Reid technique: Nine Steps of Interrogation

Edit

The Reid technique's nine steps of interrogation are:^[5]

1. Direct confrontation. Advise the suspect that the evidence has led the police to the individual as a suspect. Offer the person an early opportunity to explain why the offense took place.
2. Try to shift the blame away from the suspect to some other person or set of circumstances that prompted the suspect to commit the crime. That is, develop themes containing reasons that will psychologically justify or excuse the crime. Themes may be developed or changed to find one to which the accused is most responsive.
3. Try to minimize the frequency of suspect denials.
4. At this point, the accused will often give a reason why he or she did not or could not commit the crime. Try to use this to move towards the acknowledgement of what they did.
5. Reinforce sincerity to ensure that the suspect is receptive.
6. The suspect will become quieter and listen. Move the theme of the discussion towards offering alternatives. If the suspect cries at this point, infer guilt.
7. Pose the "alternative question", giving two choices for what happened; one more socially acceptable than the other. The suspect is expected to choose the easier option but whichever alternative the suspect chooses, guilt is admitted. As stated above, there is always a third option which is to maintain that they did not commit the crime.
8. Lead the suspect to repeat the admission of guilt in front of witnesses and develop corroborating information to establish the validity of the confession.
9. Document the suspect's admission or confession and have him or her prepare a recorded statement (audio, video or written).

Cognitive Bias

Buster Benson wrote a great article with a Cognitive Bias Cheat Sheet. You can find it here.

Then  John Manoogian III diagrammed it.

Here is the standard editing system, from larger to smaller scale, which means from to the first to the last step, as shown in RideThePen.

1. Developmental Editing:  This step refers to storytelling. If you think anything is wrong with your plot, characters, motivations… those are the first things you have to take care of. They will often require a lot of re-writing. I’m a big fan of coming in prepared and only starting to write once you know your story and your characters very well. This will almost completely spare you any developmental editing. Yay! The best checklist for developmental editing you can find anywhere (in my opinion) was created by yours truly, and you can download the PDF here for free.
2. Line Editing: The second step zooms in a bit more, and deals with paragraph structure, sentence flow, choice of words, etc… How does your language sound and flow? Editing gets really interesting here. Don’t be afraid to re-write entire paragraphs, especially if you are new to writing. You will be so much happier with your story in the end, and you will learn a lot during the process.
3. Copy Editing: We are moving closer to simple mechanics here. This is about grammar and punctuation, and in most cases, you can objectively tell what’s right or wrong. Don’t hesitate to outsource this step, and also the following final one, if you can afford it. It won’t take anything away from your creative work, and you will save yourself much of the boredom of editing.
4. Proofreading: As the last step, check for typos. It needs to be done in order to look professional. No excuse – yes, I’m talking to you! As a reader, you probably know that too many typos in a text are annoying as hell and can throw you out of the illusion fast. So just do it.

Augutines Doctrine of Grace

"Sinful man depends, for his recovery to good and to God, entirely on the free grace of God; this grace is therefore indispensable, prevenient, irresistible, indefectible; and, being thus the free grace of God, must have lain, in all the details of its conference and working, in the intention of God from all eternity.”
 — Warfield, Studies in Tertullian and Augustine, p. 130; Warfield, Calvin and Augustine, p. 322.

Machowicz’s Training Pyramid

Richard "Mack" Machowicz’s Training Pyramid goes 
Correct Fundamentals,
Concentration,
Consistency,
Accuracy, 
Speed
--In that order.

Don't work on any step until you have mastered the prior step.

How to Streamline Your Writing Process

How to Streamline Your Writing Process, courtesy of Henneke at Enchanting Marketing

Looking for great content?

Sally Hogshead, of Fascinate fame, has published a great blog post entitled 21 Juicy Ideas for Fascinating Content.

Here are a couple of her points. Then go look at her article.

1. Start with information, then add insight

Information is good, but it’s not enough to establish your thought leadership. If you and I can both search for the same information, that “content” isn’t content — it’s a commodity. Step it up a notch by adding insight to your message.

2. Show us the implications of a trend

Enlighten us. Connect the dots. For example, “Here’s something on the horizon: ___, and here’s what it means for you and your business: ___.” Give us your interpretation. Point us toward what we need to pay attention to.

3. Go on a rant

Show us a point of view that you feel strongly about. Make a fuss about a problem. A passionate voice vividly communicates what you believe and why we should care.

She has a whole lot more. Go check it out.

Mountaineering

"A climb is no fun unless there has been one moment at which you have sworn that if once you get down alive you will never go up a mountain again."
-- Anonymous

Grinding for the Man

"And I'll tell you one more thing. If all you're doing is grinding for the man, it's going to burden you. Once you say, 'Hey, I'm grinding for the man but I'm putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy', you're working for you." 

