‘What Matters Now’ e-book
The format of this eBook is refreshing – one idea per page.
It’s inspired the format for a new book I’m co-writing this summer.
Brought back memories of the fun I had writing my eBook.
SkyTV, opportunity knock(ed)
SkyTV has well and truly kooked it.
Not spotting a giant opportunity when they should have, they decided to shut down the ARC channel on YouTube. Has this signalled the beginning of the end for Sky’s rugby offering and the beginning of the new beginning for the ARC?
Watching a test without the ARC is like going back to visit your least favourite school teacher a few years after leaving.
Come on people, don’t lose this one to the Poms who (as it seems) know how to spot a good thing when it comes along.
Even the Aussies can get it right on this. Think… The Footy Show: Gould, Stirlo, Fatty, Andrew Johns, – legends of the game.
Who does Sky give us?
Ian (shorten words) Jones, the embarrassingly biased Grant Nisbett, sigh, the bitter Tony Johnstone… Mex is atleast colourful and keeps me [used to keep me] awake.
News on the ARC is here. Join the FB page. Updates abound.
In closing, here’s one of the goodies from the ARC:
Peoples blogging
It’s great to see Peoples Coffee telling their story.
I was privileged to be invited to their roastery [Newtown, Wellington] to chat to them about blogging. I enjoyed sharing my passion with them.
This video of Tom Peters and Seth Godin talking about blogging was a video I tried to describe. Better to just watch.
Thanks for having me guys.
Been creating, now posting [again]
My apologies for not posting in a while. The cliche; ‘I’ve been busy’ doesn’t work. It’s simply been 12 weeks of non-stop creating. Exciting.
There’s been more than one thing on the go: New job, new products and new club.
Progress aside, I’m ready to again regurlarly write about my experiences in Surfing, Learning and Business as my blog title declares.
Here’s a preview of my latest project:
Revision + Fun = Effectiveness OR Let’s make school less boring!
You’ll be hearing some more about DoThinkLearn in the near future.
Education Jargon
Acronyms in education organisations are rife. Here’s a basic translation of the common ones in New Zealand education.
Assessment:
NCEA – National Certificate of Educational Achievement
AS – Achievement Standard
US – Unit Standard
Ministry of Education:
NZQA – New Zealand Qualifications Authority
DP – Deputy Principal
HOD – Head of Department
PRT – Provisionally Registered Teacher
LTR – Long Term Relief
Some subjects:
SOS – Social Studies
SCI – Science
ECO – Economics
BST – Business Studies
ENG – English
PHY – Physics
Miscellaneous:
PD – Professional Development
ESOL – English for Speakers of Other Languages
EOTC – Education Outside The Classroom
Hope these help in some way at some time in your life as a Parent, Student, Teacher, Taxpayer or other.
In conclusion, here’s a much longer list!
The high and the low of the US and A
It’s been a few weeks since we returned from a two week visit to the United States. It’s also been a few weeks since I posted.
In the US we had a real fun time and it’s taken a while to get back into the swing of things here at work.
I’ve never had a desire to go to The States but it kinda fell into my lap so I took the opportunity with open arms.
Highlights for me were:
- Surfing in the Gulf of Mexico
- Santa Barbara town
- Driving through Silicon Valley
- Fort Point San Francisco
- Our super friendly and generous hosts in San Clemente
- Meeting and hanging with people new everywhere
- Downtown San Francisco and 22nd st, SF
- The Pacific Coast Highway
- The Honor Till at the Organic Strawberry farm, north of Santa Barbara on the PCH.
Lowlights:
- Missing Kelly Slater and Sean Penn on the Trestles path by 1 day.
- Two US$50 parking tickets in the space of 14 minutes. Ouch. (thanks to the San Francisco council we were let off one of them)
- Tap water in motels
- LAX and Global Rent-a-Car at LAX (we didn’t use)
- Being sunburnt through my t-shirt in the surf (on top of old sunburn)
South padre island
- Faking an American accent to speed up responses to questions
The +’s and the -’s. That’s what travel is all about right?
End.
Statistics by sprint
Statistics can be fascinating. Google trends is a helpful source, where I learnt that Texas is bigger than Russia?
