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The Future is Physical: how the Internet of the future — including supply chain, manufacturing, and commerce — is physical and robotic (more thoughts on drones)

First, a couple of paragraphs of background. While I have written a little about drones, John Robb has a blog called Global Guerrillas where he writes alot about it and other topics. Well worth reading. In his blog he talks about something called Dronet (Drone Net) and it got me thinking about the idea of a network of drones and how it will interact with what we think of as the Internet.

That said, I expect there will be resistance to the idea of Drone Net. I also think even if it is built, it will pivot away from drones and warfare to something bigger and broader, just like the Internet pivoted away from ARPAnet to something bigger and broader. Drone Net will just be a part, a small part, of a newer and bigger Internet.

That brings me to the subject of this post: the next Internet.

This new and bigger Internet will be physical. It won’t be focused on just being threatening or military. It won’t be Skynet or Dronet.  It will be called something neutral like Courier-Net or ExpressNet or simply the Net. Just like Apple evolves a device but keeps the same name, we too will do the same thing with the Internet.

Some of the ways the new drone enabled Internet will work are:

    • instead of businesses and other institutions shipping good and services via trucks and planes, they will send them via this new Net. Part of the new Net will be a network of thousands or millions of drones continually in motion. All supply chains will merge into the Internet. People will order Things, and the Internet will route drones to get those Things to People.
    • Instead of business manufacturing parts and goods in a factory, they will print them with 2D or 3D printers or maybe even bio-printers. (Iimagine printing something that looks like and tastes like and has the nutrients of an apple, but not an apple). Robots will do any pre and post work with the printed devices and then have them delivered to you via a drone. Non-manufactured goods (e.g. antiques) will be selected and packaged with a combination of people and robots.
    • You may have these printers at home for small things, just like you do now. But over time, there will be advantages to centralization of these facilities, so they will be centralized, though not necessarily in factories. There may be showrooms to convince you of the need of the product, with big printers in the back. Or they may be underground, part of our infrastructure, delivering up the goods we want, much like our current infrastructure delivers water and electricity and gas to us now.
    • People will have their own drones that are part of the new Net. For example, you may have a self driving car (which is merely a drone) that is connected to the Internet. It will figure out the best way to get your from A to B, just like Google Maps does now. Other drones will clean your house. (You have a bunch right now and you call them Appliances, not drones. Appliances are drones that are not very smart, aren’t connected to the Internet, and don’t move around.) Other drones will get rid of rodents and other pests (up to and including other drones). There will be entertainment drones, security drones, maintainance drones, drones you can’t even imagine having yet, though you will. (Teeth cleaning drones, for example.)
    • Drones will be relatively cheap. Look at your smartphone now. Think about how fast and better they have gotten even as they have become cheaper. That will be the case with drones. You will have butler drones to help you manage your drones.
    • IT companies always need new IT things to sell to you. Those things will be drones.
    • Just like you have appliances, in the future, you will just have drones. Unlike your current appliances, they will not stay in one place. They may not even stay in your house all the time (any more than your smartphone or your laptop stays in your house).
    • These drones will be part of the Net. Already Belkin makes switches that you can turn off and on from the Internet. This will soon be the case for all appliances. You will use a “remote” to talk to these devices, instead of the limited panels they have now. Or you will talk to a butler drone that does the rest.
    • Drones will be made attractive to people. Ever wish, after making a meal, that the kitchen would clean itself? Drones will do that. Ever wish someone would wash and fold and put away the laundry? Drones will do that. Put the cat or dog in and out? Wash the windows of your house? Paint a room? Drones will do all these things. People will ask: how did people ever live without drones in the same way people ask: how did we ever live without the Internet? Instead of asking Siri for the weather, you will ask Siri to make a soup for lunch.
    • Everyone will have drones, because drones will be everywhere. What will separate rich and poor people is how many powerful drones they can get at a moments notice. Everyone may have small drones, but not everyone will have a drone squadron that can build a 10 story building. (And yes, they won’t be called a Drone Army….it will be a more pacifistic term like Drone Squad or Robot Crew or Android Team.)
    • Speaking of Android, Google has shown how to market robots to be cute and attractive (just think of the robot mascot for Android). I would not be surprised to see a company that has brand names like Android and Nexus making drones soon. I expect no less from Apple and other IT companies.
    • Think of a thing you want to do. Drones will be capable of doing that for you. That’s the future of the Internet. That’s your future, too.
    • I used to think the future was Digital. Now I think the future is Physical.

7 Million ways to Make Lentil Soup (in a slow cooker)

The great Mark Bittman has 7 Ways to Make Lentil Soup, and if you want to start out with making any of these, I think you will have a delicious meal when you are done.

An even easier version is this. Take this list of ingredients

  1. 1 cup of green lentils, rinced
  2. 1 can (28 oz) of stewed tomatoes
  3. 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
  4. 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
  5. 1 onion, chopped
  6. 1 rib of celery, chopped
  7. 3 garlic cloves, minced
  8. 3 bay leaves
  9. 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
  10. 3 Tbps curry powder
  11. 1 tsp cumin
  12. 1 tsp coriander
  13. 4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

Add them all to a slow cooker (4 quart / 4 litre) size or bigger, stir, then  cook on low (8-10 hours) or high (4-5 hours). Remove bay leaves before serving. That’s it! Easy.

