The Health Blog has an interesting post regarding weight gain in middle age. In short, a new study shows that if you maintain a habit of moderate to high levels of physical activity from your youth, you will have an easier time keeping weight off when you are older. An excerpt:

“These results suggest that maintaining higher activity levels during young adulthood may lessen weight gain as young adults transition to middle age,” the researchers write. “Our results reinforce the role of physical activity in minimizing weight gain and highlight the value of incorporating and maintaining at least 30 minutes of activity into daily life throughout young adulthood.”

While intuitively this had to be true, it is nice seeing a study which buttresses that hunch with facts.

This has to be the inspirational story of the day:

"96-year-old novelist Herman Wouk has sold his latest novel to Simon & Schuster. The Lawgiver follows the production of a movie about Moses through “letters, memos, emails, journals, news articles, recorded talk, tweets, Skype transcripts, and text messages” sent between characters. Publication is set for the fall. Wouk is the author of The Caine Mutiny, Marjorie Morningstar and The Winds of War."

I can only hope that I will live to be 96, and that I will still be writing--and in my right mind--by then.

In anyone's career path, especially when the career deals with knowledge or expertise, there are certain stages that a person goes through.

First, the person is a novice. No one expects a novice to know much or to be perfect.

Then, the person becomes an expert. Experts are expected to be competent and never make a mistake.

Next, the person is called a guru. A guru lives on a high mountaintop, meditating. Every so often, a novice or an expert treks up the mountain to imbibe wisdom or sage advice, or to bask in the glory of their own personal Obi-wan.

From there, it is all downhill. People discover that their guru is not so perfect, and does not have all the answers. They begin to call him overrated.

Finally, they become tired of hearing about the man, and sick of his name. They begin to see him as a poseur or a rank imposter.

I was once known as a guru within my small circle of colleagues. Now I am just overrated. However, this awareness keeps me humble and grounded, as I know all too well that the respect I have today can be gone in a minute, as soon as people discover that I am, after all, only human and prone to mistakes.

Where are you on this continuum?