On My Grind

Um, What Happened to On My Grind?

2012-05-02T20:33:11Z

Hey guys! I'm sure you've noticed my lack of posts the past half year. I finally decided to write a quick post to explain what happened. I was working super, super hard last Fall...doing internships, blogging, volunteering, all on top of a full-time job. I was loving it but as soon as I went on vacation late October, I crashed hard. I didn't realized how badly burned out I was until I left the country. It was a wonderful two weeks in Asia, but when I came back, I didn't want to do anything.

I kept trying to get back into the swing of things and just couldn't understand why it wasn't happening. It made me reevaluate a lot of things, and I realized I was doing a lot of things out of habit and inertia, rather than doing them because I still actually enjoyed them and wanted to.

So, On My Grind was one of the first things to go. I've absolutely loved writing here the past year or so, but I was no longer as passionate about business and entrepreneurship as when I first started OMG. Over time, the blog developed a bit of an identity crisis and inspiration dried up. I do see myself writing or doing work in the career/work/business area again soon, but not right now. I'm focusing on some other areas of life for a little bit, and figuring out some next steps. Thank you so much for reading On My Grind! I will really miss it.

Lastly, I wanted to share my latest project with you. I've always been interested in nutrition and recently got REALLY into cooking and clean eating! I volunteer at my local farmer's market and have been documenting my cooking adventures and writing about good food at Eating Clean in the Dirty City. Enjoy!

Blog Action Day 2011: Food (and Famine)

2011-10-16T12:41:00Z

Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event uniting bloggers all over the world by posting about the same issue on the same day. This year, Blog Action Day coincides with World Food Day, so it only makes sense that our topic is food. When I think of food, two basic problems come to mind:

A lot of people in developing (and developed) countries don't have enough access to food and nutrition.
A lot of people in developed countries choose not to get enough food and nutrition.

Rather than throw a bunch of statistics at you, I'm going to keep it simple. You already know these are two big issues we face. We go about our lives while our brothers and sisters are starving in other countries. At the same time, we've stopped looking at food as nourishing fuel for our bodies, and have started stuffing ourselves silly with the cheapest food we could engineer, yet still suffer from malnutrition.

1,500 or so bloggers have taken time out to write and spread awareness today. I encourage you to take a little time out of your day to think about these two problems. Then take action. I implore you to do just one small thing to help the food and famine problems today. Just one baby step. Here are some ideas if you don't know what to do:

Pick up a copy of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food or Nina Planck's Real Food
Sign One.org's petition to fund Feed the Future
Donate money to any organization that feeds the hungry
Sign up to volunteer at the soup kitchen
Skip the supermarket and fast food and shop at your local farmers market
Talk to your kids about healthy food and cook with them tonight
Watch a documentary on food and nutrition, like Food, Inc.
Make a Kiva loan in the food sector
Go without industrial meat today
Spread awareness to your networks

And once you've done one baby step, why stop there? Food is a universal need, it binds us all together. Everyone deserves a real, nutritious meal, and so many of us aren't getting one. What are you going to do about it?

Friday Fun: Nope.

2011-10-14T12:16:49Z

Update: my no-chart was featured on GOOD's blog. Awesome. Now go make your own.

During the whole Anthony Weiner fiasco, you may have seen GOOD's hilarious "flowchart" answering the question of whether it's ok to tweet that 'dick pic'. The answer is of course nope, and now GOOD Labs let's you make your own No-Chart. I took this photo last week as I passed by the Occupy Wall Street movement, and pondered whether bankers could have Wall Street back. You know the answer.

So, Going Back to School Won't Solve Your Problems. But Here's What You Can Do.

2011-10-08T17:48:12Z

If you still aren't convinced by my posts about how higher education is broken here and here, then let's talk about the 99 Percent. Out of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement here in New York came the Tumblr "We Are the 99 Percent". The blog shows photo after photo of people holding their handwritten story, like the picture above. Ezra Klen wrote a very poignant post on WashingtonPost.com about the "99 percent" of this country who played by the system's rules and wound up in tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and still struggle to get by each day.

“I did everything I was supposed to and I have nothing to show for it.”

