Tag Archives: alan de botton

Top 10 Stories

18th July 2015

1) A new Tinder app on the Apple watch ‘can tell’ whether  you like someone based on your heart beat.

2) From Alan De Botton, a really great, re-assuring piece.  How not to let work explode your life. For example, how not to think this way – ‘Our own less satisfactory life must be due to our own failings. If we were cleverer, more efficient, more emotionally mature, more self-controlled … then everything would fall into place’.

3) Brilliant – ? Google is hiring an SEO manager  to improve Google’s rankings on Google.

4) In a world where online brands are paying big money for content, how much is Facebook paying publishers for content ? – $ Zero.  Why Facebook Instant Articles Just Don’t Add Up for Publishers.

5) Meanwhile –  Facebook Is Testing Ad-Supported Videos, and will share revenue with creators.

6) Powerful stuff – @Copyranter to digital marketers:  Give up. ‘(It) is mostly tech’s fault. It has provided too many platforms for too many of you marketing communications types intent on commenting on and revising every good idea, almost universally making them worse’ .

This line of thought, is very much in tune with Bill Hicks great piece on The Evils of Marketing.

7) In 1995 Stewart Brand, founder of The Whole Earth Catalog (described by Steve Jobs as “Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along”) wrote a book about how buildings adapt to the changing world around them, called  How Buildings Learn– a great series of videos.

8) Pictures from Pluto – NASA mission culminates with images of former ninth planet that  shows a huge mountain range of ice (video).

9) Nintendo chief, Satoru Iwatu has sadly passed away, but thanks to him we are all gamers now

“Importantly, he wasn’t the kind of gamer who wanted to keep gaming to himself. He didn’t draw any lines in the sand to delineate what constituted a “real” videogame. Nor was he a craven businessman who saw non-gamers as wallets ripe for the plundering with pandering, exploitative software. He saw them as potential converts to his beloved form of entertainment, people who deserved to play just as much as anyone else”

10) Approach with some caution. These anti-drink driving commercials from Mexico pull no punches.  What’s the worst that could happen?

Ten Stories We’ve Enjoyed This Week

8th November

1) What Are Literature, Philosophy & History For? Alain de Botton Explains with Monty Python-Style Videos.
2) From @uppingyourelvis – 4 common behaviours of Mediaweek Award Winners.

3) What makes a Strategist ?

4) 3D printing in China allows a man to regain use of his legs.

5) Is Snapchat’s advertising strategy going to Fly ?

6) Just in case you are interested…  Five Ways to lie with Charts.

7) In the age of animated GIFs and viral images, is it possible to re-invent the magazine cover in a way that can really grab your attention? From Gizmodo,How  Businessweek is reinventing the magazine cover.

8) On the back of a pretty big election this week in the States, it is worth mentioning that the world is more democratic than ever.

…and in another election stateside –  Alaska, Oregon, and Washington D.C. all voted to legalise pot.

9) I’m doing my bit – Take a look in the mirror and you’ll understand how your beard is killing the shaving industry.

10) Totally awesome – if you drop a bowling ball and a feather at the same time, which will land first? You think you know the answer? Take a look again with Brian Cox…..

And finally –

Every thing is more fun in Space – Astronauts Encase A GoPro In A Water Sphere.

Ten Stories We’ve Enjoyed This Week

12th July 2014

1) A look at the Wall St Journal’s predictions for the future …. from 1989.The really interesting things are the one’s they got wrong. 

…and a 30-year history of the future: Nicholas Negroponte’s #TED talk from TED 2014. 

2) From Trendwatching – The Most Bang on Trend Innovations from the first half of 2014. 

3) The World Cup Final is on Sunday but we already know who won the World Cup – Adidas. ‘Argentina, sponsored by Adidas AG, triumphed on penalty kicks in Sao Paulo to eliminate a Dutch side outfitted by Nike Inc. of the U.S. In the final, it will face fellow Adidas-backed team Germany, which defeated Nike-supported Brazil 7-1 on July 8. The Herzogenaurach, Germany-based company also outfitted the Spanish team that won the last World Cup in 2010’. 

4) The $ 1 Billion that Facebook paid for Instagram may have actually been really good value – ‘The photo-sharing social media service has a fast-growing, hyper-engaged user base that advertisers love. Now it just needs to figure out how to make money for corporate parent Facebook’. 

5) Beautiful. High-flying highlights from the International Drone Photography Awards. 

