Tools for Change – April 2022

Welcome to the latest edition of Tools for Change – A Convenient Digest and Curated Collection of Information, Tools and Resources to Help You in Your Life and Work

New This Month on Living a Life in Full

April’s Guest on my podcast is Dr. Mohammad Haqmal, the former Chief of Public Health for Afghanistan, where he developed a series of groundbreaking programs and has received the Afghanistan National Public Hero Award – twice. He is a medical doctor by training and also holds master’s degrees in Business Administration, Public Health, and Global Health. Before all this, he and his mother had to flee Afghanistan when he was five to live in a refugee camp in Pakistan; they were the only two of his family who survived the attack and managed to escape.

Currently he is a lecturer at the University of London, and at the time of our conversation was in the process of joining the faculty of the University of Cambridge. He’s also involved in a number of research projects based in the UK, he serves as a columnist at Arab News, and he has a forthcoming new book.

Dr. Haqmal shared his experiences as the Chief of Public Health and many innovative projects that were inclusive, community-based, respectful of the beliefs of those cared for, and were empirically based. We did cover public health and humanitarian aid issues under the Taliban rule. In fact, we discussed a recent article he coauthored and published in the Lancet on urgent health and humanitarian needs of the Afghan population under the Taliban, and what spurred him and his colleagues to write it.

Dr. Haqmal has been through much adversity, and nevertheless has chosen to live his life in full by helping others, often at great risk to himself, and the result is to have made a true difference in the world.

Be sure to tune in on your favorite platform, or if you’re not into podcasts, read all about it on my LinkedIn Influencer post.

Well Said

Surprise, Shock, and Uncertainty -“History doesn’t crawl; it leaps,”?says Nassim Taleb. “The most important events tend to be abrupt, out of the blue, changing the world before people have time to rub their eyes and understand what’s happening.”

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” - Mark Twain

“Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.”? —?Bertrand Russell

“The best arguments in the world won’t change a single person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.” - Richard Powers, and many more via Morgan Housel at Makes You Think

Tools for Productivity

10 Genius Tech Time Hacks - Technology has made our lives much easier, and knowing how to use it in our favor is an excellent way to increase productivity.

The 6 Best Apps for Customizing Windows 11 - Windows 11 sports a brand new UI, but if you feel it's not to your liking, use these tools to make it truly yours again.

Tools for Living Your Life in Full

I loved this collection of quotes from Morgan Housel author of one of my favorite books, The Psychology of Money

Can’t get enough of Morgan Housel. I’m in touch to have him on my show in Season 6.

Seneca’s 8 Tips For Mastering Yourself from The Daily Stoic Podcast

The Daily Stoic Podcast: 9 Stoic Rules For A Better Life (From Marcus Aurelius)

The Kind of Smarts You Don’t Find in Young People. America needs more than innovation; it needs wisdom.

“Essential Life-Learnings from 14 Years of Brain Pickings”?by?Maria Popova?(@brainpicker).?The key takeaway is so important and yet so easy to forget. Another tip-‘o-the-hat to Tim Ferriss for the reference. Members of our FB group will recognize the Maria right off the bat. (If you’d like to join, please do.)

How to Become a Master at Talking to Strangers - If you’re tired of mindless small talk and want to pursue more authentic conversations, try “breaking the script.” The next time a colleague asks how you’re doing, don’t say “fine.” Instead, try, “I’m a 7.5 on a 10 point scale.” You might be surprised by how offering an unexpected response leads to deeper conversations.

How to Want Less - We’ve been trained to believe that more success, possessions, and pleasure will make us happier people. But this idea is at odds with our biology, which is constantly fighting to regulate and stabilize our hormones. Instead of perpetually chasing bigger wins, consider looking for joy in a less elusive place—the life you already have.

How to Live With Your Regrets - Regret is bad and should not be dwelt upon…right? Not according to psychologists. As it turns out, regret can become a remarkable tool for improving our decision making over time—if we’re brave enough to experience it.

These five kinds of self-doubt?are actually signs of success.

Big fan of the book and the new podcast, Richer Wiser Happier, both by my dear friend, William Green. Be sure to tune in to hear about The Life Force Revolution with Tony Robbins, the world’s leading life and business strategist. They also discuss Life Force, Tony’s new book that explains how to transform your health, energy, and happiness.

