My Quora Research Project
Inspired by a recommendation in The Art and Business of Online Writing, for the past six weeks, I have been answering questions on Quora.
As you may know, Quora is a question-and-answer website where people ask questions in public and others, hopefully experts, give their insights and advice. I have been using it to collect information and data about what I know that might be of interest to people. I can answer questions and then track what topics and content get the most views.
I am looking at it like a creative writing exercise every morning. My goal is to answer a question every day for six months.
After six months, I’ll have a sense of what resonates and can tailor my blog content to match the areas where people seem the most interested.
Over the past six weeks, I have answered at least one question every day. I thought I would show some preliminary results and copy over the five most viewed answers I’ve given.
In ascending order and cleaned up a bit:
#5: How have small habits changed your life? How did you do it?
My habits are an essential part of my life.
I recall years ago reading The Slight Edge and more recently Atomic Habits, both of which were helpful for understanding the power of habits, as well as the compounding effect of small, incremental improvements.
For example, starting a 5-minute a-day meditation habit is a very minor lift. It won’t have a major effect at first, but over time the power will compound. I started that way and 6 years later, I meditate 30 minutes a day and it’s a core component of my life.
The same with reading. I started reading 10 pages a day, and several years later I now read an hour a day. I can’t calculate how much wisdom and knowledge I’ve gained from this process.
Similar daily habits include working out, stretching/yoga, cold showers, and writing for 30 minutes each morning. Because I’ve adopted these habits, I am happier, wiser, in good physical and mental health, and the most productive I’ve ever been.
All of these habits began with small steps that compounded and grew over time. The trick is not taking on too much all at once. That’s a recipe for breaking habits.
#4: Do good looks give a person confidence?
They can.
If you know you look good, you’ll enjoy interacting with people more. Enjoying socializing will make you more confident with people.
But that’s not the whole story. If you’re someone who has struggled with your appearance and you undergo a radical physical transformation, you won’t be used to the attention you now receive. This could make you more insecure as, for the first time, you catch strangers constantly looking at you.
There are many attractive people that are insecure in public.
#3 How do you put confidence in yourself very quickly?
You can increase your confidence by adopting a confident body posture.
Amy Cuddy has done a lot of work on this. Not only does standing more confidently help you appear more confident, but it also helps you feel this way.
So stand tall, shoulders back and relaxed, and relax your face/smile. You’ll quickly feel more confident.
#2 What is the most noticeable aspect of nonverbal communication?
Gauging someone’s level of anxiety.
While it’s hard to determine the reason for someone’s anxiety, it’s easy to identify that someone is anxious. It could be through self-soothing arm rubs, fiddling with a necklace, speaking fast or at a high pitch, or through many other cues.
Once observed, you can calibrate how to speak and behave to make them feel more comfortable. You can pivot to a side so that you aren’t directly facing them and making them feel threatened. Or you can mirror their body language to create some rapport.
Also, recognizing that people around you are anxious — especially socially or in work settings — will do much to build your own confidence.
#1 What habits are more dangerous than they seem?
Using social media.
While on its surface, it seems like a good way to stay connected with friends or find people with similar interests, investing significant amounts of time on social media can have terrible effects on your life.
It can make you less productive, unhappy, and disconnected from the real world. Social media makes you think other people are living a better life than they are, in turn making you less satisfied with yours.
Takeaways:
The people have spoken. This will now be a blog focused on fitness, building confidence and getting rid of social media.
I kid. I want to continue this for the full six months before I set a new course, but as I approach my 40th birthday, I do think a “Fitness in my Forties” series would be fun to do.
Bonus Content:
I have been playing around with AI Arta, an AI graphic design app. You can give it a prompt and it will develop an image for you. I think it has a ways to go. But still, I copied some of the content from this page into it as a prompt, and it turned out this image. Let me know if you get it ‘cause I don’t.
