How to become an information curator
Leo Babauta on how to deal with the information overflow. Are you an information curator?
This exclusive presentation was given live for the participants of INFOtrender 2009 in Göteborg.
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He has the most who is most content with the least.
So said Diogenes of Sinope, famed as the man who lived in a barrel. He Was a Greek philosopher, father of the cynic school of philosophy.
He spent his life demonstrating how one could be happy without material possessions and teaching people to see the futility of transient attachments. Like Socrates before him Diogenes was a gadfly continually challenging the social conventions and expectations of his day.
Life lessons from a dog
“Diogenes believed human beings live artificially and hypocritically and would do well to study the dog. Besides performing natural bodily functions in public without unease, a dog will eat anything, and make no fuss about where to sleep. Dogs live in the present without anxiety, and have no use for the pretensions of abstract philosophy. In addition to these virtues, dogs are thought to know instinctively who is friend and who is foe. Unlike human beings who either dupe others or are duped, dogs will give an honest bark at the truth” - Wikipedia
Sayings attributed to Diogenes
I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough.
He has the most who is most content with the least.
Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.
We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.
The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted.
It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
Of a rich man who was mean and niggardly, he said, "That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses him."
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
It is said that Diogenes once met the great king Alexander who excited to meet the famous philosopher asked him what he could do to help. Diogenes answer was very revealing:
Step aside so I may see the sun.
Upon hearing this great Alexander said to his soldiers that if he had to be anyone other than Alexander he would be Diogenes.
Creating a Simple Strategy
via openforum.com
Dan Heath talks about simplicity as an antedote to decision paralysis. As you know, simplicity is as important in software development as it is in business.
Living in a world of give and take
Image from the very interesting times article Living without money ( read it while you can before Rupert takes it off-line )
A good friend sent me an article yesterday about German former teacher Heidemarie Schwermer. Heidemarie has been living without money for the last 13 years.
She is something of a minor celebrity in Germany having set up and organised a skills and goods trade scheme in Dortmund. Her philosophy of life is based around the concept of trade rather than purchase, Gib und Nimm (Give and Take).
Initially she was hoping to have an impact on the homeless but instead found the scheme resonating with the unemployed and the retired of Dortmund. Heidemarie herself took things further than most by choosing to live without property and only a few possessions. She has been living nomadically since 1996 moving from place to place trading menial services for room and board and living without money.
People like Heidemarie show just what it’s possible to give up and still live happily in our material world.
She is admirable but is she an exemplar?
In truth I don’t believe she is, for me she offers an example from which we can learn a lot but doesn’t offer us a template.
I think her mode of life isn’t one that masses of people could emulate.
After all whose houses would they stay in?
It is possible for a few people to live like Heidemarie but a whole society I don’t think so.
To me Heidemarie is like a modern day Diogenes of Sinope (greek philosopher who lived in a barrel). A humane cynic reminding us that people should be our focus and that we don’t need much in the way of material goods to be happy.
I'd be interested to find out what you think of her philosophy and her life?
Could we all really live in a world of give and take ?
Nathan @ e-gineer: Clarify. Simplify. Implement.
Great advice from Nathan on how to reduce complexity in any kind of project-oriented work. Read the entire article at e-gineer.com
Working through a wide range of projects, our IT team has settled into a consistent project methodology: Clarify, Simplify, Implement.
Clarify: Work with key stakeholders to understand drivers behind the process. Question motives and key assumptions. Turn over all the rocks to see what lies underneath. (In traditional software terms, this is requirements gathering.)
Simplify: Relentlessly question, review and challenge the processes and solution being developed. Drive for consistency. Search for well-known models or applications you can copy. Don't be afraid to change basic assumptions, where simplicity can be enhanced. Always challenge the value of edge cases and try to eradicate them. Work hard to remove every single process, click, page view, icon, etc until you have something so simple that it feels right to everyone involved. (This is the primary value adding activity for IT.)
Implement: After the requirements are clear, and the solution distilled to its simplest form, start implementing. Do not start with a preconceived solution. Continue to loop through clarify and simplify while performing the implementation. (Use your preferred development methodology, provided it supports constant change and rapid prototyping.)
Less and More - The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams
Showing at the Design Museum, London, from 18 November – 07 March 2010
“Question everything generally thought to be obvious.”
Dieter RamsAs head of design at Braun, the German consumer electronics manufacturer, Dieter Rams emerged as one of the most influential industrial designers of the late 20th century by defining an elegant, legible, yet rigorous visual language for its products. The exhibition will showcase Rams’ landmark designs for Braun and furniture manufacturer Vitsœ, examine how Rams’ design ethos inspired Braun’s entire product range for over 40 years, and assess his lasting influence on today’s design landscape.
via designmuseum.org
I really must make time to go and see this exhibition next week. The simplicity of Rams' work is a real inspiration.
I can see myself visiting catching this show more than once...
Simple is not easy
How Chipotle, Pinkberry, and others win big by doing just a few things well Matt Nov 11
47 comments Latest by Web & IT Security
The dirty little secret about simple: It’s actually hard to do. That’s why most people make complex stuff. Simple requires deep thought, discipline, and patience – things that many companies lack. That leaves room for you. Do something simpler than your competitors and you’ll win over a lot of people.
There are only three major items on Chipotle’s menu: burritos, tacos, and salads. In Chipotle’s Secret Salsa, Founder and CEO Steve Ells sums up its business model in a single sentence: “Focus on just a few things, and do them better than anybody else.”
