Credit: Thomas Hawk on Flickr CreativeCommons licensed NC SA

مولانا جلال الدين محمد بلخى aka Jalal al-Din Rumi

Hey there you praise-singers for failure. You, who can celebrate in the face of your own embarrassing blunders, botched plans, flopping after proclaiming you would own the competition, of being eviscerated publicly for well-meaning naivety, wimping out of your grand quests, disappointing expectations or dead-end determinism. Those of  you who extol how useful and edifying repeated failure is, in the greater scheme of greatness. You Michael Jordan quoters.

I’ve lived most of my life in sheer amazement bewilderment at you.

I get it the rational level, of course. But playing fast and loose with loss, is emotionally repellent for us not gifted with spines of tempered titanium. No matter how sensible the intellectual argument, where’s the logic in eagerly inviting embarrassment?

Would you gleefully begin something big, bold, close to your heart, if you understood that there are banks of critics in the Circus Maximus of the social Web? They’re there. At the ready, connected to the global brain, awaiting fresh content to tear apart, or cheer on as a hero to climb the gladiatorial ladder, to fight another day. That may thrill those titanium-tempered ones, and the ballsy beginners who haven’t a clue, and only see the glistening prize.
But if you’re not insulated by Spartan-like determination, or plucky luck, what the devil do you do?

What’s obvious to most of you (okay, probably not the perfectionists or neurotics) is that loss of face, shame, indignity are not synonyms of failure. Nor yet invisibility, conservatism, cynicism, depression, misdirected aggression. The option of (symbolically) dying, restarting, carrying on without going into therapy because you lost a battle, is a small but significant brain tweak.

Small doses of shame’s soul-corrosion are helpful, surely: say you need a convenient hook for effective social control; to know where one should be in the subtle social hierarchy;  to keeping one’s clothes on in public; to coax on debt-fuelled consumerism? Heaven knows we need to buy stuff to cover our shame. It has measurable economic and social utility, so there’s no chance it’s going away any time soon.

Individually however, shame is an emotional choice to apply, after you’ve bungled. It isn’t a natural consequence of making a mistake, or even several.

Only beginners have the bliss of starting without grasping all the complexity that the experienced see. Too many really brights lose out while they’re working out the grand plan. [It always ends up being a grand plan because the intelligent need to account for all the known hazards, who to ally with, the regulations, the elaborate stages of funding, the politicking necessary].
How bloody burdensome.

I think there’s a way through for those of us who were shipped with the creative|analytic brain configuration. A flexible set of permissions for your emotional property rights. A license to venture in safely if you will (some rights reserved), not using the all closed social-default (where your big idea never sees the light of day, just in case it fails), and not all the way open (where it might benefit society, or be pillaged, pirated and leave you the poorer).

5 POLICIES for those who dare to BEGIN THINGS
(when you aren’t a beginner anymore)

1. Cover your Ass(ets) rather than coveting assets. Having a lot to lose impedes brave moves. Insurance, maintenance, storage – actual stuff sucks vital resources. Could you value access over assets*? How much time/energy could be redeployed, if you didn’t need to worry about hoarding and safeguarding your material goodies. Meet the fear of loss head-on by having less to lose, physically. Get your precious intellectual-wares off your local machine and into the cloud. Trust, but do backups in more than one place.
2. Banish originality. There is happy freedom in not even trying to be a god-kissed genius. Learn improv, work with what you have, the Web is h u g e. Love opensource. Find stuff to build on; why build from scratch? Resourcefulness is a virtue of our age – learn how to search and remix (legally).
3. small (doable) ideas FTW. Admittedly not as sexy for dinner party conversation, but this is about actually starting something, not looking like a genius. Prediction has been overclocked by complexity, just give it up. Spawn and release lightweight prototypes. Too much time/money spent perfecting an infertile idea, makes it punishing to cut your losses and nurture the new.
4. Employ Scientific Method – develop hypotheses, set up experiments, get feedback, tweak the conditions, repeat. Guessing isn’t as useful as knowing. Keeping journals or test logs of data, offers the added bonus of that soothing sense of control that over-thinkers need.
5. Keep good company, because you could too easily lose the plot if you heed the siren song of the cynics [I'm partial to the definition of "cynic" in Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary (1911)]. If what you start, is likely to change the way the world works in some way be aware: the world is only going to get weirder, conservative opposition to change more militant  - which  will require some oldskool toughness. Keep tight with a few trusted people to remind you of exactly why the hell you’re not just staying safely in the background.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
- President Theodore Roosevelt (April 23, 1910, Citizenship In A Republic speech)

Whether we want to get involved or not, the world now demands active citizenship. Globally, laws, business, relationships, human rights are being bent out of shape. How they re-form on the other side of this interregnum is on the shoulders of those of us alive now. What we make, matters. Each one that refuses to get into the fray for (justifiable) fear of failure and reproach, jeopardises our collective freedom. If you are strong on rationality and analysis, it’s easy to logically justify avoiding pain. But worth remembering with me, that failure is a merely another result, not an emotional event, certainly not automatically shame. Emotion actually moves us. Deploy its force with care.

