Go figure.

Kids are growing up in probably one of the most radical times in our short history- and just responding to that. Even, as working professionals, there’s a strong link between our survival/success rate and our (in)ability to multitask efficiently. And by that, I don’t mean just our working life. I’m also talking about overall life balance. Note: highly specialized and focused work is mutually exclusive to multitasking and not to be confused.

My suggestion would be to adapt curricula and more importantly, the mechanisms for delivering educational content rather than drug our kids into a state of submission and destroy their creativity. Spend two minutes reading, then interrupt that with some writing for a few moments, then interrupt that and start a different thread. Sounds like a regular day in the office, doesn’t it? And therein lies a clue. We want our kids to be “successful” in the future, for a career/calling/job which doesn’t exist yet, in an economy not yet finalized. One thing we can guess with a fair amount of certainty is that it’ll contain a fair amount of flux and dynamism. And if anything, the ability to adapt and evolve with trends. My guess is that kids who exhibit a high degree of ADD/ADHD will cope extremely well. Those that resist those changes and expect things to come to them in an orderly fashion will lose out.

So why not guide and lead the kids through a structured program of content, one which might seem haphazard and chaotic; dynamic even, but has un underlying goal and overriding author steering the objectives and the outcomes?

Let’s harness this new found ability kids have to effectively multitask, stop calling it a disorder (due largely to our own ineffectiveness), and embrace it as a super power of sorts, one which is preparing kids for a future we have no real control over. Moreover, let’s help our kids understand and work with this talent, to help them to use it responsibly.

I don’t think the issue lies with kids unable to focus, but rather on outdated 20th century industrialized techniques suddenly finding themselves completely inadequate and at a loss as how to cope with the changes and distractions…

Bigger problem is it’s so easy to stir because the triggers and responses are so predictable. Which is why, I guess, it’s so tempting for anyone who’s bored and has the motivation to go “watch-what-happens-when-i-do-this”. Sometimes you don’t need an intentional agent though; things just happen by chance. When things do, the stuff that crawls out the woodwork never ceases to astound me…

Today was definitely a BlackBerry vs iPhone day. The BB service was out and just like that, all the “jokes” come tweeting out. Some even tried roping in the recently deceased to flesh out their attempts at humour like an amateur stand-up comedian high on bad drugs. Ugly.

Different technology, different software, different hardware- in fact different anything- exists for a reason. It’s just different. It does stuff differently. Not better, or worse necessarily (economics *should* weed out the bad over time). Just different. Some folk like iPhone, others Android. Others BlackBerry. Some don’t like any of the above. It doesn’t really matter. Each have their own purpose and fit their own- it’s why they all have *a* market share. Who really cares whose is bigger? It seems the classical jock envy pervades all facets of life and is gender-immune.

But if getting into a flame war, trolling or just stirring the pot is your thing, then so be it. I do think though, if we had to harness the collective creative energies of our generation (less the amateur stand-up comic wannabe’s maybe?) and directed it towards solving problems, rather than trying to trump each other on points, we would more than likely be half way to a half decent sustainable world.

But then again, going by what Batman said: “we’re defined by our actions”; I’m not sure it’s what we really want. Maybe being “in” with the #1 technology is more important…?

* Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
* Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
* Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person
* Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.

May God protect our people.

Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso. God seen Suid-Afrika. God bless South Africa. Mudzimu fhatushedza Afurika. Hosi katekisa Afrika.

There’s more to that over here

Being smart means you engage your own thinking in a sustainable way. Not just your own thinking to satisfy the whims and needs of now- but also to satisfy the more basic needs later on. There’s a measure of self-control there (which is a product of both personality, character and perhaps even environment), but if your thinking is on cue, you’ve won half the battle.

Making a not-so-smart choice means you lose a lot of energy down the line engaging with peripheral damage as a result of that choice. It’s those side-skirmishes which drain your soul and stop you from being and accomplishing all your hopes and dreams. They bleed your time, energy and money. The potential of you making another not-so-smart-choice grows since your senses are wounded and pretty soon, you end up in a lifetime spiral of chaos and “stuff” with “no time or money” and a suitcase of regrets.

Let’s look at the smart, “boring” people. We’ve all heard the phrase “be nice to geeks, one day he/she will be your boss”. Those geeks, the smart people, who’ve made smart choices (which, by the way means you need to sacrifice popularity, image, status-quo, maybe even a hot boy/girl friend along the way) live pretty under-the-radar boring lives. They travel to exotic locations, always starting charity drives, good health plans, lead a fulfilled lifestyle, are always busy yet never “mad-busy”, live in a decent neck of the woods, drive a Volvo :p and never seem to be clouded in drama. I think that’s where the boring part fits in?

Yes, there are exceptions to everything and this is not applicable to every smart (or even not-so-smart decision maker) out there- and don’t confuse smart and rich and poor or not-so-smart. If you are, it’s probably because of the feedback, experience and associations you have (which in a cruel and sad way echo exactly what I stated in the beginning). It’s just, if you’re thinking to yourself that smart is a tad boring (or otherwise but similarly described), think twice, think it through.

