l.p.g. - flammable gas

When someone comes around and asks you to name the most amazing projects of the last four decades, how many of those that jump your mind stem from your field of work, your geographic area, your general centre of interest?

Quite a few, most likely.

Now watch this video and see how broad the topic selection just may be:



And also see how narrow the general geographic focus of the examples in the video is.

Which nicely shows how tough it is to think outside the box. Even if you deliberately intent to do so.

Vimeo is the better YouTube. And Gel is the other TED.

Here is the video of a Gel speech by Chris Jordan - a photographing visualiser who has some impressive stories to tell:


Chris Jordan at Gel 2007 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

What Señor Jordan does specifically well is taking a high-altitude view on very earthy problems, taking a step back to look closer, and using abstract elements for pointing to concrete concepts.

To make music is one thing. To care about change is another. Playing for Change is combining the two and having fun while doing so:

Creativity starts when you cut a zero from your budget.

Not the first time we have seen this quote over here. I know.

And because it isn't really the most innovative punch line, people try hard to take it to the next level. Like by not just cutting one zero, but taking two:

You get about 80% of the way there by one percent of the cost.

Señor Johnny shows how Do-It-Yourself fun can lead to some interaction innovation that even saves some thousand bucks on the way. He does so by hacking around with Wii Remotes. Which don't cost the world but are fun to mess around with:



The question now stands of how can this be applied to personal use. Besides the Wii fun, of course. Honestly - I don't really know, yet. But I am already thinking about cutting down the couch I'm lounging around on down to one percent of itself. This may just get me uncomfy enough to get the creative juices flowing.

[ted link via twitter/Criamon]

The Huffington Post just recently sported a comment by Hugh McGuire about what might happen if the Book Business Collapses. It's a nice little read, even if void of much surprises. And the punch-line basically boils down to that over-quoted phrase that creativity starts when you cut a zero from your budget.

Which reminds me that we didn't have much TED videos around here at Gasbottle County Headquarters for a while. So here is one with Jaime Lerner, and the quote, of course:

While we are at wasting time watching silly drum sound videos, here is just another one. And even though it comes with less bombastic style, we do get some music lesson to learn as a free addon:

Link:

Just a little video for those of us who ever wondered what the Military is actually good for:

Link:

El Señor John Medina has a book out that is getting quite some buzz lately: Brain Rules. Which is basically supposed to be telling us just what the title suggests, thus: why we behave as strange as we fear we do.

I still have to get my hands on the paper beast. Not the least because it promises to come with some side effects. Cheesy summary of which: maybe get the brain thing to actually do what it's supposed to be doing. (Which is not those silly things we like the most.)

Meanwhile, there is still the chance of doing what Señor Reynolds - who also just got his book out - suggests: click around Medina's website for some fun and the essense of the book. And maybe even watch some YouTube flicks that provide some illustration on the way. Like this one about some advantage of visuals over bullet points in presentations:

Have an average day, honey!

That's what we are not, or at least should not be, saying to our beloved one in the morning. And even though that's quoting Tom Peters here, this surely holds for about every gasbottleneck out there. Because it frames one of the principle motivations that keep the grass green in Gasbottle County. And it is also just so well paraphrased in another quote:

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Just in case someone wants to get both quotes in one piece of a show that's more visually and auditory engaged than us here in this textual County, here you go:

A very fine way of digging up inspiring ways about how to keep burning as hot as possible is to look at other people's stories. Best even if it's stories of interesting and burning blokes.

Like Richard Feynman. This physicist who not only got some honours which he didn't really honour, but who also came out with a biography in which he explained how he used to get gals jumping his bed. Quite a fine read full of anecdotes of a man who was always aiming for the maximum - doing so simply out of curiosity.

Now, accidentally, I just stumbled across the following series of five videos of a BBC interview with Señor Feynman (via Bad Language). They are about ten minutes each and tell a good part of the stories he also put into the book:

Part one:



Part two:



Part three:



Part four:



Part five:



Regardless of whether you read the book or just watch the videos: this man truly has a story to tell. And he tells it well.