One thing you won’t find at Chipotle is dessert. Restaurant analysts say a cookie or other dessert at the end of the food line could instantly boost sales by 10 percent or more there. Ells doesn’t care. “We’ve had 10 years of double-digit comps in a row, and we’ve done that without cookies,” he says. “So why start now? I see only the downside to adding cookies.”
The yogurt chain Pinkberry started off by selling only two flavors of yogurt: original and green tea. That meant fewer worries about inventory, machinery, recipes, and other complications that would have resulted from selling a variety of products. Instead the company focused on flavor. It’s now a chain with dozens of stores and devout fans who refer to the yogurt as “Crackberry.” (Ever think about how your product would sound with “crack” as a prefix?)
This isn’t just for restaurants either. Nintendo has won big by doing less than competitors. The Flip has won a big percentage of the camcorder market by doing less. Fixed-gear bikes have been growing in popularity due to their simple, low-maintenance design.
You can try to win a features arms race by offering everything under the sun. Or you can just focus on a couple of things and do ‘em really well and get people who really love those things to love your product. For little guys, that’s a smarter route.
When you choose that path, you get clarity. Everything is simpler. It’s simpler to explain your product. It’s simpler for people to understand. It’s simpler to change it. It’s simpler to maintain it. It’s simpler to start using it. The ingredients are simpler. The packaging is simpler. Supporting it is simpler. The manual is simpler. Figuring out your message is simpler. And most importantly, succeeding is simpler.
via 37signals.com
Our software product designs are not all that different than those in the food industry—or any other industry. We tend to have fewer crumbs, though.
Five ways to become Happier
Nothing earth shattering but some good practical advice from Harvard university lecturer Tal Ben-Shahar on the keys to a happier life ( no medication required).
Question: What can people do each day to be happier?
1. lean to accept painful emotions - The first thing to do to become happier, paradoxically, is to accept painful emotions, to accept them as a part of being alive. You know, there are two kinds of people who don't experience painful emotions such as anxiety or disappointment, sadness, envy; two kinds of people who don't experience these painful emotions. They are the psychopaths and the dead. So if we experience painful emotions at time, it's actually a good sign. It means that we're not a psychopath and we're alive. The paradox is that when we give ourselves the permission to be human, the permission to experience the full gamut of human emotion. We open ourselves up to positive emotions as well. 2. Spend quality time with loved ones - The number one predictor of well-being of happiness is time, quality time, we spend with our family, friends, people we care about and who care about us. In our modern world, unfortunately this quality time is erroding. A very good predictor of well-being is what psychologist Tim Kasser calls time affluence. Time affluence is the thing that we have time to sit down and chat with our friends while -- not while being on the phone at the same time or text messaging at the same time, being with that person. This is a better predictor.
3. Exercise three times a week - Physical exercise contributes a great deal to happiness; in fact, there is research showing that regular exercise, three times a week for 30 to 40 minutes of aerobic exercise, could be jogging or walking or aerobics or dancing, three times a week of 30 to 40 minutes of exercise is equivalent to some of our most powerful psychiatric drugs in dealing with depression or sadness or anxiety. We've become a sedentary culture where we park our car next to our workplace or take the train and we don't walk like our fore parents used to. Thousands of years ago our fore parents walked an average of eight miles a day. How far do we walk today? Well it depends on where we park our car. And we pay a high price for it because we weren't made to be to sedentary. We were made to be physically active.
4. Cultivate gratitude -There are treasures of happiness all around us and within us. The problem is that we only appreciate them when something terrible happens. Usually when we become sick, we appreciate our health. When we lose someone dear to us, we appreciate our life. And we don't need to wait. If we cultivate the habit of gratitude we can significantly increase our levels of happiness. So, for example, research by Robert and Mike McAuliffe shows that people who keep a gratitude journal, who each night before going to sleep write at least five things for which they are grateful, big things or little things, are happier, more optimistic, more successful, more likely to achieve their goals, physically healthier; it actually strengthens our immune system, and are more generous and benevolent toward others. This is an intervention that takes three minutes a day with significant positive ramifications.
5. Simplify, do less rather than more - One of the most important things that we can do in our modern world is to simplify, to do less rather than more. The problem is that we try and cram more and more things into less and less time, and we pay a price. We pay a price in terms of the quality of the work that we do. We also pay a price in terms of the quality of relationships that we enjoy. So doing less -- for example, switching our phone off for three hours when we get home, or not responding to every e-mail as it arrives, having what I call e-mail-free zones -- these little things, simplifying our lives even slightly, can make a significant difference to our productivity as well as happiness.
You can watch Tals, video over at Big Think
Wise words from @JasonFried in @IncMagazine
It really bothers me that the definition of success has changed from profits to followers, friends, and feed count. This crap doesn't mean anything. Kids are coming out of school thinking, I want to start the next YouTube or Facebook. If a restaurant served more food than everybody else but lost money on every diner, would it be successful? No. But on the Internet, for some reason, if you have more users than everyone else, you're successful. No, you're not.
I spend another good portion of my day thinking about how to make things less complicated. In the software world, the first, second, and third versions of any product are really pretty good, because everyone can use them. Then companies start adding more and more stuff to keep their existing customers happy. But you end up dying with your customer base, because the software is too complicated for a newcomer. We keep our products simple. I'd rather have people grow out of our products, as long as more people are growing into them.
via inc.com
My Award for: Low-Tech Gadget of the Year
You may think I'm kidding, but I'm not. My award for low-tech gadget of the year goes to the simple hanger recycling box. Previously, I was baffled at what to do with those ugly wire hangers from the cleaners. I tried throwing them into a paper grocery bag for recycling later, but they would always become tangled. Now: easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. Hey, sometimes it's the little things.
