Fun with Numbers

28 03 7117 1.5 01 30

Go on then – what do these numbers bring to mind ?

28 - This is the smallest seat pitch on a commercial airplane operating today. It’s a measurement in inches of Spirit Airlines' economy seat. Great for kids. Not so much for other humans.

03 - This is the global ranking of Beijing’s Capital Airport in passenger numbers. Perhaps not surprising for China that they have world’s 3^rd busiest airport, it’s now processing more people than Tokyo’s Narita which placed in 5^th.

7117 – This is the astounding number of rooms in the Venetian/Palazzo Complex in Las Vegas. You’d think some of them must be on sale at the world’s largest hotel.

1.5 - This number comes to us from the great state of Kansas and speaks to Kansas City airport’s proximity to downtown. You can almost walk from plane to meeting.

01 - This is Los Angeles rating for most expensive taxi fares in the US. It’s a good thing LA is nicely compact and you can walk it all without need for a car.

30 - This is the amount of time in hours I’ve been travelling so far today (thanks Int’l date line) and accounts for punchy postings like this one.

Internet Access and the Correlation to Economics & Creativity

I've just spent a week in Australia & New Zealand. Wonderful places full of incredible sights, boisterous, life-loving people and some of the smartest folks I know. They've successfully blended a life -work balance in a way few others on earth have.

I did notice a disturbing trend however while there however and it speaks to how easily we communicate with each each and collaborate towards a better end result. [I should say in an effort to create full-disclosure here that I am very pro-collaboration].

Getting internet access anywhere in these countries is hard. While there are many access points they're all fenced off. Whereas publicly available internet access is a commitment many progressive urban centers are moving towards, that's not down under. Sunnyvale, California and the City of London in the UK are tow places that today offer complimentary public WiFi, but finding even cheap access to the net is very hard to come by in the primary cities of Australia and New Zealand.

What does it mean ?

It means the economics of access are placed before the benefits of widespread net adoption. This is short-sighted and in these two cases quite concerning you see, as both countries are knowledge economies. They don't have endless natural resources that can be dug from the ground. They are net importers of many basic goods, and their wealth to date has allowed that to happen. With the onset of cheaper offshore manufacturing on their Asian doorstep however, they've transitioned to services-based wealth generation. And they're strangling collaboration and the very life-blood of connectivity. While there are a few places where you can buy & surf (not that surf, matey), these also are the exception rather than the rule.

So my advice to all the world leaders that read this is that you should understand what your countries' future depends upon to be economically healthy, and then put the appropriate tools in place to enable to happen. Anything less is shortsighted.

What does unoriginal mean ?

At what point does our conversation, our discussions or our efforts to be interesting become unoriginal ?

Talking about the same things repeatedly over time can be dull. That's understandable. Those around us grow fatigued when hearing the same repeated things. But where is the point of departure on this ? At what quantitative definitive point do we enter plagiarism?

I was having dinner with an old and dear friend I hadn't seen in while, and I decided to talk a little about some theories of time I am exploring. I know, old news to regular readers. {Btw- enjoy that small time joke on me}. As I broached the subject my internal voice that I am sure we all enjoy questioned the idea of speaking of something already laid out for all to see. I was intellectually aware I had crossed some threshold - invisible as it may be. Nonetheless I carried on and was later caught out on the matter. On one hand its absolutely recycling and on the other experts talk endlessly about the same topic not because they are monotonous, but rather because they continue to explore the boundaries of the subject. (I am not claiming to be an expert here).

So is full disclosure necessary ? Perhaps, but that also makes one come off as a poncy twit. "On my blog the other day I wrote about...". You don't want to be that person.

So the answer is "I don't know" but as usual dear audience (consisting of my
Mother only, probably) I offer up some brain-meat for you to chew on. What do you think - can we reference ourselves without citing it?

Oh- and be sure to mention that you read it here first Mom.

I Flew 12,000 km Backwards

... and boy are my arms tired as the very old joke goes.

The miracle of how small our world has become is considered so everyday that it passes without comment most of the time. Think back to 40 years ago and even this trip I've just completed was pretty extraordinary. 80 years ago it would have had to be done by ship and before that it was often a simple one way life transformation as the distances were on the same parallel as we view going to Mars these days. (6months)

Now let's look forward and imagine the same circumstances. By 2050 will we consider an orbital excursion regular and bemoan the 2-3 days it might take to get to a Martian vacation. .? We have dismissed jetlag - it's not serious just something you work through. Will stasis-lag be the same..? Einstein's physics teaches us that we will age at different rates as we approach the speed of light but what if my spouse also went into stasis or traveled as fast and far at the same time. Would it matter 'when' we lived as long as we were together ? Is this a short-cut to time travel of a sort?

I will predict that only our core values will survive intact in the coming years. Almost everything around us will be modified from how we see things now. I'm not talking flying cars here, I'm trying to imagine how the need and desire to travel and explore will evolve with technology knowing that the 'baseline of the want' will remain in place. Might it be possible for very realistic virtualization of a place to satisfy that need..? I bet it would, cutting deeply into leisure travel as we know it. That's a simple example of how satisfying the core need will allow us to radically change how we do things.

What can you imagine and the tricky part- how do we start to bring it to life. See what 12,000 km backwards does to you ?

