tonygoodson

Beauty is in the eye of Nativisim

Just thinking aloud.  I was amazed in listening to Bill Bryson’s A Brief History of Everything, one theory is that babies are born with an ability to recognise 400-600 language sounds, and they lose most of that recognition when they start to learn their mother language, bringing their recognition down to about 50 sounds.

In other words, babies are born with mass language recognition – Nativism or sometimes called Innatism.  I’m not sure what the difference is, but Wikipedia is a good place to try to explain it!

So, this set me wondering about beauty and who we find attractive.  I was wondering if we have an inbuilt beauty recognition system that becomes refined when we’re born, and just like language (if that theory is true) we have a library of “attractive” and then refine it down. The reason I’m thinking this, is some of the people we find attractive look absolutely nothing like other people we find attractive.  I mean how are Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie even closely related other than having Brad Pitt in common!!

And this library we may have inbuilt in us is cross race and cross cultural.  We can all mostly agree on an attractive Japanese, Chinese, African, South European, North European etc, but they’re all incredibly different.  Ok, individual people may have individual preferences, but the magazine covers seem to settle on the same 50 people who all look different. Admittedly “White”, but you know what I mean!

I can see someone who takes my breath away with beauty and attractiveness, but where did that come from?  My childhood and teens?  Did I build up a pattern of 8-10 types of women I find attractive?  Can I composite those images together?  I don’t think so. Have you ever seen a composite person built from the pictures most people rank as attractive.  That composite doesn’t look that attractive!!

Could it be that just like language we come with an in-built 100+ attractive faces, and we refine them down, instead of culturally building them up from birth?

Things I like

I thought I’d do a recap on things I like right now, instead of the slight blogging bias towards whinging, complaining and ranting! It’s easy to write about the things I like, I just look out across my table/desk and see what’s lying around and closest to me;

Podcasts – I’m loving listening to Adam Carolla, Fighting Talk, Danny Baker, Sportsweek, 606 Football Phone-in, TWiT, Jonathan Ross, Desert Island Discs, and where has Christian O’Connell gone?

Audio Books – WoW!  Audible audio books, the two I’ve listened to recently are fantastic, The Outliers read by Malcolm Gladwell, and A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson, which I’m certainly getting my money’s worth on that audio book!

iPhone – Yes, easy to use, this is my first phone which gives me web and email access, some of the apps, audio books, maps,  access to everything

Keyboard – 15 bucks for a Microsoft keyboard.  Excellent.

Sansa Clip – My portable, cycling, walking, on the train, mp3 podcast player.  Excellent.

My Job – Loving the job.  Not easy on some days, but it’s something I can really get my teeth into.

Piano – My 6 year old son has cleaned me out of every simple piano duet I know, in less than 2 months.  Playing piano duets with your kids, a dream come true!

Using old stuff – I’ve resurrected my old Samsung LCD screen, it’s nearly 9 years old but going strong, as a second screen for my netbook.

Cheapo Copy Aftershave – The alcohol works a treat inside my shoes!!

And finally, Ergonomic Cycling HandleBar Grips!!  I can’t explain how much better my riding position is, being able to rest the palms of my hands on these grips.

“When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad, I simply remember my favourite things, and then I don’t feel so bad!!”

Dr Who’s perfect music choice

WoW!  I was listening to David Tennant’s (Dr Who) music choice on Desert Island Discs, and it almost perfectly matches my own choice, such that anything David Tennant recommends or additionally listens to I’d give a go.  I’m sure there are music sites and Amazon where I can find accurate recommendations, but I’ve never found one as close as Dr Who!

I’ve always loved Desert Island Discs. It’s one of the longest running radio programmes in the UK.  A simple format, a celebrity guest is alone on a desert island, what 8 pieces of music would they take with them, which one would they choose, which luxury item would they choose, which book to go along with The Bible and The Complete Works of Shakespeare.

It’s really moving when someone David Tennant gets it with your own musical choice.