Now I say seven million ways to make lentil soup because you really can substitute greatly for very different soups. For example:

  • this version has 4 cups of stock and 28 oz of tomatoes, compared to Bittman’s with 6 cups of stock. I think you can play around with the types of tomatoes (diced, plum) and the ratio of stock to tomatoes (only have a 14 oz can of tomatoes? Use it and go with 5 cups of stock)
  • You can use most any root vegetable instead of the potatoes or carrots. Try turnips, parsnips, or yams. Replace the celery with celeriac. I don’t think red beets will work, but white beets might.
  • Replace the onion with shallots or pearl onions.
  • I didn’t have spices 10, 11 and 12, but I did have an Indian spice mix, so I used 3 Tbsp of that instead.
  • Add some sriracha to make it spicy. Or dice up some jalapeno with the onion and toss it in. Red pepper flakes or some hot pepper sauce would also work.
  • If you don’t need it vegetarian, try the different meats that Bittman suggests. Leftover or rotisserie chicken would also be good. Or take some out and put it in a pot with fish and poach the fish until it is cooked.
  • Toss in some cooked pasta or cooked beans to make it more of a stew.
  • Towards the end stir in some chopped greens like spinach or kale or other greens that will wilt in a warm liquid.
  • At the end, add some wine vinegar to give it a bit of bite.
  • Garnish with herbs, or a drop of pesto or salsa verde. Or stir in some tomato based salsa. (Again, do it to your own taste.)

The lentils and the stock make up the foundation of the soup. The rest is seasoning and vegetables (and possibly non vegetables). Feel free to experiment and make the soup your own (and use up the left overs in your fridge or pantry).

Beauty and time (story fragment)

Her beauty was not his. The curve of her cheek would never rest in his hands. The curves of body, never fall into his arms. The hands that handed him his change, would never rest upon him. Her eyes would never transfix him, nor would her smile transform him. He would not lie and study the fineness of her face: the line of her brow, the colour of her eye, the thickness of her lips. All of these things were before him, but none of them were for him.

Her beauty was not hers. It was a different beauty, though in time it was similar. And the man at the counter too was young then, and she was young and beautiful like the woman with the change. And her cheek feel in his hands. And the curves of her body fell into his arms. The woman who looked through the glass at the man and the young woman, her eyes would transfix on him then, and her smile transformed him. And she would lie and study the fineness of his face: the line of his beard, the colour of his eye, the smile on his lips. All of these things were before her now, like the were then, but that was then and the man through the window was no longer him but an older version of the man then.

…..

Her beauty was not his.  In time it would not be hers.

…..

The end of Work: the apotheosis of robots and the degradation of humans

I think this passage from this article, New Wave of Deft Robots Is Changing Global Industry – NYTimes.com, is key:

Foxconn has not disclosed how many workers will be displaced or when. But its chairman, Terry Gou, has publicly endorsed a growing use of robots. Speaking of his more than one million employees worldwide, he said in January, according to the official Xinhua news agency: “As human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache.”

There you have it, in blunt language. Humans are animals, and animals are secondary to machine when it comes to making lots and lots of things.

Robots are only going to get better and better at making things. Alot of things. Not only that, but robots will get cheaper and cheaper as they get better and better. Add 3D printing to that and soon the need for humans to make anything will decline rapidly.

We need to rethink the notion of Work. The idea that everyone needs to Work, and that they can only have an income if they do Work. It will get to the point where it will not make sense for people to make many things, other than as a hobby.

We will have very efficient ways to make things without people, but people will still exist. If they have no income, there will be no one for the owners of the robots and machines to sell to.

Henry Ford brought in a new model and changed the way people worked. We need a new model.

Some further thoughts on asking Paul Krugman a question on Reddit

So I asked Paul Krugman a question today when he appeared on the site, reddit. Not only did he reply with a great answer, here: IamA Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist. : IAmA, but he followed up with an excellent post on his blog, here: Diocletianomics – NYTimes.com.

Paul Krugman and I have a few things in common: we both like economics, blogging, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels, and posting about indie bands (him: Friday Night Music: Civil Wars, me:Great Friday night music: Never Forget You by the Noisettes). Politically we are similar too. I am a fan of his writing and thinking. Alas, I do not have a Nobel Prize.

When I saw he was going to be on reddit, I actually signed up for it just to ask the question. The question may seem bizarre out of context, but it is really a mashup of serious things he’s been discussing (the FED and it’s role, the problem posed by the zero lower bound) and the not so serious (the emperor Diocletian came up in the context of a debate he had with Ron Paul; more on that here: Don’t Know Much About (Ancient) History).

I thought mashing that up would not only appeal to the tastes of reddit readers, but to Paul Krugman and his good sense of humour. I was right!

What is the question, you ask? It was this: What is the FED doing to help the Emperor Diocletian escape the zero lower bound?

It’s a good question, I thought. One that might come from a character in a Lewis Carroll book, one that gets you thinking despite the absurdity of it. In some ways, Ron Paul could be a character in a Lewis Carroll book. But I will leave that for another blog post.

What is #sundayArt? It’s a challenge to all your artists (and would be artists) out there. Get the details here!

What is #sundayART? It’s a weekly challenge designed to get you producing art work that you can share with others! 

How does it work? It’s simple: every Sunday, starting on April 1st, 2012, check the Sunday Art calendar here on this Tumblr and then produce a doodle, a quick sketch, a photoshopped image, a painting, a sculpture, or what ever you are best / happiest making. Then share it using your favourite social media (Twitter, Instragram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.) and tag it with #sundayArt.

Who can do this? Anyone. Of any skill. It doesn’t matter how old you are, how good you are, or what media you like to work with.  

Why are you doing this? We were talking about how we wished we were doing more creatively. We also talked about how much we enjoy working on the photo of the day challenge on Instagram. So we decided: why not come up with a similar approach for art work? It would give us an incentive to sit down and create something. The result is #sundayART.