I hope we are in the midst of an education revolution and the system changes soon, but I have some ideas for what you and I can do in the meantime. Education is still plays a big part in your career and fulfilling your potential. It's just that our idea of education is too narrow. We think education = schools and degrees. A new model for education has quietly been brewing under the radar the past couple of years: DIY education. Who says you need to spend half of your life paying off loans in order to get the professional development and skills you need to get ahead? There are so many resources out there that are free or cheap, effective, and level the playing field. Sure, they require some self motivation but if you're not motivated, then you have no right to complain. Here are some ideas for you to pick and choose from. Don't get overwhelmed, just get started.

FREE EDUCATION

The internet is your teacher - You're already using it everyday. Why not put those internet research skills to good use? Practice and play around with software you need to learn. Subscribe to a podcast and teach yourself Spanish. Fill in your knowledge gaps with Google searches and YouTube videos. You'd be surprised how many free tutorials are out there. (Ever found a question Google couldn't answer?) Massive amounts of information are at your fingertips. It can either give you knowledge and power, or waste half your waking hours on meaningless web browsing. The choice is yours. Need more structure? Here's a bunch of resources for free classes:

Khan Academy is an amazing website with a library of over 2,600 educational videos on just about every subject.
Open Courseware Consortium offers free notes, lectures, and exams from 200 institutions. Check out MIT's Opencourseware which is one of the oldest and best courseware sites out there.
Stanford Engineering Everywhere offers some free notes and lectures.
Einztein finds free online courses from different sources and lets users rate them.
Flat World Knowledge offers textbooks that are free online, affordable offline, open-licensed, and customizable.
Codeacademy teaches you how to program.
Layers is the "How-to Magazine for Everything Adobe" with tutorials for Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamwearver, etc.
I'm not exactly sure how Hangout Academy will work, but if you're an early adopter, the platform launches soon and will use Google+ hangouts for education.
For more ideas, check out The Edupunk's Guide: How to do Research Online. Be sure to read the rest of the Edupunk's Guide series, lots of good stuff in there.

I've mentioned Stanford Engineering above, but wanted to make a note that they've taken it to another level this Fall with an experiment in distributed education offering free online, interactive courses to student worldwide. Right now they have Intro to Databases, Intro to Machine Learning, and Intro to Artificial Intelligence. Let's hope Stanford, as well as other universities, expand programs like these.

Audit classes - This might be a tricky one to pull off, but definitely worth looking into if you're already a student or employee at a college, or know professors. If you're granted permission (or sneak in), informally auditing a class is awesome. You don't get credit, but you get to learn for free in a classroom setting and not have to worry about grades.

CHEAP EDUCATION

Read like a maniac - Hold off on the romance novels and latest John Grisham for now. Pick up a book on something that will teach you something, may it be high level management concepts, or a practical guide to learning a software you don't know. As much as people make fun of self-help, a personal development book and can do wonders for your productivity and career too.

Play with new technology - Ever met those old-timer computer science people who were programmers a while back and now somehow don't know how to use Outlook or Word? It's so important to keep up with technology. It's a game that will constantly change. If you don't learn how to adapt, you lose. I always try to at least play around with or familiarize myself with new software, hardware, and media. I use a PC for work and Apple at home so I know both platforms. Don't become a dinosaur.

Hit up your friends - Do you have friends with a skill you want to learn? Take advantage and ask if they can teach you at a discounted rate (I wouldn't suggest demanding it to be free). If you have no money, barter. Trade web design classes for yoga classes, for example, or offer a service like dog walking or mowing their lawn.

Lynda.com - Lynda.com isn't super cheap but if you can afford $25 a month, you'll have access to 67,000+ really high-quality software tutorials. It's $37.50 if you want the exercise files too.

Save on your undergraduate degree - This is great for people who want an undergraduate degree. I came across this article about Straightliner--a company that offers online courses and partners up with universities that accept their transfer credits. The best part? For $99 per month, you can take as many college courses as you like for $39 per course. You'll still have to finish up at a college but imagine how much tuition money you'll be saving, plus you can complete Straightliner's courses on your own schedule.

HANDS-ON "EDUCATION"

Stop being stubborn and do some unpaid work - Gen-Y is notorious for thinking they're above everything. This isn't the time to complain that you deserve to be paid. If you can't get the work you want, get some experience in the field by offering to do unpaid work. You get to learn, you get to network, you'll have more references for your job search, and you'll have work experience for your resume. If anything, unpaid work is really cheap, effective professional development.

Volunteer - Aside from unpaid professional work, volunteering for not-for-profits is a great way to show you are active in your community and meet a lot of people. If you do it for long enough, you can even gain leadership experience you may not get in your professional life.

