Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Paypal or rewarding credit cards?

Slackmaster Bren has some Paypal tricks to share, along with the reasons he like to use Paypal. For example, he likes to use Paypal to buy stuff on iTunes.

While I like Paypal, I tend to use it only for eBay purchases. In most other cases, I use credit cards that earn some kind of reward points. I don't carry a balance so I don't mind putting things on a card just so I can earn points or air miles Just as Bren's earned a few things about Paypal, I'd like to share a few observations on the rewards points side of the equation.

Air Miles Cards - Air Miles cards are a great way to earn miles that you can later cash in for "free" airline tickets, upgrades, etc. Some considerations:

  • Bulk up the easy way. These cards can be especially lucrative if you take advantage with the associated airline's "specials." Many airlines will offer bonus miles for things like booking online with the card, dining out at specific restaurants, shopping at certain stores, etc. - if you plan to spend the money anyway, this is an easy way to get more miles.
  • Use the card enough to offset the fee. If you are going to keep the card in your wallet and not spend much on it, these "loyalty" cards may not be a good deal for you since they often have higher annual fees than non-air miles cards. You'll need to earn (and use) the miles to offset the fee.
  • Elites can "waive" goodbye to their fees. Many airline cards will waive your annual fee if you reach one of their elite levels in their mileage program. This is a nice perk - look for it.
  • Airline hoppers may get diminishing returns. If you fly several different airlines (or a different airline for business and leisure) a loyalty card that is tied to a specific airline may be a pain. If, for example, you fly United a lot for business but always go on vacation to a city where United doesn't fly, you may have a tough time using your airmiles to reduce your vacation travel costs. Note: If the two airlines you frequent are partners, you may be able to transfer miles from one to the other, but look before you leap.
  • Beware the mileage cap. Last year, I favored my United Mileage Plus Visa, but I found out I missed out on something like 40,000 air miles because I hit their annual cap on earning miles around September because I was operating under the mistaken assumption that the mileage cap didn't apply to "United 1K 100,000 mile" members. I didn't realize my mistake until end of November. This year, I'm using a Rewards Point card instead.
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Smashed up cars in the snow

We had an unexpected snow storm here in Portland today, and it meant dangerous driving conditions. The big entertainment today amongst our local newscasters is watching a video captured by one of their viewers showing a bunch of cars behaving like bumper cars on the slick, snowy streets.

Check it out here - you'll get a feel for what I saw on my commute today!
[Note - the site is getting lots of traffic so if you don't see it, try again in a little while]
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Daily Report, Jan 13

Last night, I spent some time helping my daughter with her math homework (5th grade stuff). I checked her problems, and she kept getting the answers wrong on four specific multiplication problems. I'd mark them wrong and she'd go into the other room and try again. It was getting frustrating for both of us, so I decided to watch what she was doing.

After only a couple of minutes, I recognized what she was doing - her incorrect answers were rooted a few specific issues:

  • she was getting distracted during the equations and sometimes skipped a step or two;
  • she was writing her "carry" digits in a way that made it difficult to tell where they belonged;
  • she was jumbling some of her numbers together which made it difficult to tell which ones were carry digits and which ones were part of the original equation;
  • she was writing commas throughout the equations to separate the thousands places, and sometimes ended up adding the commas in as 1's when she solved the problem.

To me, as a detached observer, the reasons for the wrong answers were obvious. To her, it was vexing and not getting any better.

I was able to work with her on some changes to how she was writing down the problems, and get her to a place with fewer distractions. I then worked through the first problem with her. After that one came out right, she did the other three on her own pretty quickly.

Coaches can sometimes see what we can't

This morning, it dawned on me that I was acting as a coach in this situation. An incidental coach, perhaps, but still a coach. I was able to watch her "workflow" to determine why she was getting the wrong results, and I could see things in a way that was difficult for her. I was also able to contribute further advice and solutions based on my own experience.

She had the skills necessary to get the work done, but some of her current practices were preventing her from achieving the desired results. And it took someone else's perspective to get her to work in a more productive way.

Therein lies the value of coaching.

In math and life, technique and focus make a difference

The other thing I realized was that the issues confronting her in doing her math problems had a lot in common with the things that keep me from being productive:

  • when I get distracted from the tasks I should be focusing on, I tend to skip a step or two;
  • when I work in a disorganized way, it's hard to figure out where to start or when I'm done;
  • when I'm too close to the work, it's hard to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Most notably, I've certainly found myself in situations where I tried and tried but didn't get the results I intended or expected.

And, I realized I've gotten a lot from coaches (both professional and incidental) over the years.

Getting lousy results? Feeling frustrated and don't know what you're doing wrong? Or, at a loss for how to fix the problems that are vexing you?

Maybe you need a coach, or a trusted advisor who can give you some outside perspective.

Related items:

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[Updated] Gimme five (and pass it on)

Bren slapped me five this week. He is perpetuating some kind of blog chain letter thing (or a social pyramid scheme) in which you tell five things about yourself, then tag five more bloggers to keep the chain going. Interesting game - and kinda fun.

So - here are five, little-known things I'm willing to share:

  1. My first car was actually an old truck purchased from the late Cajun television chef Justin Wilson for $150 (he was a friend of the family - "I GARONTEE!").
  2. I can look at a printed page and misspelled words tend to "pop out" at me like magic. (For some reason, it doesn't work as reliably on a computer screen - I don't know why...)
  3. Between 1983 and 1991, I was a professional radio DJ and traffic reporter (under the names Adam West, Dwayne Adams, Bruce Wayne, and Yule Devni).
  4. When I was 5, I nearly drowned in Louisiana Senator Russell Long's swimming pool (another family friend).
  5. I am very picky about how sheets are put on my bed, to the point that I often re-make beds in hotel rooms, and I insist that I put the sheets on my bed at home (my wife refuses to play along and make the bed my way).

Now, here are five bloggers I'd like to give the gift of "five."

Don't break the chain - the last person that broke the chain accidentally responded to that Nigerian email scam and lost everything he had. Double true.

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