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Post by alans on Aug 10, 2016 10:06:49 GMT 10
I guess in a way we are all hypocrites - the clothes we wear are often made by virtual slaves, the food we eat often comes from exploited workers, we drive when the need is not there, thus adding to pollution. Yes, I probably am a hypocrite.
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Post by epictetus on Aug 12, 2016 19:57:13 GMT 10
I guess in a way we are all hypocrites - the clothes we wear are often made by virtual slaves, the food we eat often comes from exploited workers, we drive when the need is not there, thus adding to pollution. Yes, I probably am a hypocrite. Just staying alive adds to the pressure on resources. Best to just top ourselves and be done with it. (I bet that wouldn't get through on the Shed Online).
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Post by epictetus on Aug 12, 2016 20:40:46 GMT 10
Ethics is such a pain. There's always more than one side to it. Always someone who can come up with an "ethical" argument that flies in the face of what you thought was right. Friend of mine who taught in prisons was impressed with the ingenious ways some guys could rationalise the crimes they'd done. That's the few who'd admit they'd ever committed a crime, of course.
Just doing your duty as you understand it, following what your heart (OK, intuition) tells you is right is ethics enough for any man. Of course, we'll all disagree about some things or their place in the order of priority, but unless we have divine insight (and we don't) then we won't know who's or what's right, or more right than the alternative.
There are major ethical systems in the world - mainly religious - and they have some common ground. They help most people to lead ethical lives, but they can be distorted and have the opposite outcome. ("For good people to do evil things, that takes religion." Stephen Weinberg) (Some religious distortions attract the already vicious and license their viciousness as, e.g Jihad.)
There are some non-religious ethical systems, too, but they are grounded in ungrounded assumptions, e.g. that we are all equal and this equality should be reflected in our social arrangements and economic outcomes. In contrast to this very popular (socialist or social democratic) assumption is that of natural-right libertarians (or libertarian moralists) who argue that "all individuals possess certain natural or moral rights, mainly a right of individual sovereignty, and that therefore acts of initiation of force and fraud are rights-violations and that is sufficient reason to oppose those acts". (Wikipedia: Natural-rights Libertarianism). That is why conscription, for example, must be seen as a form of slavery, and taxation as a form of theft. To come round to a pragmatic, more middle of the road position requires that conscription or tax be justified in terms of their benefits to individual sovereignty - not an easy thing to do in the case of conscription; doable for taxation to a limited extent.
Whether it be fundamental and essential equality or the sovereignty of the individual, neither of these assumptions are engraved on the cosmos or even our little brains, They are just things that human beings have come up with as a Good Thing and worth promoting.
But how many people are going to read books or do courses in Ethics before deciding how they should lead their lives? Very few, if any. People try to behave in certain ways and to avoid other behaviours because they have the intelligence, powers of observation and general awareness of what behaviours produce good fruit and which don't. Psychopaths don't have these attributes, so they end up in gaol or as leaders of countries.
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Post by cster on Aug 13, 2016 8:52:43 GMT 10
I read a script that went When we deemed the Republicans unfit to rule we voted in the Democrats When we deemed the Democrats unfit to rule we voted in the Republicans When we deemed the Republicans unfit to rule we voted in the Democrats Whew we deemed the Democrats unfit to rule we voted in the Republicans
So when I read that I thought When we deemed that Labour was unfit we voted in the Liberals When we deemed that the Liberals were unfit we voted in Labour
And so I wonder who are we to consider Ethics as we have so readily displayed none in our voting mindset
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Post by epictetus on Aug 13, 2016 12:57:15 GMT 10
Hi Cster
"When it becomes serious, you have to lie." (Jean-Claude Juncker, the notoriously corrupt ex-leader of Luxembourg, rewarded by elevation to the Presidency of the EU.)
There may not be much ethics in politics, but it is just about impossible to govern well now, regardless of who's trying to do it.
So much lying and deception and withholding of information takes place because politicians fear the effects of telling the truth.
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Post by cster on Aug 13, 2016 18:31:30 GMT 10
GlaD to hear from you Epic, was wondering if you were OK. Sad really that we have come so far down the wrong path. Election promises are never believed But they are held to account anyway
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Post by mipela on Aug 14, 2016 6:06:29 GMT 10
Hi Epic, Cster. It was 5.10am when I read AlanS's post about being hypocritical. Then I came to Epic's essay about ethics, ungrounded assumptions, libertarian moralists, taxation as theft (not sure I can accept this view) slavery relabeled as conscription, individual sovereignty - I'm somewhat dazed by all this. And then I read where Shed Occupying Cster makes me wonder about voting ethics and then, some, ? most, ? all of us taking the wrong path. It would appear we are all headed for perdition, purgatory, Iraq maybe ? Dear oh dear ! This is mind blowing stuff so early in the morning. It's not good. This sort of stuff is bound to bring out the black dogs ! Go and make yourselves some Positive Ingredient Soup and get it into youse !
