The Sixth Sense

Women are like…

We were enjoying a fun and relaxing evening of conversation in Switzerland last week where we somehow ended up talking about the complexity of women. (Or was it the simplicity of men?)

In the middle of this my wife, Rachel, blurted out this:

“Women are like a ticking bomb which men are left trying to figure out whether to cut the blue wire or the red wire or the green wire with little idea what impact their choice will make!”

We were in stitches for ages. So true!

Flight of the Conchords - Business Time

Saw this today and laughed the whole way through!

How ordinary people become monsters … or heroes

Another fascinating talk from TED.com.

Here’s the description: Philip Zimbardo knows how easy it is for nice people to turn bad. In this talk, he shares insights and graphic unseen photos from the Abu Ghraib trials. Then he talks about the flip side: how easy it is to be a hero, and how we can rise to the challenge.

What do you think?

A.J. Jacobs: My year of living biblically

Thought this talk by AJ Jacobs was quite fun and interesting from TED.

Here’s the description: Speaking at the most recent EG conference, author, philosopher, prankster and journalist A.J. Jacobs talks about the year he spent living biblically — following the rules in the Bible as literally as possible.

Familiar anyone?!

My friend, Chris, sent me this yesterday which I thought I’d share with you all:

I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway,
I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage,
I notice mail on the porch table that
I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table,
put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table,
and notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back
on the table, and take out the garbage first.

But then I think,
since I’m going to be near the mailbox
when I take out the garbage anyway,
I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my checkbook off the table,
and see that there is only one check left.

My extra checks are in my desk in the study,
so I go inside the house to my desk, where
I find the can of Pepsi I’d been drinking.

I’m going to look for my checks,
but first, I need to push the Pepsi aside
so that I don’t accidentally knock it over.

The Pepsi is getting warm,
and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Pepsi,
a vase of flowers on the counter
catches my eye — they need water.

I put the Pepsi on the counter and
discover my reading glasses that
I’ve been searching for all morning.

I decide I’d better put them back on my desk,
but first I’m going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter,
fill a container with water, and suddenly spot the TV remote.
Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight, when we go to watch TV,
I’ll be looking for the remote,
but I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table,
so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs.
But first I’ll water the flowers.

I pour some water on the flowers,
but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back on the table,
get some towels, and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall, trying to
remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

The car isn’t washed.
The bills aren’t paid.
There is a warm can of Pepsi sitting on the counter.
The flowers don’t have enough water.
There is still only one check in my check book.
I can’t find the remote.
I can’t find my glasses,
and I don’t remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today,
I’m really baffled, because I know I was busy all day,
and I’m really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem,
and I’ll try to get some help for it,
but first, I’ll check my e-mail….

Anyone struggle with this?!

Social techiquette

Technology isn’t new. Every generation sees new technology emerge. Interestingly, as we progress forward, we stop even seeing things as being technology. They are just part of life.

Today we think of the internet, mobile phones, and iPod’s as technology. But we’re so familiar with the telephone, television, and washing machines that we don’t think of them as anything else but normal.

When something is fully integrated into life, we no longer thing of it as technology.

It is fascinating watching people sometime argue against technology whilst failing to comprehend all the technology they utilise day in, day out in their life.

Whenever something new comes onto the scene, one of the challenges is working through the appropriate etiquette. Getting the bus into work every day, it amazes me to see the percentage of people who have ear phones in listening to their personal music player.

The dynamics of people flowing to and fro in city life has fundamentally changed. We are now isolated individuals moving about largely insulated from the people around us. We are locked into our own worlds.

Couple this with the rise of social networking sites, and there is less and less personal face-to-face contact with people; particularly people we don’t explicitly know.

The danger this presents is that we become increasingly rude to the strangers who cross our paths. We behave with less and less humanity. People become less personal.

Not that I am anti-technology or think that online social networking is bad. In many ways, some of the richest relationships I have with people have been enhanced with the online, virtual connection.

But the question I was to raise is whether there is - or should be - an appropriate social techiquette for how we interact with other human beings when utilising technology.

Take the iPod. One of the things I made a conscious decision to do was make sure I never speak to someone with my earphones in. When I get on and off the bus and communicate with the driver, I always take the earphones out. I do the same when waiting in line for a sandwich at lunch.

I guess, to me at least, that is just good manners. There’s a time and place for being lost in my own world, enjoying my music. But it’s also still important for me to connect, and engage with the people around me.

That’s just one example. What do you think? What would be appropriate social techiquette for us all to use to make sure we stay connected to the real world around us?

Snakes and ladders

 I was chatting with a friend last night who introduced what I thought was a great metaphor for so many people’s lives. He was describing his own life and saying how it felt that whilst so many of his friends were making progress in their lives, he always seems to end up back where he started. ‘It’s like playing snakes and ladders’, he said. ‘I make a whole load of steps forward and, whoosh, I land on a snake and I’m right back where I started’. 

I wonder how many of us having the same feeling. Everything seems to be going well. We’re moving forward, making progress and then WHAM, it’s back to square one again. 

This all got me thinking that there are some people who seem to be ’snakes and ladders’ people. That really is the story of their lives. What sucks some people into this kind of life? And why do others manage to avoid it?

Any thoughts?!

Hmmm

Whilst I was away last week and not blogging, for some reason the number of subscribed readers to this blog increased. And, now that I’m back blogging, they’re dropping again!

Are you trying to tell me to shut up?!

Thanks.

In Orlando

I can’t believe how quickly this week is flying by. We’re having a great time over here in Orlando though. It’s nice to be here having a proper break and not for conferences or training like our recent visits have been.

I’ve been enjoying the books I brought with me. Playing for Pizza by John Grisham was a nice light read. I read it in a day and a half. Good to Great by Jim Collins is a lot meatier but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed what I’ve read so far. I picked up Wide Awake by Erwin McManus over here too and I’ve really liked what I’ve read of that so far.

Oh, has anyone else seen Wall-E? We saw it the other night. I LOVED it!!

Ok, that’s it for now. I’ll be back to regular blogging from next week.

(If you want to check out the pictures we’ve been taking, a selection of them are available here: http://gallery.me.com/sam.radford#100143)

Progress

I realised today how much I thrive on progress. I need to feel like things are happening, that there is forward momentum. And, if there’s not, I can quite quickly start to feel drained.

Tonight three of us from Mosaic met to have a ’strategic planning session’ for something called VOX Sheffield. The vision with this is to try and create a movement that will give voice to both artists and causes. Essentially we want to showcase creativity in Sheffield and work together to create a better world.

We have made a few tentative steps in this direction in the past, but we really want to get this going. Ryan is going to be the catalyst and team leader. The meet up tonight was about setting some specific goals and identifying some tangible objectives.

I’m really excited and buzzed by the meeting. It really felt like a momentum creating meeting. Seems like we made some real progress and took some tangible steps forward. Watch this space for the details in the coming months!

What project are you passionate about right now?