Matador Network's Blog, page 2296

Why you shouldn’t work 9-5

Photo: Joshua Hoffman

IT’S 7PM ON A MONDAY NIGHT. You have everything open from Facebook to TechCrunch on your browser tabs, except for the work you actually need to get done. You return to your lists of to-do’s for the day, only to realize you haven’t finished a single task since 1pm.

Let’s face it, we’ve all been there.

Why the 9-5?

The average American today works 8.8 hours per day (Bureau of Labor Statistics), but how effective are we really working those 8.8 hours per day? Before we dig in, I decided to do some background research about how the 9-5 came to be in the first place.

The answer comes from a man named Robert Owens, who started a campaign during the Industrial Revolution. Back then, 14-hour days were the norm in order to maximize the output of companies’ factories. Owens bravely advocated the notion that people should not be working for more than eight hours per day.

His famous slogan was: “Eight hours labour. Eight hours recreation. Eight hours rest.”

The 8-8-8 rule soon became the standard when Ford implemented the eight-hour day with Ford Motors Company in 1914. Despite the doubts he faced, the results were astonishing: “With fewer hours worked by the employees and double the pay, Ford managed to increase his profit margins by two-folds. This encouraged other companies to adopt the shorter, eight-hour workday as a standard for their employees.”

Bottom line: There’s no scientific or well-thought-out explanation of why we work eight hours per day. It’s simply a standard that has been passed on for over a century, used to run factories most efficiently.

Work smarter. Not longer.

Time has become a measure for productivity because it’s an easy metric to measure. We constantly try to jam in more hours during the day because we feel like we accomplished something by the end. But time is a vanity metric when it comes to measuring productivity.

In today’s creative economy, how long we work per day isn’t what’s important. It’s what you do with the time you have. According to Sara Robinson, referring to various studies done by businesses, universities, and industry associations:

“On average, you get no more widgets out of a 10-hour day than you do out of an eight-hour day… [In fact], every hour you work beyond 40 actually makes you less effective and productive over both the short and the long haul.”

Long hours, in other words, are often more about proving something to ourselves than actually getting stuff done.

With this in mind, I’ve been on the hunt for ways to get more done during my day. After experimenting with various tips and tricks, here are five things that have been working for me:

List your three most important tasks.

Before you leave the office, list three tasks for the next day that will be the most impactful to what you are working on. Tip: If you already have a to-do list, pick the task that’s on the bottom of your list or the one that you’ve been avoiding the longest, and put it on the top.

Work in 90-minute intervals, then take breaks.

Rather than looking at your day as a six- or eight-hour workday, break your day up into three or four 90-minute chunks (1 task per 90-minute interval). Take breaks in between to go stretch, run, flirt — whatever you need to get your mind off work for a period of time.

Give yourself less time.

Apply the Parkinson’s Law for everything you do during the day. As Tim Ferris puts it, “a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted to complete it.” Basically, if you have eight hours to do something, you’ll take all eight hours for something that can be done in less time.

Bunch similar tasks together.

Whether it’s replying to emails, making phone calls, or sending out tweets, do them in bunches. Multitasking is the devil, and you do not want to waste your mental energy going back and forth on different tasks.

Ask for help.

Emphasize what you’re good at, but don’t waste time trying to correct weaknesses. If you’re stuck on something, take five seconds to ask a neighbour or phone up a friend who may know the answer. Start leveraging your network, and it could save you hours of stress and time.

I’ve personally felt much happier after implementing these few tricks, and as a result it has only improved the work I do in the office. I’d love to know how these tips work for you. Feel free to recommend them to anyone you think would find them useful.

This post was originally published at The Growth List and is reprinted here with permission.

GoPro Grizzlies

THE INNOVATIVE USE of GoPro technology has brought visual media to an entirely different level. I love how non-invasive it is, to the point that this bear even tries to snack on it. Getting to view animals and the outdoors in such an intimate yet natural way is entirely possible now. These bears certainly look like they are having the time of their lives, and I’m happy I get to see a part of the world that is so different from the city streets I encounter every day.

