Holding Good Ideas

Unless you start from within a container of opportunity, and with capital, finding an income has to be the point of departure. The reality is that there are not enough jobs available. “Full Employment” is the situation where there is no one willing and able to work, who cannot find it because no one wants, needs, or can afford their labour. That is what wealthy countries (the containers in which we manage work and government and social security) aim for. 

South Africa has structural Great Depression levels of unemployment. US unemployment rose to 23% in the 1930s. South Africa's unemployment rate reached 33% in 2021. The lowest it has been since 1994 was briefly 22% in 2008. 

“You have to be creative” is the standard hollow advice, but I am very aware that I have never been an entrepreneur. I took the formal route. I did formal in-demand qualifications and I got one of the scarce jobs. That is how I built my engine. The reality is an engine allows you the freedom to think creatively. When I needed to top up and repair my engine, it became obvious that entrepreneurship (without a big cushion) is not my skillset. I would need to adjust my skills or accommodate different ways of finding an income. 

Good ideas are not enough. Not every good idea is a good business idea. Good business ideas exist within structured containers with sustainable capital. 

Once you do have an income, you are in a fortunate position to take on the challenge of spending less than you earn. To build capital. To build a container. To hold your good ideas.

United States Unemployment

Wrestling with Ideas

A good idea is not enough. Bringing a thought to reality is a complex coordination problem that requires time, resources, and connection. I have wrestled long and hard with my inner idealist and pragmatist. Learning which battles to pick. Learning the art of silence. Learning when good intent actually escalates conflict. Learning when there is no need or value in defending myself or my beliefs. And when there is. I find it interesting that in stories of the old sages, the wise old hermits that get consulted seldom do more than ask ambiguous questions. As if those who know the most are those who see the humour in it all. In my utopia, my understanding of the world is not forced on others. I am an anarchist in that way. My ideal relationships are peer to peer. But I am not submissive, and am resistant to those who wish to dominate without consent. A dance between protecting my good ideas, and letting them go enough for them to influence reality.

 

Mini Me

You can think of capital as your Mini-Me. In a world that defines us by our earning ability, building capital is a path to telling those voices to get knotted. If you spend money, you are firing it. If you put it to work, you are feeding your Mini-Me. Gradually that Mini-Me can grow. If you reinvest (rather than consume) a combination of what you produce, and what your Mini-Me produces, one day your Mini-Me may earn enough to be your bread winner. So you can focus on ideas that are good ideas, but not good business ideas. You can only build capital if you are not servicing past consumption (debts), and you are earning more than you are spending. There cannot be growth while you are bleeding. There cannot be growth without breathing space. But if you can hold space for, and look after your Mini-Me, with time and care it can grow to hold space for you.

Hairy Bottomed Spaniard

Not all good ideas are good business ideas. Not all good ideas can be quantified, contained, and controlled. Good business ideas exist within a container, supported by capital. Great business ideas are self-financing and scalable. They pay for themselves. Generating the profit to reinvest and grow. A lot of the very best ideas can not pay for themselves, and are so amazing because of their intimacy. Zero scalability. Tossing quantification, barriers, and control off like the unwanted clothing of a hairy bottomed Spanish Grandpa running naked into the Mediterranean after ten too many Sangrias. Good business ideas will always be necessary to build engines. Good business ideas require attention to the loud voices of supply and demand. They require us to separate our identity and worth from problems, so that we can solve them and move on. There will always be new coal (problems) to feed these engines. We can then attach engines to great ideas. Powering our ability to create value in spaces that cannot be priced.

Sangria

Lightbulb Moment

Relative comparison can become destructive. We celebrate outliers because they expand our boundaries of knowledge and experience. Edison didn’t believe he had failed numerous times, “The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” Each of those steps were connected. They all shone in the resulting light. With individuals, we raise our heroes and not all those who also tried but failed. As we cumulatively take more steps, the heroes get compounded praise. But we already have light bulbs. We don’t always have to think outside the box. To have a “Unique Selling Point”. At some point, we need to start appreciating the strong foundations we have, if we are willing to see and embrace them. Think inside the box. Remember why the light was necessary in the first place. Remember the path it was lighting.