How can i learn more? Go to this link: #sundayArt or ping us on Twitter!

Want to buy your teenager their first cook book? Get them Food Matters by Mark Bittman

Food Matters by Mark Bittman  is a great book. Mark Bittman wants us to eat better and cook better, not just for our own sake but for the sake of the entire planet. If we eat the way Mark advises, not only will we eat healthier and become fit (and also save money), but we will do alot of good for the environment too. It sounds far fetched, but in the first half of the book, he reasonably and persuasively makes the case. In the second half of the book he supports the effort in the first part of the book with some typically great recipes that are straightforward and tasty. I highly recommend the book for any adult, from those who can’t cook to those who cook all of the time.

So why should you get this cookbook for your teenager? A few reasons:

  • The recipes are low cost, nutritious, simple, flexible and delicious. The perfect meal for teenagers and younger people
  • The recipes are very flexible, so whether you kid wants to be a vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, they will find something they can make in here.
  • It supports alot of things young people are passionate about, like saving the environment, not eating animals (or eating less of them), eating healthy (well, ok, sometimes). 
  • With some exceptions, kids are not going to have alot of cookbooks. Give them one that makes it easy for them to cook with and that is low cost and healthy and tasty and they will cook from it for life. What could be a better thing to give your kid than that.
  • If they start cooking from it now, not only will they eat better, but you can get them to cook family meals and you will eat better as a result.
  • If they start cooking from it now, it will be the way they cook when they are finally moving out on their own. When they do, they will need meals like this, not high caloric and expensive meals that take alot of time. They can learn how to cook that eventually, and there are tons of books and magazine promoting that kind of cooking.

“The Smurfs” is Gay, and other things I thought watching it today

I took my son and his friend to see The Smurfs today, full dreading it. And despite some good things about it – there are some good things! – it is terrible in alot of ways.  Here’s some random thoughts:
* I thought it was positive that Neil Patrick Harris plays a straight father-to-be in the film. I’d like to think the days are gone whereby gay actors can’t come out of the closet for fear of losing straight parts is over, but I don’t think that is yet the case. (I am no expert here.) Perhaps with more performances by actors like him, audiences can forget about the sexuality of the actors and focus on the character they are playing. That would be a good thing. NPH is one of the good things about the film.
* I like Tim Gunn alot, but I didn’t like him in this. I can’t say why: he’s not a good actor, and he is not playing himself exactly. It just felt off, as if he was trying to channel Stanley Tucci from The Devil Wears Prada and doing a poor job of it. Then again, I don’t watch much of him, so I could be totally off base here.
* One person who is channeling another character is Hank Azaria. He seems to be trying to be a male version of the Wicked Witch of the West. Indeed, the movie seems to lift the storyline from the Wizard of Oz, with The Portal acting as the Hurricane and New York City acting as The Emerald City. There’s references to flying eagles instead of flying monkeys, and…well, there is probably more, but I was not exactly watching it all that closely.
* Thinking about that on the way home, I realized: there seems to have been a number of gay references in this film. However, I am hardly the best person to make that call, so I did a search on the way home and found this: Gay.net – Smurfs are so Gay which references this: The Smurfs – Gay Movies For Gay People – UGO.com. And they just touch on some of the lines and references in the film. The makers of the film are being coy about it, but I think it’s too obvious not to be anything other than intentional. If anything, knowing that going in can make the film enjoyable for the adults, in that you can watch it from a different perspective.
* Surprisingly the actors in the film are good. It’s what makes it watchable. Hank Azaria is too much for me, but if you are five, I am sure he was perfect. NPH is charming as usual, and he takes his role seriously (no small things, that). The voice actors, in particular Katy Perry and Jonathan Winters, do their thing well and breath some life into their little blue CG bodies.
* I wish I could say I was pleasantly suprised by the film and that I liked it, but alot of the dialogue in the film is so hackneyed that it just grated on me. There’s too many bad sitcom cliches that stand out like a blue thumb. I thought the overuse of the word “smurf” word get to me, but it was lines like “we’re having a moment here” or “no Smurf left behind” or…well, there are tons of them. The thing was written by four screenwriters, and that is never a good sign. Yet there is good stuff, too. I guess of the four writers, some were good and some were hacks. Sadly the stuff by the hacks overcame the good dialogue and made it hard for me to watch.
* As usual, the 3D part is a rip off. There are some scenes at the beginning that use it well, but for the most part, it was irrelevant. I can see why Roger Ebert despises it. I do too.
* Is there lots of product placement? Ha, you’re kidding, right?
* The Smurfs is not the worst kids film I have ever seen: that honour still goes to the first Chipmunks movie. It represents all that is bad about Hollywood now, however, and if you can distract your kids from it long enough, it may be out of theatres before they know it.
* I’d like it to be a success just so NPH could get some better offers and we could see him in other films. Overall, though, if you can avoid seeing it, do so.

The superb dancing of Ryan Francois and Remy Kouame to Slow Club’s Two Cousins

I like ‪Slow Club and I enjoy this song, but I just love this video. The dancers, Ryan Francois and Remy Kouame, are superb. They combine great choreography, emotion and physicality in their dance. Plus the direction of this video is wonderful: it really takes advantage of the black and white film, and the slow motion makes the dancers and the music match up well. Mesmerizing and something I can watch over and over.

See:

Some thoughts on the new Apple HQ and how it reminds me of two IBM facilities designed by Eero Saarinen

I hadn’t thought of it, until I read this Iconic design for Apple headquarters could transform Silicon Valley landscape – San Jose Mercury News, and came across this comment:

San Jose architecture critic Alan Hess also questioned the function of “this huge circle.”

