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Why Standing Still is Better Than Movement

Posted on by Simpletom
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My friend Pete, taking some time out from a group holiday to sit and write...

My friend Pete, taking some time out from a group holiday to just sit and write…

We are who we are.

No matter how hard we try, we’re unlikely a Damascene moment will transform us into the person we’d always hoped we’d be.

You might if you try over a number of years, change a bit. But it’s unlikely. Plus, we forget that we can get worse as well as better. Years sitting at a desk, or in an unloving relationship, can mean we become worse, not better.

I know now, despite many years railing against it, that I’m better off sleeping regular hours. I’m not very disciplined, but I have a strong will that can combat that lack of discipline. I’m lucky enough to have been blessed with a good mind, body and ear – I find work, sport and music comes easily. But that means I’ve not had to fight to be OK at them, so I’ve been lazy with those talents.

I’m good with people, but I’m also impatient and judgemental. I need people around me, to help me be a better person and yet I can lose and isolate myself in my own world. I love being active, yet I find it hard to get started and so laziness can easily prevail without a catalyst.

It’s good to try to know oneself and to work with, not against oneself.

When I did the vipassana, it gave me a chance to sit and just be and start to come to know who I am. For a while, my ego, or just sheer boredom, fought against the practice. Eventually, without anything to distract, I was forced to listen to myself.

I noticed, deep within me, somewhere at the very core of my being, that there was something constantly moving, a restlessness.

It’s hard to explain, but it was almost like there was a motor whirring deep in my abdomen. Something tense, aggravated and angry. A psychological hornet.

Vipassana enabled me to listen to it… to feel it. I realised that it had been there all my life, without ever stopping.

Throughout the 10 days, I not only noticed this phenomenon, but occasionally the motion would stop, just for a second, and I felt at peace. I remember there was a deep sense of release when this perpetual movement took a moments breather.

That’s why I often felt exhausted, I thought – because when asleep, awake, resting, drunk, happy or sad, I have been using energy to fuel this motor. A motor that does nothing. A motor that is powered by fear, stress, ambition ego and expectation.

The motor only stopped completely during vipassana, but my sense is that it moves at different speeds depending on how I feel – the faster it moves, the less balanced I am.

The motor exists to ‘drive’ me and ‘propel’ me. It is a force of ego that attempts to make me a better person and push me on, and yet it is destructive. It consumes energy without contributing. Its wheels spin in its desire to propel me to places that, paradoxically, can only truly be reached naturally.

This is a strange concept, but I’m now aware of its presence within me, almost as if my ear is now attuned to the noise it makes.

I’ve also noticed that lots of people seem to be powered by a similar energy. When we talk of stress, anger, frustration, ambition, anxiety, insecurity, desire… the elements that combine to create attachment – I notice this motor in others. I imagine the motor and the energy is used and dispelled in many different ways. We all process and cope differently. But boy, what a waste of energy.

My battle… In fact that’s the wrong word, because it wants a battle.

My challenge, I should say, is to slow it down and let it stop. To starve it of its fuel. To give up, let go and let be. To recognize that change comes through acceptance and can only be reached without this motor running.

Mental note to self (although so difficult to remember) – I am what I am and the more I nurture my individual self, the less fuel this motor has and the more likely I’ll get where I want to be.

Which, is right here, at peace… rather than over there, at pace.

Intra-ordinary

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Congratulations, you’re very ordinary.

As I sit and write this, I overlook a tropical lagoon, mangroves and a few fishermen warming in the morning sun. A few energetic swifts wheel in a faint haze – evidence that despite the dry red earth and cloudless skies, the baked earth breathes life each day.

I am perched at a desk I made, 7m off the ground, sitting at this window in a house I built.  It is an extra-ordinary setting, and yet for the last few days I’ve been feeling rather ordinary.

Extraordinary Views

Extraordinary Views

I’ve been re-watching the TV adaptation of Any Human Heart by William Boyd, one of my favourite novels. Boyd sums the book up with the line, ‘Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary’. The book, and the series, is a reminder that life is a patchwork of experiences, good and bad, high and low, at times introspective whereas at others uncontrolled reaction to external events.