Boring Box

Money is made in containers. We spread the story that Entrepreneurs need to think outside the box. To generate excitement. The reality is that if they do, they also need to come up with a box. A great idea is not enough. I didn’t think outside the box to get my Financial Security. Professions provide off-the-shelf containers. Through prolonged training and qualifications, they limit the number of people who can offer the service. You can’t just say, “good idea, I think I’ll do that too”. They also restrict who this opportunity is afforded to. They box. Money makes money. Capital compounds. But there needs to be a source. Education is still one of the most effective ways to tap that. Particularly if it is a known, stable, boring problem that is unlikely to disappear. Yet still one that regularly needs solving. Like exercise and dieting. We all know what needs doing, we just fancy a doughnut and the couch more. A boring source can feed all sorts of fantasies later. Boring is an effective box.

Islamic Golden Age

The Islamic Golden Age began just over a century after the death of its prophet. The Abbasid Dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle. Claiming closer blood links, in 750 CE they assumed control of the empire and moved the capital from Damascus to Baghdad. The inclusion of non-Arabs in the Ummah (supra-national community) meant the capital became a centre of science, culture, philosophy and invention pulling on the learning of the many civilisations (in all directions) that preceded. This period is bookended with the sack of Baghdad in 1258 CE by the Mongols of Hulagu Khan. Just one example of the shared learning was the inclusion of zero (not in Roman Numerals) and the Hindu number system from an Arabic scholar studying Indian Mathematics, which was then spread to the West by Pope Sylvester II who studied in Barcelona in his youth (where he learnt Arabic).

The Abbasid House of Wisdom

Ideas in the Open

I have mixed feelings about Intellectual Property. I think we would be better off if we did our thinking in public. Open to the error correction of a million eyes, if what we are doing is worth their attention. Property allows investment. You can ring-fence the rewards.  It also restricts the knowledge to a smaller set of people. We don't always know what connections our ideas will allow others to make. We all see the world differently. In a world with zero transaction costs, perfect transparency, and the ability to replicate anything that has been done before - the rules of reward based on ring-fences will fall away. We will have to switch the economics of scarcity for the economics of abundance. The only thing that can't be copied is human relationships. Trust. Time. Context.

Fences

100 words

When we answer questions, we have the conclusion in mind. Rather than give it straight away, we lead the questioner. We see the destination, but expect a lot of trust from the listener. We expect a lot of clarity from ourselves. The listener will be hearing based on what they already know. If they don't recognise something or it clashes with what they believe, our answer may arrive at its conclusion without them. A good exercise is to hone answers to 100 words (enough to fit into an elevator ride). The more thought given, the shorter the answer can be.

A Little Book

Most books are too long. They make a point and then pad it up with enough examples till it gets heavy enough to look booky. They end up over booked and under ideaed. Would you pay the same for a book that looked like a pamphlet? How long does it have to be before it shifts from essay to book? It is a little like going to a university formal dance and the gourmet food arrives but the portions are tiny. It may be much fancier food than the residence dining hall, but if it doesn't touch sides it isn't dinner. It's tapas.

Last night I was invited to a book launch at 'The Society Club' in London. I hadn't read the book and didn't even know the author's name. I went because a friend invited me. As an occupational hazard, I feel like an impostor if I haven't done my homework before going to something. You earn rights to other people's thoughts by having thoughts on your own. Don't ask a question till you have at least googled it. All that stuff. Turns out it wasn't a problem. The author read us the whole book. It took 15 minutes.

'Learning from George' by Adrian Hornsby

It was amazing. Adrian Hornsby recounted his time at Shakespeare & Company in Paris. After leaving the UK for a European experience and teaching English in Prague, he moved to Paris to be in a place where he felt a little more competent in the language (he didn't feel like learning Czech). He ended up with a character named George and a bunch of other misfits. I won't spoil the story.

The book is a Paravion Press production, 'We like books. Real books. Paper and ink. And we like letters. Real letters. Paper and ink also. Words, a story, from one person to another, sent from one place to another, arriving in the mail. A rare pleasure these days.' So this book is short enough and small enough to fit in an envelope. The front page is blank to write a little note. Then you put it in the mail.

I think this is a beautiful idea. I got a few extra. If you would like one send me an email at trevorjohnblack@gmail.com. If there are less than four of you, I will send you one from Gipsy Hill, London. I will write something in it. With a pen. Then I will put a stamp on it. It will then start its journey from me to you. It will take a while. Once you have read it, perhaps you can send it to someone else?