Sometimes there is virtue in overturning the rulings of your head, and let what moves you, be what you do. Whether by starting a business, a social enterprise, a campaign, a film, a movement, music, helping young ones build stuff from opensource rather than just buying finished goods, whatever it be that stirs your heart, begin today.
Safer, messier, smaller, smarter and shared.

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Listen: 1. Finding your Vector of Impact Sukhinder Singh Cassidy at Stanford’s eCorner [podcast 1h or watch the video snips here] 2. Tim Harford on Adapting and Prospering in a Complex World [34min podcast]

Read:  1. Tim Harford: Adapt, Why Success Always Starts with Failure. 2. Steven Johnson: Where Good Ideas Come From

Make! make stuff on the side, with friends, just for fun: realworld or online. New skills + no pressure to succeed

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* clarity: not hippie/communist tendencies. I’m interested in collaborative consumption, for resource efficiency, happiness, and ultimately healthy capitalism. More services, less stuff already.

Learn to love your data! I can’t emphasize enough how powerful and practical your decision-making can become with this layer of clarity applied to your business, health, life.  Women battle the bias of being labelled as making more emotional/irrational decisions. One of the greatest gifts that computing has offered us is overlooked as something for the domain of researchers and analytics dorks. I’m an abiding fan of hunting for evidence, and there are simple, free and easy-to-use tools to track what lies behind your suspicions – even if maths is your kryptonite, you too can learn to love data-tracking. Being clear kills fear.With the strength of bottom-line numbers we gain the confidence to speak into our leadership calls with clarity.

2. Hunt Robust Health

Women have, on average, the blessing of an additional decade of life built in to our physiology. But we’re seeing this erode within a few generations, our rates of heart conditions and lifestyle-related illnesses are coming into parity with our menfolk. Sitting behind a screen for unrelenting hours on end, unconscious snacking and adrenaline-tapping deadline chasing is doing us in. Wired women leaders, take back your health! Go play outside, breathe, eat delectable food. Who wants to follow somebody who’s committing slow suicide from overwork. Remember mens sana in corpore sano: a healthy mind in a healthy body (nothing like a little Latin to give gravitas to the obvious). Love your biological hardware or you’ll persistently be facing software crashes and sludgy speeds.  If you’re a code engineer, caffeine-swilling pizza-fuelled sleep-deprived screen-devotion can squeeze out the marvels, but is a certain death knell for ladies who want to lead long time. A strong, reliably healthy body, by design not default, is one of the greatest treasures we can afford ourselves, an agile mind its prized reward.

3. Hunt Inspiring Company

Genius begets genius. Despite the seductive myth of the lone brainiac, evidence and history tell a very different story (ah, data substantiation). Women are superb natural collaborators, but most of us still have a peculiar superstition that we need to guard our territory and cut down competitors. It may be “normal” business practice, but it certainly isn’t natural for us. There is robust and burgeoning business model for sharing and opensource, not just online, as Public Lead for Creative Commons in South Africa part of my duty is to bring the case-studies to light and illuminate the practical steps to begin to share legally, safely and profitably, 21st century style. Find mentors, gather peers to build something difficult but remarkable together, socialise with the brave and big hearted.

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I’m on a panel for the 6th Annual Women in Leadership conference with 2 women I respect and appreciate having in my world, Maritza van den Heuvel and Monique Ross. Both courageous and fascinating women in quite different ways and well worth following.

The topic is : Wired Women – Wonderful Ways to use collaborative innovation in the Digital Economy
Social media like blogs, facebook and twitter reflect the easy and natural way women form community and share information. Learn more about how becoming a digital citizen can fast-track the achievement of your leadership goals as you make a difference to the world.

Though I’m convinced that taking any kind of binary positions: man/woman, black/white, young/old etc. is no way to move forward with intelligence, it’s good fun to bolster the women who have forgotten the delightful benefits of being a woman + Internet in a democratic, capitalist society with the most compelling opportunities to make a tangible difference as a social entrepreneur/activist/someone who gives a damn.

Quick punt while we’re speaking about this: University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business runs an annual Women in Leadership program in April led by Dr Marjolijn Dijksterhuis. It has been lauded and applauded by delegates. Worth your while if you’re a woman in senior position who would value a deepening of her foundational business skills and those next-level but not-so-obvious clues to confident, calm leadership.

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Picture Credits under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: (with my gratitude)

http://www.flickr.com/people/seq Seq on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frerieke/ (by the way, do go discover more about the lovely architect/humanitarian Frerieke van Bree and her Students for Humanity project. She’s one of those fearless, fun, nature-built-a-winner-with-this-one people)

http://www.flickr.com/people/usarmyafrica US Army Africa on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/people/stevendepollo Steven De Pollo (feature image)

from heart-rate monitors, biofeedback fingerware, sleep trackers, wearable cameras, oximeters, accelerometers, blood-pressure cuffs, GPS to old-fashioned stopwatches employed to track and map the data their activities generate in time and space, and almost always leading to an inevitable uploading of the activities to spreadsheets and graphs for analysis.

