Category: The day job
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Most recieved wisdom about society in England (and the UK to some extent) describes a nation that finds it hard to express emotions. It drives our obesession with owning a home (to shut out other people) and our distaste for public transpot (being thrown together with strangers). But that doesn't mean we are devoid of…
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I'm lucky to have a great relationship with my father. It wasn't always thus, we had the familiar late teens rocky patch when we struggled with re-adjusting to 'he's not quite man, he's certainly not a boy anymore' thing. What really frustrates me is how I didn't respect him as much as he deserved until…
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When I was a lot younger, I wanted to leave something behind. After agencies and marketing in general consigned me to the scrapheap. No prizes for guessing that was a body of good work. I still want to leave something, but it's nothing to do with the vain pretensions above. I still believe in doing…
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If you haven’t read Steven Johnson’s book, ‘Where Ideas Come from’ you should. It might challenge some of your long held beliefs about where great ideas really come from. A ‘slow hunch’ is much more valuable than a Eureka moment. Flashes of insight rarely happen, most great innovations are the result of graft.…
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Someone once told me that everyone at Microsoft in Seattle used to be ace at crisply describing their what they were working on - in about 30 seconds. Reason was simple. The office only had two floors, consequently, the lift took about 30 seconds at most. Bill Gates was socially inept and was even worse…
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Evie, my lovely little daughter is a bit of a Daddy's girl. I won't pretend not to like this. But not even Daddy escapes the darker elements of her current stage of development. Namely, the power of repetition. When it's time to brush her teeth, Evie miraculously loses the power of hearing. Ask her ten…
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There is a calm fury to a true craftsman. The restless perfectionist who's work is never done, it just that time has run out. I used to love John McEnroe, all waspy wayward genius and volcanic rage for perfection. But he couldn't control his passions – blowing up in his face as much as carrying…
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I have seen and done sone stupid things in my time. I have seen Mission Impossible 2. I bought a Mel and Kim single when I was very, very young. I tried to boil an egg in the microwave. More recently, I have been seriously riding a road bike for around two years, but only…
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This post about 'Would You' reminded me of one my favourite campaigns for police recruitment. "Could you?" Simple insight, we respect the hell out people who do what we cannot, in service of a simple problem – quality recruits, not quantity. Great media thinking. Get to the chosen few by making them feel great…
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The interwebs, it could be argued, are like a big purgatory. An 'in between' worlds for thousand upon thousands of interactive this and social media stuff, that no one ever bothered with. Digital tumbleweeds doomed to spend eternity in limbo where no one can be fagged to do interact with them, yet no one can…
NORTHERN PLANNER 