The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

The movie “The Secret” is entirely fake

March 15, 2007

Psychology
I recently saw the movie The Secret, a pseudo-documentary that explains The Law of Attraction. There are things in this movie that need a rebuttal and I haven’t found one elsewhere – so here’s mine.

The arguments and explanations put forward in The Secret are generally unscientific, mystical, nonsensical or just plain wrong.

But first, what is The Law of Attraction (TLoA)? Let’s say you’re poor and really want to be rich. Instead of always complaining about being poor and always focusing on what you don’t have, TLoA says that you should visualize yourself as rich. See yourself in this situation. Feel what you would feel if you were in that situation. Then, somehow, money will come to you.

Simply stated, it is the belief that what you focus on is what you get (or create for yourself), and there is some truth to that – but not for any of the mystical reasons claimed in this terrible movie.

These are my major beefs with the movie:

1: The movie claims that famous people knew “the secret”

The movie indicates that a number of famous people knew “the secret”, including Einstein, Plato, Newton and Edison. However, the movie offers no proof that any of these people knew of, agreed with or used the law of attraction.

2: The movie claims that TLoA is kept secret

The movie also claims that the people in power in society and business have long known of this law and worked to keep it from the rest of us. Scenes are shown of people being persecuted for trying to steal the secret and (I assume) bring it out to the rest of us.

No proof of this is offered and to the best of my knowledge, no conscious effort has ever been made to keep TLoA secret.

3: The movie talks about electromagnetic waves/vibrations as the explanation for TLoA

The movie claims that since thoughts are electromagnetic waves, every thought we have spreads to and affects our surroundings, and this is why our thinking affects the universe. The movie repeatedly shows people who, as they visualize their goals, generate a wave or signal that emanates from their heads. In some of the cases, this wave is seen to spread over the entire Earth.

There are many things wrong with this assertion, primarily the fact that while thoughts are, at least in part, electromagnetic waves, there is no scientific indication that our brain waves alter the world around us in any meaningful way.

4: The movie uses quantum flapdoodle. Badly.

The movie also offers explanations from quantum physics as evidence of why TLoA works. I happen to have studied a lot of quantum physics at university, and I can safely say that the explanations offered in the movie are a prime example of what Murray Gell-Mann called quantum flapdoodle, i.e. “hijacking the terminology of modern science without understanding the underlying concepts or employing any of the intellectual rigour intrinsic to scientific inquiry”.

5: The movie claims that the universe will provide

But my greatest beef with the movie is the claim that whatever you sit down and imagine in this way, the universe will provide. Almost as if the universe is a big vending machine: Insert sincere wish here, pull out cold coke (or shiny new Ferrari) here.

That seems to me to be a very mechanical, shallow, self-serving description of the universe.

The upshot

I believe that TLoA is sort of real.

But this is my point: Changing your thinking changes nothing out there, in the vast universe surrounding you. It changes something inside of you. Changing your perception, your focus, your emotions and your thinking from negative to positive (from what you lack to what you want) has an effect on your internal state – your motivation, energy and creativity and that’s why you may then be more efficient working towards your goals. It’s that simple.

No electromagnetic waves emanate from your head, magically transforming the universe. No mystical vibrations affect your surroundings. Changing your thinking does not change the quantum states of objects around you in any reliable, useful way. The universe doesn’t stand ready to grant your every wish.

Rather, you change yourself and THEN you change your circumstances. It works through a combination of entirely non-mystical, psychological and rational mechanisms, including confirmation bias and optimism.

The Secret offers precisely zero evidence that it could ever be otherwise, and instead proposes a number of mystical, unscientific and entirely unproved explanations. That’s why looking to this movie for explanations and insight will weaken your understanding of the TLoA and reduce your ability to successfully employ it.

So, while the law of attraction is real(ish), “The Secret”, quite simply, is fake!

PS.
And don’t get me started on What the Bleep do We Know – that one is even worse :o)

UPDATE:
I’ve disabled comments on this blog post because I kept getting personal attacks from fans of The Secret. If you’re a believer in The Secret and you disagree vehemently with this post, I suggest you simply sit down and visualize a world where this article doesn’t exist :)

Some interesting links:
- What happened when I followed the best-selling book’s advice for two months.
- Satirical website The Onion’s take on The Secret.
Quote

March 14, 2007

Happy At Work, Quotes

“There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.”