Some do it to observe, others to optimise, others to see how far they can go before they overclock their systems,

Now in the bright dawn of the app, smartphones are luring the unsuspecting into self-tracking. Before long that sleep-monitoring-app-that-must-be-tried converts into harmless productivity logging, the odd location check-in, daily pedometer use, and soon enough you’re surrounded by those hooked on quantifying the daily data their lives have been generating. Ordinary people will be overheard at the next table sharing hacks for their personal genome [okay well maybe that one has a way to go, but not as faraway as you'd think].

Judge this as narcissism or the sport of OCD neurotics in error.
[Bless Twitter for the recency of its mainstream conversion from much-mocked to must-have. Web economics or triumph do not conform to what is intuitive; what looks silly today may command fortunes of the future]. A self-tracker’s numbers and observations may be uploaded for personal interest, but shared with others in a forum or social network could have potential species-wide benefit. Patterns form out of the data sets and occasionally unexpected utility, cures and fast-tracks emerge and this progress is available immediately to all those searching for a solution to try out too, their feedback strengthening or squashing the finding. The rate with which we’re co-evolving with our technology means that nothing as useful as a fork need take centuries to catch on anymore.

We’re grabbing what works, remixing to suit our context, sharing the results outside the sacred circle of state, company and school so it’s fast, damn fast. No waiting about for medical, commercial or political solutions to be implemented at glacial pace and great expense. Citizen-surgery won’t be the next big thing, and doctors won’t be a diminishing species, but they’re probably less likely to be mistaken for gods. Pity the physicians in years to come. Loaded not only with deep-mined info from the Internet, patients will also presenting their personal biometrics, self-diagnoses and realtime search to check on the doctor’s prescription as the script is being written. With a strong personal motivation to find an answer we can track ourselves as we go through life-as-usual: neutralising the weird distortion of examining a subject alone in a lab is a helpful side-effect.

If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a non-working cat. – Douglas Adams

As anyone who’s peered behind their assumptions by doing even rudimentary web-analytics knows, naked feedback data is rarely what we expect. It favours those who have a curious mind and the tenacity to dig deeper with increasingly refined questions. Why the heck do you have most of your referral traffic coming from people searching for pelagic bird-watching tours when your trade is selling woolly cardigans to lumberjacks? The fun is hunting the connections; have you been hacked by a renegade twitcher network? Perhaps your bestselling jumper is named after a rare albatross never yet seen on shore? Maybe someone mis-mapped you as the HQ of Seabird Central?
So too self-trackers use their data to fill the gap between perception and reality. Can’t fathom why you work so damn hard and get so little done? Why do you wake up feeling like a zombie after your allotted 8 hours? You run marathons, so why do you have a body-fat percentage of a baby seal? There’s an app for that ..get tracking and hunting. In the anomalies we often find ingenious or the simple but elusive aha answers.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ..‘that’s funny‘ – Isaac Asimov

If there’s a prediction for 2011 that is worth setting an alert for that has more than twinkly trend in its DNA, it’s this. Self-tracking marries beautifully with game mechanics and non-dorky-looking gadgets to be both fun and commercially interesting for the main market now too. With particularly rewarding applications possible for medical insurance companies and health ministries who have enormous financial interest in keeping their members/citizens well.

Gary Wolf, contributing editor at Wired, who started the Quantified Self blog back in 1997 with the legendary Kevin Kelly, wrote a rich piece on self-measurement for The New York Times last year, The Data-Driven Life that’s well worth the read to get up to speed: [extract]

Trackers focused on their health want to ensure that their medical practitioners don’t miss the particulars of their condition; trackers who record their mental states are often trying to find their own way to personal fulfillment amid the seductions of marketing and the errors of common opinion; fitness trackers are trying to tune their training regimes to their own body types and competitive goals, but they are also looking to understand their strengths and weaknesses, to uncover potential they didn’t know they had. Self-tracking, in this way, is not really a tool of optimization but of discovery, and if tracking regimes that we would once have thought bizarre are becoming normal, one of the most interesting effects may be to make us re-evaluate what “normal” means.

“My girlfriend thinks I’m the weird person when I wear all these devices,” Bo Adler says. “She sees me as an oddity, but I say no, soon everybody is going to be doing this, and you won’t even notice.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/magazine/02self-measurement-t.html

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In the interests of declaring my bias, I need to own up to being a self-tracker/-experimenter/ -researcher /-logger for most of my life. With so much physics, chemistry, history, biology, anthropology and general whatthe-ology to discover about ourselves – and so much hypochondria to allay if you read too much – it never gets dull, but it’s not heretofore been fashionable dinner-party conversation. So I’m looking forward to the excitement building around it. Not to mention the increasing abundance of more awesome gadgets on offer, now in stylish packaging.