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Post by cster on Aug 14, 2016 10:38:57 GMT 10
When you tread upon the street In yards and lanes you are prone to peek And as you go, as you trundle by The world is does, it does pass you by Aye but it's you who moves, so don't despair So you send your black doggie down here I'll pat him and feed him and keep him near Then by that rite I'll be want to say. "It's sad isn't it".
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Post by epictetus on Aug 14, 2016 12:07:24 GMT 10
Hi Epic, Cster. It was 5.10am when I read AlanS's post about being hypocritical. Then I came to Epic's essay about ethics, ungrounded assumptions, libertarian moralists, taxation as theft (not sure I can accept this view) slavery relabeled as conscription, individual sovereignty - I'm somewhat dazed by all this. And then I read where Shed Occupying Cster makes me wonder about voting ethics and then, some, ? most, ? all of us taking the wrong path. It would appear we are all headed for perdition, purgatory, Iraq maybe ? Dear oh dear ! This is mind blowing stuff so early in the morning. It's not good. This sort of stuff is bound to bring out the black dogs ! Go and make yourselves some Positive Ingredient Soup and get it into youse ! Hi Mip I don't think taxing the brain, even about negative things, brings on the black dog. I'm not sure what does. Being unable to cope with the demands placed on us brings stress, but is that the same as the black dog? I suppose it is if sustained for too long. What does bring on the black dog? And if black-dog style depression doesn't last long, is it really the black dog? Perhaps I should ask Beyond Blue, but I don't really trust them. They have a conflict of interest. They need depressives for their funding, so it's in their interest to define depression as widely as possible.
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Post by epictetus on Aug 14, 2016 12:24:36 GMT 10
When you tread upon the street In yards and lanes you are prone to peek And as you go, as you trundle by The world is does, it does pass you by Aye but it's you who moves, so don't despair So you send your black doggie down here I'll pat him and feed him and keep him near Then by that rite I'll be want to say. "It's sad isn't it". Hear! Hear!, Cster. As long as you're able to observe and describe any black dogs that happen to be lurking you're still in control. They may have you by the short and curlies, but they're still not you. Take a good look at any black dog that wants to be your master. A good look. Is it really more powerful than you? It's dependent on you, not you on it, so be kind to it. Make friends with your depression. It's only as mean as you let it. Sadness is not depression, is it? Sadness is normal. But if you're permanently sad then it looks like you're sad because you're sad. That doesn't make any sense. Self-pity won't fix anything. Even in the worst of times there must be moments of joy, mustn't there? Sorry, I'm just prattling on. I really liked Cster's verse. I interpret the "down here" as "in my real mind", beneath all the superficial mish-mash of the ego - the place where "what will people think?", and "how do I defend myself?" dwells and functions to no good end.
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Post by mipela on Aug 14, 2016 17:17:13 GMT 10
Hey Cster, where'd this poem come from ? Is it yours or have you 'borrowed' it ?
Epic, Re your comment: Take a good look at any black dog that wants to be your master. A good look. Is it really more powerful than you? It's dependent on you, not you on it, so be kind to it. Make friends with your depression. It's only as mean as you let it. Ah, Spot on ! I have troubling analysing my so called Black Dog but no, it's not sadness. In my case it's a desire to bite those around me and it is quite difficult to try and control. I am finding it is becoming more difficult as I age. But then I find it easier to identify when I'm 'under attack' if that's understood. Stronger pills maybe ?
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Post by cster on Aug 14, 2016 19:17:23 GMT 10
Nope I just made it up to fit your post. So send your black doggie down here, is a sort of problem shared is a problem halved sort of thing Walking is supposed to be good for Frustration so I set you off down the street one near you in the first line. It's got nine lines so must be a poem, too long for the five line limericks
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Post by mipela on Aug 14, 2016 20:37:10 GMT 10
Nope I just made it up to fit your post. So send your black doggie down here, is a sort of problem shared is a problem halved sort of thing Walking is supposed to be good for Frustration so I set you off down the street one near you in the first line. It's got nine lines so must be a poem, too long for the five line limericks Fair enough, good ethics. Extend yourself and see if you can produce another effort ?