The thing about a choice is this: you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

Caveat: That could also imply that what looks like a smart decision today, is not so smart down the line, but if you’re thinking smart you’ll accommodate that change in plan when and if it does happen.

On your BlackBerry go to: Options > AutoText

The AutoText feature is useful for two situations, out the box: typos and macros. Typos such as ‘hte’ become ‘the’ and ‘acn’ become can. Let me guess, you thought it was a built-in spell-checker, right? Then there are other macros like ‘mypin’ or ‘myver’ which automatically become replaced with your BB pin number or OS version and device model. Well, these are both possible thanks to the AutoText application.

In a world filled with SMS-speak abounding with abbreviations, there is now no reason to communicate ambiguously or without vowels. SMS-speak taught us (out of necessity) to limit our characters and given the nature of language, “a sntnc abbvd cn stil mk sns” (sic), we could get away with it- mostly. Evidently, Twitter is re-inforcing this new dialect. Of course, there is also the other issue of actually physically typing out all the required vowels and letters which just takes too long. However, on the BlackBerry, you can both have your cake and eat it. You can still type SMS-speak while actually communicating “proper” native tongue.

All you need to do is add AutoText options like:
tx = thank you
cn = can
e = the
ha = hahaha
btw = by the way

And so on, as you require and pretty soon, you will type out:
tx! btw, cn you pop pick it up 4 me? ha
But be communicating:
Thank you! By the way, can you pick it up 4 me? Hahaha

Of course, when it comes to SMSs you might get slightly annoyed at having to correct the abbreviations again- but why would you need to SMS? Oh, wait. Let me guess. You still have friends on iPhone, right?

If I was a school-going kid today and all I heard on the radio, saw on television and endured at the dinner table was complaints about:
* ill-equipped teachers
* low standards
* education “crisis” after “crisis”
* decay in the moral fibre of the education system at large
* incompetence of the government to execute decent delivery of education

And so on…

Would I be enthusiastic about going to the same place everyday which everyone else drums up as a “hole”? Hell, no. And more- pay attention?

And then we exacerbate the situation when we bemoan the lack of attitude and performance of the learners. Really? We actually expect them to ignore our very public and negatively distorted opinions on education and apply themselves?

What if we told our kids that going to school was:
* fun
* exciting
* filled with opportunities
* a time to create and invent -yourself-
* all-round just plain awesome
?

Because truth be told, it is all of the above.

In days of old, ok, not that old, a hacker was someone who lived, eat and breathed binary. They were the geeks of the day and relished their 10000 hours on the computer with zeal. They were not necessarily deviant or trying to overthrow governments, banks or universities. They just (mostly) coded. And then somewhere between 1980 and 2000, the meaning of the word changed and now a hacker is largely understood to be a “bad” person. And I use the term “bad” loosely because one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. Heck, these days, just participating in a DDoS (even unknowingly- ha!) can get you labelled a “hacker”. Oooo…

Phishing is another one. I have trouble with the word phishing. Just coming up with the term and calling ‘it’ by something else robs the essence of what ‘it’ is. Let’s face it, phishing is fraud- on so many levels.

If someone knocked on your door, dressed as a policeman, claiming to be a policeman, flashed a policeman badge and requested to enter your house on the premise of official police business (but he wasn’t a policeman)- he would be arrested, tried, found guilty and sent to jail for doing only that. He wouldn’t even need to enter your house to make new chums in the block. He just needs to pretend to be someone he’s not in order to gain something that’s not his. He’s a conman. A fraud. A liar. A cheat. A decepticon.

Do this online (or via text) and you’re only phishing. Happily, justice departments see through the thin veil that the word phishing tries to hide. They apply existing criminal codes which match the behaviour of the phishing agent(s) and go to trial based on that but we tend to be blasé about the word despite very real consequences. Only when there’s a consequence do we upgrade our language and start calling it for what it is: fraud.

Hopefully, with time, the word phishing will convey a stronger sense of immorality. That way, when we are confronted with phishing emails, sms, phone calls, we take them a little more seriously. Not just, “Oh. Spam. Delete”. If some “policeman” was walking around your neighbourhood knocking on everybody’s door, asking to come in, would you just: “Oh. Fake. Close door.” and carry on as you were? Or would you: “Uh-oh. Call the real cops. There’s a phony on the prowl”?

Continuing with cliche abuse, evil reigns when good men do nothing. With Data Protection Day coming up (28 January 2010), think for a moment about your contribution to the battle against fraud.

Let’s say you’re looking to hire a developer/marketing guru/insert-job-title-here…
First question: who would be the best possible candidate (within your organisation) to strike a chord with other potential developers/marketing gurus/insert-job-titles-here out there seeking gainful employment?

HR?

Surely not?

I’ll talk from a developer’s perspective to illustrate my point.

Does HR really know how to communicate with another programmer better than a fellow of the realm? (unless of course that HR has had a career change, which is not unlike a sex change apparently)
I’m guessing not.

