Missives sent over the years to college students assisted by the WKBJ Foundation.

February, 2020: HOPE YOUR WINTER BREAK WAS A USEFUL TIME TO RELAX AND GET YOUR BATTERIES RE-CHARGED FOR THE SPRING SEMESTER.

I continue to roll up the miles and restaurant meals getting together with young people being assisted in their pursuit of higher education. It is gratifying, and often stunning, the incremental insights gained from these conversations. It reminds one of the Amish saying, “too soon old, too late smart.”

Below are some of my learnings, including more than an occasional opinion.

*it is not appropriate or beneficial to bestow “role model” or “leader” labels on high school seniors who have yet to find their way at challenging four-year colleges that are far from home and their community experience. Let those appellations arrive organically, not attached prematurely.

*if a student has done well statistically in his or her high school courses without a responsible adult suggesting that the underlying rigor of the curricula was not high, the chances are good that fully productive study skills have not been learned prior to entering college.

*students say they are not aware of supportive resources at college, while staff of the latter protest that students do not access all those available resources listed on the school website. The difference may be the presence, or more likely absence, of helpful advisors.

*virtually every profession has increased its credential requirement from that of a generation ago, in part reflecting a lack of confidence by employers that the knowledge represented by the previous credentials was on-point to what is needed in today’s world. (Whether the up-credentialing itself is on-point is an interesting question.) In any case, ultimately it is the employer who decides how to value the program of a college or a student’s major.  Lots of data are now available, in contrast to years past; alas, there is no singular equation usable by a student, prospective or current.

*It seems that many young people of my acquaintance have no appetite for life in a corporate cubicle. This does not mean they are necessarily anti-business; in fact, many have an entrepreneurial itch, while typically lacking the capital to get started and, candidly, without a sufficient understanding of the marketing challenges connected to any new venture. It may be that some of what is learned in a corporate environment is useful experience for that prospective entrepreneurial effort.

 April, 2019

Like a typical New Jersey diner menu, the thoughts below are there for your choosing, which ones fit with your current appetite and which ones are for consumption on another day perhaps.

*An exhaustively detailed book titled simply “Principles” was written by, and lists the thoughts of,         Ray Dalio, a hugely successful Wall Streeter, on virtually everything pertinent to human interaction in an organization. He advocates:

Radical transparency: put your thoughts out on the table

Personal ownership: when you commit to something, it is your responsibility to deliver

Write it down: most people cannot remember everything

Search for truth: be skeptical of perceived wisdom, keep digging until satisfied with the “truth”

Idea meritocracy: let the best idea win, regardless of the status of the person with the idea

Evidence-based reasoning: you would think this is obvious, but it is not

Open minded and assertiveness: be flexible in receiving thoughts from others, assert your own ideas

Have clear goals, identify problems and do not let them get in the way; design a plan for that

Be curious; look for people with great questions.

*You have probably become aware of this breakdown:

Left brain: logical, realistic, fact based, non-fiction

Right brain: emotional, artistic, fiction, creative

The author takes this a step further, categorizing people as creators, advancers, refiners, executors (implementers), and flexors (combination of the four types). When you are in a group project, as is increasingly common in a college or workplace environment, it is quite helpful to know which of your colleagues fits with which characterization.

*You will be pleased to know that your academic performance at college not only does not tell an employer about your values, but it does not necessarily provide accurate information about the abilities they are looking for.

*Managers are people who do things right; leaders are people who do the right things

*To find the real answer, ask why seven times

*It is more important to understand than to be understood (the first is possible, the latter is not)

*Associate with believable people with demonstrated records of success

*Intelligence + energy + passion + self-reflection + being proactive = success

January, 2019: HAPPY NEW YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS                                   

(See ending paragraph for some background concerning this communication.)

As you get ready to finish a hopefully somewhat relaxing winter break and prepare for another challenging semester, I am sending a few thoughts stimulated by the book entitled “Deep Work.” Some of the bullet points may be more pertinent to an employment environment than that of a college student – it is up to you to decide which of the points are relevant to your life.

*To maximize time spent on “deep work” (like that major project for Psych class), minimize your time on “shallow work” (how often does that new tweet provide you with an important insight?).