Even a life, with its fair modicum of ‘ordinary’, seems all the more extraordinary when condensed into 4 hours, or a few hundred pages.

What about all the uncomfortable visits to the toilet? What about the nights that seem never to end, spent half-awake worrying about things that in the morning seem inconsequential? What about the banal, useless and dull days where nothing really happens? Boyd goes some way to capture that in his book, but cannot encapsulate the true nature of time passing in a few short pages.

I’m here, in Kenya, because there is life around each corner, from swims in the lagoon, to colourful daily interactions. Yet perspective can shift these from the glorious to simply frustrating or what I call trouble in paradise.

As E. B. White said, ‘Every morning I awake, torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savour it. This makes it hard to plan the day’.

At the moment, I’m stuck there – somewhere between. In the ordinary. I’ve a weight of ordinary work at a desk to do, each day, in an attempt to create something extraordinary for myself and for others. Yet I’m wondering if extraordinary things do evolve from the ordinary, or if in fact I’ve got it all wrong and that if being extraordinary is the only way to produce the extraordinary.

It’s great to see Tenner, which I helped start get new life and I was reading Richard Branson’s comments on the site (surely extraordinary that a project I helped start now has the most famous entrepreneur in the world commenting upon it – give yourself that one SimpleTom). His comment, that you should do what you love is oft-repeated, clichéd even.

However, many modern businesses start with a huge amount of work, at a desk. The results can be extraordinary. Airbnb enables exploration of people, cultures and human interaction in a way that wasn’t nearly as easy 10 years ago. But the business has been created by a lot of people spending considerable time sitting at a lot of computers in a few offices (not taking into account the years spent at computers learning how to use the computers). Although developers love to problem-solve and some of the results are incredible, the thousands of nights spent coding cannot be described as extraordinary.

I’m lucky enough to know a lot of extraordinary people. But most of them do very ordinary things, most of the time. Not that that is a bad thing. However, where I find myself stuck today is wanting to kitesurf more than answer an inbox of emails, build a canoe more than re-design a user experience.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m utterly convinced in our vision and that this project is extraordinary. I know that this feeling is a passing phase after a year and a half of fun, effort and dedication. But sometimes the threads that weave together to form an incredible tapestry, or the notes that create a haunting melody are as a result of time spent in stitches (of the wrong kind) or learning and repeating endless scales.

The irony is not lost. Here’s a blog on simplicity and finding the extraordinary in the ordinary and here I am, writing a post on the desire for continual extraordinary-ness.

I recognize that every life – Darwin’s, Dahl’s, Newton’s etc have long stretches of ordinary. Today we’re fed with images from Facebook of people’s highlights (talking of Richard Branson, one recent facbook feed from a ‘friend’ was a picture of him playing chess with Branson on Necker). Those images don’t help me to remember the rewards, the extraordinariness, of ordinariness.

Perhaps it’s time to re-read Walden. Today I struggle with finding the beauty in the mundane. Moonlight can make the most colourful of landscapes appear colourless – some people might see it without the colour, others with accentuated beauty. They’re both there, in that moment.

I write this, not because I’m in a bad place, per se. A passing phase. But in recognition that simplicity is hard and because writing, exploring and sharing the feelings help.

I’ll leave you with a great post by Derek Sivers.

How Many People Could You Call At 3am? On Richness

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I read this article today, where Jeff Haden explains some of the reasons why you aren’t happy.

Before we start, tweet the author and tell him his article made you a little happier if you like it. That would be nice, regardless of whether you agree with what I write below @jeff_haden

The article made me think about wealth and what constitutes a ‘rich’ and happy life.

