Mark Chadbourn's Blog: Jack of Ravens, page 17
October 14, 2016
Ideas And How To Get Them – A Hack
Good ideas are a writer’s currency. But they can be hard to come by in a torrent of deadlines and life stresses. Here I’ll tell you a simple hack that will get them when you need them.
I say ‘writer’s currency’ but good ideas are key to anybody who makes a living out of what’s inside their head – that can be music, art, games design, running a business, science and tech development, and more. These people are the future.
Why? Because within five to ten years nearly 50% of jobs are going to disappear as a result of the widespread disruption caused by technological advances. Most of those will be jobs where you turn up, get told what to do, and get paid.
The ones that will survive and thrive are the ones where ideation is at their core – the creation of new ideas, because, for the near-future, tech just isn’t very good at coming up with new ideas. So if you want to future-proof your life, as much as possible, or the lives of your kids, start finding a way to put your ideas at the heart of your earning. You’ll probably be significantly happier too.
As an aside, I wanted to share an observation from talking to TV producers and book editors. When anyone has an idea for a new work, they think it’s great, unique, because it’s surfaced for the first time in their head, often in a roundabout fashion, and no one else could possibly have had it. Then they get annoyed when outsiders aren’t impressed. Some get very angry indeed, and start raging about ‘gatekeepers’, and a conspiracy to keep them out of the marketplace. Don’t know why this conspiracy would ever exist. It’s often not best to start delving into other people’s psychology.
The truth is, your idea is probably not unique, no matter how it *feels*. It may not even be any good.
And usually, despite the no doubt excellent quality of the writing, it is nearly always about the idea.
The people who commission books and TV shows and films stand under a torrent of submitted works, sometimes hundreds a week, all of which are presumed to be unique by their creators. They’ve probably seen your great, novel idea five times that week alone, because – simply – we’re all swimming in the same cultural ocean and we soak up the same influences that cause ideas to grow.
Here’s the thing. If you’re ‘thinking’ about an idea, it’s probably not going to be unique. That’s because any idea of any value comes from the unconscious mind, that dark, shadowy place at the back of your head that you’re never allowed into. It filters, makes connections, shapes, develops, and produces something that is unique to you – the sum total of everything you are.
This is why you often have your best ideas when you’re in the shower, or exercising, or immersed in a film, when the conscious mind has slipped into low-level mode and the unconscious gets to shout just loud enough to be heard.
All the successful creative/business/scientific/techie people you see have found some way to access that fantastic store of ideas. I have a few myself.
But here’s that one particular hack. Before you go to sleep, perhaps for a few hours before, get your mind running on whatever you want to work on. Set your alarm to wake you in your deep sleep cycle, say around four hours later. You’ll have your solution, and probably four or five other workable ideas too, all bubbling up out of the unconscious stew.
Some you can quite happily toss out. But others may well be life-changing.
October 12, 2016
You Won’t Get That Here
So-called expert advice to bloggers says stick to one subject so readers always know what they’re getting.
Yeah. ^^ ^^
Here, expect #writing #science #weird #politics #tech #mythology #psychology #books #music #economics #thefuture #thepast #philosophy #films #folklore #TV #internationalrelations and a whole host of other things.
I’m less interested in writing this as a way to promote my work, than I am in using it to pursue intellectual curiosity. Because here, in the 21st century, I think we’ve finally reached the point where we accept that everything is connected, yes? Why write about one thing when it’s being affected significantly by matters off your narrow agenda?
Now I’ve delivered my latest MS to editor and agent, I’ll be updating this site regularly, perhaps every other day. Not everything will be to your taste, but hopefully a regular reader will often find something that raises questions, inspires or intrigues.
The basic theme, then, is: the inside of my head.
And feel free to give me your feedback in the comments, or suggest subjects that you’d like tackled. All modern media is a conversation, after all.
October 11, 2016
The Third World War Is Beginning In The Background
Away from the clown show that is Trump’s presidential bid, the ludicrousness of post-Brexit debate and the self-immolation of the Labour Party, an important event slipped by.
It wasn’t flashy – that’s the key for traction in modern media – but the US’ public accusation that Russia was trying to interfere in the coming election was unprecedented. In years past, the intelligence services would never have openly flagged up Russian involvement in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee servers to sow chaos and try to get a win for Trump, an ‘admirer’ of Putin. That they now feel forced to do so shows how much things have escalated.
The key to understanding Russia under Putin is not to see it as a country in the democratic tradition with which we’re all familiar. Imagine it more as that part of New Jersey ruled over by Tony Soprano and the mob. Thanks to Wikileaks, we know the US has long considered Russia a Mafia state, where the rule of law does not apply to people at the top. If you fail, or offend, or break the code, you’re more likely to get rubbed out Soprano-style than sacked.
