The power of boredom

I have a low boredom threshold. This used to be a problem. I'd wander aimlessly as a little boy desperate for some stimulation. Never satisfied with my own company school holidays were often a chore as I yearned to be with friends all day every day.

Now I have the internet of course.

I remember reading somewhere though that kids being bored was a good thing. And that parents should resist the urge to constantly entertain them or fill every waking hour with activities. The mind in a state of boredom is forced to overcome the impasse by being creative. Solving the ultimate mind game.

My most rewarding solution is to write. Often with no real idea what topic I'll cover. Like now. The urge to pen something without knowing what will come out is stimulating by itself.

To that end whilst my seven year old daughter was bored at the dinner table the other night, rather than resorting straight to her tablet and the array of mind numbing games I encouraged her to write a story saving it to Evernote as she went.

Below is what she created. Please excuse the typos, she's only seven after all.

This is a story about a boy and a girl who didn't have a family. 

Once in a small igloo there was a girl who lived with her brother and the were very lonely without a friend or relatives just brother and sister together.

The girl was called Rebecca and the boy was called Dominic. They lived in the north pole where It was very cold and It was a hard life there because the igloo kept on falling down.

Rebecca soon got fed up with the igloo and was convinced that they have to move to a different country and see if they  could find some one who can look after them.

Rebecca said that they should leave just that minute " your  totally right Let's go and see if we can find a Better place for us to live and be happy all our life." Said dominic.

They set out thinking all about the people who were going to be looking after them and hoped that they could be able to find somebody who is  very nice.

Chapter 2! !!!! 
They were very nervous about this but they did it they walked all across  country's not be able to find there way.
When they got to a country Rebecca said "
"Right now Let's look in this small house and see if we could find someone who can look after us."

Dominic nocked at the door a little noise came from the house! It came nearer and nearer and then a little , old women in a tiny apron and that was very wrinkley stept out the door.

Rebecca and dominic were amazed ! "I think it's time to run" Said dominic  wait said Rebecca she  might be nice I'll ask her if she can look after us.   Dominic you you say something to her ok would you  spare some time to look after us ? No go away" The door slammed shut.  There was silence for a very long time. "

Oh that didn't go well said Rebecca no it did not i think we're going to have to go and find someone else who might be able to look after me and you.

They set out again looking for another home to live in. Soon they came to a big house. Rebecca said that they should leave "Dominic we should go " but by the time Rebecca had said that Dom Burch his  knick name was all ready opening the ginormous door" wait" Said Rebecca suddenly they heard big stomps and and a booming voice" if you have come to complain about the people in my land then shoo ." We have come to see end if you can look after us. Said dominic. 

Chapter 3!!!!!!!!!!
"You need to be looked after Yes we do oh well come in I have a empty place in my heart and you two could end it all   so you  can look after  us? Yes thank you thats the first time eny one has ever said that to me really really .

So you will look after us ? Yes of course I will.  What shall we do first

Let's play a game a game yes have you ever been looked
after? no really really. Oh right  Well I'll teach you some things that you need to know.

(To be continued...)

The day Youtubers took over the world

Last week I witnessed a once in a life time event. It was a seminal moment in my fifteen year career.

It confirmed a hunch I've had for some time. PR has changed forever. The power has firmly shifted. And there's no turning back.

No longer is the mainstream media in pole position.

The new kids on the blocks are native to the digital age.

They are young, confident, professional and on the cusp of not only rewriting how brands must now manage their media relations, but they are also redefining the cult of celebrity.

Gone are the days of the manufactured star. That's not to say they won't continue in some form or other. But the new stars are real, authentic, what you see is what you get.

Their fans, followers or friends are just like them - in many cases quite literally like them.

They are accessible and open. They interact and engage. They actually care.

They flourish because of, not in spite of, their normalness.

They're not perfect. They're not always the most beautiful.

They are certainly not polished, or made up, or lit in such away as to mask their blemishes or flaws. There is no behind the scenes glimpses because there is no behind the scenes. Everything is up front.

And their influence is growing and growing and growing. 

As a result we're now at an interesting cross roads.

Truth is some people arrived at that junction a long time ago and the rest of us are just catching up.

We're slowly realising what has been happening right under our eyes in full view we just weren't looking.

But even those who claim they get it, that they understand the brave new world, when you pick away at it you realise they can't let go of what they are used to.

They are still wed to the world they / we grew up in. TV and press. Gossip and gander. Fake reality and falsehood and the awful self loathing it often created. They want to poach these digital natives and use them (literally use them) to prop up the world they are from.