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Post by epictetus on Aug 14, 2016 21:20:50 GMT 10
Hey Cster, where'd this poem come from ? Is it yours or have you 'borrowed' it ? Epic, Re your comment: Take a good look at any black dog that wants to be your master. A good look. Is it really more powerful than you? It's dependent on you, not you on it, so be kind to it. Make friends with your depression. It's only as mean as you let it.Ah, Spot on ! I have troubling analysing my so called Black Dog but no, it's not sadness. In my case it's a desire to bite those around me and it is quite difficult to try and control. I am finding it is becoming more difficult as I age. But then I find it easier to identify when I'm 'under attack' if that's understood. Stronger pills maybe ? My dad was on tranquillisers from the repat all the way through my childhood. He used to lash at at those he loved. It was put down to what we'd now call post-traumatic stress disorder. (He was in the Western Desert and was missing in action for three months, a harrowing time.) I sometimes wondered if he'd always been a bit bi-polar as there was never any suggestion that he was depressed, and he functioned perfectly well in his career and community life (councillor and mayor of our local shire). I don't know how one treats bi-polarity, but I expect medication would help (and I'm usually very wary of medication). I would think trying to withdraw from the pills would be better than increasing the strength, wouldn't it? But what would I know? I'm probably being presumptuous just talking about these things. Incidentally, as my father grew into old age (he died at 89) the lashing out disappeared and he became, in fact, quite serene. Perhaps it was the regular evening brandy that did the trick.
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Post by mipela on Aug 15, 2016 7:17:43 GMT 10
We're in the wrong section of the Forum here, this Thread (is that the right description ?) is for writers. The discussion subject has morphed into a philosophy/lifestyle/medical type discussion. I'm going bto shift to to "Health and Lifestyle", are youcoming Guys ? Mipela.
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Post by epictetus on Aug 15, 2016 10:04:33 GMT 10
We're in the wrong section of the Forum here, this Thread (is that the right description ?) is for writers. The discussion subject has morphed into a philosophy/lifestyle/medical type discussion. I'm going bto shift to to "Health and Lifestyle", are youcoming Guys ? Mipela. Yep. makes sense.
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Post by alans on Aug 25, 2016 11:16:22 GMT 10
It seems that July was the hottest month on record (except in Melbourne). As the world becomes drier, some of our crops are going to find it hard going. When you think about it, our staples of wheat, oats, barley, etc were virtually bred from wild grasses. We have wild grasses here in Australia. Would it not be possible to breed some of these into staples? The aborigines used to grind up grass seeds to make flour and bake into bread, so it should be possible. The advantage of ths would be that these grasses are already climate adapted. I am not a biologist or horticulturalist but surely it must be possible. Anyone out there with the necessary qualifications? Cheers, Alan S
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Post by madametarot on Aug 25, 2016 12:09:12 GMT 10
It seems that July was the hottest month on record (except in Melbourne). As the world becomes drier, some of our crops are going to find it hard going. When you think about it, our staples of wheat, oats, barley, etc were virtually bred from wild grasses. We have wild grasses here in Australia. Would it not be possible to breed some of these into staples? The aborigines used to grind up grass seeds to make flour and bake into bread, so it should be possible. The advantage of ths would be that these grasses are already climate adapted. I am not a biologist or horticulturalist but surely it must be possible. Anyone out there with the necessary qualifications? Cheers, Alan S Thanks Alan, We (diabetics) have an issue with high carb diets (considered to be normal diets) but they are in fact extreme (extremely high in carbs) and not normal at all. So I have taken an interest in them. The reason why these high carb foods are popular is because they are cheap to produce with high yields. So I expect the native grasses would need a lot of tweaking before they became competitive. Meanwhile we (diabetics) have to dodge around all the sugar, grain products and potatoes and not too much fruit, berries are OK.
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Post by alans on Aug 25, 2016 17:20:38 GMT 10
You poor bugger. Have you seen the article about the one injection per week for Type 2 and a little more for Type 1? Just do a Google search on whichever type you are. A close friend of mine is Type 1 which is, apparently a bit odd and she is having all sorts of strife with her eyes and hearing - all associated.If you want more info, just yell and I'll send it to you. Cheers, Alan S
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Post by cster on Aug 25, 2016 18:18:03 GMT 10
So Mip Hypothetically its unethical to talk of other things in this thread, even if its mere speculation?
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Post by madametarot on Aug 25, 2016 18:18:21 GMT 10
You poor bugger. Have you seen the article about the one injection per week for Type 2 and a little more for Type 1? Just do a Google search on whichever type you are. A close friend of mine is Type 1 which is, apparently a bit odd and she is having all sorts of strife with her eyes and hearing - all associated.If you want more info, just yell and I'll send it to you. Cheers, Alan S Thanks Alan , Yes, I saw the article. I was injecting until I changed Endocrinologists and the new one changed my diet to no major carbs and I went from 130 units of insulin in 4 jabs onto 2 tablets. I just changed my tabs and I have to wait 3 months to get a lab check done. T2 is a progressive disease and we feel well while it is destroying us. Non sufferers do not understand it, and more than half the sufferers want to pretend it is not happening to them.