Here is my slammed together list of things that I think (as long as they’re not done to manic extreme or chased) would in greater quantity, make my life richer and happier – in no particular order:

-       Real, authentic human connection

-       Good books read

-       Moments of awareness

-       Music listened to (truly listened). I think music transcends language when it comes to communicating the human condition

-       The number of friends and family I can call in an emergency at 3am

[From the article, ‘How many people can you tell almost anything and you know they won’t laugh? How many people can you feel comfortable sitting with for a long time without either of you speaking?]

-       Amount you’ve loved people, both platonic or otherwise

-       Sleep. Controversial, but I don’t believe that you get all the sleep you need when you’re dead, or that life is too short

-       Exposure to nature

-       Creativity

-       Nights under the stars

-       Laughter

-       Failure. This will surprise some, but I think the more times you fail, the more times you’ve put yourself out there and therefore the richer one’s life. As long as it’s not a calamity (failure to jump a ravine) and I don’t let failure corrode my sense of self, pushing myself to fail normally means that I’m doing the things I want and love to do. Failure is just the last point of a process, not the entire journey. We all fail to live, eventually.

Notice the things that I’ve omitted:

Money. Success. ‘Experiences’. Good Food. Alcohol. Bars, Clubs and Nights Out. Clothes. Sexual partners. Travel. Work.

Obviously, if these things that I’ve omitted help increase those that I’ve included (money can help with a number of those), then they can help. Travel, for example, enables exposure to nature, cultures, human connection… but travel for travels sake, or where there is little human connection is less appealing.

If I can focus on doing more of these above, my sense is I’ll ‘get rich quick’.

Simple Momentum

Posted on by Simpletom
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What I’ve learned about simplicity.

…

The end.

Sometimes if feels a bit like nothing has changed. The reasons I first embarked on this simpletomiam mission are still as present as ever in my little life.

This last year I’ve been working hard. Too hard. That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed it. In fact, having an exciting and challenging focus has been rewarding. There have been parties and weekends where I’d actually rather be working. My new business is just being born and there’s a lot to do and I’m wanting to do it. I’m not burning out, just yet. I feel like we, the amazing Razvan (my partner) and I could be embarking on a long, rewarding journey.

After a year and a bit in Kenya and in San Francisco wandering, resting and reading – I’ve reacclimatised to the wonder of having a singular purpose and a passion. However, that single-mindedness has left friends, family and loved ones without as much attention as I’d like and they deserve.

But more importantly, the ways I’m working and the way I’m living needs attention. At the moment, I’m pushing myself and the pushing isn’t helping.

When I truly let go in the past and allowed my natural energy and drive to determine my work I found that, despite my fears that I might slip into a apathetic slumber, I found a natural, self-fulfilling energy and drive which propelled me forward. In the absence of goals, there was a great freedom and achievement.

Leo Baubatua and Tim Ferris talk about that in this video. But there’s something that Leo doesn’t mention which I experienced – the fact that, in the absence of goals, it’s possible to achieve more.

Here’s a slightly clunky analogy about progress – it’s like pushing against a moving object. No matter how hard you push the object moves at the same speed. However, the pushing is exhausting. If you spent 5 minutes pushing as hard as you could against a wall, whether it were moving or not – you too would end up exhausted.

Now imagine just wandering behind that moving object, letting it move of its own accord.

That’s how I feel about my own progress. There are two ways to be:

1)    Trying as hard as possible to move that object as far and as fast as I can. Which is exhausting and because it is exhausting, it means that I can’t do it for that long and a lot of the energy is used up in the pushing, rather than the natural momentum.

Or

2)    Trusting that the object will move of its own accord and going along with it, even being carried by it.

It’s not just work that suffers from this, but other things, like love. The more that it’s pushed by the desire for love, the less natural the love itself, at least in the longer term.

The reason for slipping into 1) is fear that without effort, things might stop moving and there would be no practice. In order to get to 2), one has to trust that if we stop pushing, things will still move.

That’s the difficult bit. Letting go. Plus it’s also hard to distinguish between pushing and propelling. There are still difficulties pursuing the second option and painful tasks that need to be accomplished. But the motivators are different – when I find myself in the ‘zone’, being propelled by a natural energy, these tasks form a component part of a much richer direction and therefore I can do these tasks without frustration, which in turn, often improve the quality of thought that goes into the tasks.

