I’ve just finished “What to expect when no one is expecting”. Great read, mainly because it contradicts one of the central messages of the West, namely: Mamking babies is bad, selfish and evil.Its true, too many people, especially unemployed & young people, are the cause of many problems, including resource depletion and revolution. What the…
The Sharks are like Microsoft. Brute strength, no ideas.The Stormers are like Facebook. Lots of promise, no delivery.The Bulls are like apple. A religion. You don’t like it, go somewhere else.The Cheetahs are like DropBox. Everyone’s second favourite team.The Southern Kings are like Zynga. No one likes the chief.The Lions are like Instagram. Too busy thinking…
Reading the papers and watching TV, its difficult to argue the future is rosy. Here are 7 reasons to panic: The USA economy is due to crash. If it goes, we all go. Great Depression 2.0 here we come, for real. The EU is going to break up. Aside from triggering chaos in global markets,…
There is a big difference between overconfidence and confidence. The former inevitably leads to failure, loneliness and public humiliation.The latter leads to greatness.The secret to being on the right side of the equation is self-awareness. “Know thyself” and you can’t be overconfident.Which brings me to the title of this post. The infamous plague of those…
“Information flow is dependent on quality of the connection and the capacity of the sender & receiver.” Professor Cesar Hidalgo, MIT Media LabsApparently both the brain of a chimpanzee and the human brain have the same number of cells. However, a human brain has many more connections between the cells. Man’s advantage is attributable to…
I recently read that Spotify is about to launch a video streaming service and is getting into content. WTF?Have they not seen the Yahoo movie? Thanks to @downtempo for these flashbacks from the past:2008 “On the heels of Yahoo!’s better than expected earning after thee bell Tuesday, the web giant will announce a partnership later…
Many people use scenario planning as a tool for ensuring they are prepared for all eventualities. No doubt it is valuable in this manner, but there are two even bigger benefits of considering scenarios that are unthinkable:1. Losing the fear of deathIn business we mostly steer clear of consciously thinking through the consequences of total failure….
Putting the kids to bed My wife and I used to fight over who would take our daughter to bed. The loser was in for an hour of staring into space in a dark room whilst waiting for the gurgling and crying to be replaced with peaceful sleep. We still fight, but now it’s the…
Have you heard of the Barrosos Well effect? It refers to the strategy of focusing attention on areas where things are already happening spontaneously. For example: Focus your attention on an oil well that spurts into the sky with no technological assistance rather than a well that shows no such excitement.Based on this, are there…
Have you noticed how people don’t lose their cool when kept waiting? In the old days, it wouldn’t take much of a delay for your average “very important and very busy” person to get angry at unexpected delays…Now, thanks to smartphones and 3G, every idle moment is welcomed as an opportunity to catch up on…
Prof Cesar Hidalgo of MIT recently argued that a country’s level of economic complexity (and therefore wealth) is linked to its cultural complexity. By cultural complexity, he means the variety of “humanities” in a country, ie: theatre, movies, games, music, art, writing, religion, restaurants, etc.The theory goes that the reason America and France are amongst…
(tongue in cheek post)Many publications are reporting that the USA has started a global currency “war” by printing more money, thereby accelerating inflation and weakening the US Dollar, allowing for stronger exports and the reduction of its national debt in real terms.The USA is made stronger by a weaker currency.It seems the South African government…