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Post by mipela on Aug 28, 2016 17:10:28 GMT 10
So Mip Hypothetically its unethical to talk of other things in this thread, even if its mere speculation? No Cster, but I am of the view that it's neater and easier to follow a conversation if it's in the right format. But hey, you can say what you like about whatever, whenever.
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Post by cster on Aug 28, 2016 18:48:38 GMT 10
No worries mate, I'll head over to Health and Lifestyle and see what been posted.
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Post by alans on Sept 12, 2016 15:06:26 GMT 10
There was a good article in the New Scientist about freewill which I think is worth considering: "Biology suggests we might not have free will, but everything changes when you get down to the quantum level “Did I really just decide to have fish and chips for lunch?” Humans have been wrestling with such questions for millennia. Maybe not about the fish and chips, but about whether we are truly in control or whether some external agent – be that an omnipotent god or the laws of physics – predetermines the trajectory of our lives. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. Who is the “I” who decided to have fish and chips? Your gut reaction might tell you that you are a conscious entity controlling your physical body. But that physical body includes the brain that generates your consciousness. There is no splitting the two. We do know that any sense we have of being in control of our actions is, to some extent, an illusion. In particular, neuroscientist Benjamin Libet showed in the 1980s that mechanisms within the brain initiate actions long before that brain’s owner is aware of deciding to perform them. It’s a big extrapolation to claim that all of our actions are outside our control. “Libet deals with the very short-term precursors of very simple actions,” says Patrick Haggard, a neuroscientist at University College London. Then again, even longer-term decisions and actions are the result of specific brain processes. “I assume this is also deterministic,” says Haggard. For Nicholas Humphrey, an emeritus psychologist at the London School of Economics, acknowledging that decisions have an involuntary, material cause in brain processes does not amount to denying free will. “On the contrary, I’m saying that I myself am the cause of it,” he says. Humphrey calls his “I” an “embodied self”: the sum of the thoughts, beliefs, desires, dispositions and so on that live within him. The embodied self might not be conscious of every action, but it ultimately determines them – a sort of free will on autopilot. A physicist might question that separation of personhood from other material parts of the universe. Biological material is nothing more than agglomerations of atoms and molecules that follow the laws of physics – and surely we can’t claim to be in control of those. Vlatko Vedral, a physicist at the University of Oxford, thinks that to understand free will (or our lack of it) we need to better understand what makes the universe tick. “My guess is that we will be able to illuminate it more and more as we continue to reduce more complex natural sciences, such as biology and neuroscience, to physics,” he says.
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Post by cster on Sept 12, 2016 15:51:58 GMT 10
Interesting, AlanS. You could have been listening to the radio and heard an add for or something you relate to fish and chips, the natural side of it is you were short some chemical and you body wanted it. Where to get this chemical, history (your for this instance) indicates you got that very satiate chemistry from fish and chips once before. So put those together and your brain has all it need for your conscious self to determine what hungers you. It can be other inputs of equal standing that also represents the chemical shortfall and for some reason, be it radio a sense of had that last night so not again or something similar that has eventually delivered the decision. Maybe that's my guess
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Post by madametarot on Sept 12, 2016 17:13:05 GMT 10
Thanks Alan and Cster.
It looks like a "manufactured" article ie trying to make "something out of nothing".
We all make decisions on the info available and we rate memory info (prioritise it's value) when we sleep at night.
Simples.
Brainwashing/memes/advertising is an attempt to re-value information in our minds.
Some of us are more susceptible to brainwashing/memes/advertising and the advertisers/control freaks/con-men/religious clerics all know how to identify the susceptible and take advantage of them.
But none of us are totally immune.
The wartime leader "Winny" summed it up.
"You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can't fool all the people all of the time." (or something like that)
So this article on freewill is what I call "manufactured".
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Post by epictetus on Sept 12, 2016 21:11:43 GMT 10
I'm skeptical about freedom of will, but my personal philosophy of life is based on that very freedom.
This is cognitive dissonance - accepting contradictory propositions at the same time.
Determinism is persuasive and may be convincing, but to imagine a life in which each of us is without at least some degree of free will is rather depressing. I find it hard to place Pol Pot on the same moral level as Mother Teresa, and his barbaric form of communism as equally as valid as Jeffersonian democracy.
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Post by alans on Sept 13, 2016 14:18:35 GMT 10
Came across an interesting piece of information from the ANU. As the proportion of renewables in the grid grows, battery storage and its integration are becoming increasingly important. Professor Ken Baldwin is the Director of the ANU Energy Change Institute, which will appoint an internationally recognised research leader to improve ways to store renewable energy.
The Australian National University (ANU) will establish an international research program to improve ways to store renewable energy that can be integrated into the electricity grid under a new $8 million partnership with the ACT Government.