Applying them is even better. Sprint have made use of a whole bunch of stats in a commercial currently on US television.
Enjoy!
Don’t mess with Texas
After a marathon 40 hours either in the air or sitting in airports we arived in Austin, Texas at 2am local time. Hanan’s place is nice. Austin is a cool town. Wide streets, wide footpaths, wide hallways. It’s all big.
We woke around 10am after a ‘wet double cappuccino’ (the closest thing to a flat white) and started our trip south in a hired dodge, 484 Kilometres, to Brownsville, Texas. We’re travelling with with Hanan’s room mates from Germany.
Right now we’re in Brownsville and plan to surf in the Gulf of Mexico today at South Padre Island. This place gets pumping surf when hurricanes hit the gulf of Mexico. Photos show waves breaking from swells generated by Ike, Gustav and Katrina.
Some highlights so far in a thousand words:
Last night’s mexican meal.
Warehouse church?
Traffic lights.
Crow at the service station.
The 5+
Anticipation
In one week’s time we’re heading over to the USA for a 2 week holiday. We’re visiting my wife’s brother in Austin, Texas then flying back to LA for a trip around California. The plan is to check out San Diego, LA, and San Fransisco, with all the other bits in between.
As of this morning, having looked at a friends donated maps of the area, i’m anticipating visits to the following:
- Hollywood
- Beverly Hills
- Disneyland
- Sea World
- Tijuana
- Huntington beach
- Venice beach
- Alcatraz
- Golden gate bridge
- Silicon Valley
- Trestles
- Mavericks – Half Moon Bay
- Steamer Lane
- Rincon
- Santa Cruz
- Steamer lane
- Las Vegas*
- Not enough time
Obviously some of these (e.g. disneyland) fall into the “so we can say we’ve done it” category rather than because we’re really gagging to go.
Of the above list, is there anything missing? Where should we go that you recommend? Where shouldn’t we go?
Some interesting facts having researched California this week:
- Central Valley is California’s agricultural heartland and grows approximately one-third of the nation’s food
- There is a tree (Bristlecone pine) in the California White mountains that is 4,700 years old
- Death Valley recorded the highest temperature in the Western Hemisphere, 57 degrees celcius (July 10, 1913)
Looking forward to the trip. As they say, the anticipation is half the holiday.
Guiding teenage entrepreneurs
Over the past few weeks my business class groups have been busy trying to develop business venture ideas for their YES companies. It’s always a great ride. Witnessing teenagers get that glimpse of the very real notion that they are already in control of their own financial future, even just by being in business at school, is always a privilege to witness.
The challenges are always the same. Given they’re students and usually low on cash, they require an idea with the following characteristics:
- Minimal financial outlay
- Low barriers to entry
- Not been done before
- Innovative (preferrably)
The big problem is the ability to come up with a concept that matches most (if not all) of the above points. Most of their initial ideas will usually have one of two problems:
- Lack of scalability or continuity, e.g. school sausage sizzle’s or school dances
- Issues around time and expense to get to market, e.g. prohibitive prototyping expense
On day one, I extensively cover what I believe to be the first rule of the business start-up; solve a problem.
Obviously, some of the student groups companies don’t quickly identify problems to solve, so I use a different tactic. I ask them to write their own answers to the following questions on a sheet of paper.
One aim of this was to inspire them to explore areas of business that align with their talents and the interests in their own lives (Paul Graham’s ‘What you’ll wish you’d known’ post was an inspiration for this).
Next, I suggest that instead of trying to come up with a business idea, perhaps they should identify:
- A target group of people with identifiable characteristics (or worldviews)
- A solution to one of their problems
When we did this, atleast one company thrived. They identified numerous prospects, including one which looks at first glance to be very promising. Encouragingly, it also has the 4 characteristics needed for most teenage YES businesses. Again…
- Minimal outlay
- Low barrier to entry
- Not been done before
- Innovative
Their chosen target group? The Elderly. Their solution? … by all accounts, well on it’s way to market.
In conclusion, providing an environment for teenage kiwi entrepreneurs to develop business venture ideas is a unique challenge. It’s often fun, sometimes tiring, but mostly rewarding and a privilege.
What processes have you used when in a formal idea generation setting?
