Category Learning

Entries 14 Total

For 2012

Dec 31, ’11 3:14 PM

Although I find it hypocrite, meaning that the other 364 days in a year are just as important as 31 december, here are my goals for 2012.

Please, keep me to it.

  • Worrying less about worrying. It’ll be fine, even if I don’t worry. If things won’t be fine, it probably isn’t that bad and if it is, I’ll manage. Things will be great and I’ll get my chances.
  • Grow further, develop myself further.
  • Expand my venture, Sporous, to an annual volume of 50 grand.
  • Visit New York (again) and Tokio.
  • Stay happy.

All the best for 2012. It’ll be great.

(I forgot: graduate!)

Be a smart follower

Nov 29, ’11 3:56 PM

Because I signed up for a mailing about “working smarter”, I received an e-mail from a sponsor with 7 tips about being a more effective leader. I normally don’t take action on these mailings, but this one seemed interesting. The including page is right here: Turbocursus Slim Leiderschap, door Jeroen Busscher. It’s in Dutch, but I’ll share it anyway.

7 key aspects of leadership
Busscher emphasizes the following. In order to be a smart and effective leader: make others responsible (don’t instruct), facilitate their needs (don’t motivate), ask questions (don’t give answers), show interest (don’t be an example), trust (don’t coach), inspire (don’t think) and be lazy (don’t work too hard).

What if you’re not a leader
Not to worry. You’re the leader-type but not always in the position to lead. So what do you do? Depend on others to be the leader? No, of course not. Take leadership by being a follower.

Be a smart follower

  • Take responsibility, don’t follow instructions. You’re here to think yourself, don’t let others think for you.
  • Find your needs. What do you need to perform better? Ask for it. Not granted? Ask again.
  • Question. Do not ask questions, just question everything. Don’t follow the path that others laid out – question what others find normal.
  • Be interesting. Love what you do. If you don’t, stop and go looking for something else. Be in pursuit of your interests, surprise yourself.
  • Trust yourself. You’re the one who’s capable of doing this, not somebody else. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.
  • Be inspired. Did the greater things come to you when you’ve asked for it? Brilliance is just around the corner.
  • Don’t be productive. Be effective. Working 60 hours a week will get you somewhere, but doing the same in 30 gets you further.

Now, be a dear and kick ass.

Getting things done #2

Nov 8, ’11 10:13 AM

Okay, I’m on a spree here. Just deleted the Facebook and Twitter app from my phone. For several reasons:

  1. Facebook/Twitter is a medium and not a goal in itself. Seeing how friends are doing for the sake of seeing how friends are doing, doesn’t make sense.
  2. Both Facebook and Twitter are mass media, which means that the information on it is high quantity but low quality. Even during work breaks, I prefer high quality information, such as HN.
  3. Twitter should be used with a purpose, such as finding a contact or building a network. I figured nobody reads my “Do a barrel roll.” and “I’m on a boat!” tweets anyway.
  4. I usually grab my phone when there is alone-time at hand, or just nothing, killing time by staring at pointless “I’m going to sleep and my day was nice” status update by a friend I haven’t spoken to in a long time. Most stupidest and attention-consuming thing I’ve been doing so far.
  5. Noted in this wonderful animation by Amitay Tweeto: you won’t die when not checking Facebook.
  6. Adding to #5: I might die checking Facebook. The probability of such a single occurrence is very small, but if you accumulate all the time I spent wandering around on Facebook and Twitter, how much of me died there when I really go?

Also, I deleted the bookmark bar of Chome. You know, the thingy that makes your e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and Google Analytics stats one click away. Don’t do it.

Be disciplined, save time, achieve more.

Getting things done #1

Nov 7, ’11 6:35 PM

Being productive is all about limiting distraction and being disciplined. For several months now I’ve had the “I only check e-mail twice a day at 12:00 and 16:00″ line as an email signature. It turned out to be more of a reminder to myself than a warning to others, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not too hard to be disciplined. And: I got a bunch of “Whoah! That’s neat GTD man!” responds to it.

Now, here comes the automation part. Use this neat little AppleScript thing to boot up all your favourite Mac programs 15 seconds after launch.

delay 15
tell application "Mail" to activate
tell application "iCal" to activate
tell application "Billings" to activate
tell application "Things" to activate
tell application "Mail" to check for new mail
delay 2
tell application "Finder"
set visible of process "Mail" to false
set visible of process "iCal" to false
set visible of process "Billings" to false
set visible of process "Things" to false
end tell

Then, download Cronnix and put these two lines in your cronjobs file.