“How are people inside going to communicate?” he asked. “Are they going to be walking around miles and miles of corridors to get to a conference room or use an internal tram system? Maybe they will rely on computer connections.”

When I first thought of this, I thought, yeah, how will they do that. But then I remembered that IBM has two facilities, both designed by the great architect, Eero Saarinen, that have similarities to the new Apple HQ. The IBM facility in Rochester, MN, is very boxy, but it has great courtyards, just like the new Apple HQ has, and employees often go out into them to meet. The other facility that Saarinen designed for IBM was the T.J. Watson research center, and that is a big curve that also has similarities to the new Apple HQ (though it is a curve and not a circle.). Still, despite that long curve, IBM employees have no trouble communicating with each other at Watson, and hardly need a huge tram to meet.

I once read that Steve Jobs wanted Pixar to have one washroom area, for by having that, employees would bump into each other and be more likely to mix and mingle and share. I think the central courtyard in the middle of the new HQ serves the same purpose: employees will be bumping into each other all the time as they cut through it to meet people elsewhere.

I like the design of the new Apple HQ, and while it reminds me of the IBM facilities, it will be architecturally unique.

My latest Diana F+ photos

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I’ve posted my latest photos from flickr.com, taken with my Diana F+ camera. With all the digital software to simulate toy camera (e.g. Instagram), why am I still using a Diana camera? The simple reason is that I have a Blackberry, not an iPhone or even a new iPod Touch. If I did, I might use them. Even then, I would still use my Diana. I like the camera itself: it’s a tool, and like any good tool, it puts me in mind of taking good photos when I use it. Secondly, I enjoy the process of getting the photos developed and printed. In a way, it is like getting a surprise present. True, I pay for it myself, therefore it is a present to myself! 🙂 However, I don’t consider the expense to be very much. The other thing about the cost and the time it takes to get them developed is that I am more particular about what I photograph, which makes me take better photos. And since I get better photos, I consider the few dollars I spend a good deal. I treat them like paintings or drawings, not records. That gives me some rather nice artwork for not much money.

Where to find my presentation on social media to nonprofit organizations as part of IBM’s Centennial?


It can be found here. I used to talk alot about Web 2.0 and social media, but I am out of practice. Hence I say “so” too much and talk too much with my hands! (Plus, this is the first time ever seeing myself present: very handy to have that). I als sound more like a Cape Bretoner than I thought, but I think that is a good thing. It was fun to do this, and the people in the audience were great. Hats off to all the IBM staff involved: they did alot of work on this and it came across well.

To find out more about the IBM Centennial event, which I am proud to have played a small part in, you can go here.

Some random thoughts on the wonderful Des Hommes et Des Dieux (Of Gods and Men)

This is a beautiful film, and a great one. It’s filled with gorgeous imagery (such as the one above), but it is also beautifully written and acted. It is not surprisingly a deeply spiritual film, and it certainly helps to have an understanding of Christianity, because the film seemed highly allegorical to me. But even without that, the film can be appreciated. If you only had a passing description of it, it may seem like something that would be a dull film, but acts early in the film put the Trappist monks in jeopardy and provides conflict and high tension throughout the film.

Speaking of allegory, what I noted was:

  • the main character being named Christian / Christ. (Interesting the character Luc was a physician, and Saint Luke is the patron saint of  physicians.)
  • the Last Supper towards the end of the film
  • the army being the Romans and the terrorists being the Pharisees
  • the moment when Christian is in the garden in anguish reminded me of Christ in Gethsemane

I wasn’t paying attention to that so much at first, but towards the end, I noticed it more.  I mention it here because being aware of this earlier may help you pick up things that I missed.

The film ends in an ambiguous way. I didn’t appreciate this until later, when I found there was uncertainty over the fate of the monks as well.

Very highly recommended.

A minor note: Lambert Wilson plays Christian in this film and can be said to represent Christ (to some degree). In the second and third Matrix films, he plays the Merovingian, who can be said to symbolize the devil in that film. Indeed, the actor comes across very differently in each film, and it took me some time looking at him in this film before I made the connection.

For a good review of the film, see ‘Of Gods and Men,’ a True Story of Monks in Algeria by A.O. Scott in the  NYTimes.com

Some thoughts on analog time pieces and the punctuation of time

I have this Yahoo! widget* running on my desktop:

 image

Every 15 minutes it chimes on the quarter hour, and every hour it chimes once for every hour. What I love about this widget, besides the steampunk look of it, is how it is resetting my notion of time back to what it used to be and what I think is better.

I also have this widget on my desk:

 image

It is a timer that allows me to keep focused on a task. With all the distractions that my computer generates, having this timer allows me to focus. (E.g. I will spend 20 minutes on email, and when the timer goes off, I will quit that and work on producing a report for 30 minutes). While this approach is good, I find that time becomes very fluid. It is less fluid than allowing myself get distracted by every pop up that occurs or open tab on my browser, but it is something I control and sometimes let slip by.

What I love about the steampunk clock widget is that it implies that time is independent of me. Time is important. Each hour, each quarter hour is important, and it tells me it is important by announcing it. It makes me appreciate time more as a thing in itself, and not something that I slosh around, 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there. It also makes me appreciate the order of time: there is a quarter hour, and then three more and that takes us to the top of the hour. Time marches on with the first widget. Finally, I think 15 minute intervals of time are best. We are always trying to squeeze more out of time: a quick minute here, a five minute break there. The steampunk widget says: no, 15 minute intervals are best for dividing up the day, and anything worth doing will need 15 minutes at least. It changes the pace of the day.

I like playing around with time. I feel like I am always aware of it, and how it is speeding by. What I like about the steampunk widget is how it is reshaping my approach to time.