This one’s going to be big, as a social-behavioural mod it will have rolling impact into economic and political policy, slowly but certainly. Unlikely you say? Put it on your alerts and watch. Let’s roll together a few Quantified Self meetups, and see if you don’t get a thrill from seeing the superhero rippling under the clark-kent veneer.
It’s so much more than geek-sport.

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Are you a self-tracker? Got a thing for productivity apps, develop funny hypotheses about your training, time, nutrition and test them (on yourself not hapless clients), got a thing for spreadsheets and pedometers? Did you realise your hobby doesn’t relegate you to lone freakery any longer? Self-trackers, shout your barbaric yawp from the rooftops, your time in the sunshine has finally come.

“Astronomers, like burglars and jazz musicians, operate best at night.“— Miles Kington

In the last few days of the International Year of Astronomy: a little homage to the heavens that arc above us all ..and a little nudge for those of you who’ve ever been tickled by the idea of amateur astronomy.

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

The International Year of Astronomy closes out with a blue moon on the 31st December – the 2nd full moon in a month – and the blue moon will also be eclipsed! The eclipse will be very subtle though, with only the tip of the Moon turning pinkish as the Moon skims the Earth’s shadow. The best time to start watching out for it is 21h20 on New Year’s Eve.

A nod to the IYA’09 with a Once in a Blue Moon theme for your New Year’s Eve party maybe? Though for the hardcore star-hunter (paparazzi alert: you’ll be setting yourself up for disappointment), may I suggest doing as amateur star-gazers have been doing since King George III started the fad back in the 1700′s.. hit the star party circuit (check with local observatories – SA Astronomical Observatory on Facebook – or Astronomers Without Borders)

STAR-STUDDED PARTIES

You’re thinking nerd-fest with everyone packing ‘scopes and planispheres?
Think again, as smart becomes the new sexy these pyjama parties with a brain have become seriously hip.
[Exhibit A: the Obamas hosted one on the South Lawn of the White House. check the vid.]

Click here to view the embedded video.

All that organising a bit much? Well if you’re coming through Johannesburg, there’s a really easy way to gather for a celestial celebration: the Observatory Restaurant in the Cradle of Humankind. Head out to the Aloe Ridge game reserve, beware it has curiously high light pollution, but the 25″ Newtonian/Cassegr Bradford telescope – the largest privately owned telescope in South Africa and the largest professional telescope in amateur hands in the Southern Hemisphere – still delivers the marvels. Thanks to Eve Dmochowska we celebrated a very chilly anniversary of the moonwalk at this very special restaurant, and loved it (warning: bundle up if you do the Astronomy with Gastronomy in winter – the telescope is outside).

THE COOLEST GREEN TOOL for STAR.SPOTTERS

Contributing nothing to the Copenhagen Climate Talk tussles; there’s a very cool green gizmo that WILL elicit gasps of geeky delight (as verified at Geek Retreat ’09). Enter, the green laser.
Naked eye observation is certainly feasible – there were great astronomers before Galileo gifted humanity with the telescope in 1609 – but inevitably astronomy = gadgets. And the green laser pointer is one such covetable gadget. You can’t use it for anything else – ditch the idea of presentation pointer or home laser surgery. This is solely for making the sky your planetarium as it slices through kilometers of night sky with a crisp green blade of light. No fuzzy, squinty haphazard heaven.scouring explanations of what you want to show. All eyes are commanded to exactly the coordinates you want. Ah the power. (Please note that there is etiquette regarding its judicious use at star parties, borne of green-eyed envy I have no doubt).

Of course, you could sensibly use it as an educational tool (should you need to justify the expense; who dares fight the education rebuff).

Shop around, and stay within the legal parameters, it’s not a good Christmas gift for anyone with a sadistic bent! Check the NightSky Observer or if you have Stoic restraint, the ThinkGeek store.

If you live in Johannesburg, you could grab yours from the Telescope Shop where our little after-dinner surpriser hails from.

Warning: Green lasers are very powerful. Beaming your light sabre at aircraft could land you in deep deep trouble with the law. Blindness guarantee if you retinal zap an eye. With great power comes great responsibility.

WATCH THIS SPACE

If you’ve been toying with the idea of hooking up some lifelong learning, astronomy is a wonderfully easy place to start to reactivate your synapses. Get the passion sparked by getting some of the right stuff on your screen as a gentle 1st step. Some of my favourite movies or doci’s to get all spaced.out >>

• COSMOS – the Carl Sagan classic! still awesome. promise.
• CONTACT-  goosebumpy.good 12 years on.
• THE RIGHT STUFF- the Kaufman gem, oldskool but splendid.
• The NASA channelon Youtube
• STAR TREK – okay, maybe not the most accurate on astronomy, technology or alien life.form depiction, but it’s the spirit of only going forward ‘cos we can’t find reverse that we’ve loved through its decades of space cowboyism.  “That is the exploration that awaits you! Not mapping stars and studying nebula, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence” – Mr Spock
• THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE (watch the episodes on Youtube if you can’t find it at your videostore) more string theory than astrophysics, but well.worth a watch if you’re harbouring an industrial.strength inner geek.
•  
  

