It’s been quite a year for new stuff, some good, some not so great. Here’s some of 2006’s new arrivals:
Books are not better than other media, just different. And I think there’s a reason books will always have place, or at least long-form written communication. While visual media can be brilliant, and so can the quick fixes you get on the web, a problem can be missing out the nuance and complexity of longer collections of writing.
I don’t just mean that reading can be more demanding and therefore more rewarding, although that’s kind of true, it’s that they’re better for getting accross more complex detail. When you read a book, you’re not forced to follow a director’s pace, or make do with a quick snapshot that misses the real meat. You can stop and start when you want, you can linger over a certain point or even go back and read it again. This is great for fiction but even better for factual books and text books.
At the recommendation of Mr PH Colman I’m going to read Richard Dawkin’s ‘The God Delusion’. I flicked over it in Borders and I can already see it’s well written, full of complex argument and ideas. I won’t want to rush it, I’ll want to stop and pondera particular point, or grapple with an argument, maybe reading it a couple of times before moving on. It’s a bit like that when you read a textbook at school. You don’t read it once, you keep coming back again and again.
With other media you lose the depth, but you also have to fit in with the pace someone else has set for you. When it comes to really learning something new, and squeezing every drop from each sentence, it’s hard to think of a better medium than books, or for that matter, the meatier articles and essays in newspapers and some magazines.
I’m working on a utopian pitch a the moment. Clear point of difference, client that wants a famous brand. He loves communication that’s interesting enough to get passed on. One of those projects you dream of as planner. Or is it?
It’s easy to throw your opinions around on blogs and things, with wonderful theories that look great on paper. It’s another to actually do it yourself. There’s usually the comfort of the client ‘not getting it’, but what happens when you’ve got someone who just says ‘stick your neck out and be brilliant’? What happens when there’s no account person putting brakes on? We’ve got Kirsten; straight bat, will support you to the hilt.
Am I nervous? Of course. But being a bit afraid means you won’t stop trying. I’m going to be working with Stu which is a big plus. We’ll talk a lot, throw things around, fall out, argue and, in the the end enjoy every second of it. I like presenting stuff with him, he balances my faults. I tend to dance around and get over excited,while he’s got this horse whisperer thing going. Cool as a cucumber.
..but this helped.
More from Genius on Radio 4. This week’s best idea was a solution to the bead conundrum. It’s annoying that bread only comes in fixed thickness of slice – thin, medium or thick. Of course, you can have unsliced bread and do it yourself, but slicing bread isn’t easy for people as hamfisted as me.
The solution? Perforated bread. Just tear it at the thickness you want. Brilliant.
One thing I miss about being a suit is all the free lunches, good food is my third favourite thing too- drink is second. Don’t forget I’m from North, ergo tight fisted; free is good.
You can imagine then how much I’ll enjoy the coming weeks of sampling some eateries on expenses. It’s for a pitch, and if we win there’ll be more free food. It’s Wagamama tommorow, I’ll savour every free bite (I hope).
Two apparently unrelated things connected for me this week.
Firstly, thanks to all the swimming training I’m doing, I occasionally find myself a bit tired and have to watch out for momentary lapses of judgement at work. It’s hard doing anything anything significant outside of a full time job unless your commited and fantastically organised (I’m commited but the organisation is something I’m working on…..). This may explain the embarassing typos and less than interesting posts on this blog, or that’s my excuse anyway.
Which brings me to the other thing. I work on ChildLine for free, which isn’t always easy to fit around paying clients’ . This is nothing next to the volunteers who give up regular evenings and weekends to man the phones and raise money. You have to admire their commitment when it can affect the energy they have for their real job, and ‘me time’. Makes me wonder how much recruiting volunteers for stuff is about them getting some slack from the people they work for, and live with. Maybe it’s no coincidence that the profile for charity workers is bored Mums and empty nesters.
I was reading that Lucozade is being respositioned as an alternative to the caffiene pick me up. Interesting thought (although Lucozade will always be a funny tasting drink to have when you’re ill to me). Did you get that from any of those ‘Energising Britain’ executions? I certainly didin’t, maybe my brain’s tired. Time for a cup of tea I think.
Famous Rob’s posted about the John Smiths ads here. There’s 30,000 people called John Smith in the UK, you could have some fun with that………
NORTHERN PLANNER 
