is best for happiness, and then stop striving for more. Happiness studies have shown that this is around $36,000 for most people. More than that doesn't correlate with increased happiness.

Too often personal development gurus advocate for maximizing one's finances, health, relationships, etc. I used to have very few friends. After listening to too much Tony Robbins, I set a goal to have 50 friends. I got close to achieving my goal and realized that I hated having so many friends, because I couldn't possibly maintain all those relationships.

Optimize, not maximize.

Ecology has to do with balancing all aspects of a system. What will happen to the rest of your life when you have a private jet? Or 6 girlfriends? Or a high-flying career (where you work 80 hours a week)? Is it worth it? What are the side-effects of success?

Re: 70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It

Duff — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:43:57 -0000

Great list. Of course, I didn't read it, just skimmed points 1-5 and the last one.

Really I just wanted to be the first commenter. Dammit--how'd all those people beat me? Someone should write a post on how to be the first commenter on other people's posts.

Re: Healthy, Wealthy, and DEAD?: 5 Reasons Why Getting Up Early Might be Harmful

Duff — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:32:11 -0000

Hells yea. Let's hear it for late risers.

A book I've been reading called Adrenal Fatigue (basically the physiology of stress) recommends sleeping until 9am, because those with adrenal fatigue tend to get their best sleep during those hours. I've always been one of those people.

And the quote on being more creative if you stay up late and more boring and conventional has certainly been my experience of larks and owls.

Keep pwning these awesome posts.

~Duff

Re: The Alternative Productivity Manifesto

Duff — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:56:20 -0000

This is my favorite:

Hyperfocusing on productivity often gets in the way of the messy, circuitous, and discursive routes of personal development.

The virtue hidden in talk of productivity seems to me to be frugality or thrift. In other words, using your time, money, and energy well. Waste not, want not.

In the modern age, the virtue of frugality has been perverted by the economy's demand for increased production.

And there are always competing virtues or values at play.

Re: The Life Hack Misnomer

Duff — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:33:22 -0000

Hell yea, Clay. Like what Joseph Cambell said: if there's a path, it isn't your path!

"utilities used to synchronize files don

Re: The Life Hack Misnomer

Duff — Sun, 11 May 2008 01:02:29 -0000

Man, real dialogue in blog comments. What kind of monster are you creating, Clay? :)

And Clay, dude, AwayFind.com? You have lost geek cred. You've got to learn to pwn your inbox or it will pwn you. haha

~Duff

Re: Investigative Report: Tracking Down the Productivity Ninja

Duff — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:48:58 -0000

I killed the productivity ninja with my badass Gmail labeling system. Hence why you can't find him.

Re: When Crazy Isn’t Crazy Anymore: Life Balance and Insanity

Duff — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:14:33 -0000

I realized once that when I think of balance, I generally picture a scale with equal sized weights on either side. But just as common is a complex moving mobile like this one:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/112/288614924_11...

Those who live simple, static lives tend to think of balance in more simple images and metaphors.

Re: Project Liberation

Duff — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:21:21 -0000

May Project Liberation be a complete success!

Leverage your blog traffic and readership. It's a great head start into whatever you do next.

I'm definitely in the same boat as you Clay, perhaps a couple years and several failed startups ahead, but in the same boat. :)

I'd love to support you in any way that I can.

Let's chat!

Re: Not Being a Real Person: The #1 Self-Development Anti-Hack

Duff — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:39:54 -0000

You've got such the multimedia blog, nowadays. Love that little audio clip. It got me all fired up!

I've at times created a fake unreal life for myself. It's something I think us renegades constantly battle--we've freed ourselves from outside constraints (more or less) but find that the same programming is inside us. I saw this very clearly in my last business which was started with friends out of love, but I found myself stressing over the work later, as if an imaginary boss in my head was forcing me to do things I didn't like! WTF.

I'm currently reading two books about unreal people: Success Built to Last (studied people who were successful in whatever they were dedicated to--not necessarily fame or fortune--only those committed to something for over 20 years) and The Perfect Mess (studies how and when messiness is advantageous over order in personal life, businesses, relationships, etc.).

Here's to unreality!
----------------------------
Resposne
I really look forward to reading the perfect mess. That sounds like a great book.