No doubt some will be tempted. Ego will kick in and cloud their better judgement. But in my view the ones who don't cross the divide will conquer. Will win out.

In the new world of real stars connecting with millions of others like them, and I mean millions, national broadcasting is no longer the preserve of ITV or Sky.

YouTubers are now in charge of their own destiny. Content is still king. Yet the content is unscripted.

Yes it's often vanilla. Yes it's only relevant to a cohort of the population. But in the next five years that cohort will be the majority. They will be the young families with toddlers. They will be the ones with a voice. With an audience. With a tribe of like minded influencers.

The wave they are riding now signals a tsunami coming that could wash away the structures of mainstream media, rip up how we're governed, and sweep in a more inclusive, more healthy and more sustainable relationship between what we see and what is actually real.

The cynics will say that's all a load of bollocks. And even if I'm right it could still all go pop.

The media moguls may move in and gobble them up one by one.

My hope though is those days are gone. I look forward to telling my grand kids what those days were like and how odd they really were. 

Mind bending fun in Silicon Valley

What a week it's been over here in the San Francisco / Bay Area.

Every time I visit I get blown away by the endless opportunities, the innovation, the sense of excitement and if I'm honest the coolness of being at the centre of the digital universe right now.

Silicon Valley is a melting pot of great ideas, extremely bright people and big investors who are prepared to go big or go home.

Perhaps it never really went off the boil, but either way it feels supercharged at the moment.

Every day a new start up comes onto the scene or an incumbent like Google launches a new product.

Nothing stands still for long.

Just when you thought traditional TV was dying along comes a group of smart college kids to save the day, ripping up the rule book once again.

The culture of doing cool stuff that matters (a Google mantra we heard about yesterday) resonates strongly with me. It's infectious. You feel like you can change the world for the better out here.

It was also fascinating to hear a little about Google X - the top secret team behind the Google car, Google Glass and Google Loon.

Their mission is to solve a big problem with a radical solution and break through technology.

Designed to launch businesses not just come up with ideas they operate with a longer time line than most companies.

The Google car has been five years in the making and is probably five years from launch. The Google X team want to make money, they just don't know when. That's my kind of team.

So what have I seen and learnt this week?
Here are my top ten:

1. Digital watermarking could be game changing in retail. Watch this space. And that space. In fact just hold your phone up to just about anything in the future. Boom.

2. Want to find something in a store or in a museum or anywhere for that matter?  Analysing changes in the magnetic forces of the earth will help. Bit Star Trek that one.

3. Facebook is growing up. They appear to be maturing and have a real confidence in who they are and what they can deliver. Measurement and ROI are at the heart of how they now interact with advertisers. Custom and lookalike audiences are changing everything.

4. Twitter is about to explode (in a good way) with some really exciting developments up its sleeve. Sorry, not saying more than that in case I get in trouble. Coming soon though.

5. Cisco is far more innovative and leading edge than I'd ever assumed. They bent my mind yesterday in their innovation lab in San Jose. Goes to show the original tech firms are still in the game.

6. Toothpick ball run sculptures of San Francisco that took 37 years to build are cool. And meeting the inventor at the Exploratorium was super cool.

7. Baseball isn't boring. In fact it beats going to cricket or football. There you go I said it. Shoot me now and take away my passport.

8. Jake Bugg is really good for his age etc (damming praise) but not after drinking 12 beers and suffering from extreme jet lag.

9. The weather in San Francisco in October is perfect.

10. I absolutely love it out here but I miss my wife and kids and pet dog Max and am looking forward to getting home. I'm not looking forward to the ten hour flight in British Airways economy class. Every day low cost baby - it's the Asda way :)

The paradox of mediocrity

I come up with a lot of ideas. As I think of them I have a buzz of excitement. I immediately imagine fame and fortune as I visualise my idea taking the world by storm.

Then I remember I never know what to do next.

I came up with the idea of doing a silent disco at Glastonbury in 1995. I never got round to organising one.

My adult life is littered with flights of fancy like that. Flights that never leave the tarmac.

In the last year alone I've considered organising a music festival in Bradford called Bratford Rocks. I even bought the website url,  spoke to a local councillor and set up the Twitter account. That was the end of that one.

Then I thought the world needed separate fridges for all the half used jars and pickles that seem to take up too much space - hence www.condimentcooler.com. No need to tell you what happened to that one.

