In other words : things aren't always what they seem to be. Just a thought of the day... on a Sunday evening, after spending a lovely afternoon with my daughter, creating a game out of an old MacBook Pro's extended polystyrene packing.
Yes, it's been a long time indeed and my appologies if your RSS reader just coughed-out-loud hitting, on your mouse click, the dust accumulated on this blog title for about a year. Wondering if I should consider blogging again. How about micro-blogging or else? Naaa... although I believe in simple ideas, "micro" doesn't do it all the way. I kinda miss the thinking, learning, sharing and the light coming out of the shock of ideas. So please let know if you think blogging still has a meaning while I'm collecting my good ol' colour pencils. ; )
It's been a while... I never stopped blogging for so long. There are times when your mind is looking for something... else or different. Times when thinking is not enough anymore. You see, observe, listen to the world around you and wish to take part, contribute in a different and more accurate way. As described by Jonah Lehrer in his post on meta thinking, found on Seed Magazine:
"Good judgmentis more than amatter of “gut feeling” — it’s thewillingness to reflect on the decision-making processitself".
Excellent article about metacognition, that I invite you to read. Hopefully, most of us know that it's the journey that counts, above the
destination. Being human also means keeping faith in what we believe in, up to the limits of our minds and bodies. Explore, be curious, innovate, fly. - [see above "G." stunning human film directed by J. Xavier Velasco touched me with both its form and metaphoric content]
Now, back to the Belgian actuality: Seth Godin's presence at Flanders DC on the so tweeted about "Ahead of Marketing" speech, paraphrased : "Creativity, innovation and how to market those well". I regrouped a few words of wisdom of the respected Marketing God, found on Twitter via the #godinfdc tag. Let's call them the most tweeted :
- "Be personal. Be relevant.
Be specific."
- "The old way: average
stuff for average people"
- "Scarcity of choice is
over! Be remarkable!"
- "The old marketing =
interrupt your way to success"
- "The new marketing = Ideas
that spread, win"
- "The market for something
to believe in is infinite."
- "Albert Einstein ruined the word genius"
- "Being a genius = solving a
problem like no one else has ever before"
- "Interchangeable parts
lead to interchangeable people"
- "Want to be indispensable ?
Make a difference!"
- "The reason they want you
to fit in is that once you do, they can ignore you"
- "Public school trained us
to shut up & stand still"
- "You can't blame the
system anymore. You are responsible"
- "A lizard brain is all about fear. 'Oh my God, I'm going to die' "
- "CREATE YOUR RULES!"
- "Are you afraid or are you
curious, the choice is up to you"
- "Leaders only have one
thing in common: they're leaders"
- "Teach kids two things: to
solve interesting problems and to lead"
Now, my question to you is: how would you describe these quotes? Are they new, unique ideas about the marketing of tomorrow, creativity or innovation? Things you have never heard before? (OK, besides Einstein's big genius bang and the freakin' lizards metaphors maybe) ; )
Maybe Godin created his own rules and applied what he teaches like no one else has ever done before and so, he restored the word genius from Albert Einstein to manage his meta-way through "being Seth Godin" as a diabolic -yet very admirable- money making machine (???) And in this regard, it's a fact, yes: the market seems to be infinite for someone people believe in.
I leave it up to your own judgment, really. What do you think about it? Or should I say "how" are you thinking about it? I was not there but in a way, to be honest with you, I don't have many regrets. Bird's eye view brought it's load of insights and guess what, I'll be thankful to Seth for activating this thinking. Hopefully some smart non-lizard
brains already pinned a few things out of the speech. In a way I felt a lot more connected to these Alien thoughts than to the words of wisdom themselves. Also really appreciated the brilliant angle taken by Clo Willaerts in her post on the event. It made me think about a quote I read on the Hopenhaegen site: "WHEN PEOPLE LEAD, LEADERS FOLLOW". Yep, I believe a lot more in the inspired, consciously shared, trusted, engaged, collaborative lead than in the individual performances or "power / force lead".
And if you don't mind -pardon me the expression- I can't resist sharing with you a few key paragraphs from Jonah Lehrer's article. I think they aretouching the
"HOW to fly":
"The larger point, of course, is that humans aren’t rational calculators. According to Kahneman and Tversky, when people are confronted with an uncertain situation, they don’t carefully evaluate the information, or compute the Bayesian probabilities, or do much thinking at all. Instead, their decisions depend upon a short list of emotions, instincts, and mental shortcuts. These shortcuts aren’t a faster way of doing the math; they’re a way of skipping the math altogether. So far, so bleak: The human mind is an imperfect computer, stuffed full of programming bugs. But some researchers now believe that there may be a way of avoiding such innate psychological mistakes. When we flex our metacognitive muscles and think about how we are thinking, we are able to notice when we’re thinking poorly. The end result is that we avoid those avoidable mental blunders. ... Given the distinct talents of our various cognitive styles, a willingness to think about our own thought processes and to adjust our mode of decision making to the task at hand could transform the way we use the mind. Before we do anything else, we should go meta."
...are fresh, simple things of life, driving me back to the genuine "humanfrequency" I believe in. This makes me think that the very best things are always yet to come. Anytime, anywhere. Like eyes closed with a smile on your face.
- Particularly beautiful picture uploaded by bealluc -
OMG! It's been such a long time since my last post. This blog feels dusty and I can hear the wind blowing between the posts. Those of you -the most faithful, obviously- who have been reading and following this blog for quite a while know it. It is not the first time. I... I... I am often kidnapped by offline aliens who forbid me to think, read, comment and write content... and even sometimes to tweet! Oh boy what a loop!
