A person may feel free even when confined or incarcerated, and likewise imprisoned when able to roam unrestricted, owing to and owned by no one. Freedom isn’t about space or the number of options we have in any given scenario, but the control we wield in choosing...
Read MoreChanges in our digital experience have no associated ‘moment’, and so no memory is created. We don’t remember the instant we make a new digital connection (whether it’s Tinder, Facebook or LinkedIn). It happens sometime during the daily commute, or when we’re out shopping. There’s no sensory input – sight or smell or sound – so the instant cannot be recalled...
Read MoreIf you possess the self-discipline to accompany block out strategies, to draw the curtain on the beast and not be tempted to peak behind every few minutes, there are immediate ways you can withdraw from the cacophony of distraction, this digital madness...
Read MoreAutomation isn’t evil. As a precipitator of performance and efficiency, it’s the stuff of dreams. Pursuing automation blindly, however, leads us towards a cliff edge, with nothing other than manmade systems to prevent our fall. ..
Read MoreBeing human once meant living in close communities, hunting, socialising, breeding. It meant existing in tandem with the earth and nature, a close and intimate relationship that’s foreign to our modern mindset. Now, we view the natural world with scepticism. We build fences around it and place warning signs; we crop and trim its contours until it falls within our definition of safe...
Read MoreThe issue with the MVP culture, however, is exactly what it first sought to solve – the unending stream of new products introduced onto the market each year. Viable is subjective, and initial consumer enthusiasm is easier to cultivate than sustained interest and eventual product realisation...
Read MoreThose who found the concept of an automatic gear box disturbing have had scarce time to adjust; we’re already onto the next marvel in automation, and this time we’re barely involved. We’re substituting the role of master for that of watcher, even servant. With automatic cars, human presence takes a diminutive role – providing little more than context (i.e. the reason why a car drives from A to B)...
Read More1/ Empathy. 2/ Recalcitrance. 3/ Ability to live in the present. 4/ Live without distraction....
Read MoreGenerally, we’re an idealistic people. We’re inspired by the idea of the socially divergent working from humble dorm rooms and garages (modern day version of a lair), changing the world from the shadows. Spurred by Hollywood and an inveterately sensationalising media, there exists a cultural-wide love affair with the superhero narrative, attested to by the sheer number of superhero movies produced over the past decade (non-coincidentally resurgent from the 1970s and 80s). A number of factors are behind this: encroaching world wide calamity – the threat of (nuclear) war or the constant peril of terror attacks...
Read MoreAnyone that started their careers in small companies will have a solid idea of what we’re talking about. The sluggish mirroring of late 20th century business practices, whereby stringent office managers count the minutes and out-of-touch directors guide their workforce like blind guide dogs, is the bane of growth. That’s not to say such companies don’t survive – they certainly do – but only that their survival precludes the possibility of their success. Humans may live in three-foot high cubicles, but they’ll never be able to stand tall – businesses that refuse to change must also accept a low ceiling for growth...
Read MoreThe Internet is both pervasive in its application and ubiquitous in its function – having expanded to all corners of the globe, and is surely as vital to our day-to-day life as food or water. But it seems amazing that something originally intended to be a design for an information sharing network could have grown to such glorious heights, transcending all scopes of function and rapidly becoming mankind’s favourite tool for, well, just about everything...
Read MoreThe business landscape is a hunting ground. Small start-ups hungrily seek the market share of big players, whilst big players desperately look to absorb start-ups’ entrepreneurial agility. And thus traditional understandings of the employee role are slowly lost. The workers of today must be entrepreneurs, innovators and inventors, with the elusive talents and traits normally allergic to the corporate environment...
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