Some ZacharyBurt.com Updates

Hi loyal blog readers,

I haven’t posted for about 3 weeks now. Here’s what I’ve been busy with:

EndAnts

I launched http://www.EndAnts.com – a site to help you end Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs). As I have previously mentioned here on ZacharyBurt.com, negative thinking is bad for our emotional health. The site uses a technique from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy called distortion thought records and also includes social game-like components (“karma points”, a “leaderboard”). At first I thought I could market it to Cognitive Behavioral Therapists, but after a few hilarious failed customer development meetings (one guy tried to recruit me as a business partner to start a completely different idea with him), and a few dozen unanswered emails, it seemed like I was barking up the wrong tree, peddling vitamins instead of painkillers.

I did get a few other people using the site, and at least a few of them expressed to me that they were getting some value out of it. But ultimately, I found that EndAnts in its current incarnation is not a site that I personally enjoy using – so I’m going to retool it until it becomes software that I personally want to use.

CompassionPit

Ever have a personal problem that’s weighing you down, but you can’t really tell a friend – because they’ll use it against you in the future, or because you’re embarrassed, or because it lowers your social status? Well, I’ve felt that pain before, and that’s why I created http://www.CompassionPit.com, an anonymous one-on-one chat site where the tag line is “Chat with an anonymous stranger who won’t judge you.” I plan on sending out annunciation emails, but apparently Nylon Magazine already found it and named it “site of the day”.

Reading

In July I set out a goal to read 30 books. I don’t think I accomplished that, but I definitely cracked at least 20. In retrospect, not knowing the exactly number of books I did read is probably related to why I failed: I wasn’t keeping exact track. Another disappointment from ZB town is that I did not blog about the vast majority of the books I read. I don’t know why; I probably rationalized it as something like, “they only generated one or two new interesting insights and I don’t feel that the ideas are polished enough ideas as to be construed blog-worthy”. I definitely regret this, because most of the ideas I express in this blog aren’t particularly polished anyway. Hopefully one day a publisher will pay me to go through my previous entries and refine/reframe them into something book-worthy…

Anyway, I have finally finished Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes. It kicked lots of ass and has borne some awesome paradigm shifts that readers of this blog are going to find particularly interesting.

Thanks for your continued readership and participation.

Zachary Burt



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  • Anonymous

    I really like the concept of compassion pit, but until you get some critical mass, perhaps your conversations are a bit one sided, ie non existent. And when there is no one there, it seems as if nothing is happening. I would ask all those who sign up as listeners if you can email them when someone wants to talk, let them opt in, create a cue of sorts, create some engagement etc. Just a thought.

    can you email me your contact info again, my mobile me blew up and lost everything

  • shawnkolodny

    I really like the concept of compassion pit, but until you get some critical mass, perhaps your conversations are a bit one sided, ie non existent. And when there is no one there, it seems as if nothing is happening. I would ask all those who sign up as listeners if you can email them when someone wants to talk, let them opt in, create a cue of sorts, create some engagement etc. Just a thought.

    can you email me your contact info again, my mobile me blew up and lost everything

  • http://website-in-a-weekend.net/ Dave Doolin

    You are so right about “because they’ll use it against you in the future, or because you’re embarrassed, or because it lowers your social status?”

    I don’t complain (much) anymore, nor do I air emotional distress of any sort. People close to me can read the signs, that’s good enough for me.

  • http://website-in-a-weekend.net/ Dave Doolin

    You are so right about “because they’ll use it against you in the future, or because you’re embarrassed, or because it lowers your social status?”

    I don't complain (much) anymore, nor do I air emotional distress of any sort. People close to me can read the signs, that's good enough for me.

  • http://twitter.com/Smile_Christian Christian Jakubowicz

    I feel your compassion pit idea is amazing! I found it on Steve Pavlina forums. It does feel a little beta-ish and empty right now, but with some tweaks I’m sure it’ll improve. Maybe a “ping” of sorts when someone enters the room would be appropriate?

  • http://twitter.com/Smile_Christian Christian Jakubowicz

    I feel your compassion pit idea is amazing! I found it on Steve Pavlina forums. It does feel a little beta-ish and empty right now, but with some tweaks I'm sure it'll improve. Maybe a “ping” of sorts when someone enters the room would be appropriate?

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