Dan Pink on Motivation

This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.

98% Of Babies Manic-Depressive

Latest news from the Onion...

NEW YORK—A new study published in The Journal Of Pediatric Medicine found that a shocking 98 percent of all infants suffer from bipolar disorder. "The majority of our subjects, regardless of size, sex, or race, exhibited extreme mood swings, often crying one minute and then giggling playfully the next," the study's author Dr. Steven Gregory told reporters. "Additionally we found that most babies had trouble concentrating during the day, often struggled to sleep at night, and could not be counted on to take care of themselves—all classic symptoms of manic depression." Gregory added that nearly 100 percent of infants appear to suffer from the poor motor skills and impaired speech associated with Parkinson's disease.

King of Kong - Video game documentary

Tonight I'll be going to Doc Lounge to have a beer and watch King of Kong.

shame & scandal in the family

The Food Chain

For you dads

For Pär, K-A, Zoran, Johan G, Hansa, Johan L, Kristofer O, Arvid, Jonas A, Tommy all you dads out there.
You rock.

...computers. I'm gonna get those bastards

Life, self organization and feedback

I am currently exploring the field of feedback. What it is and how it is done in a good way. Along the way I have met with a large number of definitions and method discussions.

First I was a bit bored with all the technical descriptions of feedback such as this one:



In writing it would be expressed like this:

Feedback is a process whereby some proportion of the output signal of a system is passed (fed back) to the input. This is often used to control the dynamic behavior of the system. Examples of feedback can be found in most complex systems, such as engineering, architecture, economics, thermodynamics, and biology.

A really interesting discovery is that feedback in engineering (such as a video feedback loop)renders fractal patterns very similar to fractal patterns in biology.

Feedback is at the core of all dynamic systems, that is systems that can deal with both change and growth. I have been very inspired by the work of Margaret Wheatley and her study of life and living systems as an ideal for how people can organize.

I have not been able to express the link between life and feedback but when I saw the fractal patterns on the videos that were generated through feedback loops, and recognized them from the fractals in nature (and Meg Wheatleys books)I felt I was on to something. Eventually, after reading a bunch of wikipedia entries I found a cybernetic definition of life focusing on feedback.

A definition of life (a living individual) in cybernetic terms is proposed. In this formulation, life (a living individual) is defined as a network of inferior negative feedbacks (regulatory mechanisms) subordinated to (being at service of) a superior positive feedback (potential of expansion).

and eventually I was spot on...

Leary argues that feedback (i.e., self-reference) in cybernetic organization leads to "fractal forms." What is a fractal form? The term "fractal" (coined by chaos mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot) is used to describe "a shape whose details resemble the whole thing.

This link between Life, living systems, self organization and feedback is a great discovery for me which I intend to explore further.

Meez Me

I'm at the Cision office and felt a bit bored before I logged on to meez. Totaly hooked on the small puzzle games on the site and decided to make myself an avatar.

Here I am.

Dr Dragan Dabic by Banksy

Dr. Dabic eats locally produced organic, unprocessed natural food. He loves brown rice, legumes, almonds, walnuts, raisins, dried figs and water. He takes brisk two-hour daily walks in the city's parks, or in nature. /www.dragandabic.com

...

Boredom & diversity

I'm bored today. Heidi called me but after just a few minutes she told me that I was too bored she would have to hang up. She was getting bored from talking to me.

Here is a film about diversity.

Soooo funny.

Getting Things Done

I've been doing the documentation for a producer and project management course that my friend Samuel is hosting. Last weekend Mattias Schain facilitated a workshop based on Getting Things Done. We started playing around with the camera and in this video he shows how to organize a workspace.


Find more videos like this on Fanzingo forum

Domino Danceing - All falls down

Missing school

Riding in the car with a friend we had a long chat about what it's been like since graduation. And to be honest, it's been really weird, and more so the last few weeks. It is now September and I am fuckin' restless... One day totally hyperactive, the next I can't even get my ass out of bed.

But it's not that weird. I am going through a huge change. For the last 22 years these weeks, at the end of August, have been the time to start school... SINCE PRIMARY SCHOOL, through high-shcool, Awatapu College, military, university and last but not least the KaosPilots.

So no wonder I feel like buying books and getting a new school bag. That's what I've been doing at this time of year since I was seven! Well, I won't rant about what that means to me but instead share a part of what a good friend wrote in the first e-mail she wrote me since she started Team 14 at the KaosPilots. (In swedish, sorry..)

