Perspectives: Earth lights

I couldn't resist putting this one here because, not only is this a stunning picture, but it's also a great way to see Earth's population from a different perspective:



[the small pic above doesn't do it justice - please click on the link to see the big one in more detail]

[Original source]

Basketball. It's not just a game.

I'm thrilled to say that a new project I'm involved in - MyBasketball.co.za - is now live.

Victor Shakineza, a friend and teammate of mine from back in the day [and one of the fastest players I've ever played with or against], set up a website called MyBasketball.co.za last year to try provide news and results relating to the South African basketball scene - something which has been sorely lacking here even though basketball gained a lot of popularity here from as early as 1992, when the infamous Dream Team wowed the world at the Barcelona Olympic Games that year.

Information about all the basketball in SA is not easy to come by, but Victor, along with Nenad Jovanovic, did a solid job of providing somewhere that players and fans could get some information. Despite the fact that the site was a web 1.0 site that provided little opportunity for interaction and was difficult to update regularly, they attracted a relatively large audience.

A little while ago, I approached Victor to see if we could take what he had built to the next level, and I must thank him for letting me get involved.

Since we're trying to build a community and make interaction easy, a blog was the most obvious choice. It's a community initiative with no specific funding at this stage, so we opted for wordpress.com and a redirect from the primary site for now, although this will probably change as it grows and develops.

Certainly there are still some issues to deal with, such as how to make it easy to post and keep track of scores and results, but we're convinced that what we've done now is the first step on the way to making this the number one SA basketball website.

Please visit us at MyBasketball.co.za, and if you have friends who are interested, please direct them there - we can only grow this and get more information with your help.

Personallly I'm thrilled to once again be involved in the game that I love, and I believe that this will only go from strength to strength.

It's not just a game!


P.S. White men can jump

Perspectives: South Africa - the growth phase

As a starting point, let's look at this amazing "growth phase" that we're going through and that everyone keeps referring to. "South Africa is growing", they say. But without a bit of background, it's difficult to see what this actually means to us. So let's try give it a go.

We'll start with GDP [aka Gross Domestic Product]. The SA Reserve Bank defines this as "the total value of all final goods and services produced within the boundaries of a country in a particular period". [If you're interested, they have a not-too-painful description of how its calculated on that page, worth a read if you have a slight interest in this topic]

I will use GDP as it is one of the most important measures of a country's economic health. I realise that money is not the only measure of a country's success, but it does provide a reasonable and easily understandable way of quantifying many of it's effects.

[Please bear with me. Sometimes the definitions and measures get a bit technical, but I'll try keep the info visual and understandable as far as possible.]

In real terms, this is how SA's GDP has grown since 1980:



It looks huge, but this doesn't take into account population growth, so GDP per person is often a good way to see if wealth per person has grown or not. Here is a look [the bars show the population growth, while the line shows GDP per person]:



Looks rosy so far, but we don't know if this only looks good because the Rand has gotten weaker or because of high inflation rates. To get an even better look, let's look at the GDP per person in US Dollar terms and also taking into account purchasing price parity [basically the price at which both currencies can buy the same goods over a longer-term period]:


From this, you can see SA has grown since 1980, and you can also see the accelerated growth phase we've been in since about 2002. Sadly not everyone has benefited from this, but that's another story for another day. For now at least, we can conclude that SA has definitely been growing, and continues to.

Does this mean anything to you? Anything I could improve? Have any thoughts as to what you would like to see or better understand? Please contact me or leave a comment below - I would value your feedback!

You can find my other posts in this theme here -> Perspectives

Source for information: International Monetary Fund

Perspectives: Turn your world upside down

Fitting in with the theme of perspectives, Elaine Rumboll was kind enough to show me this - a great, refreshing and different [particularly if you live in the Southern hemisphere] way to look at the world. [Thanks Elaine!]


This is an accurate rendition of a world map, but in this version, the cartographers have put Africa in the centre and have placed the South at the top and North at the bottom. The actual map and further details are available here at mindshift

A brilliant way to change our perspective!

As I've said here before - Let's turn the world upside down!

Follow my other posts in this theme here -> Perspectives

It's amazing what a change in perspective can do

It's time to start getting back on track with the theme of this blog, and I thought the best way to do that would be to provide a little bit of perspective on South Africa versus this world we're living in. Over the next few weeks I'll be putting up some [hopefully] interesting info which might just give you a slightly different view of this place we call home.