OK OK... Here... officially, publicly and again, I do apologize and welcome you back on this platform that I seriously plan to reactivate. Starting: NOW! - Blah... Blah... - [to be continued].
What's the point about writing a blog, reading others, commenting, contributing to social networking? Is there a link between blogging and reality? Or is it just like blowing in the wind of virtual authority, ephemeral popularity? If some of you still have these questions in a corner of their minds, here is a wonder-full (yes, full of wonders!) angle to look at it.
Yesterday, David Armano published a very touching post. He was sharing with the community that he was in contact with a family obviously going through very difficult times. Daniela (pictured above with her family - Brandon, age 6, Daniela, age 9 and little Evelyn age 4) is divorcing her spouse after years of abuse. In recent years her mortgage went unpaid and she's lost her house. As of this moment, Daniela's family is staying at David & his wife Belinda's house and they are
trying to help her find a one bedroom apartment for her family to live
in (read more about the story here).
So, for the very first time since he began blogging David raised a call for help to the community, starting from his readers to... whoever the message can be carried to. I can't help remembering one (now) famous graphic David posted back in 2006, trying to illustrate how valuable content can travel and be carried through the Influence Ripples of social networking. The ripples are indeed there through, within and sometimes way beyond the internet. Some blogger getting more influence every day, some loosing influence... some simply not caring about influence, but still "being there".
Well here is a fact : David, with his simple, genuine, authentic call dropped a tiny little stone in his blog pond. The ripples started to move, but this time something different happened. A wave jumped out of the waters and spread the social networking ocean with a self propelled very positive energy. That energy is the one making things jump from the virtual (ideas) world into reality. And in less time than it takes to realize what's happening, David raised above 10.000 USD for Daniela's family!
Well, what I'm writing here is indeed very personal... but when I see David's thank you video, it touches me. I mean, it really touches me. I think there is something greater in this film than a blogger saying "Hey guys, thanks!". The compression codec of this video is filled with sincere emotions. The common wave length is wrapped around the POSITIVE VALUES embedded into the little stone he dropped on L&E.
Thumbs up David! Thank you for the inspiration you brought to Daniela's family and to us at all at the same time. This gem is what makes me believe that there is a human treasure hidden behind this age of conversation. I trust people will get it... it's probably just a matter of time.
PS : And of course... it's not too late to participate! Just do it! : )
Today it's my friend Gavin Heaton's birthday. Please join me in wishing him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! For those of you who don't know him yet (there might be 1 or max. 2 on this planet)... just Google his name. You'll find about 29.700 results. This, because Gavin is "here" & everywhere and doesn't miss an occasion to comment on blogs, participate, support, engage conversation, all over the bloggosphere.
Above all, Gavin is my friend. A friend all could wish to have because he is a genuine, sincere, generous, authentic person. A man with a heart, that I'm honored to know and was lucky to finally meet for the first time at Blogger Social '08. Now, the world is definitely smaller and I wish I'll meet him again soon.
Or how can animated words and music carry a simple message and touch, fascinate and let's really hope... push to action. Besides a content that is by definition extremely important, I love when stories are told that way. Well, as far as I am concerned, the film... does have an effect.
"Adolescent girls are uniquely capable of raising the standard of living in the developing world. Girls are the most likely agents of change, but they are often invisible to their societies and to our media.
When everyone -girls, parents, teachers, executives, artists, hairdressers, forest rangers, rock stars, presidents, investors, advertisers, skateboarders, truckers, cowboys, organizations, chefs, teenagers- knows about The Girl Effect, then real change can happen. This site is just the beginning. The end is nothing less than ending poverty."
Heart. Not the organ pounding in your chest. But something much more precious -- a piece of our soul.
As human beings, we bond and connect because we allow ourselves to care. Care enough that we want to share a bit of our soul.
Few events trigger that desire more than someone among us is hurting deeply. There's something in our psyche that connects with the depth of those feelings and we need (because it is much more than a want) to reach out and take their hand.
For those of you who really thought I was kidnapped by Aliens when I was out of blogging for while, here is the story. As a matter of fact, I was the one trying to make contact with them. And guess what... I found them. This is quite a long story. So I made a little pdf file to summarize and share this extra-ordinary encounter with you. All I can tell you is that although they may seem scary, Aliens are very nice beings. Hopefully they were open minded, and so really appreciated the Age of Conversation. Actually, with their help now, we may even reach Gavin Heaton's secret dream... and make the incredible come true (right Drew?).
Well, I'm afraid the sky is NOT the limit anymore... so if you have not bought a copy yet, here is another reason for you to do it : it'll help you engage conversation with Aliens (how about that?) and help a good cause. Talking about Aliens, did you know that they eat tangerine (I mean, just like "us"), dream about Big Macs (they do, they do), and use Twitter (yeah, without any device, actually) to communicate? But please... know that they are not waiting for planes anymore... they use flying saucers, I mean... tractors (woops! Call me "lunatic").
PS : This picture is not a Photoshop job... my Alien friend holds a printed copy of the AoC, because at that time I had not yet received a hardback book. : )
PPS : Huge thanks to Gareth the Alien, without his passion and trust telling you this story would have never been possible. If you ever are looking for an Alien... I do recommend calling him -and unfortunately I can't show you the film we made out of this as it is not "on air" yet-
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