Does HR (or is this marketing’s influence?) also not realise that phrases like “fresh, dynamic company” apply to 99.99999% of all job ads out there. After all, who would advertise:

Boring, staid company seeks equally dull individual to maintain lack of office vibe.

So you’re effectively writing without really communicating when you drop phrase du jour into your ads.

Now also keep in mind that programmers, like any other jobseeker out there, are accustomed to reading 1000s of job ads. After a while, you can’t help but pick up the patterns, which, evidently is what a programmer is born, trained, paid, skilled and schooled to do. It’s like staring at those hidden pictures…

So the last thing you want to do is sound just like every other ad out there- unless the first thing you want to do is attract anybody who calls themselves a programmer. And in this day and age, it *is* scary at exactly what does flock towards the job title of programmer.

So here’s an approach: distributed problem solving. Get your developers to write the spec. Heck, get as many people in your company to write the spec.

Use HR for editing and to correct the offered renumeration. If your developers come back with…:

come slave away in our luxury offices overlooking the ocean with so much coffee on tap it would kill an elephant (seriously, George (UI) was taken to hospital twice last year with caffeine poisoning).
the pay is “ok” but the pointy-eared bosses don’t have a clue about things technical so you can just BS your time away and put up with the occasional demand.
overtime sux. at least the lan is wicked fast and we have uncapped ADSL with no firewall
p.s. my christmas leave just got cancelled thanks to an unreasonable deadline. bastards will pay!

Maybe you need to rethink hiring another head and spend some time “fixing” first?

But wait. You’ve also gained some valuable insight into the current group dynamic. That is an entirely different post altogether, needless to say, you can discern the inherent value therein yourself.
Oh, and one important tip: don’t give the task of writing their own job ad to your programmers with the air of a pointy-eared boss. At best, you’re going to get a copy-paste version. At worst, a one-liner: software developer required. apply within.

Done right, your devs communicating and reaching out to their peers works “better”. it’s more viral, more accessible, more appealing. It’s why the techie companies attract all the “cool” people because they speak the same language. But it doesn’t mean that just because your company doesn’t have a tech focus that it can’t do the same.

So here’s what i would like to see in a job ad:
It’s posted on youtube (for starters). It includes a view of the offices and some insight to the people i’m going to be working with; kinda like a:
“hi. my name is Martin. I’m head of engineering here at insert-company-here. looking forward to meeting you. bye.” and so on with key people.
and please include the receptionist. i’d also like to see footage of the coffee machine (in working order).
i would like to see/feel the buzz/vibe on a normal day. don’t go overboard with editing; candid is good.
and of course, i wanna see hardware. that’s important too. and workspaces, collaboration spaces and chill spaces.
you don’t have to give any secrets away, but if you can capture your ogranisation, it sells itself.

and if you can’t… erm… yes, well.. erm… right. look! ooooh. shiny.

In technology, and more specifically, coding technology, the Holy Grail looks like a Silver Bullet. They’re actually the same thing, just prone to shape shifting. And the next best thing will be the answer to all your (current) problems. What you don’t hear about are the new problems this next best thing introduces thus initiating a next round of search for the next silver bullet. And so it goes on. From languages, to methodologies, to platforms, to frameworks, to products, to services, to concepts… and even, to people.

The health/fashion/insert-name industry are much the same. No surprises here with the next best thing promising to be the answer to all your health/fashion/insert-name problems. Even religion. The buzz words abound and we hop from program to trend to achieve the ultimate goal in the shortest possible time with the least amount of effort. Except that that is as far from the Holy Grail as Patagonia is from Jerusalem. Oh the irony.

If only the Holy Grail didn’t cleverly disguise itself as determination, passion and hard work we would more easily recognise it. Ah, if only the Silver Bullet came all neatly wrapped in shiny neon with colorful crinkle wrapper and in tablet form that you only had to take twice a day with meals. And if only the answer to all our problems were easily downloadable and came with a 30-day free trial. But it doesn’t. And whatever you’re being sold that does, is not it.

In tech, I’ve seen solutions soar on hardware-software combinations that defy marketing material. In sport, i’ve witnessed achievements that defy current trends. And in health, I’ve seen results that swim upstream the mainstream. I’ve also seen the opposite.

Kitted to the nines with all the latest garb, wizardry and ca$h, software systems have exploded with little more than a well-timed “boo”. Athletes train season after season with no progress. And people get unhealthier despite the many, many (many, many) diets. Ah… but this next one is guaranteed to work, right?

The (not-so) “secret” to all the success stories I’ve encountered in articles, experiences (first, second or third hand), stories told over the campfire, coffee chats, eavesdropping, documentaries- everywhere basically; is this:

work hard with passion. pay attention to detail. don’t give up (too soon). that is the holy grail. kinda like a Po-Reading-The-Dragon-Scroll-Moment. oh, and if you hit a tipping point you’ll probably make a living doing it too. score!