Freelance or be a slasher - Really can't afford unpaid work right now? Freelance or be a "slasher" (e.g. actress-slash-waitress, marketing analyst-slash-barista). Use your skills and hustle on the side. Not only can you earn more money, you also gain experience and expand your network.

Network, network, network - Forget networking events. Just get in the habit of talking to and meeting people everyday. It doesn't matter where or how. It can be on Twitter, it can be at a party, it can be at a 5K race. You can make great connections is the strangest of places. The more you expand your circle, the more you can learn from others, hear about opportunities, or be able to ask for help.

Get involved - Change your attitude and participate in life to the fullest extent that you can. You never know what may come out of doing something. Follow organizations and publications you like and interact with them. Don't lurk on websites-- comment or offer help. You'll be surprised at what you can learn from things that didn't seem to have anything to do with your professional life, and that end up helping your career. Less hesitating, more doing. That's the best education of all.

What are your favorite ways or learning without enrolling in school? Please share in the comments!

Friday Fun: Turning Japanese

2011-09-30T14:44:52Z

Happy Friday! Absolutely nothing to do with business and productivity, but as I love travel and different cultures, I'm sharing this video with y'all. It's an awesome 15 minute film by my friend Anthony, documenting his New Yorker cousin's trip to Japan. See how to put on a kimono and serve tea, a stressful game of Jenga, and a bad encounter with raw fish. Go give him some YouTube love.

In other news, I'm quoted on AlterNet. Czech it out.

Reasons For and Against Grad School

2011-09-30T12:05:05Z

I wrote about how we're in a education bubble last week. You may feel torn. Yes, the watering down of advanced degrees and the piling up of student loan debt is worrisome . It's unsustainable and you don't want to partake in the current system because something is going to go down sooner or later. On the other hand, if you opt out of postgraduate education, you feel like you're limiting yourself and will be underqualified when everyone you're competing against has a Master's degree. So even if you didn't want to go grad school, you feel like you still have to, just so that you don't hit your ceiling.

It's a tricky spot to be in. Postgraduate education has a lot of appeal in this shitty job market, but right now I personally only see three crystal clear justifications for going for postgraduate education that I am 100% comfortable endorsing:

It's literally stopping you from getting your dream job: You know exactly what you want to do. You have found your life calling. You will never be happy until you get to do this specific job, and there is absolutely no way you can get into that line of work without the degree(s). If this is truly the case, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
You hustled and get to go to a good school for free/cheap: Not going to pretend I know anything about schorlarships or financial aid, but if you somehow were resourceful and found a way to go to school for free as a graduate assistant, or you won some crazy grant money, awesome. I will say, however, it's only beneficial if you go to a top school. Going to a subpar postgrad program that doesn't challenge you, help you find a job, or allow you to network with amazing people is only going to delay the real world for two years. You'd be better off working on your career.
You have endless funds and it really, really, doesn't matter what you do with your life: I still think there are better things to do than go back to school even if you're loaded, but if you have so much money that you can do whatever you want and you'd love to go back to school, go for it!

I'm guessing these three scenarios don't apply to most of us. Here are some popular reasons for going to grad school that are questionable at best:

You want to escape working for a year or two
You feel like you can't move up at your current job
You think it will make all the difference on your resume
You don't care about debt (You should. This is real money, folks.)
You think everyone will be lining up to offer you a job when you have a Master's
You are going to get kicked out of the country and want to stay on that student visa
It's not about getting a job-- you want to learn and be intellectually challenged
You impulsively decide you want to completely change field and need a degree
You don't know what else to do

Don't get me wrong, I love school. Had I the money, I'd be there right now. But with the average masters' graduate oweing about $30,000, and the average library card costing about $0...you do the math. Can't afford that Master's but still want to get your learning on? I have some excellent ideas. Check back next week.

Mashable and 92Y's Social Good Summit Recap

2011-09-23T23:15:44Z

I know I promised ideas on what you can do if you don't want to be part of the education bubble, but we'll have to save the rest of the higher education mini-series for later. I have something exciting I want to share with you today. If you haven't heard, Mashable, 92Y, and the United Nations Foundation came together to present the Social Good Summit in New York City this week. The summit hosted discussions on today's global challenges, and how new media and social good intersect. Leaders of the social responsibility and activism worlds were invited to speak at the event.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend Wednesday's discussions and presentations. Being a fan of technology and new media, it was really cool to hear the ways it has been instrumental in social good and helping causes. We have this image of not-for-profits not being tech-savvy and always being a few steps behind the business world, but the Social Good Summit showed some great examples of smart, forward-thinking organizations and people in the not-for-profit world.