6) Forget the Shortest Route Across a City; This New Algorithm Finds the Most Beautiful 

7) The best Grand Depart ever? For years I have been watching the Tour De France and ( especially ) from the aerial shots , you really appreciate what a beautiful country France is. Watching the aerial shots of the Yorkshire Dales at the weekend , it struck me just how beautiful the UK can be as well. Here is the video that persuaded Tour De France organisers to start this years race in Leeds. 

..and how selfies are ruining The Tour. 

8) From @alandebotton : ‘Of course one should read Plato’s 36 books, but if you have only 4 minutes, here is a shortcut’. 

9) Love this – Music Streaming Keeps Growing, But Vinyl Isn’t Going Anywhere. 

10) Great piece of advertising from First Direct – A platypus walks into a bar….. 

This Week’s Top Ten Stories

10th May 2014

1) Great piece from Alex Madrigal on the Things You Cannot Unsee (and What That Says About Your Brain). Some great ambiguous images here, including the one above.

2) ……and on the subject of alternative ways of thinking – here is an interesting perspective ( this via @neilperkin ) from Noah Brier on how Elon Musk approaches creativity – ‘I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there’ . For me this makes sense, in as much as it underlines the importance of investigating a problem or brief fully. But whilst analysis is important so is analogy – the ability to draw insights from other people and places, is at the heart of the creative thinking process.

3) Many will not have heard of it , but it is due to have it’s IPO imminently –Alibaba is China’s – and by some measures, the world’s – biggest online commerce company. Its three main sites – Taobao, Tmall and Alibaba.com – have hundreds of millions of users, and host millions of merchants and businesses. Alibaba handles more business than any other e-commerce company

4) How rich is the Swede, Markus Persson – the man behind Minecraft? Very.

5) The latest U.S. Climate Report confirms what we already know. Climate change is happening and it’s effects are already severe.

6) The solution to the ageing issue? How do you reverse ageing in the muscles and brains of old mice? By giving them the blood of young mice.

7) Another great speed adjusted video from Adam Magyar. This one a slow motion recording at Seoul’s Sindorim Station, of people descending on stairs while changing from Line 1 to Line 2.

8) Interesting piece from Alain de Botton and easy introduction to The Philosophy of Nietzsche – Happy thoughts here from Friedreich – “To those human beings who are of any concern to me, I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill treatment, indignities, profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, and the wretchedness of the vanquished.”

9) Animated info-graphic piece on How Americans Die – the changing causes of death across the last 40 years. Shows , in particular, the impact AIDS had on young adults in the 1980′s.

10) The annual ( and 400 year old ) Japanese Baby Crying Festival. Meant to be good for their health apparently…

This Week’s Top Ten Stories

10th May 2014
1) Great piece from Alex Madrigal on the Things You Cannot Unsee (and What That Says About Your Brain). Some great ambiguous images here, including the one above.2) ……and on the subject of alternative ways of thinking – here is an interesting perspective ( this via @neilperkin ) from Noah Brier on how Elon Musk approaches creativity – ‘I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there’ . For me this makes sense, in as much as it underlines the importance of investigating a problem or brief fully. But whilst analysis is important so is analogy – the ability to draw insights from other people and places, is at the heart of the creative thinking process.
3) Many will not have heard of it , but it is due to have it’s IPO imminently –Alibaba is China’s – and by some measures, the world’s – biggest online commerce company. Its three main sites – Taobao, Tmall and Alibaba.com – have hundreds of millions of users, and host millions of merchants and businesses. Alibaba handles more business than any other e-commerce company
4) How rich is the Swede, Markus Persson – the man behind Minecraft? Very.
5) The latest U.S. Climate Report confirms what we already know. Climate change is happening and it’s effects are already severe.
6) The solution to the ageing issue? How do you reverse ageing in the muscles and brains of old mice? By giving them the blood of young mice.
7) Another great speed adjusted video from Adam Magyar. This one a slow motion recording at Seoul’s Sindorim Station, of people descending on stairs while changing from Line 1 to Line 2.
8) Interesting piece from Alain de Botton and easy introduction to The Philosophy of Nietzsche – Happy thoughts here from Friedreich – “To those human beings who are of any concern to me, I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill treatment, indignities, profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, and the wretchedness of the vanquished.”
9) Animated info-graphic piece on How Americans Die – the changing causes of death across the last 40 years. Shows , in particular, the impact AIDS had on young adults in the 1980’s.
10) The annual ( and 400 year old ) Japanese Baby Crying Festival. Meant to be good for their health apparently…