Category: Work

Work

Old School – Nicholas Bate

What is it about “old school”? It sounds like it should be an insult, but it almost never is. Old School is professional, it’s standards, it’s a lot of things we’ve been told before (as children?) but somehow most of us have forgotten.

I’ve just finished Nicholas Bate’s latest Compact Guide, Old School: Future-proof yourself, and it is excellent. An easy, fast, first-read but a guide you’ll come back to time and time again.

Of course (because it chimes so readily with “old school”), there are plenty of Stoic principles within, but there’s lots more, too.

Now, I wish I’d purchased the full series.

Check it (or them) out on Amazon, here.

Work

50 – Now What? – The Liminal Coach

Over on LinkedIn, a friend and former Microsoft colleague, Jamie Rawlings, hosted an interesting discussion on the “uncomfortable by design” life stage of middlescence – a time for “grace and space”. Along with fellow, former Softie Charbel Fakhoury he talks about the stage of life when thoughts turn from “What do I do?” to “Who am I, now?” with all the accompanying restlessness and sense of dissatisfaction. It’s a fascinating, 45-minute chat which, hopefully, you can view, here.

Jamie now has the delightful title of The Liminal Coach. You may find him wandering along shorelines, the edges of dark forests, or indeed on the marches of middlescence.

I’ve always loved the concept of liminal space – “between or belonging to two different places, states, etc.” as the Cambridge Dictionary has it – standing on the threshold of a different place. It can be the ocean shoreline or the edge of a dark forest. In literature there’s often a boundary – The Wall in Game of Thrones or in Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. The Hedge in The Fellowship of the Ring (at the beginning of chapter 6) sticks in my mind. Despite the small strangenesses already encountered by the hobbits, it is the hedge, and the old forest beyond, that really marks the transition to a different world beyond the cosy Shire. Maybe Platform 9 3/4, King’s Cross Station is a liminal space. In China Miéville’s strange novel The City & The City, everywhere feels liminal.

Sometimes, liminal is between two states – land and sea, life and death, familiar and strange – and sometimes it’s between points in time.

St Dunstan in the East Church Garden, St Dunstan’s Hill, London

Photos: Andrew Munro

Work

Don’t panic! Don’t predict!

Nicholas Bate at Hunter Gatherer 21C offers some perspective on AI.

We either wildly overestimate the short-term impact of new technologies (remember when blockchain was going to replace every institution within five years?) or we catastrophically underestimate their long-term consequences. Nobody building the early internet imagined it would reshape elections, create trillion-dollar companies, or leave millions of people psychologically dependent on dopamine hits from their phones.

Read and reflect, here.

Photo by Ksenia Yakovleva on Unsplash

Freelancing, Work

Innovation eating freelancers’ lunch?

Here’s an insightful post from Seth Godin: Freelancer Empathy.

The opportunity isn’t to race to the bottom…

The goal is to be the first choice for people who couldn’t imagine doing it themselves, simply because their work is too important or your work is too good for them to ignore.

It’s much too easy to blame generative AI. It’s harder to prove why you’re better.

Read the full post, here.

Photo by Pablo Merchán Montes on Unsplash

Random, Work

The power of paper over pixels

I’m with Michael Wade on this.

I like to work from paper drafts. As a result, I’ll type up a document on my computer, then print it off for editing. I know this sounds a tad Luddite, but I can spot errors more quickly on the printed page than on a screen. I also like to maintain my error-spotting skills instead of delegating that task to my computer.

The last thing I did, as I tidied my desk yesterday evening, was shred five versions of a speech I was working on for a CEO. I spot errors and see the flow more clearly when I have my head down over paper. And I can scribble ideas that I might abandon by the next page.

I’m not sure why. Is it because I learned to read and write on paper? Is it the haptic aspect of having a tangible piece of paper in my hands? Or the narrower focus of looking down on an inanimate sheet in contrast to a shiny, dynamic screen?