We haven't been talking much about Toastmastes recently, have we? Some deem that a good thing. Maybe it even is. But the lack of talking about it doesn't mean that the overall goal of fine public speaking has vanished from Gasbottle County Headquarters. It has not.

And there are reasons why Toastmasters has been around as a topic right here and is also likely to stick around for a while longer. One is that good public speaking is a question of practice. Which is something TM's clubs are good at providing a stage for. Another is that bettering one's speaking skills can be done by listening. Yes, right. That very activity where you shut up and stay seated. All you need is great speakers and some eyes and ears to recognise them.

Listening to great speakers may be possible at one's club. And it's surely possible outside of it. Like with some TED talks. Freely available. At whatever time pleases. Most of these talks show perfectly how to compose a great speech: have something to say, keep it short, stick to the point, make it personal, use fine visual aids. And the speakers do one thing Toastmasters highly recommends:

Strive not to use notes.

Then came Isabel Allende. Breaking the rules and being excellent while doing so. Just like Philippe Starck, whom we talked about earlier this year, she didn't use any visual aids. But very much different not only to him but to most other speakers at TED, she did one thing: read out her entire speech.

And as true as the rule about improving a speech by not using notes is: this is the exception that we've all been waiting for:



Of course, Señora Allende has a story to tell and her talk comes with a message. Well delivered in between little phrases like:

Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spouses.

On top of this she builds up her story piece by piece. In a great show.

Highly recommended. Not only for mere Toastmasters who want to improve their own speaking skills by learning from the best.

Every Gasbottleneck who still thinks that typography is simply a mere act of putting arbitrary letters on screen or paper, is well adviced to watch this little video:



It is a music video of the Uruguayan band El Cuarteto de Nos. What the video does is making heavily use of some typographic variety as stylistic element. And it shows that in a way, typography can act as some McLuhan-esc message carrying media.

But even in cases where it doesn't, it serves more than just a mere act of putting arbitrary letters on screen or paper.

Who said this:

I remember talking to my daughter: "What do you want to be?" - In a car. You know, like a few weeks ago. "What do you want to be?"

And she in-timidly said to me: "I wanna be an artist, daddy."

And the initial - like - reflex is: Oh my God! - You know.

But I: Wow! I was so proud of her.

John Maeda did. In his announcement video for getting new president of RISD.

OK. But what's the president of some design school to do with us Gasbottlenecks? First of all and oh so directly: not much. That's right.

But what he has to say fits well into our most recently mentioned easier and easier availability of online course materials. And Señor Maeda dosn't just put it nicely, he also expresses the true meaning behind the idea by living it. He's mainly a graphic designer but also a computer scientist in a way. Bridging C. P. Snow's gap between the two cultures right there and in person.

And that's precisely what burning in Gasbottle County is all about: bridging some gap and finding some path over there to the other side of life's passion canyon. The canyon that separates you on one side with your dreams and potentials on the other side.

And because finding this path is actually a fun process to be part of, here is another video with John Maeda. Showing him at last year's TED speech:



And watching it reveals how simple the whole canyon bridging seems to be. So, why not try it?

I think in life my job is absolutely useless, means: I feel useless.

Those are the words by one of the most influential designers of toothbrushes and bathtubs.

And putting it into perspective questions whether all the fine resolutions most of us might just have put together couldn't better be phrased along the soul of thoughts of Ray Bennett's The Underachiever's Manifesto where he states:

Underachievers are the best, most dependable workers. This may seem counterintuitive but the key here is that while some achievement is necessary and good for productivity, a lot of it is dangerous to you and everyone around you. And if you have a wide enough perspective, you’ll see it’s also an exercise in futility.

As we know, design is a lot about minimising something to its bare bones. Thus, Señor Starck puts it more condensed with:

Nobody is obliged to be a genius. But everybody is obliged to participate.

So, just in case you have Implementing World Peace on your list of resolutions: cut it out and just make sure to care about your loved ones. It's not as little a step as it may sound.

Happy New Year everyone! Let's fire up a fabulous 2008.

Here is a little ad that doesn't just promote the Banc de Sang blood donation service but also fits well for all out there who can't really stand all those blog postings with embedded videos anymore: