Chakras

If you’ve never had the opportunity to watch whirling dervishes, now’s your big chance to get an idea of what they are about. Basically, they dance round and round in circles to draw on God’s energy.

We use technology to innovate, but ideas tend to come most easily when your mind is at rest. IT & Innovation Prof. Silvia Leal says meditation is a way to rest your mind in order to tap into your creative energy. If you want to be an inno-leader, you need to be able to draw on the flow of energy.

Prof. Leal’s proposal is that you should open all your chakras…. The result would be energy and more energy of the kind that makes the world goes round –she concludes.

Gliding Vertigo

IT Prof. Ricardo Perez flies in a glider to overcome his fear of heights.

The parents of Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante used to give him the choice of either having a sardine for dinner or going to the movies. He loved the cinema so much that he always opted for the movies. Later in life he wrote a book with the title “Cinema or Sardine”.

Fortunately IT Prof. Ricardo Perez did not have to make such a choice, but he does share that same passion for movies, and in his case he used it as an effective way to conquer his fears.

He confessed to me that he has had a fear of heights for a number of years now, to the extent that he couldn’t even look out of a window. He finally decided that at this stage of his life it was high time he overcame this fear, and he had a plan to do just that. First, he was going to fly in a glider, which is what you are going to see in this video. Then, if he didn’t wet his pants (I am quoting verbatim) in the glider, he would do a parachute jump. He still has to make that jump, but I won’t be surprised if we see him do it in the near future. Anyway, every time he overcomes his fear of something he gives himself a reward, and yes, the reward is a trip to the movies. In this case, he went to see Django, and so did I. It’s a really good film by the way!

P.S. Prof. Perez also recommended the book “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, about what the author calls “optimal experience”. Research shows that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. It’s always a pleasure to work with Prof. Perez because he has the knack of making you feel that life is good, and that’s all that matters.

You Gotta Jump!!!

Professor Kiron Ravindran talks about Information Systems while swing jumping.

Some time ago, a friend of mine said to me “you know, Felix, what I want around me are not incredible people, colleagues, friends whom I can brag about… but just pleasant people. You know, people who make your life easy, plain and simple.” Well, not that you cannot brag about how knowledgeable Information Systems Professor Kiron Ravindran is, no, it’s just that when you interact with him, you realize that things just go smoothly – the way my friend told me they should go.
I am sure you would like some evidence.

When I suggested we shoot a video, he proposed at the end of his email: “[Cut to me jumping off a bridge…on a bungee]”. I must confess that I have thought of bungee jumping as one option, but it is also true that I never thought of finding a professor who would actually make that idea a reality.

Moreover, the amazing thing is after jumping he said to me:
Felix, I gotta jump again.
Fine, Kiron, we’ll come another day.
No,I mean now.

And that is what he did. Jumped again. This time head first, which is what you are going to see in this video.
After the shooting we went to the favorite place of bikers around Madrid, “La Cruz Verde”, and had some amazing black pudding, sausage, and chorizo sandwiches. No vegetarian was seen within a 100 miles”.

Photo Professor Kiron Ravindran in theotherphoto.blogs.ie.edu

@edans breaks the ice

As Chinese artist Ai Weiwei showed by dropping a Han Dinasty Urn, not only is China changing, but everything is changing… or is going to change.  Here in this video,  Enrique Dans, Professor of information technologies and systems,talks not about technology itself, but about  how the use of technology affects our lives on a personal, corporate and societal level.
Prof. Dans says that “Technology is politics by other means…” a play on the quote from Carl von Clausewitz. “Technology changes the way we do politics”, he adds.

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