NJ's Blog

Making the move.

There hasn't been much action over here for months now, so I thought I'd reinvigorate my blogging by making a move over to Wordpress. Take a peek over here. One new post already up, many more to come... 

(PS: this means you can officially delete this blog from your reader if you haven't already. Just make sure to add the new one while you're at it!) 

Let that fire burn.

"What we find in books is like the fire in our hearth. We fetch it from our neighbours, we kindle it at home, we communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all." 

- Voltaire in lettres philosophiques' (1733) 

Image by dazeychic

Start small.

From the musings of Tim Ferriss: 

Today is a special day: Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus is visiting the KaosPilots. 

He sits quietly at the front of the room under the banner with the playful KaosPilots logo and invites questions from the students. He's so down-to-earth, honest, matter-of-fact, and authentic that it takes only a few awkward opening questions from the slightly awed students before they forget that the man dressed in his signature Bangladeshi vest is the founder of the Grameen Bank and a genuine Nobel laureate. Yunus goes around the circle inviting each student to ask a question. Finally, one student asks the question that many have been thinking. 

"There's so many things that concern me, so many problems that need working on," she says. "I don't know where to start. Global warming, poverty, AIDS. Where do you think I should start?" 

It's the question of a generation that genuinely wants to change the world. But in a world that needs so much changing, the biggest problem is getting started. 

Yunus' answer is simple, direct, and practical. 

"Start with whatever is right in front of you," he advises. "Start with whatever is within your reach. That's how I got started. With one woman who needed a little bit of money to get out from underneath a loan shark." 

Muhammad Yunus didn't set out from home one morning with the goal of ending poverty in Bangladesh or raising tens of millions of people around the world out of poverty. He wasn't thinking about starting a bank or a social movement. He certainly wasn't game-planning how to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He saw a woman in a village who needed help and, as he told the students in Stockholm, "I could not not help her." 

Start small. Do what you can with something you care about so deeply that you simply can't not do it. Stay focused, close to the ground, rooted in everyday reality. Trust your instincts and your eyes: do wat needs doing any way you can, whether the experts agree or not. Put practice ahead of theory and results ahead of conventional wisdom. If it works, keep doing it. If it doesn't work, change what you're doing until you find something that does work. 

Start small, start with whatever is close at hand, start with something you care deeply about. But as Muhammad Yunus told the KaosPilots, start. 

Picture This

I am fantastically obsessed with great design. I’m not a designer by any means, but I’ve come to realize that the ability to put together fantastic visual communication tools can now be a reality for us all. Actually, let me correct myself: it's an absolute necessity for us all. 

Whether you’re putting together a presentation, building a chart or graph, or trying to pitch a concept to a manager or client, your communications can drastically improve with the use of some basic visualization concepts. 

Quite conveniently, I just put together this list of my favourite presentation/visualization resources for a friend and colleague of mine. Yes I realize that there are a LOT of links and that some of these you’ve likely heard of, but hopefully you can find a new gem or two in here!

• Duarte Design blog, headed by Nancy Duarte who wrote slide:ology. Duarte was contracted to revamp all of the TED presentations this year and they wrote a post with their tips from TED here. They also have a list of recommended books, many of which I'd also highly recommend (as you'll see below...).
• Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam. Very practical and a fun, easy read. His blog is here.
• Gene Zelazny, ex-McKinsey guy who invented the powerpoint slide, has written a number of great books on presentations and slide design. I’ve used both Say It With Charts and Say It With Presentations extensively as training tools and I would highly recommend both. 
• Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds: phenomenal book + phenomenal blog. 
• David Armano put together a powerpoint on Thinking Visually. Some good tips/concepts. I'm a keener for his blog too.
• Harvard offers a data visualization class and posts all of its course materials here. 
• Swissmiss is an all-star with a blog full of tips, resource recommendations, and samples of great design. Highly recommended as well. 
• Flowing Data has some fascinating examples of data visualization which I believe very clearly demonstrate the value in effective communications, especially in presenting data and helping people understand concepts.  

And a little extra to help you get through all of this: 10 days to faster reading by Abby Marks Beale & Roxy Allen.

Happy visualizing! 

What's your rush?