This bird just learned to fly [vid]

“Bigbird” is the name of a pelican who, after a storm, was abandoned by his flock and washed ashore in Tanzania, no longer able to fly. So the staff at Greystoke Mahale Camp, which runs safaris usually known for their encounters with chimps, strapped a GoPro camera onto his beak, facing back at Bigbird, and ran up and down the beach flapping their arms to try and get him to remember how to fly.

I watched it for the first time and thought, “How is this possibly helpful?” and “Isn’t that camera on his beak probably making this more difficult for him?”

But then he takes off, and the view is incredible. Give it a watch.

How to eat ramen like a pro

Photo: MrGaryLarson

JAPANESE RAMEN ラーメン is the type of food anyone can eat. It’s affordable, simple, and doesn’t have any pretense. Originally sold as a casual meal for factory workers, it’s now become a cultural phenomenon. Wandering the narrow back streets of Tokyo, or maneuvering through world-class shopping malls, you’re spoiled for choices.

Of course, you can also expect the cacophonous noises of an entire ramenya full of slurping people, exclusively Japanese-speaking staff, and confusing vending machines you must use to place your order…. Ramen shops can be quite intimidating, especially for first-time visitors. Here’s how it’s done:

Walk in like a pro.

Ramen shops aren’t the place to hang out with friends, enjoy a few beers, or have a romantic date. They’re the place where people come, order, pay, eat, and leave. You start your experience by joining a long queue outside the shop. However, the ‘eat and leave’ custom guarantees your wait time will not be insanely long. Look for a vending machine near the entrance, either outside or inside. If there’s a machine, select your dish and drink, pay, and grab a ticket. If there’s no machine, you’ll need to pay at the counter. Once inside, grab the first available stool.

Ramen shops are usually manic, so if you’re a party of two or more, it’s unlikely you’ll get to sit together. Once you’ve secured your seat, watch the chefs crafting your bowl of ramen right in front of you, usually ushered by the head noodle chef, constantly yelling as he pulls noodles from boiling water, shaking them. Most ramen shops will provide you with a glass of tap water, which will be automatically refilled once empty. However, if that’s not the case, look for a jug of water, or a dispenser somewhere in the shop, and help yourself.

Once you finish eating, watch other customers as they leave to see if the shop expects you to put your empty bowl on the upper counter. Just do as they do, and you’ll be fine. Leave as soon as you’re done.

Order like a pro.

There’s a popular culinary equation in Japan: ramen = broth + noodles + toppings. Broth is the most important part of ramen — it’s the body of the dish and takes days to prepare. Ramen chefs train for a very long time to be able to prepare a good bowl of fish- or meat-based broth, and it can take up to 60 hours to boil a perfect one.

There’s an overwhelming variety of different broths. With vending machines featuring a small image of the dish with kanji explanations, you’re bound to fail to order what you actually want. To make the right decision, you should know the basic broths, which you can easily recognize visually:

Tonkotsu 豚骨 (white, milky, pork-based soup)
Shoyu 醤油 (brown, transparent, soy-sauce-based soup)
Miso 味噌 (brown, non-transparent, miso-based soup)
Shio 塩 (transparent, salt-based soup)

All ramen dishes come with noodles: thick, thin, ribbon-like, straight, wrinkled, long, or short, all made from four basic ingredients: wheat flour, salt, water, and kansui (a type of alkaline mineral water). Making noodles with kansui lends them a yellowish hue, as well as a firm texture.

Now it’s time to get creative with the toppings. The most popular ramen toppings include:

Chashu チャーシュー (barbecued or braised sliced pork belly)
Narutomaki 鳴門巻き (cured surimi produced exclusively in Japan, a delicacy made from white-fleshed fish)
Tamago 卵 (soft-boiled eggs used specifically for ramen)
Negi ネギ (spring onion)
Nori 海苔 (dried seaweed)
Moyashi もやし (soy sprouts)
Menma メンマ (fermented bamboo shoots)

Slurp it like a pro.

