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Book Review (Freedom to Explore)

Michael’s book has 26 two-page chapters with each one covering a different letter. Each letter has a well-crafted story with a provocative point to make.

Some of the chapter titles are ‘C is for Crap’, ‘E is for Erotic’ , ‘L is for Lager’ and ‘Y is for Yahoodotcom’.

A cool quote, there are heaps, is from ‘X is fro Xenophilia’

Jewish theologian Martin Buber once said, “Life is meeting.” By this me meant that we are fully and authentically alive when we meet others. To meet, in his thinking, is to so engage another human being so as to see in them at least as much complexity and beauty as you would like others to see in you.

Book Summary

Freedom to Explore
Michael Frost

Genres             Christian Spirituality, Post Modern Church
Pages              63
Readability       3 (1 = Easy, 5 = Hard)
Enjoyment        5 (1 = Never Read, 5 = Remarkable)

If you are are in any way involved in Christian things, BUY IT and READ IT. It will challenge your thinking no end!

NB: Xenophilla means 'an attraction to foreign peoples, cultures, or customs'

Natures artwork

The sun was persistently making its way towards setting, casting long shadows that ducked and dived over lush green rolling hills that were intermingled with native bush. No artwork or picture can capture such beauty.

Just 30 minutes later, the sun had set and its intensity was made known by illuminating some high streaky strata cloud with beautiful reddish orangey bands of light. The cloud twisted and turned just a little to create an incredible image that only a few privileged people would enjoy that day. In minutes they would be gone and never reappear.

These images made me thankful for my life.

They were an incredible birthday present!

In other news 200 people die in Iraq...

Imagine living in Iraq at the moment. Imagine going to the markets and always having to scan the people around you, always wondering if that guy is the next suicide bomber.

Think for a moment about the shock and outrage as news filters around the city of another 200 people being killed in your city that day.

500 people in your country this week!

Over 62000 people since America arrived!

You have already had more than a few of your friends and family die or been injured.

‘We are ‘fighting terrorism’ in Iraq, that is why we are there, said Tony Blair this week. This story has changed so many times: first we were removing the WMD threat, then we were removing a dictator, then we were bringing democracy and free elections, and now we are fighting terrorism. ‘It is a worthy cause,’ echoed Dick Cheney.’ ^

How would you feel about Tony Blair “fighting terrorism’ for you?

How would you feel if you found out that the media in a small country in New Zealand found the ruthless, unnecessary and sad death of 33 Americans 4 days ago more important that 200 people in your city today? The 200 people dieing was the third news story in and only made it to that slot because it was one of the bloodiest days in months.

What the media reports is in direct response to what we want to see. We want to know about the US shootings, just as people would if it happened here. ‘The shootings happened in a free country’ we resonate, ‘What happens in Iraq is sad, but that’s what happens in the Middle East.’

How would you feel if you lived in Iraq?

Did you choose to get born in Iraq?

Did you choose to have America invade?

Did you choose to have an ill-equipped police force and poor intelligence that cant stop the bombings?

Wouldn’t you long for the freedom and the life you once knew?

How would you feel?

Implication: It blows my mind how insensitive we have become to real issues in the world. It appals me. But I don’t know what I can do about it.

Book Review (The Google Story)

The thing that blows me away the most about The Google Story is the intelligence of it's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

If you are a closest IT geek and entrepreneur like me you will probably enjoy the read.

Be warned the numbers are mind blowing. Last year was their seventh year of busiess and they had revenues of $10 billion US dollars.

You can read the full review at www.viewpoint.net.nz

Some Easter heresy?

Since its Easter I thought I would share two notions that have spun around in my mind over the last week.

Awe...

I love going for a ralk (part run, mostly walk) by the river. I love the fresh air, the smell from the wet autumn leaves and the sunshine that breaks through the natural canopy. I’m amused at the way the ducks quack, in a way that it sounds like Donald Duck laughing, particularly when I start running.

I enjoy solitary ralks and ralks with friends. At some point, I am almost always filled with awe for the creation I am witnessing. I am reminded that it is too big and beautiful to be an accident. I contemplate how God made the beauty and the smells and the sights. It prompts me to remember that the earth doesn’t revolve around me, It doesn’t exist for me. 

I got an email the other day that simply said “thanks for ….”. The awesome thing about the email is that it was from a person I didn’t expect thanks from. It made me smile because I know this person has had a tough life and I see the person changing and growing. Its awesome.

Very awesome!

You know I think awe is a form of worship. Maybe it is worship in its purest sense. Not the stand up and sing songs kind of worship that my friend posted about. You know, where you stand and sing words because that’s what everyone is doing, even though nothing is happening in your heart.

No, awe is a feeling of being alive, of understanding that Gods grace isn’t just shown to the people in the church, but to everyone.

Through many things.

Everyday.

