May 24, 2009
William Blake, in Auguries of Innocence
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
Goethe, in Parabase
C’est pour l’étonnement que j’existe. (It is for astonishment that I live)
Pascal, in Pensées
I know not who put me into the world, nor what the world is, nor what I myself am. I am in terrible ignorance of everything. I know not what my body is, nor my senses, nor my soul, not even that part of me which thinks what I say, which reflects on all and on itself, and knows itself no more than the rest. I see those frightful spaces of the universe which surround me, and I find myself tied to one corner of this vast expanse, without knowing why I am put in this place rather than in another, nor why the short time which is given me to live is assigned to me at this point rather than at another of the whole eternity which was before me or which shall come after me. I see nothing but infinites on all sides, which surround me as an atom and as a shadow which endures only for an instant and returns no more. All I know is that I must soon die, but what I know least is this very death which I cannot escape.
May 20, 2009
I read through Time Magazine’s interesting series of articles on the future of work.
Work ethics would be further included in education:
“As a Thunderbird and a global citizen, I promise,” Cabrera [the Thunderbird School of Global Management president] begins. The graduates repeat after him. Then the recitation continues: I will strive to act with honesty and integrity. I will respect the rights and dignity of all people. I will strive to create sustainable prosperity worldwide. I will oppose all forms of corruption and exploitation. And I will take responsibility for my actions. As I hold true to these principles, it is my hope that I may enjoy an honorable reputation and peace of conscience.
Though I like the speech, which certainly appeals to GenYs, I’m not sure how it is reflected in the schools program and every day teachings. Business schools are pretty bad at teaching students about what the working environment is really like. Teaching them this beautiful ideal, which I do strive to attain, won’t help.
What might help is for me to start playing World of Warcraft:
The best training for anyone who wants to succeed in 10 years is the online game World of Warcraft. [...] Each team faces a fast-paced, complicated series of obstacles called quests, and each player, via his online avatar, must contribute to resolving them or else lose his place on the team. The player who contributes most gets to lead the team — until someone else contributes more. The game, which many Gen Yers learned as teens, is intensely collaborative, constantly demanding and often surprising. “It takes exactly the same skill set people will need more of in the future to collaborate on work projects,”
Interesting, but are the people who play WoW the ones who are going to take the jobs where those skills are important?
Most of the best jobs will be for people who manage customers, who organize fans, who do digital community management. We’ll continue to need brilliant designers, energetic brainstormers and rigorous lab technicians. More and more, though, the need to actually show up at an office that consists of an anonymous hallway and a farm of cubicles or closed doors is just going to fade away. It’s too expensive, and it’s too slow.
That is written by Seth Godin. He and I have a thing for community management… He is probably taking it a little to far here. All the other articles have the same issue. By telling a story and focusing on their speciality or interest every author shares his own vision. Read it as a trend, not a prediction of course.
In short trends are of 3 types:
- Work will integrate better in our lives in the future. Work, week ends, vacations and retirement won’t be separated so much.
- Ethics will improve and women with a more caring leadership style will be one of the reasons for that.
- High tech, high level of qualification and specialization will be required for engineers, doctors and in manufacturing.
May 18, 2009
The dictionary has the following definition of a victim: “a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident or other event or action.” A victim is someone who died because of a drunk driver who couldn’t keep his lane or a person who was in a public space attacked by suicide bombers. A victim underwent an event that she had no control and influence upon.
If you don’t get your annual pay raise are you a victim? What if you get fired tomorrow? And if you have to pay loads more taxes this year? No. You are NOT entitled to call yourself a victim. You are a loser. You are part of a free society in which you make choices, votes, career decisions. Recognize your defeat. It’s the first to move on. Victimize yourself and you’ll enter a vicious circle.
And don’t forget you have influence. Use it well.
May 15, 2009
I spend a lot of time reading both blogs and books.
While reading a book my attention is focused on it for a relatively long period of time. It is the longest activity I do without interruption. This focus enables me to dive into the topic at stake, concentrate on it and understand it better. The book needs to have enough depth to keep my attention.