*Time management is the usual umbrella description of a student’s challenge.  The phrase covers a multitude of decisions; make sure that focusing on the most important to-dos is at the top of the list.

*That awesome career goal of yours requires the development of a high-quality skill set, attainable only through an emphasis on deep work.

*Adding specific routines and rituals to your schedule enhances an ability to concentrate on deep work. This can be done in different ways: a set time of day or day of week and a specific location for your highest focus work, with no Internet interruptions permitted.

*Whether it be an objective of being able to fix things or fix people, a person must develop exceptional skills if they intend to become valued employees or entrepreneurs or academicians. The alternative may entail the risk of replacement by machines.

*Being busy with club and activity involvements may be a good thing, generating positive energy which spills over into academic accomplishments. Or it can be the opposite; self-awareness is needed.

*Your professor has heard himself/herself talk many times before; the good ones want to hear from you. Participation in class, where possible, will enhance your ability to do well on difficult subjects.

*High quality work produced = time spent multiplied by intensity of focus. Among other things, this means avoidance of distractions (typically social media-based).

*”The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”    As quoted in “Deep Work,” the speaker being a famous psychologist with the difficult name of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi).

*On occasion, with no artificial push from the professor, having a collaborative partner is beneficial.

*To use the book’s terminology in the context of college, time spent on deep work is a leading factor, while the test result or GPA is a lagging factor. You control the first, but not the second. Think of grades as useful feedback, not conclusive appraisals of your self-worth.

*Do not beat yourself up about those stretches of truly doing nothing or taking a jog, binge-watching a brainless sitcom, whatever. At the same time, be aware of whether giving your mind a reprieve enhances your productivity, which is what scientists say happens with true leisure time.

 *Studies show that multi-tasking is not correlated with deep work success. Training your mind to concentrate intensely has a collateral benefit – you are less attracted to distractions (if you are trying to lose weight, it is helpful to think negatively about ice cream).

*Schedule your Internet time, and when that is done, do not intrude on your non-Internet time. (I realize that colleges are as steeped in the website information/communication world as anybody, so it is not feasible to eliminate periodic checks of that source.)

*It is not enough to justify heavy social media usage by saying you learn something about a subject or a person; you must weigh this use of time against how it could have been used otherwise. Putting more thought into your leisure time activities is a useful way to reduce social media addiction. Facebook and other social media/tech companies want nothing more than converting you into addicts so they can sell your data to businesses seeking productive places to advertise.

*What brings you happiness — how to calibrate your effort (time, focus) in that direction, assuming it is not defined as skipping all your classes in order to lie on the ground and check out cloud formations (actually doing the latter two activities is a good thing, in moderation that is).

*When e-mailing or texting, provide information that will reduce the time spent going back and forth. Example: instead of “when shall we get together to work on our class project,” you might say, “I can meet on Wednesday or Thursday at  3pm or 7pm to work on our project; which is good for you?“

*Every day, declare something a “victory.”

BACKGROUND

One of the joys of getting to know young people is seeing their progress over a long period of time. Recently I traveled to Minot, North Dakota, to see a Latina from New Jersey get pinned as a Captain in the United States Air Force, a tremendous accomplishment.

Not surprisingly in her demanding career, Nesy is a constant reader.  Equally unsurprising is that I am  curious about what people are reading. The book she suggested was “Deep Work,” by Cal Newport.  To say that I found it useful is an understatement. Note that certain of the bullet points above are of my own design and/or are modifications for a college student reader audience.

October, 2019: SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS

Shortly colorful leaves will begin to drop, falling with the temperature — and with one’s emotions when their favorite football team inexplicably fails to win.

Time for a few musings before brain freeze sets in:

*if you are looking for an internship or future employment, go to every Job Fair possible and/or the conference in your major, anyplace you can see a human representative of a company or non-profit organization. Take his or her business card and follow-up.

*If you are approaching graduation and lack complete clarity as to your next step, join the crowd. Half of you are in that position.

*if you are doing well at college and are receiving some financial aid from the school itself, do not be reluctant to push for more money from them. They do not want you to leave. Of students whom a college accepts, slightly less than 30% actually enroll at that school. Keeping you is necessary for the institution’s budget to stay balanced.

