It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle
Tag: growth
It’s all Greek to me
c/o an unnamed genius… I think having family (albeit distant relations) in Greece helps me understand the situation from a humanitarian perspective, but I also know there are going to be some severe implications for…
24 Life Lessons
In Paul Cronin’s documented interviews with Werner Herzog: A Guide for the Perplexed, Herzog offers some advice, (mainly to students of the art of film-making) but his advice applies to all of us: Always take the initiative.…
7 practical tips of persistence
Tip #1: Start small One thing at a time, ‘Φασούλι φασούλι γεμίζει το σάκούλι’. Affect change where you can, immediately, progressively, and iteratively – this stuff is easy if all you need to worry about is making a change to…
My story of persistence: Part #6
I know this story has been dragging on for some time so I’m going to try and wrap it up as quickly as I can, maybe even in this post…let’s see how we go…thanks for…
My story of persistence: Part #5
As you do when looking for work, especially when you know its time to move on, you look for anything and everything that looks remotely interesting. You don’t really put all your eggs in one…
My story of persistence: Part #4
There is something very reassuring about mail. I reckon it’s a key indicator of a modern, functioning civilisation (along with safe and efficient garbage disposal but that’s a story for another day). Almost without exception…
My story of persistence: Part #3
There are some professional service vocations that require practitioners to maintain a certain level of competence by obtaining what’s called continuing professional development points. The goal is 10 points in a 12 month period. You…
My story of persistence: Part #2
So the job situation was by no means dire. I had a good boss who understood me and how I worked. The pay was satisfactory for my level of qualifications at the time and given…
My story of persistence: Part #1
About three years ago, I started on a journey that would take me to a destination that I had decided I needed to reach. I’m making some head way and I want to share my story with you.…
Visual refresh
It’s been over a year now since I embarked on this blogging journey and at the time I was really only learning about the power we all have to communicate with written word via the…
It’s all about Valume
Yesterday, I had the privilege of hearing Adrian Fittolani introduce me to the concept of valume. Now there is no way I will be able to convey the message with anywhere near as much heart…
#EpicCollaboration
Firstly I want to thank everyone involved at #EpicCollaboration. I had the pleasure of attending a strategy session the other night with a group of honest, intelligent, compassionate, creative and committed collaborators. I appreciate you…
I’ve been launching…
Firstly there’s Knowledge Work: honest, friendly and highly beneficial mentoring for young professionals. Then there’s the launch of something that is truly beyond words. Unequivocally remarkable. Those of you who know me know what I’m talking about…for those…
Keep on searching
To find what we’re looking for sometimes we need to go places that no one has before. We are unique. No one has been or will be you, ever! And so to rely on others…
Taking stock
I’ve been writing this blog for almost a year now since I decided to make the switch. Every now and then I look back at some of the things I’ve written…sometimes I can’t even remember ever writing…
Purpose
When you know what you want, when you know where you are going, you begin to appreciate a purpose. If you’re in doubt about what you want, if you’re questioning the direction you’re heading, you will…
Why?
