Twitter Secret #37: How to Unfollow People Who Stopped Using Twitter

How to Get Into the News Media and Pull Big Bloggers Like Guy Kawasaki With Strategic Public Relations

Rawksoup.com: The Social Network for Geniuses

Over Achiever Secret #78: The Most Successful People On Earth Write Down Their Goals, Like This.

The Checklist: The Top Questions To Ask Before Your Web Marketing Campaign Goes "Flop."

The Top Five Questions You Forget to Ask Before You Hire an iPhone or Android App Developer

What Nobody Tells You About Your eCommerce Shopping Cart and Online Store

Industry Trade Secrets that Pros Will Never Spill About Facebook Pages Marketing

The Truth About Your Marketing Strategy: Google SEO vs Adwords vs Facebook vs Twitter vs Blogging vs Discussion Forums

For a Good Time, Follow Me: http://twitter.com/journik
LA 310 598 1606 | NYC 347 476 1267

Twitter Secret #37: How to Unfollow People Who Stopped Using Twitter

How to Get Into the News Media and Pull Big Bloggers Like Guy Kawasaki With Strategic Public Relations

Rawksoup.com: The Social Network for Geniuses

Over Achiever Secret #78: The Most Successful People On Earth Write Down Their Goals, Like This.

The Checklist: The Top Questions To Ask Before Your Web Marketing Campaign Goes "Flop."

The Top Five Questions You Forget to Ask Before You Hire an iPhone or Android App Developer

What Nobody Tells You About Your eCommerce Shopping Cart and Online Store

Industry Trade Secrets that Pros Will Never Spill About Facebook Pages Marketing

The Truth About Your Marketing Strategy: Google SEO vs Adwords vs Facebook vs Twitter vs Blogging vs Discussion Forums

For a Good Time, Follow Me: http://twitter.com/journik
LA 310 598 1606 | NYC 347 476 1267

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education

 
June 25, 2009
 

... #1: Credibility Bankrupt. How to be a celebrity. Or atleast have as many customers... be the "Consumer Mentor"(tm)

There's a little known cafe in Santa Monica, CA where one of five people in line for a mocha, or an americano wears big dark shades and low fitted baseball caps. It's pretty crowded so they sit where they can. They grab a paper and if they happen to kick you under the table, they say, "excuse me."

The other four of five people don't wear camo.

One out of these four speak into cell phones loudly, "Yeah, Yeah, Absolutely! He's definately a mentzch, he's the guy who got Pitt and DiCaprio attached to my script. No, no, I'm gunna decline that offer for two (million) bucks as soon as I get off the phone with you... No, ofcourse not! I'm gunna have my attorney draft it for me... No, he's not going out with that super model anymore. Svetlana knows which boat to catch. She came over to MY pad last night... Yeah, she ____'d me dry!"

Then, the second one of the four stares at the first one of the five. He stares until the one looks and says, "Hi. How are you?"

The second one says to the first of five, "Oh My Gawd! You're Leonardo DiCaprio!"

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The first of the four realizes that everyone in the cafe realizes that he's full of shit and walks out wishing he too was in camo.

The second one continues, "I'm not done with acting lessons yet but I do have a script! Will you please, please, please, read it? Stay here, It's in my car. I'll get it. Wait, if you're leaving I'll bring it to your car. Which one is yours? No, never mind. It's not really ready. My acting is better anyways. I'll do my favorite line for you right now. In fact, I'll auto DM it to you."

The third of the four out of the five quietly reads thick packets of paper bound by copper tacks, signs official looking documents and takes phone calls outside. They have to pause their conversation when another AMG or Lambo drives by because for the most part, they are whispering.

As the first one of the five hurrys to leave the cafe, he notices the third of the four and stops to appologize for leaving without saying hello. The third just nods a paternal nod and goes on with his conversation, quietly.

There is one more member to this cast. The fourth of the four. He incidentally also happens to be the fifth of the five. He is dressed just like the third to whom the first showed respect. He walks outside to make a phone call just like the third. He smiles politely at tourists trying to figure out if they recognize him just like the third. But he's not. He's the fourth of the four and the fifth of the five.

