🖋️ LongForm
A Public Announcement
Nobody else will even notice - much less care - about my achievement today, but gosh darn - it needs to be recognized. So this is …
A Public Announcement
Today I fixed the CSS on my MicroBlog so that the video container when looked at on a phone is now fixed and no longer runs off the screen.
AND no Google or ChatGPT in the loop …
AND I have had this in the back of my mind since March 27th, and was ignoring it in the hope it would just go away …
AND I have held off doing it because - well I ‘know’ me …
AND In the end it only took 5 minutes.
I am so utterly gobsmacked that I am going to have to lie down for the rest of the day.
🎥 The Gentlemen, 2019 - ★★★★
Watching the spin off show recently reminded me that I hadn't reviewed this - which I watched only this past Christmas. I like most of Ritchie's movies - this was no exception. I like most McConaughey work - this was no exception. And - DEFINITELY better than the spin off series.
🎥 The Beautiful Game, 2024 - ★★★★
One of those 'little' movies that just hits the spot and then there is 'Bill' - so really, what is not to love.
Turns out there is a soccer competition for Homeless people around the world - and this release sees to be synched with the first annual competiton since before COVID. (If I read right.)
Homeless People - Soccer - Movie - Awareness .....
I watched a lovely little movie last night - fresh out on Netflix with Bill Nighy in the lead role.
Great movie? Not at all. Just one of those lovely little movies that I happen to enjoy - and seemingly that Bill happens to enjoy making.
Anyway - it got me to wondering. Is there really a soccer World Cup for homeless people? Turns out yes - yes there is …
The Real Story Behind The Beautiful Game
Member Countries — Homeless World Cup
I am part of a burgeoning collective that is out there and can be found - but we aren’t yet promoting. Homelessness is one of the threads running through the collective. I haven’t heard talk of this particular event - BUT - I am going to post this post into the timeless space and see what I can find.
Want to know more about that collective and what we are doing - Let Me Know
🎈091/366 - It's Historical ...
🖇️ After this .. another one from May last year. This one wasn’t as ‘finished, so tweaked a bit for clarity.
Separate question - what was going on in my life in May last year?
Just off a loooong web session with 50 or 60 very wise people talking about AI and ESG. Specifically ‘The Future of Sustainable Decisions in the Boardroom.’ Great session, and they are regular sessions, so ping me if you would like to join the next one.
It came up, so I will report … though I have said this before AND I am going to keep saying it in different ways.
AI used to be about being the best. If the chess program couldn’t beat a grand master then clearly it wasn’t very good. And then it was - so then they said what about ‘GO’ … it never won - and then it did. Clearly AI doesn’t work - until it does.
But this stuff is new.
Yes - it doesn’t write like Stephen King or paint like Monet .. but most of us don’t and …
AND that’s not the point.
The point is that it can write better than the average person.
So (to begin with ) only the below average people will be replaced.
Problem 1 - ask anyone how good they are at anything - they will ‘generally’ see themselves as ‘better than average’.
Problem 2 - statistically - 50% of those people are wrong.
Problem 3 - a substantial part of the population can’t see it coming.
This video is more recent and is an ad - been circulating in places like the book of faces - but makes for a good two minute watch and relates.
From The Annals Of History
Tucked away in Obsidian I came across some files that had found their way to the repository. This on in particular caught my eye. It is dated May last year. (which would put me in Palm Desert, if that provides any context?)
Posting it now - as rediscovered.
Sorry … no photo. I hope you understand and no judgement.
Male, not a big man, but neither petite … sporting blue lipstick.
Back and sides of head razor shaved.
Pony tail sprouting vertically from the middle of the top of the head.
Pink framed mirrored sunglasses.
50s style flowered house coat.
Thick woolen socks and ‘working’ boots.
This the haute couture for one customer in the local supermarket..
Customer Loyalty Means NOTHING To Nord.
I used NordVPN for around 5 years. My subscription was up for renewal. Their charges seemed to be on the high side, so I had a look around and landed at Proton at the recommendation of a microblogger (sorry - can’t recall who) - signed up and very happy.
Since Nord lost my business, they keep sending me emails and almost every time the price goes down again.
This price is less than I was paying before and definitely less than I am paying Proton - BUT - had they given me a loyal customer - this price from the beginning I would never have looked around.
Instead it seems loyalty is worth nothing - only ‘new’ customers deserve a ‘good’ price.
Sticking with Proton.
