Work on Stuff that Matters
May 19, 2009
By David Gurteen
Some interesting thoughts on Working on Stuff that Matters from Tim OReilly
- Work on something that matters to you more than money.
- Create more value than you capture.
- Take the long view.
But to me this is key:
We need to build an economy in which the important things are paid for in self-sustaining ways rather than as charities to be funded out of the goodness of our hearts.
Credit: Tim OReilly
Wolfram Alpha goes live!
May 19, 2009
By David Gurteen
If you do one thing this week – take a look at Wolfram Alpha but before you do read this article Wolfram Alpha Computes Answers To Factual Questions. This Is Going To Be Big in TechCrunch.
Basically, Wolfram Alpha is a “computational knowledge engine” for the web – an online service for computing factual answers. You can ask it factual questions and it computes answers for you.
Have a play with it and see what you think – its a brilliant concept and like most great ideas – rather obvious in retrospect. I agree with TechCrunch – I think it will be BIG!
Mister Know-it-All
May 18, 2009
By David Gurteen
How many KM poems do you know? Not one? Shame on you LOL
In February, I attended the Henley Business School KM Forum annual conference and one of the “speakers” was the “performance poet” Elvis McGonagal.
He was extremely entertaining but the highlight was a KM poem – Mister Know-it-All that was captured and blogged by Chris Collison.
Enjoy!
UFOs over Singapore!
May 18, 2009
By David Gurteen
When I was in Singapore last year walking near Clarke Quay – I saw that what I thought at first could only be a UFO. An amazing colourful craft swooping and diving in the night sky. But then I realised there were several of them dancing together.
Watch the Go Fly Kite videos you will be delighted and amazed.
If I was still a boy I’d die for one of these!
Google Chrome
May 18, 2009
By David Gurteen
I have been using the new Google Chrome browser ever since it was released towards the end of last year, There are two versions you can downloa – a stable version and a more recent beta version.
I have been running the beta version for the last few weeks with no problems at all. What I enjoy about Chrome is its minimal user interface design and the fact that is blindingly fast and has some cool features.
If you have not got around to checking it out yet I suggest you do.
Three reasons not to aim for shared values
May 18, 2009
By David Gurteen
I originally tweeted this post of Stephen Billing’s Three reasons not to aim for shared values a little while back. Stephen tells me that it resulted in a large number of people visiting his blog and as you can see from the comments it kicked of an interesting discussion.
Shared values are a complete fallacy and the pursuit of them will not help your organisation one bit.
Credit: Stephen Billing
I have empathy with some of Stephen’s points but like several of the comments I feel there is a need for shared values but too often like many mission statements they seem trite and self serving and I am really not too sure they achieve a great deal.
Stephen has blogged on the subject again today More About Why Shared Values are Futile. What are your thoughts? Post your comments on Stephen’s blog – not here – and join the conversation 
What Do We Get From Conversation That We Can’t Get Any Other Way?
May 18, 2009
By David Gurteen
I love the power of conversation – its the driving force behind my Knowledge Cafes. Another person who loves conversation is Nancy Dixon and she has taken to blogging about it recently. This is what she had to say about conversation in a recent post What Do We Get From Conversation That We Cant Get Any Other Way?
The greatest benefit of conversation is that it produces five categories of responses (answers, meta knowledge, problem reformulation, validation and legitimization), not just the answer. We get so much more from conversation, e.g. an unexpected insight, a sense of affirmation that inspires us to new heights or, equally useful, having to confront a realization that we’ve been trying to avoid; deepening the relationship with a colleague or the introduction to a collaborator we would never have discovered on our own; and on and on.
Credit: Nancy Dixon
I suspect, there are even more then five categories. When you enter into a conversation, you are never sure where it is going to take you. Sometimes, you set out with a goal in mind but end up in a very different place. I always tell people at my Knowledge Cafes that it is OK to go off topic – if that’s where the conversation leads you – don’t resist it – go there – you never know what you might find. So I would add serendipity to the list of categories. What would you add?
