andrewnicol.net - blog

Candidate for US President

Barack Obama is new face of the democratic party in the US.

An article from the  Chicago Sun-Times leads with a story entitled "Evangelical? Obama's faith too complex for simple label Evangelical?" in which they asked him if he was an evangelical.

His answer was quite cool.

He continued his answer: "My faith is complicated by the fact that I didn't grow up in a particular religious tradition. And so what that means is when you come at it as an adult, your brain mediates a lot, and you ask a lot of questions.

"There are aspects of Christian tradition that I'm comfortable with and aspects that I'm not. There are passages of the Bible that make perfect sense to me and others that I go, 'Ya know, I'm not sure about that,'" he said, shrugging and stammering slightly.

The article concludes with

But for Obama, as for many of us, faith is complicated, messy, a work in progress. And, if we're honest about it, the standard labels just don't fit.

How true I thought.

THIS GENERATION

"This generation will be remembered for three things: the Internet, the war on terror, and how we let an entire continent go up in flames while we stood around with watering cans. Or not."

Bono

[Hat Tip - Ben]

Dragon for sale!

Don writes about the lessons he has as he grew up without a father and does so in his normal matter of fact and humorous style. At times I felt that some of his observations and negatives that he put down to being fatherless, actually apply to most men and are not necessarily the result of not growing up with a father.

Nevertheless a good, easy and enjoyable read. A couple of chapters I found particularly good and the quote below is from the latter.

Chapter 8: Making Decisions - How to Stay Out of Prison
Chapter 13: Education - Jordan and Mindy's Dog

I don't think I am stupid anymore. These days, I just think of the mind as a muscle, and by working it, we get more enjoyment out of life. I had a teacher in high school named Mr. Sleepak. He was our music instructor, and he used to tell us if we were coasting , we were moving downhill. He said this to get us to practice our instruments, but I think it's true in all of life. What I mean is, if we aren't learning, we are forgetting, if we aren't getting smart, we are becoming dull.

The latest statistic is that the average American watches 1,456 hours of television a year [4 hrs a day] but only reads three books. So if it's true that readers are leaders, and the more you read the further you advance, then there isn't a lot of competition.

Book Summary

To Own a Dragon - Reflections on growing up without a father
Donald Miller (with John MacMurray)

Genres        Fathers, Spirituality, Humour
Pages         192
Readability  2 (1 = Easy, 5 = Hard)
Enjoyment    4 (1 = Never Read, 5 = Remarkable)

Viewpoint Posts

There are a couple of posts on viewpoint.net.nz that I have done recently.

Ingenious Rating

Ingenious means providing remarkable and inventive and edgy and customer focused and stunning service. [Read More]

Hamilton Airport is too taxing!

The board and management team lack the ability to think in an ingenious way. Taxing the departing visitor is dumb. I thought the purpose of the airport increase visitors to the region. [Read More]

What did you learn today?

Did you learn anything? Even something small? If you didn't are you developing as a leader? What would happen if you asked yourself every day? What would happen if you asked different people you work with what they learnt every now and then? [Read More]

Never read "Hello Laziness"

In France 1 in every 5 people are employed by the state. Employment and business law is so regulated that growth is minimal. There is little being done to encourage start-up businesses and when a change to labour laws was suggested 1,000,000 people marched (and rioted) against them. [Dont Read :-)]

In France 1 in every 5 people are employed by the state. Employment and business law is so regulated that growth is minimal. There is little being done to encourage start-up businesses and when a change to labour laws was suggested 1,000,000 people marched (and rioted) against them. [Dont Read :-)]

Saying things to wind people up.

"I don't think you have thought through this" were his words after I had told him that we didn't need to discuss an issue and that we would handle it on the day.

He said it half heartedly, but he made a good point. He needed to talk about it. When I say "we'll discuss it on the day" it winds him up.

You see according to the styles of influence, cognitive scale, a high abstract person (like myself 99%) is always thinking and generally has thought about it and doesn't need to verbalise, whereas a mid-range cognitive person (my friend) needs to verblise it to make sure they have understood it and are clear on the plan.

Me basically telling him I have a plan leave it til the day is not what he needed to hear. Him telling me I hadn't thought about it was not what I wanted to hear. If it had gone on, we would have been frustrated with each other for no real reason.

The result - we talked and his views were the same as my thoughts - both happy.

How easy it is to miss these points sometimes!

Is it a rock, a stone or a pebble?

When you look at this picture what do you see? What does it bring to mind?

I found this rock/stone/pebble while sitting on the sea wall at the Tauranga Marina the other day watching the world go by.

I wondered if the rock used to be a part of a bigger rock. I wondered if it was man made or how it was created. I wondered how old it was and what it weighs. I wondered what its composite materials were?

When you look at it what do you see?

Do you think I should try and sell it on Trade Me?

I post another day about what I thought after I wondered all these things. (Maybe)

What if apple did a phone?

They are going to and it is called iPhone.

This is going to be a cool device. It combines a PDA, iPod & Phone into one. Super Hi-Res touch screen.

This is one sexy little device. Will be released in US in June and probably not here until next year.

[Hat tip: Rod Drury]

A quest for an ingenious business

In business I believe that Ingenious means providing remarkable and inventive and edgy and stunning service.

Ingenious companies care about their customers and are truly creative about meeting their needs. The type of service they provide gets noticed and talked about and ingenious businesses are known to be the experts, the geniuses, the elite, the ONLY place to get that service.

Read my full post at viewpoint.net.nz

What does a Purple Cow have to do with Marketing?

Book Review: Purple Cow is about making sure that your business is offering remarkable services.

A key quote for me is:

"The opposite of 'Remarkable' is 'Very Good'

Ideas that are remarkable are much more likely to spread than ideas that aren't. Yet so few brave people make remarkable stuff. Why? I think it's because they think that the opposite of 'Remarkable' is 'bad' or 'mediocre' or 'poorly done'. Thus, if they make something very good, they confuse it with being virus worthy.

Continue to read the my full review in a post at viewpoint.net.nz

Also read a great summary of 10 points about being remarkable from Seth's Blog. (the author)

Congratulations

My friends Rob & Tracey Lark had their third child today. A third girl to really keep Rob busy when they become teenagers. Born at 8:53, 7lb 7oz. Everyone is well, no name yet.

Congrads to you both.