The Proclaimers – Love ‘em

Elvis Costello – Not my absolute favourite but mostly love

The Housemartins – Love ‘em

Deacon Blue – I’ll take Dr Who’s word for it

Eddie Izzard – Love Him

Kaiser Chiefs – Don’t know that well but I’m now listening

Tim Minchin – Great song

Billy Bragg – Like Elvis Costello, like most of his stuff

Oh and Kirsty Young is fantastic as the host, and I found her in Room 101.  A Desert Island Discs interview with Michael Caine last week threw up something I thought only I knew…that the song My Way by Frank Sinatra, though written by Paul Anka, is in fact Comme D’Habitude by Claude François.

Actually, what are my Desert Island Disc 8 songs;

Father and Son – Cat Stevens

The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkel

Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding – Elton John

Living Years – Mike and The Mechanics

Paradise by the Dashboard – Meatloaf

Lying Eyes – The Eagles

The Promised Land – Bruce Springsteen

Over the Rainbow – Eva Cassidy

2009 Purchases of the year!

Just got a Sansa Clip+ 4GB mp3 player via eBay, and it set me thinking what my favourite purchases of 2009 are.  I’m not a big consumer of goods, not a big shopper, brick or online, so there’s not much to choose from.  I tend to choose well, and hence my goods last a long time, if I use them!

1. Hush Puppies – Zinc classic formal shoes

You wouldn’t think there would be a pair of formal shoes I’d actually look forward to wearing.  Given that I’m on my feet, training groups a lot, I thought I’d treat myself and spend a bit more. Well worth it.  Comfortable, “Extra Wide”, “Bounce Technology”.

2. Apple iPhone 3GS

So, I claim I’m not a typical consumer!  Well I am with this one.  Never fallen for the Apple hype, but I have to say, the iPhone is fantastic.  Easy to use, beautiful usability, great as a phone, and of course the Apps.

pUniverse – See the stars as you move around the night sky, find the planets.

AlarmT Lite – Alarm Clock which enables me to wake to my MP3s

Games – FreeCell, Sudoku, Action Blox, Touch4, Labyrinth 3D, Racer Free

tramTracker and Metlink for Melbourne transport

Getting Things Done – Notes, Google Apps (inc Gmail), Guitar Tuner, Laptop Cafe, Evernote, Note Taker (finger write), iThoughts (MindMaps)

3. Sansa Clip+ MP3 player

See, I don’t fall for the Apple hype.  I’m sure iPods are fantastic, but are they value for money?  I reckon the Sansa Clip+ is the best player, depending on how you use an MP3 player.  It’s small and it clips on!  If you cycle, walk around a lot, and go on public transport, it fantastic.  Also the Clip+ has more sound options than the Clip.  Volume/Equalizer adjustments, Audio Book options for double play speed, and micro SD slot for an extra 16GB.

4. Audible Audio Books

I’ve been an Audible user since 2006 for the Ricky Gervais podcasts, but only recently started listening to audio books.  My first book was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which was a bit dire as a book, but I persisted, and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers read by Malcolm Gladwell, is unbelievably good.  Just listened to some other Ricky Gervais podcasts and more to come.  I was crying with laughter.  And currently listening to Scott Adams’ (Dilbert) God’s Debris.

Just one product I wouldn’t buy again, the Dell Mini Netbook, on the Vodafone plan.  The keyboard is too small to enjoy using and they’ve moved the apostrophe ‘ key and made the right hand shift key smaller, which makes it a pain in the arse to try typing with.  It’s still a good data plan, but would I buy this netbook again?  I don’t think so.  I’ve seen better netbook keyboards.

Audio and Podcasts and Audible

I’m loving audio!  I’m listening to more and more podcasts, and I’ve just signed up to an Audible Gold Account, which gives me 1 audio book per month.  I’ve been with Audible since 2006, originally to listen to the Ricky Gervais podcasts when they moved from Series 1 on The Guardian, to a Series 2 pay version on Audible.

