Blog — Creative Acoustician

Creative Acoustician

The greatest opportunity

The greatest opportunity

Unused human potential is something that bothers me to the very core. My dream is equal opportunity to proper education for anyone on the planet. Imagine how many potential geniuses there are in poor countries of the world, that currently lack access to education. Maybe there are one million PhDs out there, just waiting to unleash their ideas upon academia? Imagine how this untapped potential could change the world. How it would increase the growth of human knowledge. How many more research papers would be published every month? The value this would bring is incalculable. Big changes bring big opportunities. The virus induced rapid change to distance learning has suddenly made the dream a reality.

EducationRikard ÖqvistMarch 28, 2020online education, distance learning, virusComment

A cloudy sunrise

A cloudy sunrise

The beauty of nature is often most pronounced during sunrise and sunset. It is a symbol of a beginning and an end, in a cycle that repeats perpetually. Why is it so? I believe it has something to do with contrast. When the sun is close to the horizon, the contrast is maximized in many ways. It is the same bright sphere up in the sky during the day, but when the sun is close to the horizon, the shadows become longer, and the sky is painted in many colours. Everything around us is suddenly portrayed in a whole new way. Those things that used to hold no beauty at all, suddenly can become immensely beautiful for a moment, like a stone, a tree or even a virus outbreak.

PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistMarch 21, 2020nature, virusComment

Failure is not allowed

Failure is not allowed

How would you rate yourself on your ability to drive a car on a scale from 1 to 10 where 10 is the best? There are two ways to answer this question and the answer is determined by your reference points. If you accept the doctrine that failure is not allowed, you should use Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher as the reference. Consequently, your driving ability is 1, no matter who you are. Expect the same result if you compare your singing skill to Pavarotti, your cooking skill to Gordon Ramsay or your scientific ability to Einstein. The elite, unfortunately, seems to be the most common reference point. The other way to answer this question – the one I prefer – is to compare yourself to everyone else, not just the elite.

Habits, PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistMarch 14, 2020growthComment

Extreme goalsetting

Extreme goalsetting

What happens when you take on an extreme goal? I have found there are many benefits with this approach that can maximize your development in any discipline. First, you will never surpass the level of your greatest expectations. An extreme goal will quickly filter out most of your options until you are only left with one way forward, thus making the problem well-defined and thus easier to solve! I tried this approach out in 2017 for the first time and this was my goal “I am going to sing Nessun Dorma at least as good as Jussi Björling” and these were my constraints “and I shall do it within one year by practising 15 minutes/day.” The results blew my mind.

Habits, MusicRikard ÖqvistMarch 7, 2020goalsettingComment

Visualisation of Fear

Visualisation of Fear

You will never surpass the level of your greatest expectations. This is valid for fear too. Your fear will never surpass the level of your greatest expectations either. I have tried to come up with examples where I was afraid of something I was about to do – and then did – where it turned out reality was even worse than my imagination. I couldn’t find a single example. No matter how much fear that grips you in your imagination, reality will turn out better.

PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistFebruary 29, 2020success, goalsetting, fearComment

The biggest lie of all

The biggest lie of all

“You are fine just the way you are”. That’s a message that I have heard many times in my life. If I interpret the message in the most positive way I possibly can, it would be something like this: You shouldn’t try to be someone else. Motivation, value and happiness must be intrinsically driven. You should follow your own dreams instead of someone else’s. This is true by definition – If you don’t live your own life, you will live someone else’s.

PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistFebruary 22, 2020habitsComment

Quantity over Quality

Quantity over Quality

I have always been obsessed with quality. When I was little, I took great care to arrange the Lego pieces in a symmetrical fashion. Just like a Patek Philippe watch, even the pieces inside the Lego build that weren’t visible to the eye had to be perfectly arranged. Maybe it’s not a big surprise that I chose to be an engineer and later pursued a PhD in Engineering Acoustics? Quality is important, but without Quantity, progress becomes impossible.

HabitsRikard ÖqvistFebruary 15, 2020blogging, vlogging, writingComment

Incremental progress towards mastery

Incremental progress towards mastery

I have been Vlogging since the 5th of November. I had never ever tried vlogging before and did not know what I was doing or how, I just knew that I had to do it. At the time of this writing, three months have passed, and I have produced at least one vlog every single day, some days even more. How long does it take to create a habit? I read in James Clear’s newsletter that it takes forever, because the minute you stop doing it, it is not a habit anymore. However, I just realized there is another way to look at it. You can create a habit instantly. I created my vlogging habit on the 5th of November because I knew I wouldn’t skip a single day no matter what happens. Today I reached a critical milestone in my habit.