I am fascinated by a world of full transparency and no transaction costs. Especially in the areas that don't matter and don't add value. Sometimes though, I do think a little mystery, a little personalisation and the investment of a little time adds a sprinkle of magic that makes life taste better. Little can be better.

Thanks Adrian for your little book.

Eve and Epiphanies

Daniel Dennett tells the story of Mitochondrial Eve. In a fun feminist twist on the western habit of taking the guy's surname, our genetic story is carried down by the ladies. It's an argument for keeping the naming convention - names morph over time as people get spelling wrong. The genetic paper trail is for keeps. I understand there is an equivalent Y-chromosomal Adam we are all descended from, but in Biological rock-paper-scissors Mitochondrial DNA is more traceable than Y-chromosomes. Hard core biology friends, please point out if I am wrong.

African Eve

Everyone has a mom. Some women have kids. Some don't. So if you step back one generation, there are less moms than kids. Step back again and there are even less. Carry on doing this enough times and you get to one single common Great (to the power of lots) Grandmother. The most accepted theory is that this lady came from Africa and probably lived about 100K-200K years ago. Yup, we are all African, we are all family, and borders are stupid.

The interesting thing is that she wouldn't have been alone, and she wouldn't have been particularly 'special'. Along the way bad things happen that can wipe out populations. Part of surviving is being in the right place at the right time. We know this Mitochondrial Eve had at least two daughters. If she had had one, the daughter would have been Eve, not her. Like male surnames, all her female contemporaries failed to produce a single, unbroken line. That isn't a lack of skill in a 50/50 world. Think of family names that 'die' because there is no boy child. As we spread out, and the got wiped out, the various bottlenecks brought the family together. 

There is an analogy between Genes and Memes. A Meme is an idea or behaviour that spreads among people in a similar way to how genes spread. Like Eve, a particular idea may end up being very important later on. The source of future ideas. Like Eve, we may only know this later on. At the time, the idea may not seem that special.

It is nice to think we will have Epiphanies that will change our whole worldview. We know there are lots of places we are wrong, but by definition we don't know that we are wrong. If we knew we were wrong, we would change our mind. The interesting thing is that our ideas develop slowly over time. We may only realise we have had an epiphany after the drip drip drip of several ideas. Day to day we may not even notice the change.

What we do know is we learn, we move, and we remember. Somewhere inside all that are the important bits that matter. The bits that will survive. The Epiphanies.

Lifelong Learning (by Jeffrey Cufaude)

Guest Post: Jeffrey Cufaude

I talked in 'Finding your own river' about my excitement at the ongoing disruption of education. While information is becoming more freely available, one of the biggest attractions of 'expensive education' is the network. Even if you are able to get access to the same great content, how can you meet the same great people. Facebook is about people you know personally. LinkedIn is about people you have or might work with. You don't need to know people on Twitter. Think of it as a dating service for ideas. In amongst the usual noise of marketing and trolls, there are some amazing people on Twitter. You get direct access to an unfiltered filter of authors, thinkers, scientists, leaders, peace-makers, artists and doers and they engage!

I met Jeffrey Cufaude through Twitter. Jeffrey is a US-based designer and facilitator of high impact learning experience including conference keynotes and workshops. He currently is at work on his first book, Say Yes Less: Why It Matters and How to Do It. This essay is based on his 2012 TEDx Indianapolis talk (10 minutes) and an updated and expanded version (25 minutes) presented at the 2014 ACPA Convention. More info about Jeffrey can be found at www.ideaarchitects.org. Twitter: @jcufaude 

I think our banter started over the brilliance of Roger Federer, and then expanded to the lives of mere mortals.

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Lifelong Learning

by Jeffrey Cufaude

Lifelong learning? I gave it a whirl once, but it's really not for me.

It's unlikely anyone who hopes to lead a good life in the 21st Century would ever say such a thing. We toss out "lifelong learner" as implicitly desirable, but I'm not sure we've sufficiently unpacked the obligations that come along with self-proclaiming ourselves to be one.

