Caveat
I asked for suggestions from friends on the twitters for topics to write an article about. Here’s the first one. Written at 38,000ft so if I go off-piste I blame the air pressure.

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The Chinese don’t believe in looking back is the past. They look forward to look back. In the Western world we associate what has happened as being behind us, and what lies ahead is just that – ahead of us. In eastern philosophy they belive the opposite – that what has happened already you can see, so it lies infront of you. What will happen you cannot see and thus lies behind you.

The same philosophy can be applied to the pursuit of technological understanding; all too often we’re looking at its potential the wrong way.

I don’t understand technology, new or old. I never understood how a nano-thin piece of tape could play Thin Lizzy’s ‘The boys are back in town’. I don’t understand how a small plastic box on my bathroom window-sill with the aid of a few batteries, an aerial and a dial can play BBC Radio 4 to me in the morning. I don’t understand radio waves, Pi, or the theory of relativity. Aside from a rudementary understanding and aerodynamics I have no idea how a passenger plane carrying 450 people, their luggage, food and beverages manages to take off and fly 12,000miles without stopping. I don’t even know how ‘they’ make white paint. My son asked me recently how my smartphone worked and all I had was ‘It’s to do with satellites.’ It probably isn’t. I don’t understand new technology but I love playing with it and it’s unexpected nature is what makes it so alluring.

I don’t want to look back to go forward, I prefer to look back to consider what might be. To work with the skill and brains of those around me to harness technology.

To ‘understand new technology’ is an oxymoron; to be able to fully understand something that is new is impossible otherwise there would be no ‘new’ and we might as well all go in to a deep-freeze now.

I’ve sat in meetings with some incredibly smart people. The kind of smart that scares you in to silence, but even they trip-up and stumble over themselves sometimes. More often than not when presented with questions about what is possible. The beauty of our current technological evolution is that we simply do not know what is possible.

Steve Jobs didn’t know if the iPhone was possible but only after having observed behaviour around him did he attempt to take existing successful technology; the MP3 player, mobile telephone, organiser and camera and attempt to put it in to one device.

I’m sure Jobs and his teams struck up on many challenges and problems. Typically because whatever ‘it’ is was had never been attempted before. This is how it should be. Pioneering new technology, embracing and enhancing the world we live in with technology is what has and continues to fuel human endeavour. Putting man on the Moon, sailing the seven seas, building bridges, drilling in the middle of the ocean of fossil fuel, erecting skyscrapers, double-decked aeroplanes, solar-powered radios, apps that can help save lives or Googles Loon Project; giant weather balloons that circum-navigate the Earth’s atmosphere providing internet connections via satellite to those who have non. Looking forward (using existing technology) to help navigate what might be behind (infront of) us. The list is as inspiring as it is exhaustive.

When we created our publication, Can’t Understand New Technology, we did so out of frustration with the Government and it’s ability to turn the area with which we worked in in to a soundbite ‘Tech-City’ or the ironically coined phrase (now used by the media as a title of verbatim), ‘Silicon Roundabout’. Can’t Understand New Technology is about creating a more informed, insightful, unabashed opinion about what’s really going on, about what does and doesn’t work and why.

Whether it’s Silicon Valley in California or the square mile around Old Street one thing is for sure – when groups of gifted, intelligent, enthusiastic people (avoided the E word there) come together to play with technology greatness can happen.

Understanding new technology is not about the product or even trying to fully understand the essence of what ‘new’ is. Understanding new technology is having the confidence to try.

… contact you because they just ‘have to work with you’ and you entertain them and make some recommendations and suggestions whilst also asking them what their budget is. They come back and say they prefer not to say and instead you give them an estimation. You know you should just say no at this point but the project could be interesting.
You give them some ballpark costs and they come back and ask for more information and you reply because they didn’t run away at those ballpark costs and then two more emails later they tell you that those ballpark costs are three times what they had in mind anyway and could I do it for £50 and a packet of pork scratchings?


