Jon McDonald

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Recent posts by Jon McDonald

I was wondering about some of these freelance sites, as well. Does anyone here have experience applying for projects on websites like odesk, elance, scriptlance, and guru? Was the experience positive? On one hand, I see people biding impossibly low on projects (too low even for developing nations). On the other hand, when I look at projects where the bid was accepted and the project was actually completed, the bids look more reasonable.
13 years ago
You understand that the reason why Arabic and Pashto speakers receive so much money is that they are going to be working in a combat zone where they may be killed, don't you?

Furthermore, most of those high paying jobs require you to be a US citizen with an ability to receive a security clearance. Also, those are translator jobs, not Java jobs.
17 years ago
How about Arabic. I've noticed that most of the oil rich Arab nations don't produce enough technologists in any field and must import them from other countries. I remember hearing some crazy statistic about Saudi Arabia. It said that 85% of all of their college grads were theology majors. There country has tons of cash, but lack a technical workforce. Based on reports from friends who have worked in those areas, the pay is pretty high.

Jon
20 years ago
Also, in the U.S. the legality of hypnosis is completely dependent on the State you live in and how they define hypnosis. I have never had any legal problems with it, but that is just because the state has a MUCH more limited view on what hypnosis is than I do (my view is so expansive, that I often doubt whether such a thing as "hypnosis" exists). For instance, in states where hypnosis is restricted to psychotherapy, "guided visualization" usually isn't. I do neither. I just like to talk with people.

Jon
20 years ago
In my experience, using NLP done without any formal training can cause some problems/complications. The biggest reason for this is that people don't perform what we term "ecology checks". For programmers, this is similar to performing unit tests and functional tests for software that will be released. I personally in my several years of doing NLP have not seen problems occur when "ecology checks" are done. Even when they are not done, the most common response of the person is to simply revert back to the old behavior.

I've seen (and done) several "stop smoking" pieces of changework with people and I can say that I have NEVER EVER seen anyone resort to an illegal drug to replace cigarrettes. The worst I've seen has been someone eating more, but I have heard that that is common with people who stop smoking.

I don't place any positive or negative value on NLP as a whole, it is all a matter of how one uses the tools they are given. I personally use it for self-improvement and persuasion and have found it works spectacularly in both areas. Gaining rapport and establishing a bond with your interviewer is a powerful tool in landing a position. When someone really likes and wants to hire YOU, often times, they will try to adjust the job requirements to fit your skills. I've seen more people hired, retained, and promoted primarily because the right people liked them a lot than any other reason. Conversely, I've seen situations where someone is skilled, but disliked, and management searches desperately for a way to fire them.

I'm not going to get into the whole "NLP is about controlling people" arguement, other than to say this:
If NLP teaches you how to control people, why hasn't some NLPer "controlled" Bill Gates' secretary so that they could be given a personal meeting with him? They could then "control" Bill Gates and force him to sign over all of microsoft to him. That would be my plan if I could "control" people . WAIT!! What if Bill Gates is a Master Practitioner of NLP and that is how he became so rich with Microsoft !?!?

Jon
[ July 12, 2004: Message edited by: Jon McDonald ]
20 years ago

Originally posted by Helen Thomas:


�700 a session according to a blog. What is this you have to practice everyday - what goals do you set ? Same question to Jon McDonald.

[ July 07, 2004: Message edited by: Helen Thomas ]



That is probably how much he charges for private sessions of (changework) where he helps them with specific issues (e.g. stopping smoking, phobias, increase athletic performance, etc..).

You don't HAVE to practice anything. However, depending on what area you wish to apply what you have learned, you may want to practice certain exercises to improve the NLP skills that come into use most often in that area. For instance, when I learned it, I was focusing a lot on persuasion. One of the tools NLP has for that involves the use of certain language structures and patterns when communicating. One method to practice those structures was to write examples of them down and/or say them into a tape recorder everyday. You do that for a few weeks and your skill with the language patterns will skyrokect. Another way to practice is just to talk with everyday people and pay attention to what patterns related to NLP they are exhibiting.

One thing I would recomend is not to think of NLP as some sort of positive thinking, motivational seminar experiance. Rather, I view it as a collection of tools based on new ways of observing human behavior. It isn't a science in that they don't state "This is how people are". Instead, think of it more as a collection of heuristics such as "If person A is exhibiting X, do Y and you will usually get Z response. Not always, but usually."