– Freya Stark (Thx Mike)
12 ways to pimp your office

March 14, 2007

Best of site, Happy At Work
When your office was furnished, did the shopping list go something like this:
- One desk. Gray.
- One ergonomic office chair. Black.
- One waste paper basket. Gray plastic.
- One filing cabinet. Gray.
You know – the usual stuff. Typical. Traditional. Booooooring!

I’m not going to claim that a fancy desk or a weird chair is going to magically improve your creativity and productivity – but I am damn sure, that all that sameness and eternal corporate grayness, does nothing good for your ability to come up with great new ideas.

Here are some ways to spruce up a workplace that may actually inject some color and fun into your work environment.

Got Milk?

The Milk desk is a new design to match your Apple gear with it’s white surface and rounded edges.

It lowers and raises electrically, it has ways to hide the cable clutter, and it also has four compartments at one end that can be configured for storage, trash or, yes, as an aquarium.

Partition magic

Softwall is a great way to flexibly partition a room. It’s made of paper with a felt core, and I love it because it doesn’t eat all the light in the room (if you go for the white one).

It can be twisted into just about any shape or rolled up when you don’t need it and it dampens sound more than most room partitioners. Plus it looks amazing!

The wing desk

Or how about a desk made from the wing of a DC3 plane?

The saddle chair

The starting point for the Haag Capisco is just your average, garden-variety office chair – but they’ve moved on from there. The saddle seat gives you a more erect posture and doesn’t cut of the blood flow to your legs.

The seat and back are constructed so you can sit sideways or reversed on it and still support your arms. And the whole thing tilts back into a very comfortable reclined position.

I’ve had one of these myself – they rock.

Bean bags

Bean bags look great and can be used in a million different positions. Four bags and a coffee table and you have a great meeting room!

I’m partial to the the Sumo Omni (pictured above) myself. Disclosure: They once sent me a free one to review here on the blog.

Bibliochaise

Where do you keep all your reference manuals and handbooks? Close to where you can sit and read them, of course! Meet the Bibliochaise.

Stokke Garden

It’s a tree. It’s a sculpture. It’s… I don’t know what it is, but I like it.

Since I first saw these, I’ve wanted one and only the huge price tag has kept from picking one up. It looks strange, but is actually supremely comfortable and allows you to sit/lie in many positions. I know, I’ve spent quite some time in a showroom testing one thoroughly :o)

The meeting bed.

When your business is innovation, your office can’t really look like any other corporate wasteland. London-based innovation agency ?WhatIf! know that – as evidenced by e.g. the life-sized plastic cow statue painted like Spiderman in the lobby and the big red couch/bed they use for meetings:

Conference bike

This has got to be the coolest idea in a long time. 7 people pedal along, one of them steers. It’s the conference bike and I want one!! I also mentioned this in my post on seeeeeriously cool workplaces.

Art tables

I was sitting in my usual café writing this blogpost when I spotted a lady at the next table looking through some pictures of weird and beautiful desks.

Of course I had to ask her what the story was. Turns out she’s Marie Westh, an artist and these are one-off tables she created, first for exhibitions and then later on as usable art pieces. Check out Marie’s website with many more weird and fantastic creations.

A balance act

This is more a metaphor than a piece of furniture – but it’s pretty cool all the same.

The idea is that three people can have a meeting where they must work together to hold their balance during the meeting. Like we must each contribute to a conversation, to make it balanced. Impractical – but cool! More here.

Wood wall

Or how about an entire wall covered in cordwood? Not only is it amazingly beautiful, it’s also great for the acoustics and it gives the wall a great texture.

I saw my friends at Connecta and their roommates build this from a huge stack of cord woodon the floor to the finished wall. Superb!!

The upshot

So is it the furniture that determines whether a company is creative and fun or staid and boring? Of course not! But the type and variety of furniture does reflect the mood at the company. If you have row upon row of identical, gray desks and chairs then odds are this is not the place wild ideas are born.