Just to give an idea of what I'm talking about, have a look at this amazing illustration from our stunning universe:

Our home - Earth, which holds over 6.5 billion people like you and me.

Look at how the sun dwarfs our "huge" planet Earth...

...and then look at how insignificant the sun is compared to the largest known star - Canis Majoris

[in the above picture, you cannot even represent the sun with a single pixel, it's so small]

It's amazing what a change in perspective can do!

[See my source here for a nice visual journey through the universe]

Can technology stunt community growth and personal development?

Could it be that, despite the rising importance and inarguable necessity of technological advancement, we are actually doing harm to society?

We know technological advancement is good, and makes some things possible that could never have been dreamed of even 10 years ago. In education as well, this has created new ways of delivering content and, to a certain extent, revolutionised schooling - just look at CIDA as an example of the benefits.

Reading this post about online education by Jeremy from Huddlemind Labs, as well as this article about e-learning by the Department of Education, it's obvious that this is a part of our future, and probably a very big part at that.

The big flashing warning sign - if we take education online and remove students from interactive classes, how will they develop the ability to interact at a social level? It's already difficult enough with kids in schools interacting with others every day. But if half of the children were to sit at home with little interaction, we must be cautious of raising a generation of individualistic loners with no ability to communicate with others, let alone function as part of a team.

This is not an argument against using technology to educate, but rather just a thought that this needs to be managed as we make these changes. I believe that this is a huge opportunity sitting and waiting to be developed - the management of children's social and educational development at the same time. If a workable solution can be created, not only can we improve education throughout the country, reaching far and wide, but also improve the strength of community and thereby improve everyone's quality of life.

[And with all the talk of "free" around and SA's [slow] move towards free education, here's a link to something I wrote a while ago: what is mahala education actually worth?]

On the origin of diamonds, deals and dermatological advancement

This morning's brekkie run saw the second inaugural [second overall but the first one I attended] reunion of the old Sunninghill team at Doppio Zero, a generally agreed "central" location [other than for those coming from Rustenburg, Australia and Pretoria...]. The breakfast was quite good, thanks Doppio. We'll come again.

Sadly, all hopes of a monthly Friday morning breakfast club were dashed yesterday by Jamie, who pulled out due to petty matters such as work commitments [!] - Jamie, where are your priorities? Now we'll have to settle for one of the other less-interesting days of the week.


It was great to see friendly faces again, even if it was only four this time around [G, Siya, Sjoerd and myself] and interesting to hear how things are moving. It's always fun trying to balance casual chat and banter with professional confidentiality requirements and we had much of that as we tried to fill in the blanks in our own minds and unravel the vagaries of each others' war stories. I could easily believe we all left there with completely different corporate scandals in mind.


So, to borrow the lingo from yesteryear, it was largely on the origin of diamonds, deals and dermatological advancement that we applied our minds this morning.

• Diamonds - well, opportunities abound and even in the dark recesses of big holes in our country, large fortunes are made seemingly overnight by people just like you and me. Eye opening, to say the least.
• Deals - how the plethora of deals has been affected by the sudden knee-jerk reaction by markets to emerging market fears. Hmmm, who would've thought that raising R8 billion could be so difficult.
• Dermatological advancement - without going in to detail, suffice it to say that Vereeniging will never be the same as it has just received a [much needed?] boost to its citizens' aesthetic development potential. Sjoerd has more details for anyone interested...

We also had a quick rundown on the virtues of technological development in South Africa [by yours truly] which I'm trusting we can all explore together as this grows. Thankfully, not only were there no pink shirts present, but the pink-graphed report that Siya requested never showed its face either. Phew.

We missed those who couldn't make it and hope to see you all for the next one.

Looking forward to next time guys, when we delve into more possibilities and opportunities available all around us. Perhaps for the next theme we could also borrow from Mr Adam Smith and ruminate on the wealth of nations.

[And please, if I have missed something major here, leave your comment]

Later.

A stark reminder of where we are

Although I could not, even by a large stretch of the imagination, be described as a fan of Llewellyn Kriel's writing, reading this final Thought Leader post of his [after picking it up on muti], was quite sobering. Personal safety is a major concern for everyone, and I hope Mr Kriel will find a more peaceful life out of the spotlight.