Doing so may be even more important given how many of us will live longer... much longer: what is required to be a lifelong learner when life is long? I'm finding four dimensions help me answer the question: (1) increasing diversity, (2) ongoing discovery, (3) personal discipline, and (4) intentional disruption.

1. Increasing diversity ... of the content we consume, the communities in which we interact and contribute, and the connections we make in our personal and professional networks. It is not uncommon that later in our life our range of experiences begins to narrow. The types of life changes that force us to broaden out or start anew often become less frequent: job changes, geographic locations, et al. Lifelong learners know the value of continually diversifying the people, places, and publications that they explore and engage in periodic self-examination to ensure they do so.

2. Ongoing discovery of the possibilities of the diversity we encounter as opposed to automatic dismissal of perspectives that don't ring true with what we already believe or know. But the accumulation of our life experiences and the meaning we have made from them often rejects new findings that don't correlate and we succumb to confirmation bias.

Diversifying our experiences is of little value if we don't approach them with the curiosity of a beginner's mind: open, receptive, interested. Doing so requires sitting longer with what we are experiencing (observations) before trying to make meaning from it (inferences). See the ladder of inference for more information about this phenomenon.

3. Personal discipline to facilitate increasing diversity and ongoing discovery can be likened to both compounding interest from regular savings and interval training on a treadmill. Regularly set aside a small amount of money on a consistent basis and over time the reinvested interest and principal can amount to quite a lot. The same is true for small, but doable bites of lifelong learning. They accumulate value regardless of how small our ongoing investments. One "savings" habit that is part of learning discipline is to routinely hang out (read, write, etc in new environments. Routine immersion in different spaces populated by different people causes me to think differently.

Building cardiovascular endurance also requires interval training (interspersing shorts bursts of maximum effort with brief rest periods and the repeating immediately), particularly for longtime exercisers who have hit a plateau with their normal workout regimen. The same is true for lifelong learning: we need ongoing "steady state" learning that is comfortable for us to do, but as we age it increasingly needs to be coupled with interval learning in which we take short, but deep dives into content or a community.

4. Intentional disruption of our discovery, learning, and meaningful-making systems is inevitable if we want to avoid our once helpful routines becoming limiting ruts. Unlike a Twinkie, no personal discipline process can last forever. Forcing yourself out of a routine lets you disrupt yourself before the demands of the world around us do it to you.

As author Marina Gorbis notes in The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the SocialStructured World "The new system of learning is "best conceived of as a flow, where learning resources are not scarce but widely available, opportunities for learning are abundant, and learners increasingly have the ability to autonomously dip into and out of continuous learning flows."

Living longer requires learning longer. May we all be successful at both.

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In writing a blog about several topics in which I admit to being a complete beginner, I am going to have to rely heavily on the people I am writing for who cumulatively know most of what I am likely to learn already. I would love it if some of you found the time to write a guest post on the subject of happiness or learning. The framework I use for thinking about these things is what I call the '5 + 2 points' which includes proper (1) exercise, (2) breathing, (3) diet, (4) relaxation, (5) positive thinking & meditation, (+1) relationships, (+2) flow. Naturally if you would like to write about something that you think I have missed, I would love to include that too. If you are up to doing something more practical, it would be awesome if you did a 100 hour project and I am happy to do the writing based on our chats if that is how you roll. Email me at trevorjohnblack@gmail.com 

Gaps and Elevators

There is an art to discussing tough issues. Actually, the same art applies to silly issues too but we don't get all that upset about them. When I was growing up, my family and I used to have strong debates. As the little guy in the pack, I had to learn to voice my opinions strongly or they would get lost in the noise. Strongly voicing opinions can be helpful and definitely conveys passion but it isn't always that effective at getting the message across. It is particularly ineffective when your opinion is wrong. As Kathryn Schulz describes in 'Being Wrong', you aren't aware of a feeling of being wrong, since the moment you realise there is a problem, you start finding the holes, so you never really know you are wrong. I think there are techniques to use in communication that can mitigate our natural, very human, way of creating stories to explain things where our confidence arrives well before the story has been rigorously attacked. One way is to try ensure you are balancing any discussions with an honest attempt to understand the other person's argument. Not simply a leading question that carries in it the answer you are looking for, or a trap that means the question is more a statement or jibe. A really solid, probing question that comes from a desire to understand. Warren Berger has written a great book on how to ask 'A More Beautiful Question'. It is worth reading over and over.

