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The Clues to a Great Story - TED Video and Infographic

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving.

I visited family.

 

 

One of the things that caught my attention was how attached to stories we are ... our own, and the stories of others. 

They help us decide who is naughty or nice.  They help us decide who to spend more time with ... and where we fit in.

Stories are emotion catalysts and amplifiers.  Choose the 'right' ones, and you feel good.  Focus on the 'wrong' one and you feel bad. 

Well-told stories make us care.  Humans use 'story' to make sense of things.  If you create the narrative, the process is intentional.  However, for most, the quality of our stories is not a conscious process. 

 

How Do You Craft a Great Story?

 

A good story can make the gathering feel that much closer. A good story can flip a conversation at a party from completely awkward to wonderful.

A good story can glue your nose to a book. And, on screen, a good story can rivet generation after generation.

Story-telling is an important skill.  So, how do you tell a good story?

Andrew Stanton, the Pixar writer and director behind both Toy Story and WALL-E, has many ideas, and he shared his expertise in his TED Talk, The clues to a great story .

 

 

 

Storytelling is like joke telling. It's knowing your punchline, your ending, knowing that everything you're saying, from the first sentence to the last, is leading to a singular goal, and ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understandings of who we are as human beings.

We all love stories. We're born for them. Stories affirm who we are. We all want affirmations that our lives have meaning. And nothing does a greater affirmation than when we connect through stories. It can cross the barriers of time, past, present and future, and allow us to experience the similarities between ourselves and through others, real and imagined.

 

Here is an infographic that sets out the basic steps to a great story.

 

Stories are not just for kids.

Make me care.  Take me with you.  Be intentional.  Let me like you.  Delight me.

Words to live by!

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"Oils" - A Thanksgivukkah Miracle (Royals Song Parody)

Thanksgiving and the first night of Hanukkah coincide this year. 

American Jews get to mix turkey, stuffing, menorahs, and dreidels with a popular song. And what better song than Lorde's "Royals?" More appropriately named "Oils," in honor of the latkas and burning candles of Thanksgivukkah.

So, here is a musical parody of the new mashup holiday, Thanksgivukkah.

 

 

 

Puritans and a different Tribe dancing the the horah while belting back some Manischewitz ... it's a Thanksgivukkah Miracle.

Have You Seen the Re-Design of the NSA Slides? ... worth a look.

This was interesting for several reasons.

It purportedly shows a re-design of a recent NSA slide deck.

 

Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides. from Emiland

 

 

Both the content and the design makeover caught my attention.

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A Smart-Ass Father's Day Card

Hope you had a nice Father's Day weekend.

Here is a 'smart-ass' card one of my kids gave me.

 

My son, Zach, and I ate a Hibachi restaurant.

 

 

As part of his Father's Day present, he didn't complain (much) about having vegetables on his plate or that different food items touched each other before getting to his stomach.

A View From Above ... Making the Invisible Visible [Video from the Space Station]

It is easy to get lost in the admistrivia of day-to-day life.  Here is a quick antidote for that.

International Space Station astronaut Don Pettit lived on the station for about a year, and took many pictures while up there.  The results of his innovative photographic work and passion have changed the way we see earth from space.

Next, astrophotographer Christoph Malin took thousands of Pettit's individual photos and animated them, adding clips of Pettit giving a talk about his stay aboard the ISS and his photography there. He also set it to music, creating a simply stunning time-lapse video.

The result is certainly worth watching.  So, set aside 16 minutes of your busy day, sit back, and soak this in: “The ISS Image Frontier”.

 

"Making the invisible visible" - the ISS Image Frontier from Christoph Malin on Vimeo.

 

The video presents an interesting perspective of our planet.

Many astronauts, even from back in the Apollo days, talk about an incredible feeling they get after a few days in space. As they gaze on the Earth from above, they lose their feeling of borders and nationality. The Saudi astronaut Sultan bin Salman Al-Saud, who flew on the Space Shuttle in 1985, commented on this, saying , “The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day, we were aware of only one Earth.”

On a different note, the technique where they create a composite view of a visual time series is facinating.  It makes the invisible visible ... and has many uses in the big data space as well.  Very cool!

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What Can You Learn from an Orchestra Conductor?

Itay Talgam (photo: Frank Hamm)

Last week I got an insightful lesson from someone I'd never heard of before.  His name is Itay Talgam, and he used to conduct the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. 

He was the keynote presenter on the opening night of a business conference ... and somewhat surprisingly his message was about leadership.

Some people take the word "conductor" and assume it means "leader." However, taken a different way, "conductor" might mean "connector." 

Neither is "right," but which would you consciously choose for it to mean for you, your business, or your trading?

To figure out what conductors do, we watched some videos of well-known conductors conducting their orchestras.

