tonygoodson

Guest Interviews - The 3 Moments

Ever since I was a kid watching Parky, then Russell Harty, and now Andrew Denton and Larry King, I’ve loved interviews.  Interesting people with interesting things to say.  Inspirations.  I like the Parky interview style.  The guests don’t have to be grilled or caught off their guard, or sensationalised.  Just conversations.  Interest and curiosity in the guest, and what they have to tell and teach us.

And not just the famous and the stars, but some of my favourites were Barbara Castle, Jonathan Miller, Peter Ustinov, Michael Caine, Bette Midler, and latterly, Paul McCartney talking about his ego.  That was Part 1.

Part 2 for me, came just before the start of podcasting, and in fact partly created podcasting.  The Chris Lydon interviews. Wonderful political and technological conversations published as mp3 files to download and listen to.  This coupled with Doug Kaye’s I.T Conversations, led to a world of mp3 downloads for me.  And still to this day, I manually download mp3s to listen to instead of using podcast software to automatically download to my laptop or mp3 player.

Since 2003 I’ve pondered who I’d like to interview.  I’ve never had the platform to interview anyone.  Sure I’ve podcast on The Productivity Show, dabbled, had some great guests, but I realise I want to go beyond productivity.  And I’ve feared and procrastinated for 5 years.  No longer.

It’s simple really. All I have to do is list the 100 people I’d most like to interview in the world, and invite them!!  Yeah sure, most won’t reply, or will say no, or it will become too difficult.  But you know what?  At least 5 will say yes, and it will be magnificent.

So I’m starting with a simple website, a banner, and name…The 3 Moments.  Why “The 3 Moments”?  Well, when I look at the people I’d like to interview, it’s about their journey, their highs, their lows, the ending of something and that “Oh Shit” moment, the Harrison Owen (Open Space Technology) writes about in his book Wave Rider, and how people deal with set-back and grief.  If you ask someone to draw a timeline of their life from birth to now, the chances are there will be two or three peaks/troughs, so let’s hear about those things, The Hero/Heroine’s Journey.

Build it and let them come.  So let’s see what happens. 

Cluetrain – No 69 Maybe You’re Impressing Your Investors

69.  Maybe you’re impressing your investors.  Maybe you’re impressing Wall Street. You’re not impressing us. (The Cluetrain 95 Theses - No69)

This is my blog entry for Cluetrain Thesis #69 for the Cluetrainplus10 commemoration of the 10th anniversary of The Cluetrain Manifesto.

In 2001, William Pilder sent me an email suggesting I might like this Cluetrain book thing.  I loved it.  Loved the 95 Theses, they spoke to me.  The book spoke to me.  I started following the guys.  Chris Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger (and who is Rick Levine!!)

I picked up this “weblog”/”blog” word on the Cluetrain email discussion list which ran on Topica.  What the hell was a blog?  Ahh, got it.  I’ve blogged ever since 2001.

So No 69.  10 years on.  Erm you did try to impress your investors.  You did try to impress Wall Street, and you almost succeeded, but it all came crashing down.  And not only did you not impress us, you took our money, and crashed your company, and your economy and the world economy.  Nice one. Thanks a lot.

But come on, why would you behave any differently?  Because it worked and you could get away with it.  Very few players came into your markets over the last 10 years, using Cluetrain principles, to give your arse a good kicking.  That’s been really disappointing.  The last 10 years has largely has been business as usual.  In fact you’ve often dressed up business as usual, as something different using this Internet thing, and you’ve mostly got away with it. 

We overestimate in the short term, and underestimate in the long term.  - Paul Saffo

I got that quote from Doc Searls, quoting Paul Saffo.  That’s what’s stuck with me the most in the last 10 years of Cluetrain. It hasn’t come true yet, but it will, and we probably won’t recognise it when it has changed, because it was always that way wasn’t it?  Some things have moved a lot over the last decade.  Think Apple.  Think Google (and YouTube).  Think Bandwidth.  Think online business and banking. Think mobile handsets and mobile computing.  The technology has moved rapidly, but that “conversation” still has a way to go.

I predicted the demise of Sun Microsystems.  I predicted the demise of Apple.  I predicted the demise of Google.  I’m not doing well with my predictions….yet.  Well once you’re a public company, you have to impress your investors, and you have to impress Wall Street, so by logic, you’re not impressing us!!  When you have to make quarterly and weekly and daily reports for your investors and Wall Street, it doesn’t bode well for the long term, if you follow and believe in Cluetrain No 69.

Great companies that survive the decades and centuries put their employees first, and I don’t mean the guys at the top. In the long term, how you treat your employees, is a reflection of how you treat your clients and customers, which in turn will impress Wall Street, or not.  We mostly try to impress Wall Street first until the money runs out.

