Does and don’ts Objectives tend to focus on what should be done rather than what should be avoided. On a day to day basis, this is clearly advantageous, focusing team members and plans in the direction that progress should be made. This, however, creates an environment where the value of what not to do is Read more about Researching failure[…]
Graphene? The discovery of graphene was one that caught the public’s imagination. Graphene, is a form of carbon where the carbon atoms are bound to each other in such a way that they make a series of hexagons. These hexagons all lye in a plane such that the material (graphene) ends up being a flat Read more about Edge modification of pristine graphene[…]
The Formality Of Work Formalities are great as they give people a common starting point from which to collaborate and build upon. Without formalities, everything would need to be understood and agreed upon every time a new relationship was made. This is possibly one of the reasons that international agreements are harder. They have more Read more about T-Shirt meetings[…]
A solution without a problem Developments are often tasked with improving something, or fixing a problem. They expend resources to generate more resources or to make an overall saving by creating efficiency. A stakeholder lead development is the logical method of asking the individuals that have direct experience of the problem you are trying to Read more about Stakeholder lead development[…]
I have always had a soft spot for Google’s end of year videos. I know they air on the side of optimism, so aren’t factually representative, etc. but still, they are based in some level of fact, and that makes them far more moving. I once read that ‘a start-up is the smallest group of Read more about Inspirational messaging[…]
How to fire a country For most of history, your nationality and the country you were born in were pretty much fixed. The majority of people migrated to avoid hardships or for the promise of a new land. With these people then generally feeling affiliated to that new country. Even today with transport able to Read more about Digital nomads[…]
How and why to structure it As with most interpersonal skills, if you ‘get it’, ‘are good at it’ or ‘it just works for you’, then you are probably doing the following points or something analogous already. There’s more than one, equally valid way, to skin a cat. If it isn’t currently a strong point Read more about Meeting debrief[…]
When you start a startup, you know that there will be many unexpected tasks, but still, you have an expectation around what they will be. There is a whole framework around unknown unknows and various tools that can help you to navigate around them, (these will be in a future (more serious) post). For the Read more about Unexpected tasks[…]
The role of diminishing returns It’s not a rule, but instead, something that is quite commonly observed; the law of diminishing returns. Often this is talked about from an economics viewpoint where you try to optimise the profits made from the inputs committed. If you put nothing in you’ll get nothing out, but if you Read more about Science to startup[…]
The Voyager probes have been in the news recently as the first Voyager launched has now left the bubble of weather in space that the sun forms around itself, meaning that both Voyagers 1 and 2 are now in interstellar space. The background for these two probes is fascinating The year picked allowed the probes Read more about The voyagers[…]
Commoditising yourself Einstein was once quoted as saying “If I were given an hour in which to do a problem upon which my life depended, I would spend 40 minutes studying it, 15 minutes reviewing it and 5 minutes solving it”. Actually he was quoted on several occasions quoting similar things, but the sentiment of Read more about Personal Brand[…]
It’s there for all to see When you are trying to progress an idea to a product it is often difficult to step back and see what progress you’ve made, the subtlety of progress is often hard to see. There are so many tasks that need to be completed that making progress can be hard Read more about The subtlety of progress[…]