This is the calculation Vladimir Putin continually has to make. He can’t be seen to fail. Nor can he be seen to back down. Both paths will result in defenestration with extreme prejudice. His invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine was designed to draw attention away from major economic failings. It only made things worse. Western sanctions hobbled the economy further. But he can’t pull out his backing for the Ukraine resistance to put things right. That would be failure.
The only way forward is something bigger, to distract attention from the economy *and* Ukraine. And so: Syria. Russia jumping with both feet into the barrel of dynamite that is the Syrian civil war was supposed to be a mark of prestige. They can still ‘get things done’, unlike the US. They’re not a failing power that can’t make anything the world needs – they have a sphere of influence. They talk, very loudly, people listen.
Russia came in on the side of the beleaguered President Assad, a long time ally, and took a stance in direct opposition to the West’s strategic aims. By saying one thing and doing another, it has disrupted the plans of the US and its allies. It’s behind the bombing of aid convoys, most western intelligence services believe, and now it’s about to move in a battery of S300 air defence missiles, which could cause carnage when the skies are thick with US planes.
There is no plan, only the illusion of a plan for the consumption of his domestic critics. Look over here! No, look over there! Ukraine! Syria! The US elections! Misdirection as a strategy is not sustainable. The only way Putin can maintain his position – and perhaps even his life – is escalation, each newer, bigger outrage wiping out memories of the last failure.
But like the noise made by a mouthy drunk in a bar, there’s a point where everyone decides they’re not going to sit back and take it any more. NATO has to step up or lose the potency it needs to keep Russia contained. What will trigger a confrontation? A Russian attack on Estonia and the Baltic States? A ‘skirmish’ on the Polish border?
US-Russia relations are worse than at any time since the Cold War, and some analysts believe that this is absolutely the start of Cold War mk II. But that concept of a frozen conflict only works if both sides make rational, strategic calculations. If it’s personal, if one of the players only wants to keep his job/head on his neck, than no other outcome matters, even if it’s destruction on a grand scale.
Now: who do you want in the White House?
September 28, 2016
Apple’s Big London Move Might Be Bigger Than You Think
Today Apple announced it will be moving into the high-status new development at the iconic Battersea Power Station on the banks of the Thames in South London. The plan is to set up a new UK ‘campus’ to echo the doughnut-shaped ‘spaceship campus’ the company is currently constructing in Cupertino, Ca, as a global headquarters.
The half-a-million square foot lease is one of the largest office deals in central London in two decades, and it’s a good fit – the power station matches Apple’s design aesthetic and it has a strong music link.
Apple will be bringing together all its 1400 non-retail London employees at the site – mainly human resources and other corporate – but it will have plenty of space to expand, at least to another 1600 staff members.
And the UK has a new government Budget in November, one that in the strained atmosphere post-Brexit has taken on added significance.
One of the issues the chancellor Philip Hammond will be attempting to tackle is how to stop a flood of big, global companies leaving the UK now that their access to the European market has been severely curtailed, with the clear damage to UK tax revenues and employment that would follow such an exodus.
One mooted plan is to lower Corporation Tax – already one of the lowest in the world – by another 5%, and then to take it even lower. The effect on the bottom line of those big corporations will likely off-set any Brexit pain they’re feeling.
Apple has had plenty of tax-related problems in recent weeks – the European Commission ruled last month that the company has to cough up $14.5 billion in “illegal tax benefits”, which Apple is appealing – and its enthusiasm for the EU is fading fast. CEO Tim Cook said, “The most profound and harmful effect of this ruling will be on investment and job creation in Europe.”
Apple’s European headquarters are currently in Ireland where it employees 5,500 people. It has said those jobs are safe, for now, but the new UK campus won’t be open till 2020, and with a new corporate tax regime in place and a business-friendly government in power, the establishment of Apple East in London looks a good bet. Apple wins on every front – it gets to stick two fingers up to the EU, which on many fronts has not been tech-friendly, and it can clean up its brand by paying the tax it owes, to the UK, and not to the EU. The UK benefits significantly, in higher tax receipts, in jobs, and in the gold-rush of tech firms who will follow the lead of a massive name like Apple. The lower corporate tax rate will more than pay for itself.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has already welcomed Apple’s vote of confidence in the city. Today he said: “I’m delighted Apple is moving into Battersea Power Station, helping to generate new jobs and economic prosperity for London. It is a further sign London is open to the world’s biggest brands and the leading city for trade and investment.”
It’s no secret that the Mayor and the government have been involved in a host of back-channel negotiations to attract companies like Apple and stave off any post-Brexit economic nightmare. But a move by Apple to London would also fit with this government’s driving policy to build a global technology hub in the capital (and along a corridor running up to Cambridge). The chancellor said today that this move “demonstrates how the UK is at the forefront of the next steps in the tech revolution.”