Next up was an app called The Morning After Chill Pill which was designed to tell you the morning after the night before all the places you'd been and for how long and who you'd been with. It would then give you the option of deleting any social media check ins or tagged photos of you to help wipe the memory. Brilliant that one. Kind of.

More recently I've wanted to launch a rival to eBay called Hear Their Every Ware.

Which reminds me I once had the thought of launching a Yorkshire version of eBay called E-Buy-Gum but someone already owned the url.

This morning I started thinking about what I'd do if my youngest daughter was bullied at school. She makes a groaning noise when she is concentrating you see. And kids can be cruel.

Then I remembered about how both Dynamo and Derren Brown had learned magic so they could trick their way out of it. Hence my creation of the School of Magic For Gifted Kids - with the strapline 'trick the bullies once and for all'.

You see in my head these are all strokes of genius.

Which reminds me I once wanted to have a fashion show in an underground station. The trains would arrive, the models would get off and walk along the platform then jump back on. Cue next train. Inspired. That was back in 2001 that idea.

I get a sense of excitement as I think of them both past and present.

I love thinking them up. But I am also mildly frustrated at my lack of will power to follow any of them up.

Talking of which last weekend I said I was going to write a book on that very topic for people like me who aren't completer finishers. It will be called The Incomplete Starter. Sums me up, as of course I then put the idea to bed.

Then someone said why don't I just write down all my ideas. That suggestion combined with a funny conversation with a chap called Gal led me to buying a five year subscription for www.mediocreideas.com. That's right. Five years.

Then I set up the Twitter account @MediocreIdeas.

And then this morning I went and volunteered to present 20 of them in quick succession at the next Bettakultcha event in Leeds on 26th September.

Of course the irony of creating something called Mediocre Ideas is that it is actually not a bad idea after all. Which is slightly disconcerting. I may need to close it down as a result.

Giving your boss what for (whilst drunk)

Last night I got drunk and sent my boss an email telling him what I really think of him.

I'd just got in from the pub (wife and kids are away) and my BlackBerry was filled to the brim with emails from him referencing all sorts of things from weeks ago, and in one case months ago, that he'd obviously only just read. And he'd chosen tonight of all nights to tell me.

Here was I, home alone, stupidly responding after a skinfull of ale.

Before you start to panic, don't worry my email was full of praise not abuse. 

Not in a sycophantic way. I am genuinely full of admiration at how he operates. I like him. A lot.

So I told him so.

I tried to choose my words carefully. But bearing in mind I couldn't focus very clearly on the screen what came out was as much luck as it was judgement.

As a nation we rarely tell people what we like about them to their face. Or at least not at work. Perhaps it's part of being British. Stiff upper lip and all that.

But loosened by one or two pints and a fairly empty stomach (I'm trying out the fasting diet at the moment), I dispensed of my usual inhibitions and told him how much I admire him.

Now it would be easy to cringe at this point and feel somewhat embarrassed on my behalf, but please don't. It's Ok.

My praise was well received.

So what is it I like about him so much that I felt the need to share?

Where do I start.

He has the ability to instil confidence in others.

His praise is warm and genuine.

He is enthusiastic and willing to take risks.

He is very centered. Calm and reassuring.

He is a connector.

He shares his knowledge openly and without an agenda.

He is smart and clearly ambitious but also he wants to harness talent in whatever shape or form he finds.

Quite frankly he's the kind of leader I yearn to be. I want to emulate him.

You'll be pleased to know I didn't say all of that via my rather tipsy email.

But boiling it down I wanted him to know I respect him.

He's a class act. Period (that means full stop in American btw).

Long may I continue to work for him and be inspired by him. 

N.B. Just in case any of my work colleagues are reading this, my 'boss' is not my line manager - although to be fair he shares many of the same attributes as above. 

Feeling all at sea

I'm sat here this morning gazing out to sea. The water is calm. Just gently lapping the shore. Two boats have left port and are making the hourly ferry crossing over to Scotland. The sun is breaking through the misty cloud cover on the horizon. Seagulls occasionally glide by the window. The tide is out. But soon enough it will turn towards us. 

The peace is broken by two little girls sat next to me, tablets in hand playing a dressing up game. Bleep, bleep, bleep.

Yesterday we took delivery of two devices that have already changed my daughters' lives. Dennis the Menace is now instantly available. In-built video cameras at the ready for impromptu film making. And trivia apps on hand to hone their crossword solving skills for the years ahead.

The on demand, constantly connected, generation is here. 

Don't worry I'm fully aware of the irony.