The Future is Vast?A thought-provoking piece that illuminates our responsibility to leave the world a better place than we found it. Pair with: Podcast with?Peter Buffett?on finding your note.

KindredCast Podcast: Tim Ferriss On Finding Success In The Uncomfortable Moments

Tools for Fitness and Performance

Why Exercise Gets Harder the Less You Do - Trying to start a new fitness routine and struggling to keep up like you used to? The problem might not be related to aging. In the absence of regular exercise, it seems certain proteins affecting blood flow deactivate, making strenuous activity more difficult. The takeaway: Give yourself some time to adapt before throwing in the towel.

Long Life Comes from Eating Right, Studies Say. Here’s How to Begin. - Dietary changes can potentially add up to 13 years to your life, and a great first step is simply tracking what you eat. Experts say doing so is fundamental because it disrupts the troublesome habit of mindless eating.

A Protein Shake is Not a Meal - Meal replacement shakes and powders have become increasingly popular, due in part to the many nutrients they provide. But one thing they don’t provide is the opportunity to chew, an easy-to-overlook action that can produce both physical and mental benefits.

Despite their name, deadlifts can breathe new life into your performance as a runner or cyclist. When it comes to building core and lower body strength, there are very few exercises that can top this classic powerlifting move. If you think deadlifts are just for the hero room at the gym, think again, and check out: “Five Ways Runners Can Benefit From Deadlifting” from Training Peaks.?

Myth-busting a common fitness falsehood - These days, it seems like no area of life is safe from the spread of misinformation. The fitness industry has been a particularly bad offender, and there are a lot of myths still circulating in blogs and social media that we know to be false. So let's set the record straight and dive into “No Pain, No Gain? 10 Common Fitness Tips That Are Actually Dead Wrong.”?

Tools for your Career

The Top 9 Most Profitable Skills to Learn in 2022 - Interested in starting a new career path and working in a high-demand industry? Here are some of the most profitable skills you can learn.

Letting Go of Expectations to Find Your True Calling - Will Day went from Wall Street to painter in pursuit of unbottling his curiosity and creative freedom. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, when Will's wife survived the collapse of the World Trade Towers, he decided to leave his career in finance. Listen to Will's philosophy on how to let go of expectations and discover your true calling.

How to Prevent Burn Out Before it Happens - Burnout can be a miserable and derailing experience. But if you watch for its physical symptoms, you can catch it early and respond more proactively. One telling symptom to look for is changes in your eating habits—including craving unhealthy fast foods or eating less.

Tools for Investing

Warren Buffett’s 2021 Letter to Shareholders

Chris Bloomstran’s comments on Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Report (via Twitter)

The Rational Walk on Warren Buffett's 2021 Letter

Good friend and past guest, Guy Spier on Finding Your North Star and the Power of Compounding Goodwill - The One Percent Show (video)

How to Invest Calmly in a Chaotic World - by Jason Zweig

Low Expectations - The key part is that low expectations and accepting frequent losses increase the odds of sticking around long enough to eventually be right enough to make up for it, and then some.

Penny saved… Still looking for ways to reduce your 2021 tax bill? Dig?up those receipts?for money you gave to charity in 2021—even if you don’t itemize, you can deduct $600 per couple (or $300 for a single) in cash contributions (meaning those made with cash, check or credit card, but not donations of stock or goods). If you had self-employment income, there’s still?time to open and fund a SEP-IRA. Plus, here’s how to complete and?file your tax return for free.

Tools for Leadership

Job burnout is sweeping through the work ecosystem, fueled by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and other stressors. To help business leaders and HR practitioners extinguish burnout, Modern Health developed this science-backed explainer?with practical answers to the questions like:

• What really causes burnout?
• How does it affect tech employees?
• Who gets burned out? And what role has COVID-19 played?
• What are the best solutions for organizations, teams, and individuals?

Women are promoted at a slower rate?than men across all industries and roles. But in technical roles? including in engineering and product management? the gender gap is even more pronounced: just 52 women for every 100 men are promoted to manager. Diversity is crucial in technical roles because it helps debias the technologies that are an intrinsic part of modern life. Early‐career promotions are critical to success? so this broken rung on the leadership ladder means that companies end up preparing fewer women for senior roles. What can leaders do??Don’t miss this article on repairing what’s broken.

What To Do When Someone Is Bringing Down Your Team (And how making life hard isn’t necessarily a bad thing!)

Here’s how small businesses can help developers make?more equitable A.I.

