tonygoodson

I'm Back! Productivity discussion with Daryl Cook

"Well hello there, It's been a long long time. How ya doing, I guess I'm doing fine. It's been so long and it seems that, It was only yesterday. Ain't it funny how time slips away?"

So let's get back to this blogging and podcasting thing, starting with some Productivity, Technology,and Life, with my mate Daryl Cook.  Just the raw sound to listen to, no intro, no music, let's just get it done.  And no show notes!

Have a listen and tell us what you think, what you'd like to hear about.  Should we go back to The Productivity Show?  Expand to other subjects?  What do people want to listen to?  Do they want to listen!!

Click here to download the interview mp3

Take Me Home Country Roads

Visited my childhood last week.  Back to the country roads of Cheshire (nr Manchester, England).  So good to be back home (I keep expressing joy with song titles or lyrics!)

I'd started blogging/writing about my childhood in 2002, so it was good to revisit the writing in reality, 9 years later.  How was it?  Did reality warp or destroy the memories or writing?  I'd been warned that going back to London and Manchester, from Australia, things would appear much smaller than in my mind's eye.

In fact, on the whole things were the same or larger, such as the road in our street where we played football as kids.  What most struck me in going back to Handforth and into the The Valley behind our house where I played out my childhood, is the march of nature.  Nature is relentless, people aging, buildings and structures under threat from 50 years of nature knocking.

It's amazing how the acres of my green grass childhood are now overgrown with new and thick vegetation.  Rivers have changed courses over those 50 years.  And other parts have remained unaltered. Even the 1960s graffiti has survived. 

I can feel a novel inside me, set in the 60s with my childhood memories as the background rather than the theme of the novel.  But I don't yet know what I'd like to write about as the main them of a novel, with this childhood 60s stuff in the background.  A Kestype novel perhaps, Kestrel for a Knave?

I can't explain, just how green and beautiful Cheshire looks on a visit, after 9 years of living in Australia.  I'm happy to be living in Melbourne, a city near the sea (ok, Bay), but Cheshire sure looks lush and green.

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!!”

Gold Coast 2010 v Benidorm 1970

The parallels are remarkable!  The thing is, my Dad married my Mum, and had 2 kids, me and my sister.  I am at the same age now as when my Dad was married, married my wife and have two kids of same age.  So 40 years on, I have a direct comparison of life.

I’m on a Gold Coast holiday in Queensland, Australia.  Holy Shit, I thought as I arrived, this is like Benidorm!!  And I wondered where I was 40 years ago this year, err, Benidorm!  Yep, World Cup year, 40 years ago, I was in Benidorm, Spain, during the World Cup.  40 years later, I’m with my kids, World Cup year, in the Gold Coast, Surfer’s Paradise, Australia.

What’s changed?  The swimming pools are more landscaped and there’s a bit more shade!!  Same people, Aussies in Australia, not Brits in Spain, and no Spanish waiters to play football against!

Now you’d think that the quality of life would have improved, but other than aircon and TVs in the room, not much has changed, except Factor 30 instead of frying oil.  We are probably the first generation with an equal or lesser financial quality of life than our parents, and I was thinking how those package holidays of 40 years ago were all inclusive.  “Like Club Med.” my wife said as I tried to explain 1970s package holidays, “Yeah, but at a fraction of the price.”  Everything was inclusive then, except the drinks.  Flights, hotel, transport to and from the hotel, food.  The lot.  I guess many of the package tour and airlines of that era went bust, so maybe it wasn’t such a good business, but surely it’s possible to still put low coast all inclusive holidays together, here in Queensland.  Maybe it happens, but I haven’t heard anyone bragging about it.

The airlines would love it.  The hotel and accommodation places would love it, the restaurants and food places wouldn’t love it, because that’s where the money is made now, charging us day after day for food and drinks.

But you know, kids are kids, and what they want is to be in the swimming pool all day, with their friends.  Just like me 40 years ago.  C’mon Ingerland to Go Aussie.

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

My Productivity for 2010

My productivity for 2009 has been shocking!

Partly because I have some very big issues to sort out, which can be kinda distracting, and it makes it very difficult for me to concentrate at times.  Consequently, most of my good productivity systems collapsed in 2009.  My MindManager mindmaps, my Weekly Review, my capture tools and filing (not that my filing was ever any good!).

What I’m most struck by is the difficulty in planning and setting aside time for the thing I most want to do, Podcast.  Why is it, we have our dreams and we don’t fulfil them, even when we are able to.  I had a good crack at my dreams in 2009, but just couldn’t seem to keep them going.  Also, there are some things which happened, including work, which just needed complete narrow focus, to the exclusion of everything else, and sometimes, no time or energy for anything else.  And in the latter part of 2009, I really enjoyed my work.

And so to 2010, loaded with my iPhone, my Sansa Clip+ mp3 player, and my Dell Netbook.  I’ve stopped using my thin leather pocket Filofax for note capture and diary/calendar.  I’m currently using a cheapo spiral A4 book for capture, and no diary system, because my time has been in blocks of months.

Given that I’m on Gmail and iPhone, I think Google calendar and some kind of iPhone note capture would be nice.  Today, I’ve just created a simple shopping list on a Google Docs spreadsheet, and my Actions in columns, on another Google Docs spreadsheet, so that I can view them easily from my iPhone.  I’m having a play with a few iPhone productivity Apps but nothing has hooked me yet.  Dan Bricklin’s Note Taker to finger write notes on the iPhone, Evernote, iThought mindmaps, and gCalWall which produces a photo of your Google calendar and puts it up as the wallpaper.  Not long before that will be automatic.

My main obsession right now is listening to podcasts and audio books rather than producing podcasts and audio books! One may lead to the other.

Every decade for me has been significant in terms of moving onto the next decade, but this time, 2009 feels like it’s dribbling into 2010!!  Is it just me or did decade ends used to me more exciting!  And so, my productivity is dribbling into 2010!!

Cognitive Bias

Someone asked me recently “Hey Tony, what’s the best entry on Wikipedia?”  though he was probably joking, without hesitation I said “Cognitive Bias”.  He had a look and agreed with me.

So as a reminder to self, and a treat to anyone who reads this, go look at the list of Cognitive Bias on Wikipedia.  It has all the failings of human nature gathered together in one Wiki entry.

A cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation in judgment that occurs in particular situations (see also cognitive distortion and the lists of thinking-related topics). Implicit in the concept of a "pattern of deviation" is a standard of comparison; this may be the judgment of people outside those particular situations, or may be a set of independently verifiable facts. The existence of some of these cognitive biases has been verified empirically in the field of psychology.

Cognitive biases are instances of evolved mental behaviour. Some are presumably adaptive, for example, because they lead to more effective actions or enable faster decisions. Others presumably result from a lack of appropriate mental mechanisms, or from the misapplication of a mechanism that is adaptive under different circumstances.

Thanks Johnnie Moore

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.

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.