The third just nods a paternal nod and goes on with his conversation, quietly.

But sure enough, after a bit of time, firsts and thirds start remembering our fourth-fifth. Sure enough, they pass by and offer hat tips lest they accidently fail to pay homage to an even bigger third sporting even lower DL status.

Before long, the fourth-fifth gets invited to house parties in the "Bu." Before long, the fourth-fifth gets invited to yacht excursions down to Baja. Before long, by doing nothing more than showing respect, being cool, and being close, the fourth-fifth becomes a third or first as he wishes, while the first and second of four get eighty-sixed.

Now all you need to know is where that cafe is. Well, if you are a math teacher, that cafe is right here: Math. If you are an ESL teacher, your cafe is here: ESL. If you teach yoga try this cafe: yoga. Sit next to them. Mind your own business. Follow them. 20% will follow you back. If you dress your Twitter bio well, 50% more will follow you back making it a full 1:3 ratio.

But what ever you do, remember to be four and five.

Recommend that you're friends follow @journik because it will make all of us feel good.

continued: HackEDU

Filed under  //   #hackedu   audience   community   consumermentor   education   edufire   followers   tutoring  


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June 22, 2009
 

The Dao of Writing a Business Plan for a Startup and Venture Capital

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You've all heard of the farmer with the goat, wolf, cabbage dilema right? He can only carry two at a time on a boat across a river. How does he transport all three without one being eaten in the process?

Ironically, when my two passions, education and web are mashed together as in Edufire, 2tor, etc, these startups create precisely this dilema (actually, can I say "paradigm" here? It'd be so fitting).

Let me explain. The easiest business model is referred to in the Daoist / Buddhist Circle of Emptiness. You take a space, you draw an arbitrary enclosure to artificially create an inside and outside. Nothing really changes or moves. It's just a perceptual change. 

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How do you intend to create sufficient back pressure so that when

You see this in Sag, Aftra, Steel Workers of America, The guys that have to flip on the light switches in your trade show booth, etc. It's called a union. Same people doing the same work. No physical shift in behavior or activity. Just an arbitrary line that redefines everything. This is the easiest business model.

Provide value to a marketplace that already exists while asking them to really change nothing. (PS. if you've ever wondered, this is why that "circle of emptiness is never supposed to be drawn closed.")

But, if you're going to create a disruptive technology, you must disrupt. Disruption is a violent event. Disruption is an active event. And the lowest common denominator for active events is the yin-yang. Google's business model is based on the Yin-Yang paradigm (THERE I did it!).

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Google got you to stop using yahoo and the yellow pages and 411 and your BBS and who knows what else. How? They created a dynamic yin-yang cycle by offering free white rice to anyone fast. Google gives white rice and the whole world takes it. Nobody else gave as much as fast.

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Then, naturally, the Dao takes over, "... and two becomes a multitude." Concession stands pop up on either side of the river of people to Google. Guys selling beans, beer, bread, beverages, etc... proliferate. And so do investors.

Trouble is, when you try and build a business model that requires three components. Daoists refer to this as "unity between heaven, man, and earth." And that is exactly what any educational web startup does. 

For all intents and purposes, the "empty circle" model does nothing but define what people already value. It's kinda like a functional "emperor's new security blanket." The yin-yang model actually creates change by satisfying a hard prexisting need to one recipient group. 2Tor, edufire, and that UN school by Rasheed or whoever must do three things.

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An educational website business model must satisfy students, teachers, and the value giver (the company).* If you bring the students without the teachers, they never come back. If you bring the teachers without the students, they get depressed - and when the students do start trickling in, they teach poorly. And the students never come back. Finally, you've got to do all this in a way that pays the value giver. Hell, if you need seed capital as well (that would be the 4th element and it's that buddhist symbol that looks like a swastica but reversed).

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In science and evolution, when several things must come together at the same time and in perfect order, they call it, "indiminuative something or other. @journik me on twitter if you know that that is." Anyways, what I mean is that all things must come together in a passionate synchronous big bang for life to occur. 

What Google did in it's duality paradigm is collect a shit ton of data, spider it, make sure their serving table didn't crash upon mass rice eater spike, THEN open the flood gates. 