Re: The Income Snowball & Funding Your Freedom: A Four-Part Guide

Duff — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:26:33 -0000

I love the baselining and income snowball concepts, especially put together.

I actually just ran the minimum numbers in a sloppy way that I need and it's far less than what my "goal" has been. In fact it seems very, very doable, and very soon. Cool!

Keep on rockin' the excellent posts.

~Duff

Re: Hacking Your Life vs. Hacking Your Computer, Abundance 2.0, and Dealing with Bugs

Duff — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:05:03 -0000

I just hacked my RSS reader. Now it has a direct connection to God. Beat that!

Re: Why The Job-ification of Your Passion Can be the Ticket to Hating Your Life

Duff — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:10:29 -0000

Great post, Clay. My last business failed because of this:

many new business owners are too concerned about getting publicity, working on branding, creating ads with big pictures of themselves, and networking, than they are about creating direct and immediate opportunities to create income. Because publicity, networking, etc. make us FEEL good, and make us feel like we

Re: The Ego Economy: Why the Freedom Economy Is Passing You By

Duff — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:04:10 -0000

Rant on, brotha!

Re: What is the Meaning of Money?: A ‘Philosopher,’ a 4-Year Old and a Path

Duff — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:26:08 -0000

Re: In a Past Life, Social Media Turned Me Into a People Hater (But Now I Love People Again :-)

Duff — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:30:09 -0000

Re: What’s Been Keeping Me Up At Night

Duff — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:56:07 -0000

Congrats on the move, Clay! :)

I'm sure your businesses will do fantastically well.

Be well,

~Duff

Re: Monetization is For Amateurs

Duff — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:01:06 -0000

Re: How to Not F*ck Up Your (Public) Product Launch

Duff — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:37:24 -0000

Congrats on the launch, Clay! Now get some sleep. :)

Re: Leaks

Duff — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:59:18 -0000

Indeed--soul is not trapped in the flesh of the individual. Our individual suffering is not separate from our collective quest for infinite knowledge (science) and control (technology).

Are you familiar with Charles Eisenstein? I've been reading his relatively new book The Ascent of Humanity that covers this in great detail, how the history of humanity and indeed life is a story of increasing separation, and how he is optimistic that we must return inevitably to an age of reunion. http://www.ascentofhumanity.com/

Re: Perception

Duff — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:39:24 -0000

Great post. I've been thinking recently about hope born of naive optimism vs. hope born of despair. I've been feeling a lot of despair recently, and going deeper into the despair to find hope within it, rather than outside of it. It's painful as heck! But I've tried the Panglossian glasses, but the first noble truth of Buddhism still looks real to me: life is suffering. But it is a noble truth if one accepts it fully and lives joyfully anyway.

I've also been unfollowing overly happy people on Twitter. :)

Re: Random Integral Thoughts

Duff — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:48:17 -0000

Good musings, Jason.

I think you're right about the dangers of be shallowly developed in many things. In my liberal arts college, they encouraged a philosophy of learning that involved specializing while staying well-balanced by choosing a major, but then requiring credits in broad disciplines. I think this could be modeled for an effective ILP.

A related line of thinking I've had recently is around focusing on your strenghts instead of overcompensating for your weaknesses. The liberal arts model could account for this by majoring in an area of strength and yet also doing things in your areas of weaknesses at times.

As far as moving people up the spiral goes, I've been more in favor of the idea of helping people to be healthy where they are than encouraging anyone to climb the spiral, unless they are asking for help in doing so. Don Beck advocates for this approach, and it seems healthier to me than the overachiever development orientation.

Re: Healthy, Wealthy, and DEAD?: 5 Reasons Why Getting Up Early Might be Harmful

Duff — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:32:11 -0000

Re: The Cult of Abundance, Goal Autoimmune Disorder, & Abundance 2.0

Duff — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:54:12 -0000

Re: Five Ways Productivity Can Turn You Into a Real Nutjob

Duff — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:37:43 -0000

Oh boy, this is fun.

Re: 70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It

Duff — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:43:57 -0000

Re: The Alternative Productivity Manifesto

Duff — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:56:20 -0000

Re: The Life Hack Misnomer

Duff — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:33:22 -0000

Hell yea, Clay. Like what Joseph Cambell said: if there's a path, it isn't your path!

