I had a question about the history of human civilization. Rather than turn to the rabbit hole that is Google, I thought I’d consult the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind that I had read before. After scrolling through the list of contents I decided to start from chapter one. Reading through the first chapter, it stunned me how I had no recollection whatsoever of what I was reading. The knowledge on those pages was certainly worth remembering. Who wouldn’t want to remember the three important revolutions that shaped the course of history, and that the cognitive revolution kick-started history about 70,000 years ago? There and then, I had an epiphany, this is why you should re-read books–to remember the useful lessons from them!

Talking with a friend about his plans for the holiday season, he shared with me that other than resting, his other major task was to do some ‘emotional admin’. By emotional admin he means reflecting on achievements and disappointments of the year, and setting goals for the upcoming year. A common practice, this time of the year, evident by the plethora of headlines broadcasting: ‘best… of 2019’, ‘worst… of 2019’, ‘top New Year’s resolutions ideas’, ‘how to make and stick to your New Year’s resolutions’ and ‘declarations for 2020’. I stopped paying heed to this practice many years ago, just as in my teens I abstained from Christmas celebrations (Yep! I’m Bah Humbug. But I still accept presents). I realised that resolutions are ephemeral, forgotten by Valentine’s Day–the elliptical machines in the gym fully occupied the whole of January, come February are free again.
This doesn’t mean to say that I don’t reflect or set goals. I do, but it doesn’t happen in December or January. Besides, I’ve found that when you achieve goals can’t always be fixed to a calendar year as there are so many factors at play, and mostly out of my control (myself included). So I approach the beginning and end of the year the same way I do every other day of the year, thankful and striving.

It is a tough job being my own boss, I have to manage myself. I am the type of employee that will try to get out of doing and/or put off tasks I dislike such as administrative and writing. This is a problem as I’m the only full-time employee in my company. My boss self is always asking my employee self to be more efficient, productive, organized, blah, blah, blah. So I’m invariably on the search for tips and techniques to better self manage. Recently, I came across an Art of Manliness podcast with Gregg Krech talking about how to take action, the Japanese psychology way. I was intrigued. I had tried the Western approach––writing to do lists and buying loads of productivity apps; read books such as Getting Things Done; used Pomodoro technique––many times over, so why not try something different? I downloaded Krech’s book The Art of Taking Action: Japanese Psychology.

Before I started the book, I wrote down what questions I hoped the book will answer for me (See why I did this here): What is Japanese psychology?, How is it different from other methods I’ve tried? Can it help me be better at doing?

I hear about innovation a lot because of my job. Plus, it is hard to avoid seeing news or comments about champions of modern innovation––Musk, Bezos, et al.. I asked a friend who works for a start-up in Silicon Valley about innovation and if her and her colleagues talk about it. She was bemused by my question. No, it isn’t something they talk about, they just do their work! I know from having spent time in that part of the world that her reaction is common. Besides, folks in Silicon Valley think everything they do is by default ‘disruptive’ innovation.
I train innovators––scientists, and engineers––on how to develop and convey their work to stakeholders and partners inside and outside their organisations. My clients work mostly in R&D centers of big corporations. The talk in these corporations on innovation is usually about its insufficient level, on how to speed up the process, or the need to create products/services that generate gazillions of dollars. A lot of time is spent attending conferences on innovation and consulting experts on the topic. I wonder why is it that smaller companies and startups don’t talk about innovation, yet are responsible for the most disruptive type, the holy grail that all companies strive for?

Every year I pick a couple of things to learn, it could be something completely new, or a mastery of an exciting skill. I do this because I believe there is always room for improvement. And I train others for a living so I see it as research for my work—to remind myself of what it is like to be a learner so I can be a better teacher.

Having made the decision to update my company website, I decided that I was going to learn to build a website landing page to see if I could build the whole website myself. I felt somewhat confident I could do it, afterall, there is a plethora of DIY tools, and I have an eye for design. I soon discovered that even with these tools choosing which templates, layouts, colors and fonts to choose was challenging. In search for guidance on how to, I stumbled upon a book called The Non-designers’ Design Book by Robin Williams. I hadn’t finished reading chapter one of the book before I realized that I knew NOTHING about design.