I would rather be filled with awe through seeing a person learning or through creation any day, compared to orchestrating awe or worship at a church service.

His Grace is shown to us everyday.

I think the problem is we are just to busy, mostly with dumb stuff, to notice!

Jesus as a kid…

Now, if you had grown up with Jesus, as a boy that is, wouldn’t you have noticed something different about him? Wouldn’t you have seen something different in his life for 30 odd years and thought, wow, this guy is the Messiah!

Well his friends and family and fellow villagers didn’t. He came into his hometown and started preaching one day and they said “what is he talking about, isn’t this Mary’s son, the brother of James, a carpenter”. Their attack was relentless.

How does that work? Why didn’t they see him for who he was? I guess it is because Jesus was real. The gospels show Jesus to be a man who was often annoyed and frustrated, sometimes scared, sad on occasion, and even angry.

Why is it then that Christians think they need to be perfect and ‘holier than thou’. Why do so many Christians lack authenticity? Why of all people do they have to pretend like everything is OK? If Jesus friends and family struggled to see the real him because they knew him, why do Christians pretend to be other than the real them?

Two thoughts. Evocative; hopefully. Heresy; maybe!

Load Images from Other Sites

OK, so now the closet IT geek side of me comes out. The image below is a link to a tool I created that builds HTML code for images that you may want to load off other websites. I use it quite often at www.viewpoint.net.nz for images relating to news articles. It saves having to upload the image myself.

Yip. I'm a geek, but I'm still in the closet!

VC: The ones that got away!

Bessemer Venture Partners is perhaps one of America's oldest venture capital firm, carrying on an unbroken practice of venture capital investing that stretches back to 1911.

They have a "Anti-Portfolio" section on their website discussing some of the names they have passed on in the Venture Capital stage. Just small names like Apple, eBay, Fedex, Google to name a few.

Check it out here, its mind blowing to think about how much money they missed out on.

[Hat tip: Idealog]

Free Prize Below

Come to the edge. We might fall.
Come to the edge. It's too high!
Come to the edge! And they came,
and he pushed ...... and they flew.  - Christopher Logue

I have just finished my sixth book for the year, Seth Godins "Free Prize Inside" (and it actually has one). It is a book that challenges business to go to the edges and beyond.

The key implication for me: Ideas are worthless if no one owns them and makes them happen.

To read the full review and get your free prize click here. If you post a comment on viewpoint.net.nz, I'll email you a free prize.

When Google or TradeMe dies.

I was chatting to someone the other day (Jim or Alf or Vivek or all of the above) about how Google or TradeMe or Microsoft will eventually have their day. There is a day coming that they will not be the biggest or best, and there is a day coming when they may not exist. It may not be in the next 5 years but the day will come.

Do you think it is possible to take on tradeMe or Google? SkrentaBlog offers 12 tips to taking on Google. Have a read, some of them are really applicable to taking on any huge company, product or service. Comapnies like TradeMe or Telecom or Manpower. Here are a couple of the highlights.

# 1, A conventional attack against Google's search product will fail. They are unassailable in their core domain. If you merely duplicate Google's search engine, you will have nothing. A copy of their product with your brand has no pull against the original product with their brand.

#2, Duplicating Google's engine is uninteresting anyway. The design and approach were begun a decade ago. You can do better now.

#3, You need both a great product and a strong new brand. Both are hard problems. The lack of either dooms the effort. "Strong new brand" specifically excludes "search.you.com". The branding and positioning are half the battle.

# 9 Your product must look different than Google in some way that is deliberately incompatible with their UI, for two reasons. One, if you look the same as them, consumers can't tell how you're different, and then you won't pull any users over. Two, if your results are shown in the same form as Google's, they will simply copy whatever innovations you introduce. You need to do something they can't copy, not because they're not technically capable of doing so, but because of the constraints of their legacy interface on Google.com.

# 10 Your core team will be 2-3 people, not 20. You cannot build something new and different with a big team. Big teams are only capable of duplicating existing technology. The sum of 20 sets of vision is mud.

Nature, floods and awe!

One of my friend's parents could not get home the other day because of the flooding in the Far North and for some reason I had this urge to fly over the region and see it first hand. I love floods, they amaze me! If only I had my pilots licence and fine weather and spare time I am sure I would have done it - Yeah Right.

It is funny how we are often drawn to want to see natural disasters. I guess floods blow my mind for the same reasons that we are drawn to sit by rivers, stand on a wind blown rocks gazing out into the pacific ocean, look in marvel at the full moon or to sit on mountain tops and soak in the view.

I think in all of us, seeing the disaster or the view or feeling the wind reminds us that there is a force in the universe greater than us. That there are beautiful and awe-inspiring things in our life everyday that we take for granted.

For me it makes me feel human and reminds me, yet again, I don't spend enough time soaking in creation.