Let’s talk about media today. And ways to inform one’s self. A few weeks ago, I saw this pictures. Spot on. Since then, it is festering in my brain. The amount of info put out on the Internet each day is staggering. Millions of new posts every day. What do we do? We binge. We infobinge. Like food, we swallow tons of articles, that we received from various sources, a friend, a colleague, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. I do the same. Another recent thought I had: all these articles, am I trying to learn new things ? Or am I … Read the rest of the post →
NO Tech in train
Posted on 1st May 2013
It is 635pm sunday as I write this. I am on board the TGV to Lille. Before leaving my place, I fully charged my iPhone 4S. On the way, I took a bus to the train station, where I listened on my iPhone to some music. At the train station, to kill time (love this expression by the way), I sent a few text messages, few emails, I scanned the news (I did not READ the news, I SCANNED the news like everybody does although it is a complete waste of time). I sent an LinkedIn invite. When the time … Read the rest of the post →
Unknown number
Posted on 21st April 2013
Who has never been bothered by a sales call ? Your phone rings and you answer automatically. Without looking at who’s calling. Sometimes, it is from an unknown number. I dislike people who hide their identity. Hence, I never pick up the phone when there is written: “Unknown number”. I just cut the ringer off. Who dares interrupting me without giving its name ? If they leave a voice mail, that’s ok. But 99% of the time, they do not. Because they are telemarketers. If there is a number displayed that I do not know, do not have in my … Read the rest of the post →
Notifications
Posted on 14th April 2013
I am always amazed when I meet someone to see on his or her locked phone, several notifications. People put their phone on the table, that’s the way it goes now. I already blogged about it. Notifications gives you a good sense of what is important for people. For instance, on many phones I see, I recognise the Facebook icon, the twitter icons, emails; news from various apps. Fair enough, technology enables this. Be informed in real time. It is cool in a way. But also, who cares ? Seriously, so what ? What impact on your day ? What consequences for … Read the rest of the post →
Your calendar
Posted on 8th April 2013
What’s in your calendar ? Take it in front of you right now. What do you see ? Your work ? What exactly in your work ? Your meetings ? Time you are going to spend on customer X, or project Y ? Your kids ? Your significant other ? What chunk of time did you lock ? Why ? I know it is very trivial but time management is. You HAVE to set time in your agenda of what is important to you. Your emails are important ? Ok fair enough. Where are they in your calendar ? Say … Read the rest of the post →
Checking mails
Posted on 24th March 2013
How many times to you look to see if a new email has arrived ? How many times a day do you check ? 5, 10, 20, 50 ? 100 ? Plus ? I write this on Sunday March 24th. Let’s all do this test tomorrow: Every times you look to see if you have new mails, draw a little stroke. Every 4 strokes, the fifth crosses the other 4. In 3 to 5 days, ask yourself this. Write down the answers on paper. It will only take you a couple of minutes. The impact on the other hand will … Read the rest of the post →
Unlearn before you learn
Posted on 9th March 2013
I hate definitive sentences. What i mean by “definitive”, it is the small sentence you hear from people stating a fact. It sounds a bit like; “I am terrible at math” “I am crap with foreign languages” “I am not a fan of reading” “I am really bad at cooking” “I will never be able to do X” etc etc You may have said a sentence like this yourself in the last 24 hours. Well; my opinion ? It is dumb. Nothing is settled forever. Of course, there are limits. I will never play rugby with the French national team. … Read the rest of the post →
Writing is still the fastest way
Posted on 24th February 2013
This week, while brushing my teeth one morning, I heard something that made me pause. 40 something states in the US want to make learning to write with a pen optional. Never heard such BS. Even during election time. Replace it by Microsoft Word. Come on this is a joke right ? Nope. We are not April 1st. Like this article in the New York Times, I believe technology can wait. It is simpler and simpler. We don’t need to teach our kids this. This is stupid. Let me tell you why, according to me, writing is still the fastest … Read the rest of the post →