All those Audible ads on the podcasts I listen to must be having an effect on me, because I thought I’d try some audio books.  The first book was a bit difficult.  I was finding Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas unreadable in the printed form.  Heavy Going.  So I thought I’d give the audio version a go. Slightly better, and even better on double speed!!  I got through it.

Initially I’d tried loading the audio book on to a Sansa Clip mp3 player, which I love to use when I’m moving around, the iPhone is a bit heavy to carry, and of course doesn’t “Clip” on.  However, the Sansa player kept jamming with the audio book loaded, so I gave the iPhone a go.  Much better usability, easy to bookmark, with chapters, and double speed reading. which works really well.

So having signed for a Gold Audible account, my first book to listen to is Malcolm Gladwell’s The Outliers which I’ve been meaning to read for a while.  Really loving listening to Malcolm Gladwell reading his own book.

And whilst I’m at it, I’ve just updated my list of podcasts I listen to.  There are some unbelievably good podcasts.  My favourites right now that I’ve recently added;

The Christian O’Connell Solution – Very funny solutions to life

The Adam Carolla Podcast – The meaning of life

Desert Island Discs – At last

The Danny Baker Show – Quirky Football

Murray Lovejoy’s Sports Express – More Quirky Football

Liquid Courage Podcast – Drunk men talking shit!

More or Less – Understanding the Stats behind the headline

This Week in Google

This Week in Startups

Another Cluetrain Podcast, and more Podcasts

Just put up another podcast interview, this time with Rick Levine, another co-author of Cluetrain.  So that’s 2 podcast interviews in a week, with Cluetrain authors, first Chris Locke, and now Rick Levine. 

I’ve also added a sidebar list of New and Old podcasts (Look right now!)

It’s late at night, and I’m hooked on improving my websites, and publicising on Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In.  I don’t want to be a pain in the arse and overdo it with the self-publicising, but it’s interesting to see what it takes to make something go exponential and viral.

Cluetrain and Dreams Coming True

The one thing I forgot to ask Chris Locke about was Bricolage.  He wrote about it in his follow up book to Cluetrain, Gonzo Marketing.  I was reminded of that, because I bust a gut all day to get the interview I’d done with Chris, out.  Which meant adding some music.  And I’d been sitting on some music for over 2 years, Stereophile’s “That’s The Shit” I thought it was called Bass, oh well!

It’s great to collect something, and then use it 2 years later.  And I’ve had a dream to interview Chris Locke since podcasting started, so great to get it together and do it.  Who’s next?  I have a few on the list, and I added another person over the weekend, Neil Young (Man Citeh footballer).  Are you out there Neil Young?

What I’ve done over the last few months, is bring my big dreams forward.  Oh yeah, we’ve all learnt about goal setting and all that.  Have a dream and then put actions to achieve that dream.  Well it doesn’t quite work out, does it.  I’ll tell you why.  We keep doing all the short term stuff before we allow ourselves to do the big stuff we’d love to do.  Except there’s always small stuff that keeps on coming in.  So I switched things around.  I looked at what my big long term things are and made sure they’re the first on my list every day and every week.

In fact, I’ve not been very productive recently, but the big ones are happening. Someone told me recently that they can see a lot of the colour orange in my life.  So I used Orange as the main them for The 3 Moments website, and blow me down if the main colour for Cluetrain isn’t orange, and the RSS Feed logo is orange.

What are the big things you want to do in life?  That doesn’t necessarily mean a big house, Ferrari, and lots of money!! 

When you’ve cracked a big dream, it’s a bit like that time after the wedding, and all the guests have gone.  What now!  I dunno!!  Next guest to interview for a podcast.  Next project! Actually, come to think of it, there’s a few other shows I’ve been wanting to do, and now I have the platform. 

