I was thinking today of the treatise The Art of War, written in the 6th Century BC by Sun Tzu and considered the most relevant tome on military strategy and tactics in history. Actually, if you look at the 13 chapters that conform it, you quickly understand how the structure and items proposed have been used more than any in military planning (in East and in West). They have also extended in recent decades to business strategy and planning. Find an ultra-short briefing of these 13 chapters here
There is a very famous quote of this book I came across the other day in Jordan Bortz’s blog which goes like this:
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
The reason this caught my attention was a recent debate I witnessed inside my organisation on waterfall versus agile methodologies for software development, whereby some considered waterfall (sequential software development model) as a purely strategic method whereas they claimed agile was purely tactical. I think this is a limitation and narrowing of both methodologies that’s not fair to either.
I believe you can use agile in a full fledged strategic manner as long as you manage agile actions and scrum teams in the context of a clearly visible and well communicated strategic endeavour. Probably managing this obeys a different order and formal logic than a waterfall project, but I am certain agile can be used in a mid or long term strategic context and at the same time respect it’s governing principles.
However, I still hold truth some basic notions, one of which would go something like this, as Dwight D. Eisenhower said:
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable
More also from Damon Poole, who has a bit of a fight on the topic with the above mentioned Jordan.
Everyone is trying to persuade me that decline in newspaper readership is making society at large more dis-informed. I don’t think so. Perhaps if you are not a proficient user of available tools (and I am not) you may find yourself wasting important amounts of time trying to retrieve information from irrelevant sources. But it’s fair to say that in the information age we are all struggling with relevance.
I try to find the explanation to this, rather, in the principles of entropy. Entropy assumes that nature tends from order to disorder in isolated systems. Let’s say your throw a pile of books on the ground, disorder is more likely to occur.
A more precise way to characterize entropy is to say that it is a measure of the “multiplicity” associated with the state of the objects. If a given state can be accomplished in many more ways, then it is more probable than one which can be accomplished in only a few ways
The above is a time-arrow vision of entropy. But here is another take on it as disorder, illustration included, thanks to hyper-physics
For a glass of water the number of molecules is astronomical. The jumble of ice chips may look more disordered in comparison to the glass of water which looks uniform and homogeneous. But the ice chips place limits on the number of ways the molecules can be arranged. The water molecules in the glass of water can be arranged in many more ways; they have greater “multiplicity” and therefore greater entropy
British artist and sculptor Henry Moore (1898 - 1986) introduced a particular form of modernism to art in the United Kingdom. He is particularly well known for his reclining female figures. Moore was born in Castleford, Yorkshire, the son of a mine engineer. He became notoriously acclaimed in the international scene as a sculptor for his large scale abstract bronze and marble figures which can be seen in significant public enclaves worldwide. Moore’s figures are normally characteristic for piercing and hollow spaces which are reminiscent of the hilly landscape of Yorkshire. Most of the wealth he made from these large scale commissions in his later years was endowed to his Foundation.
There is a quote of Moore’s which I particularly enjoy and I find condensates how I understand his work:
There are universal shapes to which everyone is subconsciously conditioned and to which they can respond if their conscious control does not shut them off
More about Henry Moore’s work and style here and in this tribute page to the artist.
Portrait of the artist in his studio in the mid 1960s via britannica. Reclining figure from sculpture.net. The Three Piece Reclining Figure: Draped in Kew Gardens via rwapplewannabe
Cool. I was there when they made this video (I mean I saw the filmaker with his tripod and his Sony HC7 camera on the tram to Kabatas). It starts on the Starbucks near Kabatas and gives nice views of Istanbul from there to Galata, including a ride on the funicular. I think they had a great time making it and I keep remembering Jim Jarmush ;-)
Paradise Lost is an epic poem writen by John Milton in blank verse in the XVIIC and originally published in 1667 in 10 books. It’s about the Judeo-Christian story of the fall of man, the temptation of Adam and Eve and the expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
Couple of other videos by the same author here and here. The Pink Panther vs Skeleton Man trailer is very surreal and quite funny. I love the Brazil soundtrack and the way Pink Panther manages to keep standing in the corridor with so much dignity ;-)
The origins of the Jewish Istanbulite Camondo family probably start in 1492 Spain, from where they were expelled like all Jewish and Muslim citizens. After that their traces reappear in the ghettos of Venice and in Constantinople, Ortakoy, in 1758.