-- Jocko Willink

As quoted in an interview with James Altucher.

Negotiate, Fight, or Flight

It has been observed that one of the differences between the "street-wise" and the rest of us is that we often negotiate our way out of difficult circumstances while the street-wise rarely negotiate and will choose to either fight or flee.

Robert Mnookin has written a book, Bargaining with the Devil, that gives a formal framework for the negotiate or else decision. He is the chair of the Program on Negotiations at the Harvard Law School, so he is a pretty good source.

His basic framework is that you need to dispassionately (emotions always get in the way of logic) think about five points:

1. What are my interests and what are my adversaries interests?
2. What are my alternatives to negotiation and what are my adversaries alternatives? [Understand your, and his, BATNA's.]
3. Is there a potential deal that is better than the BATNA for each of us?
4. What will it cost me to negotiate? Not all costs are in dollars. Time, emotion, reputation, and self-image are also factors.
5. If we reach a deal, is there a reasonable prospect that it will be carried out? You can always put penalties for nonperformance from third parties in the deal.

Think about these before you make a fight or flight decision.

Outline for business stories

From Enchanting Marketing.

Define the four key moments of your business story:

• Which problem do you solve?
• Which insight sparked the start (or pivoting) of your business?
• What are you doing now to fix the problem?
• What’s your mission?

Then add details to bring your story to life.
Skip everything that's irrelevant to understand ing the plot.

The Order of Modifiers

In English we generally order modifiers in the following order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. 

This is not a formal rule, but most generally follow it, even if they don't know it.

Ignore it at your own peril.
See http://www.metafilter.com/162206/Opinion-Size-Age-Shape-Colour-Origin-Material-purpose-Noun

Purpose of Church Services

 From Mike Cosper in The Gospel Coalition blog:

We must ask what’s at the center of our gatherings. Is it an emotional ride, led by a hip, handsome, and passionate rock star, followed by (to borrow a phrase from James K. A. Smith) “a 45-minute lecture from the smartest guy in the room,” or is the gathering focused on the Word of God, a Spirit-filled congregation singing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” together, and the Lord’s Supper? Is the church a gathering and sending of saints, or a rally for a fan club?

The 20 Habits of Eventual Millionaires

by James Altucher 

This is the wrong question. It’s upside down.

This is a tacky question. This is sort of a rude question.

But this was a question on Quora. Actually, the question was a bit worse. It was “I’m in my 20s – can someone in their 40s tell me what I need to do to become a financial success?”

Maybe don’t look for shortcuts. Too many shortcuts is “death by a thousand cuts”.

Here’s a question: I’m in my 40s, can someone in their 20s tell me how to restore that feeling of lightness, no obligations and the feeling that “Enough” is a Feast?
Answer me that.

Here’s a question: I’m in my 20s, can someone tell me what success is?

Here’s another question: I’m lonely, can someone tell me how a ray of sunlight can remember that by itself it is nothing, but together it’s the Sun?

But ok. Another friend of mine wrote a good post on this topic. But I know him and how he made his millions and although his answer was good, it wasn’t how he made his money.

Money is not everything. It’s a side effect. It’s a byproduct. It’s nuclear waste after all the energy has already powered the Earth.

Focus just on the habits. Only the first half of the question.

Everyone needs different habits. If someone has an arm amputated he needs a new arm. Another person might need a new eye.

Another person needs to listen better.

20 Habits

I’m sorry. I was about to answer. But I need to define “habit”.

When I was lying in the gutter at 3 in the morning, drunk, and cars swerving around me, I needed first to be pulled to the sidewalk.

That was a habit. I couldn’t just wake up and be sober. I needed to be pulled to the side first. I needed consequences first. I needed one day at a time first. I needed to surrender control of the outcome first.

I needed to improve 1% a day and that never ends. I needed to remember I had two little girls to be a better person for.

And so on. “And so on” is a habit. It’s not a done thing. It’s never done.

20 Habits
– Every day, be around people who are kind to you and love you.

This is a difficult habit. So don’t sweat it. Just improve a little bit each day.

A bonsai tree grows every day. But the bonsai master knows where to prune to create a work of art over years.

– Every day, avoid death.

Which means: avoid things you know are bad for you. Be a little healthier each day. You can’t get rich from a hospital bed. Or a grave.

People think metabolism changes as we get older. This is not really true. What changes is we sit more. So move more.

– Solve difficult gratitude problems.

This is a practice. When angry, or stressed, find one thing to be grateful for. Where is the practice? Is this really so hard.