Workers increasingly prefer phones to zoom and it may change?how you view hybrid work.

Employees want more freedom.?Here’s how?to give it without spoiling your team.

Tools for Founders

Write Two Letters - Confidence is something I think about a lot because it pervades nearly every walk of life. Every successful person I know has a lot of it. Yet, so does every person who has pushed the envelope too far, taken too much risk, and eventually run their company, organization, fund, team, or even life into the ground. So, what differentiates someone with a healthy amount of confidence from someone with too much of it??

The Most Important Decisions Every Business Owner Makes - David Siegel took over as CEO of Meetup during a tumultuous time for the company and it was his decision making that ultimately brought him success. Learn from David's journey today so that you too can decide and conquer.

Tools to Travel the World

Grosvenor Teacher Fellowships From National Geographic

National Geographic professional development grants?

Spotlight on Turkey??

Earth Expedition?

Ford Foundation Global Travel & Learning Fund?

Institute of International Education?

Google conference and study scholarship?

Omprakash Ethical global engagement grants?

Tata Trust Travel grants

Tools to Be Aware of What’s Impacting Health & Medicine?

Returning to Our Roots: How Nature Prescriptions Can Help Patients

'It's About Transparency': Indiana Law Prohibits Misleading Medical Titles

Spirituality and Medicine: A Surprising Pairing

Ketamine Learns a New Trick - Commentary

One Doc's Personal Journey to Practicing Lifestyle Medicine - Commentary

Neuroscience and Mental Health

The Surprising Science of How Feelings Help You Think - Emotions and physical urges, such as hunger, can have a profound impact on our decision making. For important choices, consider allowing enough time for any temporary feelings to pass before committing yourself to an important course of action.

Mental Health A Priority In Medical Schools - The harmful effects of medical education on student well-being are concerning with higher rates of burnout, depression, and even suicide.???About one in three medical students report symptoms of depression, and one in nine experiences suicidal ideation, according to the?American Medical Association.???Medical students?encounter barriers?to seeking help, including lack of knowledge and negative attitudes towards mental disorders and treatment, the fear of being stigmatized and poor access to appropriate care.???Medical schools are working to understand these effects and are implementing strategies and programs to improve the mental health of their students. Read more.

Tools for Health and Wellness

Bridging Work And Life - Kat Cole, the President of Athletic Greens, shared her thoughts on energy management, morning routines, setting boundaries, and bridging work and life. She makes a point I really agree with: There is so much beyond our control, but we CAN control things like what we do with our mornings and what we put in our bodies. If you focus only on what you can control, your life will transform. Read more…

Tools for Public Health

The Public Health National Center for Innovations

Program for Appropriate Technology in Health

Public Health Foundation

Tools for Global Work and Policy

Center for Strategic and International Studies

APA’s Global Insights Newsletter

Tools for Finding Conferences

Conal Conference Alerts

Neurology and Psychiatry

Tools for Healthcare Career Insights

Curated from Medpage Today

Tools for a New Gig

Open Philanthropy?recently begun?a large hiring round, and they're currently advertising 7 new roles across different areas and levels of seniority:

• Special Projects
• Program Associate / Senior Program Associate
• Program Officer, Effective Altruism Movement Building, Global Health &?Wellbeing
• Intern in Cause Prioritization
• Business Operations Lead
• Projects and Operations Lead
• Program Operations Associate

Here’s Behavioral Health Tech’s jobs board?to see?all of the current?opportunities?from the leading companies in behavioral health.

From 80,000 Hours - There are a variety of ways to contribute to?global priorities research, including?academic research,?working as a?grantmaker, and?doing charity evaluation. We want to highlight four new roles in these spaces that were published this week:

• Research Analyst?at the Forethought Foundation for Global Priorities Research
• Senior Researcher?at Giving What We Can
• Longtermist Grantmaker?at Longview Philanthropy
• Nuclear Security Programme Co-Lead?at Longview Philanthropy

To browse or search hundreds of recent job postings, visit the?job board?in PND, it includes foundation, public charity, education, and nonprofit jobs in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, the District of Columbia, and elsewhere.

Positions from BioSpace

• Academic?
• Biotechnology?
• Diagnostics?
• Government
• Healthcare?
• Medical Device?
• Non-Profit?
• Pharmaceutical?
• Research Institute?