"utilities used to synchronize files don

Re: The Life Hack Misnomer

Duff — Sun, 11 May 2008 01:02:29 -0000

Re: Investigative Report: Tracking Down the Productivity Ninja

Duff — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:48:58 -0000

I killed the productivity ninja with my badass Gmail labeling system. Hence why you can't find him.

Re: When Crazy Isn’t Crazy Anymore: Life Balance and Insanity

Duff — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:14:33 -0000

Re: Project Liberation

Duff — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:21:21 -0000

Re: Not Being a Real Person: The #1 Self-Development Anti-Hack

Duff — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:39:54 -0000

Re: The Income Snowball & Funding Your Freedom: A Four-Part Guide

Duff — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:26:33 -0000

Re: Hacking Your Life vs. Hacking Your Computer, Abundance 2.0, and Dealing with Bugs

Duff — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:05:03 -0000

I just hacked my RSS reader. Now it has a direct connection to God. Beat that!

Re: Why The Job-ification of Your Passion Can be the Ticket to Hating Your Life

Duff — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:10:29 -0000

Great post, Clay. My last business failed because of this:

many new business owners are too concerned about getting publicity, working on branding, creating ads with big pictures of themselves, and networking, than they are about creating direct and immediate opportunities to create income. Because publicity, networking, etc. make us FEEL good, and make us feel like we

Re: The Ego Economy: Why the Freedom Economy Is Passing You By

Duff — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:04:10 -0000

Rant on, brotha!

Re: What is the Meaning of Money?: A ‘Philosopher,’ a 4-Year Old and a Path

Duff — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:26:08 -0000

Re: In a Past Life, Social Media Turned Me Into a People Hater (But Now I Love People Again :-)

Duff — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:30:09 -0000

Re: What’s Been Keeping Me Up At Night

Duff — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:56:07 -0000

Congrats on the move, Clay! :)

I'm sure your businesses will do fantastically well.

Be well,

~Duff

Re: Monetization is For Amateurs

Duff — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:01:06 -0000

Re: How to Not F*ck Up Your (Public) Product Launch

Duff — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:37:24 -0000

Congrats on the launch, Clay! Now get some sleep. :)

Re: The Anatomy of a Physiology

Duff — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:38:03 -0000

Thank you Mr. Droid, for taking on the scammers. This article in particular was a great analysis of some shady salesmanship.

Re: The Anatomy of a Physiology

Duff — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:48:33 -0000

I practice NLP. It's a pragmatic set of communication tools, as well as a kind of cognitive-behavioral therapy. It hasn't been tested by academics, so it is "unverified"--for various reasons. There are many issues with why certain techniques of therapy get tested and why others don't and tons of debate within the field, but yes, someone skilled in NLP can consistently achieve results with clients that seem "miraculous" to practitioners of other techniques.

That said, there has been a long history of scam artists overstating what is possible to do with NLP and massively overcharging for their "secret techniques" which are often available in existing books on the subject. Kilstein is clearly a scam artist according to my criteria and a disgrace to the field of NLP and hypnosis (and not the first).

Re: The Anatomy of a Physiology

Duff — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:41:30 -0000

Something insufficiently tested is simply insufficiently tested, not proven false or unhelpful. Again, there are many reasons why things get tested or not. I think that NLP can indeed be tested and I look forward to the day when it is rigorously assessed so that the field can advance.

I no of no therapist nor psychiatrist that is a neurologist, yet the basis of all psychology is that cognitive states are based on the brain. I also studied linguistics as part of my undergraduate work and continue to study cognitive linguistics on my own.

Re: The Anatomy of a Physiology

Duff — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:57:07 -0000

I asserted that cognitive skills are linked to brain functions because you asserted "Anybody to do with working on people's cognitive abilities with reference to neuroscience better be a neurologist." All of psychiatry and much of psychotherapy asserts that lack of mental health is due to neuroscience (i.e. brain functions), yet almost no psychotherapists have degrees in neuroscience or neurology. I was not aware that psychiatrists are usually also neurologists. (I do however know one NLP trainer that does have a degree in neurology and teaches based on his understanding of working with brain injured patients, although this is rare amongst NLP trainers.)

Psychiatrists are MD's, but psychiatry itself has very little real understanding of the brain and it's relation to mental illness beyond the very gross. All of the DSM IV categories are theorized to be based on disfunctions of the brain, but none of the 700 or so categories have any clear evidence to prove this. The assertion that anyone working with brain functions should be a neurologist is silly, as most therapists quote brain studies regularly in their work.