Lean forward towards your bowl and support it with one hand. Take a minute to indulge your senses with the sights and smells coming from your perfect bowl of ramen. Then, grab your chopsticks and start by tasting the noodles, which draw up all the flavors from the broth. Coat them in the broth and slurp, as loudly as you can. Sink the chashu into the soup and leave it to enjoy later. The more soup it absorbs, the softer it gets. Keep slurping the soup. Know that slurping your ramen is a must with the Japanese. Not only is it the ideal way to enjoy a bowl of ramen, but it can be insulting to the chef if you eat your ramen too quietly.

Once you finish the last drop, put the bowl down and say: Gochisousama deshita ごちそうさまでした (Thanks for the meal).

This post was published in its original form at Go Abroad, and is reprinted here with permission.

The new frontier: Urban exploration

THE TRADITIONAL CONCEPTION of “exploration” has always looked “out there”: sailing around the world, trekking to the South Pole, summitting the world’s tallest mountains. But every time a legendary explorer went out to confront those frontiers, to push past them, the rest of humanity was back at home, constructing the infrastructure that makes our modern lives possible.

Like any complex system, crafted over long periods of time and often with short-sighted planning, redundancies developed. Sites were built, scrapped, covered over, and built again. Entire substrates of our biggest cities are closed off and largely forgotten. At the same time, you have restricted-access facilities that are used and depended on every day by millions of people: storm drains, power stations, construction cranes, skyscraper ledges, utility tunnels. A built landscape, created by humans but kept out of sight of all those who live within it.

Enter the urban explorers, men and women from all over the globe intent on bypassing the safeguards, hopping the fences — intent on practicing the art of intrusion — in order to chart and document this new frontier. Equipped with enviable photo and video skills / equipment and a means of distribution via social media, they’re showing the world what’s been right under our feet this whole time.

Watch the video above, Art of Intrusion (footage by Bradley L. Garrett, edited by Matador’s Eric Warren), and then check out the photo galleries linked below that pay homage to the urban explorers, placehackers, free climbers, and others who are pushing the boundaries on the edge of this new frontier.

Meet the man infiltrating the sickest urban objectives in the world

Exploring sewers, utility tunnels, and catacombs around the world

21 examples of you-fall-you-die photography with the world’s most insane skywalkers

Urban free climbing: The new extreme sport you shouldn’t try

Descending into the lost River Effra, London

Sneaking into Bulgaria’s abandoned Communist party headquarters

Photo: Bradley L. Garrett

Photo: Aurelie Curie

Photo: Mustang Wanted

Traveling as a big person sucks

BRIAN SHAW IS THE TWO-TIME winner of the “World’s Strongest Man” competition. He’s also absolutely gigantic. At 6′ 8″ tall, he weighs 415 pounds — mostly in muscle.

Now, I’m a fairly large person myself, and I absolutely hate traveling on airplanes. It’s insanely uncomfortable, my legs never fit between the seats, and I’m always elbowing a stranger when my shoulder inevitably ends up out in the aisle. But Shaw filmed one of his recent plane trips, and since he’s got about 5 inches and 200 pounds on me, I think I can’t complain anymore.

Watching him walk through the aisles of the plane is palpably uncomfortable, and for the first time, I’m thankful I’m not a remotely strong or muscular person.

How to piss off a flight attendant

Photo: romiphoto

The friendly skies aren’t as friendly as they used to be. Security checks, limited snacks, and cramped cabins have made it hard out here for a passenger. But it’s even worse for a flight attendant. I should know — I was a US-based airline worker for 3 years, and I can tell you exactly what’ll make your flight attendant a lot more unpleasant.

Refuse to turn off your cellphone after the door has been closed.