Now, getting back to you, how many key components are in your wallet (UGH! damn commercial!) .. in your business plan? How do you intend to create sufficient back pressure so that when the yin and yang meet or when heaven, man and earth meet, there will be a synchronous big bang?

To comment or RT, follow my team at http://twitter.com/solidtweeple/friends

NEXT: Why people dont do what you want them to

_

*unfortunately, this is where most of you will make a fatal miscalculation. You may think, well, I want a website, teachers wanna teach and students wanna learn. After spending millions on infrastructure, marketing and pr, you will most likely fail or get absolutely abysmal return on investment.

Why? Because you will are missing the key driver. Imagine if Google decided to offer free chopsticks. If your main message to potential students is "affordable education," you are offering them cheap chopsticks.

An educational website is structurally  orders of magnitude more complex than a dating website which also conforms to the trinity model. In a dating website, you, bring man and, well, woman together. They each want each other. DONE. 

In an educational website, A teacher wants a student but a student does not want the teacher back. In an educational website, A teacher wants a student but a student does not want the teacher back.  To a teacher, teaching is the key driver.

To a student, education is chopsticks - a means to an end. You cannot effectively motivate a key structural component to participate if you do not directly strike at his key motivator. How? Follow me and my team at http://twitter.com/solidtweeple/friends and let's talk.

Filed under  //   dao   education   startups  


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June 17, 2009
 

Trenton NJ. Education is the opposite of Violence

I was just recently in a Gyro shop in Trenton NJ. This is the same place where the city and feds fought over gun control laws due to gang violence.

I stopped into a gyro shop on the main drag. It was not a sociology experiement. It was not an anthropological study. I was hungry.

I ordered a Gyro for $4.77. I handed the Middle Eastern register person $5.00. He gave me 23 pennies in return.

I sat down awaiting my lamb meat Gyro. A young man, about high-school age walks in and orders two chicken legs. It comes out to $2.14 cents. The young man wearing low hanging jeans over exposed plaid boxers and a white wife beater hands the man $3. The man hands him back some change. The young man starts screaming, "You rippin me off man. Why you gotta do dat? I look like a foo? You ripoff all your patrons man?"

The register man does not look surprised. He calmly explains. "If it was $2.20, I would have given you 80 cents. But since it was 6 cents less than $2.20 and you still gave me $3.00, I give you back 86 cents. See? Three quarters, a dime and a penny."

I get my Gyro. I douse it with a cucumber cream sauce then a spicy chicken sauce. The cucumber cream sauce was so good I had to squirt on more. But then it toned down the fire so I added more of the spicy chicken sauce too.

A young woman, in her teens walks in. She orders a hamburger and a diet Pepsi. It comes out to $3.84 cents...

To Comment: Include, RT @journik http://bit.ly/1a2WAf  and tweet

Filed under  //   education   edufire   gangs   nj   trenton   violence  


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June 13, 2009
 

What Shai Reshef SHOULD do to University of the People, or else!

First of all, I applaud Shai Reshef for bringing education to the world for free.

Having said that, I want to speak to the teens around the world who are angry and call the University of the People a "fraud." You are right. You are 100% in the right for feeling betrayed and manipulated.

I too was excited by the UN press release and the US NEWS and WORLD REPORT video. I forwarded it to my 4,000ish twitter followers and my 16,000ish youtube subscribers.

Then, when I read your comments calling Mr. Reshef's work a "fraud," and "sham," I was livid. You see, all of my roadrage, foreign policy indignation, and internet speed frustration funnel back to just one group of people: Hater-trolls. Sorry to say, but I hate self-entitled, thankless, the-world-owes-me freeloaders more than I hate anything else.

You see, when Starbucks gives me a sample sized frapatchinese, I know they want me to buy the real thing. I know they are using it to bait me. I know they are trying to manipulate me. But... I also know I got the upper hand. I ask for two samples. Then just get a tap water. (I don't really. I do actually buy a $5 coffee most of the time. But I'm just sayin.)

What I'm telling you is that I hear ya.