In the day-to-day, moving from 1) to 2) is very difficult.

A few things have helped me try to make this transition – these include:

-       Trusting and trying it for a while. As stupid as this sounds, many people simply haven’t given it a chance. My time in Kenya and before was an experiment. Coupled with period in life where I’ve not had to do things, there have been plenty of achievements. It took a bit of trust to give it a go, but now that I know the outcome, I’m aware of what can be done.

-       Understanding that by pushing, I lose my objectivity and energy for exploration, which in turn affects my ability to commit to the task in hand. Being exhausted doesn’t help move anything.

-       Failing. Sometimes even when we push, things go backward. That has helped remind me to recognize that using forced energy can not just be wasted, but be deconstructive. By attaching too much importance to things, there can be negative consequences. Anger, frustration and anxiety almost never contribute positively.

So, bringing the wisdom home, I need to remind myself daily that this is a journey. I have a dynamo and ambition inside of myself that whirrs whether I want it to… and it’s powerful enough without desperately trying to fuel it. By recognising and trusting that it will take me where I want to go, I am free to go where I want to go.

Now to implement…

 

Simpletom in a spin...

Simpletom in a spin… somewhere in Scotland

Way in West

Posted on by Simpletom
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It has been 8 months since I headed out West, from London to Bristol.

In the last 4 weeks, life has pulled me to London, Greece, Turkey and Kenya (peripateticism still reigns).

However, despite being sat at a desk bundled in a scarf, with the rain lashing from the gloom onto my rattling windows, it’s good to be back…

I’ve ranted about my dislike of London. I’m perhaps overly negative about London, as to some extent I never really gave it a proper chance (despite almost 30 years of diving in and out). Yet I am more convinced than ever, now I’ve had time to reflect on this move, that London life is not one that is conducive to happiness, for me.

But rather than dwell on the negatives of London, let me examine some of the positives of the Brizzle:

-       Not making plans to see people weeks ahead. In 8 months, I have a collection of many new (and old) friends here who I see almost every day. I see my friends who live down the road more often here than I did when I lived with them in London and we see each other when we want to, rather than over the breakfast table when my conversation is very simple. I don’t necessarily have to make plans to see them – we live close enough to one another and head regularly to places like the wonderful Lido (http://www.lidobristol.com/) meaning that random encounters are common (I bumped into two friends in the 3 minute walk to the cafe I’m sat in).

-       Not only do I see lots of people, but there is a real bond – a community (finally) of people my age who hang out together and who have invited me into their ‘gang’ for adventures like underwater hockey (yet to play), climbing, ping-pong parties, dinners, talks, concerts, plays, gigs… etc.

-       Bristol is, some claim, the graveyard of ambition. Or, put another way, people focus on (the wonderfully titled) ‘industrial leisure’. Although it sometimes challenges my discipline, it’s always welcome to have wonderful, creative and colourful opportunities ready to soak up non-work time. To date I’ve managed to maintain my discipline whilst being able to dip in and out of these opportunities when needed in a way that’s so much easier and less stressful than doing the same in London.

-       The feeling, when leaping off the train, of being ‘back’. I take a deep breath every time I land at the train station and enjoy the feeling of calm that Bristol resonates.

-       My house – which, for less than a 1 bedroom flat in London provides 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, fires, a front and back garden and a conservatory and is nestled in the nicest square in the town. I live in the center of town, yet it’s wonderfully quiet and peaceful.

-       A feeling of progressiveness – with a newly elected independent mayor, a Bristolian currency, swathes of amazing graffiti that is encouraged coupled with street parties (www.seenoevilbristol.co.uk) and the rest…

-       The Brecon Beacons for weekend romps, Clevedon for summer evening swims in the sea and BBQs, North Devon and Cornwall, the Gower peninsula, kiting opportunities.