It’s going to be very difficult to let go of this Wall Street dependency.  It’s worked reasonably well for centuries, but some of us believe there has to be a better way.  Yes, reward innovation and entrepreneurship.  Yes, find ways to seek large capital investment, yes reward stakeholders.  Aren’t we ready for a new way to build community and businesses?  I don’t have the answers, but In the short term we overestimate and in the long term we underestimate.

And finally, my favourite part of the Cluetrain book is near the end.

The Cluetrain Hit-One-Outta-the-Park Twelve-Step Program for Internet Business Success (p170)

1. Relax
2. Have a sense of humour.
3. Find your voice and use it.
4. Tell the truth.
5. Don’t panic.
6. Enjoy yourself.
7. Be brave.
8. Be curious.
9. Play More.
10. Dream Always.
11. Listen Up.
12. Rap On.

10,000 Hours to become a genius

An interesting article by Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Point and Blink) on talent and successful people, A Gift or Graft?

This idea - that excellence at a complex task requires a critical, minimum level of practice - surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.

The article and Gladwell’s forthcoming book suggests that a minimum of 10,000 hours practise and the opportunity of being around in the right place at the right time in history will create giftedness, genius, and riches.

Bill Joy (Sun Systems), Bill Gates, The Beatles, all had the opportunity to practise for many years.  The source of their giftedness.

It’s a Nature v Nurture argument, and I would tend towards the Nurture.  It takes over 10 years practise at 3-4 hours a day to turn my kids into sports and academic stars!

I thought it was just me who noticed the difference in class between Man United and Chelsea, after we'd won the European Cup this week.  When Chelsea went up to collect their LOSERS medals, Peter Kenyon ("life long Manchester United supporter") the traitor who defected to be Chelsea's Chief Executive, went up to front the team and collect the first medal.  When United went up to collect their medals and cup, they were fronted by Bobby Charlton who refused to wear the medal.

That's the difference between the clubs, and it's now in Peter Kenyon's Wikipedia entry about going to collect the medal.  In fact, David Gill's (Man Utd Chief Exec) wikipedia entry looks classier than Peter Kenyon's!!  I wonder if both are being edited by Man United fans.  It's that kind of passion and detail that shows the class and long term success.

Oh the joy of winning the third European Cup.  It flows through my veins, from the first cup in '68, 10 years after the Munich air disaster in '58 (same date as my birthday), to winning the third cup 50 years after the Munich disaster, via the win in '99.  Bobby Charlton collected because he's associated with all three wins, and survived the plane crash.  And Ryan Giggs broke Bobby Charlton's appearance record in the game. Oh, and George Best's birthday as they collected the cup.

I grew up with the rich history in Manchester.  So it's the one to win.  Just two more European Cup wins to get that Liverpool (Scouse Scum) Monkey off our backs.

I'd predicted 0-0 and Chelsea winning on penalties.  1-1 and John Terry running in to win it for Chelsea was as close to my prediction as it got.  He fell over and we won.

Parkinson's Disease and Pesticides

How very interesting. Pesticide Parkinson's Link Strong

There is strong evidence that exposure to pesticides significantly increases the risk of Parkinson's disease, experts believe.
It comes as another study, published in the BMC Neurology journal, has made the link to the neurological disease.
The US researchers found those exposed to pesticides had a 1.6 times higher risk after studying 600 people.
Experts said it was now highly likely pesticides played a key role - albeit in combination with other factors.

This starts to point in Mark Purdey's direction.  Who is Mark Purdey?  He's the guy who suggested that Mad Cows Disease may have come from pesticide, by causing a high manganese and low copper environment.  And he was then starting to look into other neurodegenerative diseases which may each have a high/low mineral signature.  Alas, Mark Purdey died in 2006, but watch out for his legacy which may end up being one of the greatest medical breakthroughs.  Not bad for an organic farmer.

Imagine if the causes of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, BSE/CJD each had an  identifiable  mineral signature, and hence could be prevented.  It makes sense doesn't it?  What I don't know, is if these diseases have become more prevalent over the last hundred years, and can they be linked to the change/increase of minerals in the environment.  And finally, can someone prove the mineral signature of each disease?  There are hints of it say for Alzheimer's with Aluminium bad and Zinc good, just as Manganese bad and Copper good with BSE (Mad Cow's Disease).  But they're not solidly proven yet, and may only be a co-factor in the cause.

It's a simple and elegant theory, I've been following for years, since I found out about Mark Purdey and his theories.

Bobby Fischer, Kevin Keegan, and Sarah Green!

I'm getting powerful vibes from the 70s.  First Bobby Fischer.  Died on Thursday.  Kevin Keegan back at Newcastle United, and now my old school has a teacher suspended for making a raunchy advert, before she became a teacher!