#Apple
June 30, 2016
Politics, Events And The Writer’s Nightmare
The EU Referendum seems to have unleashed some kind of collective madness in the UK.
I’ve been planning to write about the fallout for a few days. But every time I sit down, the situation changes. By the day, by the hour, sometimes even every five minutes.
Leave voters’ buyers remorse. Will-they-won’t-they trigger Article 50 and start the uncoupling process. The devastating racist attacks on communities across the UK. The implosion of the Labour Party. The Conservative leadership campaign. Michael Gove’s Shakespearean act of treachery. Boris Johnson’s subsequent decision not to stand as leader, the thing he’s been working towards all his life and which he blew up the country to achieve. Lib Dem leader Tim Farron’s hint that a new centrist party could be formed with Labour moderates.
There doesn’t seem to be an end to it.
No point putting finger to keyboard and then it all being obsolete the second I press publish.
This may well be one of Malcolm Gladwell’s tipping points – everything always stays the same until the moment everything changes. We’ve seen it happen in business and international affairs and the media. It’s all part of that 21st Century disruption.
This is a headache if you’re writing fiction. You want your work to resonate with the world around you. But the book publishing schedule – or the TV production schedule – entails a year, sometimes two, between writing and publication. When the world is as it is at the moment, the chances are some of what you do is already out of date by the time the book hits the shelves. That diminishes its power.
My colleagues writing SF have been wrestling with the rapid changes in technology for a while (and my US editor remarked that one of my books was three waves of tech out of date between UK publication and US). But I certainly wouldn’t like to be a commenter for the news print media.
*rips up fifth column of the day*
It’s exhausting. I want a break. I want all of us to start moving forward again instead of thrashing around in the whirlpool.
Maybe tomorrow.
June 25, 2016
The EU Referendum – Why This Will Run And Run, And Rightly So.
People on social media are saying the referendum is over. The public has spoken, Leave has won and now it’s time for all of us to pull together. It’s mainly Leave people making the argument. Of course they want to move on.
And the answer to them is: of course not. Are you mad?
The decision to go into Europe was decided by a referendum a long time ago. The Conservative Eurosceptics fought a decades-long rearguard action to over-turn the public vote.
If you are a Conservative voter and a Labour government is elected which promises to nationalise the banks, tax until the pips squeak, cancel Trident and pull the UK out of NATO, on day two do you say: we’ve had the vote, the public has decided, we all need to pull together and get behind this.
If you are a Labour voter and a Conservative government is elected promising to throw out all the EU employment laws, the environmental protection, the equality laws, do you say: we’ve had the vote, the public has decided, we all need to pull together and get behind this.
Again: are you mad?
This is how democracy works. This is what happens when you don’t live in a dictatorship. It’s messy. Decisions are made, and debated, and fought against, and there is never, ever a settled view.
And if you are aware of the long history of referenda, you will know that none of the arguments ever end – one of the big reasons why this way of reaching a decision is not optimal.
The boil is never lanced. Voices are never stilled.
Instead, wounds are opened up and they continue to fester for a long, long time. This is what happened in Scotland. This is what always happens.
The best thing that the victorious can do in this instance is shut up and enjoy their moment instead of trying to shut down the dissenting voices.
This argument will run and run. And quite rightly so.
June 16, 2016
The Murder of Jo Cox MP
I don’t like the world we’re in now. I’m sick of the confrontational political discourse. I’m disgusted with both sides making out that it’s disaster if you don’t agree with them. There are people out there who are tinder-dry and only need the faintest spark to set them ablaze. This isn’t confined to the UK. I want better leaders. I want better politicians. And right now, I really, really want them to shut up.
April 12, 2016
March 24, 2016
Me On AppleNews
If you have an IOS device, you can now get updates from this site on AppleNews – all beautifully formatted with gleaming images. None of that old-fashioned going to a website stuff or creaking RSS.
Go into AppleNews on your phone or tablet, search for my name, click the + sign to add my channel and you’ll get everything I write seconds after it appears here.
The only thing that could be better is if I hand-delivered it to your door.
March 15, 2016
The Universe Is Us, And We Are The Universe
Fascinating work being done by Sir Roger Penrose and Professor Stuart Hameroff which suggests the brain is constantly linked on the quantum level to fluctuations in the very structure of the universe and reacts accordingly. Instead of the brain being a computational device, it’s actually more like an orchestra making music from all the information the universe sends us. I find that a vey elegant metaphor that makes more sense of what’s going on in my head than saying it’s just a pink jelly PC.
We are the universe and the universe is us, all information passing back and forth. The Buddhists were right.
You can find more at Hameroff’s Quantum Consciousness website.
Jack of Ravens
- Mark Chadbourn's profile
- 216 followers
