Tag: F.R.E.S.H.

Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The World, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

#Unsquirrel 6: I Come Back Sounding Strange Even To Myself

ThisMuchWeKnow

Travel remains a journey into whatever we can’t explain, or explain away…I know in my own case that a trip has really been successful if I come back sounding strange even to myself; if, in some sense, I never come back at all, but remain up at night unsettled by what I’ve seen. –          Pico Iyer, “The Place Across The Mountains” in Sun After Dark. I am not sure of the ratio, but let’s say it is 1000:1. One thousand pieces of data and knowledge wash over me; but one of those pieces changes something. Maybe not everything – though … Continue reading #Unsquirrel 6: I Come Back Sounding Strange Even To Myself

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#Unsquirrel 3: Morphing Is The Canadian M.O.

ThisMuchWeKnow

“Canada is a land of multiple borderlines, psychic, social, and geographic. Canadians live at the interface where opposites clash. We have, therefore, no recognizable identity, and are suspicious of those who think they have.” –          Marshall McLuhan Morphing is [Canada’s] modus operandi…states the anonymous article. Hear, hear. In an age of constant change, such a situation – perhaps, once, a weakness – is a +1. Those with an identifiable identity will increasingly scurry to update their status and bemoan the[ir] stupidity of youth. Newer nations, unencumbered by layer after layer of history – like Canada –  will be ahead of … Continue reading #Unsquirrel 3: Morphing Is The Canadian M.O.

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#Unsquirrel 2: The Fruits Of Idleness

ThisMuchWeKnow

Dang! I should unsquirrel to myself a bit more often. Here I was, on the last day of 2013, writing about flanerie: How could it be that this word, this idea, this approach to life has passed me by all these years?!… it’s a flâneur’s life for me. And yet, all along, squirreled away, hidden, I had this nugget from printed publication unknown, from the German Marxist commentator Walter Benjamin (from The Arcades Project): Basic to flanerie, among other things, is the idea that the fruits of idleness are more precious than the fruits of labour. Amidst the existential angst of … Continue reading #Unsquirrel 2: The Fruits Of Idleness

Social Business, Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The World, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

#Unsquirrel 1: Concerning Owls

ThisMuchWeKnow

From The Natural History of Iceland (1758):  The entirety of Chapter XLII, “Concerning Owls.” There are no owls of any kind in the whole island. Sometimes, we need to waste a little energy to move forward. Not everything we share MUST add value. This is a huge get over it! requirement for 80%(?) of us. The very act of sharing, of working out loud, of considering “Maybe, just maybe, someone out there in my community might find value from my knowledge, data, content” – this is the critical transition from ‘Who knows?” to “Who knew!” ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading #Unsquirrel 1: Concerning Owls

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Explicit! I Have A Need To Share… #Unsquirrel

ThisMuchWeKnow

It is maybe not as exciting as it sounds – apologies – but there is a de facto expectation in the new world order of networks and social business that we make explicit our knowledge, that we unsquirrel our thoughts and understanding, that we attempt to reach and join new communities of learning. So, I have been looking through old papers, at scraps of data I saved for some reason – unknown at the time, but meaningful enough to squirrel away – to physically tear out and put in a folder (very c.20, I know). Over the next few days … Continue reading Explicit! I Have A Need To Share… #Unsquirrel

Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The World3 Comments

When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Flâneur

ThisMuchWeKnow

How could it be that this word, this idea, this approach to life has passed me by all these years?! Fuck fireman, astronaut or Prime Minister, a flâneur is who I want to be, it’s a flâneur’s life for me. Of course, wikipedia has all the details. It is long, sumptuous, beguiling: a literary type from 19th century France…[i]t carried a set of rich associations: the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street. Susan Sontag describes the photographer / flâneur as an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers … Continue reading When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Flâneur

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How BrandBoards Help You Say: “This Is How I Make The Difference.”

ThisMuchWeKnow

We are always tinkering with the personal branding process at TMWK, trying to work out how to leverage cool inputs (“Snakes!”) and unexpected syntheses (“Heart brand!”) to drive epiphanies that make people more successful in their lives. My instinct is to limit the focus to our professional lives, but my experience is different. Talking with my wife about my BrandBoard was a most illuminating conversation about how she sees me; and uncovered things she didn’t know about me, given the work-home divide that occurs when you have two kids demanding your attention at the end of the day. The BrandBoard … Continue reading How BrandBoards Help You Say: “This Is How I Make The Difference.”

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Insight > Efficiency

ThisMuchWeKnow

Following on from yesterday’s post on (traditional) organizational distaste for insight, I see correlation from a Nilofer Merchant post on twitter: https://twitter.com/nilofer/statuses/385479893997219841 Insight is game-changing. It is not about more of / less of the same. It is about a new beginning. ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading Insight > Efficiency

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My Personal Brand: Revisited. Being The Best In The World At *THIS*

ThisMuchWeKnow

It is time to revisit my personal brand.  We have been developing the personal branding system to fully synthesize the input elements and to get to the brand essence. The BrandBoards have been redesigned to better illustrate this. What is that essence? A bit of Head – Heart – Hand. Usually, people have a brand essence clearly in one of the HHH camps. This is good news. Here is where you make the biggest difference; how you show up BIG. Mine, very clearly, is a HEAD brand. I do my best work by thinking; intellectualizing. It does mean I cannot … Continue reading My Personal Brand: Revisited. Being The Best In The World At *THIS*

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Won’t You Entertain Me?

ThisMuchWeKnow

According to an AdAge article, digital natives switch media venues 27 times an hour during non-working hours. This translates to an attention span of lasting 130 seconds. Yowser! As a digital immigrant, I was thinking how crazy it is to be a digital native and the schizophrenia it must cause – then I read that we ‘immigrants’ change media 17 times an hour. Crikey. Apparently, “What they (natives) are looking for is engaging content, and they dismiss so much stuff.” They are less inclined to adhere to the traditional beginning-middle-end mode of consuming content. They demand more. As communicators, as … Continue reading Won’t You Entertain Me?

Personal Branding, Story + Narrative, The Future of Work1 Comment

#WorkHacks – Put Yourself First

ThisMuchWeKnow

The change agent extraordinaire  Joachim Stroh shared this beautiful, evocative graphic, saying: “It’s about you, but you’re not the only bee in the hive; the further you expand the more you grow. Putting yourself first is not about ego, not about me-me-me. No. It is about moving out into the world with conviction and self-awareness, to confirm to others ‘This is how I add value.’ Indeed, success for most of us comes not from individual brilliance, but from moving within, and asking help from, a community of supporters: “… individual expertise did not distinguish people as high performers. What distinguished high … Continue reading #WorkHacks – Put Yourself First

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Oh Dear. Anagram of Kindergarten = Entering Dark

ThisMuchWeKnow

My eldest daughter Lola started school this week. This is how she felt about it. You might also sense the excitement of my 2-year old Zoe, by wearing her back pack, of wanting to go to school NOW. Maternelle https://t.co/BzrAF45QUS — Jonathan Anthony (@ThisMuchWeKnow) September 4, 2013 I am a firm believer that the curious will inherit the world; but also that school seems to prepare people for the end of the 19th century. So, here is my question: how long will it take for school to suck the life force out of her? An anagram of kindergarten is entering … Continue reading Oh Dear. Anagram of Kindergarten = Entering Dark