There is nothing and no one waiting for you. Your life is yours and lived only once. Why do we strive for distraction? Time in space is all we have. Attempting to avoid reality. The…
The fox and the grapes
One hot summer’s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch. “Just the thing…
Options
Our brains are a muscle that can create an infinite number of connections between two points. These connections give us options. The more connections we create the more options we will have. The computing power…
Greatness
The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. Michelangelo
Backing up
When backing up large amounts of data and waiting an extraordinary amount of time for these 1s and 0s to get from here to there, it reaches a point of no return when you aren’t…
Public Domain Dedication
“Public Domain Dedication” sounds like the type of thing you do when you’re about to ask your life-long partner to marry you in front of tens of thousands of people at a New York Yankees…
Shady
There are so many shady people out there it’s easy to forget that honest and genuine people exist. The shadiness isn’t always obvious. It’s not as if these people are necessarily rude or obnoxious or…
Creatively connected
We live in a connected community. Linguistic and geographical boundaries exist no longer. Lets us creatively.collaborate; creatively.communicate; creatively.connect with creatively.committed and creatively.compassionate individuals. A better world will evolve as we move beyond solving problems and begin to…
Making time
You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it. Charles Buxton I always try putting in place a few measures to ensure I get exposure to challenging and confronting…
Working with your hands
In this day and age intellectual property rules but there’s something to be said about working with your hands. Going to university, getting a degree and landing that sweet desk job is the aspiration of…
The whole is great
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Aristotle It’s true also that each part is painstakingly engineered and crafted to serve its own purpose. We are each individually capable of anything but…
The old becomes new again
Everything is cyclical…everything. We often loose sight of the bigger picture so its worth recognising and acknowledging the circular nature of our existence. Although cliched to the hill, ‘what comes around goes around’ and ‘what goes up…
The journey continues
As we all see the end of another year that our Gregorian calendars number 2013, what better time to reflect and celebrate the year that was. I sincerely hope that those reading this have had…
Community
What does community mean? How do we define who is in our community and who isn’t? Geographical parameters work…well sort of…but what about online communities? Do online communities exist by virtue of a username and…
Illusion of scarcity
Our consumerist existence operates on the concept of scarcity. We are made to believe that the things we have become obsolete, that the sales on offer are for a limited time, that the goods we…
Whether
Not the heat or the cold or anything meteorological but the choice we make in our minds about whether to do or think in a particular way. Whether you think you can, or you think…
One liners
A few words can be so powerful. In fact fewer words are often most powerful and influential. It’s not the quantity that counts but the quality. Same applies to everything. Everything. The creation of a…
Waiting rooms
They’re never friendly and happy places waiting rooms. No one visits a waiting room for any purpose; other than to wait of course. I think what’s most frustrating though is usually the overwhelming feeling of…
Eggs will hatch
You may have heard the saying: Don’t count your chickens before your eggs hatch The basic premise is self explanatory. We have so many chickens and yet we still insist on counting our eggs. Instead of…
On the road
Avoid a void
Lever from clever Grin in the grind Can do in candor Cue the rescue Ink is to think Courage is rage Lie to believe Anger is dangerous Inspiration not ration Harm in pharmacy Urge not…
Dvorak
Not Dr. Evils second cousin but a ‘simplified’ keyboard layout patented in 1936. Apparently it’s easier, more efficient, requires less finger motion and reduces errors as compared to his more popular sister QWERTY. Proponents of…
Recognise amazing
Calling someone out for their brilliance or in recognition of their amazingness is not a frequent enough occurrence. We should all strive to point out a huge effort, to give credit when and where credit…
Juggling
The ability to juggle is said to make you smarter, more attentive and agile. I wonder whether juggling the responsibilities of life counts… We all have so much going on that juggling competing priorities, things…
Φασούλι φασούλι
‘Φασούλι φασούλι γεμίζει το σάκούλι’ – and in English: ‘fasouly fasouly yemizy to sakouly‘ translated from Greek means ‘bean by bean fills the sack’. Growing up I remember hearing this phrase bandied around quite often both in relation to…
The Estyn Curve
The theory illustrated in the Estyn Curve was developed by a small group of undergraduates (including yours truly and a guy named Estyn who’s idea it was in the first place) whilst procrastinating instead of…
This is water
There are so many people going places; doing things; always in each other’s way all at the same time. Everyone is in a rush operating in some sort of vacuum, oblivious to their surrounds. If…
Meandering Mondays VII
Happy Monday! Australia is a vast country mainly of deserts and rocks… ULURU This had to be portrayed in colour…for obvious reasons. It’s a sacred place to indigenous Australians but if you’ve ever been you’ll…
Mastering
Getting to know something like the back of your hand takes time, dedication, commitment and above all sacrifice. To master an art is to choose this art over all others. Most fall into vocations that…
You are my everything
Life without you is unimaginable. You are the beating heart of my life. You are determined and energetic. You are my exhaustion and exhilaration. Don’t ever stop exploring. Don’t ever stop learning. Don’t stop pushing…
Contentment
Contentment is a word often used out of context. It has the connotation of being mediocre and settling for whatever when in fact it is the acknowledgement and satisfaction of reaching your capacity. In other…
Predictability
Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary…
Stand up
Stand up for progress. Stand up for change. Stand up to brief. Stand up to debrief. Stand up to sprint. Stand up to retrospect. Stand up to scrum. Stand up to iterate. Stand up to…