0 12 * * * osascript -e 'tell application "Mail.app" to check for new mail'
0 16 * * * osascript -e 'tell application "Mail.app" to check for new mail'

You’ve just automated your Mail.app to check for new e-mail at 12:00 and 16:00 (and when you boot up). Don’t forget to set it to manual. It’s not hard to be disciplined.

Happy GTD-ing.

Are you a creative professional?

Sep 12, ’11 1:40 PM

At this very moment I’m trying to take over the world with yet another app. It’s not going very well, so I need your help.

Are you in the possession of a creative attitude, sunny disposition* and is your mind always crowded with new out-of-the-box ideas? In that case, you’ll most likely are a “creative professional” (or should be). I need your help!

I’m developing an application for the iPhone, which will enable its users to store and retrieve ideas. In order to make it as good as possible, I need insights in its going-to-be userbase and market. Could you help me with that by filling out the survey? There’s a Dutch and an English version. Thanks a bunch!


I’ve tried and it’s possible to fill out all fields in 23 seconds. So it shouldn’t take too long to complete the survey ;-) .

*) All creative people I know are either funny, kind, or both.

More books

Sep 7, ’11 2:11 PM

I learn a lot from reading books. Whether it is skill, insight or actual knowledge – books are solid. Perhaps this is a new series: more books! Please read which books I bought (and why), read and how I feel about them.

Don’t waste your time reading snack-like short “informational” stories on the interwebs; read a good book.

Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug
I read a certain chapter of this book a few years ago, about usability testing. A very hands-on approach, which basically led me through the steps of testing a website with real persons. A must-have for any interaction designer. Don’t ask why I bought this just now – I know I had to buy it rightaway.

The Investor’s Manifesto, William J. Bernstein
Got this from Derek Siver’s list of favourite books. I asked him on Twitter which one I should buy, he responded: “Pick the one that resonates.” Quite cryptic answer, but I figured to buy the one that was still in my mind after I closed the page. I’m not into investing or stock trading yet, but I will be.  I perceived the book (the image of the front) as being authoritative, also coming from Sivers, and therefore decided to buy it with the expectation of a solid insight in modern investing.

Long Tail, Chris Anderson
I made numerous “Load more tweets” request on Twitter until I found the reply of a friend, who recommended this book. This is a real random thing, I have no idea what to expect. Sometimes, it’s cool to put a random prime number in a learning algorithm – also for humans.

The Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman
Also recommended by Sivers (scored 10/10). I’ve been looking for a good book on business education and development, and I thought this might be it. Very curious for this one in particular.

Anything You Want, Derek Sivers
I’m mentioned in this book, for proofreading it. Already read it twice and gave Derek Sivers feedback on a few issues. But hey, gotta have it.

Business Model Generation, Alexander Ostenwalder
Recommended by my graduation project business coach. It’s how he works and he expects me to make a business model canvas. Borrowing it from the library sucks, so I bought it rightaway. Curious for this one too, the canvas thing looks promising.

If it’s worth my while, reviews are coming up when I’ve finished reading.

I seriously love affiliate programs, but not on my personal site. Therefore, not even links to the books. You’re not stupid, just Google the titles and authors.

“Hello World”, Interactionauts is graduating

Sep 5, ’11 12:35 PM

A few months ago the director of UtrechtInc, who was reviewing my graduation proposal, asked me: “Why do you want to do this? It’s a good thing to write down your motivation.”

I’ve never been more motivated to do something. In the past four years I’ve studied Mediatechnology, studying and experiencing new media engineering and design. Before the summer break I’ve been busy with improving my interface design skills, by building the NOOT GUI. As explained during my talk for Design By Fire Café, during the process of designing the interface I realized it would be a nice business venture to expand my prototype into a product. Since the next phase of my professional education will be graduating, I wrote a proposal to graduate self-employed building a new application for mobile phones.

The app I’ll be building will be able to store ideas. Think of photo’s, tags, soundbites etc. combined into a little package. The focus of the app is to keep those ideas alive, by letting them return in your mind. Say bye-bye to the endless stream of bookmarks you don’t read.

That’s not it. Because that’s content, still no motivation. Then I realized, considering what I like most, that “this is it.” It’s the final project to show the world what I’m capable of. My own personal launch pad. If this is what I want to do the rest of my life, it better be a terrific start.

