Former Community – We Moved
🆕 Coached community here, for posts & feedback public community here.
Hello + Updates (What I'm Doing, Where & Why)
Thank you, guys! Big hug.
I'm in Korea right now, in a government quarantine facility.
Getting here was an adventure.
I took the last plane before the airport totally shut down in Cebu, and the empty dark road with military checkpoints looked like apocalypse days.
But then you'd pass by the poorer areas of the city, and in the dimly lit shacks people would still gather outside, all close to each other, no masks, and in poor hygienic conditions.
That's why the virus spreads even quicker in poorer countries, not slower because of the heat.
I had the chance to experience first hand the "Korean model" which has become so famous now in the world.
The model seems good, the execution on the ground soso, especially for foreigners as they will experience major language barriers.
Anyway, I'm happy to be in Korea now.
The magic moment was when I pulled the bus curtain and saw the blooming lotus outside.
Below from dark ariport, to bus drive, to the magic moment:
Hopefully these two weeks of quarantine will go smoothly, and my plan is to make them the biggest, most concentrated monk-mode ever.
You truly don't need to waste time on anything here.
You pay everything before getting in, you can't leave the room, and they leave you the food at the door. So it's truly "stay the fuck in an be productive, or die trying" :D.
The Power Moves: New Rating Stars!
I don't know if you guys noticed, but there are new star ratings now.
I'm very happy I was able to find a solution for that. The plugin is "Yet another star rating", and I got it customized by its own developer to only appear on book reviews.
It also allows me to rate more granularly, adding increments of 0.5 instead of full stars.
And a final added bonus, now the stars show on google, together with the reviewer's name:
What I'm Reading
Still focusing on workplace.
I'm towards the end of the best books I could find and I have a bunch of papers to go through to wrap it up.
Right now I'm listening to "Emotional Intelligence at Work" by Daniel Goleman, I've finished "Talking From 9 to 5" by Debora Tannen (great, and she's awesome) and I'm about to finish "Guide to Office Politics" by Harvard Business Review (I was expecting more from them).
The Power Moves: Next On
I plan on finishing to update the whole workplace section in these two weeks.
It's a challenging task, but it can be done.
It might be one of the projects that took less than expected, since with the quarantine period, both past, present, and budgeted, I was truly able to cram a lot of researching and thinking into full days of work.
After that, there will be "updating the ebooks", with "Ultimate Power" being the highest priority.
Cheers guys, stay healthy!
Out of the quarantine, and it feels great to have a normal life back.
Updated Ultimate Power
What I usually do with the eBooks on this website is that as I research, read, and learn more, I make notes on the word files.
Then, when there is enough new material, I update the ebooks.
I feel that this way they always pack the latest and most relevant information.
I have just finished updating "Ultimate Power", so if you purchased it in the past, please drop me a line and I'll send you the latest version.
I moved from Seoul to Busan, the second biggest Korean city and it's on the ocean.
Albeit too cold to get in for a swim, it's good to see the ocean from time to time.
I think the sea and the beach have such a strong and underrated effect on people and cultures. It makes people feel freer, and somewhat warmer and more romantic.
What I'm Doing: Typos Fixing
I paused new articles for now, and I resumed an old project: going through old posts with Grammarly switched on.
That might seem like a task one could easily outsource, but I'm not convinced.
As I go through old articles, I also upgrade and improve them and link to new articles, books, and resources I learned from. And if I realize a book I reviewed in the past is not good enough to be here, I might delete the post or password-protect it.
That's not something someone else could do.
Strategic Rebranding
I might rebrand the Social Power course "Power University", and update the pictures and marketing accordingly.
What I'm Reading
I have just finished:
- Learned Optimism (awesome!)
- The Wisdom of Psychopaths
I am going through a second listen to "The Wisdom of Psychopaths".
Albeit there are important criticisms to move against it, there is also much wisdom. I think that book will become one of the core books of this website, underpinning the idea that to be good, you need to know how to be bad.
"The Wisdom of Psychopaths" also undermines the notion that for a good career, caring about people and emotional intelligence are key. No, they're not the primary way with which you reach the top (unluckily).
So I will be bringing an important update to the "career strategies" section overview.
I need to double-check his sources though.
Hi Lucio, is the Ultimate power ebook in the social power course the latest version?
Quote from arunjoy749 on May 21, 2020, 12:16 pmHi Lucio, is the Ultimate power ebook in the social power course the latest version?
Hello Arun, yes it is.
Quick update:
I'm kinda of "stuck" in Korea.
Since I live in Germany but I'm not a German national and don't have official residency there, I can't go back there right now.
It was a bit of a bummer since we were planning with my parents to meet in Berlin for my dad's 80th birthday in June (not 70 like I previously wrote), and well... People don't live forever, so it was a good opportunity to spend time with them. I wanted to make them a surprise with a chauffered car organized for them to visit Dresden.
