Image from Charm Magazine
When was the last time you did something truly creative? How did it feel?
Whichever profession you are in, you will experience days of creative famine. These are the horrifying days when you feel stuck in a rut, unable to cough out anything faintly imaginative or intriguing.
Michael Jordan: a proponent of Extreme Focus (source of image)
How does one truly achieve one’s dreams? What are the secrets behind ultra-successful folks who make a “dent in the Universe”?
The answer according to NBA Orlando Magic’s Senior Vice President Pat Williams and author Jim Denney is “Extreme Focus”.
While borrowing a book recently at the Central Public Library (basement of the National Library), I came across this neat display tying in the bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire book series by author George R.R. Martin with the acclaimed HBO TV series Game of Thrones. Its nice to see our libraries transforming into experience rich learning zones with elements of Transmedia Storytelling to promote reading and literacy.
While dovetailing with a popular TV series is a good way to drive adult reading interests, incorporating a gaming challenge helps to pique the interest of kids or tweens. Here, the library has created a B.C.A. (Books Come Alive!) Sleuth Academy where “young detectives” are tasked to solve “mysteries” and uncover clues in their local community library.
Malcolm Gladwell has an uncanny talent. Like a detective, he weaves compelling yarns, spinning together sources of information from psychologists, food testers, doctors, animal trainers, criminologists, and other experts to challenge common notions.
With journalistic brilliance honed by his years in the New Yorker, Gladwell proffered radical answers to challenge age-old notions in his latest bestselling volume What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures. A compilation of 19 essays on a wide range of topics – espionage, war, hair colour, kitchen appliances, homelessness and more – the volume blended pop psychology, sociology, management and current affairs in a highly readable prose.
Following the tip-off of a friend, my family and I visited the wonderful MPH Warehouse sale at Singapore Expo and hauled back about 40 titles. Admittedly, most of the books were for my son as well as gifts.
I picked up a total of five titles covering digital culture, grassroots/evangelistic marketing, socio-psycho trends, social media marketing, and related topics. Beyond Buzz is actually a loaned copy from the wonderful National Library of Singapore’s public libraries.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I will spend more time reading and less time surfing…. Yeah right!
Here are six reasons why you should get a copy of the above book “Horse-powered & Man-powered Transport: a philatelic excursion”:
1) It is authored by three dear friends of mine, namely Victor, Wee Kiat and Noel. I hear that it is Victor’s maiden effort.
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel (courtesy of JD Lasica)
Want to know how blogging is impacting the world of business? Keen to find know all about the secrets of blogging success while learning about its possible drawbacks?
Well, do check out Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel.
With the democratization and increasing portability of information, people’s attention span and capacity for reading has dimished at an astonishing rate. I must admit that I am one of those who suffer from this affliction.
In the past, we used to be able to plough through thick tomes of knowledge, fantasy, religion and whatever else captures our fancy. I could dawdle for hours and hours in libraries, picking up one book after another and devouring it with relish. I especially loved reading encyclopedias, and occasionally, I could read from cover to cover.
Not any more it seems. With the lure of easy information on the web, and the quick availability of bite-sized information on blogs, book summaries, wikipedia, and the like, I have become a scanner rather than a delver. Information now gets delivered to my cranium in small, often miniscule bite-sized pieces, instead of elaborate and complex frameworks.
I believe that I am not alone in this. Many have remarked that youths and teens nowadays tend to multi-task and acquire information from varied sources rather than a singular one. They do not have the stamina or patience to sit in one spot and read line after line. Short cuts, acronyms and abbreviated words seem to be the order of the day.