onto the screen

1. Do the most important job just enough to understand what is required
2. Hire someone better than you to do that job
3. Go back to step 1

What if we didn’t identify with our jobs so much? It’s a snapshot that is supposed to represent a mixture of our talents, passions and values. But how many people feel they’ve compromised in one or more of these areas? Why don’t we start with these and find a job that fits our identity, rather than the other way round?

The immediate reaction when you hear something that conflicts with your worldview is to reject it. You say no - not because you know it’s wrong but because it doesn’t fit with your idea of how the world works.

But you change your mind after you think about it and integrate it back in to your worldview. The important point is how often you change. Too often and you’re unbelievable. Too little and you’re a fundamentalist. 

As cameras become standard in devices, surely passwords will be replaced with some kind of biometric system. But in the meantime, mnemonics do seem like the best solution. 

An alternative approach, championed by Bruce Schneier, a security guru, is to turn a sentence into a password, taking the first letter of each word and substituting numbers and punctuation marks where possible. “Too much food and wine will make you sick” thus becomes “2mf&wwmUs”. 

Read more here. 

The typical 9-to-5 working day doesn’t support flow. If you look at a lot of creative activities there are periods of intense production that surpass the length of standard business hours, interspersed with periods of rest or reflection where very little appears to get done. Yet despite our talk of flexible working conditions, we expect people to work the same fixed hours every day. Add onto that meetings and distractions from co-workers and you’ll see how ill-designed the working day is for productivity. If you’re hiring smart and motivated enough people, you don’t need to tie them down to rigid working hours - they need the flexibility to make the most of periods of flow. 

We’re turning to gaming for inspiration and direction on how to motivate and educate people. But there’s another industry that has nailed it - the advertising industry. They have the slogans, the music, the repetition of a simple message. Imagine if education was delivered with the same level of market research, focus on engagement, expertise in crafting of messages and prevalence as advertising. It would be delivered in easy-to-digest chunks, in various forms of media, and as a natural part of your day. In fact, we are currently being educated every day in nutrition, health, science and other areas. But are the big corporates the best teachers?