What passengers might not know is that flight attendants can be fined up to $10,000 for ignoring federal safety regulations, so there’s no way we’ll just let it slide. Want to start off your flight on the wrong foot? Don’t listen to us when we ask you to hang up the phone and turn it off.

If you don’t comply, you could be charged with breaking the law. Rather spend two to five years in prison? That phone call had better be worth it.

Ask for a buddy pass.

How often do people bug airline employees about companion or buddy passes? Only on days that end in “y.” Most of those requests are from distant acquaintances, like the mail carrier, a taxi driver, or the pastor’s sister’s third cousin.

Unfortunately, employees are often allotted only enough companion passes for a spouse or partner. While buddy passes are a bit more plentiful, they’re typically reserved for the kid, Dad, Grandma, niece, or BFF who rarely gets to see their oft-gone loved one. So unless you’re one of those people, save up some money for a cheap flight instead.

Pretend you’re in a floating restaurant.

Most airplanes have a limited supply of food, or just enough for the plane to reach the next hub. While flight attendants can understand that you might be hungry or thirsty after a long walk to the gate, there isn’t enough food for you to stuff yourself non-stop.

And don’t assume we’re holding out on you. Flights are restricted to just what’s on the menu. Because meals are prepared on the ground before takeoff and aren’t exactly the freshest, food safety is always a huge concern. Can you imagine what would happen if 200 or so passengers all developed food poisoning at once? Yeah, it’s probably best to get your lobster, squid, and made-to-order smoothies before you board.

Treat the aircraft like a playground or daycare center.

While flying cross country might be a perfect time to catch up on Family Guy reruns, it doesn’t mean Junior has free rein to use the aisle as racetrack or playpen. Do you know the last time airplane carpets have been cleaned? No? Neither does your flight attendant.

Also, if you’re traveling with a child and are constantly hearing bells, make sure Junior isn’t leaning on the call button.

Ask what city you’re flying over.

I’m a flight attendant, not a tour guide. I’ve got no clue. Why don’t you ask the captain? Ignore that. Keep your fingers off the button.

Perform yoga stretches in the galley and in the aisles where we’re working.

Really? Chances are slim you’ll develop deep vein thrombosis between LA and San Francisco. Have a seat so I can move this food cart.

Poke, pull, prod, or push us.

Would you poke a restaurant waiter if you wanted a glass of water? Then why do you think it’s OK to poke a flight attendant?

Think about it: If you’re sitting and the flight attendant is standing, chances are you’re poking in an inappropriate place. Keep your fingers to yourself.

Leave the essentials at home.

Traveling with a baby? Pack the diapers and a pacifier. Asthmatic? Take an inhaler. If you’re traveling overseas and need to fill out immigration forms, it’s a good idea to take a pen, no?

Drag your oversized, overpacked luggage from your home to the airport and onto the plane — and then say you can’t lift it into the bin.

Well, technically, flight attendants can’t either.

Some airlines prohibit flight attendants from lifting baggage into overhead bins, as it can lead to an on-the-job injury that insurance won’t cover. And with baggage fees being what they are these days, people are rolling through the airport with everything but the kitchen sink. If you can’t lift it, what makes you think a 120-pound flight attendant can?

You packed it, you lift it. Also, when you get it to the overhead bin, please make sure it isn’t sticking out five inches. If it is, it’s getting checked.

Ask us to call another plane and request they hold your connecting flight.

Sure, because your appointment is more important than the appointments of everyone else on the connecting aircraft. [image error]

20+ essential South African words

Photo: Nagarjun Kandukuru

“Ja no, lekker hey boet. Come round for a braai later. We can have a few dops and throw some boerie on the fire.”

Look, when you have a country with 11 official languages and a handful of unofficial ones, it’s pretty inevitable that at some point the people are going to develop their own dialect. A mashup of languages, in this case.

