A thoughtful book encouraging us to take a step back from the 'more, bigger, faster' world we seem to inhabit today. The book is written for individuals, leaders and organisations and develops ideas on how to improve the situation as well as uncovering the issues.
The main thrust of the book is that to operate at your very best you need periods of recovery in between bursts of high activity. This is true for mental activity as well as physical.
The idea that we have a certain capacity for avoiding temptation (or delaying gratification) and that this is consumed by every little thing we resist. So to help diet - hide the food, to avoid email interruptions turn off desktop alerts or flashing lights.
I actually tried out one idea - to turn off my email for a week whilst on holiday for 5 days. I did succeed (helped by turning off the flashing light on my PDA which is still off by the way) but in the end I still had over 300 emails to deal with, although I was more effective and efficient in dealing with them in one go.
The final chapter of the book was an interesting idea a summary of the key messages from each of the preceding 20 chapters (one summary per page)
Friday, 20 August 2010
Monday, 2 August 2010
Cognitive Surplus
This is the first of Clive Shirky's books I have read but I will definitely get his earlier Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. His style mixes insight with stories to illustrate his points.
For example this book opens with an explanation of how the gin drinking craze in the London of the 1720s was caused by cultural shift and technology and how it melted away some years later.
Overall it is a very positive book about how socially connected individuals can create seismic shift in a culture or society. How the vast amount of 'spare' cognitive resource formed from all those connected to social technology can be harnessed for good.
P38 a fascinating story of how a Korean fan club of young girls made a major change to the political elite's treatment of beef imports.
P12 another book encouraging us to look at how customers actually use or product or service rather than what they tell us they want as a source of innovation.
p72 how extrinsic rewards (money) often don't work and it is far more successful to draw on intrinsic motivations.
p78 basic rules to ensure a group can generate public or civic value (as opposed to just value for the individuals participating)
p180 real successful groups are hard work!
p186/p191 Talks about how disorientating it is to have so much content now published by new 'non professional' sources. How the best approach in this situation may well be to allow as many groups as possible to form and see what survives.
Finally p210 a salutatory point "Those responsible for solving today's problems, tend to ensure those problems persist"
For example this book opens with an explanation of how the gin drinking craze in the London of the 1720s was caused by cultural shift and technology and how it melted away some years later.
Overall it is a very positive book about how socially connected individuals can create seismic shift in a culture or society. How the vast amount of 'spare' cognitive resource formed from all those connected to social technology can be harnessed for good.
P38 a fascinating story of how a Korean fan club of young girls made a major change to the political elite's treatment of beef imports.
P12 another book encouraging us to look at how customers actually use or product or service rather than what they tell us they want as a source of innovation.
p72 how extrinsic rewards (money) often don't work and it is far more successful to draw on intrinsic motivations.
p78 basic rules to ensure a group can generate public or civic value (as opposed to just value for the individuals participating)
p180 real successful groups are hard work!
p186/p191 Talks about how disorientating it is to have so much content now published by new 'non professional' sources. How the best approach in this situation may well be to allow as many groups as possible to form and see what survives.
Finally p210 a salutatory point "Those responsible for solving today's problems, tend to ensure those problems persist"
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