-       Everything towny is within a half-hour cycle.

-       No commuting

Although I sometimes ponder on the lack of variety in comparison with bigger cities (concerts, clubs, theatre), I’ve barely scratched the surface here. It may be that London has the biggest and the best – if you want to go see a pianist play, like I did Behzod last week  they’re less likely to do a concert here, aside from the ‘exclusive’ events, there’s a feeling that one can get one’s head around what’s on offer and yet never get bored.

The main challenge is not getting sucked back into London, especially as I’m running a tech startup, where most UK investors, lawyers and partners live and work. Yet for all the ‘advantages’, there’s also the distraction, cost, commute and other negatives that London enforces.

For now and, I hope, for the foreseeable future, I want the Westcountry to be my home.

Real Apple

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I am running, or at least starting, a technology business. Which means I’m trying to stay abreast of the technological ‘news’, if you can call it that.

These last weeks, highly respected tweeters have chastised Apple for their ‘terrible’ new maps. The iPhone 5 has received record orders/sales and shares have increased over $700 a bite. Samsung has lost a patent case.

What a load of useless, superfluous crap.

You’ve all already got a small device that sits in your pocket enables you hear the voice of someone on the other side of the globe. (The reception in my house in Kenya is better than it is in San Francisco). It can take photos, play thousands of hours of music and connect to the web. That’s absolutely AMAZING. I’m writing this on an iPad a mile in the sky, traveling at ~500 miles an hour. Hold the headlines.

Yet we’re so concerned with the next thing that we don’t for a second appreciate what we have.

Who gives a shit if the maps aren’t quite as good, or if it’s a bit thinner, or that it could, hypothetically, connect to 4G if they can be bothered to get that working too?

If anything we should all connect less.

I have, for my sins in the eyes of these commentators, an iPhone 1, still gong strong. With NO internet on it. That means unlike 90% of the population I am unable to fill every spare 10 seconds with an email or a tweet. I prefer it that way. It gives me rare moments to think, to look, to BE.

How many of these latest things… the apps, the games, the new features, actually make a shred of difference to our lives? Is much of it actually negative?

When do we say, “I’ve enough?”.

Dont get me wrong. Phones, connectivity and innovation DO good.

I’d argue that mobile phones have done more for sub-saharan African development than decades  of well-meaning aid.

At 3Desk, I’d like to help build (when we’ve cracked the UK/US market) technology that helps people in the massive informal labour economies of the developing world find work more quickly and easily. We’d like to make the global labour market more liquid.

That would be important, and fun.

Yet my good friend and old business partner Al Harris reminded people this week that whilst the largest Arctic melt EVER recorded was occurring the BBC, even, was far more concerned with a Princesses’s nipples. Nipples, for fuck sake… who cares, like smartphones, weve all got them. I’d suspect yours work just fine.

The news, technology news especially, seems only concerned with whats new (I guess the clue is in the name) and not what’s important. We desperately need to filter and ignore the pieces of information that use up our valuable attention.

Even the ‘important’ news. Syria. The Presedential Election. Japan and China. How much of it is actually useful to you and me in our daily lives? I’m not suggesting it’s not life-changing, critical, for those involved. But for the home-counties-kitchen-table-banging white male who’s never been to any of these countries – wouldn’t it be better to pay more attention to their wives, their children, their local community and their own lives?

The Internet is a wonderful thing, helping cultures understand each other and transparency. But where do we stop?

Let’s focus on technology that makes a positive difference. Ignore superfluous news, even if it has the lure of scandal or celebrity.

Try to ignore the marketeers pull. Don’t be a consumer, of news or goods without understanding the cost to your life and the drag on your time and your attention.

Spend less time online and more time doing amazing things with the people you love.

Be present. Switch off in order to tune in.

Remind yourself that for all the camping outside of technology stores, the products don’t even and probably will never ever come close to the wonder of the human eye, the brain, the nervous system, the rustle of the wind through the trees, or a real apple.