HabitsRikard ÖqvistFebruary 8, 2020vlogging Comment

Beauty matters

Beauty matters

Last summer, we moved to a house in the countryside in the north of Sweden. The house is located literally next to the sea, surrounded by dense forest and no neighbours in sight. Before, we lived in the middle of the city with walking distance to everything. The contrast is huge. I grew up in the countryside and so did my wife, so I suspect that is why we consider this to be our dream. I actually visited this place many years ago and the very first thought that entered my head when I saw the place was “I want to live here”. It was true love at first sight.

PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistFebruary 1, 2020beautyComment

My past self

My past self

In a discussion some years ago with a friend of mine, we came to the conclusion that “if a problem seems difficult, maybe it’s because you haven’t made it difficult enough”. A simple problem will have several solutions whereas a difficult problem will have fewer solutions. Crank up the difficulty level, and you might find that an extremely difficult problem only has one single solution. This makes the problem well defined and a well-defined problem is something you can work with. It doesn’t mean that the work required will be easy, but at least you will know where you need to direct your energy to solve it. And then it becomes a matter of time and persistence.

HabitsRikard ÖqvistJanuary 25, 2020productivityComment

A creative outlet

A creative outlet

This is my first post on my new blog at the site creativeacoustician.com. I have a very good feeling about this. Here, I have found a creative outlet, where I can express my thoughts completely unfiltered and authentic. When I started vlogging and blogging little over two months ago, I had no idea that I would find so much joy in it. It has become like therapy for me now. The blog is a useful tool to put your thoughts on paper and when you write them down, you are forced to take a stand. It is like having a public debate with yourself, similar to the scene with Gollum in Lord of the rings when he is talking with himself as Smeagol. You move forward as a consequence.

PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistJanuary 18, 2020creativityComment

The importance of writing

The importance of writing

The last two months have been a wild ride. I have attended the London Real Business Accelerator, an 8-week intensive course in business development and online marketing. The course has pushed me to my limits and beyond them and expanded my comfort zone. As an engineer who has a tendency towards analysis paralysis, it is a healthy exercise to attend a program like the Business Accelerator.

Habits, PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistJanuary 11, 2020Comment

Love

Love

In my last blog I wrote about Opportunity cost and how every decision you say Yes to will take you down a new timeline and closing more doors than you open. In this blog I will present my thoughts on the most important Opportunity cost of all – love. Your choice of life partner is without a doubt the decision that will affect your life outcome to the highest degree. When you choose a timeline with a life partner, you also close the doors on the timelines with all the other potential mates.

PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistJanuary 4, 2020loveComment

Opportunity cost

Opportunity cost

The word “yes” should be used with great care. We are constantly bombarded with options and opportunities. Every time you say “yes” to something, you are saying “no” to everything else at the same time. For example, when I decided to learn French as my new year’s resolution one year ago, I also decided not to learn any other language. I like to look at this as if I am comparing timelines. I chose a timeline where French will forever be a part of my identity.

HabitsRikard ÖqvistDecember 28, 2019Comment

Focus

Focus

These last two months have been really intense. Maybe it’s the same thing for many of us when approaching Christmas. A ton of stuff that needs to get done before the holidays. Anyway, yesterday I started to consider a different approach to my “hard work”. I know I haven’t been using my full potential. Here’s what I did.

HabitsRikard ÖqvistDecember 21, 2019deepworkComment

Consistency matters

Consistency matters

The most important aspect of going anywhere in life to keep showing up. This is true for yourself, for your family, your business, your society, your country and all of humankind. I learned this a couple of years ago when we had a band at my old workplace. We put a backline with drums, PA, guitar and bass amps in an unused room in the basement and started to play 15-30 minutes every day instead of taking coffee breaks.

HabitsRikard ÖqvistDecember 13, 2019musicComment

The best idea I have ever had

The best idea I have ever had

Earlier this year, I met a new friend with an interesting background. He was an architect and guitar luthier. And now he had decided to become an acoustician. This might sound like a strange combination, but it turns out interdisciplinary knowledge might be precisely what we need to crack the code on how to build the optimal wooden building with regards to sound insulation.

AcousticsRikard ÖqvistDecember 6, 2019music, woodComment