August « 2008 « Scott Berkun

Archive for August, 2008

By Scott Berkun on August 28th, 2008
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On Tour

Going to SXSW? Vote for my panel

Never been to SXSW but was asked by Susan Price to be on a panel about Attention and Design at SXSW in March ‘09. I have opinions galore about attention (See my essay attention and sex), and think this is a great topic.

The way it works is everybody votes and the top panels chosen become part of the program. So if you’re going and want to see this panel, or help me get to SXSW, please go vote.

Panel – Designing Experiences in an ADHD Culture: Attention Deficit Disorder is increasingly recognized as a cultural adaptation to information barrage. How can experience designers cope with distractability and lack of attention? What do we need to be doing, or not doing, to continue to connect with users amid all the noise? Is there an ADD upside?

More details and voting here.

If nothing else it’s worth checking out their cool voting tool and how their panel selection process works.

By Scott Berkun on August 28th, 2008
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harvard business

Upgrade your life: interview w/Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani

Over at harvard business, I interviewed Gina Trapani, Editor at one of the most popular blogs in the world, lifehacker.com. I asked some tough questions about personal productivity and and she has great answers.

Here’s an excerpt:

S: There are so many ways to optimize work and habits, that it’s easy to get lost, or to spend as much time seeking out new hacks as using the old ones. Are there meta-hacks, or hacks for managing all of the hacks out there?

G: The hack is simple: pick a system and stick with it. The irony of productivity media is that it gives you an excuse to put off actually doing the stuff on your to-do list by trying out a new way to keep track of your to-do list. (This is the reason why sites like Lifehacker even exist!) But the reality is that, like humans, every task manager, calendar, smartphone, or productivity tool is flawed…

Real the full interview here.

By Scott Berkun on August 28th, 2008
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linkfest

Thursday linkfest

How buildings learn, the movie. Based on one of my favorite books, a six part BBC series on google video explores the themes from the books with tons of real world examples (How did I not find this before!).
How design can save democracy. A short summary of efforts to prevent the mistakes of the 2000 election, with an interactive walkthrough.
Amazing bridges you’ve never seen. I’m crazy about bridges, and have written about at least one great bridge before, but most of these blew my mind and I’d never seen ‘em before. Want more you say? Try here and here.
Ten politically incorrect truths about human nature. Still chewing on the reasoning behind some of these, and disappointed by the lack of any references (except this poorly reviewed book), but interesting and refreshingly provocative none the less.

By Scott Berkun on August 25th, 2008
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Innovation

Interview w/Jared Spool, on Innovation (Podcast)

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by Jared Spool, industry legend and CEO of User Interface Engineering, about innovation, management and doughnuts. It’s a fun conversation, as both of us are fond of wisecracks and sarcasm. and I’ll be speaking at UIE 13 this October in Cambridge.

You can listen to the podcast (MP3), subscribe to UIE’s podcasts or read the text transcript.

Here’s an excerpt:

Jared: So, one of the questions that we got on our blog recently had to do with measuring risk, or measuring innovation. I think, they asked something like, “How do I track how innovative we are?” I hear that on a quarter to quarter basis.

Scott: [laughs] Which is terrifying to me! I was terrified of this person. Just imagine, right? Think of all the great innovators. Think of DaVinci, Edison, Picasso, Van Gogh. Could you imagine someone sitting over their shoulder saying “So Vincent, how innovative have you been in the last hour? Five? OK, great. I will come back in an hour and I will ask you how innovative you have been.” It just doesn’t make any sense.

Jared: Exactly. Just like the idea of Leonardo Da Vinci filing quarterly innovation assessment reports.

Scott: Exactly. Yes. Da Vinci, you know, your innovation ratio is down this month. With your performance evaluation, sorry, you are not going to get that bonus. Give us another Mona Lisa. Can you give us another Mona Lisa please?

By Scott Berkun on August 25th, 2008
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Teaching/Training

How do you teach leadership in high school?

I was recently asked by a high school teacher about ideas for teaching leadership to teenagers (She heard about Making things happen, and is considering applying some of its content). They start in middle-school and the students are hand picked to continue throughout highschool:

The Middle School Leadership students are in seventh and eighth grade (12-14 years old). Every year they are hand picked or re-picked. If they demonstrate “leadership skills” they may apply to the High School Leadership class. These are the students who will primarily benefit from your perspectives on project management and leadership.

In an effort to stave off senioritis I would also like to incorporate some of the project management and leadership lessons in my twelfth grade honors and regular curriculum this year. Any suggestions?

I have my own ideas, but I’m hoping some of you will offer thoughts or experience. Anyone know of other programs like this? Or have experience running leadership programs for high school age students? Please leave a comment. Cheers.

By Scott Berkun on August 25th, 2008
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Essays

More on learning from mistakes

Some recent e-mail about my essay on how to learn from mistakes. Brian wrote:

I enjoyed reading your article “#44 – How to learn from your mistakes”. One other category of mistake I would add to your list, really a continuation of the “Stupid” mistake, would be “Habitual”, or “Automatic”, whichever phrasing you like better. This is the case where you repeatedly make the same mistake(s) out of habit, it’s automatic. Take the person who wakes up every Saturday around 2pm and says “Gee, I wish I didn’t drink so much, why do I always do that?!”.

These are mistakes that we regret and always ask “Why do I keep on making the same mistake over and over again?”. From my personal study, I feel at the moment that the answer lies in making a new habit of pausing before we make a decision, and imagining the possible outcomes of the action and making a CONSCIOUS (rather than automatic) decision this time.

Absolutely – In fact Leo Buscaglia, in one of his books (I think it’s Living, Loving and Learning) talked about how being healthy depends on making more of our behavior choices. To grow as a person, in his estimation, hinges on seeing more and more of our own behavior, and even emotions, as choices and taking responsibility for them, instead of blaming others, or perhaps, the entire universe.

I’m at least at the point that when I wake up at 2pm on Saturday, I know full well why I made the choice :)