The Divingbell and the Butterfly is a move based on the memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a man who uppon waking from a stroke finds that he fully paralized with one exception-- he can blink.
Eventually he and a speach therapist work out a system of communication. She recites the alphabet. He blinks when she says the right letter. Part of the story focuses on how slow this sytem is. To write the book, he and an assistant work for hours every day just to compose a single page.
This isn't a movie with a profound ending where everyone learns to live for the moment because tomorrow you may die. Bauby chooses to not feel pity for himself.
The movie and the book are different beasts. The book is all bauby's words. In the movie, the director can add the perspective of others, how Bauby's woman chasing hurt those around him. How others react to him.
I enjoyed both the movie and the book.
What is there to say about this movie? Is it life affirming? Is it a sad story? Is it a story of a man concering adversity? I wanted it because I have questions that I am trying to answer. "Why are we happy?" and "How do different people find happieness." This movie is an extream example of somene finding happiness despite being in the most horrid of situations. It's as if we control how we feel.
Yet, if we control how we feel, then why achive anything? Why shouldn't I dedicate my life to being a care free, pennyless happy hobo?
These questions quickly desolve into a vat of hypotheticals.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Helvetica
Helvetica is a documentary on the most ubiquitous of fonts. It has an interesting take on they cycle of design and trends.
Something new and practical becomes popular-- in this case it's the font helvetica.
It goes from popular to ubiquitous.
At this point, there are three futures. One is to rebel against it. Often, the rebels don't know what they stand for, but they do know what they stand against. The result is an explosion of creativity, most of it bad.
The 2nd future is for it to just fade away. Nothing to say hear.
The 3rd, is for it to transition from popular to ubiquitous, almost like air. Helvetica has achieved this. People use Helvetica without thinking about it. It works. It's neutral. It's legible and it can be applied to so many situations.
Something new and practical becomes popular-- in this case it's the font helvetica.
It goes from popular to ubiquitous.
At this point, there are three futures. One is to rebel against it. Often, the rebels don't know what they stand for, but they do know what they stand against. The result is an explosion of creativity, most of it bad.
The 2nd future is for it to just fade away. Nothing to say hear.
The 3rd, is for it to transition from popular to ubiquitous, almost like air. Helvetica has achieved this. People use Helvetica without thinking about it. It works. It's neutral. It's legible and it can be applied to so many situations.
Super Crunchers....
Thanks to the recession, Super Crunchers, published in 2008, now has an interesting taint.
The central thesis of the book is that analysis of huge databases (Super Crunching) is leading to computer models that make better decisions than people and that maybe, just maybe, people should hand more decision making to these models as time and time again these models yield more accurate predictions than people themselves.
And then came the mortgage melt-down, the collapse of hedge funds and the banking crisis. All caused, in no small part, by people trusting computer models more than their own judgement.
To paraphrase Allan Greenspan, When you take a risk, if you are not willing to live with failure, then you probably shouldn't take the risk, no matter the upside. How easy it is the forget this. The result is bubble think. People making unncessary risks when they get a big cut of the success and get to blame the failure on someone else.
And that's the problem. A computer may make more accurate predictions than a man. But a computer can't take responsibility for its actions. A computer doesn't have to live with failure. A great computer model may make more accurate choises than I. But, I have to make those choices and live with the consequences.
The central thesis of the book is that analysis of huge databases (Super Crunching) is leading to computer models that make better decisions than people and that maybe, just maybe, people should hand more decision making to these models as time and time again these models yield more accurate predictions than people themselves.
And then came the mortgage melt-down, the collapse of hedge funds and the banking crisis. All caused, in no small part, by people trusting computer models more than their own judgement.
To paraphrase Allan Greenspan, When you take a risk, if you are not willing to live with failure, then you probably shouldn't take the risk, no matter the upside. How easy it is the forget this. The result is bubble think. People making unncessary risks when they get a big cut of the success and get to blame the failure on someone else.
And that's the problem. A computer may make more accurate predictions than a man. But a computer can't take responsibility for its actions. A computer doesn't have to live with failure. A great computer model may make more accurate choises than I. But, I have to make those choices and live with the consequences.
The 4-hour work week.
Part of the 4-hour work week irritates me. After years of floudering, the author Timothy Ferriss, started a successfull dietary supliment business. It earned him $30,000.00 a month. But, Ferriss found he was working 12 hour days and not enjoying life. So he developed his philosphy and a lot of buzzwords and grew his sucessfull business into something that earned him $100,000.00 per month with less time and commitment from him.
Starting a busines that nets $30,000.00 a month. Hmmm. He takes that for granted Yes, he grows his business astronomically while working less. But, he never quite realizes that starting a business that nets $30,000.00 a month is a mixture of opportunity and luck and not due to his philosphy.
The philosophy its self is nothing new. More or less the 7-Habits rephrased.
Starting a busines that nets $30,000.00 a month. Hmmm. He takes that for granted Yes, he grows his business astronomically while working less. But, he never quite realizes that starting a business that nets $30,000.00 a month is a mixture of opportunity and luck and not due to his philosphy.
The philosophy its self is nothing new. More or less the 7-Habits rephrased.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Good To Great
I went through "Good To Great" a few months back. I'm going through it again. It's suprising how many good observations are in it.
1. Great people are more important than great vision.
2. Great organizations have a "hedge hog" pricipal; a simple & clear statment of what they can be the worlds best at.
3. They optimize for "Profit Per Unit X" X is subtle and different for each organization. For some companies it's "Profit per customer visit." leading to decisions that can decrees the number of employees. In others it's "Profit per employee.' leading to decisions that increase the number of employees and the expectations per employee.
4. Great companies do not grow for growths sake. They only grow in ways guided by their hedge-hog pricipal, in ways that increase "Profit Per Unit X" and in ways they are passionate about.
1. Great people are more important than great vision.
2. Great organizations have a "hedge hog" pricipal; a simple & clear statment of what they can be the worlds best at.
3. They optimize for "Profit Per Unit X" X is subtle and different for each organization. For some companies it's "Profit per customer visit." leading to decisions that can decrees the number of employees. In others it's "Profit per employee.' leading to decisions that increase the number of employees and the expectations per employee.
4. Great companies do not grow for growths sake. They only grow in ways guided by their hedge-hog pricipal, in ways that increase "Profit Per Unit X" and in ways they are passionate about.
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