I'm getting strong early 70s vibes from the Time Lords!  I grew up on chess.  My Dad taught me, and then I progressed, to a fairly good level.  So Bobby Fischer is a part of my psyche, he's a part of my pre and early teens.  So is Kevin Keegan, but not as someone I worshipped, in fact he was the enemy, unless playing for England!  I don't know Sarah Green, but she's what my school wasn't about then!!

It's funny, but when Bobby Fischer dies or Kevin Keegan walks back to Newcastle it takes up more of my thinking and emotional time, than it really should.  It's my curiosity that sends me on to the internet, to Wikipedia and beyond, but then again, in the late 60s and early 70s, I had my encyclopedias, football, and chess books to lurk in.

Cascade of Mis-information

Two of my all time hero scientists died a few days ago.  I'm devastated and distraught.  They didn't both die at the same time, it's just that I realised they both died recently.  On finding out that Mark Purdey had died, I immediately looked up John Gofman's bio.  Shit, I killed him!  He died 2 months ago, on Napoleon's birthday.  How did I know?  Because yesterday I was listening to the Napoleon 101 Podcast recorded on Napoleon's birthday, and my jaw dropped when I noticed that John Gofman died on the same day as the podcast was recorded.  Not only that, but I declare 15th August as the spookiest date in my life.  Why?  My first wife's birthday is 13th August.  The current Mrs Goodson's birthday is 14th August!  So what does that say about the 15th August!!

Mark Purdey was a UK farmer who fought the UK Ministry of Agriculture and then the scientific establishment to try to prove that BSE(Mad Cows Disease) is not a disease passed on through sheep or bovine feed, but a chemical imbalance either set off by organophosphates, or an environmental chemical imbalance.  In the case of BSE or CJD, it's a high manganese/ low copper footprint.  What's even more fascinating is that Mark Purdey also suggested that other neurodegenerative diseases may also have a mineral imbalance footprint.  Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.  In the case of Alzheimer's, it a high aluminum and low zinc, I think.  Has this brilliant and radical hypothesis died with Mark Purdey.  Was he zapped?  Ironically, he died from a brain tumor.

John Gofman was a genius scientist, combining several skills and talent, to make significant breakthroughs in 4 areas of science.

1. As a young scientist he was one of a small group to manufacture weapons grade plutonium for the Manhattan Project.  He still has (had!!) patents for it.

2. He made some of the first links between low grade nuclear radiation and the threat to our health.  In other words, previously, only direct Hiroshima type high level radiation was thought to be a threat, and not a bit of radiation wafting across a Utah desert after a test, or a few soldiers placed within miles of an explosion!!  We take this thinking for granted now, but John Gofman was one of the first to prove the threat.

3.  In the late 50s and early 60s, he showed causes of heart disease from cholesterol.

4.  And finally, his work on low grade radiation as a threat to our health, was his latter day work.  I believe his research and writings on the threat of medical X-Rays, is the single most important health issue of the last 50 years.  We don't know what causes plaque build up in arteries and hence heart disease.  Gofman has a radical suggestion, that medical X-Rays cause micro-lesions in arteries, which enable plaque build up.  Did you know that many of the scientist who hung around Chernobyl, to do the clean up and research after the melt down, died prematurely of heart related diseases and not cancer related diseases.  Makes you wonder.

How the hell did I get into all this death yesterday?  Well, I woke up in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep, so I read Scott Adams' (Dilbert) links to an article in the NY Times about "Cascades".  This is where the belief of one person influences another who influences another, and it then cascades.  Very dangerous in the scientific and medical community, because it leads to everyone believing the same thing, and nothing will shift them.

In this case it's fat in the diet, which has cascaded to become the norm, that fat is bad for us, or at least too much fat is.  But according to the article, this has never been proven!  It doesn't say what is bad for us in our diet, but from what I know, the only thing which has been scientifically proven is, too many calories are bad for us, not too many "bad" calories.

Well let me tell you, John Gofman and Mark Purdey are two the greatest for resisting the cascade.  I wont forget either of you. I hope both your legacies live on. 

Against Method - Paul Feyerabend

I just followed a trail that's led me to Paul Feyerabend, a philosopher of science.  Here are a few great quotes from him and about him in his Wikipedia entry;

For is it not possible that science as we know it today, or a 'search for the truth' in the style of traditional philosophy, will create a monster? Is it not possible that an objective approach that frowns upon personal connections between the entities examined will harm people, turn them into miserable, unfriendly, self-righteous mechanisms without charm or humour? "Is it not possible," asks Kierkegaard, "that my activity as an objective [or critico-rational] observer of nature will weaken my strength as a human being?" I suspect the answer to many of these questions is affirmative and I believe that a reform of the sciences that makes them more anarchic and more subjective (in Kierkegaard's sense) is urgently needed. (AM, p.154)......

