Metaphorical Thinking – The Guest Metaphor

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Metaphorical Thinking – Introduction Metaphorical Thinking – the Cloud Metaphors Metaphorical Thinking – the Guest Metaphor Metaphorical Thinking – the Web Metaphors There are two instances that the metaphor of guest can explain or enhance: treat our children as guests in our life, and how our body is a guesthouse for our emotions. The first meaning is an idea coined by Haim Ginott, a mentor to John Gottman (Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child), Adele Faber (How to Talk so Kids will Listen…) or Laura …

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The National Bank of Parents: a Simple Financial Education Strategy for Children

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I talked in Letters to my daughter: Build your “f*ck off” fund article about the importance of financial education from an early age.   In this article, I will present our strategy to teach our four and a half-year-old daughter how to manage her money responsibly. Most of this strategy is based on The First National Bank of Dad: The Best Way to Teach Kids About Money book written by David Owen. He introduced this strategy to his children, aged six and ten at the time. Once a child can …

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Shoshin, the Zen Concept that Applies to Companies, Science and Personal Development

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“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s, there are few.”  Zen master Shunryo Suzuki  In Zen Buddhism, “shoshin” translates as the “beginner’s mind”, where “sho” means beginning or origin, and “shin” means spirit, soul, or attitude.  A beginner’s mind is different from being a beginner. Shoshin is about having the attitude and mindset of a novice who learns a new practice for the first time, especially after reaching expert levels in our fields.    In the beginner’s mind, there is a lack of preconceptions, a willingness to learn, to ask and try, …

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The Four Styles of Parenting

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The four styles of parenting

Based on the research of Diana Baumrind, Eleanor Maccoby (extremely influential in child psychology and developmental psychology, her Wikipedia page is well worth a read) and John Martin, there are four types of parenting styles:  Neglectful Parenting  Low emotional support, low expectations Detached from a child’s feelings and behaviours  As the name of this category implies, there is not much interaction between a neglectful parent and their children. Such parents are uninvolved in their children’s lives: they do not ask children about school, they do not know their children’s friends or spend much time with …

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Everyday Productivity Insights from Great Artists

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A creative person is one, who enjoys, above all, the company of his own mind. Anything done well, from baking a souffle to putting together a winning stock portfolio is creative. The trick to creativity, if there is a single useful thing to say about it, is to identify your own peculiar talent and then settle down to work with it for a good long time. Everyone has an aptitude for something. The trick is to recognize it, to work with it… The problem is that the things you’re good at …

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Insleepia

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You visited me again last nightAnd I woke up again in fright.I didn’t know what else to do.Should I have screamed? Should I have welcomed you? You bring me gifts of smoke.You’re in my head.You’re all the stories that I couldn’t write,All the shadows that never leave without a fight.You bring me gifts of light.You’re in my hand.And when you cover the entire houseYou let me see the unseen part of me.The one who feels at times denied.The one who’d write all nightUntil the …

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The Ethical Dilemma of Modern Content Creation and User Privacy

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Currently, browsing the web without using an ad-blocker or better browsers looks like shopping in the middle of a pandemic without a mask. Viruses are everywhere, and they take advantage of their future hosts. Third-party tracking, collecting, sharing, or selling users’ personal information, paywalls, popups, clickbait titles, and scams all produce a broken web experience.  How many times did I not want to read an article only to feel trapped like the Romans in the Caudine Forks?   Mortal, disable your adblocker if you want to read this post. Then accept my …

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Letters to my Daughter: Build Your “F*ck Off” Fund

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It is true what they say. Money does not bring happiness. Money buys freedom. Freedom to leave a job. Freedom to manage an economic recession. Freedom to take a leave when you feel burned out. Freedom to leave a country. Freedom to own a house. Freedom to leave an abusive relationship. My daughter, having your own emergency fund should be your top priority. You are buying a part of your freedom with an emergency fund. Read this article that renamed emergency fund to a …

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