I remember Muxtape.com. It allowed you to make an online mixtape from a huge list of songs. It was a simple, brilliant idea, although I never used it. And I remember that it got shut down earlier this year, which is sad. But today I stumbled across the founder’s statement about what happened. It’s a very well written piece that has lots of insight for anyone in the music industry or anyone in the world of digital startups, or licensing, or working with other peoples’ intellectual property. Hell, it’s useful for anyone. Read it here.
Also, I came across OwnGig. Looks like an interesting take on the whole crowdsourcing thing, which is an increasingly popular trend. Anyone wanna pitch in with me to get Stevie Wonder to perform live in my kitchen?
Finally, I’ve just learned about the Project Triangle. Never heard of it before. Useful little tool for prioritising tasks and knowing where your product might sit in the market.
More than ever, there’s a clear relationship between how new something is and how much it costs to discover that news.
You can check your email twice a day pretty easily. Once every fifteen minutes has a disruption cost. Pinging it with your pocketphone every sixty seconds is an extremely expensive lifestyle/productivity choice.
Sure, go ahead, stay hyper-current, but realize it’s not free.
As a piece of information it’s stayed with me, as I see this as a problem for me. And several other creative entrepreneurs that I’ve asked. I’m very guilty of checking my email, RSS reader, blog comments etc on a very regular basis as I hate to think I’m “behind the curve” and not up to date with the freshest, most interesting ideas and conversations. The reality is that in the vast majority of cases it won’t matter if I’m a few hours/days/weeks slower than some.
For someone dealing in stocks and shares they need to pay a premium price for up-to-the-second data. But I deal in “ideas”, creativity, and other nebulous stuff like that.
The impact on my productivity of working like this is that I don’t spend enough solid chunks of time doing whatever’s at the top of my list. It’s like the theory I’ve talked about recently that our lives and minds are far too fragmented. In times past our days were split into just three or four sections (plough, hunt, gather, eat etc). But today we’re required to do 100′s of things an hour (check email, read article, make drink, check email, send text, write email, send email, check RSS, read article). Does anyone ever get anything done?
I know my most productive hours are those straight after a meeting when I’m enthused and have an action list to do.
I intend to write more on the big gap between the huge amounts of technology now ever-present in our minds, and our ability to deal with them effectively. But for now, I’ve got go check my email in case something incredibly exciting has arrived…
More than ever, there’s a clear relationship between how new something is and how much it costs to discover that news.
You can check your email twice a day pretty easily. Once every fifteen minutes has a disruption cost. Pinging it with your pocketphone every sixty seconds is an extremely expensive lifestyle/productivity choice.
Sure, go ahead, stay hyper-current, but realize it’s not free.
As a piece of information it’s stayed with me, as I see this as a problem for me. And several other creative entrepreneurs that I’ve asked. I’m very guilty of checking my email, RSS reader, blog comments etc on a very regular basis as I hate to think I’m “behind the curve” and not up to date with the freshest, most interesting ideas and conversations. The reality is that in the vast majority of cases it won’t matter if I’m a few hours/days/weeks slower than some.
For someone dealing in stocks and shares they need to pay a premium price for up-to-the-second data. But I deal in “ideas”, creativity, and other nebulous stuff like that.
The impact on my productivity of working like this is that I don’t spend enough solid chunks of time doing whatever’s at the top of my list. It’s like the theory I’ve talked about recently that our lives and minds are far too fragmented. In times past our days were split into just three or four sections (plough, hunt, gather, eat etc). But today we’re required to do 100′s of things an hour (check email, read article, make drink, check email, send text, write email, send email, check RSS, read article). Does anyone ever get anything done?
I know my most productive hours are those straight after a meeting when I’m enthused and have an action list to do.
I intend to write more on the big gap between the huge amounts of technology now ever-present in our minds, and our ability to deal with them effectively. But for now, I’ve got go check my email in case something incredibly exciting has arrived…
I like to think of myself as a fairly patient kind of guy. I’m less likely than other people I know to throw my mobile out of the window when it freezes, and I’ve learned to save my work regularly in case my laptop crashes (which it never does). And I’m often stopped in my tracks when I think that, for example, less than a second after i press the “Publish” button on my laptop (which is connected to the internet via my local cafes wireless network) that the whole world will be able to read these words….
I’ve been thinking for years about whether humans (as a collective) are able to psychologically cope with the sheer complexity of life that comes with being surrounded by incredible technology. And there’s a whole book i could write on it, so I won’t bore you now. But I often wonder if as a species we wouldn’t be happier reverting to the 5 or 6 meditative actions a day (ploughing, harvesting, hunting etc), rather than maintaining the incredibly fragmented lives we live now (check email 52 times, write 12 texts while eating lunch, receive 6 phonecalls, watch half a movie while writing emails etc etc etc). I often wonder about the impact of this on our collective mental health. I often feel like my brain needs “defragmenting”, a phrase that will be familiar to anyone who performs their own computer maintenance.
Anyway, before I end up starting down that avenue for lengthy discussion I’ll leave you with this brilliant, and relevant, clip of American comedian Louis CK on the Conan O’Brien show. As he says – “Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy”. Maybe we should show a little more gratitude for the incredible times we live in.
I like to think of myself as a fairly patient kind of guy. I’m less likely than other people I know to throw my mobile out of the window when it freezes, and I’ve learned to save my work regularly in case my laptop crashes (which it never does). And I’m often stopped in my tracks when I think that, for example, less than a second after i press the “Publish” button on my laptop (which is connected to the internet via my local cafes wireless network) that the whole world will be able to read these words….
I’ve been thinking for years about whether humans (as a collective) are able to psychologically cope with the sheer complexity of life that comes with being surrounded by incredible technology. And there’s a whole book i could write on it, so I won’t bore you now. But I often wonder if as a species we wouldn’t be happier reverting to the 5 or 6 meditative actions a day (ploughing, harvesting, hunting etc), rather than maintaining the incredibly fragmented lives we live now (check email 52 times, write 12 texts while eating lunch, receive 6 phonecalls, watch half a movie while writing emails etc etc etc). I often wonder about the impact of this on our collective mental health. I often feel like my brain needs “defragmenting”, a phrase that will be familiar to anyone who performs their own computer maintenance.
Anyway, before I end up starting down that avenue for lengthy discussion I’ll leave you with this brilliant, and relevant, clip of American comedian Louis CK on the Conan O’Brien show. As he says – “Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy”. Maybe we should show a little more gratitude for the incredible times we live in.
I'm MD of Dizzyjam, founder of defunct creative industries network NOCCI, co-founder of TEDxCardiff and Ignite Cardiff, a creative industries consultant, a music industry survivor & mentor, and according to some friends, a "creative industries ninja" and "a good egg".