  18 minute downloads from the addictive TED conferences >>
  

• Stephen Hawkingon the BIG QUESTIONS of the Universe
• Sir Martin Reesasks if this is our last century
• Andrea Ghezon the hunt for the super.massive blackhole
• George Smoot - with some glorious deep.space images- on the design of the universe
• 

  “Astronomy’s much more fun when you’re not an astronomer” – - Sir Brian May *

  Very few of us are cut out for the meticulous patience that being a working astronomer requires. Most of your life spent boggling over mathematical data or finding new ways to capture more data for other astronomers to boggle over. Many a brilliant mind has turned back at the prospect (as The Daily Maverick‘s editor did. Happily for me).

  As amateur astronomers we can pluck the palatable fruits of their labours, and enjoy the good stuff without the myopia.producing maths! The joy!

  From the comfort of our computers there are no shortage of ways to get involved, from offering up processing time to SETI or dive into the IYA’09 site (South Africans, check out our local node) and find where fellow stargazers are gathering online and realworld.

  “Space isn’t remote at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away if your car could go straight upwards.” – Fred Hoyle

  If you really want to go large, there’s always the option of becoming one of Virgin Galactic‘s space tourists, where even the price of your ticket will be astronomical.

  It all scales happily to what you can afford in time and money and brain capacity. Speaking of scaling ..

  As my final inducement, just a little more space eyecandy:
  

  2 pics** that take you on little whirl in the total perspective vortex (kids dig ‘em, in grown.ups it may induce existential vertigo, but it’ll soon pass, our brains have time and space limiters beyond which we cannot go, you’ll be safe):
  

• First, click here for pic 1 and let it run through the animation.
• click this thumbnail for pic 2 and zoom in for full effect when it loads >>
• BEST FOR LAST: By far one of our age’s most surprising and inspiring astronomical treasures: the glorious images coming back from the Hubble Telescope‘s ventures into space >> go to the gallery. I dare you to make it through unawed as the mind.bending majesty of the universe unfurls as the telescope tootles through space.

• Every so often, I like to stick my head out the window, look up, and smile for a satellite picture. – Steven Wright

  * Yup, THAT Brian May – in case you didn’t know 39th of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, is a respected astrophysicist (specialising in space dust), also Chancellor of Liverpool University and has an asteroid named in his honour – Asteroid 52665 Brianmay. Lest we stereotype rockstars or astrophysicists.

  **I don’t know who to credit on these images because they’ve spawned themselves beyond clear attribution. Thanks to the creators whoever you are.

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  Astronomy, anthropology, chemistry, languages, history ..all the subjects that may have been relegated to our university years are reviving with the resurgence of lifelong learning. I’m venturing in headlong this coming year and enticing some fiercely bright people to join in on expeditions, debates, dinners, star parties and edventures because learning is far more fun in good company!
  I’m declaring my own International Year of Neoleisure ’10, because there are infinitely more exciting things to with our spare time than shop or watch telly.
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  PS. please let me know if you’re throwing a star party, or working on an unusual astronomy project that welcomes the input of amateur astromers, or helps to enrich the starry.eyed community (especially in South Africa or global participation projects).

And I wasn’t alone, peculiar that a business magazine could be a lovemark, but there it is.

In magazine materialization, with its suede-feel cover, fiercely clever and stylish innards, and that terrifically useful way of conferring at least the appearance of having joined the ranks of the knowing-nod cognoscenti. Business, power, tales of infamy and heart-wrenching heroism told through its pages with wit and fearlessness. Qualities that if in human form would have me buckle-kneed.*

In the crush and brutality of the recession Maverick was lost to its unexpectedly fierce legion of fans.

Thanks to the fighting spirit of its helmsman, Branko Brkic, the painful slam didn’t extinguish the soul. Invoking the Maverick mojo and calling some of the country’s most senior journalists to adventure in the digital realms; The Daily Maverick took its place in the world, launching smoothly just before Hallowe’en. Its DNA adapted to the new ecosystem, but Maverick fans looking closely will find that happy-making gene still there.

HAPPINESS IS ..

We expect the superb quality writing, of course this is no repurposed regurgitated press-release mill, by default. Okay, the ad model is a touch of genius (simplicity against the usual enmeshed complexities of CPM, impressions and arcane billing structures of online ad placements) but for me, the cool things aren’t as apparent.

It’s in funny things, like discovering there’s a reader’s covenant..

Give us a tiny slice of your time and we’ll give you the world. We’ll also throw in a whole lot of fun, just to sweeten the deal. In the background, there’s a whole lot more to it, of course, but that’s all just detail. The Daily Maverick exists to provide you with the news, analysis, insight and opinion that you need. Whether you’re required to make big decisions or just want to hold your own over lunchtime conversation, we’ll provide the tools.