....One of the criteria for evaluating scientific theories that Feyerabend attacks is the consistency criterion. He points out that to insist that new theories be consistent with old theories gives an unreasonable advantage to the older theory. He makes the logical point that being compatible with a defunct older theory does not increase the validity or truth of a new theory over an alternative covering the same content. That is, if one had to choose between two theories of equal explanatory power, to choose the one that is compatible with an older, falsified theory is to make an aesthetic, rather than a rational choice. The familiarity of such a theory might also make it more appealing to scientists, since they will not have to disregard as many cherished prejudices. Hence, that theory can be said to have "an unfair advantage"......

.......Feyerabend described science as being essentially anarchistic, being obsessed with its own mythology, and making claims to truth well beyond its actual capacity. He was especially indignant about the condescending attitudes of many scientists towards alternative traditions. For example, he thought that negative opinions about astrology and the effectivity of rain dances were not justified by scientific research, and dismissed the predominantly negative attitudes of scientists towards such phenomena as elitist or racist. In his opinion, science has become a repressing ideology, even though it arguably started as a liberating movement. Feyerabend thought that a pluralistic society should be protected from being influenced too much by science, just as it is protected from other ideologies.

Just brilliant, and it identifies what makes me angry with Sense about Science with so called scientists, well meaning, but in many cases totally lacking in Intuition as to what is right.

And have a read of the reviews on Paul Feyerabend's autobiography 
Looks like a very interesting and complex guy.  Two more books to read.

A Dose of Tony Benn

I've been inspired by some left-wing rhetoric.  There's nothing like that old war-horse Tony Benn to get you going. You either love him or hate him.  I love him.  I've seen him talk many years ago.  He makes such sense if you listen.  Who wouldn't we want a welfare state, good health care, good free education, fair taxation.  Sounds like Cuba!!
There are no mainstream centre-left parties in the UK, Australia, or the USA.  They're all fighting for the centre-right ground.  I'm sick of the current political horizon, give us some choice.  It's so bad here in Australia, you'd prefer even Johnnie Howard to what Labour has to offer, or is frightened to offer.  Let's see what Kevin Rudd the new Labour leader has to offer.  Probably not much.

Why can't we have  centre-left policies.  Does that really have to bankrupt a country?  I don't get why spending the money on infrastructure instead of bombs is a dud economic policy.  Do bombs really have a better economic return?  I'd much rather see infrastructure, water, air, transport, telecomms, nationalised and run by the government.  By all means have private enterprise run on the infrastructure and sell services using the infrastructure, but some things are too big and risky for commercial enterprises to take on, and we the population suffer, and in some cases aren't able to compete with countries who centrally invest in say, the latest telecomm infrastructure.  It's not just a shareholder payback thing.

Anyway, have a listen to Tony Benn, and either be inspired or angered.

And if Tony Benn doesn't do it for you, then try a dose of Father Bob or Jason Calacanis.

George Best dying

It's very difficult to describe to the many what the few of us feel.
You had to be around at the time.
I was a child of the 60s.  George Best was there almost from the day I was born (1961).
The hero of the 60s, so as a kid growing up south of Manchester, it courses through my veins.
He was a part of growing up. 
George Best football boots. 
E for B and Georgie Best.
That's where George Best has his hair cut.
That's Georgie Best's house.
That's Georgie Best's bar.
That was Georgie Best's car.
My Mum's met George Best.

As a kid you take his football skills a bit for granted, but you know to give the ball to Georgie.
You watch Benfica players scythe him down in the '68 Cup Final.
You cycle past his house to see if he's there.
Years later you're meeting a girl at the Midland Hotel, and who's in the bar, but Georgie Best (a good luck charm).  And it was!!

George Best is dying today.  That's kind of bizarre.  Even to the end he's going out in style.
Strange that when Bobby Moore died, we just tutted, "Oh Bobby Moore has died".
Bobby Charlton was probably the greater player.
But the emotion which George Best evokes for this child of the 60s, is immense.
I hated all the fuss and false projection when Princess Di died, and I'd like to think this is different.

There are other sporting heroes, and we sometimes over-worship them, but this guy and what he evoked in the 60s was something different.  Think Elvis in the 50s and when Elvis died. 
George Best in Manchester was bigger than the Beatles in that there was only one of him, they were diluted.

A nice guy, a shy guy, a good looking guy, a charming guy, a two-footed guy!!
Let's quote what he says about David Beckham,

He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that he's all right.

A great great footballer, but so are many more, but you had to be around in Manchester or Belfast in the 60s to really understand the sad loss.