… disguise themselves in suits with plush office addresses. They tell you how much they love your work. Could I do some very preliminary work? Well, I don’t work for free but I will send you some information and recommend next steps for sure.
You go that little extra because you’ve got a head that just doesn’t shut the fuck up and you sketch a little and ideas bubble and you send it all off to them and wait… and wait… and politely send an email, the tone of which is all ‘Hey! Yeah! No worries, I know you’re busy… warm regards’ but what’s really meant is ‘I put good, honest (FREE) time in to that stuff I sent you, you got it for free and you don’t even have the decency to reply to say thank-you a week later?’. Did I mention it was for free? Those kinds of people. That’s been this week. #TFIFriday


Don’t get me wrong, I’m used to it, and this is aimed at a few amongst a plethora of great. But realise this: it is incredible frustrating, not to mention rude. We all have lives to pay for.

Much has already been written and commented on Marissa Meyers decision to order everyone back to working at the office (Guardian: Yahoo chief bans working from home). The fact the internal memo titled ‘PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION – DO NOT FORWARD’ was leaked from its own HR department (and more employees besides) to news channels was hardly surprising.

I was contacted by a few people to comment given that I’ve been very vocal (albeit in tiny circles) about my distain for work environments and mentalities. My first reaction to this news story was ‘This calls for a blog post.’ Yeah! That’ll show ‘em. Another blog post from someone else with 2¢ worth to chip in to an already tired subject.

Since taking over as CEO and then announcing her preganancy I’ve been curious about Ms Meyers approach. As one of the most public CEO appointments of 2012 I was hoping she might use the opportunity of her preganancy as a firm stand to promote the need for better maternity leave, but instead she made a firm stance against it by taking just two weeks stating “I won’t be the working moms poster girl.” Fair enough, if I’d just taken over as CEO of a giant I might feel the burden of wanting to take the reigns quickly and firmly too.

Then last week came the message “to become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices.” Although I’ve yet to read anywehre the fine print – it doesn’t say 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, so perhaps there is still ‘flexi-time’. They’re not alone, Bank of America has done a similar thing in recent months.

Yahoo argued in the memo, “some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people and impromptu team meetings.” Which as Prerna Gupta notes in her NY Times article (NY Times: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many), ‘That is certainly true. But it is also the case that some of the most creative insights come only when you give the human brain unstructured time to think.’ Prerna goes on to describe how her place of work simple requires everyone to spend a minimum of three days a week for five hours a day starting from noon in the office.

It is certainly true that having people in one place is an enabler for conversations, interactions, accidental collaborations and ideas to spawn. Studies have proven that people who work from home are more productive, but less innovative. “If you want innovation, then you need interaction,” says John Sullivan, a professor of management at San Francisco State University (source: NY Times, Yahoo Orders Home Workers Back to the Office). I can definitely relate to this on a personal level, but then the secret is not to work in your PJs in your bedroom for 12hours either. I also believe in common sense. Not everyone always uses it, but set the right parameters and often people will surprise you.

Most of us are perfectly capable human beings and treated as such should be given the respect, and the responsibility, to manage their own schedules and complete their work on their own time, from wherever they choose. The challenge is to balance productivity with innovation (from interaction), and also to learn to let go and allow that productivity to come from home.

It’s a bit like parenting. Be strict, or wrap them in cotton wool or let them run free – the nurturing will shape the attitude and the reactions. I’m somewhere in the middle. I say that as someone who has in the past four years reduced his own company like a chef making a fine meaty, wine jus reduction; I no longer have a studio, direct employees or even a desk. Instead a host of locations, a network of freelance people, two laptops and a wifi connection. So I accept that I am in a far simpler position to be agile and fleixble than a giant like Yahoo.

