• Computer programmers (at least 3 that are awesome)
• IT architect
• IT project manager with a huge budget
• Interior designer/contractor
• Biotech ethicist
• Musicians (some of whom have toured in bands you may have heard of)
• Apple sales rep
• PA on a night time talk show
• IT consulting recruiter for entertainment companies
• Product manager at a huge social networking web site
• Cartoonists/animators
• Illustrators
• Industrial designers
• Web, print, and environmental designers
• Trade show organizer
• Published author
• Real estate agent
• Veterinarian
• Entrepreneurs
• Teachers
• Civil engineer/land developer
• Attorneys
• Ph.D.s and Ph.D. candidates
• TV and film editors
• Classically trained pianists
• Integrated circuit and vacuum tube historian/dealer
• Globe trotting college students

That’s a quickie list off the top of my head. Some of them are in my family, some are friends, some are past coworkers, but all are people I could call if I needed advice in their field.

I don’t consider myself a master networker or social butterfly. If anything I’ve got a propensity for solitude, so if you’re reasonably outgoing and accomplished you should have a list even better than mine.

So, the next time you feel like you’re stuck, check your rolodex. You just might discover a hidden army of very smart people that would love to see you succeed.

The single best thing most people could do to improve their lives is to stop watching TV. It saps your energy and your time. TV is a really easy brain dead default: “I don’t know what to do, maybe I’ll turn on the television.” Also, 99% of shows are total crap designed to deliver advertisements. Remember, unless you’re watching pay channels like HBO, you are not the “customer” of a TV network, the advertiser is. Episodic shows are written to get you hooked but the stories don’t actually go anywhere. Law and Order, CSI, and soap operas are the best at this. Each episode follows a formula down to the minute in order to maximize lead ins to commercials.

So what to do? Instead of watching TV the old broken way, try the following:

1. Cancel your cable. Without cable it’s impossible to let your night slip away while you sit there unconsciously flipping through channels.
2. Only watch what you really love. There’s no point in watching a show just out of loyalty or habit. I loved Battlestar Galactica, but after about 2 seasons it started sliding so I gave up on it. Note that TV shows, like rock albums, tend to have a sophomore slump. It’s probably because the first effort is a labor of love that takes years while the second effort is an obligation churned out in a rush.
3. Get a Mac laptop and whatever adapter you need to hook it up to your TV (PCs will work, but Macs have Frontrow and a really sweet tiny remote). Now you can watch DVDs, YouTube, photo slideshows, iTunes shows, FrontRow movie previews, and shows streamed from ABC.com and other sources on your living room TV. See below for info about cables.
4. Subscribe to Netflix: You’ll be able to rent movies, TV shows, how to videos, and best of all you won’t be buying DVDs that clutter up your house. You also get a certain amount of hours a month to steam video directly to your computer. Unfortunately Netflix streaming is Windows only, but it works under Parallels and Bootcamp.
5. Go to CBS.com, ABC.com, and other websites of your favorite channels. You’ll probably be able to watch your show for free, in full screen, at reasonable quality, with limited commercial interruptions.
6. Get on iTunes what the network sites won’t stream.
7. Stop watching cable and local news entirely. That’s what the internet is for.
8. What about live sports? The truth is, most games aren’t really worth watching. Just catch the highlight clips online. If there is a can’t miss game, go to a sports bar or bring some chips and beers to a friends house. It’s more fun to watch with a crowd anyway.
9. Just wait for full season DVDs. I hate waiting a week for episodes, and odds are the quality of the show will deteriorate anyway (compare Sopranos seasons 1-2 with everything that came after).

Congratulations, you’ve just eliminated your DVD player and cable box while creating a portable media center computer.

Shortly after the first Matrix movie came out in 1999 I had an idea for a sci-fi story that was totally derivative.

It went like this:

In the near future, computers are orders of magnitude more powerful than they are today. Unfortunately (or not) they have still not attained the fuzzy and moist intelligence of your average human. Because of this, certain calculations are best done by raw human wetware. Companies or governments with hairy math problems that needed these calculations would hire you to plug your brain into a Matrixy computer. For five years you’d be unconscious, there would be no “virtual life”, but you’d be paid as if you’d worked 20 years.

Several years later I realized that people already do exactly this for much less money. Maybe my unconscious mind was telling me not to take that cushy cubicle job.

I’m convinced that most people only spend 1-2 hours a day actually working. Of that time spent, a lot of it is “meta work”, endless emails, scheduling, and such. When you go to work and sit in your cube you’re behaving pretty much like a CPU. Most of the time you’re at 99% idle, but you need to be there and “on” just in case someone needs some processing done.

For more good reasons not to work for the man, check out Steve Pavlina’s 10 reasons you should never get a job.

When I’m feeling unproductive or doubtful, I think about people who did really hard stuff and compare my tasks with theirs: “If Hannibal could make elephants dance across the Alps, I can succeed in ‘X’.”

Two of my new heroes are Richard E. Hoyt Jr. and his father Dick. I’ve excerpted some of Richard’s letter to his dad below. You can read the whole thing and see video of Richard and Dick at Men’s Health.

What My Father Means to Me

My name is Richard E. Hoyt Jr., and I have cerebral palsy. I cannot speak or walk. To write this story, I’m using a computer with special software. When I move my head slightly, the cursor moves across an alphabet. When it gets to the letter I want, I press a switch at the side of my head.

I am half of Team Hoyt. We are a father-and-son team, and we compete in marathons and triathlons around the world. Our goal is to educate people about how the disabled can lead normal lives. We started racing in 1979. My high school was having a road race to raise money for a lacrosse player who was paralyzed in an accident. I wanted to show this athlete that life can go on, so I asked my dad if he would push me. My wheelchair was not built for racing, but Dad managed to push me the entire 5 miles. We came in next to last, but in the photos of us crossing the finish line, I was smiling from ear to ear!

…

People often ask me, “What would you do if you were not disabled?” When I was first asked, I said I’d probably play baseball or hockey. But when I thought about it some more, I realized that I’d tell my father to sit down in my wheelchair so I could push him. If it weren’t for him, I’d probably be living in a home for people with disabilities. He is not just my arms and legs. He’s my inspiration, the person who allows me to live my life to the fullest and inspire others to do the same.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad. And thank you.

-Richard E. Hoyt Jr