We also need to make space in our communication. More generally we need to make space in everything (our days, our meals, our minds etc.) but I have definitely been a culprit of verbal diarrhea on more than my fair share of occasions. A former colleague of mine loves recounting the tale of a 'discussion' I was having over the phone. He sat on the opposite side of a divide to me and I was on the phone. I was deep in the throes of an intense one-man (me) explanation of my thoughts. Arthur received a call and tried to let me know that Jonathan was on the phone for me. I kept waving him away asking him to take a message without listening to what he was saying. It is fair to say that sometimes flow exists for me when I am talking passionately about something. Everything else ceases to exist. This can be a big problem when the person you are talking to has been disconnected some 3 or 4 minutes ago. Jonathan had called back receiving a busy signal and so tried someone else and I had not heard Arthur saying, 'It is Jonathan for you.' As Schultz said, the moment I said 'Jonathan, are you there' to complete silence... there was no chance to feel what it is like to be wrong.

I still fail at this often when I get carried away, but I consciously try and shorten the time I spend explaining an idea, and increasing the gaps I give, either for silence for both to think, or for me to listen or question. Winston Churchill is credited with saying 'If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter'. The same probably applies to thoughts. The shorter you can keep your point, the more likely it is you have thought it through and come to a point of clarity. There is the idea of an 'elevator speech'. If you had to make your point in an elevator, what would you say? You usually wouldn't have more than 100 words to do it. Each letter counts. So does each pause. As they say, music exists in the gaps.

Another place where I have had to adjust is when you have a partner who is largely discussing the same side as you. In the bigger scheme of things, you are trying to help another person understand something the two of you get. Having two people reduces the monotony of listening to one voice, but it also means we have to learn to hold our tongue and go with the flow. The other person will not say something exactly the same way you would have. You may even have subtle disagreements. It is however important to remember that you aren't going to fully educate your audience, change their mind, or merely influence them significantly in one session. Understanding comes slowly and little details will not be remembered. The best example of how to solve this comes from 'Whose Line is it Anyway'. In Theatre Sport you have to go with the flow for it to work. You have to work with the partners and not constantly be trying to change direction or add additional colour to idea that has already had its elevator ride. You build off each other and feed off each other. The lesson is there for communication. It is a dance of ideas. The minute it ceases to be that and becomes a lecture is the minute I switch off. I may listen and watch as an anthropological experiment, but you will have lost me as an engaged participant.

No Homework Project Mo

Almost 20 years ago I was involved in a charity that brought together students from the schools of Durban. There were three representatives from about 40 schools and we formed the Durban Youth Council. A shadow council along with town clerks, secretaries, mayors and sub-committees - allowed kids who were now becoming young adults to get actively involved in community service. While there was some adult support, the adults when I was there were just university students and so were learning the ropes themselves. It was a case of figuring it out.

While we also did non-financial community service like spending time in retirement homes and orphanages, a large part of what we did was fund-raising. We spent a lot of time doing raffles, looking for sponsorship, finding where help was needed and telling people about it. This was pre-internet so it required a lot of hustle, creativity and energy. One strong lesson I learnt was when we got towards the end of our time and thought we had done a pretty good job raising money. I can't remember the exact amount, but it was in the region of R10,000. A few of us met up in Johannesburg with some equivalent youth councillors from around the country to share ideas. It was there that I heard of the Joburg team's 'No Homework Day'. They had co-ordinated with the schools who had agreed to let every child who gave R5 do what the name of the day implies - have fun. This simple project had raised 10X what we in Durban had in a year full of events. Ouch.

Yes, Durban is sleepy relative to Joburg. Yes, Joburg has more money than Durban. The lesson I learnt though was the power of simple, catchy ideas and the power of networks. Joburg seemed more connected. People knew each other and it was easier to get the ideas out. This was a time when we either spoke once a week or had to make use of 'telephone pyramids'. Remember those? Each person calls three people who call three people spreading the broken telephone message. No smsses. No promise the person will be there to hear the phone ring. Joburg seemed better at that.