I believe in our country and hold great hope for its future. But that reference to this country includes every person living here, not just select individuals or groups of people - we need to be a nation that supports each other and builds together. We cannot afford an us versus them scenario - on this tiny marble called Earth, we are already the "them" to every other country's "us", and there is absolutely no freakin' way that this can change if we are consumed with in-fighting.

Reading Llewellyn's post is hugely unsettling, and that's why its worth reading - just as a reminder of the large obstacles that we, as a country, still need to overcome. And while we all know they exist, I don't in any way believe that they are insurmountable [even if logic and feeling tells us they are].

I still believe. I still care. It's not easy, I know you don't find it easy either. And I trust you do still believe and care too, because that's the only way we can change this!

When knowledge becomes a commodity

I was fortunate enough to work in one of the largest professional services firms in the world for a number of years. As legislation changed, I watched as specialisation became a necessity, and technical issues were discussed and debated to death, and just as a decision was about to be made, one small new fact often caused the whole process to start from scratch. Tedious. Pain-stakingly so. Time consuming too. And the value was [is] debatable.

It makes me think of that old primary school maths riddle about the frog that gets stuck in a well and wants to get out, and for every three bricks he jumps up, he slides down two. The well is twenty one bricks high, and the riddle asks how many jumps he must make to get out of the well. For now, the answer is irrelevant. Suffice it to say that he would get out a lot faster if he only slid back one brick rather than two on each jump.

Think about all of the firms doing this [in all different fields]… working so hard to be a bit ahead of the game, but in actual fact everyone is working on similar problems at the same time. They call this little bit of knowledge “competitive advantage”, but just think if they all worked together on a single platform, everyone could move forward as an industry at a much more rapid pace.

Why do they [we] keep re-inventing the wheel? [over and over and over]

John Taylor Gatto said something ludicrously true: “Professional interest is served by making what is easy seem hard.”

People often point fingers at lawyers, but now its true for every profession, seemingly without exception. In the stand-off between competition and collaboration, all we get is professional cannibalism, since the great race not only results in a much slower overall pace forward, but also often confusion.

It's a tough one, that. If necessity is the father of invention, perhaps competition is the mother. Competition is lauded as one of the great drivers of innovation, but this really looks to me like a case where competition slows down or totally derails the real possibilities of innovation...

... and sadly, when competition is the be-all and end-all, if often ends up in one place - commoditising the product. In this case, that would be knowledge.

So if knowledge truly is becoming a commodity, how long before knowledge also attains that critical price of free? [whether or not collaboration would change that is debatable too, since it may just relegate the knowledge to free as it would be much more freely available]

And what happens when it does?

The results, particularly in professional service firms, will be startling!!!

In case you were wondering, I’m sure the frog got out of the well just fine. But I wonder if his professional adviser ever did…

Links
[listen to Chris Anderson discuss critical price here at TED]

[read about Tom Peters' take on Professional Service Firms here - I love it, btw]

[Interesting information about free worth reading:

• Local free thinking summary at Huddlemind Labs
• ReadWriteWeb discusses the danger of free
• Keep up with some of Chris Anderson’s latest free news here]

Forget old school, we need some new school

We now live in a world where life-long learning has replaced the life-long career. It’s anticipated that people will change jobs four to seven times in their lifetime, and anywhere between 50% and 80% of the jobs that will exist in 10 years time do not exist today.

WOW! The world has changed. Is changing! Rapidly!!

Naturally, this has BIG implications for the future [future leaders included] meaning that we have to think about this sooner rather than later.

Here is an absolutely astounding TED talk - Ken Robinson challenges the level of creativity in schools. Listen to that and you will understand why we need to see significant changes in the way we teach young people… especially since the system we currently have produces results where “many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not.”

Is there no way we can look at things differently? Perhaps find a way to pull collaboration and creativity into an education system that is increasingly falling short of its primary objective? Look at a whole fresh new set of “outcomes”. Perhaps there is a way to revolutionise our entire approach to education and at the same time better equip young students and future leaders for the world that awaits them [as opposed to the world from several decades/centuries ago].

Forget old school. I think we need a bit of New Scool. What do you think?

*!Watch this space!*

[now that you’re done reading, go back two paragraphs, click on the TED talk link. and listen to it!]