ACT Minister for the Environment Mr Simon Corbell announced on 7 September that the ACT Government will contribute up to $5 million from the ACT Renewable Energy Investment Fund to support the new ANU Battery Storage and Integration Research Program, which will help establish Australian research leadership in the integration of battery materials technology with electricity network storage.
ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt AC committed the University to support the program with $3 million in cash and in-kind contributions, including $2 million for new laboratory infrastructure to support battery storage and integration research.
The funding will enable the ANU Energy Change Institute (ECI), which will coordinate the research program, to build a critical mass of research in the area and focus on commercialisation of new technologies. The ECI comprises more than 200 staff and PhD students from all seven ANU colleges, and is supported by more than $100 million in infrastructure and facilities.
The new ANU Battery Storage and Integration Research Program will feed into existing cutting-edge energy research at ANU and in the ACT, facilitating the transition to a broader low-carbon electricity system.
The grant will link existing research clusters in the Energy Change Institute portfolio: the research on energy storage technology within the Research School of Chemistry headed by Prof Yun Liu, and the research on optimized integration of energy storage in electricity networks led by Prof Sylvie Thiebaux in the Research School of Engineering.
This will fill a much-needed gap in the wide-ranging research portfolio of the Energy Change Institute, which already spans a large spectrum ranging from the science and technology of energy generation, to the human science disciplines that lead to the policy development necessary for renewable technology implementation.
The Government’s funding will also generate enormous economic benefits for the ACT. It will enhance local industry capability and competitiveness, attracting innovative energy companies to the ACT and build the ACT’s reputation as a global leader in renewable energy and storage.
The ANU Energy Change Institute will engage with the emerging renewable energy sector in the ACT and will develop international renewable energy partnerships.
The ACT is the leading jurisdiction in Australia – and arguably amongst the leading jurisdictions in the world – when it comes to policy innovation in support of climate change action.
Through its renewable energy reverse auction process to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2020, the ACT government has not only spearheaded the development of renewable energy generation capacity in this country almost single-handedly, but has also through its foresight mandated a commitment in the reverse auction process for successful companies to invest locally in research and in education.
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Post by alans on Sept 15, 2016 13:34:55 GMT 10
Well, that fell a bit flat. We may be aware that a forum on Spaces of Australian Innovation is coming up. I have looked at three of the speakers and here is a resume of what they say: Israel is recognised to be a world leader in innovation and start-up culture. Following are some key innovation lessons Australia can learn from. As a global innovation nation, Israel has a thriving start-up ecosystem and entrepreneurial spirit that we can take many learnings from here in Australia. Israel has many unique and inspiring qualities, from a nationwide innovation agenda to a mature, energetic and dynamic businesses culture, to thinking outside the box with limited resources. Israeli entrepreneurs and innovators are not afraid to take risks. They understand that trial and error are an integral part of instigating positive change and that success doesn’t happen overnight. In Australia, we need to overcome our fear of failure and tendency to shy away from the unexperienced. Like Israel, we need to drive collaboration, diversity and innovation on every level – starting with the right conversations. Earlier this year, we interviewed Israel-based software and cyber security expert, Ron Moritz. Mr Moritz has broad experience with tech start-ups and investment ventures. Here are four key innovation lessons Mr Moritz shared with us: 1. Innovation is an aspect of culture. Cultures that thrive on the drive to excel in the ongoing engineering of solutions have come about from an ingrained and collective response to the growth and prosperity of the country and its people. Being challenged to finding and pursuing the answer to a problem is core to their innovation behaviours. 2. An innovation focus point should be the time and energy spent in the problem-solving detail, not how it looks from the outside. By thinking too much about how things will be presented and packaged means less emphasis on the outcome. It’s not always easy overlooking design elements, but side-lining them can help bring the attention back into perspective. 3. Engaging outsiders and extending the innovation circle is often what delivers traction and success. Fine-tuning a solution for local markets can benefit greatly from looking to external advice or help. Adding different layers of ingredients can greatly enhance prospects, as will a diverse cross-section of interested parties. 4. Risk is not a bad word. And failure is just part of the process. These things are required to have a successful innovation capability. An affinity for venture funding or attracting foreign capital can be the fundamental factors for success. Dynamic and diverse investment can be the propeller that leads to survival. What if innovation would not be the privilege of those with experience? Speaker, trends expert and author Michael McQueen invites us to consider the creative power of fresh eyes. We often assume that innovation and strategy ought to be the domain of those with experience and expertise. The novice, the newbie or the inexperienced is often told, even if indirectly, to learn ‘how things are done around here’ and only to make suggestions once they’ve earned the right to have an opinion. But what if we’ve got it all wrong? What if the most valuable source of strategic innovation and creativity is actually the person with almost no experience? Old information looked at through new perspectives makes new information, said futurist Alvin Toffler, and he’s right. Quite simply, leveraging the insights of those who have a fresh perspective is a powerful way of imagining new opportunities and solutions that may not otherwise have been apparent. Consider the creative power of fresh eyes: • Having grown up in Kabul, Afghanistan, Massoud Hassani was more than familiar with the scourge of land mines. However, his formative years also offered him a unique perspective that spawned a remarkably innovative way to deal with