Experiences Archives - Christian Lautenschleger

Wikipedia: Clickbait for Learners

January 28th, 2017christian0 Comments

The best times to sit down to look up something on Wikipedia are early morning and late night, right? I mean, who wouldn’t want to spend the whole day researching something more esoteric than grad school research or losing sleep over the causes of the proliferation of smart phones in elementary schools (I made that one up, but it probably exists). Some people clickbait Forbes, HuffPo, or BuzzFeed, others resort to Wikipedia. You know you’re having a good Wikipedia session when you don’t even know how you got to the page you’re on. You have to look at your recent …

Teachers teach because they can’t?

January 27th, 2017christian0 Comments

Teachers teach, because they can’t. Right? Or maybe teachers teach because they want to help others and share their experience and knowledge? I had something pop into my mind: maybe teachers can do, but want to help other humans because teaching fits their personality. Recently, I read Give and Take — which is a phenomenal book I highly recommend — and learned in depth about “givers” and “takers”. It’s one of those epiphanies that we kind of already knew about, but all the dots are connected when someone spells it out for us. Some people have the “givers” personality. Givers …

Creating a Startup: Good luck

January 26th, 2017christian0 Comments

I won’t ever worry about telling anyone a business idea of mine because of the work it takes to get it off the ground. Entrepreneurship may be sexy, but it’s a hell of a lot of work (I’m talking about a startup as a new business idea — restaurants, services companies, and solo entrepreneurs – although entrepreneurial – aren’t exactly startups, think of Facebook, PayPal, and companies that require a massive amount of resources). You have to live, breathe, talk, think, and again live your business. Every startup is a billion-dollar business. (If you don’t believe me, ask founder of …

My day in review

January 25th, 2017christian0 Comments

today's metaphor christian lautenschleger

Studied for the GRE. Remembered that the Innovate New Albany Tiger Talk started at 930, even though in my mind I was going to talk with Shaun later. Bought groceries and went to the bank. Read a bit in a boring book about the Boston Marathon. Went for a run. Decided I need to see a doc, finally. Laundry. Spoke with Judy, on the phone. Write this blog. Streak continued. Low on motivation until I hear back from sport doc.

Communities around us and how they shape us

January 24th, 2017christian0 Comments

We’re humans. We’re social creatures. Many people want to act like we’re independent without needing people. Who we spend time with matters as much about ourselves as anyone. We are the sum of those around us. Our personalities, attitudes, and moods stem the people with whom we spend the most time. Choose your communities wisely. Work People often have two times of jobs: vocations or bill-payers. People who’ve had a greater calling, or “dream” job, will usually work with people who share much closer interests. That’s why they’re there. People who have bill-payer jobs often act like drones and work …

Lemonade out of lemons — make the best of every situation

January 23rd, 2017christian0 Comments

Tendinitis. It’s a dreadful word for runners. It’s not so much the pain, but the time it takes to heal. No one knows. Treatment and rest help heal tendinitis. In the meantime? Either painful running or no running. Some runners even (regrettably) take up different sports for cross-training to avoid losing fitness. But you know what? It’s a quintessential time to make lemonade out of lemons. For every situation, we need to think about how we can make the most of it. We need to think about how we can put a positive spin and action on everything. Why? Otherwise, …

A libertarian’s perspective of the election

January 22nd, 2017christian0 Comments

election speech christian lautenschleger

Note: I did vote for Gary Johnson, the BAMF from New Mexico, and have yet to vote for a Republican or Democrat for POTUS. Although I have a BA in political science and history (seemingly a lifetime ago), I only watch the news when a major event takes place. Such as a presidential election. I mention that only as background; standing behind degrees is one of the most insecure things to do, anyhow. And I voted for – and donated money to – Ron Paul in 2008. #itsactuallynothappening Nothing fires up Facebook like a political debate. To date, I believe …

Put yourself out there, for good things the happen

January 20th, 2017christian0 Comments

They say good things happen when you put the ball into play. Watching the ball whiz by our bodies only leads to a ball or strike. But, from swinging the bat we see many possibilities. We can get a hit, a sacrifice fly, or reach base on a fielding error. Anything can happen. We take action into our own hands, away from the decision of the umpire. In life, good things happen when we put ourselves out there, meeting with, and talking to people. We have to leave the confinement of our own homes. In theory, we never have to …

Word count obsession: stop it!

January 19th, 2017christian0 Comments

topsailislandsunset word count christian lautenschleger

For the love of all things sacred, please stop with the word count obsession while writing blog posts! Obsessing leads to poorly-written blogs post. Write everything that needs to be written and no more. Word count may contribute to better SEO, but poorly written posts won’t have people returning, which is probably what we want. A rule of thumb is blog posts between 300-600 words for search engines. Fewer words mean we didn’t write enough to really contribute to a topic. More words can mean we really went into depth or wrote more words for the sake of more words. …

Time: Our Most Valuable Asset

January 18th, 2017christian2 Comments

Time, our most valuable asset. We don’t get it back. We can’t “create” time, but we can become more productive. Today became a sort of soul-searching day for Christian. I got caught up in traffic this morning (it felt like a metaphor, actually), did a lot of reflection, and just decided to make a day of it. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard “well, there’s five minutes I’ll never get back.” But when we think of it, it’s really damn true. And can be applied to most aspects of our lives. Watching TV, surfing the web, checking Facebook, …