Fast forward 15 odd years (a very suitable summary), and I decided to get involved in Movember. I had heard of it but hadn't got involved because I was involved in marketing and was client facing. Looking the part is as John Cleese would say, very very very important. Despite his extraordinary level of importantness as a person, Cleese also has a moustache. I figured that since it was going to be a quiet month and the one meeting I had lined up was with a client with a moustache, I would give it a go. Towards the end of the month, a colleague challenged me to agree to dress as Charlie Chaplin to our end-of-year party if I could raise £1,000. I agreed. At the time this £1,000 was roughly equivalent to the R10,000ish I had been involved in raising with the Durban Youth Council. I did it. This freaked me out a little. How did growing some facial hair and being prepared to be a little silly (I am always prepared to be a little silly) allow me to raise more than a big group of us with huge amounts of energy? This was a 'no Homework project'. The guys who came up with Movember, had come up with something that could spread - It was fun, it was easy and it was a great cause. With the internet, you can get full transparency into how well they are spending the money, and what impact they are having. They publish a report card on the 832 projects in 21 countries in which they are involved with a primary focus on cancer and mental health. The focus of the energy can be on doing good work rather than on raising money.

The primary aim of the Durban Youth Council was not simply fundraising. I learnt a lot about working in volunteer organisations. We made some great friends and did a lot of non-financial community work. It is almost 50 years old now and from the snippets of news (and fancy website) they seem to be doing great work. The internet has helped everyone get better at connecting, and if we can stir up some community spirit with fun 'no homework project' ideas, it becomes easier to target our collective guns at the challenges we face.

Exciting times.

If you would like to contribute to my Mo Homework: http://mobro.co/trevblack. I thought I would add a little fro to my mo this year.

Hide & Don't Speak

Usain Bolt doesn't need to hide how he does what he does. That is a real competitive advantage. Josh Waitzkin, of the Art of Learning Project, talks of his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu teacher posting videos of himself training on the web. This went against traditional secretive practices of competitors trying to hide what they do until the competition to gain an edge. His view was that he should be good enough to beat someone even if they knew what he was going to do. A real competitive advantage is one that is not fragile. It is not a secret. It is not a thought that will dawn on someone standing in the shower belting out Bohemian Rhapsody.

Source: Wikipedia

It concerns people that The Wright Brothers are credited with inventing and building the first successful airplane, but it was William Boeing who really made the cash. The protection of intellectual property, and how much we value an idea, is a cornerstone of what we value as the capitalist system. It irks people that others copy. We want to credit the person whose idea it was.

I am not completely convinced of the overall value of unlimited protection of intellectual property when it is easy to copy. Often the founders don't even know what the technology will be used for - it is the users and the copiers who create a lot of the value.

Twitter is a great example, here Evan Williams describes the original idea:

'With Twitter, it wasn't clear what it was. They called it a social network, they called it microblogging, but it was hard to define, because it didn't replace anything. There was this path of discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is. Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network'

I wonder how different the world would be if we were less afraid. What would happen if companies didn't work in separate offices? What would happen if we were more project based and less scared of telling people what we were working on? If teachers worked with marketing professionals and actors in developing awesome presentations/lessons. If stock pickers published their analysis of a business warts and all and debated them with competitors, clients and the executives. If statisticians were standing next to journalists at the water cooler and able to say, 'Ja, that draft I just saw on your desk is interesting but the number you are quoting is just wrong. Here is a better way of looking at it.'

While being protective of intellectual property does have some value in that it gives the person whose idea it is an opportunity to cash in, perhaps there is more value to be gained in working out loud. Perhaps there is value in completely re-thinking our desire to spend most of our time only with people solving a particular subset of problems. Maybe the solutions to our problems lie in being more open with people with an altogether different approach?

An Invitation

In 2009, I started a blog called 'Protecting Alpha' which was intended as a collaborative research project. One of the issues with writing is that if you make allowance for all the philosophical excuses someone who recognises how little we know for certain would make, you can become as clear as mud and as interesting as the grass that won't grow in the mud.

I like the idea of a blog because it involves people far earlier in the process than normal. As I develop my thoughts, I can write them down. Readers can comment. It becomes a conversation. Instead of hiding away in a cabin in a mountain and coming down from on high having discovered the truth - a blog gives you the opportunity to discover it with your readers. A joint journey warts and all. A journey that gives you the shared insights of a community of people.