Here I am glued to my phone. Uploading pics to Instagram. Sharing some of those on Facebook and Twitter. Happily disturbed by an incoming email. Even resorting to checking Google+ when I'm really bored.

And blogging as and when I feel the need to while away an hour or so by delving into my inner thoughts.

So how should we balance the benefits of technology with the slippery slope of constant distraction?

I've read somewhere that some families have a technology hour. Not distinguishing between devices. Watch TV or surf the Web. Make a short film or play a game.

Rationing consumption in a vain attempt to hold back the tide. The tsunami of the digital age ready to gobble us all up and sweep us out into the ocean.

I feel all at sea to stretch the analogy a little further.

Perhaps it's the book I'm reading, The Paradox of Choice. Having lived through the eighties and nineties where we wanted more and more. Then through the noughties when we more or less got it all. And now in the 2011-2020 decade (what do we call it btw? The teenies?) we seem to be facing a real dilemma.

On the one hand less is becoming more. Curated choices out-trumping never ending options. The slow news movement fighting back against instant updates and citizen journalism.

Yet with everything available at the swipe of a smartphone, the natural equilibrium is still to resolve itself.

As the world hurtles towards another billion of its inhabitants going online I wonder what life will be like ten years from now.

A decade ago when we got married our wedding video was just that. A VHS video. The photos shot on film. 35mm negatives stored in a shoebox.

It seems almost incomprehensible now to think that the digital age is still so relatively young.

What will my 17 year old daughter reflect on in 2023. Will she remember her first ever tablet? God forbid if the screens by then are embedded in our eyes. The pages swiped by thoughts in our brains. Or will we settle back to a not too distant place near to where we are now?

Mobile phones spent years getting smaller only for them to increase in size.

The world has spent years speeding up only for it to need to slow down perhaps.

Or maybe I'm just showing my age. As I approach my 39th  birthday maybe I'm expressing the first signs of denial.

The tide has turned.

And no amount of wishing otherwise will halt its progress.

The waves are crashing towards me. As I close my eyes the sound is calming and comforting.

The gentle morning sun warming on my face.

And the girls have moved on. Devices abondoned. Now they are welly boot clad and are exploring the beach with wonder.

Maybe everything will work out just fine after all.

Oh to be old and wise

When you're young you're full of gusto and misplaced optimism. Everything is possible. Your imagination runs away with you not constrained by whatever has gone before. You're naive of course. But so what?

As you grow older, through bitter experience you learn to recognise the tell tale signs, you lower your expectations. The knock backs suffered previously, the misadventures, the failures all conspire to temper your enthusiasm.

But how do you prevent yourself falling over the edge into the abyss of cynicism?

We can all picture the cantankerous old git in the corner who can't wait to tell you it won't work. It can't be done. Been there tried that got the t-shirt. How do you stop yourself becoming that really annoying winge-bag?

My childhood sweetheart Aliy used to tease me that I'd be a perfect grumpy old man. Picture the Harry Enfield character: 'You don't want to do that'.

And my best mate Rich and I at Uni used to look forward to the day when we'd be sat with our blankets on our knees at the nursing home setting the world to rights. Telling people what we really think.

The holy grail of course is to achieve a sense of wisdom and to always demonstrate a touch of class.

The ability the keep your head when all about are losing theirs and blaming you.

Being able to trust yourself when others doubt you.

Still being able to dream the impossible but not letting your dreams blind your judgement.

And as you climb higher and higher up the ladder in life never losing your common touch.

Now, the wise amongst you (or the well read) will no doubt have noticed the unashamedly similarities of what I've just said to the classic Rudyard Kipling poem 'If'. Published in 1909 and inspired by the exploits of a British soldier in South Africa, Kippling captured the essence of class. Not as in upper, middle or lower. As in exuding class.

If you've not read it recently or have never had the pleasure I heartedly recommend it.

It forms the introduction to 'Make Yourself Unforgettable' which I'm reading at the moment.

For anyone hoping one day to be thought of as a class act there can be no better checklist to post on your office wall or keep to hand on your desk.

The reason all of this is so front of mind this morning is because my team and I have come up with a cracking idea.

It has all the right ingredients to be a roaring success. It is simple. Engaging. New. But built on a tried and tested concept.

Everyone so far who has heard about it thinks it is great. In fact tempering their enthusiasm is half the battle. But I'm also doing my best to remain calm.

I'm either sat on a gem that will fly and will grow a life of its own. Or the whole thing will unwind and be consigned to the depths of my memory. Only to surface again when someone else in the future suggests something similar and I resist the urge to say 'it will never work.'

Time will tell.