View from the top floor in the newly restored Camondo house near Galata, in Beyoglu. Photo taken by Eero Korhonen
They seemed to encounter some clashes with the Ottoman authorities and, of Austro-Hungarian nationality, fled to Cyprus only to return to Istanbul in the early 1780s. The Camondo was a family of bankers (lenders originally, “saraf”). Their institution, called after its founder Isaac Camondo & Co., started by means of lending and then diversified to control a network of retail in Galata and in Uskudar as well as a brick factory and olive oil production unit in Çorlu.
They were the bankers of the liberal Sultan Abdulaziz and later of Abdulhamit II and were allowed a very exceptional situation for foreigners: to own property. The Camondos were very active donors in the Crimean War (1853 - 1856) and philanthropists and they tried to modify the Israeli public instruction to allow Turkish and French, the languages of the official institutions and of trade, to be taught in schools (which no doubt lead to great discontent in the Jewish traditional institutions).
By the end of the XIXth Century their wealth in France, (where they moved to in the mislead hopes of finding a more welcoming and evolved society) and in other countries span companies such as Paribas, Portland Cements, the Imperial Ottoman Bank, The Refineries of Egypt, The Constantinople Water Company, The Portuguese Railways, and Franco-Canadian Credit, among many others.
After seeking and finding prosperity and wealth in Western Europe, the Camondo family, like many of Ottoman Jewish ascent, disappeared. Sadly, the French Government, blinded by its anti-Semitism, failed to welcome them into society in spite of the magnificent donation of the Nissim de Camondo house and collection in Paris and in spite of the death of war pilot Nissim in Lorraine in 1917.
Bill Milbrodt (in the image with an air guitar) is known as an eccentric avant-garde music innovator capable of making music from car parts. Recently he has lead a project for Ford Motors where he has built 31 instruments -from Focus car parts- in a record time of four weeks. A wonderful campaign idea for an abominable (aren’t they all?) car manufacturer. It’s not the first time Milbrodt does it, but Ford took a very great marketing stride in commissioning this project to him.
The fender bass in the images, made from a Ford Focus wing (United Kingdom) or fender (United States). It looks elegant, and it sounds good!
And a definition for the road, from Wikipedia, your everyday CC encyclopedia ;-)Cloud computing is a new (circa late 2007) label for the subset of grid computing that includes utility computing and other approaches to the use of shared computing resources. Cloud computing is an alternative to having local servers or personal devices handling users’ applications.
The Bogardus Social Distance Scale is a psychometric scale created to measure, in an empirical way, people’s willingness to participate in social contacts of varying degrees of closeness with members of diverse social groups, such as other racial and ethnic groups, homosexuals and so forth.
The scale asks a person to what extent they would accept a certain group. An average result of 1.00 for a group indicates no-social distance. The scale is cumulative (Guttman-esque?) as each item implies acceptance of all preceding ones.
As close relatives by marriage (score 1.00)
As my close personal friends (2.00)
As neighbors on the same street (3.00)
As co-workers in the same occupation (4.00)
As citizens in my country (5.00)
As only visitors in my country (6.00)
Would exclude from my country (7.00)
The reason this drew my attention is that I just read about the Roma community in Hungary and found, not to my surprise (unfortunately), the following:
They account for 10% of the population (largest Roma community in any European country)
80% of them are unemployed (In Hungary the average unemployment rate is 7,7%)
Upon discussing message disconnect: “what you try to convey and believe has been understood has nothing to do with what your interlocutor hears or understands” a friend pointed me to an incredibly silly but I am guessing therapeutic for the burned-out employees website. There I found a funny poster on San Fermín, one of the most ludicrous of the many ludicrous Spanish yearly feasts.
Tom Waits was a big part of my musical adolescence. He was there during my various boarding school experiences, he was there when I graduated from NYU’s College of Arts & Science, he was there when I started the Non-Profit section of a Spanish local paper… I have always been a great fan of Jim Jarmusch and of course, he was there with him all the way.
Some of my favourite songs are Tom Traubert’s Blues from the 1976 album Small Change (also in the 1987 collection The Asylum Years); the somewhat novel You Can Never Hold Back Spring from the 2006 tr-anthology Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards. (Yes, Brawlers twice ;-); and Please Call Me Baby from The Heart of Saturday Night album (1974).
I want to share the lyrics of a great Tom Waits song I just recovered form the trunk of remembrance, Drunk on The Moon, from The Heart of Saturday Night. Hope you may enjoy this 1976 soundstage video and the lyrics as much as I.
