Sad, sobering but beautiful. “The photographer and filmmaker Katy Grannan travels around America to capture the nation’s mood in 2016.”
You can’t love something if you don’t know it exists
March 6, 2016 by 21 Comments
You will say you don’t have 10 minutes to watch. And then, you will say, why did it end so soon.
Watch this amazing TED Talk here: Dive into an ocean photographer’s world.
“Somersaulting manta rays, dashing dolphins, swarming schools of fish and munching sharks inhabit a world beneath the ocean’s surface that few get a chance to see. Conservation photographer Thomas Peschak visits incredible seascapes around the world, and his photos reveal these hidden ecosystems. “You can’t love something and become a champion for it if you don’t know it exists,” he says. Join Peschak as he shares his stunning work and his dream for a future of respectful coexistence with the ocean.”
Get. To. The. Point.
March 13, 2014 by 43 Comments
Excerpts from the Joseph McCormack’s Book Brief: The Brevity Mandate
“Here are the daunting challenges we all face every day to be heard: Attention spans are in a tailspin. In 2000, the average attention span was 12 seconds and now it’s only eight. Professionals are interrupted 6-7 times an hour, often unable to get back to the task at hand. More than 43% abandon complicated or lengthy emails in the first 30 seconds. And the majority of people admit ignoring half the e-mails they get every day.”
“The more you say, the less people hear”
“The business world today is full of information overload and there is not enough time to sift through it. If you cannot capture people’s attention and deliver your message with brevity, you’ll lose them.”
“The discipline to capture and manage elusive mindshare now shapes and defines professional success. Shorter emails, better organized updates, and tighter and more engaging presentations are immediate indicators that you’ve got what it takes to succeed in an attention economy.”
“Getting to the point is a non-negotiable standard.”
Find book on Amazon here.
Talking is like drinking a great Cabernet. Listening is like doing squats.
October 5, 2013 by 26 Comments
- “Take this simple test: After your next long conversation with someone, estimate what percentage of it you spent talking. Be honest. No, you’re already underestimating. How do I know? Because it’s more fun to talk than to listen. Add another 20% to your total. If you talked more than 70% of the time, you jabber too much.”
- “An optimal conversation flow has each person talking about 50% of the time. This is the Ali-Frazier of good give-and-take.”
- “But, you say, what if your talking partner is just quiet and loves to listen? Stop it. She doesn’t. Listening is like reading a corporate report. Talking is like eating a cinnamon bun.”
- So how do you achieve this 50-50 conversational ideal? Easy: ask questions. But don’t think that one “How are you?” is going to turn you into Oprah. Actually listen to what the other person is saying, and find openings.”
- “But if you’re talking about someone whom your conversation partner doesn’t know, especially a mother, keep it short—one minute tops, unless it’s a truly fantastic story.”
- “I can hear you complaining already: “One minute? But I need to include all the details.” No you don’t…Your job is to quickly entertain and inform, and then to ask good questions…”
- “Also, let your chattering breathe a little. One dastardly arrow in the big talker’s quiver is to slow down in the middle of his sentence, then to blow through the period so that there’s no opening for anyone to squeeze a word in.”
- “Another essential rule is to monitor your audience. Is the guy you’re talking to glancing at his cellphone, spinning his Dorito like a paper football or making his tie into a noose? If so, pull the ripcord and ask him if Heineken is his favorite beer, since you’ve just seen him drain five of them. Watch how relieved he is to have a turn to talk!”
~ Rob Lazebnik, a writer on “The Simpson’s. See full article @ wsj.com: It’s True: You Talk Too Much
I have a few ‘acquaintances’ that could benefit from these tips. 🙂
It has an edge. It opens your eyes. Quickens your ears.
July 11, 2013 by 24 Comments
“Not just any talk is conversation; not any talk raises consciousness. Good conversation has an edge: it opens your eyes to something, quickens your ears. And good conversation reverberates: it keeps on talking in your mind later in the day; the next day, you find yourself still conversing with what was said. That reverberation afterward is the very raising of consciousness; your mind’s been moved. You are at another level with your reflections.”
– James Hillman, We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World is Getting Worse
James Hillman (1926 – 2011) was an American psychologist born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He studied at, and then guided studies for, the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, founded a movement toward archetypal psychology and retired into private practice, writing and traveling to lecture, until his death at his home in Thompson, Connecticut on October 27, 2011. After high school, he studied at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University for two years. He served in the US Navy Hospital Corps from 1944 to 1946, after which he attended the Sorbonne in Paris, studying English Literature, and Trinity College, Dublin, graduating with a degree in mental and moral science in 1950. In 1970, Hillman became editor of Spring Publications, a publishing company devoted to advancing Archetypal Psychology as well as publishing books on mythology, philosophy and art. His magnum opus, Re-visioning Psychology, was written in 1975 and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. (Source: Wiki)
Source: Image – Circololettori. Quote: Whiskey River.
Our fantasies of substitution (with tech) have cost us…
April 7, 2012 by 17 Comments
Sherry Turkle is a professor at MIT and “studies how technology is shaping our modern relationships: with others, with ourselves, with it.” I found her talk to be (very) important, timely and a bit frightening (as I internalize her thoughts as to my personal behavior.) Lori @ Donna & Diablo describes this talk as “chilling” – I’m with Lori.
I would encourage you to watch the entire video. Prof. Turkle is terrific. I pulled some key excerpts below.
“Our fantasies of substitution have cost us. Now we all need to focus on the many, many ways that technology can lead us back to our real lives, our own bodies, our own communities, our own politics, our own planet. They need us. Let’s talk about how we can use digital technology, the technology of our dreams, to make this life the life we can love.”
“…I’ve studied technologies of mobile communications and I’ve interviewed hundreds and hundreds of people, young and old, about their plugged in lives. And what I’ve found is that our little devices are so psychologically powerful that they don’t only change what we do, they change who we are…”
“…People text or do email during corporate board meetings. They text and shop and go on Facebook during classes…Parents text and do email at breakfast and dinner while their children complain about not having their parents’ full attention…And we even text at funerals…We remove ourselves from our grief or from our revery and we go into our phones.”
“…I think we’re setting ourselves up for trouble – trouble in how we related to each other, but also trouble in how we relate to ourselves and our capacity for self-reflection. We’re getting used to a new way of being alone together. People want to be with each other, but also elsewhere – connected to all the different place they want to be. People what to customize their lives…Some people think that’s a good thing. But you can end up hiding from each other, even as we’re all constantly connected to each other.”
Live & Learn 