I (used to) coach a kids football team. They are great kids, with lots of heart and a real love of football.
However we often find ourselves in situations where they are afraid to make decisions.
Even after talking through or even demonstrating that it is OK to make mistakes, they still are afraid of making decisions/taking risks.
For me, this is a massive challenge: If I can successfully persuade these kids that taking a chance one way or the other is a good thing, their overall performance on the pitch will be so much better.
And that is what makes it so interesting. It isn’t about teaching them a physical skill; the problem is behavioural.
This links directly into what all my work is about: trying to influence behavioural change from norms that do not benefit people to a new approach that will increase their happiness.
Here is an email I sent to parents:
So the government has problems with setting tax levels (and collecting tax).
People have problems with tax being too high rate/unfair.
And few journalists have any clue to be able to challenge George Osborne, and all the main political parties, on his/their rather clueless policies (exception: @allisterheath of CityAM)
So here is my solution:
For the longest time, I have wanted to pass something from my screen to another.
A start-up, Pult, has come up with a great concept to allow screen sharing. Essentially, both screens are paired over the internet with a randomly generated 4 digit code.
How about taking this one step further, for sending files.
Twitter mood selector
Changes avatar/profile-photo to be happy, sad, orgasmic, frustrated, etc
Simple interface with a few ‘moods’ and the ability to associate them with a photo (either from the web or uploaded from phone/pc)
I am learning to code.
When asked why I want to learn, my answer was simple and instinctive:
“The web is ugly. I want to show people what it should look like.”
So we are now coming to build our own projects, and this is what I came up with, on the fly:
Dropbox and Google Drive have it wrong.
Your files should be anywhere (referenced) and are synced when accessed/changed by applications.
That way you catch all, and keep truly in sync.
Also can interface better with web and desktop.
Google Docs would be so much more ‘normal’ as a result with files as well as web editing.
Tech should work around us, not the other way around. Well done Dropbox for showing us the way, but now let’s get it right and truly integrate with applications and the web, for file/data syncing.
I was Vice President of my Students’ Union (at the University of Westminster)
1. Do you enjoy your job?
I love my job. It’s like a soap opera here. Plus if I was so inclined, the contacts I make and the prestige would be invaluable for any future career…but as my future career will involve being pampered on the most beautiful beaches on Earth, I’m happy to not pursue my own gain from the job…which contributes to me enjoying it more.
All household waste should be sorted and recycled.
Free to those households who sort, charge to those who do not.
Checks on household sorting efficiency, warnings issued with specifics of bad sorting, to better educate populace.
Government owned facilities upgraded as experiment and guidelines issued to private sector service providers.
Quality assurance as part of annual tender.
Start-ups encouraged to innovate with waste/recycling operations, business model and technology.
Consumers often have to chase charges they have not authorised. This is not just; there should be consumer protections in place
A law that sets out clear process and remedy when a consumer feels they are charged something they do not owe
Consumer submits amount and retailer/business name (web-based service)
Service sends business an e-mail asking for justification for charge
If charge unjust, business to refund 3 times amount to consumer, through the protection service
Service has bailiffs on call to speedily recover funds
One day, soon, we’ll don masks and tie around capes and we’ll hit the vermin in the streets back - freedom and comfort for all.
Until then, we need to attain credibility and resources. Bruce Wayne needed family wealth, Tony Stark his company, even Superman had an unfair advantage.
It was only Peter Parker who suffered. Yet it was Peter Parker who became the greatest superhero of them all. Why? Because he earned it.
"I have just seen this video interview of Tony Shieh, CEO of Zappos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoTc3HGBbPg&sns=em).
He says great companies build a culture based on values. Those values are the glue/commonality that permeate through everything they do. They shape intentions so that all those who represent the brand are free to do what their gut says, because they are already aligned.
The UK has too much inequality. We have all read the newspaper articles quoting statistics that most of all the UK’s wealth is held by so few of the population, whilst for normal people rents have increased disproportionately over income.
Tax is that necessary evil that allows us to fairly govern and is often used as a means of maintaining a much fairer wealth distribution. Current UK taxes focus on taxing profits. That means big companies can fiddle their accounts to report less profits than individuals on PAYE, who spend money and truly stimulate the economy.
The British press and media are either malicious, ignorant, lazy or a combination of all three.
I’ll explain why.
We are currently experiencing less prosperous times. But people aren’t suffering more than normal, as there are many institutions in place to help those who are destitute.
You would be forgiven for thinking that we are in dire straits because that is exactly the picture the often overly negative media portray.
It’s just not true.
Two solutions, one long term, one more immediate, to stimulate the UK economy.
Educate kids to reason for themselves. The current primary and secondary education provided in the UK is embarrassing. How can so many children, in a socialist state, waste all that time in formal schools and yet not have acceptable levels of numeracy and literacy?
No check-in desks.
Gates have check-in, bag drop and security integrated. Machines in front of all the gates allow ID scanning, bag tagging, ticket buying.
Why do you need to check-in, go through security and check-in/board at the gate all separately? And why are ticket desks and customer service separate from the natural flow?
