Boyd is not only a thoughtful reader of this blog, but also a blogger, a long-distance cyclist, a mountaineer, a local historian and very knowledgeable (and good) photographer, so it was nice to meet up with him and put a face to the blog for the first time. He’s currently on an astonishing cycling odyssey from Yorkshire to Sutton Hoo, and Cambridge was on his route, so we met for breakfast at the Orchard Tea Garden in Grantchester, where I discovered that he is also very sound on the subject of scones.
Banksy in Bristol
How to see round corners
Daffodils
The emotional computer
Fascinating video by Peter Robinson about his research into communicating emotion to machines — and vice versa.
Thanks to Quentin (who was one of Peter’s students) for the link.
Smoke signals
No, he’s not on fire. Just having a smoke.
Lost — or gained? — in translation?
Another one for the you-couldn’t-make-it-up department. According to today’s Guardian, the Russian translation of a pirated version of The Iron Lady puts a new gloss on recent British history.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters, Margaret Thatcher, as played by Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, explains what she would do as prime minister: “Crush the working class, crush the scum, the yobs.”
At least that is a scene from a pirated version of the film in Russia, which has been inadvertently reviewed by one of the country’s top film critics without realising that some rather pointed changes to the script had been made.
The pirated Russian translation of the film, voiced over in a monotone by one man, depicts Thatcher as a bloodthirsty, Hitler-admiring leader, whose fondest desire is to destroy the working class. While some of her critics might say this is an accurate representation of her plans, even her fiercest enemy would concede the Russian version takes it too far.
The translation, no matter how over the top, has fooled at least one film critic on the Russian newspaper Kommersant, who quoted parts of the pirated version in a generally positive review.
I think the Russians got that wrong: that particular quote sounds more like Denis Thatcher.
Apple’s cash mountain
Apple currently has $100 billion in cash, which is probably more than the US government holds at any given moment. The company has scheduled a conference call for 9am EST today, which many observers think is going to be about its plans for that cash mountain. Here are Henry Blodget’s musings on the subject.
LATER: The FT reports that “Tim Cook has made his first major break from the legacy of Steve Jobs by choosing to return billions of dollars to shareholders in dividends and a share buyback programme.”
How to get — and stay — organised
Good advice from David Allen.
You can, however, use a sequence of five events to optimize your focus and resources, whether you’re trying to get it together in your kitchen, your conversation, your contract, your company or your country.
• Capture everything that has your attention, in your work and your personal life, in writing. Maybe it’s your departmental budget, a meeting with the new boss, an overdue vacation, or just the need to buy new tires and a jar of mayonnaise. For the typical professional, it can take one to six hours to “empty the attic” of your head. It may seem daunting, but this exercise invariably leads to greater focus and control.
• Clarify what each item means to you. Decide what results you want and what actions — if any — are required. If you simply make a list and stop there, without putting the items in context, you’ll be stuck in the territory of compulsive list-making, which ultimately won’t relieve the pressure. What’s the next action when it comes to your budget? The next step in arranging your vacation? Applying this simple but rigorous model puts you in the driver’s seat; otherwise, your lists will hold your psyche hostage. And keep in mind that much progress can be made and stress relieved by applying the magic two-minute rule — that any action that can be finished in two minutes should be done in the moment.
• Organize reminders of your resulting to-do lists — for the e-mails you need to send, the phone calls you need to make, the meetings you need to arrange, the at-home tasks you need to complete. Park the inventory of all your projects in a convenient place.
• Regularly review and reflect on the whole inventory of your commitments and interests, and bring it up to date. As your needs change, what can move to the front burner, and what can go further back? Make these decisions while considering your overall principles, goals and accountabilities. Schedule a two-hour, weekly operational review, allowing space to clean up, catch up and do some reflective overseeing of the landscape, for all work and personal goals, commitments and activities.
• Finally, deploy your attention and resources appropriately.
Does our productivity really depend on this basic set of behaviors and thought processes? So it seems. Everyone is already half-trying to do all of this, all the time. But many people just haven’t identified the process, or applied it.
I have never seen anyone apply these practices, with some degree of commitment and application, and not find significant improvement in focus, control and results.
Hmmm… Must put this on a to-do list.
BTW: 43 Folders had a great series about Allen’s GTD (Getting Things Done) system.