Some of the most beautiful technology has been around for a while. Try finding someone who can build this today.

Time and Time Again

Posted on by Simpletom
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My friend Tim, who has a wholly different take on Time. We think he may have dropped an ‘e’

I’m reminded, as I tickle life into my new project - 3Desk - that things always take way more time than I anticipate.

I presume it’s the entrepreneurs curse (and blessing) that they continue to remain over-optimistic about how long things will take and what can be achieved in a given amount of time. The blessing is that if we knew the truth, we often wouldn’t start. Fortunately that’s not true in the case of 3Desk… the reality is slower than the anticipated, but it’s still proving very interesting.

Nonetheless, things take time. Lots of time.

I came across a nice article this week about time - by the founder of SongKick. He claims that startups ‘lose’ years in their attempt to be the newest shiniest big thing. A gentle reminder to people that start dates are often under-estimated. Overnight successes are often over-decade successes when you probe a little more closely.

Another article suggests that your formative years are your twenties -  so I’m now a bit late. Although, perhaps I’m a late-developer like Dave McClure, an indefatigable evangelist of all things web, who claims that his Damascene moment came later in life. Heartening.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m surprised at how often ‘time’ forms a component of my writing and thoughts. I seem, it would seem, to battle with time – from an attention ‘in-the-moment’ point of view, as well as recognizing what I might have been.

I’m aware that if I was to loosen the noose of time, or as Steve Jobs explained, to ‘live every day like it was my last, because one day it will be true’, then I might actually conquer some of the things that time is currently throwing in my way. There is a delicious irony in the idea that if you are too aware of time and achievement, you get less done. We should Let Go.

Someone asked me yesterday what I took time for and the only thing I could think of was sleep. Bad Simpletom.

So, how to remedy this issue? My own solution is embryonic and undisciplined, but here’s what I’m working on…

1) Taking 5 minutes each morning, whilst my coffee brews on the hob, to meditate. Should do more, but I’m going gentle on myself.

2) Integrate breathing and attention as often as possible into my day. Just 10 breaths, as often as I remember and trying to use mnemonics, like going to the loo, eating, stepping outside in order to remind.

3) Being more deliberate about time ‘off’. Even if just a few minutes walking to the shops, or having a drink with someone. Trying to banish ‘work’ or ‘stress’ from that moment.

4) Reducing obsessive email checking. I’ve been using RescueTime and have noticed that every week, without fail, email is my number 1. I’m trying to bash it to number 2+.

5) Not having too many things I’m working on at any given time.

Now for a bit more time to blog a bit more often. This has felt good, productive even in the telling and explaining. That’s why we do it, us mad bloggers, or naturists… as, it has been claimed that “Writing is a socially acceptable form of getting naked in public” - Paulo Coelho

Plus, it would seem, from the number of links to other posts on this blog, none of this is new.

A PhD in Twitter

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I did this interview Bill Lampos for 3Desk. It wasn’t really meant for Simpletom, but I loved the way Bill was honest and modest and seemed to embody simplicity, so I thought I’d share (shortened to be more applicable here) 

http://www.lampos.net/ 

Tom (@brightgreen): you were very clever/lucky (delete as appropriate) to choose Twitter, back before it was wildly popular on which to base your thesis. What made/makes it so interesting?

Bill (@lampos) Social Media offers another way of looking at our society. My research investigated methods for mining information about events in the real world, based on Twitter data – shedding new perspective on important trends. Of course, I also use Twitter or Facebook as tools for various aspects of my personal online entertainment and socialising, in general but I’m not sure that’s as new, or interesting.

Social media enables a unique new form of analysis – allowing us to watch and learn from the spread of information in real-time. To me, that’s way more exciting than seeing photos of my friends’ holidays, love them as I do.

@brightgreen: What can we do now as a society that we couldn’t without Twitter?

@lampos This is an interesting question because – in my opinion – there are two answers.