I separated out that blog from this one because it was very investing focused and I largely wanted to keep this blog away from my professional life. It died a sudden death as the reality of prioritisation in the business world pushed research interests down the list. The idea of using a blog for collaborative research and conversation is still the primary appeal for me. The overarching theme of this blog is intended as a study of life and what to do. Which pretty much means I write about whatever I want to. More specifically though, I enjoy the framework provided by the Yoga I practice plus a few tweaks. I talked about this here as 'The 5 + 2 points'.

I am no expert in what I am writing about. I started Yoga 5 years ago I wasn't even close to being able to touch my toes. I did my first teacher training course at the end of 2011. A month in Austria at the Sivananda Retreat House in Reith. I started teaching shortly after that. I believe you don't have to be an expert in something to help others and by definition you don't have to be an expert to improve. In fact, often once you believe you are an expert it is a problem because you stop learning or even practicing. 

So this post is essentially an invitation to anyone who reads it. I intend to try and learn about learning. To put myself in positions of discomfort attempting to gain skills, some random and fun, some practical, to try and understand what it is that stops us from doing new things. I plan on studying happiness and thinking of ways to help people live more fulfilling, meaningful and valued lives. I will try act as a filter and find some interesting work of others to share. Depending on how keen you are, please start your own blog or your own learning experiences and share what insights you gain (or if you have one already, share it in the comments section for others to take a look). Or just comment on this one. In the areas where I am more useless, please point me in directions which you think would would help. 

I think it is awesome that we can use modern technology to connect in a borderless world of ideas. 

Trev in 2009 trying to touch his toes

Unfiltered Filter

I joined Twitter in April 2009 largely at the request of a good buddy who was an early adopter. I really didn't get it for a long time. I made various stabs but for a solid 5 years struggled to understand why he was such a passionate evangelist. I thought of Twitter as an 'sms to the world'. More recently I have become a power user and the penny has dropped. I think the power of twitter is primarily twofold

Unfiltered
You have direct access to some incredible people. For a planet with 7 Billion people, this has democratised thought leaders. You can engage with Nobel Prize winners (@RobertJShiller and @TheDesmondTutu), celebrated scientists (@neiltyson or for some controversy @RichardDawkins, authors (@nntaleb and @GilbertLiz), politicians (@narendamodi) , comedians (@Trevornoah or @rustyrockets - Russell Brand), Philosophers (Nigel Warburton @philosophybites , @PeterSinger, @alaindebotton), Psychology gurus (@paulbloomatyale and @jonhaidt), Religious Leaders (The pope tweets himself @pontifex and the @DalaiLama) and celebrities of your choosing.

As confirmation that they really see your tweets... watch this very funny clip:

Filter
There is so much information on the web, it is daunting to find the stuff that is worth while. Twitter acts as the filter. You find people who are looking for stuff themselves. When they find something interesting they share it. If you find people who are genuinely sharing stuff they find interesting, this is different from traditional media which normally has a particular brand to present and an editorial bias. Here it is individuals - still biased but less constrained. You can use your friends and the world's thought leaders as your filter and you can help provide a filter for others.

But...
As with real human interaction, I think the real power of twitter is when it is used as a conversation rather than a broadcast of just your own ideas. No one likes someone who just talks about themselves. Most people like people who are also interested in them. Most people don't like people who are unpleasant (don't be a troll). As a tool to participate in the important sharing of ideas without borders or thought police - twitter is the embodiment of free speech.

Exciting times.

www.twitter.com

Private Till You Plonk

"We philosophers are frequently torn between opposing considerations, but we very infrequently show it in print. We let ourselves be torn in private until we "plonk" for one alternative or another; then the published paper only shows what we plonked for, and not the being torn." - Putnam

I don't think this is unique to philosophers. Politicians seem to be judged harshly on flip flopping of ideas. We only see High-Board Divers, Ice-Skaters and Piano Maestro's after hours and hours of honing and perfecting a skill. When it is an idea you are honing there is, or at least should be, always the chance that you are wrong. The path you take to getting there is interesting. That is why I like the idea Google is famous for of allowing customers into the 'Beta' stage of development. I see no reason why Social Media shouldn't disrupt the idea generation of philosophers, politicians and stock pickers in the same ways it did to newspapers. If your thinking or your business is built on transaction costs, friction, and lack of transparency, you have issues if what you are selling is ideas. I still think we should continuously refine but the magic of the 'finished product' hides the interesting bits.