Therefore, “Hello World.” Not only because it’s a first, perhaps even more because it’s a hello – hello world, this is who I am and this is what I do.

NOOT GUI bij Design By Fire Café #011

Jun 29, ’11 10:29 AM

Voor ieder die geïnteresseerd is: op maandag 18 juli spreek ik bij het Design By Fire Café in Utrecht, over de NOOT GUI die ik het afgelopen half jaar heb ontwikkeld.

Zie: http://www.designbyfire.nl/cafe/011.

NOOT GUI: it’s all about affinity

May 16, ’11 9:05 AM

Hooray! I finally got my GUI (for NOOT, my research minor project) ready and it’s turned out quite simple. See below.

The user starts with a blank page, then uses the menu to import a certain dataset. This set consists of images (crossed squares) and audio (circles). These show up on the page, in a grid. The user now can “work” the data, by dragging things together. Images can be expanded, audio can be played. Using the playback controls at the bottom, the whole audio set can be played back.

When the user hovers over a group of data, the title and labels assigned with this group become visible. Using these controls makes it possible to add meta-data to the groups, giving them more meaning.

Using the export option from the menu brings the user to another page, which is ready for printing. The page is filled with all the groups, using the boxed view up right, to display all available information in a structured grid.

Effective discussions

Mar 12, ’11 11:56 PM

During the last few days I have gained some interesting insight in discussing. Last Thursday I observed people who were having a meeting, a brainstorm. They didn’t really come to a conclusion or resolution, because – in my opinion – all of them constantly defended their own piece of land.

So here goes, some infallible* rules for effective discussions.

Don’t do it
Perhaps the most effective action you can take to make a discussion effective is to avoid it. That seems contradictory, but let me explain. A discussion, in my opinion, is a conversation between people where certain opinions or views do oppose each other (or at least do not endorse fully). There is something to discuss, a necessity to come to some sort of an agreement. Apparently it is necessary, so you’ll have to do it. But how and why did it become a must? Because you didn’t agree with it in the first place. You started the discussion, because you wouldn’t agree. So agree!

People tend to see change as a problem. The problem needs to be solved, we don’t like change, so we bring it up in a discussion. We want the old situation back, the way it used to be. However, change is good. It means something is going on, it’s the natural way things go. Things never say the same. You can resist that, bend it, lobby, work your way around it – it won’t work.

So what do you do? Agree? Snap – just like that? Let them walk all over you? No, of course not. You just approach something you perceive as a problem as something else: an opportunity. If you can do nothing against it, go with it and use it to your own liking. Use the influence you have, not the influence you don’t have.

Steer with, not against
That said, you’ll probably end up in a discussion the way you used to do. But now you have a chance, a chance to change the discussion and its outcome to your liking. Not by steering against the current, but steering with the current. Seek within the subject of discussion for things that can help you further. This is an opportunity to act, to change and to have benefit. It seems contradictory, but when you look at it from this perspective: the more problems, the merrier.

By many people, wise and unwise, this has been described as a “win-win situation”. It is a circumstance where both sides can have benefit, together. Neither makes a concession, because that’s win-lose and lose-win. Which is basically lose-lose and nobody wants that. Making a situation mutually beneficial takes responsibility, the courage to look at a situation from the perspective of the opposite person. By understanding their side of the story, you can discover what their real goals are and you can support them with achieving it. They, on the other side, do the same. You both come to an agreement that suits you both and is for everybody of equal benefit. It sounds utopic, but it is fairly easy to ask “What do you mean” to somebody, isn’t it?

Be reasonable
There are problems you can’t solve and there are solutions you can’t accept. When that happens, try to look beyond the problem. What happens if this continues? Make a plan for that situation. Is the solution still unacceptable?

Always suggest a reasonable solution. The opposite side of the table won’t agree with less. They want their money and so do you. Being reasonable is key in this.

Also, note that being reasonable also means that you’ll eventually have to accept something you don’t like. But do you really dislike it? Is it really that bad? Relativize the solution. What happens when it really happens? Is the world still turning? No? Really not? It probably still is.

When the world stops turning
Abandon ship. Come to an agreement with one another that you simply don’t agree and will part as friends. It is useless to fight against a current too strong. You didn’t lose, you just couldn’t figure it out and will try another way. It’s worse to continue with a bad solution, than to abandon discussion if you can’t agree.

The asterisk *: if you don’t agree to what I’m saying, feel free to discuss it.