The Times has an interesting article on how literacy levels in Sweden have dropped since schools abandoned books for “screen-based learning”. Literacy levels dropped from among the highest in Europe (in 2000) until, in 2022, one in four pupils were functionally illiterate when they left secondary school. Now, books are back. As one teacher says: “The feeling of holding a volume and reading it makes it much easier for the student to immerse themselves in the world of the book. To see the words, how they are written, to feel the words, to feel the text in a different way.”

Who knew?!?

You can read Michael’s article on sneaky screens, here.

Photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash

Work

The universe does not offer financing

A great reminder from Steve Layman. I was tempted to copy/paste the full post, but here’s a snippet:

We are conditioned to enjoy the benefit today and pay the cost tomorrow.

Achievement reverses the transaction. It requires full payment in advance (and regular payments forever). 

An important warning about the decline of deferred gratification. Read the full post, here.

Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash

Tools & kit, Work

Sound advice

Here is the soundest of advice from Hunter Gatherer 21C’s Nicholas Bate:

Only listen to vinyl when working; a break and a walk will be naturally necessary every twenty minutes or so.

This could be the nudge I need to set up my turntable again.

Currently, I have a playlist on Sonos of mostly guitar instrumentals curated from my music collection. It runs for nearly a full day and ensures (after a couple of opening tracks with vocals) that I’m not writing with other people’s words in my head.

It’s not vinyl, but it includes some sublime tracks. Here’s a taster:

Opening vocal tracks:

Loser, The Grateful Dead (“I’ve got no fear of losing this time.”)

Hair of the Dog, Nazareth (“Now you’re messing with a son of a bitch.”)

Hello Hooray, Alice Cooper (“God, I feel so strong.”)

Thereafter, a mix of the sweetest guitar music:

Blue Valley, Thomas Blug

And The Address, Deep Purple

High Nights, Sutherland Brothers & Quiver (an instrumental from Quiver’s Time Renwick, later of Al Stewart and Pink Floyd’s touring band amongst many others)

Cloudy Day, JJ Cale

Weiss Heim, Rainbow

Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers, Jeff Beck

Samba Pa Ti, Santana

Journey of the Sorcerer, Eagles

Little Wing, Stevie Ray Vaughan

Another Place, Jeff Beck

Scandinavia, Van Morrison

Angel (Footsteps), Jeff Beck

Where Were You, Jeff Beck.

And, much, much more. Just so much great music!

Photo by Adrian Korte on Unsplash

Freelancing, Work

When YOU are the brand: Tips for sovereign professionals and micro-agencies

(I wrote this for my Burning Pine site, but then realised it belongs on here, too.)

When you’re a small business, a micro business or a freelancer, it’s different.

Whatever you do centres on you. That’s not an ego thing. It’s just that clients are buying “you” – the unique blend of experience, skills, understanding and relationship you bring.

Here are a few tips and reminders for those who find they’ve inadvertently become their own brand.

Understand your USP

It’s probably not your professional skill. If you are a designer, writer or accountant, your clients are probably not (just) buying pictures, words and numbers. You may be an average financial adviser or marketer who is exceptionally good at listening and empathising. You may be an SEO expert or trainer on the invoice, but your value is in being a sounding-board, informal coach or counsellor. It can be hard, but you need to understand what the client is buying, as well as what you’re selling. That’s not easy to put in a brochure, but it’s what drives loyalty, repeat business and referrals.

Make your client look great

That’s your job. Leave your ego at the door and make your client look great to their boss or the board. That’s what pulls you up through their organisation and across the organisations of their career path, building a network of contacts and new clients as you go.

Always be professional

Get up, get dressed, be at your desk. Even though “dressed” is seldom a suit and tie. Even though “desk” isn’t in an office with a PA. Written back when Blackberry was still a thing, there’s a lot of value in Nicholas Bate’s Professionalism 101 (here as a handy download). Nicholas is now at Hunter Gatherer 21C.

And, always be tolerant, patient and resilient

What do you think? What have I missed?

Photo by Marcus Neto on Unsplash