The first one encapsulates the great impact that Twitter has in timely information spread, not only events related to entertainment (such as sport or artistic occurrences), but more importantly the sudden social political bursts such as the Arab Spring, the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement, or for me the situation unfurling in Greece. By sharing information quickly among such a diverse set of nations, Twitter has brought people closer, creating a togetherness or sense of unity. For example, before the Twitter era, it would have been hard for me to find trusted information about troubled regions around the globe, such as Syria, Bahrain or Egypt. Perhaps more importantly I didn’t care so much. I can now follow and better understand things on an international level as well as helping create greater bonds on a national level.

On the flip side, we should not ignore the silent issue – that society is also being ‘restricted’ by the existence of Social Media such as Twitter, especially in terms of social expression and psychical interaction, as well as the increasing concerns about the possible violations on user privacy.

@brightgreen You’ve probably spent more time analyzing Twitter than anyone outside of Twitter towers. Tell us a couple of things you’ve learnt that most users won’t have realized.

@lampos At the moment, there are many research groups working to analyze Social Media in various ways; several interdisciplinary projects are funded by the European Union. This not only proves the importance of the content published on the Social Web, but also reveals that there are many people who have been analyzing it for research purposes; I am just one of them.

Twitter is not about ‘you’ or the individual, despite the way many people interact with it. Twitter harnesses the interests of a variety of people – it is about that interaction, the communication between people rather than the people themselves.

Tweets should be well timed – usually this reflects an event happening in real time – and to be well articulated (which comes with practice and talent) and address the right audience.

Usually, Twitter users construct a persona, a character through their messages. This character should be well defined and stable as it quite often is the main reason that attracted followers on the first place.

Those are just some general hints; if you ask me, I’d rather be more spontaneous than imposing strategies and rules on my tweets. I have observed that my Twitter messages are well accepted when I am emotional.

@brightgreen What next for you?

@lampos I will further my research on Social Media by doing a post-doc as part of an EU funded project. Our aim in this project is to use Twitter as well as other web sources to investigate trends related to socio-political opinion or financial indicators.

@brightgreen What do people continue to get wrong when using Twitter?

@lampos Twitter is not Facebook; many users get confused about this. As a rule of thumb, their messages – which by default are visible to everyone – should not be about their ‘common’ everyday activities, unless the latter fit in a more general purpose or are amusing.

Twitter is not a platform for lengthy conversations or chatting. It is also quite straightforward to unfollow somebody; un-friending in Facebook might be taken as a personal insult. That gives the Tweeter the power to refine what and who they follow – not enough people use that power.

@brightgreen What matters more: who follows you or how many followers you have?

@lampos It depends on the purpose of each Twitter account. If one desires to disseminate information to a big set of recipients, then increased values on both those features will help. Alternatively, if you want to be seen as a potentially interesting account to follow, then proof for this may be provided by having ‘prestigious’ followers as well as having a small followers to followees ratio (say lower than .5). Note that it is easy to increase the number of followers by exploiting the ‘follow-back’ behavior of Twitter users. Consequently, an increased amount of followers alone does not say much about a person’s Twitter account.

@brightgreen You studied the spread of flu using Twitter, can you sum up your thesis in a few sentences?

@lampos ‘Nowcasting’ flu rates was just one case study (http://geopatterns.enm.bris.ac.uk/epidemics/). In a sentence, one finding of my Ph.D. states that we can use content from the Social Media to track the occurrence and magnitude of several types of events emerging in the real world. It is also interesting that, based on Twitter content, we are in the position to investigate socio-political patterns. Here’s something I put together which measures ‘the mood of the nation’ (http://geopatterns.enm.bris.ac.uk/mood/).

@brightgreen It’s also proving useful for understanding what’s going on back in your home country, Greece – how do you follow movements there?

@lampos During the past year, I have found a set of people, who are mainly based in Greece, with similar beliefs to mine. Most of them have an active participation in all socio-political events and usually tweet about it. There is also a famous independent citizen journalism effort initiated by radiobubble.gr; people, who support this initiative, tweet real-time news using the hashtag #rbnews. Established news outlets such as The Guardian or Al Jazeera have quite often referred to it.

