Meatball Sundae - Seth Godin

I'm working my way backwards through Seth Godin's books. They have all been well worth the read so far. Meatball Sundae is no exception.

Seth continues on a by now familiar, but still revolutionary path describing the death of traditional marketing and more specifically advertising as we know it. Don Draper may finally get what we have all hoped for.
The basic idea behind the book is that shouting at people for attention is not going to win any more. There is too much information and too many ways to get in touch with the people who you expect will be interested in you product.

Instead marketers need to spend time (maybe a lot of time) building a permission asset. Seth lists a variety of examples of companies that have done this to great effect along with others that need to follow his advice.

He never rants - even though the subject could often lend itself it this.

I read an idea of Seth's a while ago that had a great impact on me. I used to consider non fiction books as something from which I had to learn. Get all of the information from this and more on to something else. Build a knowledge base and get some benefit from this in my life. Seth's idea was that books are repositories of ideas. By reading them you are exposing yourself to these ideas. Some stick and some don't. That's really the nature of ideas. It's unlikely that you will agree with every sentiment in all but the simplest of books. So reading non-fiction and self help books is more an act of adsorption than cramming. I like this idea and it has helped me read more broadly and I believer get more benefit from the books that I do read.

Brene Brown and Vulnerability

This is a very interesting talk. Brene Brown is a researcher in social work who wanted to find out things like what allows people to be loved. She found that they must allow themselves to be vulnerable. She refers to something she called wholeheartedness. The idea seems to be that without being vulnerable we are holding back from our lives and not being true to what we really are. We can avoid vulnerability by effectively hiding, but then we eliminate the good things like being loved. She mentions how various forms of hiding such as overeating, drinking too much and taking pain killers are at epidemic proportions in the developed world (she talks mainly about the US, but I reckon we can safely extend this to Europe). As long as we hide like this we will never be happy and will not live full lives.
Reading, understanding and internalizing this type of material is not easy, but is worth the effort. This is potentially life changing information in a way that many self help pieces are not.

Benjamin Franklin's Virtues modernised

These are the Virtues of Ben Franklin. I am reading his autobiography at the moment, so I have developed a bit of an interest. The virtues are looking a bit old at this stage, so I figured I would try to put a more modern line to them.

• Temperance: Don't make a pig of yourself with food or drink. This is still good advice. It works as it is.
• Silence: This seems to say that small talk is a bad idea. I don't think so. Sure getting to the point when there is business to be done is good, but chatting is underestimated as a social glue.
• Order: Keep your stuff tidy. This is fine too, but it is worth keeping in mind that this needs to be applied to digital artefacts now as well as the 'tidy your room variety'. This seems like a good way to tackle this in general. Albeit it with a bit more detail that Franklin put in there.
• Resolution: Make and keep promises to do the stuff that matters. This man has plenty to say about that too. 
• Frugality: I am on board with this. Today this also serves the environment by cutting down unnecessary consumption.
• Industry: Work hard. Fine as it is. I could probably do this a bit more.
• Sincerity: I think this one can be bundled in with Resolution. Not to lessen either of them. But be a fair dealer is the point of both of them.
• Justice: Same again. 
• Moderation: This is like temperance. In fact temperance could go and this one could be broadened to apply to all things. 
• Cleanliness: Goes with order.
• Tranquility: Sounds nice, but I am not sure I would place it as a virtue.
• Chastity: He takes this one a bit far - only for making babies? 
• Humility: Imitating Jesus sounds like a fine idea, but his current representatives have ruined this for me. Or maybe I just became an atheist and can't go for this any more. Either way, I can leave this one out and not be bothered. 

So:
Don't be a glutton, deal fairly with people, work hard, keep your stuff tidy and don't be wasteful are the main take aways from this.

Combating global warming with renewables

I watched this video on TED and found myself switching stuff off. Previously I have not worried about vampire power as I thought the big impacts in global warming were to be made by eating less meat , using the car less and cutting down on international travel, but this has made me think twice.
I like his assertion that using less power can be fun. I have always thought that a focus on less consumerist activities can make us happier. Cycling to the shops is a lot more fun than taking the car. Assuming you don't have too much stuff to lug back and you live reasonably close to the shop. Brewing your own beer is nicer than buying imported stuff and growing a small vegetable garden is good for your heart as well as the environment. It is rare to hear energy consumption reduction referred to as fun, but this should be a key driver for us in our fight to protect the environment.

John Lonergan's book - The Governor

John Lonergan was the Governor of the largest prison in Ireland for over 20 years. I am reading his biography at the moment. It's a good read. He tried to bring modern management techniques into the prison and often faced stony opposition from the Prison Officers Association. He also mensions the apathy he faced from officials at the department of justice when he tried to introduce improvements in the prison.
Sometimes I think there are too many people for whom getting the job done well is irrelevant. the only thing that matters to them is themselves and their benefits. When people like this get into important positions in society we are in trouble.  Some prison officers who won't play ball just ends up costing us a fortune (and keeping funding from our victorian prisons), but when unionised staff get into our schools our childrens future is at risk.

Teachers unions and pensions

Our government is currently trying to reduce the future burden that pensions place on the tax payers of the state. Their attempt this week to reduce the pension entitlements of higher earning civil servants who have not yet even started their careers has been met with an anything but civil response. The INTO for example is threatening legal action over what is claims is larcenous behaviour on the part of the government. I suppose this is what we should expect from a union - they don't have any other function. But this sounds a bit strong for me.
I read a while ago that if a non civil servant earned the same as the typical high court judge throughout their career - i.e. they track the judges pay as it rises from very junior barrister all the way through to judge - they would have to contribute most of their income over their whole career to get the same pension as the judge. Clearly someone has to pay for the pension, but for public servants the attitude seems to be 'as long as that someone is not me'.
In a way it is sad that our leaders have shied away from this problem for so long (as have leaders all over the world). Only now that the cupboard is bare is government getting up the gumption to square up to the bullies. It remains to be seen what will come of it, but the teachers will no doubt want to continue extracting blood from turnip.

The Front Line

I watched a few minutes of the RTE programme The Front Line last night. They were talking about unemployment when I watched. I must admit that I had been thinking that many of the people on the dole were having it easy, but this woman certainly was not. Both her and her husband had lost their jobs (a not uncommon event in Ireland over the last couple of years). They had 2 children and she described her experiences with the dole office. In some ways I don't think the dole should be a pleasant place to visit, but then again how you think it should operate all comes down to whether or not you think people are genuine claimants or skivers. I think our focus on the people who don't try, care, train themselves or generally take responsibility is overshadowing the much more serious problem of those to whom that description does not apply, but who find themselves unable to get a job.
The problem is probably more intractable in rural areas where people may have relied on a key area. In urban areas there is so much activity (albeit with so many people who can potentially fill the jobs) that it can be hard to see how someone cannot find any job. However the problem is that just any job will not meet the needs for many families. Large mortgages, taken out at a time when this was considered 'normal' have to be serviced and this puts pressure on everything else that they do. Going from one or even 2 well paying jobs and a big mortgage to no jobs, social welfare and still the big mortgage must be a nightmare.
I suppose what we need to do find a balance between helping those who need the help and cutting off funding to those who don't. For their part families that find themselves on social welfare need to radically adjust their expectations. The lady last night described how hard it was to constantly say now to your children. There are worse things than having to deny your children money for the shops. Social welfare should not be fun to live on. Getting a job and getting out of it should be the priority.