As an "unemployed" (I love this term!) recent graduate, I’ve been talking to a lot of people about my “plans” lately. Actually, it's more like the impatient search for what my plans should be. 

“Don’t worry. You’re still young. You have lots of time!”

Yes, it is true that I am still young. The ripe old age of 22 to be exact. And if my family genes remain strong, I’ll probably live until I’m 94, giving me 72 more years barring any major accident or illness. 72 years to get "there", but I’m still in a rush to figure it all out.

It’s a common theme with my fellow Gen Y friends too. We have high expectations for ourselves and we want to make an impact. We can Google the answer for almost anything, so when it comes to our life plans, we want to know what’s in store and how we can get there the fastest. We want to know the answers and we want to know them now. 

Now, I am definitely one to take my day off to go to the beach if the sun is shining, or to drag on coffee chats with friends for hours and hours. I take the time to smell the flowers as much as I can because I believe that it is important to take every day as if it were my last – the exact same reason why I’m in such a rush.

I was reading the 37 Signals blog the other week and came across a very intriguing thought. David said, “I remember waking up [one] day long ago and thinking ‘the world would have been no different if I had not been here the past six months’. That’s a terrible feeling of regret.”

My belief is that while we’re here, we absolutely must make the most of it. Our last day could be today, tomorrow or 72 years from now. Who knows what happens after we pass or if anything happens at all. What I do know is that if today were my last day, I would be in a rush, so why wouldn't I live it up today? If there is something that I want to do in my life, why not do it today? Why would I live with that dreaded regret? 

What do I want to do in my life? What's my rush? I want to be a great daughter, sister and friend. I want to soak up the sun, feel great and be thankful for every day. I want to have fun, eat delicious food and drink fantastic wine. I want to know that the world will be a little better by the time I leave and I'm in a rush to figure out how I can make the greatest impact possible while I'm here. 

What you do today matters far more than what you plan to do tomorrow. What’s your rush?

Do as I do.

It's how we learned as kids. We watched our parents walk, and then we took our first step. We listened to them talk, and then we said our first word.

It is all too natural for us to learn from others and to adjust to our environments. Even 20, 30 and 40 years later, we still naturally do as others do.

Don't believe me? Do you find you dress differently in different settings? Do you find you act differently with different friends? Do you act different in MacDonalds than you do at the finest restaurant in town?

Our environments have a HUGE influence on our attitudes, our worldviews and ultimately, our actions. 

Take a serious assessment of what your surroundings are today. Where do you spend most of your time? What colour is the room? Do you take the time to walk outside or are you stuck in your desk? Who do you talk to the most in a day? Is she a happy person, a sad person, an idealistic person, a creative person? What do they do all day? What do they wear?

You are your environment. Please choose it wisely.

A Tribute to TED

As most of you (should) know, TED 2009 is happening this week at Long Beach. I am absolutely loving that I have all the free time in the world to be following the minute by minute coverage and since I know not everyone has the luxury to sit around and follow TED all day, I thought I would share some of the highlights and the best coverage with you in case you have a spare minute or hour to check in yourself.

The First Video Posted!

On Wednesday, Bill Gates gave a fantastic presentation in which he offered two potential answers to the following two important questions:

1. How do we stop a deadly disease that's spread by mosquitoes?

2. How do you make a teacher great?

... and yes, he does release a jar of mosquitoes into the crowd!

Announcing the TED Fellows

Wednesday was also the announcement of the TED Fellows program, which "is designed to bring together young world-changers and trailblazers who have shown unusual accomplishment and exceptional courage." They are looking for 50 remarkable individuals who have done remarkable things to attend one of the TED conferences, all expenses paid. If you are amazing (which I'm sure you are), I encourage you to please check out the program.

TED Prize Wishes Unveiled

Then last night, the TED Prize was given out to three incredible individuals. What is the TED Prize?

"The TED Prize is designed to leverage the TED community’s exceptional array of talent and resources. It is awarded annually to three exceptional individuals who each receive $100,000 and, much more important, the granting of “One Wish to Change the World.” After several months of preparation, they unveil their wish at an award ceremony held during the TED Conference. These wishes have led to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact."

While their videos aren't posted yet, the winners and their wishes are below. You can also hear more about the needs, the plan or the individual or you can offer help by clicking on their names below.