Here’s another promise: we won’t ever waste your time. We don’t let algorithms decide what is important and what is not. Our journalists and editors are humans, and some of the best and most experienced ones around at that. They’ve spent decades refining the craft and we think they’re pretty good at it.

…

We’ll do all of that for you, and we’ll do it with the greatest of integrity. Nobody will ever pay for our opinions, no matter the size of the chequebook. We will never sell your private information, or let somebody else dictate our agenda, or conspire behind your back.

Honestly, for most of my life I couldn’t have cared less about news. It all seemed a never-ending churn of tragedies from places you’ll never see in your lifetime about people whose fates you can’t change. Awfully good for curbing those irritating bouts of cheeriness when all seems well with the world. But the one thing that teaching globalization has taught me in return, is that no matter how far-flung, we’re all interconnected, life doesn’t happen in isolation anymore. The other, is that we CAN actually alter the fate of others on the other side of the world. One person, with the right knowledge can make the world of difference.

I, like so many of us who trade in knowledge, am compelled to ingest the news now, and would prefer not being swallowed by the depressing, drowning depths of data. The Daily Maverick promises FUN (no less!), an enjoyment in the news, for which I may be one of its toughest customers. It’s only the beta beginnings, but given the quality of minds gathering to make it so, they may well live up to that reader’s covenant.

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win – Mohammed Ali

May the muses and the might of money be with you this round >>

* As it happened, just such an embodiment has meant that I am biased. As consort to the editor I may see through a brightened filter, but being lucky enough to have a ringside seat to the blood, sweat, tears – and resiliant rise again, I have respect for this uncrushable team beyond any loyalty. I dare you to go see if I’m wrong and The Daily Maverick doesn’t feel like the kitten’s whiskers ..and crisp apple strudel.

Click here to view the embedded video.

.
PS. For a little more insight on the indomitable team’s once and future visions, this meaty interview (The Media Online) lays bare what many oldskool Maverick readers have been burning to ask.
PPS. Simon Dingle weighs in on the revolutionary nature of TDM, as the return of quality, who’da thunk.

The Defense against the Dark Arts is for real. Here they’re battling the very real forces of poverty, indignity and violence that swallow too many of the young ones in our country whole. Peacefully, with laughter and a startlingly ingenious approach to education and business, this sister school to CIDA University is a beacon of light and hope against the darkening state of mass education in South Africa.

It’s going to take a little more than one post to describe the wonders being wrought here. So let me give you one small peek at something that shimmered into existence at the Maharishi Invincibility School of Management (yup, seriously, invincibility) this week.

The Digital Dreams Department

With the help of some exceptional people, the Digital Media department launched this week. The first class of students have started a 4 week programme to infuse the internet’s power into their being. Skills they will walk out with next month will allow them to speak to the world, to work global and stay local, to channel life, laughter, business, creativity through a screen in ways they couldn’t have imagined (and most of us still can’t imagine). Skills that WILL change their futures.

The impossible is being effected here at 9 Ntemi Piliso Street through the hearts and minds of some very special people:

Taddy Blecher -  the legend whose mind evoked CIDA University (<< read this for an inspirational dose of defiance of ‘reality’) and now this School of Management
Mandy De Waal-  whose rare quality of getting things done, took a conversation and made it so >>
Dave Duarte- cited as one of the most innovative forces in global business education, specializing in digital marketing and philosophy, takes up the mantle of Dean of the faculty.
The Quirk team – especially Lyndi Lawson who collaborated with Dave to craft the first curriculum around their eMarketing textbook (psst.. free for download here).
My particularly heartfelt thanks to Ismail Dhorat andSaul Kropman who have generously offered their time and fine.grained expertise to teach the eager first class of 60 in my stead.

No photocopied keyboards to learn and imagine from this time, CIDA’s new sister business  school will be accelerating deep into the digital with some of South Africa’s social media finest lighting the way.

[I'm looking forward to seeing this school, and those without whom 9 Ntemi Piliso would be just another anodyne downtown building, grow strong and reap rewards for generations to come].

Since the tech heads and urban visionaries will be gathering for said launch in Camps Bay, (and it’s spring!) it seems an awfully good opportunity to lure some of the city’s brightest women to a Cerebella lunch to debrief in a beachside cafe.
First invitations naturally go to the Cerebella list, but then we’ll open to those blessed with xx.chromosomes, a keen interest in technology and beautiful minds.
(click the pic for the event details)

REFERENCE bites on the Silicon Cape:

• I think this was the first public post (though I remember Vinny making his intentions public at the Cape Town launch of Synthasite a while back).
• Loved Guy Taylor’s take. And he’s a Jo’burger mind you.
• For amusement, the Google search currently yields 4,340 for “silicon cape” 29/09/09

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So here I am,¹ still in Johannesburg, Joburg, Jozi, the District 9 city. The African version of LA.
The rough & tough old mining town that I was born in. esCAPEd from. And evidently needed to return to make peace with (like an ex-smoker I bore greater rights to cast scorn on its dirty sexy evils when I’d slipped its golden handcuffs in ’99).