DiversityMD is a Career Job Board and Information Resource for Physicians regardless of age, race, gender, religion, education, national origin, sexual orientation, disability or physical characteristics. They are a “niche” website for Physicians of all levels of practice from Medical Students, Residents, Fellows on up to Medical Directors and CMO’s.

A Gym Membership for Your Brain

If you enjoy this newsletter, I suspect you’d enjoy our monthly podcast. Listen on your favorite platform https://www.alifeinfull.org/podcast.html and for a free subscription: https://tinyurl.com/ALifeInFullSubscription

Likewise, if you are not already following my LinkedIn Influencer posts in a group with almost a half-million followers, you may enjoy reading the posts there as well: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/drchrisstout/detail/recent-activity/posts/

Tools for Humanitarian Intervention

Please visit our website: https://www.centerforglobalinitiatives.org/ We’re proud to be a top ranked Great Nonprofit (since 2013!) and to have achieved Platinum Level from GuideStar.

Tools for Connecting

If you would like to see more frequent and engage with others, please join the open Facebook groups at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ALifeInFull and?https://www.facebook.com/groups/CenterForGlobalInitiatives

Tools for Better Understanding Science

As I have opined in past articles like How to Protect Yourself from Fad Science and my three part series, The Reproducibility Problem—Can Science be Trusted? , —Shame on us?, and —What’s a Scientist to do??This is a near-and-dear topic and concern of mine.

And my four-parter:?Strong Opinions Loosely Held: Science, Psychology, Misinformation, Vaccines, and Prosocial Ways to Respond.

Overwhelmed by Opinion Disguised as Fact and Relentless Clickbait? I subscribed to 1440 because it provides an impartial view of what’s happening in the world so I can form my own conclusions, and share in my posts with peace of mind. 1440 scours hundreds of sources each day so I don’t have to. I get it every morning in a short, briefing thoughtfully curated by experts. Join me and over 1 million daily readers today. Of course, it’s free.

Tools for Travel Help

Hesitant to book that vacation or business trip??Bloomberg’s Covid Travel Tracker?uses data gathered each week from reporters on the ground—restrictions and requirements related to restaurants, bars, nightclubs, offices, museums, hotels, shopping centers and public transportation and spaces—to?monitor to-and-from travel restrictions in 40 global cities. Grades for each?destination on ease of travel, openness?and vaccination rates are updated regularly.

Tools for Pandemic Assistance

Here is a handy fact-checking website to cut through Covid vaccine misinformation. It includes: “Places to go for accurate information include the CDC (which already has a FAQ about Covid vaccines), the FDA, major hospital websites such as Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Vaccine Education Center, and reliable fact-checker websites.”?You can find?a list of those websites here, courtesy of the University of California.

Get the?latest updates here, as well as?maps?and a?vaccine tracker.

Look up case rates?for almost every country.

Here’s where to find?affordable tests.

Virus resources:?Here are the latest rules?|?Global Maps & Cases?|?Global vaccinations?|?Vaccine Q. and A, and?see how the vaccine rollout is going in your county and state.

These?seven podcasts?will help you navigate feelings about the world reopening, and ease you back into society at your own pace.

Click here?to download the Internet Resource Guide: COVID-19 and Grief.

Finally, please learn about the Free Research on COVID-19 from APA Journals. APA Publishing is committed to sharing the latest psychological research on COVID-19 with the public. They invite you to browse their free collection of articles published across the APA Journals portfolio. Click here to see more.

In Closing

And even though I know our readers are very smart, I nevertheless have to say that this newsletter does not provide medical, psychological, legal, financial, healthcare, or any other form of advice. As I have said elsewhere, don’t be a knucklehead.

Big thank you to meta-sourcing sites and folks: Ron Friedman, PhD, Inc., Farnum Street’s Brain Food, McKinsey & Co., Medpage, Joe Koster from Value Investing World, FirstRound, Ramit Sethi, Forbes InnovationRx, The Knowledge Project - organized by theme, 80,000 Hours, The Collaborative Fund, Colossus, - be sure to check them out. And as always, I have no financial, marketing or affiliate relationship with any of the sources noted herein.

To subscribe to “Tools for Change”?and get notifications of editions, click the blue button at the top right corner of?this page. Please don’t be shy about sharing, leaving comments or dropping me a private note with your own reactions and requests for other tools.

Cheers, and keep in touch,

Chris

Background | Resources | Tools