Tight-slacked clad girls on the graveyard shift
‘Neath the cement stroll
Catch the midnight drift
Cigar chewing charlie
In that newspaper nest
grifting hot horse tips
On who’s running the best
And I’m blinded by the neon
Don’t try and change my tune
‘Cause I thought I heard a saxophone
I’m drunk on the moon
And the moon’s a silver slipper
It’s pouring champagne stars
Broadway’s like a serpent
Pulling shiny top-down cars
Laramer is teeming
With that undulating beat
And some Bonneville is screaming
It’s way wilder down the street
Hearts flutter and race
The moon’s on the wane
Tarts mutter their dream hopes
The night will ordain
Come schemers and dancers
Cherry delight
As a Cleveland-bound Greyhound
And it cuts through the night
And I’ve hawked all my yesterdays
Don’t try and change my tune
‘Cause I thought I heard a saxophone
I’m drunk on the moon
In my statistics panel I observe wide eyed how, week after week, the Monkey: Journey to the West post in my blog attracts the highest traffic in spite of the fact the show finished months ago. Sure the book is a classic and everyone is interested in Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn, but damn! This is interesting…
So, with this in mind, I start wondering about how trends are created and venture to Google Trends (or the Zeitgeist) for a peep of today’s hot topics. To my surprise, in US trends, I find alongside the infamous bachelor Gary Zerola and Arlington mayor Carmen Kontur the word gymnophobia on today’s 14th position. I veer off topic (as usual) as I am fascinated by phobias.
Gymnophobia is an abnormal and ongoing fear of nudity. Sufferers experience undue anxiety (even though they realize their fear is irrational) of nudity. They worry about seeing others naked or being seen naked, or both.
Other possibly unheard of phobias are:
Ephebophobia: fear of youth Coulrophobia: fear of clowns Ergasiophobia: fear of work Neophobia: fear of newness Paraskavedekatriaphobia: fear of Friday the 13th ;-) Panphobia: fear of everything Taphophobia: fear of being buried alive Pteronophobia: fear of being tickled by feathers Ablutophobia: fear of washing or bathing Acarophobia(illustrated): fear of itching or of the insects that cause it
Thanks In My Opinion (I think this blogger is a collector of trend terms., ie. what I am doing right now ;-)
It seems that the word phobia is most searched in The Philippines by region and in Houston (Texas) by city. Interesting…
The print media dominates the mass media economy in Finland and newspaper circulation per capita is the highest in the EU and third highest in the world.
Finland has about 200 newspapers, more than a quarter published 4 to 7 times a week. The total circulation of all newspapers exceeds 3 million and most are bought by subscription rather than from newsstands. Finland also has a very high number of magazines; there are about 2.800 weeklies, and adding titles published at least four times per year, the figure reaches 3.500.
By the way, Finland, with an average of 563 score points, was the highest-performing country on the PISA 2006 science scale. More on PISA 2006 and results
Envy is a part-object function, it is not based on love. Some people consider envy to be the most primitive and fundamental emotion. It is a part-object process that is not based on love, it exhausts external objects, and is destructive in nature. Envy is destructive, possessive, controlling, and does not allow outside intruders in.
Jealousy
Jealousy, unlike envy, is a whole object relationship whereby one desires the object, but does not seek to destroy it or the Oedipal rival (father and siblings, those who take mother away. Jealousy, unlike envy, is based on love, wherein one desires to be part of the group, family, clan, nation… and be included in the group, the clan, the family. Jealousy has an Oedipal component, is based on love, and is a higher form of development than envy. It is a triangular relationship, in which one seeks the possession of the loved object and the removal of the rival.
Don’t even ask me why I was thinking about this, I think it’s because sometimes the possesive nouns overtake the rational thought I like to defend. 2008 resolution:waiving goodbye emotional approaches to business ;-)
In the photo Princess Elf who cannot be happy with all her riches courtesy of Maddie Harder
I am in the process of moving from Paris to Istanbul. (Infact, I am taking a box packing break). Besides the US where I studied (New York) and some months in Colombia, I have not lived outside Europe before. I am super excited. Istanbul is an amazing city of 15 million people and as cosmopolitan if not more than most of the super-cherished world capitals.