* Yes, I still use Yahoo! widgets. In fact, I use quite a few of them. I find them very helpful in making me more productive.  I think the tools that Yahoo! provides are underappreciated.  I hope that will change and that more and more widgets are developed.

Some thoughts on the beauty of children’s book

I have two children and hundreds of their books as well. What has always
impressed me about children’s books is how well made they are. The stories
are usually really good and well written. The books themselves are mostly
well constructed. But most of all, the art work is superb. The drawings,
water colours and more are sublime. It’s why I can never tire of the better
ones, even if I have read them 20 times. The illustrations are rich with
details that you miss the first few times but eventually pick up. Like the
red shoes on this little boy.

—————–
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.

How to be optimistic regardless of the situation: use the 3 Ps

A few years back I read a book called “Learned Optimism”. It argued that
optimism is something you can learn. It’s a good book, but what it really
comes down to are the three Ps: Personal, Pervasive, and Permanent.

Pessimistic thinkers (a category I fall into too often) tend to think that
set backs are personal (it’s my fault I failed the test), pervasive (I am a
bad student), and permanent (I will never be a good student). Optimistic
thinkers treat setbacks just the opposite: they don’t think they are
personal (I bet everyone had a hard time with that test), pervasive (I do
well normally on tests) or permanent (it’s only the first midterm, I can
make up for it later, and in the worse case I can drop the course and take
another in the summer). Likewise, optimistic thinkers tend to think
successes are personal (I did well on that test because I worked really
hard) pervasive (I am going to ace this term) and permanent (I always do
well in school) while pessimists don’t think successes are personal (I must
have gotten lucky to get such a good mark), pervasive (I will likely do
badly in my other courses) or permanent (I still am not a good student).

As an exercise, if there is an area where you want to be optimistic, try
applying the three Ps. You can use it to undermine your pessimism and
amplify your optimism. For example, if you want to lose weight, but are
pessimistic about doing it, look for areas where you are applying the three
Ps. Look for statements like “I am” or “I will never” or “Everytime”. They
are all signs of the three Ps. If you are pessimistic about losing weight,
you might think “I am a fat such and such” (personal), “I am not good at
getting dieting and exercising and anything to do with that” (pervasive)
and “I will never be able to get in shape” (permanent). You need to tackle
that thinking by looking for examples where you can see the opposite, where
you can find reasons to be optimistic. For example you might think instead
“I am not a fat person, I am someone who was once fit and I can be again, I
can be that person I once was and there is nothing stopping me if I put my
mind to it”, (personal) and “there are lots of good eating and fitness
habits I have already: I just need to work on expanding them” (pervasive),
and “body weight is something anyone can change, there is nothing permanent
about it if I put my mind to it” (permanent). In going from being
pessimistic to optimistic you need to attack your negative way of thinking
using the three Ps and replace that with a positive way of thinking, also
using the three Ps. Once you can do that, it will be easier to motivate and
energize yourself to actually make the changes that align with your new way
of thinking.

New years and New Year’s Resolutions are coming up. Use this to help you.
All the best to you. You will do great: I am optimistic about that.
—————–
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.

Cape Breton Island and the supply chain as compared to Africa and IT

In Cape Breton these days, you can have a light supper of Italian capocollo, Spanish olives and an radicchio salad washed down with a nice glass of Barolo, before being driven to the theatre to catch a live simulcast of Anna Netrebko performing in the Met’s version of Don Pasquale. In other words, you can have many of the same experiences that someone in the big city like Toronto can have. This is astounding to me in some ways, because when I was younger and living in Cape Breton, that was not the case. What people in big cities enjoyed was something either you could not experience locally or something you got to experience much latter. Now, the people at Loblaws or the Metropolitan Opera didn’t get together and say: those poor Cape Bretoners…we should be nice and give this stuff to them. No, what happened is that first they found ways to be able to distribute these things cost effectively and profitably to areas like Cape Breton via innovations in their supply chain. Once they could do that, they understood that there was a market for these goods and services there just like there was in Toronto or Vancouver or other parts of Canada. And just like in other parts of Canada, not everyone in Cape Breton cared or wanted these things. But many Capers did, and that motivated these companies to distribute these goods and services to Sydney and Glace Bay and other parts of the Island.

Likewise with Africa and IT. As I pointed out here (Some thoughts on datafication and the poor way writers think about IT and Africa | Smart People I Know), it’s not a question of being nice. It’s a question of being innovative enough to reach and serve new markets that you were not able to reach and serve before. The demand is there. It’s a matter of the supply.

The comparison only goes so far, but often times when I read about people in India or Africa and other parts of the world, I think of my own experiences in Cape Breton. I think of the assumptions and limitations implied concerning Cape Bretoners, and then I try to see things in a more open way, just like I would hope people outside of Cape Breton see the people who live there.

(Photo of Anna Netrebko from the 2010 performance of Donzetti’s Don Pasquale.)

Some thoughts on why happiness is difficult to achieve and what to do about it

I was reading a post just now that said happiness could be achieved if we
put off the habit of avoiding pain at the same time we seek immediate
gratification. This sounds like a reasonable assertion, but the more I
thought of, the more I thought that isn’t true.

I am more and more convinced that happiness is difficult to achieve because
it is a state of alignment, and alignment is difficult. It is an alignment
of everything we have with everything we want. If our wants are simple,
then happiness can be easier to achieve. For example, if all I want is to
do my job well to be happy and I don’t have any other wants in life that
matter, then as long as I am doing my job well I am happy. However, if I
want to do my job and do something else well, and both things have demands
on my time, then it is going to be harder to be happy. That alignment is
harder to achieve now.