The hard part is noticing that you are angry and stressed. It’s the difference between being scared in a movie and saying, “wait, it’s just a movie”.

– Write down ten ideas a day.

I’ve written this a million times. Watch the movie “Limitless”. Bradley Cooper takes a pill that turns him into a superman of brain power. Writing down 10 ideas a day is that pill. Try it for six months and you will see.

– Plant seeds.

Many people have ONE GOAL in life. And they aim their lives for that one goal. Good luck with that.
The real key is to plant many seeds. 1% of the seeds planted will turn into 50% of the flowers.

That’s Garden Math.

What are some seeds?

Send a thank you letter. Send an intro letter. Send ideas to people. Exercise. Eat well. Surprise your spouse. Make a website. Come up with an idea. Write an article. Read a book. Think of 100 more seeds.

Every day plant some seeds.

– No excuses.

Blaming is draining. Complaining is draining. Explaining is draining.
People say, I don’t have enough time. I get that. For instance, I don’t have enough time to become a professional astronaut.

But even that excuse, which two seconds ago I thought was a truism, is false.

One day Virgin Galactic and SpaceX will send tourists into space for cheap. So one day I’ll be an astronaut.

I have enough time again. No excuses.

– Warren Buffett’s 5/25 rule.

Make a list of the 25 things you want to do in life. Now do the top 5. And NEVER THINK ABOUT THE OTHER 20 EVERY AGAIN.

Else they will take time away from the 5 that are most important to you.

– Follow up.

I’m really bad at this. Which is why I have to build a habit instead of “do this!”

The other day I had dinner with a bunch of interesting people. I have a perfect idea how to follow up with them.

But I havn’t done it yet. I don’t know why. It’s hard for me to follow up.

So it’s a practice. But I’ll do it. I want to get better at this habit.
Following up might be a “nice to meet you” email. Or maybe it’s buying them a first edition of their favorite book. Or maybe it’s one of the 10,000 things in between that.

– Stand next to the smartest person in the room.

Harold Ramis did it (Bill Murray). Steve Jobs did it (Steve Wozniak). Craig Silverstein did it. (who? Larry Page.) Kanye West did it (Jay-Z).

I’ve done it repeatedly. (Yoda). I have a motto: “I am the dumbest person in the room”. Then it helps me to find the smartest person in each room.

The smartest person in the room is going to do something. Watch what they do. Something special. Just follow them without asking questions.

– Do one thing every day you loved as a kid.

I loved to write. So I write every day. I loved being nice to girls. So I’m nice to women every day.
Other people loved sports. I didn’t.

– Ask questions.

Brian Grazer, the world famous movie produce or Apollo 13, Arrested Development, and about 100 other movies, would have “curiousity conversations”.
He’s simply call up anyone he wanted (the Dalai Lama, Steve Jobs, etc), explain who he was, and asked them questions.

That’s how he met Ron Howard (the smartest person in his room). That’s how they together started Imagine Entertainment. That’s how he’s now got the top show on TV (“Empire”).

– Make Mistakes.

I was teaching my daughter to serve harder. She had a good consistent serve. She never missed. But it was too soft. Easy to return.
So I said, “hit it so hard you have to grunt”.

She started missing. She was getting depressed. Every shot came in about 6 inches to the left of the box.

But then she adjusted. The shots started to hit in the box. And they were harder.

I asked her, “what was going on in your head?”

She said, “I saw I was hitting too much to the left so I moved it over.”

If she kept hitting her safe easy shot, she never would have improved.

Only mistakes made her improve. ONLY MISTAKES.

– Sleep.

Everyone has a different opinion on this. I sleep nine hours a night. Then I try to take a nap during the day.

Your brain is most active 2-5 hours after you wake up. Do your productive passion work then.

Stay away from people who claim they only need 3-5 hours a sleep a night. They are evil.

– Say “NO”

I used to travel a lot for meetings. None of them made money. Not a single one.

I remember one time sitting by the pool at a hotel in LA. That was fun. I drank and swam and drank and swam.

In between, I had meetings that went nowhere. Then I went back to my company.

How was LA.

Great.

One week wasted.

– A little every day

I want to write a novel.

I write a few paragraphs a day. I maybe tweak the outline every day. Guess what. If you write three paragraphs a day you’ll write four novels a year.

Three of them might be bad. Maybe ten of them will be bad. Maybe the first twenty will be bad.
That’s ok. That means in five years you will be a success. Because of “a little every day”.

– Don’t be in a rush.

I’ve interviewed about 150 successful people so far for my podcast. I don’t mean “financial success”. Again, money is a byproduct.