Here for the best of reasons – which means I’m not here for the money. And not leaving anytime soon. Which means I better bloody well deal with it.

I’m sure you’ve also caught strains of that tatty mantra : it’s not your conditions but your decisions that make for success. Unfortunately the damn thing rings true, and not the kind of thing a “When I ..” wants to hear. (You know those When I’s? those who stubbornly defer giving their best until some favourable
condition shimmers in: when I ..get married ..finish school ..lose weight ..write that book ..get a job/liver transplant/goldfish ..er, get out of Joburg).

We humans have so many forces that nudge our destiny: biochemistry, genetics, market forces, religion, politics, chemicals in our food, the neighbourhood we live in, our choice of friends. We can’t even trust our rational decisions any longer – beware the descent into paranoia from Dan Ariely’s book Predictably Irrational all ye elegant logicians (or watch this for 17 minutes for a quick scare).

It’s easy to be buffeted, eroded and move along en masse with the grand forces of our time and evolution. It takes a ferocious inner force to carve out your own destiny, regardless of circumstance. Hard cities are the best places to track down those who embody that level of defiance and strength.

Living in a place with a sophisticated, stable market to support your talent, obviously makes it easier to succeed. Urban social scientists like Richard Florida [Rise of the Creative Class] make sense of why some cities attract a disproportionate share of talent, spawn innovation and wealth with greater ease than most (think Silicon Valley or Singapore).² Being in Jozi just requires digging deeper (as you’d expect of an old gold mining town), but it yields some dazzling human.shaped gems.

This is a place where unexpected local brilliance radiates out globally, like YouTube star Khaya Dlanga

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Urban Survival : my 2 rules for enjoying cities that don’t share your ambitions

1. Deal with it. Resistance is futile. Remember the maxim: “bloom where you’re planted” fortune favours the fast adaptors. One of the best things you can do for your career is to learn some improv theatre techniques [think "Whose Line is it Anyway"]. Same goes for moving cities. Rocket scientist of adapting improv in business is Rob Poynton (Everything’s an Offer)³ who preaches almost only one thing: ACCEPT, then make something fresh/ useful/ outrageous from whatever life thrusts your way (sounds easy, but it takes serious theatre-ninja skills).

1. Genius begets Genius. There are 2 things I believe about developing genius. The second of which is that genius begets genius. Surrounding ourselves with people who are ferociously brilliant and determined, awakens the brain’s portals to significance, positive competition and heroism, otherwise dormant in less challenging company. HANG OUT WITH PEOPLE DOING INSPIRING THINGS, not just friends by convenience. Find your tribe and then go adventuring. Thankfully we aren’t limited by who’s in our hyperlocal ‘hood any longer. We have the world to search for our kind. Nothing beats realworld though – which is why it’s a no.brainer that the best and the brightest cluster in close vicinity - but resourceful digital nomads can get the best of both worlds. To stave off entropy, your average coffee, dinner, movies with friends doesn’t apply to this tribe. These are the people you want to go on expeditions with, develop a cure for Albanian measles, rack up some patents with, learn new languages together, build a school, discover a new species ..find something in your area of shared passion to defy time and the numbing cycle of work.buy.display.repeat. that our cities can loop us in.

[Wherever you are, be there.]

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* Check if YOUR city on the best-of lists (Joburgers, let me end your suspense. It isn’t. Deal with it.)

Monocle Magazine’s 25 Most Liveable Cities 2009
Business Week’s slideshow on The World’s Best Places to Live (from the Mercer 2009 Global study)

1. 9 months after leaving Cape Town for a 2 week holiday
2. Keep an eye on the Vinny Lingham & Justin Stanford passion project – Silicon Cape – vying to make Cape Town the first African creative attractor city
3. I’ve been lucky enough to get into Rob’s classes – find out where he is in the world and catch one of his sessions if you can

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26 Mentors have stepped up to contribute to this special programme, and I’ll introduce them as the as the journey progresses, because they deserve to be recognised. Each chosen for their particular approach to bridging business and creativity.

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For the reason that I don’t think too many of us get the opportunity to create a mentorship program¹, I’ll share some of my thoughts, maybe it’ll spark interest about creating one for your organisation/class/local good cause/ ..or yourself.