It’s the little things

I was reading a book I’ve been meaning to for some time – I saw it online and have kept in on my desktop for almost a year. I knew it was worth my time as soon as I saw originally, and so saved it. But I never made the time for it.

Ever do that – see something that you know is good for you but just never quite get to it ? It might be today’s plan to exercise or eat right. It might be that compliment that you want to give to your significant other as you know it’ll make their day. Telling your kid that you love them, or even sitting down with them and playing their game, or discussing their topic.

I had some time on my hands today, and so elected to do some of these things. And this book – it’s full of little nuggets of wisdom and gold. Wonderful stuff that’s soul candy. Here’s a sampling:

“We are the strivingest people who have ever lived. We are ambitious, time-starved, competitive, distracted. We move at full velocity, yet constantly fear we are not doing enough. Although we live longer than any humans before us, our lives feel shorter, restless, breathless... Dear ones, EASE UP. Pump the brakes. Take a step back. Seriously. Take two steps back. Turn off all your electronics and surrender over all your aspirations and do absolutely nothing for a spell.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

“Everyone has their own private Mount Everest that they were put on this Earth to climb” and “Power is never given, Power is taken” – Hugh Macleod

I’m clearly pleased with the decision I made to spend time on this, and I feel rewarded in this investment I’ve made. But my point in bringing this to your attention isn’t to gloat or brag about having that time or finding this. Rather I wanted to ask you to do something for yourself today. Doesn’t matter what it is – but it should be rewarding to you on a personal level.

Why ?

Because no one else will do it for you, and you shouldn’t feel cheated or hard-done by if you don’t ever get this kind of little token of appreciation. You should feel responsible that you are attending to a need you really do have. We need to eat, and we need to consume water, we need shelter and occasionally, we need to get a pat on the back. Our managers may not have remembered to tell us "good job" today (wonderful though if they did), and our relationships may not have resulted in some small compliment. That’s ok though, as you can take 60 seconds and reward yourself for making it another day.

Don’t go overboard, and understand that the end result will be someone who is infinitesimally happier and more likely to pass along the benefit to another.

That’s why.

Real vs Reel

I saw a wonderful quote today - Life's more like the real game than an episode of Sports Center.

It made me smile. Then it made me think.

In our world of constantly bombarded messages all competing for our attention, sexy often wins, hence the need to be louder, more colourful and create a bigger impact. In short, we're fed the highlight reel constantly and as a result we come to expect it.

The highlight reel is the best bits - the home run, the diving catch, the spectacular goal, touchdown or try. In short, it's the once-in-a-long-long-time-play that someone makes. When shown this type of feat regularly we start to expect it, but of course life's not like that. It's a counter-point to the movie montage scene where the falling-in-love couple play in the grass, look longingly at each other and go in paddle boats, all set to some sappy tune. The movie is telling us "this is the part where they fall in love". We all acknowledge that.

Except the highlight reel is worse as it doesn't come with that explicitly - it doesn't say this is the unreal part, instead it's implication is - this is how you should play. Or even - this is how you'll do when you use our stuff. (play any Axe commercial in your mind now for proof)

So is reel better than real - the humdrum, the long tedious times, and the days where you have bad hair, bad breath and a bad mood. Would it be better to live in short SPECTACULAR bursts ? Some people undoubtedly think that.

I don't.

Bring on the mediocre, test my patience with life and let me eat lots of average food. I want to wear clothing I don't always like, have unsatisfied cravings and be miserable some of the time. I need to know what that's like and be very familiar with it - for without that I can't appreciate the extraordinary. And I do want to - appreciate it I mean.

Voting with your Wallet

I made a stand today.

I've been on the decision point of paying membership fees at one of those very large warehouse supermarkets. I won't say which, only that it rhymes with ShostCo. I'm not a member, though some friends and family are and so I've been in a few times. I think some of their products are interesting & unique, and some of the pricing is pretty good. Not all by any means - their electronics are outclassed and out-priced at many other places for instance.

Back to my narrative though - I am having some family over this weekend, and I know they'd have what I like to cook up on special occasions like this, so I literally walked in with the intention of paying them their $55 just to have the privilege of shopping at their store. And I stopped. I had a conversation with the membership lady, but really - she didn't need to be there as the conversation was really quite personal between me & me.

Let me say a few things at this point...

1. I'm a fervent fan of small town merchants. A little main street section is what town's revolve around, so big box stores aren't in a town's interest in a character sense. I'm the first one to complain that the place I live has started to look like every other place around here. This urban sprawl is a blight, and an extremely shortsighted way to live our lives just so we can get 48 rolls of toilet paper for $1 less.
2. I'm also not against the idea of membership at stores, and I have a few already - notably my favorite retailer - MEC. I've no issue whatsoever provided it goes to some explainable cause that's a little worthwhile. As a means to simply line the owner's pocket though ? Nope sorry that's in the same league as Airline hidden fees.
3. The stores aren't convenient to get to, nor are the everyday values something I think are great, so it's not a place I crave.
   

What's all this mean - it means I walked away from "ShostCo" and their membership desk and decided that if I didn't take a stand and vote with my wallet, then how can I complain if no one else does.

I encourage you - not to do what I did as that's my decision - but rather I encourage to make positive, conscious choices and vote clearly with your own wallet. Your retailers & suppliers deserve to know whether they are providing the kind of value to you that you want.