That’s why people are often happy on vacation. They simplify their lives
and line things up so what they are doing makes them happy. However it can
only last for a short time because other demands through off that
alignment.

The other thing that makes happiness difficult to achieve is familiarity or
repetition. I may align my wants with what I have on a short vacation, bu
on a long vacation I may become bored with, say, lying on the beach doing
nothing. The alignment goes away. I may not be unhappy but I am no longer
happy.

Alignment is important, but so is positive emotion towards the thing you
have. The thing you have may seem slight to others. You may be happy
tending your garden, watching sports on TV, or sitting in a cafe chatting
and daydreaming and reading. But the point is that you have a
signifigantly positive emotion towards doing it. You want to do it. And you
are doing it. Then you are happy.

So that’s great, you might grumble, happiness is difficult to achieve.
Thanks for that. So how does one achieve happiness? Well based on two
people I know, I think there are two ways at least to do this: a minimalist
approach and a maximalist approach.

The minimalist approach is to simplify your life to the point that you are
have in your life only the things in your life that you have a strong
positive feeling towards and reject and eliminate everything the detracts
from that. Find a vocation that you love and do that, associate mainly with
people who support and agree with that, and minimalize everything else in
your life. If you can do that, you’ll be happy. I think athletes and
gardeners are two examples of people who live that way, but anyone who is
devoted to a role and gains a lot of positive emotion from it will be
happy.

The other approach is the maximalist approach. With that approach, you try
to find a way to extract a positive emotion from everything you have. You
don’t try to manage what you have in your life: you try to manage how you
thing about what you have in your life. This doesn’t mean you accept things
without question. Rather: you try and see the positive side of what is in
front of you while moving towards what you prefer.

Now you might think both are easier said than done. Both approaches take
will and determination. If you want to see things positively, you need to
work on it. Optimism is like a muscle: you need to exercise it to make it
stronger and have it overcome obstacles. But you will need that muscle if
you are going to take a maximalist approach. Likewise concentration and
focus is also like a muscle and you will need to exercise it to make it
stronger. But you are going to need that muscle if you are going to take a
minimalist approach.

Thanks for reading this. I have been able to align what I have – spare
time, a relaxing place to sit – with what I have – a blackberry, some ideas
on happiness – and I have been happy writing this down.

Pick an approach. Work those muscles. Get happy! 🙂
—————–
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.

Some thoughts on Vacational (?) Thinking

We think differently – or aim to – when we go on vacation. in fact, if I go
on vacation and find myself still thinking about my day to day
preoccupations, I feel I have failed to take a proper vacation. To me,
vacational thinking can be thinking whereby I forget my day to day cares
for a period of time and with any luck I think instead about special things
that I might not normally think about. It’s not enough to attend an art
gallery or a restaurant or a performance in another place, I have to think
that it is something special and unique in some way and my thinking
reflects that.

But there is another aspect of this thinking, too. With vacational thinking
your brain operates in a less (or sometimes more) excited state than your
day to day state. Your thinking may relax on vacation. Or if you are going
someplace exciting, you mental state may be excited. Either way, it is
likely a break from your typical emotional state.

I thought of this because I have been planning my summer vacation, and even
if I don’t go any where, I plan to shift my way of thinking when I am on
vacation as well as my mental state. But I also plan to think like I am
some place special, even if I am going to a cafe or an art gallery or a
park in Toronto. I am going to think: if I was in Florence or Paris or San
Francisco or Miami, how would I be thinking about that experience right
now? Or, right now I am sitting on my porch and the weather reminds me of
being in Florence ages ago and I am trying to recall how I felt about those
nights in that city. To make myself appreciate the beauty and the
specialness of where I am, even if it is home for me.

When I moved to Toronto from Cape Breton, people would always tell me how
beautiful my first home was. I never really appreciated that until I
travelled to other places and then travelled back to Cape Breton. It hadn’t
changed much, but my mental state and way of thinking did. I could
appreciate the beauty of something that I used to experience all the time
because I changed my mind. I had achieved vacational thinking.

this morning I was planning to be late for work. I took the time to have a
coffee at a cafe. For the few minutes I was getting my coffee while
watching some World Cup play, I could imagine I didn’t have to go to work
(for no one else there looked like they had to go to work either) and
instead I imagined that I was on vacation. It was an oasis of calm thinking
in an otherwise hectic day. If your days are the same, I recommend take
micro vacations at the very least ehenever you can. It will benefit you
more than you can imagine.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. May you have many frequent
vacations soon.
—————–
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.

Posted via email from Bernie Michalik’s posterous site

Some thoughts on the dissolution of time even as it accelerates and accumulates

My kids are like timepieces. I can convince myself that time is not moving,
or moving very slowly and I can be convinced of that until I think about
my two kids. They are like Dorian Grey’s painting: constantly showing the
acceleration of time even if nothing else is.

I thought of this when I checked on my son sleeping the other night.
Already he has gotten so big. I can recall just how a few short years ago
he was just a small thing sleeping. Now he is so big I can barely carry him
up the stairs. Yet looking at him, I could skip around in my mind and see
all of the times when he was lying there sleeping. It was like time was
dissolving and I was moving back and forth in time, and he was the time
traveller’s son.

The other day I was in the powder room washing up and he was calling my
name from the other side. For a moment I imagined I was in the future and I
was in the powder room and I was recalling what it was like to hear his
voice on the other side of the door but in the future he would not be there
and I would open the door and he would not be there. He would be grown up.
Gone. So I slid back to the present and there he was and I gave him a hug
and we went out and played.