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8 Ideas on Modern Mentorship:

As a mentor:

1. You don’t have all the answers. There was a time when it was feasible that we could predict (with fair accuracy) how the world will operate in the years to come. That time is not now. Share skills, show the hidden paths you’ve discovered – but know that we aren’t in the certainty of our parent’s world. Our job is to inspire greatness.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity -General Patton

1. Stories are the best way to learn from someone else’s experience. It’s a quirk of the human brain – music and stories have the sticky stuff. We remember and pass on case-studies, parables, gossip, jingles. Embed big lessons (softly) in captivating true tales of luck, calamity, humour ..and let it unpack later as an aha! Be a great storyteller (the once and future king of all leadership skills)
2. Monoculture is bad, and not just in agriculture. Leave the cloning to the gene-splicing engineers, mentorship is not about sculpting someone into your likeness. Our job is to spot what makes our charge special, draw out what was dumbed down to ‘fit in’. Genius is rarely safe and orderly.

As a mentee (horrible word, but it gets the consensual nod over apprentice):

1. ASK. Most of us far too polite to ask for anything that may inconvenience anyone else (PLEASE do yourself a favour and refresh yourself on Stanley Milgram’s subway experiment). Oh yes, also grab a copy of Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational², and read the chapter on social norms vs market norms. It WILL do your head in about what we assume about money and work.
2. That said, the kryptonite to a mentoring relationship is.. asking too much. Take a quick peek at Tim Ferriss’ post on getting this contact right. Entitlement is creepy. Demanding meetings to discuss the Next Big Thing ( still in idea.ware format and prefaced with the ubiquitous NDA), the assault of thick book manuscripts, lifeless CV’s and half.baked business plans to be analysed is something many people in high-profile positions get pelted with daily – witness any Branson gig! Stand out, offer something that would be of value to your would.be mentor (not the great opportunity to buy in now!)
3. You’re never too old or too successful to get a mentor. Brain plasticity³ is an invitation to free.choice learning. Go borrow someone else’s brilliance >>

I think you should profit from the mistakes of others. You don’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” – Lowell Ferguson

As a mentorship curator:

1. This isn’t your average mentorsheep program, so I needed to hunt for mentors who can look around the corner, not just behind them to point paths to success. Many high profile mentors who have forged their success in the world as it was. Globalization, the web, mobile, resource-strain – have rapidly forced us into new work for a new kind of world.. and so we need new kinds of guides.
2. Use fresh tools. It wouldn’t be much of a pioneering program if we didn’t experiment with the different channels that make up our blended.reality⁴. Challenge the idea that mentorship should be bound to 1 hour coffee meetings. The web is teeming with wonderful tools to enhance communication and inspire creativity (struck with tech.terror? ..hunt a mentor to help you learn, of course).

1. Yes, I have been watching Star Wars again in celebration of some of the most famed sequences of masters and apprentices (or padawan). We have very few powerful formal institutions or guilds left that require the mentor/apprentice model that demands that we face a great trial (no, end of year exams don’t qualify) to prove our mastery before entering our profession ..and maybe we’re collectively paying the price for that (but mercifully, I’ll save that discussion for another day!)
2. there’s an audio extract at the bottom of this page link if you’re living 3 weeks from a bookstore
3. your brain isn’t just doomed to entropy with the best wasted on your youth – IF you exercise it. Challenging learning = new neural connections, fresh brain cells and a cranked up IQ whatever your age
4. Our digital home base will be a custom social network from which we’ll begin the journey tomorrow night.. I’ll report back on what works

The TEDxJoburgNorth programme, launching on the 15th July 2009, will  be the beginning of many more such TEDx events in the city. I’m helping to gather the forces for a city.size TED Johannesburg in November with TEDsters and fellow raving fans, under the passionate leadership of publisher Alicia Woolf [want to get the early heads.up on getting your seat or collaborating to make it legendary? mail me or leave a comment below.]

TEDx Events have the same general goals as TED Conferences. TEDx activities are dedicated to leveraging the power of ideas to change the world, and they cover a broad set of topics including science, arts and design, politics, culture, business, global issues, technology and development, and entertainment.

Joburg’s first TEDx organised by:

Extraordinary documentary filmmaker and liaison for HH the Dalai Lama for his visits in South Africa, Guy Lieberman.

Ephraim Moss, a first class geek – using the latest in technologies and computing to develop holistic business and communication systems.

Nachi Mendelow, who considers himself an ever evolving monkey trying to work out why we ever descended from the trees. Loves banana’s, which clearly generates the formidable energy to his supercerebral cortex.

I’ve been invited to give a talk that shakes stale ideas from comfortable crusted niches.. to present ideas worthy of TED grade – dear mercy! (If you haven’t been introduced to the TED treasure >> map here). The brief is simply to talk about the ideas that burn the brightest for us – for 18 minutes. Counterintuitive evidence around my research that “The Machines are making us more Human” will fill my nerve.fraying 18 TEDx minutes. (Not sure there’s any space left – but just in case, I’d love you to join in if you’re in Jo’burg on the 15th July, check here).

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For TED fans and prospective speakers, below the lesser-revealed TED Commandments that ensure that the talks aren’t just your average powerpoint parade; and why attendees to the annual conferences in California, will do homework in the hopes of being offered an invitation for which they will eagerly pay $6000, if accepted.

(the stone tablet is delivered to TED speakers as they prepare to give the talk of their lives)

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