🎈080/366
A truly excellent letter - read by Stephen Fry, written by Nick Cave.
📼 🔗 Just in case you think AI is going to take / has taken over the world.
🎈055/366 | 🤦♂️ Gah and Double Gah.
🚧
Gah!
That moment you realize that you should have paid more attention to that message about your phone account needing ‘topping up’.
The exact moment?
When your Internet service breaks.
🎈052/366 | 🎩 Someone Will Be Unhappy Today
Someone is going to be unhappy this morning. 🥺
🎈049/366 | ⚽️ Football
Caveat ‘Navigation is 🚧’
I don’t know which I am more amazed by.
That I was half way up a hill looking down on this beach over the weekend and mesmerized by these 4 guys kicking a ball between themselves for close to a couple of hours in pretty intense sun. It was truly amazing - just gentle self control of moving a ball between them - you gotta know that i am no football fan - but they had me.
OR
That being half way up that hill my 5 year old iPhone recorded a video of them - which I then cropped to focus just on the game and it’s ‘just there’.
Who needs a new iPhone? Really.
Click on the green arrow to watch the video.
)
🎈041/366 Too Hard
I think 41 marks the point where I have to accept that the 366 format is too hard and intensive to manage. So this is where we are headed … wherever ‘this’ is. As I type this into the 41st entry it is actually day 80! I have had too much going on - so have been just dropping markers. I needed to make it easier. I have made it easier.
Gone - the little emojis in the title - I mean sometimes they didn’t work anyway!
Gone - that fancy last / next navigation.
Gone - always having a big picture.
Don’t get me wrong - they will appear - just not going to force it.
🎈040/366 | 🇫🇷 The 9th Arrondissement
… it’s also February 9th .
Stretching?
All Change? More Of The Same?
Life can move slowly.
But then it doesn’t.
Case in point …. or is it?
🔗 Me on LinkedIN 12th December 2023
Resignation 14 December 2023
🔗 Business Desk Reporting 19th December 2023
Good result?
It’s a start.
Then we learn that the new chair is Jenifer Kerr - wait, she’s the chair of NZTE.
Indeed she is.
We now have one person chairing NZTE and Callaghan - thought the profiles are slightly different. (I wonder why?)
NZTE
Jennifer has extensive governance experience, both in New Zealand and overseas. Her current positions include chair of Worksfe, deputy chair of Callaghan Innovation, a director of Eke Panuku Development Auckland and Waipa Networks, and member of New Zealand Police’s Audit and Risk Committee. Former governance roles include director of New Zealand Rugby and Counties Manukau Rugby Union. Previously, Jennifer has been general manager of customers, people and environment at Transpower, former group director of human resources and health and safety at Fonterra, and group manager of human resources for Mobil Oil for all of Europe. She has run her own consultancy and has strong experience in organisational strategy, chief executive recruitment and succession, executive remuneration and stakeholder relationships. Jennifer is a member of Global Women and has degrees in arts and social sciences from the University of Waikato. She is of Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama descent.
Callaghan
Jennifer Kerr has extensive international experience in the HR and health, safety and wellbeing sectors in North America, Europe, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. She was formerly General Manager of Customers, People and Environment at Transpower and Group Director Human Resources and Health & Safety at Fonterra. She has also operated her own consultancy business, and prior to that was the Group Manager of Human Resources for Mobil Oil for all of Europe. Jennifer has governance experience in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, including pension plan trustee roles in both countries. Jennifer is a member of New Zealand Global Women and has taken an active role during her career in mentoring and coaching other women to achieve their potential. She is of Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama descent.
One observation - nowhere in either of those bios is there a mention of anything to do with ‘RandD’, ‘Innovation’ ‘Tech’ and all the various off shoots and things that those two orgizations are there for. I guess it is clear what the focus is.
And maybe something else ..
Ever since I arrived in NZ I have been amazed by the sheer number of governmental organizations that float around the country ‘doing’ ‘things’. It’s a country of 5 million people. These are the organizations I have identified so far that brave entrepreneurs navigate for help.
- Callaghan Innovation
- NZTE
- NZGCP
- MBIE
- NZGIF
- KiwiNet
- AUT
… not to mention the ‘chambers’ and ‘ema’ and ‘business nz’ and ‘eda’s’ and ‘incubators’ and ‘accelerators’ and … (thankyou Andy)
Here’s the question - as the new administration start implementing their plan - how many closures and/or mergers should we expect?
What do you think?
And is Callaghan and NZTE first?