Jon
20 years ago

Originally posted by Dmitry Melnik:
Now I am in the middle of
my Practitioner's trainig, and have a desire to learn as much of this stuff as I can handle. It's useful, and it's fun



I forgot to ask, who are you doing your practitioner training with? Are they in the US?

Jon
20 years ago

Originally posted by Dmitry Melnik:

Paul McKenna in London does an NLP Practitioner's training.

He is a famous guy. Must be good and expensive



Actually, one thing some NLP trainers in the UK (and the US) were upset about was that he could undercut them by offering Practitioner and Master Practitioner with himself and Richard Bandler (Co-Founder of NLP) for less than other trainers would charger for Practitioner Training alone. He did this by relying on one of the oldest principles of economics, economies of scale.

Jon
20 years ago

Originally posted by Helen Thomas:
Now I am curious . What's your background with NLP.
And Jon Macdonald's ?

Dmitry , do you attend Tony Robbins seminars ? What do you get from it ?

Paul McKenna in London does an NLP Practitioner's training.

[ July 07, 2004: Message edited by: Helen Thomas ]



I took a lot of trainings in it from the late '90s to mid 2000. with through practitioner and master practioner and several assorted trainings (hypnosis, DHE, etc...). Never went to Tony Robbin's seminar, but we did watch it during our practitioner to see how he uses NLP during his presentation. Here is a hint, if you go to one of Tony's seminars and feel a strong desire to buy his books and tapes its working on you .

I've never met Paul McKenna, but I have heard a lot about him. Is Richard (Bandler) still doing practitioners with him. I heard they have something like 200-300 people at their practitioner courses.

Most of the people I met at seminars fell into one of 3 catagories. They were either in IT, owned there own business, or were corporate trainers. The hypnosis seminars tended to draw more healthcare workers than business people.

To keep this related to jobs, I must say that those seminars dramaticly improved my interviewing skills and my ability to gain trust, friendship, and cooperation with my coworkers.

If you have any questions, please ask away.

Jon
20 years ago
Have you ever tried any of it?
20 years ago
Hey All,

I am considering going for a few certs (though I don't necessarily need them for work) and I was wondering if any other people get certs for personal fulfillment/fun. At my job, additional certs won't get you a raise or anything, but people do seem to give you A LITTLE more respect if you have them . I'm refering to more system/network admin types, as opposed to programmers (there are not a lot (any?) of people who just do programming where I work). A few of the certs out there look interesting, and it seems like more fun than blowing my money in a casino or something .

Jon
[ May 14, 2004: Message edited by: Jon McDonald ]
20 years ago
.NET is competition to J2EE but it probably won't destroy J2EE. The main reason why I say that is that in chosing .net, you are locking yourself into certain platform choices. First, your developers have to have Visual Studio.net, second, your application servers must be from microsoft, third your OS must be from microsoft.
With Java, you have a variety of IDE, Application Server, and Operating System options. One could design an IDE/App Server/OS software package for Java that is 5-10 times the cost of of a .net package, or one could design an IDE/App Server/OS software package for Java that is virtually free. With the microsoft products, your only choice is microsoft level of support and microft level of reliability. Again, java gives you a much greater range of support and reliability options. These are just some of the reasons why Java may be chosen over microsoft in many (but not all) cases.
Jon
20 years ago
I LOVE the article just below it .
Jon
20 years ago

Originally posted by Alton Hernandez:

You don't need to do this. Just have a look if your CD is mounted. Try issuing the command df.
If your CD is mounted, just unmount (umount /mnt/cdrom) it and then mount it again (mount /mnt/cdrom).


Sorry to get back to this so late. when I try to do this linux returns with
"umount /mnt/cdrom: device is busy"
but the the CD-ROM isn't doing anything, so that doesn't make any sense.
And this happens with all programs trying to read from the CD-ROM, GUI or command line.
Jon
20 years ago

Originally posted by Kishore Dandu:
Europeans generally are perceived to be less hard working than those from US.
So, that makes it more reasonable to go for the outsourcing route.


Finally, there is some group perceived to be lazier than us in the US .
20 years ago