Brain research for mental health mostly gets advanced by pharmaceutical companies, as there is far more money in pills than in techniques that require human contact.

That said, NLP doesn't really have much to say about specific neuroscience. It is inherently pragmatic, like carpentry vs. biochemistry of trees. The name is unfortunate in many ways.

I am not at all interested in providing you with convincing proof of the efficiency of my trade. Based on your criteria for proof, it would be impossible without millions of dollars for research (which I sincerely hope takes place to advance the field of NLP). String theory is also quite untested (and according to some, totally untestable), yet physicists still are spending millions of dollars researching and developing these theories. Again, just because something is untested and unproven according to your criteria for proof does not mean it is crap, it simply means it is unproven. True scientific skepticism is open-minded, not dogmatic.

I try my best to not make any exaggerated claims about what NLP can do as in my experience human change (i.e. psychotherapy) is very mysterious and in a very early stage of development, like the age of alchemy in the development of chemistry. That said, I think NLP is amongst the best stuff available based on my research and personal experience.

And again, Dr. Kilstein is a fraud and a sleazy salesman. We can all agree on that regardless of our different opinions about NLP.

Re: The Anatomy of a Physiology

Duff — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 07:45:39 -0000

Thanks for the recommendation of Antonio Damasio. I've been meaning to catch up on what's happened in neuroscience since I graduated college (when neuroscience was hardly a field at all).

Our perspectives probably don't differ as much as they appear here--I'm very interested in neuroscience and the brain. I was basically a cognitive science major in undergrad and have been interested in how to apply cogsci to human communication and therapy, and NLP has had the greatest practical distinctions I have been able to find.

NLP ain't science, but I do think aspects of NLP are amenable to scientific inquiry and even double-blind testing. And yes, NLP is not at all accepted by the academic world, which I think sucks, and in fact allows schiesters like Kilstein free reign to claim whatever he wants about NLP because no one (except our Salty Droid) will call him on it.

I tend to be fairly anti-pharma, but that's because drugs have been so successful in gaining acceptance through rigorous double-blind studies that I think drug approaches to change have been highly over-emphasized. There's certainly something to be said for popping a pill to solve a mental health problem, however.

There are a few folks working on gaining the money and attention for testing NLP, but not many yet. I might end up dedicating some time and energy to that project. I'd be happy to learn which aspects of NLP are crap and which are wonderful (not all in my field would be so thrilled).

Not all NLP is therapeutically oriented, but there are many therapeutic techniques that have been developed by NLPers. I totally agree that kindness, caring, and extensive training are important to properly leading therapeutic conversations, and indeed this is again rare even amongst NLP practitioners, not to mention PhD's in Clinical Psychology and Psychiatrists. Listening, caring, and actually being helpful to someone who is suffering are rare skills indeed.

Re: The Anatomy of a Physiology

Duff — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:49:03 -0000

If anything I'd say Froylein is obviously terrible at NLP. NLP is sometimes described as excellence in communication. Misspellings, incorrect words, hype and high-pressure sales have nothing whatsoever to do with excellent communication, according to my criteria at least.

And yes, I agree that NLP is effective to the extent that the practitioner is genuine and a good soul. And yes, many shady characters are attracted to NLP in my opinion precisely because it is full of powerful techniques. Like many a magician in stories of long past mythological ages, the temptation to go to the dark side is powerful indeed (but ultimately stupid and obvious).

Re: The Anatomy of a Physiology

Duff — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 04:08:35 -0000

Exactly. You, on the other hand, would make an excellent NLP practitioner. :)

Be well,
~Duff

Re: The Floportunity of a Lifetime

Duff — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:46:28 -0000

Not at all surprising. Thanks for the investigative journalism.

Re: Banned But BadAss

Duff — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:52:47 -0000

While I wouldn't necessarily go about it in the same way, I'm enjoying your "chaotic good" approach to taking down Belcher and his Twitter scam (if you never played D&D, check the explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_(Dungeons_... )

Re: Where is The Best Place To Upload Videos To?

Duff — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:23:12 -0000

I keep reading that YouTube degrades video quality, yet some YouTube videos are in full HD size and quality. Does anyone know why this is?