🎈039/366 | ⏪ The Reverse Network Effect
Back in the day a technological marvel such as this would cost you hundred and hundreds of dollars. (No joking kids). Of course the number of people you could communicate using such a device - back in the day - could be counted in the millions. So $10 does sound like a bargain, except.
Back in the Day - the cost to connection ratio was very, very small.
For example and being conservative and for the sake of round numbers …
Cost : $1000
Number of People You Can Connect To : 10,000,000
Cost to Connection Ratio : $0.0001
Today’s numbers … with the same simplicity assumptions;
Cost : $10
Number of People You Can Connect To : 10
Cost to Connection Ratio : $1
Now THAT is inflation … not to mention that back in the day the Network effect meant that you cut per connection was falling daily., whilst today, growing exponentially.
🎈038/366 | 🚇 A Stack Of Subs ❓
.. no, not exactly. Not a submarine - a sub .. like a subway?
A Train Station?
🤦♂️
Oh no. Not a ‘Subway’ … A ‘Subway sandwich’.
In fact make it a stack.
That’s right …A ‘stack of subs’.
🎈037/366 | 🔁 Serendipity
Is it catching❓Or is it just plain old serendipity❓
It was January 1st when I had the idea for the 366 series. It wasn’t fully formed, but I had to start. And, as the posts started to happen over the next few days, there were different ideas and formats running around in my head and being tried out. With the layouts, every time I locked down on a new one - I went back to the older 366 posts and adjusted. (Not the post itself - the layout.) I have never been diagnosed with OCD, but I have my suspicions.
It has now all settled down, a flow has been building, so much so that I have topics in my head that are maybe a week out.
The trouble is that some of the topics are big, and I know I don’t have time on that day and some get really big so have to flag with 🚧 - my signal that I will be coming back.
🖇️ Like this one for example, which I flagged with the emoji - but I know there is so much more to say that I even added words for more context.
Let Me Explain
I happen to share 366 posts into specific, yet different communities to solicit feedback. 🖇️ This one for example, has spawned comments applying the thinking to a game, which then moved on to applying that game to corporate workshops. Which is just brilliant really. No idea if any of that will take off - we will have to see .. I just like the idea that
- a post on LinkedIN by someone I do not know resulted in
- a comment from someone I do know that caused me to
- write a post about how that triggered a connection to something that I bang on and on about which meant I had to
- find that original post so I could share that, so it made sense
- which then made the 2nd person in the chain seek to clarify the idea I was spouting
- which I confirmed that it was indeed
- so he then took that and suggested that a game could be developed around the process, to which I said
- or maybe turn it into a framework for Corporate Workshops and ….
… and that’s where we have got to so far. In amongst all of that I have some actions I need to do to close some loops - but it’s all because of the serendipity of the different people coming together in this chain of thinking. #Awesome
But - and here’s the weird part … this wasn’t the serendipitous event that I was referencing when I first ideated the theme of this post. Not at all.
The thread started as a simple idea that as I came up with this project - so too did Om, who I follow and read anyway - but within his ‘river’, he has a sub-theme called 🔗 Project 36
I don’t really follow his photos (though they are really rather good), and I became aware of it because of 🔗this post on his blog, which ends with these words …
They really resonated with me. ()Om often does) and on the 3rd🖇️ January I linked to his New Years message because those words there in my mind right at that point because just three days in I was already feeling the enormity of what I had challenged myself to deliver, daily.
I also have a couple of posts in the 366 series that are very short - to maintain the flow - but they don’t take much time. Like🖇️ this one from the 28th January - it’s a quick photo!
But there’s more. fellow MicroBlogger 🔗 TeeJay seems to have also latched on to the one a day post. In his case - every single day he is putting a lovely image that he takes on that day.
Turns out - for him it is not a new idea. 🔗As his new year post points out. and now his daily photo comes into my RSS feed each and every day - reminding me to stay the course.
And to tie it all back. This whole post was one of those quick throwaways. I had the idea for a ‘serendipity’ post when I had seen Om and Teejay - it was up my sleeve to write it when I was short of time. Like today.
Short of time? What the hell happened?
The observant amongst you will have spotted that an ‘eye candy’ image accompanies every post. In this case, I wrote my two lines and hopped over to Leonardo to generate my image.
This was the first image to come out …
Seriously? Cubes? After just writing a a long post that featured a cube. Is Leonardo watching me? Of course I had to connect those dots and unpack that serendipity.