*If, like two-thirds of students who have answered my question, you are not enamored with your assigned college advisor, you need to either establish a strong relationship with a favored professor or change advisors. In any case, you should be aware of reading and writing loads when it comes to creating a class schedule.

*Each year with the opening of school, teachers of younger students roll out their suggestions on how to study. Wait, they are useful for everybody and forever:

                Organize your work space so you can find needed information quickly.

                Do the important things first; have a consistent approach to prioritization.

Figure out your own learning method, especially whether bite-sized or big chunks of work can be done at a single sitting. In addition to the benefit of knowing thyself, it impacts on the amount of ramen noodles, pizza, and/or beer that  must be on hand.

Studies have shown that writing stuff down is more likely to put information in the memory bank than typing away on a laptop.

*Many of you have been confronted with discrepancies between your high school GPA and your SAT scores. Do not feel alone. Fully one-sixth of SAT test-takers receive scores which are not in synch with their GPA results.

*Maybe a couple of semesters in, some of you may think you miss the rah rah sports scene of a much bigger school and are wondering about transferring, which often the media misrepresents as being an easy thing that lots of students do. Not so fast; there are multiple issues involved. If appropriate, perhaps it is better to “get away” from the presumed dullness of your existing college by taking a semester abroad and returning refreshed.

*Leadership qualities commonly cited in the workplace are fairness, consistency, honesty, and empowerment of those below you. Hmm, these traits are probably useful in leading a school class project, or a fraternity/sorority, or a volunteer effort.

*All the talk about having a passion is true and misleading at the same time. In order for the passion to become a career, it must be an area in which you have or are developing a particular skill and where you have an awareness of how that skill/passion works in the real world, one with employers who have their own axes to grind and one where accreditation/licenses could well be necessary to use that skill/passion.

*Periodically, you may need to remind your mother, grandmother, dad, best friend, and/or significant other that you are not them, nor your cousin, nor anybody except … YOU!

August, 2019:

HELLO COLLEGIANS: ANOTHER IN MY SERIES OF RANDOM AND UNCONNECTED WRITINGS                                        

*Everybody is ready for the Fall semester – yes?  Or simply trying to stay cool or working or interning.

Seniors are nervous as they think about the reality of life after graduation. (They also need to double-check that they have all the credits needed to walk; my trust in college administrators is not high.)

Juniors are beginning to think/worry about becoming seniors.

Sophomores are conflicted – do they love, like, or dislike their current college.

Freshmen are hopeful and nervously eager for the journey, while their parents are nervous about their “babies” leaving the house and entering a world which mom and dad cannot control.

*According to Pew Research, this is the breakdown among Americans of attitudes toward information: 22% of adults are “eager and willing” to pursue information. There are more minorities than whites in this bracket, 16% are confident in their handling of information. This bracket skews white, educated, affluent, 13% are considered “ambivalent” about information; they are labeled “cautious and curious,.” 49% are “relatively wary of information,” comprised of 24% who are doubtful about conventional information sources and 25% (older white males especially) who have minimal trust in  information sources.

From this breakdown, it is easy to see why President Trump stands a good chance of being re-elected. With minimal exceptions (the impact from the tariff battles being the primary one), his base has not been shaken significantly and the bicoastal media/intellectual elites (who are lopsidedly anti-Trump) find it difficult to create bite-sized messages which make an impact on the above 49% category.

*It is mandatory for those of any age, not only those in the political arena, to be able to step outside themselves and engage the opposition in a respectful fashion. It is also wishful thinking in the United States of 2019. Maybe the whole political mess will continue to be dominated by name-calling, with worthwhile programmatic ideas buried under the vituperation. Nevertheless, to not know your enemy’s argument is to not really know your own.

*Meanwhile, back in the prospective classroom, if you are struggling academically in a class, seek help from the professor and/or a tutor and/or the smartest person in the class and/or Khan Academy.

*Interesting question from company interviewers: “what is the last book you read?” And presumably, this means an actual book, not an abbreviated on-line version, with subject matter that has not been part of a class curriculum.

*Self-reflective and proactive … the mantra of success