In Awakenings, by Oliver Sacks, his patients go into a vegetative state
that allows them to perceive time as hardly moving to them, even though it
is changing rapidly for the rest of us. Decades could pass by, but it would
be perceived as no time at all for them.

I was reading last week that memories are not something like words on
paper. They are more dynamic than that, and we are constantly writing them
and rewriting them all the time.

I wonder how much of our perception of time and how it passes has less to
do with the world in itslef and more to do with the limits of our current
thinking.

If time is relative, then maybe we can learn to have future memories and
alternative memories?

Memories are just a form of thinking.

I can imagine how tomorrow will be, and though I can control a lot abot how
my perceptions will match the outcome, the outcome will be determined to a
large degree on the predictability of others. In effect, I can remember the
future only to the degree that others are predictable. Others dissolve the
future.

If everyone in the world thought like the patients in Awakenings and I did
not, I could predict the future, for I could see what was coming well
before it happened. In effect my ability to perceive time at an accelerated
rate would allow me to respond better to events and have more time to
prevent others from dissolving the future.

In Borges story The Secret Miracle, a man about to be executed is allowed
to live his whole life in the few minutes he supposedly has before he is
executed. This ability to live a long life in the time span of a few
minutes is the miraculous part. When the time comes for them man to die, he
is …happy?…because he has lived a full life, despite what others have
perceived.

The passage of time is as much a matter of perception as it is anything
else. If we were not to physically change in a way as to show our age and
if we lived in a way that spent less energy on tracking time, then how
would we perceive time then?

We have only begun to play with time.

Time for me to sleep. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
—————–
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.

Posted via email from Bernie Michalik’s posterous site

Some thoughts on epiphenomenalism and running

Because I run alot, people ask me: what do you think about when you run? Well, if I am running at a slower pace, I think a myriad of things, not unlike what people when they are walking, or shopping, or generally milling about. However, if I am running at a faster and harder pace, my thinking is directly affected by my run. If I am having a difficult run and I am experiencing alot of pain and suffering, my thoughts automatically turn very dark. I will suddenly notice this, for it creeps up on me. It’s as if I am trying to tune out the difficulty my body is having, so my mind starts having dark fantasies and thoughts. And that form of thinking makes the run even harder: it’s like a downward spiral. Whenever that happens, I either cut the run short or ease back on the tempo until I start to feel (and think) better.

The flip side of that is when I am having a very good run, I start thinking very creatively and imaginatively. It’s as if my mind is freed up to think this way. For example, tonight I was thinking of an essay I read by Sara Ruddick on maternal thinking and how it relates to Martin Buber’s I and Thou and how, while it relates to Buber’s ontological thinking, it differs in that a maternal relationship is symbiotic to a degree and that defines a different form of identity and relationship than Buber’s. And I thought about other things, like…well…running and epiphenomenalism! 🙂 And I think if anything illustrates empirically that epiphenomenalism — either weak or strong — is not true, then I think my runs do that. (Not to mention one of the reasons why I like to run.)

Posted via email from Bernie Michalik’s posterous site

On watching the Oscars, the Olympics etc with hundreds of my closest friends

Last night I watched the Oscars with hundreds of people I hang out with
daily. I did the same thing watching Olympic hockey. Likewise during the
recent U.S. Presidential election. How I did it was via Twitter.

Having done this for these events, I can’t imagine doing it without Twitter
now. I love hearing and exchanging viewpoints with my tweeps while the
event goes on.exciting events are more exciting and boring bits are more
bearable. And I get to hear people’s opinions in real time, not days later.
It’s not the same as a party, but it is pretty good and better than
watching it by yourself.

If you haven’t done it, I highly recommend it. You’ll have fun and learn
more about the people you follow on Twitter.

(Hacked out on my Blackberry. Thanks for reading this.)
—————–
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.

Posted via email from Bernie Michalik’s posterous site

The oddly negative articles of Konrad Yakabuski in the Globe and Mail

His latest, With bitter pills, Obama gets his health vote, is typical of his articles in the Globe. While it’s a good thing to have editorial columns criticizing Obama (and all other politicians, left and right), to see it in articles is another thing. If you read this, and his other columns, you will see how Yakabuski sees Obama and his situation in a very negative light. The overall column is more balanced. For example, this is true:

That is a singular achievement and the second in as many days for the President, who also extracted a commitment from developing countries to join the fight against global warming. But in both so-called successes, Mr. Obama acted as a broker of deals rather than a principled idealist. As such, he risks alienating his most fervent supporters.

Sounds pretty positive, yes? There’s lots more, too. And that’s what makes them odd: the articles themselves are balanced and well written, but there is almost an attempt to make them more negative then they are or need to be.

For example, on this article that I referenced, it is true that there is a strong negative reaction to this. But there’s also columns by such notable people like Paul Krugman and over at TPM media that balance that out. That’s the bigger picture, and from the Globe and it’s writers, I would like the bigger picture. If I want smaller more partisan pictures, there’s lots of blogs and other places for that.

There’s alot of good coverage in Yakabuski’s articles. But his negativity is odd, to say the least.

P.S. Thanks for reading this. If you have found it useful and you’d like to say thanks by buying me a coffee, you can do so here. Thanks! That’s awesome!

My Tweetup With LeVar Burton

Is hanging out with the v cool @levarburton in Toronto! on TwitPic

I follow dozens of people on Twitter, including some actors like Stephen Fry and LeVar Burton. Both men are very good users of Twitter. Indeed, LeVar Burton said he was going to Toronto this week to appear on the show The Hour on CBC, and he asked his followers for some information on it. That was the weekend.

