A Cheesy Quote for Early 2010/ and a look at Outliers – The Story Of Success

The Quotes

I both love and hate cheesy quotes. Sometimes they can say something so perfectly and succinctly that they become inspirational and remembered. Sometimes they are so optimistic and clean they want to make you throw up and cringe. But anyway, I still like this one! What I like about it at this point is that it relates to a book I recently finished called “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell and fits into the idea of the world I am building at the moment.

“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

As a boy my father always used to say the following to me:

“You can do whatever you set your mind to”.

So what I like about the first is that it adds context and strategy to the second. You can do what ever you set your mind to…..if you work your arse off. In my experience there are those who are prepared to work and those who are not. Those who are become more success full, those who aren’t struggle. I always noticed in High school and University that contrary to popular belief in Jocks Vs Nerds, the guys who were really good at sports also did very well academically, and also took part in societies, and plays and socials and and and. But that is my experience. What does Malcolm Gladwell have to say about it? -

Outliers: The story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell

Because Amazon says it better, I am going to quickly quote them from their review on Outliers.

Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the “self-made man,” he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don’t arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: “they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.” Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, “some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky.”

What I like about this book is that it not only looks at what the factors are that can contribute to people’s success, but by being conscious of these factors you can look at your own life and put some of these principles into action.

So the Two points that stand out most for me from outliers are:

1. Success isn’t a result of your genes or innate ability. It is the result of f-ing hard work.
2. As much as success is a result of hard work, there are more factors involved. These include opportunities, context and demeanour. Life is a game to a certain extent….maybe?

So this is the message for the beginning of 2010. Lets hope it a good one.

Invictus – Poem from the Movie about the 1995 Rugby Worldcup

Invictus - 2009 Film

William Ernest Henley’s Poem Used in the Film – Invictus

WHY I wanted to post this:

SHORT: PSYCHOLOGY OF USABILITY

The psychology of usability

I read this quote by Jared Spool at the bottom of Quirk’s article on “The Challenges of Usability in Online Banking – An outsider’s perspective“.

“For years, we’ve known about the importance of completing tasks. Not the items on your to-do list — the users’ tasks. What we found in our research over the last 10 years is that practically every measure of users’ performance correlates strongly with the users completing their task. Users who achieve their objective believe the web site looks more professional, rate it as more fun, tell us it runs faster, and are more satisfied with the site. There’s no doubt: if you want users to love your site, make sure they complete their tasks.

I think this is very insightful, and applicable to way more than just tasks related to internet banking. Yes, putting the right buttons and navigation tools in the right place is important, but making sure that users feel like they have completed a task at the end of the interaction has a positive psychological effect. Even if it is subtle and subconscious it results in a perception of usability. And as discussed by  Roy Sutherland, perceived value at as many points as possible is becoming increasingly important to make conversions.

I think in life, if interactions with companies were structured to help people feel like they had completed their tasks, this would have a similar effect. The feelings of progress, no matter how small, are +ive.

Layers, Games and Rendering in Photoshop

Child’s Layered paper picture

WHAT’S THIS POST ABOUT:

In this post I will:

• show some perspectives of rooms rendered in Photoshop
• quickly talk about how games and early art lessons helps to pre-empt an understanding of the above

LIFE IS LIKE A POKER GAME

HOW WOULD YOU PLAY THE GAME OF LIFE?

Life is a poker table, and we are all just players acting our parts

WHAT’S THIS POST ABOUT?

I want to look at some of the correlations between life and poker and what some of the lessons one might learn from a good solid game.

HOW IS LIFE LIKE A POKER GAME?

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Confucius says…

I Read and I Forget

I See and I Remember

I Do and I Understand

The simplicity of this is catchy and very apt. The same same goes for practice makes perfect. The problem is when emotions get involved.

So print this out and stick it up somewhere to remind you that:

• If you are trying to teach yourself something, you need to do it, not only read about it
• If you are spending all your time memorizing, spend some more time understanding.
• Enjoy the practical tasks. Even the most simplistic task leads to some sort of understanding and progress.
• Action means taking one step at a time. Break goals down to manageable steps.
• It takes time and actions to truly benefit from something.

Back to work.

Confucius says