Just Google the term “South Africanisms” and you will get alphabetized lists the length of a boerie coil. These are a couple1 of phrases you are going to need to know if you’re visiting South Africa:

1 When we say “a couple,” there’s no telling how many things are going to appear, but it probably won’t be two.

A braai, the quintessential South African experience. You might call it a barbeque. You might even think it is a barbeque. It is not. It is a braai.
Boerie or boerewors is what you eat at a braai, along with a tjop (or, chop). It translates as “farmer’s sausage” and is essentially a fat beef sausage, spiced to perfection and best served on a soft roll with cheap tomato sauce and fried onions.
A dop or two is the perfect complement to a braai. It’s your alcohol of choice, often a beer or a brannewyn en Coke (a brandy and Coke). We are a nation who drinks. Usually to our detriment.
Lekker. Literally, “nice.” But conveys so much more than just “nice.” It can be used to describe your meal (e.g., lekker boerie, boet); to happily confirm something (e.g., Ja no, lekker); or as a response to someone’s story (e.g., sounds lekker!).
Ja no quite obviously means “yes no” and also doesn’t really mean either of these things. It’s complicated. It’s an answer to a question; the actual implication is usually confirmed by the words following. “Ja no, lekker,” is a yes. “Ja no, I’m not sure,” is a no.
Like women might call each other babe as a sign of affection, men call each other boet or bru. It means brother.
In South African cultures, elders are greatly respected. Tannie and Oom are the Afrikaans terms for aunt and uncle and are considered to be a respectable term of address for anyone older than you. Because of the Afrikaans sentence structure, they may use it like this: “Can I help Oom with something?” “I like Tannie’s dress.” Sissie (sister, pronounced ‘see-see’), mama (mother), and tata (father) are more likely to be used by black South Africans. Ladies, try not to be offended when an older woman calls you mama. It’s not an ageist thing. Sissie is a more familiar term.
Traffic is controlled by robots, which roam our streets and zap taxis with their laser beams. Jokes. They’re the traffic lights.
The great minibus taxi, one of the principal unifying forces of our people (after rugby). Taxis, sometimes pronounced ‘teksi,’ are not like the elite cabs of the Western world. Everyone loves to hate them. They’re dangerous, un-roadworthy, cheap, and the preferred transport for the vast majority of township residents.
Mzantsi is an isiXhosa word meaning “south” and is a term of endearment for South Africa, our country. Advertisers like to use this word a lot.
I believe a bakkie (pronounced ‘buck-ey’) is called a pickup truck in other parts of the world, but I could be wrong. The vehicle of choice for the wide South African market.
Biltong or billies is a dried, spiced meat. The living best. Children teeth on the stuff, adults receive it as a birthday present.
Howzit is kind of a shortening of “how is it” and is used to start conversations. They’re not actually asking how you are, they’re just saying hi. Same as izit (or, “is it”). They’re not really asking if it is, they’re just acknowledging what you said.
Now now never means “now.” When someone tells you they’ll do something “now now,” expect to wait at least three days before it happens.
In casual situations, men are often referred to as an oke or an ou. Like where you might say “guy.” Sometimes used positively, e.g., “He’s a good oke.” Sometimes used negatively, e.g., “That ou needs to watch his fucking mouth.”

The truth behind horse racing [vid]

WARNING: Significant use of the f-bomb in the following video.

AS DISGUSTING as this is, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Where there’s this much money involved, everything becomes a commodity, a tool for humans to rake in cash. Let’s be real here: Horse racing doesn’t exist for the benefit of the animal. We’re not doing them a favour by exercising them.

This video is the result of a 4-month investigation by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The investigator went undercover with a hidden camera, “working” for Steve Asmussen, “one of the most successful thoroughbred racers of all time” (who, it should also be noted, is also the most penalized horse trainer in the US for rule and drug violations).

On average, according to the video, 24 horses per week die on US horse tracks. If what the investigator uncovers here is an indication of the industry, it’s easy to see why.