And why exactly is it that everyone must have the same desk and chair? Why not let people choose for themselves, and give them a chance to create an environment that suits them. The resulting variety may be confusing to those who think that business is about structure, order and control… but it’s sure to be more stimulating and fun for those of us who think that work is about being happy.

There are more pictures of cool furniture in this flickr set.

Also check out my post on 10 seeeeeriously cool workplaces:

Or check out some other past favorites from the blog:
Monday Tips wanted

March 14, 2007

Happy At Work, Monday Tips

For a while now, I haven’t been putting up new Monday tips – you know those fun, easy, little things you can do in five minutes or less to make yourself or someone else happy at work.

I gotta come clean here: I’ve sorta run out of ideas. I try to come up with new ones, but I’m stuck. I need your help!

What do YOU do to spread some happiness at work? What are the little things others have done that cheered you up at work? What would be a really cool thing to do to make the workplace more fun?

The only requirements are that it must be easy, fun and something you can do in five minutes or less. Write a comment if you have any experiences/ideas and we’ll re-invigorate the Monday tips together.
Quote

March 13, 2007

Happy At Work, Quotes

“Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.”

– Colleen C. Barrett, President and Corporate Secretary for Southwest Airlines
What I learned about learning – by learning to snowboard

March 13, 2007

Happy At Work, Learning

My wonderful girlfriend and I are back from a great week of skiing and snowboarding in Alpe d’Huez (she skis, I board) and I picked up a new little trick on the trip. Here I am just starting to learn it:

I’ve been snowboarding for a few years now, and I’ve always wanted to learn to jump! This year I finally got around to it, and it is loads of fun!

Now, I’m not just showing of my rad new snowboard skills – there are some points here about learning in the workplace. Here’s how corporate learning could improve by being more like learning to snowboard.

1: Learn by doing

I learned to snowboard by snowboarding. I didn’t attend a snowboard conference, seminar or training session. I have no manual, training video or snowboard simulator. Nothing beats learning by doing.

2: Learn as you need it

I haven’t attended a three-day snowboard training session that taught me everything a snowboarder needs to know, including fakies, 360s and ollies. I learned one thing and applied it – and only then moved on to the next thing.

3: Learn when you want to learn

Nobody tells me “Alex, today you will learn to ride moguls.” I learn what I want to when I want to.

4: Focus on where you are, not where you ought to be

When I keep my mind mostly on how good a snowboarder I want to be, I’m paralyzed by the gap I perceive, and I don’t get there. If I keep my mind on how good (or bad) I really am right now, I constantly improve.

5: Make it fun

If I’m not having fun, I’m not learning. It’s that simple.

6: Learn all the time – not just in the classroom

Last year I was on a really steep, uneven, icy slope. I was standing at the top of it thinking “Man, I really want my first couple of turns to work. If I fall up here, I’ll probably slide on my butt all the way down into the valley.”

So when I did my first turn, I did something new without deciding to do it: I pulled up the tail of my board halfway through the turn. It worked and I did a completely precise, perfect turn. I have no idea where that came from, but I clearly remember thinking “Whoa – that’s a neat trick.” I pull that one out of the bag whenever I really, really want a turn to work.

7: One little thing can make a huge difference

This year, I sprang for 2 hours with an instructor. It’s pretty pricey but definitely worth it. He looked at my style, and told me that it looked great but that if I moved my body up and down during turns it would work much better.

It took me about 15 minutes to grasp that, and it was a breakthrough. Suddenly my boarding was much more fluid and effortless. I did everything that I normally did, and that one little addition just made it work much better than before.

8: Learn from people who like what they do

The instructor who taught me obviously enjoyed both snowboard and teaching. You learn much faster when things are taught with passion.

9: Enjoy your mistakes

I looooove falling on my board. The more spectacular the fall the better. You can’t really learn if you fear failure. Very little learning happens without mistakes – or when you fear making them. Here’s Patricia enjoying one of her mistakes:

Following this advice, I’ve made enormous progress on my board. You’ve seen one of my first jumps in the video above. Here I am, later that same day:

Wheeeee! Next year I’m getting a helmet and a back shield so I can go for some serious airtime :o)
Update on saying no to customers

March 7, 2007

Ask the CHO, Happy At Work

About a week ago, Pixel Peony (no, that’s not her real name) asked me what to do about really difficult customers. My advice was to dare to say “No!” to those customers that just don’t make you happy at work.