When reading on the web my attention jumps from a post to another one, totally unrelated. I am browsing for interesting facts and ideas. My mind doesn’t have time to assimilate an idea but looks for connections with what I already know. I have difficulties going in depth on a topic on the internet as my attention keeps jumping around.
We can compare this to when you meet someone new. If you meet someone new and just spend a few minutes with that someone your relationship is inexistent. You just acknowledge each other. Now imagine you meet that same person for a whole day, you are starting to know him or her. Another long meeting will allow you to strengthen that relationship even more. A few short encounters will just allow you to stay in touch and maintain your relationship. If these aren’t frequent enough you lose your connection.
Knowledge is the same. Deepen it with books. Maintain it with blogs. Chose your books well!
November 25, 2008
Ben Casnocha wrote a post about regret aversion I totally recognize myself in here.
The principal is simple. Imagine you eat a chocolate cake everyday for lunch and one day you have the choice to eat a new cake, a different cake. You will only have this choice this one day. If you chose the chocolate cake and a friend tells you it was really nice you will always wonder what the different cake tasted like. If you eat the new cake you are taking a risk. In the worst case it might be disgusting but then you won’t have to eat it again. The bad taste is temporary and uncertain, regret can last forever. If you chose what Ben Casnocha calls the “regret aversion thumbs rule” you will eat the new cake and avoid regret. Ok, this is only about cakes so you’ll forget about it.
Here is another illustration: the US presidential election. Obama offered something different, he was the new alternative. If most Americans had voted for McCain the world would always have wondered “what if Obama won?”. The reaction could have been similar to the one following Kennedy’s assassination. “What if he had lived?”. People still wonder what America would be like today?”.
Of course none of these questions have answers but they are provoked by regret. We know what a world with McCain would look like more than one with Obama. Americans could have regretted voting for McCain but you can’t regret voting for Obama. It doesn’t mean Obama was the good choice. He was the risk aversion choice at a time when America was having some regrets about reelecting Bush in office.
I hope you won’t chose your chocolate cake lightly tomorrow.
November 4, 2008
Nearly two months ago I listened to Didier Lombard, the CEO of the France Télécom Orange group, express his vision for Orange and the evolution of internet. I couldn’t help notice the gap between what he was preaching, which I agreed on, and the reality at Orange.
Having never worked for Orange my only experience was as a customer and the service was that of a French government owned organization, which France Télécom used to be, and that’s not a compliment. You can therefore understand my skepticism . Didier Lombard set himself to the challenge of, as he put it, changing Orange’s cathedral structure into a mess.
Seduced by Didier Lombard’s speech, and as I was looking for a job at the time, I checked out the opportunities at Orange. I was disappointed by the offer. Nothing for a young entrepreneurial minded graduate. I decided to let him know about it and sent him an email that explained him what I have been counting you here.
Orange answered the email. Didier Lombard must have forwarded it to the French HR department as the answer came from its director, Brigitte Dumont. She writes “Orange is looking for young people ready to undertake, innovate to develop our business” (I translated from French). Orange has a program called Telecom Talent that will soon be launched for 2009 and she tells me it is the place I should be applying to as soon as it is launched.
It is great Orange has a CEO that gets his mails answered appropriately and in a personal way. It is also great news such a big company have recruiting programs more open to entrepreneurial people even thou it is an exception rather than a rule. The exception is also probably my mail. When I google Didier Lombard’s email I only get 4 answers. Brigitte Dumont’s email returns a unique answer. Communicating with Orange could be made easier.
I have found another great challenge and am not available. Yet change is in progress within Orange and it will have to take place at least at fast as outside. To make that change happen there will be many interesting job opportunities and the answer I got from Orange shows the will of its leaders to make it happen.
Innovation is a complex and intriguing process. We often attach innovations to a person. Thomas Edison is regarded as a great innovator for building a long lasting light bulb. Other people regarded as major innovators include Einstein, who was chosen by the 