Why travel is the best answer to divorce

Photo: David Compton

SOME PEOPLE ARE BORN TRAVELERS. We know who we are. We love airports, even when we aren’t going on the trip. We don’t really understand vacations, and never go on them. We can land alone in a foreign airport, without a guidebook or even knowing how to say thank you in the local language, and feel nothing but anticipation for the next meal. We often don’t know where we’re going to sleep tonight — and don’t really care. We have short-term or flexible careers, if any, though we can turn a hand at just about anything. We don’t “settle” well.

Our families think we’re crazy, yet they envy us at the same time. We can sleep anywhere, pick up languages easily, and are never bored. We are dangerously curious, often to the point of irritating. People think we’re interesting, but it’s hard to make friends “at home,” wherever that is. We’re not very patriotic, but doubt the viability of world peace. We focus on what we have wherever we are, not what we miss. We have something that we loved about every country we’ve been in, even the ones we didn’t like.

When the shit really hits the fan, we recognize it as a story in the making.

I am a traveler. So when my husband, of 26 years and many adventures, and I decided to separate, “going on a trip” was the obvious choice. Ending such a long and quite wonderful relationship isn’t quick, especially when there are kids involved, so by the time we were ready to make the move, we had been stationary for four years. Four years is a long time, more so for a sun lover living in Canada. Luckily for me, two of our three sons had finished high school by that time, and the 15-year-old was willing, if slightly reluctantly, to go on an adventure with his mother.

Maybe these are just the last few steps in the sunshine before I fall into the abyss of depression, insomnia, insecurity — of regret and longing and general panic.

I chose the destination in my typical haphazard fashion: while volunteering at a high school grad fundraiser, another volunteering mom mentioned Ecuador as a wonderful place she’d heard had cheap real estate. Maybe a month later, another acquaintance mentioned Ecuador as a hot new destination. That was enough to convince my inner mystic that it was ‘a sign.’

Some six months later our family exploded in twos: the older boys off to Nicaragua, my husband and the family dog to roam the US, the youngest and I off to Ecuador.

Separations are nothing new. Broken marriages are a dime a dozen, especially at my age (ok, I’m 48). The traditional approach, especially if there are children still living at home, is to maintain as consistent a routine as possible. Keep the house if you can, kids in the same school, same friends…hopefully you have a steady job and solid network of family and friends to rely on for support through the transition period. Yes, you’ll no doubt suffer from insomnia, and don’t worry about the panic attacks — any clinic doctor will fix you up with antidepressants. But in short, your life will suck for a while.

We stayed with one of my online English students, Bianca, who was a wonderful host. Through her we had a very gentle “insider” introduction to Ecuador, and got to know her family and some friends at the same time. Instant support network — and strangely enough, when the inevitable question, “…and how long have you been separated?” came up, the answer (anywhere from “yesterday” to “last week”) sounded so ridiculous, even to me, that all I could do was giggle my way through it. Giggles spawn smiles, and what at home would have been awkward silences and sympathetic looks somehow became conspiratorial laughter. Especially amongst women of similar age (and often experience), there was a “mice coming out to play” undercurrent. The reaction in the eyes of eligible men (few but not nonexistent) was different, but no less welcome.

And in that strange way that it’s often easier to share your most personal details with total strangers, my new marital status became an easy topic, something to be discussed objectively, or examined from a fresh vantage point. People often even jumped to the conclusion, “Yes, it’s probably much easier to make the adjustment while traveling, instead of staying at home and missing the person…” in that logically agreeable tone people use to agree that it’s “much better not to have a television at home” when they have three. In a way, it did turn what I considered my bold step into a case of “taking the easy way out,” but of course, the only opinion that really matters in this case is mine.

Since that first week, we’ve been on our own. We’re traveling. And I feel great.

Maybe the cliff is coming. Maybe these are just the last few steps in the sunshine before I fall into the abyss of depression, insomnia, insecurity — of regret and longing and general panic. Somehow, it doesn’t feel that way. Anyway, for now, I’m not even going to try to see that far ahead, but keep my face turned to the sun and bask in the warmth of it.