the modern humanist

I find a lot of the tech/web watching blogs I read to be in touch, on time and in tune with current and future developments in web technology and web based business. They are invariably incisve and insightful (if a little repeatative) and often in excellent humour.

…but there’s one thing they get wrong time and time again almost with out exception : When referring to or reporting on a new offering from Google -they always refer to it as ‘free’ - “Google’s Free Maps” “Google’s Free Email” “Googles Free Search”…..so here is a short message to them, a plea for open clarity :

Please don’t call it free. Don’t call anything Google provides free.

Google is currently valued at $150 Billion dollars, or 500 bucks for a single share.

This value did not appear out of thin air.

They have a clear revenue model, based on providing attactive and innovative internet tools and services in exchange for the personal information of those who use them.

They collect large amounts of such information and then use it to produce highly focused audiences - which they then sell advertisers.

One of the reasons it is successful is because it is perceived as a provider of free products and services when it is not.

I am not anti-google. I am pro truth and pro understanding.

…on a theme I’ve covered before (about the growing toxic obsession with productivity) I present this piece of crap article from Kim’s productivity blog.

Kim talks about additional stuff kids should be taught at school. 5 key things in fact - including :

#4. Sales

Obviously I’m not advocating people becoming a salesman after school, but learning the art of selling is what I’m advocating. If you think about it, we all sell everyday. We sell ideas to our boss. We sell to our friends when we pitch ideas on what to do this weekend. We sell ourselves in job interviews.

You could say that sales is a great combination of social skills and communicating effectively, but with some other components you should pick up that will be useful.

Listen. Really listen.
Actively listen.
Learn how to be convincing.
Be persuasive.
Think of objections and counter them ahead of time.
Stress benefits instead of features.
Listen to the other person. (yes I know it’s a repeat, but it’s for emphasis)
Develop empathy.
Think in terms of how you can help serve the other person.

Selling is one of the few skills that can be utilized in any job or career. It’s one of the most important cross marketable skills you will ever develop.

….How about that ? But in addtion to Salesmanship, he also figures they should learn :

#5: Time Management

Speaking of other skills that can be utilized in any job and career is time management. The majority of students never really learn to value their time and mange it while in school. Procrastination is all too rampant (studying right before class, doing homework and essays the day it’s due, partying the night before the exam). This lack of time management often carries over into adulthood, which becomes a major liability.

Learn to make a to do list. Learn to prioritize. Learn to break things down into 30 minute blocks of time. Learn about actionable items. David Allen’s GTD system is your best friend here along with Dan Kennedy’s No B.S Time Management. Again if you’re unfamiliar with these people, Google is your best friend, but I’m sure the majority of readers will know what I’m talking about.

Maybe they can prioritise which toys they take out at playtime ?

I am’ almost too angry to write about it.. ..and so will finish this entry later. Suffice to say I find this as sick as selling make up to 5 year old girls.
edit : >  I wrote a bitter and hopefully insulting post on Kim’s site,  expressing my feelings about is abhorrent  views on how to stealth youth from our young.   I checked back this morning and the post was gone.

I fully respect he has the right to retain editorial control  (hey, he’s got a book to sell..) but,  do his readers know that he’s cutting things he doesn’t agree with ?  I admit the post was full or vitriol.  He got both barrels.   But I didn’t use any bad language even though I did call him a pervert.

Long time since the last post. Sorry. I’m still feeling my way. This blog is not now, nor will ever be as source for income, the basis for a book - unless we can do it for free.

So, the BBC published a new greedy c*nt rich list. Well - in typical BBC fashion, [new window as always] it reports that “the media” - in this case Forbes, has published a new rich list.

Time was, I saw this list with mild envy but immense curiosity : what could I, the young buck, do to make that kind of money ?

I’m different now. I don’t know why exactly, but I know how . Noam Chomsky is, apparently, a well known and important intellectual. Me ? I’d never heard of him. My friends & family said “Who?” . After reading a review of his book on Amazon (throws up some weird recommendations doesn’t it ?) I was mildly interested and looking for something more meaty to read than another bloody John Grisham.

Anyways. Chomsky is some MIT geek Professor who speaks and writes about how profit and power is the singular ambition of most Western governments around the world. And how most governments, whatever their alignment (left or right) don’t actually act or represent the electorate, choosing instead to yield to the rule of big business and by extension, capitalism.

Still with me ? Or are you heading for the erotica ?

So. This old fella has a knack of explaining how the single minded pursuit of profit is not only bad, but destructive. He will explain to you why large global companies are able to make buckets-full of money, while people remain hungry. And he’ll do it in way you will understand. Even if you’re a committed moneymaker - and hey, it’s not wrong - this chap will open your eyes to another way of looking at the world and maybe help you consider adopting an attitude that is better for society at large - and so help improve things for everyone - rather than just thinking about how you yourself might get ahead.

Apparently, thats called socialism.

…..and i used to think it just mean moaning and yelling about the government.

the global rich list is a fascinating yet simple website - it’s where I found this chart

It’s a novel graph - in that that we see in a picture the statistic that is bandied about by charities left right and centre. It shows that a tiny tiny tiny minority of people in the world have their pockets bulging with wads of cash - and that every other f*cker the vast majority have nothing and have to eat dirt when they are hungry.

At the same website, the neatest feature (Ok, its the whole point of the site) is that you can enter your own salary into calculator - and it will tell you approximately where you are in the rich (financially) list. Very funny indeed.

Go try it. Kids - get your parents permission before entering their salary. You’ll find you are in the top 1% or 2% .