On the way home on Monday I saw a “tweet” from him saying he was going to be at a downtown bar in Toronto for a “tweetup”. I thought: what the heck, I should head over and see if he shows up and if nothing else, see what happens.

This Globe article has a good run down on what happened next. And this YouTube video has some footage of the event.

As for me, I got to shake his hand, share a few words and get my photo taken (and naturally posted it on TwitPic! 🙂 )

It was delightful to not only meet LeVar Burton, who was very cool and very gracious with all the followers who showed up, but it was also a treat to meet all these people on Twitter whose messages I have read but never had a chance to meet before.

On the benefit of minor hardship

I am sick with a late winter cold today. Lying here, trying to get better, I thought of the benefits of minor hardship.

One benefit of such hardship is regaining an appreciation of things. Lying here, instead of rushing about like I normally do, I am appreciating how good it is to rest and relax and take it easy from time to time.

I am also drinking plenty of water. Every glass tastes good, and I associate drinking water (and resting) with getting better.

As a result of this minor hardship, I am gaining a new appreciation for water and resting, simple things that are easy to overlook with all the choices we have to drink and do.

The other benefit of minor hardships is that one recovers from the quite easily. We can gain insights awithout being burdened in the long term. This too is a good thing.

That said, I have posted this when I should be resting! I’ll send this off and fill up my water glass.

On the joy of owning a tree

I have always loved birch trees. This tree of mine is a Himalayan Birch. I love the name, the exotic nature of it. But more than that, I love how it marks time for me. It marks the seasons. It marks the time when I bought it, how old my kids were when I bought it. It grows old along with me. And perhaps when I am gone, it will still be here, marking time and keeping company for someone else.

When I was a child and my grandfather was in his sixties, I was surprised that he planted apple trees in his yard. Especially when he told me it would likely take five years before any fruit would grow. That was mind boggling for me at the time. Now, I understand why he would have done that.

Be it ever so humble, if you have a chance, I recommend you plant a tree. When you do, and as you watch it grow, you will know why.

Essential wardrobe item for men: the solid black suit

If you  search for Tim Gunn’s Fashion Essentials on the Web, you will find a number of things he recommends for women. To some degree, many of these things — classic white shirt, jeans, trench coat — work for men as well. But there is one thing on that list that women have had for a long time as an essential, namely the “little black dress”, that men should also have. Except it is the “solid black suit”.

I’ve read that if men are buying their first suit, they should go with a navy suit. Navy suits are great. But if I were recommending an essential piece of clothing for men, it would be a solid black suit.

A solid black suit is tremendously versatile. If you wear it with a white shirt with French cuffs and a solid coloured tie, it is the height of dressing up (save for wearing a tuxedo). If you replace the shirt and tie with a high quality T-shirt or a bold print shirt, you can wear the same suit to a gallery opening or a night club. You can wear it to weddings, funerals, and pretty well any special event in between. It travels well, doesn’t show stains or wrinkles as easily as some other suits, and if you have to pack light, you could add some light gray or beige pants and make the jacket coordinate with those slacks for extra business attire. You can even wear the jacket with the jeans if you want to mix it up.

I think solid black is more versatile than one with stripes. As for the cut of the suit, that should be one that works well for you. Since you want the suit to be versatile, the cut should be versatile as well. And get the best one you can afford, especially if you will be wearing it often.

There are lots of great articles of clothing a man should have in his wardrobe to look his best. A basic black suit should be one of those.

To see what I mean: if you want to see just how elegant such a suit can look, you can check out this post with Tim looking great as usual in a solid black suit. Meanwhile, this post on the new line of Comme des Garcons wear at H&M illustrates how to make such a suit look more casual.

The contradictions of Louise Bourgeois


On flickr is a wonderful photo of Children on the sculpture Crouching Spider by the great artist, Louise Bourgeois. (It’s part of a fine photostream).

What I love about this photo is that while the sculpture is almost monstrous by itself, with children hanging from it, it becomes something like a jungle gym. It transforms from a thing of horror to a thing of play and joy.

Reading some interview of Bourgeois, the reason for her fondness for spiders comes through. And yet although she is fond of them, she sometimes portrays them in a way that seems to want to play on our fears of them. It’s as if she wants us to think about them positively and negatively at the same time.

I also recalled a quote from her complaining about having children because of how it prevented her from doing her art. But in the interviews I found on the Web, the essays and interviews talk about her fondness of her children.

I wonder what she would have thought of this photograph. I think she would have liked it.

The Strengths of Barack Obama

James Fallows over at The Atlantic has a good run down of why Barack Obama is such a formidable politician.

In short order, it is his:

  1. formal oratory skills
  2. his ability to use technology to raise money
  3. his skill in getting out the vote (and his overall ground game)
  4. his debating technique
  5. his ability to tell stories and evoke emotions
  6. his demeanour

Fallows smartly compares Obama to everyone from Clinton to Reagan to JFK. The thing is, he is all those things, but he is also something new. Someone others in the future will look back for comparisons.

One thing that Fallows left out is this: his ability to make others wrongly underestimate him. This is something Reagan and Clinton had. It’s a ease they have, that allows their opponents to relax or overestimate their own strengths.

It’s going to be an interesting eight years in American and world history. In the meantime, read James Fallows’s posting. It’s good.

 

The Financial Meltdown is a global problem

Besides the American banks, I have also heard of banks in the UK going under. According to Paul Krugman at the New York Times, there are also banks in Iceland going down. Glitnir Bank there has taken a massive infusion of euros from the government of Iceland in return for 75% of the bank.

I suspect we will see more along the way.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, the dead cat bounce we saw on Wall Street today should be over and plummeting prices should resume.

Good times!