minefield’s dotted around the worlds trouble spots. Without the benefit of advanced studies in weaponry and disarmament, Hassani’s brilliant idea came from an observation of nature – the behaviour of a tumbleweed to be exact. Noticing how tumbleweeds would blow freely in the wind rolling gently along the ground, Hassani came up with the design for an artificial tumbleweed made up of 200 bamboo rods and plastic feet. Heavy enough to trigger mines, light enough to be blown by the wind, and flexible enough to withstand multiple blasts per unit, Hassani’s ingenious invention became known as a Mine Kafon (‘mine exploder’ in his native language) and has saved countless lives around the world. • In a similar display of naïve brilliance, take the case of a 14¬year¬old Pittsburgh student by the name of Suvir Mirchandani. Noticing how many printed handouts he was receiving in middle school, the environmentally and economically sensitive Suvir began to wonder if there was a way to minimize the amount of ink being used by his school – especially considering ink is two times more expensive than French perfume by volume. Collecting random samples of teachers' handouts, Suvir concentrated on the most commonly used characters (e, t, a, o and r). First, he charted how often each character was used in four different typefaces: Garamond, Times New Roman, Century Gothic and Comic Sans. Then he measured how much ink was used for each letter. Next he enlarged the letters, printed them and cut them out on cardstock paper to weigh them to verify his findings. He did three trials for each letter, graphing the ink usage for each font. No-one could question this 14-year-old’s attention to detail! From this analysis, Suvir figured out that by using Garamond with its thinner strokes, his school district could reduce its ink consumption by 24%, and in turn save as much as $21,000 annually. Taking his findings one step further, Suvir calculated that if the U.S. federal government used Garamond exclusively, it could save nearly $136 million per year. Whether it is a new staff member who has just joined the team or a young person who hasn’t yet ‘learned their place’, the beauty of those with fresh eyes is that they have no trouble thinking outside the box because they don’t yet know what the box even looks like. More importantly people with fresh eyes are blissfully unaware of how things have always been done. As The Forgotten Plague author Frank Ryan suggests, “Solutions often lie in unexpected places where only beginners might bother to look.” Attesting to this fact, a Harvard Business Review article from November 2014 argued the best ideas often come from outside your industry. Three European economics professors conducted a study of roofers, carpenters, and inline skaters to collect ideas on how to improve the comfort of their respective safety gear. What’s fascinating is each group came up with better ideas to improve gear from the other two fields than its own. While there are numerous ways to leverage the value of fresh eyes, the important thing is that the ideas and input of those ‘outside the box’ are always encouraged and heard. This is perhaps the best and only way to generate truly revolutionary ideas and get perspectives that those too invested in or close to the status quo will never see. As Marshall McLuhan once famously said, “I don’t know who discovered water, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a fish.” Everyone’s talking about innovation, but how do you actually develop an innovative culture? Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin shares his insights as CEO of the globally expanding startup accelerator BlueChilli. The job of a CEO is pretty simple in theory. Your job is to find and motivate your team, to find and motivate your customers and to find and motivate your investors – the order of which you do these defines you as a CEO. BlueChilli is Australia’s leading innovation centre, yet despite our best efforts to productise it, you can’t. You can’t buy “one innovation” or “a month of innovation”. So I believe that innovation is actually an output of culture, and a culture for innovation is one founded on three principles: • empowerment of people • tolerance of failure • speed of execution BlueChilli’s team is motivated following these principles. (You might recognise these from some senior federal political speeches; this is no coincidence as I shared this philosophy with the government quite early on in the #ideasboom development). At BlueChilli, I’ve worked hard to develop this culture. Our staff are empowered to work their own hours and run their own routines. We use technology and collaboration tools to enable people to work remotely (including while heli-snowboarding in the backcountry of Alaska), we have unlimited sick leave, an “awesome day” per year (opposite of a sick day!), no one works their birthdays. Everyone is provided with the latest laptop and can work where ever they choose from. By hosting tech and entrepreneurial meetups we have near daily events for our team members to participate in, we hold monthly internal ted-x talks where our staff present to each other, we have generous training budget and a strong culture for further education. These elements encourage empowerment by trusting in people to do what’s necessary. Our leadership team are given full scope to achieve what the need to do with their team, as long as it aligns with the company vision – which everyone was involved in defining. Our team have their own ideas they can work on, and BlueChilli partners with them to enable them to be developed using the full resources – including capital – of the BlueChilli ecosystem. Being at the forefront of tech, mistakes are going to happen. Rather than discourage failure, which pushes it down and hides it – we reward it with a small trophy when someone makes a big mistake. We meet and learn about it – so failure is not feared; it is celebrated and accepted as a learning exercise, which promotes a healthier and stronger team environment. And we have an automated nerf turret that can shoot anyone with a foam dart when they crash a build server. Finally, we work fast and we cut out meetings when unnecessary. Documentation is done in the form of visual pitch decks, meetings are simply standups, we use team communication tools like Slack, and we limit formal meetings to just one day a week (Monday). This removes the time suck that many organisations suffer and means that we are fast. Very, very fast. The average number of development hours for us to release a full startup is dropping each project we build, to the point that we now have a coveted “200 club” – where the total effort in design, ux, brand, product development, mobile, front and back end engineering, and dev ops is done for under 200 hours. Fast. Two months and around $20k, and we’ve launched a startup. This is how you build innovation.