So, the next time read a traditional Rich List in the newspapers or you hear of some pro-athelete signing a deals for a large some of money, remember that you too are probably in the same percentile range of 1 or 2% - barring the decimal places.

Feeling wealthy ?

Redress the feelings of shame and guilt by donating a bit of you enormous fortune to charity. World Vision has a great and novel catalogue where you can buy gifts such as pigs, or toilets or something for people in the bottom 1%. Last year I bought a few chickens. I’ve no idea if the people I helped are eating omlette still today, or gorged on chicken soup - but thats very much up the them.

The religions who preach charity haven’t made much of dent - so do your bit to redress the balance. We won’t fix it our life time, but we can help./

Edmund Burke said

“ All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.  “

I had the misfortune to come across this on the web this evening. It is a short ‘motivational’ movie about winning, being great and achieving more.

Click the picture to watch it.

It certainly works - it annoyed inspired me so much, I thought I’d write about it.

The message in the wretched montage is old hat at best and at worst it is just damaging . It perpetuates the myth that I too was once indoctrinated with and subsequently spent years trying to unlearn.

It preaches that there is no satisfaction without winning, being first. And that to achieve anything all you must come first at all costs. That somehow, without a string of victories and achievements to your bow, well, you are of little value. Are these still the only ways we have found to somehow validate our lives ?

It is the very same diseased and selfish mantra that leads athletes to use steroids, companies to lie about their profits and parents to fight on the touchline as their children play sport.

If, like many kind people - you are living a perfectly satisying life, with respect, kindness and love for your neighbours and with concern for the welfare of your fellow humans regards of race, gender, favourite team or creed - then pat yourself on the back , for you have already left this self centred productivity-obsessed bunch way behind.

We have already built a world of plenty. The sooner we move everyone on from self this centred crap, the sooner we’ll be ready as a race to tackle something worthwhile, as a collective. Like feeding everyone for example.

If however you want to be inspired, win more and achieve, then clicking here or on the picture will take you to  Santa’s Leadership Secrets available from the same company.

Before I acknowledged my humanist tendencies, I was a  loser schmoozer boozer  bit of a smart arse. That is to say, I like comedy and jokes. I like laughing - but even more I like making others laugh - and placed this above all other things.  Any one who saw my end of term report card will attest.

One of the guys who has recently been helping me to do that is a guy called Bill Hicks

This is a photo and a quote from him - an American stand-up that sadly is no longer with us. If you have not heard any Bill Hicks material and you appreciate comedy, make it your business to hear his work. He was about 25% as famous as he should have been.

You’ll piss your pants.

His sets were not political in and of themselves - rather he would use comedy to expose cruel, greedy and selfish behaviour (non-humanist…. inhumane (?)) that most frequently would be perpetrated by government - or at very least encouraged by their policy.

One of the key themes I’d like to explore in this blog is how during the course of our lives & particularly careers, the government or the corporation often leads us to act in non humanist ways. Ways that benefit them and often to the detriment of those around us.

Anyone who has cringed at Ricky Gervais great work “The Office” and the behaviour of his character will have had it spelled out for them, in his adept parody of a middle manager who has learned all the buzz words, read the management handbook and listened to all the self-confidence tapes.  Aside from his comic incompetence - the bits that make us laugh - we also cringe at the type of guy he is….or what type of human he is.

He has modified his behaviour to succeed in his Corporation  at the expense of almost everything else.  And we recognise the behaviour. And this indoctrination of humanity and corruption of humanitarian values is happy right under our noses.
I’d like to close this post with a couple of Bill Hicks’ non-comedy quotes and perhaps justify his position in a humanist blog:

” As long as I’m going to live in this world, I might as well make it the most enjoyable and fun and fair place I can make it. “
Bill Hicks

The Sole Of Africa is an ambitious sounding intiative that I first heard about from a distant member of my linked-in network. I don’t know the fella poysonally, but I do know he is passionate about the clearing of landmines and supports a number of charities that support that most worthy of activities.

the modern humanist accepts that, sometimes people fall out (if they were to disagree over the content of a 2000 year old story, for example) and that war ensures. However, I cannot reconcile why people would sanciton this inhumane activity - without any back out plans to reclaim the land for when they run out of soliders or bullets peace breaks out.

If it was a territorial dispute, this also quite often renders the wretched patch of earth in question quite worthless.

As our American friends say, go figure.

The inspiration for this blog is boring complex.

I’m a keen blog reader - there’s simply a wealth of insider information to gleaned from them.  Good blogs are honest, having  limited commercial motivation and as such, provide highly valuable tips  based on ground-level experience.

The tips I can use to make my life a bit better. Or easier.  Or how I can get wealthier, how I can achieve more, how I can be more productive,  or which gadget I should buy to make my life better.  I honestly love them all.

 But this blog is to redress the balance.    You can pause here for a breather.  Take a break and re-evaluate.  Escape from the bigger, better, faster lifestyle…over which I think we have become obsessive.

Either way, I hope to expose the real elements of the value judgements we make everyday, when we chose ambition over friendship, productivity over socialising and profit over peace.

So then, the inspiration(s) for this blug.  Well, redressing the balance in the blogosphere as explained earlier….. that’s one.  Expressing my opinions to the world.  Yes that has to be another.

Most importantly, it is tribute to all the people I ever knew, read, or heard about - all over the world-   who put people first and often ahead of themselves. And in doing so, help me do the same most of the time whenever I can.

You know who you are and sadly you are few in number - and that’s what I hope to change.