So that fell through.
On the other hand, well, life's still good, and I love Seoul.
The Power Moves
I paused new articles and I'm still going through the old ones to update them, including higher quality pictures for the screenshot examples.
That takes time, but I think it's worth it.
My goal for the website is not to have a lot of articles, but to have great ones. It has to be an organized place.
My goal for thepowermoves.com is to be a place where people can get information of the highest quality, and quick on power dynamics, reality-based life strategies, and science-backed self-development.
Lots of articles might help the website generate more traffic, but doesn't help the readers get what they want. And it doesn't help me reach my objective of having information neatly organized in a simple to use and consume fashion.
So, in that sense, I think it's worth it to spend more time on upgrading existing articles, than cranking out new ones.
What I'm Reading
- The Woman's Guide to How Men Think: great!
- Sorted: it's the last installment of Kevin Dutton's trilogy on "good psychopathy". Quite good.
Hi Lucio,
Just a quick note to say as a EU citizen you should have no trouble getting back to Europe now (Seoul to Frankfurt seems your likeliest route) and since June 15 EU citizens are no longer in need of providing any justification to travel to a handful of countries including Germany. Now, of course, you could stay in Korea a while more, I've heard the best things about Seoul!
Coach class right now is like business class, you can get 3-4 seats to yourself on most big intercontinental flights.
Made it back home myself a few days ago, scrupulously respecting self-isolation now for another two weeks after testing negative many times over (tested before and after flying, the local authorities are commendably being very careful) - great to be back home in my tropical country.
Thank you, Ulysses!
That's great news.
I might stay here some more weeks though, it's a lovely place, and I built some cool social circle.
Plus, once my father's birthday fell through it was not high priority to fly back anymore... And I'm not to keen on the 2 weeks at home, especially when it's beautiful weather outside :).
Quote from ulysses on June 18, 2020, 7:53 amCoach class right now is like business class, you can get 3-4 seats to yourself on most big intercontinental flights.
Made it back home myself a few days ago, scrupulously respecting self-isolation now for another two weeks after testing negative many times over (tested before and after flying, the local authorities are commendably being very careful) - great to be back home in my tropical country.
LOL, you might have to look hard sometimes, but there is always a silver lining :D.
Welcome back to the tropics, man! All year above 20° is how heaven should be like :)
A quick update from my side:
Where: Still in Seoul (such a great time)
Seoul turned out to be an awesome place, I'm absolutely loving my time here.
I made some cool international friends, developed a social circle, and also had (and having) a great time dating some great women.
Plus, the freedom of going out as you please.
I know I will miss this place big time, and I might even consider Seoul for longer-term. But I can't extend the visa forever, winters are cold and I need to do some stuff in Europe.
As I often say: I wish I had a thousand lives so I could live a few of them doing different things, in the countless great places this earth has to offer.
But we only have one, and we have to make everything fit into it.
Reading Right Now (slow down on new reading)
- King, Warrior, Magician, Lover
- The Logic of Political Survival
But I have slowed down on reading and writing summaries.
The original reason was that my noise-canceling earbuds broke, and the new ones I bought are terrible.
However, now it's more out of choice. I turned that as an opportunity to reflect more, socialize more, and take copious notes on social dynamics and strategies.
Next up will be a few courses I earmarked, including this one:
- Power Dynamics in Intimate and Sexual Relationships: there is not much great material on sexual and relationship power dynamics from academia, but this course got my hopes up!
September / October in Europe
I haven't seen my family in a long time (and my dad is 80 years old), so I both need and look forward to spending some days in Italy.
And I also need and look forward to stopping in Berlin.
I need to find new tenant(s) since right now my flat is being a pure cost (and I dislike the inefficiency of leaving vacant places: renting is a win-win, and not renting is lose-lose).
Plus, saying hi to some friends there before it gets too cold.
I then intend to leave once again to warmer places around November, but with Covid everything's up in the air, so it's difficult to make any real plans.
I'm not yet sure whether Berlin or Italy will come first, but once back to Europe is when I will start:
Power University / Dating Power Dynamics upgrade
The next big project is the upgrade of both PU and DPD.
Since the last upgrade, I have taken lots of notes, saved lots of great videos examples, came up with new definitions/names, and received plenty of great feedback.
That will be no quick job.
It will take me some time of focused work, probably around 2 months.
I might do all of them one after the other:
- Incorporating the new notes and examples
- Adding one more module for leadership (and potentially group/friends power dynamics)
- Adding advanced micro case studies as spin-off forum posts
- Reshooting some of my own videos at higher quality
- PDF summaries of each module
From a marketing point of view, I might advertise this upgrade period as the last time to get in at the current price. And from a pricing perspective, I might increase the course price once the upgrade is over (I'm thinking 197, we'll see).