One thing in common: 10 – 20 years for an overnight success.
BUT…
Celebrate small successes.

Along the way to overnight success (20 years) you will have many many small successes.

You can only give yourself permission for the next one if you celebrate the small success. It gives reinforcement to all of these habits.

Plus, it’s fun. You know what I mean.

– Love

I don’t have to teach you what love is. But here’s what I try to do:

a. if it’s someone I don’t know, I pretend like they are going to die tomorrow. So I treat them with the love we treat someone who will not exist anymore.

b. if it’s someone I don’t like, I treat them the way a mother treats her child. I wish for their best, no matter what my personal feelings are.

c. if it’s someone I love but is not making me happy, I sincerely wish them the best for the future.

d. if it’s someone I love, I listen. I help. I surprise.

Often we pray to things that don’t exist. Often we meditate with invisible goals in mind. Often we believe in science fiction.
But right this second you can feel love, and that’s the only religion.

– Right now.

Every time I’ve had a problem in the future, it never came true.

Every time I’ve had a regret in the past, the regret kept me glued to the mud.

Right now you are dealt cards. No other hand before or after will help you right now.

So this is the only moment to focus on. Right now is best predictor of Right Life.

—
I said I had 20 habits. I can’t count that high. So I don’t know if this is true. I give myself permission to not be exact all the time.

Oh! That’s another habit: Give yourself permission to not always be right. Give yourself permission to not always be liked. Give yourself permission to not always be at peace. Give yourself permission to not be a success.
Then you will gradually have whatever you gave yourself permission “to not”.

—
Will these habits make you a millionaire? Yes. Definitely.

Will these habits make you a success? Yes.

But more important:
These habits will make you the sort of person who has these habits.

No longer will you be a single ray of light. You will be the sun.

Read More: The 100 Rules for Being an Entrepreneur

Oral story outline

Robert McKee, renowned screenwriting lecturer, refers to this structure as the Purpose-Told Story design. It includes 

• the development of a core character, 
• an event that causes imbalance,
• The desire to restore balance, 
• a plan of action, 
• turning points, 
• crisis decisions, and 
• eventual resolution.

Winning Short Story Guide

Here is a guide to Anne R. Allen's Blog post on how to write a winning short story.

It has 31 steps, so it's a comprehensive guide. That means that some of the steps are tried and true obvious steps, but you need to follow them anyhow.

This is just a list of the steps, lest her post disappear. I recommend reading her post to get the excellent details.

PLANNING STAGE:

1. Keep the story tight.

2. Create a main character who is complex and charismatic, one readers will care about.

3. Give your protagonist a burning desire.

4. Decide what your character is most afraid of.

5. Devise a critical story problem or conflict.

6. Develop a unique "voice" for this story.

7. Create a worthy antagonist.

8. Add in a few interesting, even quirky supporting characters.

9. To enter and win contests, make your character and story unique and memorable.

10. Experiment – take a chance.

WRITING STAGE:

11. Start with a compelling scene.

12. Start right out in the head of your main character.

13. Put your character in motion right away.

14. Use close point of view.

15. Situate the reader early on.

16. Jump right in with some tension in the first paragraphs.

17. Show, don’t tell.

18. Your character needs to react!

19. Every page needs tension of some sort.

20. Withhold key information.

21. Dialogue in fiction is like real conversation on steroids.

22. Each character should speak differently, and not like the author.

23. Build the conflict to a riveting climax.

24. Go out with a bang.

25. Provide some reader satisfaction at the end.

REVISION STAGE:

26. Hook 'em in right away.

27. Cut to the chase!

28. Make every element and every image count.

29. Make descriptions do double duty.

30. Stay in character for all descriptions.

31. Pay attention to word count and other guidelines!

Courage

Quote from Dan Allender in "Leading with a Limp";

"What is courage? G. K. Chesterton wrote, Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “

He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes.… A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water, and yet drink death like wine."

Become an idea machine

From James Altucher
FAQ on How to Become an Idea Machine
"Inspiration is not like lightning. It doesn't strike. It's always there, like a deep well. Only by digging every day, do we get to tap into that well."

1. Write down 10 ideas every day.
2. Use a theme.
3. Some themes can be "Steps to execute yesterday's best idea."

Skilled learning

25 Things Skilled Learners Do Differently by Saga Briggs

Since most IQ scores fall into a very narrow range, why does learning vary so much by student? It is because of differences in learning process, which, kin itself, is a learned process.

It sounds circular and, to some extent, it is. You must learn in order to learn. It might be better to say that the learning process can be taught.

The implication is that the educational system should be teaching these skills early, so as to improve learning later on.

First Draft Rules

From copyblogger


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