Some of the great things I am looking forward to right now are:
Living in what once was Byzantium and then Constantinople (I mean, come on, it has been the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman empires!) and everything I have to see to understand this history (I must remember I actually should work…!)
Living in the only city on the planet that covers two continents (Jim Jarmush missed it in A Night On Earth, what a shame)
Living on the Golden Horn and, as in my case, over the Marmara Sea
Being in a cross-roads of East and West and all that it implies
Getting to know all about Turkish modern art, architecture and design (I mean, there is some very serious stuff going on there). I will take Istanbul Modern as the starting point
Wining, dining and dancing in all the cool places between Galata, Besiktas, Ortakoy, Nisantasi and Bebek
Working in the fascinating ecosystem of Hürriyet Medya Tower (and hopefully doing something productive and meaningful there ;-)
Learning Turkish and learning to understand Turkish culture and social norm (By the way I find Turkish people amongst the nicest most welcoming, warm, polite, refined and cultivated I know)
Remember what Napoleon Bonaparte said: “If the earth was a single state, Istanbul would be it’s capital”
Because she’s totally cool, fun, pragmatic, decisive, reactive, understanding, sensitive, mature, patient, generous and generally cool. That’s why. Plus she put a picture of herself, her new born first child Nicolas and myself in a Chistmas card ;-) That’s pretty cool.
I have to make 2 confessions to myself, for clarification. It’s soothing to blog about these things.
I find overweight men more attractive than skinny ones: (I don’t mean sturdy, I mean plain super fat). It must be the Spanish catholic past dictating something here. It does so in confabulation with my still childishly renegade reach on life. As if they could shield me. As if they were making a statement by not taking care of themselves…?
Of course, this statement is to be used ceteris paribus: it’s just a physiognomy factor, to be isolated form intellectual, moral or ethic as well as personality appreciations of men.
Secondly, I start to develop a sense of self-appreciation I had never before experienced. Again, I think a youngest-of-eight and subservient adolescence had imprinted a feeling of lessness on me. It has taken me 35 years to overcome (and I cannot even keep track of how many hours of chaise-longue). But hey! it seems, in the end, it may have all paid off ;-)
Ahhh… there we go! I had to get this out. In case I sometime hit the play-back button and re-read my posts, nobody except myself should care for this entry - but maybe the act of blogging just makes us all a little bit more vane, a little bit (more) exhibitionist and also, on the beholders side, a lot more voyeuristic.
I sent an e-mail asking a guy who I consider a friend a personal question. I did it because I know he’s a smart and fast witted type and he would send me a good reply.
And here is the sequence, question, answer one and the addition. I love this guy ;-)
Me: Chris, is an active sex-life important for happiness?
Chris: I guess not, I am pretty happy
I told you, the guy is good. But wait! it gets better ;) look at the second answer:
Chris: Also, a lot of my married friends seem pretty happy, so clearly not
Man-o-man! Who’s going to work out the marketing and segment placement of hotel chains soon? This is just insane. I am in Warsaw camping my tired bones in a terrible Polish hotel (phone over 3m away from bed, 24×33 cm towels, no shampoo, no soap, no hair-drier, no minibar, no wi-fi…). After this (cancelled return trips and re-bookings at hand) I suffer the budget French chain hotel punishment: tiny room, tiny bathroom, tininess and cheap-o-ness all around me, plus adolescents at breakfast (it’s like a dorm scenario). Depressing to say the least. Needless to say all this is forced by a booming economy, Warsaw hotel occupancy at it’s peak and little silly me travelling to Poland on a per need basis (meaning I cannot arrange a decent booking for decent pricing) and a corporate budget limit I am stupid enough to respect.
My point was, anyway, that this hotel pricing thing just does not make sense…
Why? Because, I paid 60 EUR to survive it in this French blue collar worker chain but tonight, tired of it all (thanks Erol) I managed to get my tired bones to a Hilton and am not paying 5x the price, but I am getting 10x the service, the rest, the space, the comfort and the respite. Ah, God bless the economies of scale of the big guys, and their expertise in their trade.
This issue of amateur versus expert we will discuss soon, I cannot wait.
But the issue at hand was: It’s all around us an has nothing to do with being a foolhardy traveler: those of us on the road have to learn to travel well and get rest. As for me, I am learning, from humbleness, to make sure that I get what I deserve for an business developer who spends her time on the road. This, just as much as everything else, is a key to good work and productivity.
By the way, the definition of foolhardy: marked by defiant disregard for danger or consequences