@brightgreen What’s the best thing Twitter has achieved?

@lampos I think that Twitter ‘addicts’ or specialists will come up with various answers to this question; ‘best’ is always a matter of perspective.

One great achievement of Twitter is, as I mentioned, creating a foundation of a togetherness among people on an international level. After using Twitter for some time now, I feel closer to people in the US, Australia, Egypt and so on, as I get to see, in practice, that we approach the world in a very similar manner. It helps to narrow social, ethnic and cultural divides.

Twitter assists the timely and uncensored dissemination of significant events; this platform promotes citizen journalism. To an extent, Twitter also forces citizen journalists to undertake their ‘hobby’ with more professionalism and in a much more thoughtful manner.

Professional media has also benefited from information sharing on Twitter since their employees cannot physically be everywhere. I was surprised when a journalist from BBC contacted me on Twitter to ask about the current situation in Greece (during one of the riots) because I was translating into English messages from people on location.

In terms of research, Twitter content enables a diverge set of experiments for various scientific disciplines (such as Artificial Intelligence, Sociology or even Psychiatry) to be conducted on large-scale amounts of data, something that was impossible in the past.

@brightgreen What’s your perfect job? Where’s your favourite (or third) desk?

@lampos There is no such thing as a perfect job. Having said that, I enjoy to work on something not because it may be supported by a good salary, but because I really like and find it interesting. Obsession usually defines perfection for me; I know this is unhealthy. However, as I grow older, I try to reduce this egoistic perspective to the extent possible; I am trying to pursue activities that in the future might benefit others as well. I think that 3Desk is a timely idea, helping people connect with work that doesn’t tie them to a permanent role – especially as the workforce is becoming more fluid through the utilisation of smart technology.

My favourite desk could be anything located anywhere; the only constraint is having ‘beautiful’ people around it and a decent amount of desk space.

Let Go – Simply Letting Things Happen and ‘Down Time’

Posted on by Simpletom
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Are Simplicity and Starting a Startup Compatible?

The answer… honestly – No, not really.

This is a really beautiful opinion piece in the NYT about those people who say they’re ‘busy’ whenever you speak to them.

I heard that the founder of Green & Blacks chocolate, I forget his name, hired such brilliant people around him that he only came in once a week to make sure everything was going according to plan. What a legend. What trust. What simplicity.

For the rest of us, the startup world is one of obsession and comes at the expense of emotional or simplicional health.

That’s not to say it’s not all bad. There’s something wonderful about focus, learning, meaning and being immersed. There’s a clarity and simplicity in the single-mindedness that a wannabe entrepreneur has on that mission.

But it’s not all good.

In my case, I look back at the last 10 years and realise, my extended sabbatical in Kenya aside, that the entrepreneurial grip has me so tight that I’ve not had energy for other things. That’s not to say I haven’t done a lot of other amazing activities – my innate sense of mischief and wanting to maintain a social life mean that I find it difficult to do nothing else but work – parties, festivals, holidays and dinners have all been attended, and enjoyed.

Yet there has been a price paid, which has been my inability to tear myself (and my ego) away from the pursuit of the entrepreneurial dream, emotionally – meaning that I’ve often felt half-there, half-not-there when out of the ‘office’.

I’m not sure I’ve truly been able to let go (this is a link to one of my best friend Jim Kroft’s song – Let Go, which encapsulates this emotion perfectly – ).

What I would give for the ability to immerse myself in the work and then enjoy the down time. Each fully. Is it possible? Did Steve Jobs ever have down time, so singular was his mission and focus? I read articles that said he worked as hard when he was ‘on holiday’ with his family as he did when he was ‘at work’. Is that the price of ‘putting a ding in the universe’.

It is partially bravery and fear. The ability to trust, like Mr Green & Blacks. Is it a desperate need to achieve and the ego, which means that everything feels undone, or still to do… despite achievements.

Time to allow things to happen to Let Go.