Shai Reshef is pushing "free college education." So you think, naturally, free college degree. This is where he rightfully deserves this comment from Youtuber "nigel891":

so ridiculous. and he said each exam is between 10 and $100 let's take the mid range 55 * 32 courses for a degree(assuming one exam per course) = $1760 only income of 2 years for someone in india. Let alone who the fuck is providing internet access. I guess he expects them to not eat while they go to school, fraud.

To make matters worse, Mr. Reshef got his millions from starting a for-profit testing prep company and selling it to giant, Kaplan. So, to any reasonable person, it seems as if he is running a scam. I know, I've been accused of the same.

But the truth of the matter is, as self-entitled, thankless, and the-world-owes-me freeloaderish as it is to ask Mr. Reshef, "who the fuck is providing internet access." If Mr. Reshef is to make the University of the People go universal, he's going to have to take responsibility for his expectation mismanagement and dramatically change up his value message. The concept is drowning. Even an international publishing house's feature, the FastCompany article did nothing to spread the message. Hell, hits from Journik double-triple the hits from FastCompany (see statistics and data under video).

You cannot blame a 17 year old for thinking you'll give him a free MIT Bachelor's Degree when your message to the world is "Free college education."

Filed under  //   education   un  


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June 12, 2009
 

UN: World's 1st tuition free university based on MIT and Rice Course Load (CC Lic). So why exactly does this video only have 1,400 views?

Filed under  //   education   un  


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June 12, 2009
 

Leaked. The entire MIT computer science and engineering creative commons course load

No. This is not propriety information. What I meant was that I just got back from taking a piss.

Nevertheless, the entire MIT computer science and engineering creative commons course load is online here.

I just found it reading about an innovator who is pushing for globally free college education with the UN.

Like I said yesterday. A degree doesn't necessarily give you a high paying job like this one. You do.

Filed under  //   education   edufire   mit   shai   stanford  


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June 4, 2009
 

You SHOULD follow @edufire and join edufire.com because...

1. It is the only smart implementation of remote teaching I've ever seen.

2. It is totally democratic.
Bad teachers don't get paid and good teachers can get richer than the guys who invested in http://edufire.com

3. It is interactive in real-time.
The first few times I visited http://edufire.com I couldn't tell what it offered over youtube.com. Maybe it was just a vimeo for teachers. Or maybe it was for Chicago area teachers who got fired. Couldn't tell. I was going to write a pointed, ok, ok, scathing blog post on how edufire management was mismanaging their investor dollars with unclear market positioning.

As much as I would have enjoyed each supple keystoke, stroke, stroke, I can no longer go down that path.

Sadly, and happily, I must ardently recommend, no, wait, I don't do recommendations. You SHOULD follow @edufire and join edufire.com because it is the ONLY vehicle I have seen that gives the best teachers on the planet the opportunity to shine over the whole world the same way Youtube celebritates kittens, fugly Scottish women, guys that do era dances, and lonely 15 year old girls.

PS. I will say one scathing thing @edufire (gotta stay true to form): Make it clear on the homepage that teachers can name their price and actually get paid for doing the most valuable thing a human can do, more valuable than saving a life, teaching one.

http://journik.posterous.com/how-to-educate-old-old-old-school-style HackEDU

Filed under  //   #hackedu   education   educators   edufire   teachers  


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May 22, 2009
 

Unless Our Kids are 100Xs Smarter Than Our Parents Were Stupid, They are Fucked. (but not in a good way)

How we SHOULD change the world:

1. Bring back old old school school for our kids.

Teach them everything they can learn as fast as they can. Keep them stimulated and challenged. Now, the school system is stretching out the educational syllabus so they can suck state and federal educational funding dry.

2. Stop killing our kid's creativity.

Instead of satisfying and challenging our kids' imaginations, schools are drugging them down to the placated energy levels deemed acceptable by administrators.

3. Email this video link: http://bit.ly/OFPA7 to your kids' teachers, counselors, and school principal. Or buy the DVD and hand it to them - firmly.

Your future depends on it.

Filed under  //   add   adhd   education   generation rx   kevinpmiller  


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May 13, 2009
 

HackEDU: Your Baby is a Genius, Whether You Agree or Not!

