Never be late!!

Some people have the habit of being always late. When they meet with friends, when they go to the movies, when going to class or even at their workplace. Obviously, peole who arrive late for work usualy don't keep their jobs for too long...

First, it's the awful impression that it gives. When you are consistantly late, it is very easy to think that you don't care because, if you did care, why would you be late all the time? 

This also make you appear to be less trustworthy for other people. Let's face it, responsible people are almost never late. Imagine being late for a job interview, do you think you would get the job?

Never underestimate the importance of being on time. If you know you have trouble sleeping, go to see your doctor. Try to do sports or any kind of exercise as it will help you with that.

Charlotte's amazing story

I came across a video recently that I feel I had to share with you. It is about a little girl called Charlotte and how a sbstance called Cannabidiol saved her life.

Interview - Javier Fernández, Communication expert

Today we have the honor of having with us psycologist and communication expert Javier Fernandez. He has been working with deaf children for more than 20 years, so there is a lot lo learn from him.

- Question: First of all, why did you decide to become a psychologist?

- Answer:  Well, as a child I was always amazed at people's different ways of thinking, they are so diverse! I didn't have any brothers or sisters, so I would often enjoy myself observing other people, for example at restaurants or malls. As I grew older, I became more interested in the psychology as a science, I wanted to try and understand the human psyque.

- Q: And were you able to understand it?

- A: Most of it, yes. See, one of the main differences between psychology and psychiatry, from my point of view, is that you don't talk about illnesses or diseases, but rather disorders or pathologies. And this is very important.  If the impairement is physical, it has to be treated differently. So when it comes to understanding the underlayers of human conduct, it is rather easy with what you could call a healthy brain, but there is still much that we don't know about certain diseases.

- Q: How did you end up working with children?

- A: It's funny because I never thought I would end up working with children, it was pure chance. It was the first job I found when I finished my degree and I haven't wanted to do anything different ever since. Children are great to work with, but specially kids with disabilities are even better.

- Q: What is the biggest challenge for a deaf kid, communicatively speaking?
- A: Being deaf is not a limiting disability, specially for adults, but children need to learn from a very early age that they are different than other kids, and also that they are exactly the same as them. As you can imagine, some kids feel retracted, others ashamed and some don't even care about their disability, they are the happiest kids in the world. In terms of communication, once they know the silent language, it is very easy for them to establish relationships. Even if it may sound contradictory, they don't have a communication deficiency.

- Q: Thank you very much Javier for granting us these minutes, it has been really interesting talking with you.
- A: Thank you for having me here, It has been a pleasure.

Asperger syndrome

Asperger syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development. Although not required for diagnosis, physical clumsiness and atypical (peculiar, odd) use of language are frequently reported. (Source: Wikipedia)

If you have met someone with Asperger's you may not have noticed any strange behavior, maybe an inclination to loneliness or lack of communication with others. These are produced mainly by a difficulty in information processing in their brains. An an early age, a human's brain learns to focus its attention in certain stimulus, discarding whatever is not necessary, and therefore being able to process them. This does not happen with Asperger.

For a person with Asperger's, this process of ruling out stimulus doesn't happen, so they are continuously overwhelmed with stimulus, and their brains have a hard time to focus in a particular one.

Imagine being at a restaurant full of people, having lunch with your friend, and not being able to just focus on your conversation, but instead being constantly bombarded by waiters walking by, peoples voices, lights, silverware noises etc. It would certainly be a challenge.

But luckily Asparger's patients can learn to improve, and there are also many things you can do to help them, such as speaking softly to them, trying to keep a certain distance so they don't feel invaded. Basically trying to understand how their brains work will make it easier for you to be able to help.

Find more information at http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/asperger-syndrome

Engaging your audience

In the previous post we spoke about the fear of speaking in public. Some people do not have this fear, but instead they are not able to maintain the attention of the audience, people just wonder off because they are not feeling interested, engaged.

Making your speech memorable requires you to pay attention to several details. For example, you need to be aware of who is going to be your audience, so you can adapt your register and therefore be closer to them. 

An impressive start will inmediately catch the attention of the public, and a good end will make them remember you.

Here's another video on how to engage your audience by Roger Reece.

Fear of public speaking

Speaking in public may be difficult for some people. They get nervous, insecure, their voices tremble. Others have a lot of self confidence, but nobody listens to them because they can't keep people's attention.

For those who're nervous, there are sevral techniques and exercises you can do to train yourself. Practice, of course, will help a lot. Here is a video of speech instructor Steven D. Cohen, giving 3 tips to overcome the fear of public speaking.

In the next post we will speak about how to make your public appearances more interesting.

Communications in engineering - ISO Standard

The International Standarization Organization has been, since 1947, setting worldwide standards for fabrication processes, sizes, rules etc. for all sorts of areas such as sofware, electronics, materials, inspections, resource management...

This allows, for example, that A4 paper is the same size everywhere in the world, bolts and nuts' sizes are also standard everywhere. There is even a set of rules of how to properly cite documents or web pages. 

http://www.comunidadism.es/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/iso.png

Nowadays, it is necessary to have these standards, production is worldwide. For example, the Airbus A350 has pieces built in more than 10 different countries and then come toghether in the main factory. Without ISO this would be a lot harder, if not impossible.

On top of this, any place or company or product rated ISO is guaranteed to have certain quality standards.

Here are some interesting ISO for engineers:

- ISO 690: Bibliography citations.
- ISO 3166: Country codes.
- ISO 8601: Date and time formats.
- ISO 9000 - 9004: Quality management systems.
- ISO 9899: C programming language.
- ISO 50001: Energy management systems.