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.

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.

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.

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!

The psychiatrist George Vaillant conducted a very interesting longitudinal study on happiness by following people during over 70 years of their lives. There is a lot to learn by reading it.

Case No. 47

You literally fell down drunk and died. Not quite what the study had in mind.

One of those learnings is that psychiatrists have been pretty bad at predicting the happiness of the people studied. Happiness at one moment during the study wasn’t a guarantee of future happiness.

Georges Vaillant identified factors that made people more happy: “employing mature adaptation, education, stable marriages, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise and healthy weight.”

Many other studies agree that your happiness level is linked to smaller things. Men adapt pretty well to major changes. Wining the lottery will make you happy for a short while only. This seems to contradict the previous study. Would the factors identified by Vaillant be consequences of happiness and not causes?

Until we learn more about Professor Vaillant’s study I suggest you don’t delay happiness. Don’t wait for the lottery, a stable marriage or anything. That would be a too big risk. I believe happiness is built in every moment and that is the reason it is so hard for Vaillant to predict happiness levels. I’m looking for small tips to be more happy. What works for you?

…not beat me on the wii thou I’m open to all challenges.

I wish you to follow the trace of the Wii in 2009 and create at least as many emotions as the ones you can see bellow:

If we all manage to have such impact on the lives of just a few people around us 2009 will be a great year for all!

If you need some motivation Robin Sharma has an inspirational post about this “fresh, virgin new year” we have just started.

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.

I am half way through The Wisdom of Crowds and it has already been giving me many thoughts. The book intends to demonstrate how a decision taken by a group of people can be much better than that of any single person in the group, that together people know better.

Google accumulates information from many people in conditions that the Wisdom of Crowds identified as necessary for a crowd to make a good judgment. One of its latest tool is Google Flu. Google pretends it can predict a flu epidemic before specialized organizations. I originally heard of this in a very good article on readwriteweb which emphasizes the impact in will have for google health. But if Google can do it for health what else can it do it for. Just take a minute to think about it…

The power of crowds is amazing.  As a community manager it only makes me feel humble when I listen to the community. I have my opinions, they can be strong, but the best decision will come by just adding it to  the opinions of all the people in the community. So I listen and create the best conditions for the community to speak.

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The Wisdom of Crowds also gave me more thoughts on innovation and on my previous post. I mentioned how we often remember a name for a major innovation whereas many people and innovators have actually contributed. Newton illustrated this talking about “standing on the shoulders of giants”.

The Wisdom of Crowds studies the scientific community. It explains how every paper needs to introduce new elements and that these papers are widely distributed. This intense collaboration makes it impossible to attribute to one paper a discovery as it is based on many others. Still the most famous scientifics tend to get more credit and recognition than people whose reputation is still to be made.

The book emphasizes that the more the scientific community collaborates, the better it is to make breakthroughs. An example to follow in other sectors?

Visiting Amsterdam this week end I encountered some great quotes from Van Gogh:

“I exaggerate, I sometimes change a motif, but in the end I don’t invent the whole painting. Instead, I find it ready-made in nature, though I still have to extract it.”

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

Van Gogh is regarded as a major innovator in painting. Thou his work wasn’t recognized during his lifetime he had a major impact on the generations of painters to follow.

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 Time magazine as the most important man of the 20th century, Bill Gates and Henry Ford, both also figure on that list. These great people are symbols of change and innovation. Statues have been carved in their honor (recognize Einstein on the left). They are set as examples for us to follow.

Yet, for each innovator that makes the headlines and covers of magazines many have been working hard. Innovation comes step by step by putting other innovations together. Finally we reach a major breakthrough which is given credit for from a unique innovator forgetting all those that laid the blocks beneath it.

Van Gogh differs from Ford and the others. His work was not recognized during his lifetime, he didn’t make the covers. His perseverance in his work is something I must admire. Here are some more quotes that can help you appreciate the character:

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.

The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.

You can’t be at the pole and the equator at the same time. You must choose your own line, as I hope to do, and it will probably be color.

One must work and dare if one really wants to live.

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.

Van Gogh is seen by many as the crazy painter who cut his ear off. I myself was mistaken.

More inspiration here.

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.