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Post by madametarot on Sept 15, 2016 15:23:07 GMT 10
Well, that fell a bit flat. We may be aware that a forum on Spaces of Australian Innovation is coming up. I have looked at three of the speakers and here is a resume of what they say: Israel is recognised to be a world leader in innovation and start-up culture. Following are some key innovation lessons Australia can learn from. As a global innovation nation, Israel has a thriving start-up ecosystem and entrepreneurial spirit that we can take many learnings from here in Australia. Israel has many unique and inspiring qualities, from a nationwide innovation agenda to a mature, energetic and dynamic businesses culture, to thinking outside the box with limited resources. Israeli entrepreneurs and innovators are not afraid to take risks. They understand that trial and error are an integral part of instigating positive change and that success doesn’t happen overnight. In Australia, we need to overcome our fear of failure and tendency to shy away from the unexperienced. Like Israel, we need to drive collaboration, diversity and innovation on every level – starting with the right conversations. Earlier this year, we interviewed Israel-based software and cyber security expert, Ron Moritz. Mr Moritz has broad experience with tech start-ups and investment ventures. Here are four key innovation lessons Mr Moritz shared with us: 1. Innovation is an aspect of culture. Cultures that thrive on the drive to excel in the ongoing engineering of solutions have come about from an ingrained and collective response to the growth and prosperity of the country and its people. Being challenged to finding and pursuing the answer to a problem is core to their innovation behaviours. 2. An innovation focus point should be the time and energy spent in the problem-solving detail, not how it looks from the outside. By thinking too much about how things will be presented and packaged means less emphasis on the outcome. It’s not always easy overlooking design elements, but side-lining them can help bring the attention back into perspective. 3. Engaging outsiders and extending the innovation circle is often what delivers traction and success. Fine-tuning a solution for local markets can benefit greatly from looking to external advice or help. Adding different layers of ingredients can greatly enhance prospects, as will a diverse cross-section of interested parties. 4. Risk is not a bad word. And failure is just part of the process. These things are required to have a successful innovation capability. An affinity for venture funding or attracting foreign capital can be the fundamental factors for success. Dynamic and diverse investment can be the propeller that leads to survival. What if innovation would not be the privilege of those with experience? Speaker, trends expert and author Michael McQueen invites us to consider the creative power of fresh eyes. We often assume that innovation and strategy ought to be the domain of those with experience and expertise. The novice, the newbie or the inexperienced is often told, even if indirectly, to learn ‘how things are done around here’ and only to make suggestions once they’ve earned the right to have an opinion. But what if we’ve got it all wrong? What if the most valuable source of strategic innovation and creativity is actually the person with almost no experience? Old information looked at through new perspectives makes new information, said futurist Alvin Toffler, and he’s right. Quite simply, leveraging the insights of those who have a fresh perspective is a powerful way of imagining new opportunities and solutions that may not otherwise have been apparent. Consider the creative power of fresh eyes: • Having grown up in Kabul, Afghanistan, Massoud Hassani was more than familiar with the scourge of land mines. However, his formative years also offered him a unique perspective that spawned a remarkably innovative way to deal with minefield’s dotted around the worlds trouble spots. Without the benefit of advanced studies in weaponry and disarmament, Hassani’s brilliant idea came from an observation of nature – the behaviour of a tumbleweed to be exact. Noticing how tumbleweeds would blow freely in the wind rolling gently along the ground, Hassani came up with the design for an artificial tumbleweed made up of 200 bamboo rods and plastic feet. Heavy enough to trigger mines, light enough to be blown by the wind, and flexible enough to withstand multiple blasts per unit, Hassani’s ingenious invention became known as a Mine Kafon (‘mine exploder’ in his native language) and has saved countless lives around the world. • In a similar display of naïve brilliance, take the case of a 14¬year¬old Pittsburgh student by the name of Suvir Mirchandani. Noticing how many printed handouts he was receiving in middle school, the environmentally and economically sensitive Suvir began to wonder if there was a way to minimize the amount of ink being used by his school – especially considering ink is two times more expensive than French perfume by volume. Collecting random samples of teachers' handouts, Suvir concentrated on the most commonly used characters (e, t, a, o and r). First, he charted how often each character was used in four different typefaces: Garamond, Times New Roman, Century Gothic and Comic Sans. Then he measured how much ink was used for each letter. Next he enlarged the letters, printed them and cut them out on cardstock paper to weigh them to verify his findings. He