There was a time when education was the role of clan fathers (or mothers in many cultures). These Educators were not the lowest paid, under-respected, part time community members that today's teachers are. The clan matriarch / patriarch was the social, political, and economic leader of the entire tribe.

When, they taught, it was from experience. Teaching from experience enables one to teach to experience. They taught upon a child's pre-existing experiences. And children learned immediately.

They inspired and challenged the kids. Personally, I learned the entire 9 times table when I was 3. Then, I learned long multiplication, fractions, algebra, geometry, algebra 2, and trigonometry in the first half of my 3rd grade. It was all taught to me over 30minutes per day at lunch recess by a zen master whom most referred to as their 3rd grade teacher. This is how he did it:

Did you notice that we used sticks. Find me a kid who has never piled sticks on top of other. Find me a kid whose never drawn an "X," and I'll show you a kid who needs a different method of teaching multiplication.

Before setting out to teach, there are two primary considerations to always, well, consider. You've heard of Mazlow's Heirchy? Well,

1. There is a heirchy of learnability. From hardest to easiest for memory:

A. a number (like 298477640242976572974)

B. a letter (like within "Apt 4D")

C. alpha numeric mixed combinations (like your license plate)

D. a word (like that super fast talker guy's name)

E. a sentence (Quick, what's the third line of the American pledge of allegiance WITHOUT reciting the whole thing from the start!)

F. musical lyrics (like the ABC song)

2. Teach Nothing By Rote

G. a visual symb ol (how many line segments in the VolksWagen Logo?)

H. a face (that same fast talker guy from #D)

I. music

J. a smell (like you remember everything when you get the most fleeting whiff of that one scent)

What this means for your children's education is that in order to teach how to learn A, you use B. You use an EASIER modality of comprehension to teach a HARDER one. Ironically, our neurology and senses are understand and remember more complex inputs far more readily than simple ones. (What's your spouse's birthday? vs. Where were you when you last felt intoxicated by their scent?) "You cannot solve a problem at the same level of mind that created it!" - Einstein, then Me.

So how would I teach numbers? Like THIS:

How do you teach literacy? How do you teach the alphabet in less than five minutes? We are talking about teaching "#B," you'd use "#G" like this:

Why? Think of all the mind power you could hand down to your children. Now, look around. They may need it.

So how do you use B (language) to teach A (numbers) and if you do, can your kids be as smart as the MatheMagician (Ted video)? Yes! How? See: http://rawksoup.com/genius.html (the Tao of Learning how to Learn)!

OK, now with a little practice, you'll be able to memorize credit card, bank account, and social security numbers as if they were today's news paper headlines. Or you can teach this to your children to learn how to memorize the atomic weights of each element in the periodic table of elements in one hour.

Now that we've gotten numbers out of the way, how do you teach seemingly random letters (like FE stands for Iron)? Worse yet, how do you teach absolute flawless memorization of 114 single or double letter combinations (like the entire periodic table of 114 elements above) in 5, five, cinco, cinq, oh, cuig minutes? Easy. You'd use "D" like this:

Now that you're starting to see a pattern I'll admit that yes, it is absolutely possible to teach a baby who can't walk to read. To teach the challenging nature of "Phase D" you'd skip ahead and use "H." Now you know how Daniel Tammet, the autistic savant calculates endless streams of prime numbers. Continued: How to Be a Happy 3 Year Old Genius (the online tutoring community).

PS. My 3rd grade teacher, nope. He didn't have a fu-man-chu or mastery of the five-point-heart-stopping-palm-strike-of-death. What he had was a speach impediment from a car accident, a limp from the same, and mastery of the most powerful chi sorcery: love. (Thank you Mr. C!) - Wan Qi Kim. Friend me on FACEBOOK

Next Part: How to Be a Smarter than a Genius -- for Students and Professionals

Also: Mom, How to Raise Your Child The Yoga Way (To Be a Zen Master)

Filed under  //   #hackedu   education   homeschool   kids   master   myyogaonline   school   twisi   twist   yogi   zen   zenmommy  


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