And of course, once you have plonked, there is less incentive to unplonk if you are wrong.

Reading: Philosophy - by Nicholas Fearn

Raising the bar

Movember has just finished. I think the idea is great. The 'About' section of the website tells a little about the tale of Movember. The cause is serious. To quote a friend who participated...

'My Mo Aint serious...but ball cancer is.....FRIKIN BALL CANCER!!!!' DL


What I find fascinating is the way the idea spreads. From a standing start in 2003, each year they have raised more money and had more participants. It is an idea virus. Each year more people spread the meme. Last year Movember raised £48.5m and had about 447k participants (Mobros and Mosistas). This year about 850k people have raised about £70m.

Last year, I did it by myself in my office and raised £1423. This year 11 guys participated and we raised just over £8000 as a team.

It is a mix of fun and fundraising. Some people may find that to be a problem. Cancer is serious. So, they may feel a light hearted approach degrades things. That it becomes about being silly.

As the world becomes more and more empathetic, which is a good thing, it also means there are so many more things that get you down. The world is progressively becoming a much better, far safer, significantly wealthier and happier place. Movies like Avatar (which I enjoyed) may glamorise a hunter gather world, but don't be fooled. The world is getting progressively less violent.

What added empathy means is that we care about starving children in other countries. We even care when protesters get pepper sprayed in other countries. We care about people with clef lips who can't smile. We care about children whose parents smoke in the car with them. We care about children growing up as mercenaries in war torn countries. We care about people who lose their jobs. We care about people who have to retire a few years later than planned. We care about people who aren't exactly the same as us. We care about people from completely different cultures. Our caring recognises we are all human. In fact, our caring even extends beyond our species to animals of all shapes and sizes.

Some of these problems are 'first world problems' that pale in significance against others. That doesn't make them not worth caring about. It just means we have raised the bar.

But it can also feel overwhelming sometimes. All this caring. So, when some good comes out of a little silliness. I don't think that is bad. You can care, and do good through, while dressing the problem up with a little fun.

That is why I think the Movember Meme spreads. It is silly, and we like being silly. It is a visual way of people joining in the fun and doing some good.

Sounds like a win win.

Sharing Ideas

I can't call myself an early adopter of blogging, and with just a post here and there, other than an 18 month splurge of posts - I am hardly a regular poster. The end of the splurge is partly connected to the fact that the only other friend I knew of who blogged quit blogging in December '09. Ideas tend to feed off each other, and I used to find myself always thinking about what I was going to write about next, so it is a slippery slope. Writing every day is much easier than writing when the mood takes you. It is a habit much like anything else.

I have never quite taken to twitter, with just 32 tweets. I did take to Facebook. As Social media has evolved though, they do seem to be slowly ironing out cracks. I am chuffed to see Google really giving Facebook a go with Google+. A little competition goes a long way to inspiring some innovation.

Some random observations...

• It would be cool if you could write blog posts that only selected individuals could see, without them having to sign in - Google+ has this, maybe blogger will soon. You can do private blogs, but the additional layer of having to sign in is irritating.
• Pre-signing in remove anonymity. I think this is a good thing. People say silly things when they think it is anonymous.
• Twitter was the less private - everyone can see version. Google+ added the ability to choose which groups to share status updates with (including public), and I think Facebook will follow. I like the idea that ideas can be shared freely, and private stuff can be kept private.
• Filtering remains a big problem. Google Reader does a decent job, but I still struggle getting through the clutter. Relying on friends 'liking'/sharing things doesn't always help, since if lots of them do it, and only a some of the articles are relevant to you, you still have to filter through that too.
• Of course, sharing ideas takes time. Unless you are Tim Ferris, finding the time is tough. And even if you would love it if certain of your friends were into sharing their ideas, finding your own motivation is tough enough. And then there is the day job.

All being said, I do think watching things progress is exciting. I particularly enjoy the experimental nature of it all. I thought Google Wave was pretty cool, but it never took. Bits of it get incorporated into new ideas, and some code is made open source so others can try use it. Some stuff fails, some stuff like Facebook takes off.

At the end of the day it all comes down to sharing ideas.

Exciting times.