did three trials for each letter, graphing the ink usage for each font. No-one could question this 14-year-old’s attention to detail! From this analysis, Suvir figured out that by using Garamond with its thinner strokes, his school district could reduce its ink consumption by 24%, and in turn save as much as $21,000 annually. Taking his findings one step further, Suvir calculated that if the U.S. federal government used Garamond exclusively, it could save nearly $136 million per year. Whether it is a new staff member who has just joined the team or a young person who hasn’t yet ‘learned their place’, the beauty of those with fresh eyes is that they have no trouble thinking outside the box because they don’t yet know what the box even looks like. More importantly people with fresh eyes are blissfully unaware of how things have always been done. As The Forgotten Plague author Frank Ryan suggests, “Solutions often lie in unexpected places where only beginners might bother to look.” Attesting to this fact, a Harvard Business Review article from November 2014 argued the best ideas often come from outside your industry. Three European economics professors conducted a study of roofers, carpenters, and inline skaters to collect ideas on how to improve the comfort of their respective safety gear. What’s fascinating is each group came up with better ideas to improve gear from the other two fields than its own. While there are numerous ways to leverage the value of fresh eyes, the important thing is that the ideas and input of those ‘outside the box’ are always encouraged and heard. This is perhaps the best and only way to generate truly revolutionary ideas and get perspectives that those too invested in or close to the status quo will never see. As Marshall McLuhan once famously said, “I don’t know who discovered water, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a fish.” Everyone’s talking about innovation, but how do you actually develop an innovative culture? Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin shares his insights as CEO of the globally expanding startup accelerator BlueChilli. The job of a CEO is pretty simple in theory. Your job is to find and motivate your team, to find and motivate your customers and to find and motivate your investors – the order of which you do these defines you as a CEO. BlueChilli is Australia’s leading innovation centre, yet despite our best efforts to productise it, you can’t. You can’t buy “one innovation” or “a month of innovation”. So I believe that innovation is actually an output of culture, and a culture for innovation is one founded on three principles: • empowerment of people • tolerance of failure • speed of execution BlueChilli’s team is motivated following these principles. (You might recognise these from some senior federal political speeches; this is no coincidence as I shared this philosophy with the government quite early on in the #ideasboom development). At BlueChilli, I’ve worked hard to develop this culture. Our staff are empowered to work their own hours and run their own routines. We use technology and collaboration tools to enable people to work remotely (including while heli-snowboarding in the backcountry of Alaska), we have unlimited sick leave, an “awesome day” per year (opposite of a sick day!), no one works their birthdays. Everyone is provided with the latest laptop and can work where ever they choose from. By hosting tech and entrepreneurial meetups we have near daily events for our team members to participate in, we hold monthly internal ted-x talks where our staff present to each other, we have generous training budget and a strong culture for further education. These elements encourage empowerment by trusting in people to do what’s necessary. Our leadership team are given full scope to achieve what the need to do with their team, as long as it aligns with the company vision – which everyone was involved in defining. Our team have their own ideas they can work on, and BlueChilli partners with them to enable them to be developed using the full resources – including capital – of the BlueChilli ecosystem. Being at the forefront of tech, mistakes are going to happen. Rather than discourage failure, which pushes it down and hides it – we reward it with a small trophy when someone makes a big mistake. We meet and learn about it – so failure is not feared; it is celebrated and accepted as a learning exercise, which promotes a healthier and stronger team environment. And we have an automated nerf turret that can shoot anyone with a foam dart when they crash a build server. Finally, we work fast and we cut out meetings when unnecessary. Documentation is done in the form of visual pitch decks, meetings are simply standups, we use team communication tools like Slack, and we limit formal meetings to just one day a week (Monday). This removes the time suck that many organisations suffer and means that we are fast. Very, very fast. The average number of development hours for us to release a full startup is dropping each project we build, to the point that we now have a coveted “200 club” – where the total effort in design, ux, brand, product development, mobile, front and back end engineering, and dev ops is done for under 200 hours. Fast. Two months and around $20k, and we’ve launched a startup. This is how you build innovation. Crickey it is like a Western box canyon outlaw hideout - but full of weasel-words. It is that bad it is hardly readable at all.
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