The trick with guest speakers is finding the right angle. Working out what makes them tick. Where their true passions lie. Then work out if there is a talk there, something worth speaking about.
I’ve sat through some dull talks in my time. Delivered in a dry monotonous voice where even the speaker is at risk of falling asleep, reading from a well rehearsed script with overloaded dull slides. Nothing to grip you or to keep you in the present and out of the land of nod.
I’ve had to source speakers for events. Suggestions from friends and colleagues and the internet are useful. Most of the good speakers either cost too much or they just repeat talks they’re given many times before, and to be honest, you can probably watch for free on YouTube.
The trick is to find a new angle, a variation of the subject they are experts in. Maybe you heard about an experience they had or how they solved a particular problem. Maybe you heard about their hobbies and interests and how a particular subject complements them. Talk to them, research them, find out what makes them tick, what makes the fire behind their eyes light up. What are they passionate about? Now see if there’s a talk there, even a small one.
You want to entertain your audience, inform them, and stimulate those neurons. Find the right angle and help your speakers deliver amazing talks.
Refining RSS feeds
I’ve written my own RSS feeds, by hand. A long time ago now. I still like the idea of not having to visit a website to look for articles of interest, to have everything from your favourite sites all in one place, updated in near real time fed straight into my phone.
There can be too much noise though. I find myself refining often, like an OCD minimalist. Sorting, organising, refining. Ensuring that there is less noise and more signal. Until nothing gets through and you miss stuff. So you add it all in again and start refining once again. Repetitive.
Interests change, so you have to cull what was once interesting but is now dull. You add new content. Browse today’s trending topics. Anything worth adding? Adding and refining.
RSS. Refining Signal Streams.
Big expenses
Whenever I’m faced with big expenses they always seem to arrive at inappropriate times, where you really need whatever needs fixing to continue to work right now. You are presented with a quote and it’s big, like really big, like I can buy a cheap car with that sort of money big.
You have to make a decision quickly. What are your options? Just pay it, find an alternative, try something else time allowing? I try to buy time to find a more financially pleasing option, but there never is one. So you have to make a decision quickly with whatever info you have at hand and hope it was the right one.
New boilers, house repairs, car repairs, medical bills, you name it. Big expenses are everywhere. Just waiting to strike at the most annoying moment when they can cause the most annoyance. Hitting your wallet where it hurts the most.
ChatGPT vs Google
It used to be just Google it. You want an answer to something? Type it into a search engine, most probably Google. Easy.
These days people are turning to AI for answers rather than search engines. You want to know how to do something? Ask ChatGPT. Need a complex calculation done? Just ask the nearest AI. Simple.
ChatGPT Vs Google.
Of course Google now features AI. So not only is that heavily SEO’d internet content competing for your attention with sponsored links, it has AI to contend with too. Type your query into Google and the first response to any question is usually AI.
Virtual wandering
There are so many video games with open worlds. I find myself on occasion going for a virtual wander. No aim in mind. No side mission. No challenge, or Easter eggs to hunt. Just aimless virtual wandering. Driving my car, riding my bike or horse, sailing a boat, or on virtual foot. Just exploring the virtual world with no destination in mind. A kind of digital mindfulness. Bathing in the Unreal forests, swimming with the AI fish. Relaxed, calm, aimless.
Just virtual wandering.
On being a professional
I’ve been consulting for a while. Working on my own. I miss working with other professionals. They make me up my A game each day, every day. Working as a team getting the job done. Coming in under budget meeting deadlines.
Then everything ends. Completion. End of project. We all move on to the next gig. The next contract. Maybe we’ll work with other professionals, like us. Or maybe it will be just us, alone, hired by a board, or group, or someone that you only see at the start and end of the project. A resource hired to get the job done. A lone professional. Someone with a particular set of skills and the experience to get the job done in the time and budget allocated.
It can be lonely. A new place, new people. You explore the area on lunch breaks. Go for walks, find new places to eat. Getting the steps in. Back at your desk you make progress, complete tasks, move closer to the end.
Then the end comes. You move on again to the next contract, and the next, and the next.
It can be rewarding at times, lonely at others. You take pride in your work. You complete each contract leaving happy clients behind as you move on to the next. Maybe there will be a new friend at the next, or maybe a fun team that you will be a part of. While it lasts anyway. Nothing lasts in this game so enjoy it while it does. One day there will be no more contracts.
What others are doing
Some days I catch myself thinking about what others might be doing. Looking on social media I see friends on holiday, at parties and social events, having fun, and enjoying life. Then I look at my day ahead: crossing some jobs off my to do list, a spot of gardening, playing a game with my kids. Maybe we should go out for the day? I check. They want to play on the games console, watch some TV, or play in the garden.
Shouldn’t we be doing something more exciting I think? Are we boring, or wasting our days? Our worldview is skewed by the Instagram lifestyle, the influencers, and social media gurus. Feeding us a version of the perfect life. Something to strive for. But is it reality?
It turns out my family is happy with their plans for today. The sun is out and the garden is a nice place to be, or the room with the games console. Everyone is happy and that’s the main thing.
The trick is not to measure by comparison to others, but how happy you all are. Stack the memories, the experiences sure. But the days where you just hang out at home together counts just as much as a holiday.
Dandelion and burdock
I suddenly had a thirst for dandelion and burdock. A drink I haven’t even thought about since childhood.
It was popular in 1980s England. The lemonade man used to sell it. He’d pop around with his lorry full of pop each week. You could get the usual flavours like lemonade, cola, fizzy orange. Then there was the more exotic flavours like American cream soda, and dandelion and burdock.
It tasted like cola in the same way Dr Pepper tastes like Cherry Coke. Similar, but not the same. Something slightly different giving it something extra for the taste buds to savour.
I’ve tried finding a can or bottle with no luck. Friends up north can locate some but I have yet to locate any down here. I’m not giving up though. A taste memory from my childhood needs satiating.
Keeping to schedule
I used to create a comic strip years ago. I had deadlines to meet. A number of strips to create each week. It became tiring, not fun. I eventually stopped. Doing something to a deadline is work. Creativity should be fun. These mini articles, blog entries, brain dumps, or whatever you want to call them are written for me. If anyone else reads them or finds even one of them remotely useful, then great, but essentially I write them for me. There is no schedule I follow, I just write them and submit. The software organises them and releases them one a day. When there are gaps it’s because the softare has caught up with the backlog. Maybe there was nothing I wanted to write about for a bit. And That’s ok. Schedules are for work and I write for fun.
As long as you can
I was watching the classic movie Gleaming the Cube starring Christian Slater as a skateboarder. It’s a cool movie, you should check it out if you haven’t already*. When I first watched it I wanted an underground den like his friend in the movie.
I learned much later that the actual skateboarding was performed by Tony Hawks. I saw Tony on YouTube recently trying to perform one of his old tricks. He was in his 50s.
This got me thinking.
How long can you do something that you loved doing when you were young, but becomes harder as you age, or is considered not something one does when older, such as skateboarding?
My answer: As long as you can!
If you love something and it brings you joy, why not keep on doing it regardless of what others think? Keep on doing it until your body and mind will no longer let you. Ollie that skateboard, ride that BMX, surf the waves, rollerblade, skoot, and do whatever floats your boat until you no longer can.
Not everything is forever, so enjoy it as long as you can.
*Also check out Pump up the Volume.