And with that … done. Time to post. A quick check reveals the word count to be roughly 100 times my original target. I know I am hitting the send button with the post not fully proofed, which is why 🚧 is at the top.
I will come back later to make whatever inevitable fixes I will need to do. For now though … I feel I have rambled to the end of this garden path and I can sense it has come around full circle back to where it all started.
If you are still with me. Thankyou for seeing it through.
🎈036/366 | 🔁 36 36
I mean you could see this as a filler - but it couldn’t be a filler tomorrow. Could it?
And yes .. a very early post .. time is that short today.
🎈035/366 | 🧊 TL;DR | VL;MR
This is published - but let me emphasize, most definitely a WIP. Hoping to get feedback from a few select people, not to say that I too am noodling more. I will return.
🚧
Out in the wild - and really - these days what else would you call ‘LinkedIN’, I 🔗 read a post by 🔗 Tim Parsons that had garnered a few comments. It was touching on a pet peeve of mine, despite TL;DR being a technique I use from time to time.
This was the essence;
Sometimes it just can’t be any shorter and still be useful. Some lynchpin bit of data or context would have to be sacrificed, a risk go unnamed, a requirement remain unidentified.
Sometimes information exchange has to include all the information AND the meta data it needs to build a bridge from you to me.
Sometimes “Too Long; Didn’t Read” is a terrible risk/reward proposition, and you have to go all the way to “Very Long; Must Read.”
When everything extra has been distilled out, but there’s still a lot there, that’s a sign of something complex enough to be fascinating, or at least full of critical, decision-influencing intel.
He ended his post with a reference back to the source.
I remember 🔗 Marjorie Anderson activating that thought in my head weeks ago, and now it won’t leave.
This resonated ….
Sometimes TL;DR simply must yield to VL;MR
Which got me to thinking.
You know how I am with that word … ‘content’.
To remind from one of many posts on the topic - just on this blog ….
As long as ‘we the creators’ keep using low cost, homogenous, non-descript words like ‘content’ to describe our work, our soul, our passion, our beliefs then our work will continue to be viewed as ‘free - to - cheap - to - low - cost’, ‘homogenized, non differentiated, interchangeable fodder’ (which coincidentally is what silos have always been used for), then, we only have ourselves to blame as the resultant payment for our art, our thinking and our ideas, will continue to race to the bottom.
And whilst on the topic of silos ….
You should never … ever … trust a Silo. It’s theirs. The stuff you put there is theirs. Even our' handle is actually ‘theirs’.
All this and more can be found in an earlier post here : 🖇️ Friends Don’t Let Friends Write Content
And it is not just me …
Just today
and last year .. Dana Carvey and Will Arnett brought it up (listen it’s a one minute snipped) on the Smartless podcast.
Anyway, with that all said … ‘set up’ done … ✅
So What?
It struck me that ‘TL;DR | VL;MR’ is the second axis I have been looking for in my one man war on ‘content’. So I drew the picture.
‘content | material ' on the x axis and ‘TL;DR | VL;MR’ on the y axis - and I was left with ‘Yeah .. so what?
The ‘so what’ was because I realized that it was missing the third axis …‘Entertainment | Understanding’
The fact is that so much that is running around the ‘interwebs’ is ‘Entertainment’. Nothing wrong with that, but VL;MR is really about Understanding.
Moreover, the front facing 4 quadrants are all about ‘Entertainment | Understanding’ and TL;DR | VL;MR - not ‘Content | Material’
So I drew it again.
The coloration isn’t quite right for all occasions, but in this particular context
- on the entertainment side - it doesn’t really matter which end of the TL;DR | VL;MR spectrum you are - a 240 character tweet can be as entertaining as a 3 hour movie or a 1,000 page book, BUT on the understanding side .. sure sometimes a pithy one liner can shed light on an issue that a three volume encyclopedia will never do. It’s also true that a very short mathematical equation is very powerful when it comes to ‘explaining’ - IF you understand the language of math(s) (I like to accommodate both sides of the Atlantic if I can), which most people do not.
But generally that is not the case, because what triggered me is that context and history and space and time and .. is needed to really bottom out ‘Understanding’
So far so good?
I added the third dimension.
And we are there … nearly.
The dimensions are right - but the colors remain at odds with my thinking. I have the image in my head plus the colors need to be fading from one color to the next - depending on the context. I am not a graphic artist … and I could draw what I am thinking … eventually … and maybe I will return to complete / correct this.
But before I do that. Make sense? See where I am coming from?