That advice was repeated and fleshed out in all the great comments on that post. Thanks people!

Well, Pixel Peony not only read that advice, she dared to take it, and here’s how things went:

Here’s an update on my work situation. I was honest, but not rude, with my “difficult” client. Ultimately, she wrote back a very angry, vitriolic email and I decided it was for the best not to continue working with her. We haven’t been in touch since her email, but the work relationship is definitely over.

At first I was worried about it, but now I am elated! It’s a big relief to not have to deal with her anger and the general difficulties of working with someone who doesn’t listen, or appreciate my feedback. By contrast, my other main client, at the moment, is open, we communicate well, they are knowledgeable and basically terrific. I am eager to hear their ideas, because we are actually having a two-way discussion. I want to make this client happy and I am happy as a result.

Yes! I love it!

If something at work makes you unhappy, do something about it. And, yes, this includes customers. No one should continue to work with a customer who will not treat them fairly and politely.
The world’s most democratic workplaces

March 6, 2007

Happy At Work, Leadership

For the last year the great folks at WorldBlu have been on the hunt for companies that practice organizational democracy and they’ve found many great examples. The very best ones are companies that dare to be different, dare to include employees in the decisions being made … and interestingly they also tend to be very happy workplaces.

The awards list includes companies like Berret-Koehler Publishers, GE Aviation, Threadless and Linden Labs (who make Second Life).

And who tops the list? What is the most democratic company? You may be surprised, but I ain’t tellin’ – head on over to WorldBlu.com to find out.
Pooooooooowder

March 5, 2007

Happy At Work, Life

This week I’m snowboarding in the alps with my wonderful girlfriend, so I won’t be around to blog much. Just to keep things active around here, I’ve set up a few blog posts that will run during the week (including a very important announcement on Tuesday), but apart from that, all the action is at the Happy at work link site.

There are lots of interesting stories and links on there, and you can add your own and vote for the ones you like.

Check out the most recent stories or the highest rated stories.
Tagged: Five reasons why I blog

March 1, 2007

The Site

My “office” – a friendly, neighborhood, wifi-enabled café where I sit and blog most mornings.

Dave over at the excellent The Disquiet blog has asked me why I blog. And that is a great question.

I started blogging 4 years ago, have written over 1000 posts, and the blog became insanely popular last year in May. At the outset, I had no plans or goals with blogging, and I blogged about both personal and business themes.

Since the blog became I hit, I’ve tightened the focus, and now I only blog about happiness at work. I feel I wouldn’t be serving my readers properly, if I suddenly started writing about the movie I saw last night or the latest episode of Lost :o)

Anyway, here are my five main reasons for blogging.

1: It makes me happy
Blogging makes me happy for many reasons. First of all, the pride of having written a great blogpost. That feels goooooood. I always blog in café (here’s a picture of my “office”), and many are the times I’ve left the place after a good morning’s writing, totally high on having created something I’m proud of.

Then there’s the pleasure of giving. Knowing that I can help people all over the world out, and give them ideas and inspiration. That’s the one thing I like the most about blogging – that it’s very much a gift economy. And that the more each of us give, the more we get.

2: My blog is my spare brain
Increasingly, my blog is my spare brain. When I find a great quote, blogpost, article, idea I post it to the blog or to my link collection. And I often search my own blog for “you know, that article where that guy said that thing about that company.”

3: To sell by giving
My blog is also my professional website. This is how companies find me and hire me to speak and consult. And MAN does that ever work.

4: To find playmates
Here’s a funny story. Way back in 2003, Fast Company mentioned this woman called Traci Fenton who works with organizational democracy. I wrote this blogpost about it. Some weeks later Traci Googled herself, found my blogpost and contacted me. We found that organizational democracy and happiness at work are intimately connected and that we work for almost exactly the same things in the workplace. I’ve since spoken at two of her conferences in Washington DC, Traci has visited me in Copenhagen and we’ve become great friends.

And stuff like that happens more and more.

As a kid, I could just leave the house, go out on the street and instantly find playmates. As an adult, it’s not quite that easy. The blog is a great way to find playmates.

5: To make people happy at work
Well, duh! :o)