Money Brainstorming

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Thought For The Day

"Eliminating metaphor would eliminate philosophy. Without a very large range of conceptual metaphors, philosophy could not get off the ground. The metaphoric character of philosophy is not unique to philosophical thought. It is true of all abstract human thought, especially science. Conceptual metaphor is what makes most abstract thought possible. Not only can it not be avoided, but it is not something to be lamented. On the contrary, it is the very means by which we are able to make sense of our experience. Conceptual metaphor is one of the greatest of our intellectual gifts." — G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, from "Philosophy in the Flesh"

This is a good time to remind you about my website on metaphors, http://www.metaphorology.com . It is slow in developing, but there are a couple new pages since I last reminded you about it in this newsletter.

Enjoy the newsletter!

You may recall the word play examples I used in previous newsletters, in which a word was used in a grammatically correct sentence five times in a row. A reader sent me the following in response (thanks Alex), and I thought I would pass it along:

James and Steven had been learning about the pluperfect tense in their grammar class. In one lesson, James had written "I had chickenpox as a child, and now I had it again". Steven, seeing that the first verb referred to something in the distant past, had corrected him: "you had had chicken pox in the past, and then you had it again". The teacher had commended Steven for having understood the pluperfect correctly. Looking back on the class, another student commented:

"Steven, where James had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had the teacher's approval".

"Had" is used 11 times consecutively. Even if we argue that there should be a period where the semi-colon is, the first sentence would have "had" seven times consecutively. Can anyone do better than 11 or even 7 times? Let me know.

(The following is from my "Unusual Ways" newsletter, on another website I have. It's an example of how to generate ideas for practical purposes. The issue this is from hasn't gone out yet - for now it's just for subscribers to the Brainpower Newsletter. - Steve)

If you are like myself, you enjoy seeing and reading about all the different business ideas people have successfully used. But what if you want to dream up your own ideas? That is what this issue covers. It's time for a bit of money brainstorming.

There are dozens of specific techniques that can be used for brainstorming, problem solving and generating ideas in general. All of them can be applied to business, investment, employment and anything else having to do with money. For now we are going to look at just two of these techniques.

Concept Combination

This is one of the best, or at least most entertaining, techniques for solving problems and creating new money ideas. Just start combining ideas and things, and voila, you're having fun - and maybe creating something new. Let's look at a real life example.

"Rock" + "pet" = The pet rock. My younger subscribers may not remember, but there were actually millions of "pet rocks" sold in the late 1970s. My brother's "pet sock" idea didn't do nearly so well, but then at 14 he wasn't the best marketer. In any case, you can see what the essence of this technique is.

But let's be realistic here for a moment. You can...

- Roasted coffee, when it starts to cool, releases hundreds of chemical substances that make up the various aromas.

- Researchers at the University of California found that the steam rising from a cup of coffee has heterocyclic compounds, antioxidants which are known to prevent cancer and heart disease.

- The right arm of the Statue of Liberty is 42 feet long.

What order should the following sentences be in, and why?

1. Sally, exhausted, could order no dinner.

2. Later, Alex sent telegrams.

3. Friday, Irwin recalled seeing trees.

(Answer is below)

Try forcing yourself to read a little faster, scanning more and concentrating on the first and last parts of paragraphs. This is where the important stuff is generally. You can certainly read a lot faster with training, but this simple trick can speed up your reading right now. Consider this paragraph. Even just reading the first and last sentence here will give you what you need.

Do you want to increase your brainpower today? Try some of the following techniques.

Cycles Of Consciousness - Your consciousness waxes and wanes throughout the day . For most it seems to go through 90 minute cycles, with 30 minutes of lower consciousness. Watch yourself to recognize this cycle. If you learn to recognize and track your mental state, you can concentrate on important mental tasks when your mind is most "awake". For creative insight into a problem, do the opposite. Work on it when you are in a drowsy state, when your conscious mind has slowed down.

Sleep On It - Previewing key information and then sleeping on it increases retention 20 to 30 percent. You can leave that information next to the bed for easy access, if it is something that won't keep you awake. If you are kept awake by your thoughts, writing everything down sometimes gets...

Continued here:
http://www.increasebrainpower.com/increasebrainpower.html

The economy isn't a very interesting subject to most people, and probably wouldn't have been Jack's favorite thing to talk about. Instead, we talked about classic cars and the internet. I met Jack in a hot springs pool near Canon City, Colorado, where we live. He's an auto-body guy and mechanic who had recently discovered the internet and Ebay.

"I would find a car every year or so," he told me. "Something classic, you know, just sitting there waiting to be restored and sold. There might be a 1964 Buick Convertible parked behind some guys barn, for example, and I'd hear about it and drive 50 miles to see it, and maybe buy it for $2,000 or so. A month later, I might have spent another $1,000 on parts to restore it, and then I'd sell it for $10,000. But I had a problem. I could drive all over the state on my days off work and still only find one or two each year."

A couple years ago, however, Jack discovered the internet, and he saw...

Continued here:
http://www.999ideas.com/new-economy.html

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Until next time,

Steve

www.IncreaseBrainpower.com

Riddle Answer: The order should be 3, 1, 2. The first letters of the words in each sentence spell out, "first," "second,, and "last."

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