• Some were the center of attention, some helped highlight the performers, while others focused on connecting the audience to the music.
• Some were stiff, others almost danced with their orchestra and the audience.
• Likewise, some were control freaks who micro-managed every nuance of a performance, while others simply let the orchestra play. 
• Some showed passion; others showed control. 

Again, there are countless variations; and the point is that it was easy for each of us to choose what seemed right (and what didn't).  Obviously, this works as a metaphor for business, interactions with people, or even how you trade and manage a portfolio.

If you were hiring a conductor, what would you be looking for, and how would you want them to engage ?

With that in mind (time for a little introspection), how do you show-up, and what do you do?  Are there other ways for you to perform your roles and duties that might get better results?

For some ideas, here is his TED Talk.

 

 

 

On a different topic, when you experience great classical music … who should get the credit?

Acceptable answers might include the conductor, the orchestra, the composer, even the audience.

Assuming that a conductor should get their fair share of the credit and blame for a performance, what do they do (or what could they do) to impact the results?

Obviously, the conductor is the focal point letting people know when to do the thing that they do. So there's clearly a communication and coordination component. Taken too far, and it strips some of the "magic" from the performers and the performance.

According to Talgam, the best conductors manage the process, while leaving the details to the performers. This allows them a fair bit of control, without the stifling effect on innovation or art.

From my perspective the same is true in trading.  I don't want a portfolio manager to be the trading system ... instead I want a dynamic and adaptive selection of the right systems at the right time.

Less Is More.

Leonard Bernstein

One of the examples was that a flute player asked the conductor how they would know it was time for them to come in ... The conductor's answer was "it's time to come in when you can no longer stand being out."

Leonard Bernstein was shown as an example of a great conductor. After working with the Vienna Philharmonic for many years, some of the best performances occurred while he did apparently little.

Upon closer inspection, you could see that he was sending them cues using: facial expressions, the pace of his breathing, a nod of his head, the movement of his body, the direction of his gaze, and through countless other little things.

Obviously, you can't rely on such things at the beginning, but once people really know what to do, one of the best things you can do is help them find opportunities to do what they do best, and then to get out of the way to let them do it.

 Here is a link to Talgam's website.

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Do You Agree With This List of the 100 Most Beautiful Songs Ever Heard?

Do You Agree With This List of the 100 Most Beautiful Songs Ever Heard?

A thread on popular net board, AskReddit, posed the question, "What is the most beautiful song you've ever heard?"

The challenge was simple:

Think to yourself, what is the most beautiful song you have ever heard, im not talking about your favourite song, or the most technical, or something that made you cry, I just want to know the song that made you say 'holy shit... I could die to this.'

After thousands of comments, a strong list was assembled and filtered. Ultimately, the 100 most upvoted songs became a public Spotify playlist.

Selections range from classical to punk and from pop to indie.  The result was interesting and varied.

Worth a listen. Here is the List.

 

 

 

  

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JibJab's 2012 Year in Review Video

Oh well ... crazy how fast time flies.  Hopefully 2012 was good for you. 

Here is JibJab's take on what happened.   

 

 

 via: JibJab

 Long Live 2013.

 

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JibJab Lets You Star In Your Own Gangnam Style Video

JibJab Lets You Star In Your Own Gangnam Style Video

Gangnam Style has about a billion views, recently surpassing Justin Bieber to become the number one most-viewed YouTube video of all time. 

So, of course, JibJab got in the game. They’ve launched a Gangnam Style video that you can personalize with your face (or a friend’s face). Here's what it looks like.

 

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

 

Hope you are having a happy and fun holiday season.

Making the Best of What Is

I had the perfect holiday gift planned. We were going to go to Cirque du Soleil's 'Kooza' show. Jennifer and Zach both missed an earlier show because they were out of town. Cirque is magical enough that I didn't mind seeing it again. So, when I saw a daily deal touting "Kazoo La La' at the Cirque Theater, I jumped on it.

On the day of the show, we got dressed up and drove downtown. Our GPS told us to go one way; but I remembered where the show was ... only it wasn't there. Since it was approaching curtain time and we were feeling the time pressure, I followed the GPS to its destination and tried not to argue.

There was a huge line, and very little organization or process (which we thought was very unlike our prior experiences with Cirque du Soleil). Nonetheless, we get to our seats, the curtain rises, and we laugh that someone struggling to do a circus act. Then we start to look at each other, because it dawns on us that the person struggling is not a clown pretending to struggle, is truly someone who's not very good at what they're doing.

To make a long story short, we bought a ticket to see Kazoo La La, which in no shape or form is related to Cirque du Soleil's Kooza.

 

 

Yes, it was disappointing, and we left  at the intermission. However, we had a great time. We laughed at the show and ourselves. Then we took the extra time we had went to marble slab creamery for ice cream.

The point is, it's not what happens, it's what you do.

This is true in trading, in business, and in life. All you can control is how you show up, what you focus on, and what you make something mean. The quality of the experience is still up to you.

I wish you peace and happiness for the holiday season.