Most importantly, it was an inspiring event and a reminder that there are so many issues we don't think about, and suffering we can help stop. When the day ended, I felt an urge to get involved somehow, but when there's so much to be done, where does one even begin? The message I personally received was do something. No matter how small or large, take a step--any step--today. May it be in the form of donations, volunteering, or spreading awareness to your network, we can do something now. Like with everything else, worry about the perfect plan later and just get started.

RECAP OF SOCIAL GOOD SUMMIT: WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21 2011

Social Good Award Presented by the UN Foundation

President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania was presented an award from the United Nations Foundation for his commitment to further technology and new media solutions in Tanzania.

First Ladies, First Tweets

Madam Tobeka Zuma and Dr. Ida Odinga, "First Ladies" of South Africa and Kenya, sent their first tweets ever on stage.

How Micro-Financing is Enabling Social Change

Matthew Bishop of The Economist talked to Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Founder of the Grameen Bank. A trailer of the documentary about bringing his revolutionary microfinance program to the US, To Catch a Dollar, was played for the audience. Dr. Yunus discussed the idea of social business, where investment, not charity, is the sustainable model.

Inventing the Future with Little Bets: New Ways to Solve Social Problems

Peter Sims, author, speaker and entrepreneur, made a presentation on his book, Little Bets. He talked about how the problem with education is that we're trained not to make mistakes or fail, when that's exactly what we need to be doing to start great things and create the future. Oh, and how cool does Fuse Corps look?

The Transformational Power of Skype in the Classroom

CEO of Skype, Tony Bates, talks about exciting things happening with Skype in the Classroom. You've got a very powerful teaching tool when it transcends geography, time, and culture-- giving your students access to people they never had in the past. I'm personally still concerned about streaming/video quality, but this could be huge. My favorite part was a story about a school that has a pen-pal type program with a school in Afghanistan through Skype. What a way to break down bias without leaving your city.

One Day on Earth – The World's Story is Your to Tell

One Day on Earth is a project that aims to tell the world's story through video, simultaneously filming in every country of the world on one day. Last year's event on 10/10/10 will become a feature film, as well as a unique geo-tagged video archive. Brandon Litman, Co-founder and Executive Producer of One Day on Earth, and Boaz Paldi, Head of Video Unit United Nations Development Programme, discussed the project and play the trailer. It looks awesome, can't wait to watch it. And it's happening again on 11/11/11.

How Clean Cooking Technologies Can Change the World

Chef José Andrés, and Radha Muthiah, Executive Director of Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, talked about how cooking shouldn't kill, but it does. Smoke in the home is one of the world's leading killers, who knew?

Sparking a Global Conversation Between Moms Online

Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News’ Chief Health and Medical Editor and Juju Chang, Correspondent for 20/20 and Nightline discussed the issues that directly impact pregnancy, childbirth and children's health in the developing world, as well as the Million Moms Challenge. I just read Made to Stick and yikes, here's an image that will stick better than any statistic: the number of children who die from malnutrition in the world is equivalent to eight fully loaded school buses crashing and killing every kid on board, every hour of everyday.

We are Stronger Together: The Transformative Power of Human Connection – The Elders

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland, talked about Girls Not Brides and how optimism and energy are so important when it comes to trying to make social change. Or as Archbishop Tutu said, he's not an optimist, but a prisoner of hope. I wish I took a video of this one. The Archbishop is so engaging and humorous, and has an awesome laugh!

Surprise Guest: Richard Gere

Richard Gere randomly stopped by. While he is cautious of social media, he did talk a lot about his philosophies on social good and the universal family we are.

Digital Technology and Peace-Building in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Ronit Avni, Founder and Executive Just Vision, and Helga Tawil-Souri, Assistant Professor in Media at New York University discussed both the role and the limitations of new media in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as the recent Arab Revolutions.

Social Media for Global Good: It's Not Just Who You Know

Kate James, Chief Communications Officer of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation talked about new media efforts in the fight to completely eradicate polio. We're 99% done-- but why stop there? Always uplifting to hear we're winning a fight. Watch this awesome video from their campaign.

Vaccines and a Movement to Save Lives

Every 20 seconds we lose a child that could have been saved by a vaccine. Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta, Senior Fellow at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Chrysula Winegar, Mother and Entrepreneur, discussed Shot @ Life and what moms can do.

Before you Enroll in Grad School, Consider this. We're in an Education Bubble.

2011-09-14T12:45:56Z

Here in the US, we have this traditional model for education. The one where you get your Bachelor's, probably a Master's too, and massive amounts of debt. While technology is becoming increasingly important in every aspect of life, your classes are probably going to use outdated methods to teach you. Then the only time you seek more education is when you or your company pays for some expensive professional development class or certification training. Maybe you'll also attend a conference at a hotel where no one really learns anything, and all parties involved have a wasted a lot of money for you to sit around and consume the burnt coffee and subpar food. But you did get away from the office for a couple of days, which is delightful, because you hate your job.

This model is dying. Or if it's not in fact dying, it needs to. I'm supposedly part of this progressive (and notorious) "Generation Y", yet save a few, we're also still stuck in this last century thinking. Our parents and grandparents have always emphasized the importance of a college education, but does this mindset still make sense now that a degree is worth so much less compared to just a few decades ago? The people who are making money are the ones who thought outside the box, the creators. In these not-so-rosy economic times, we're witnessing a vicious cycle of young people unable to get the work they want, so they pay insane tuition and fees to go back to school. They believe another degree is the answer. After graduation, when they need money more than ever to pay back their loans, they still can't find an ideal job. Now the labor pool is flooded with people who have postgraduate degrees and are desperate for work. Employers are overwhelmed with the number of applicants and, in response, demand higher qualifications as a way to filter the applications. Yet higher education institutions continue selling something that doesn't exist-- a guarantee of a better future. Something's gotta give.

We are in a higher education bubble, and it's going to burst soon. Colleges need to rethink the way they do business and how they educate their students, instead of giving them false hope that postgraduate degrees are an "investment" and that companies will be lining up to hire them. They need to do a better job of giving their students the tools and skills they need for the real world, at a cheaper price. I have faith that academic leaders are becoming more savvy and will come up with a better model, but it's not going to be a quick fix.

My peers get extremely defensive when I talk about this, because most of them went for postgraduate degrees. It isn't their fault, and they shouldn't regret it if their degree didn't get them the job they wanted. This isn't about individual cases. This is a far bigger problem. It's a national belief, and we're all seduced by colleges' promises of awesome job opportunities. There are definitely some postgraduate programs that are exceptions, but overall, higher education as it is right now is not sustainable. The system will, and has to, change. People are going to keep buying into it for the time being regardless, but at least stop and really weigh your options before you jump into an expensive postgraduate program just because you don't like your job. The slow transformation of higher education may not be in your control, but there is plenty of other things you can do to better yourself, and even better the world.

You might think this is your cue to use colleges/the economy/Wall Street/"the man" as your excuse to do nothing. There are other things you can do besides going back to school. Check back next week-- I'll be making some suggestions on what you can do.

Hell Yes, I Take a Lunch Break!

2011-08-26T21:15:19Z

Q: What do you think of eating at your desk?

I saw this poll on Life Inc. about lunch breaks and was shocked at the results. As of right now, the poll results say 61% of you don't ever take a lunch break. That is CRAZY. I personally take one almost everyday. Technically, I do eat at my desk while I work, but that's because I spent my lunch hour running. You may say something defensive along the lines of "yea, I don't have the luxury and time you have, I'm super busy" But really, do you use every minute of your work day productively? Are you focused? Is your mind drifting while you prop yourself up with sugar and your 3rd coffee?

We're not designed to sit down for over 8 hours straight banging out work and be able to sustain that energy and productivity. You know what's really productive? Recharging your batteries mid-day so that you can work even harder. It doesn't matter even matter if I'm having a really slow, shitty morning-- my lunch break turns my day around. I always return refreshed and more motivated to get my work done than I was in the morning.

Let's stop pretending skipping lunch makes us better employees. America, let's make the lunch hour cool again. And if you're not crazy like me running 3 miles on your break, at least step away from your desk. Go for a walk. Refresh your mind. Your boss will thank you.

Sister Face-Off on Twitter! (Hint: I lose)

2011-08-13T13:15:45Z

I just realized I never put this up on OMG. If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably already seen this. Visual.ly is a new and exciting place for sharing and (eventually) creating infographics. While we're still waiting for the labs, Visualy.ly does have a "Twitterize Yourself" tool. Here's how I compare with my sister. Sad.