As a single parent the value I place on being flexible is priceless. Parenting my son means I lead with a firm hand but I am relaxed about most things because I treat my son like human being with respect and most of all Love and Support. Not a commodity or a trophy. I spend time with him, real time – not just ticking boxes but actually sitting and drawing with him, playing lego, writing, reading, playing football, swimming, you name it. I hope I give him enough responsibility and freedom in life so that he makes his own interpretations and understandings, and when he over-steps or does something wrong we talk about it, sometimes I change my tone so he knows I’m upset and ever so often I raise the volume. But the time we spend together, the time we invest in each other means we have a much richer relationship and a mutual respect for one another. I Use a similar approach to people I work with. Regardless of how big your firm is – people invest in people; so invest in your own, more often.

The irony is that Yahoo is a firm, who they themselves have created actual technology that makes it possible for us to communicate and work from any/everywhere and yet have taken steps to reign in their net back to the trawler. Ms Meyers stance on being a CEO and not a ‘working mom poster pin-up’ means she is also recalling working parents, single moms and dads who will have to now change their lives to return to what should be a dying post-industrialisation mentality of ‘bums-in-seats’ in office equals work.

There is a balancing act and there is no easy solution to this live/work balance. Companies like 37Signals, Semco (Brazil), Smule and Khush (and many others) who actively seek to find that balance with three or four day working weeks and flexi-time I commend you whole-heartedly. There is real value in those coffee maker, water cooler conversations, but equally in time for people to be able to think clearly and not on the ‘pretend’ lounge area disguised as ‘not working’ when clearly it really is.

Ultimately this decision by Yahoo is a bold and brave decision, hopefully not taken lightly and perhaps (for them at the moment) necessary. I suspect to better assess and cull any excess they might be carrying. It will make a great deal of their employees reconsider their jobs, and maybe even jump ship – plenty of competitors to likely snap them up. Overall I hope it works for Ms Meyer, but ultimately if the details do turn out to be more ‘bums in seats’ mentality (8hrs/5days a week) it saddens me and I wish them good luck retaining that talent for too much longer.

#SlipperySlope

How do you present a three week discovery phase for a new web site project to a record label/artist management client in the US whose passion in life is music and making great art?

You write. You sketch. You think. You write some more. You source a company (on ebay, in the US) who sell blank white 7″ sleeves.

You layout each sections content as an insert like the lyrics of the track. You give each section titles like album tracks, and timecodes based on how long it takes you to read it. You add little sleeve notes ‘Lyrics by…’ (just for fun).

You get four A2 posters of your inspiration and vision printed and folded. You personally make each of the ten sleeves like your own demo vinyl using Letraset.

You package it all up in a plastic cover and Fed-Ex it to them and hope they love it half as much as you did making it.

That ladies and Gentlemen is #LoveandSupport.

#WIP #Ramseur #Letraset #PlanBStudio

P.s you then also send them a PDF to share with their team.

Imagine I come to your desk, or knock on the door of your house or call you with a question. What do you do? You answer don’t you? Whether it is a family member, friend, someone asking for charity donations or homeless person selling the Big Issue I always try to make eye contact and give them an answer. Why?

Because that’s being human. It might not be the answer they need or like, but it is at least an answer which means both parties can go on their way.

I’m growing increasingly tired of having emails from people asking me for work, placement or experience. It’s not the first email that frustrates me, it is the second one; the one they are replying to my email saying thank-you. Not because I’ve been able to enlist them but because I’ve bothered to even email them back at all. This happens EVERY time.

My inbox is similar to yours, and we’re all varying degrees of ‘busy’, but if you don’t make the time to acknowledge and reply to these people that’s your choice but remember. Remember what it was like. Ok, some of you might have been über talented and never had to go looking for work, lucky you.This isn’t just about looking for work, it is waiting for anything that you are pinning hopes on. Remember how it frustrating it feels not hearing the answer either-way? Remembered? Good, now start replying to these people, put them out of their misery one way or another, please.