"...tänkte avsluta med att berätta om gårdagens stora välkomstfest som anordnades av team 13. Fan det var det roligast arrangemang jag settpå länge. Dom tar in vårt team i ett rum när vi så sakteliga närmar oss skolan. Vi får en massa champange och huttar whiskey. Sedan ropar dom upp oss en och en att vi ska gå genom en dörr, helt ovetandes går jag in, blir krigsmålad med rosa kroppsfärg och pyntad med stora blommor i håret. Sedan går jag fram till ett draperi där jag får förklarat för mig att jag måste krypa i slutet av tunneln… well tänkte jag, så jag började krypa, and little did I know, jag kommer fram i ett litet hål där står två personer från team 13 i vita rockar och drar fram mig. När jag kommer ut där står alla på skolan och skriker och tjoar, det var energi till taket i rummet och jag blir presenterad. Jag går sedan bort till mitt team och upptäcker att vi blir alla framdragna i en gigantisk vagina, jepp dom förlöste oss. Jag skrattade så jag höll på att dö när jag såg allas miner. Fan vi såg så överraskade ut när vi kröp fram i tunneln. Helt oslagbart! Sedan dansade jag mig svettig och lycklig i fyra timmar…"

That's what I want this time of year!

I can't believe my friends from school actually had the new students comming out of a huge vagina. Team 13 - You guys rock!

It makes me happy, proud and absolutely convinced that I will need to return to our fantastic backyard in Aarhus soon... :)

Graduation: Check! --> Norway here I come!

After handing in a not-quite-finnished written presentation after the deadline I was far from sure that I would actually pass.... Sure there were good things about the report... like the cool frontpage logo that Abbas made and some chapters were cool, but I had a strong feeling that it didn't really make sense to some one who knew nothing about the project.

I was tired as shit when I returned to Aarhus and I had to search deep inside to find the last bit of energy that could push me over the finishing line - presenting the project to a three-person panel consisting of Paul Natorp (The teacher who has followed my project and head of studies at the KaosPilots), Nanna (Knows the KaosPilot stuff) and Karen Thomsen (Executive producer at Nordisk Film the biggest production company in Scandinavia)

(Thank you/jo for the picture..)

I found the energy, and I made a great presentation. The prototype of the strategy tool I had developed turned out really nice (the colorful stuff on the right) and I had models and stuff covering the whole wall behind me which worked really well. I presented freely without any written stuff in my hands. And listened carefully to the questions before answering.

Half way through the Q&A-session I started to feel I had done well. The questions showed that they had understood everything and that they were convinced about the quality of my work. So, I started relaxing. Relaxing from a month of really hard preassure. I had worked all the way through the night before the presentation and I suppose my eyes were in need of some lubrication... So when i got a question about what I was proud of... well, I started crying. Sobbing I managed to say: - That I didn't give up. I started laughing at my own crying and my three censors offered me water which I accepted.

After my presentation and the questions I sat down out on the terrace with some of my team mates. Paul, Nanna and Karen seemed to have a lot to discuss because it took them an hour and a half to write the feed-back and decide on a grade. I got a 10 on the wierd Danish 13-scale (where 13 represents "reinventing the field", 12 does not exist and there are five levels of failing). So, ten is good, and considering that I thought I'd flunk only a few weeks earlier it is really great.

After giving me the grade I got a question that really surprised me: - What happened to Chelsea? I told them that she is coming to Stockholm in August. Before leaving Karen Thomsen gave me her card and said: - Have a great summer holiday and call me when you are back at work.

Wednesday I am doing a workshop about Interactivity and Public Journalism at NRK in Oslo.

Nike

For the past year I have been following one of my good KP-friends from a distance. Nike decided to go to Kenya after her KaosPilot graduation and has been working with Masai. My team-mate Emil has just been there with her for four months developing a business education programme for people without business experience. Here is a short film about Nike and her life in Kenya.

Ika i rutan

Summary in English:
Today I was reminded about a really wierd Swedish Childrens show. This episode is about being bad.

Vaknade och slog på musik på Linus dator. På skärmen var ett Wikipediafönster om Ika i rutan. Uppenbarligen är det minst en person mer än jag som kommer ihåg Ika Nord och hennes tv-program.

Och det fanns länkar till klipp!




Skönt att veta att hon följt med in i Youtube-eran.

Second Breakfast

Some one once asked me what my favourite meal in the day was.

That time I wasn't sure.

To tell you the truth I gave up after intense inner monlogue debating (good) breakfast v.s. (good) brunch.

This morning I invented a new competitor.

Second Breakfast.

I think it's a winner.