• Sylvia Earle: “I wish you would use all means at your disposal -- films! expeditions! the web! more! -- to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.”

• Jill Tarter: “I wish that you would empower Earthlings everywhere to become active participants in the ultimate search for cosmic company.”

• Jose Abreu: “I wish you would help create and document a special training program for at least 50 gifted young musicians, passionate for their art and for social justice, and dedicated to developing El Sistema in the US and in other countries.”

Continuous Coverage...

Although there are only two days left in the conference, there is sure to be many more incredible things to come and you check out some of the below links for some great coverage:

• Start at the TED 2009: The Great Unveiling home page for live coverage.

• You can also check out the Official TED Blog although most of the TED Blog posts come from Ethan Zuckerman's Blog).

• Loic Le Meur has some great interviews with Tim O'Reilly, Seth Godin and more.

• You can get second-by-second coverage on the TED Tweet Grid or if the TweetGrid is too much for you, my favourite Twitter reporters have been:

• Tim O'Reilly
• Austin Hill
• Maria Popova
• TED Tweets

And if you'd like to check out some past TED talks, check out my old Top 10 favourites (this list will be updated VERY soon!) or go on to the TED website yourself for an archive of 378 videos, which is also updated with a new video daily.

The End or a Fresh Start?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had a number of friends come up to me and say: “I read your post on NYC and I’m so sorry! I know you are trying to be positive about it, but I know that that must have been heartbreaking. Are you seriously okay?”

Well yes, of course I was sad and disappointed and frustrated. I did truly want to move to NYC and work with some incredible people to make amazing things happen. I did everything I could to get there, but somehow, it all fell through in the end.

Now, I’ve also had some other friends who recently lost their jobs in company layoffs or received a rejection letter from their dream graduate program. I know of people who are dealing with disease, who have recently lost a family member, who are struggling with feeding their children every day. I know of a lot of people who are going through unfathomably tough times right now.

By no means am I saying that our individual problems aren't difficult and that we should just brush them off, because of course they are individually devastating and we have to deal with them in our own ways on our own time.

What I am saying though is that if you are going through a tough time and feel as though you have no control, remember that you can do something now. You have no chance of changing the past, but you do have an enormous opportunity ahead of you: the future.

I went to a session last night hosted by BC Business Magazine on Doing Business in Tough Times and the keynote speaker, Peter Legge, had a great quote:

“Something terrible happens when you don’t take action: NOTHING.”

Then Joe Segal, who is the founder of a company which became the largest shareholder in the Hudson’s Bay Company, said:

“it’s not the end of the world - it’s a new era.”

Finally, I know this video has been spreading around like wildfire lately, but I believe it is worth posting again in case there is someone out there who hasn’t heard of Nick Vujicic, who says:

“it’s not the end until you give up.”

So yes, spend the time to cry, to think, to hang around your house and watch TV and eat junk food for a couple days; your body and mind probably need it. But when you are starting to feel anxious and don’t know what to do, just go do something. Attend a workshop. Meet a friend for coffee. Read a book or two or three. Watch a foreign film. Write out your thoughts and ideas. Volunteer for a day. Go for a walk. Do it like Nike and just do it. Just do something. These small steps won't solve your problems, but they may give you a change in perspective or a brilliant new insight to get you on your way. And if not today, when?

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."

- M. Scott Peck  (Thanks for sending me this, CLowe!)

Be a Warrior

A little piece of wisdom from that legendary libertine, Don Juan:

"The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything either as a blessing or a curse."

- In Carlos Castaneda's Tales of Power

Fountains, irrepressible dreams and a slide show.

"Now that I'm giving speeches at conferences like TED, I was put on the board of [a museum] and at a reception in their courtyard, I noticed that they had a fountain because they think that the people who go to the museum deserve a fountain.

"Well I think that welfare mothers and at-risk kids and ex-steel workers deserve a fountain in their life, and so the first thing that you see at my centre (a vocational institute in Pittsburgh) is [a fountain} because it sets an attitude and an expectation about how you feel about people.

"If you want to involve yourselves in the life of people who have been given up on, you have to look like the solution and not the problem."

- Bill Strickland at TED 2002