All Time Teams, I talk with people who name their all time sport teams based on how long they’ve followed their team.  I ran a pilot show in 2005 for an All Time Manchester United Team, so it’s a bit out of date now, but just have a listen, and if you’re a keen Man Yoo football fan it sounds great! Click here to download The All Time Manchester United Team 1968 to 2005.

Madman Across The Street, interview the people who are on our city streets.  Instead of stepping over them, find out what their story is, how they got there…3 Moments! 

Sustainability and Green stuff, still a subject we all know we should contribute to, but we can’t be bothered!  I have two pilot shows from the last 18 months that I must upload.

Thanks Cluetrain.

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.

Learning to be a Creative Genius

Déjà Vu, I come here to write about 10,000 Hours to Become a Genius, and realised I’d already used exactly the same title when writing about exactly the same subject last November.

So let’s call this Part II.  I’ve realised recently that for 42 years I’ve been struggling.  Struggling to fit into an education and white collar working system that has a very narrow confine on what is intelligence.  And I’ve fitted in, I’ve had to, but at great cost to myself and talents.

At aged 6, I was highly mathematical, spatial, chess, sporty, but I couldn’t handwrite properly, struggled to spell, couldn’t draw well, struggled with English comprehension.  I was a classic geek, shy of girls (but loved them really), crap dancer.

My 10,000 hours of genius, didn’t go into a single subject but across a number of subjects.  Sport, Man United, Chess, Maths, Sport, Current Affairs, TV, General Knowledge, Newspapers, Encyclopaedias, Science.

That inability to write and draw, and remember language, has been a blight on me ever since.  I’ve been blessed with enough intelligence to survive it, but I shouldn’t have to survive life.

So now my oldest child has just come through being 6, and my youngest is fast approaching 6, I’m really attuned to what’s expected of them in education, and what they can and can’t do.  But here’s my own breakthrough and realisation.  Genius may not be nature.  It might be nurture.  We find our talents out early on for ourselves, or someone helps us.

I say this because, I’m noticing some things my kids aren’t learning for themselves.  That doesn’t mean they can’t do something, just that they don’t know how to.  Jay’s reading is great now he’s started school, and I should know, I taught him (proud Dad), but his handwriting and drawing are behind many of the kids in his class.  Mmm funny, but that’s me at school all over again.

Now, for the last few years, I’ve been looking for a cartooning book to help me learn to draw for when I’m training and writing on boards and flipcharts.  I made a concerted effort to find a book this week, for my sake and now for Jay’s.  And hallelujah, I’ve found it. 1001 Awesome Things To Draw.  A fantastic book.  Suddenly I’m a genius cartoonist (and so is Jay) just by following the rules.  Neither of us can naturally draw, but who can.  The untold secret is that many children and adults, learn to draw using the rules, without telling the rest of us, what the rules are.

It’s the same with Improv.  You may look at Who’s Line is it Anyway and Thank God You’re Here, and watch in wonderment at how those performers and comedians take on random situations and be so funny.  It’s rules based.  There are basic Improv rules, which if you follow with a few hours of practice, I’ll guarantee most people can get up there and perform very well.

 

And I’ve just bought a book on design and layout, How to Understand and Use Design and Layout. It’s rules based again, along with some artistic genius!  It’s taken me years to find a good book on Design and a good book on Cartooning, and now I can be an Artistic genius like the rest of you.  Now I just need to find those 10,000 hours!

Artist’s Way part V

So for the fifth time I’m going to do the Artist’s Way.  One of my favourite books, and great for getting your creativity flowing.  It means doing “Morning Pages” which means getting up early to write 3 pages of handwritten streaming consciousness, or whatever you can muster early in the morning.

12 Chapters, so that’s 3 written pages a day, 7 days a week for 12 weeks.  If you didn’t think you’re capable of writing a book, you have 252 pages handwritten if you do your morning pages every day.  That’s impressive.  Plus weekly homework and Artist exercises.  It’s mostly a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it, as do many people.

Daryl Cook is doing the Artist’s Way, so I’ve joined him.  Let’s see who cracks first.