There was an interesting item on Campbell Live tonight about Small Poppies - an Auckland preschool for gifted children. [If you missed it, you can watch the video]

As a young, proud father, I couldn’t help but wonder whether my son might be a small poppy too. He can’t quite string sentences together yet, but I almost swore he said ’stegosaurus’ or something similar the other day

Later on I jumped online to find out more about the preschool, what it means to be gifted, and how you can tell if your child is gifted or not.

That’s when I discovered this table:

Source: Small Poppies, © Janice Szabos

I think the subtle differences between ‘bright’ and ‘gifted’ are are fascinating, and wonder how much of the difference can be put down to innate capability vs. stimulating and encouraging environment - that is, Mum and Dad (and others) interacting with their child in a way that stimulates or encourages the attributes in the right-hand column.

I reckon there’s a lot to be said for the latter.

Update, 24 Sep 2008 - Speaking of children and learning, this post on “How Children Learn” over at BoingBoing is worth a read. I liked this quote: “The only good reason for playing games with babies is because we love them.” I think I might order the two books the post refers to.

One interesting outcome of today’s team meeting was a consensus that ‘The Librarian’ was an appropriate nickname for me. It seems my frequent reference to blog posts, news items, and books has made an impression on my colleagues. But I’m quietly hoping that it’ll do more than just earn me a nickname; I hope to encourage a better, smarter practice of media consumption and knowledge seeking.

Here’s why.

We are all time-poor; we never seem to have enough time to spend doing the things we want - or need - to do. As a result, we constantly strive for bigger returns from smaller investments of time and energy.

When it comes to media, we’ve never had more access to it, and more choice, that any other time in history. For most of us, the unfortunate consequence of this is that more and more of our precious time seems to be required just to stay afloat - let alone be in a position to surf and conquer the knowledge wave.

Fortunately, there’s a solution that doesn’t involve caving in, and becoming the metaphorical caveman.

It’s called the bit-literate media diet. And you can read all about it - and several other life-changing ways to improve productivity in the digital age - in a book called Bit Literacy by Mark Hurst. I can’t recommend it enough - seriously, go and order a copy now. 

Essentially, the approach involves creating and maintaining an active portfolio of publications (digital, print and other media) that keeps you informed about what matters most to you - both professionally and personally. Once critical aspect of the approach - and one I pointed out to the colleague who asked if I could just send out daily tidbits to the team - is that creating your media diet is up to you; it’s based on what is important to you, not any other person, publisher or company.

Another critical aspect is aiming to keep the portfolio as small as possible - relying on only a few sources, and spending as little time as possible, in order to be fully informed.

In the spirit of encouraging bit literacy, and to reveal a little bit of the ‘magic’ behind my librarianship, here are the highlights of my current portfolio:

• Daring Fireball
• Seth’s Blog
• 3 News
• Campbell Live
• Time Magazine
• Monocle (print and online)
• Sunday Star Times
• 60 Minutes
• Sunday
• Konigi
• Adaptive Path Blog

My current feed-reader of choice is Google Reader. I’ve currently got 79 subscriptions, and according to its stats I’ve ‘read’ 2,131 items over the last 30 days. I put ‘read’ in inverted commas because I actually skim through most of the items, stopping only to read the most interesting (or eye-catching?) ones.

I’d also be lost without MySky - which allows me to record all of the TV programmes above so I never miss them, and can watch them at a time that suits.

Care to share what you’re eating?

I have a 1st degree black belt in ITF Taekwon-Do, and occasionally get asked whether I’ve ever had to use it in real life. The answer is: everyday - but not in the sense that most people think.

So far - touch wood - I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve had to defend myself in a ‘real life’ situation (i.e. outside the dojang) using the physical techniques (punching, kicking etc.) I’ve learned.

I hope that remains the case.

But the true practice of Taekwon-Do requires students to embrace its philosophy, and observe its five fundamental tenets*:

• Courtesy - Showing courtesy to all, respecting others, having manners as well as maintaining the appropriate etiquette at all times, both within and outside the dojang (designated training area). 
• Integrity - Although may be similar, this form of integrity takes on a more wider role then defined in the common dictionary. In Taekwon-Do, integrity means not only to determine what is right or wrong but also having the conscience to feel guilt if one has done wrong and to have the integrity stand up for what is right. 
• Perseverance - One will persevere time and time again until they have achieved a result which is adequate towards what one was trying to achieve.
• Self-control - This means to not only have control over one physical acts but also their mental thoughts and actions.
• Indomitable spirit - To have indomitable spirit means to have the courage to stand up for what you believe in, no matter what odds you are up against and to always give 100% effort in whatever you do.

Every day, I try to observe these tenets, be a champion of freedom and justice, and do what I can to build a more peaceful world. In this sense, I practice Taekwon-Do every day.

The next question I’m usually asked after “have you ever used it?” is “why do you do it?”

This week has been particularly testing; there were a couple of work-related events that pushed me to the limits of my discipline. But I’m confident I did the right things, and that all will be resolved in the coming days and weeks.

Outcomes like this - and the resulting sense of satisfaction - is my answer to that second question.

* Descriptions from Wikipedia

Viewed two great presentations today.

Firstly, a fantastic presentation by Alan Cooper called “The Wisdom of Experience“. It clarifies his position on Agile programming, and the (still vital!) role of interaction designers. There are some excellent points about managing software projects, pitfalls etc. as well.

Next, an interesting presentation by Alex Osterwalder on “Business Model Innovation”. In it he provides some good examples of companies who have been particularly successful at redefining their business models, and then goes on to provide a method/tool (the “Business Model Canvas”) that can be used to help companies do this.

If you pay close attention to both presentations, you’ll see that both feature a smartly-dressed guy that Alex refers to as “Eric”. I’m guessing this may not be his real name, but based on today’s experience I’m starting to think he shows up in all the good presentations . .

UPDATE - 2/9/09 - After a few emails back and forth, my supplier asked me to return the unit and subsequently discovered a hardware fault. They sent me a new unit immediately, and it worked perfectly. In fact, it is currently vying with my iPhone for the illustrious title of “Hayden’s Gadget of the Year: 2008″. More on that later. I still think the software bundling idea I mention below is a good one.

- - -

My new scanner arrived yesterday; a Fujitsu ScanSnap that I bought to help me realise the paper-less home office dream.

I eagerly unpacked it, installed the software, plugged it in, put some documents in the feeder, hit the ’scan’ button, then . . received an error message stating that the scan had been unsuccessful, and suggesting my system was unstable and needed to be rebooted. 

To cut a long story short, I spent several hours trying to fix the problem. I tried every troubleshooting idea I can think of: different versions of Adobe Acrobat; installing latest scanner driver and management software; different computer etc.

But none of these worked, so I’ve given up and want to return the scanner. I’m waiting to hear from the supplier about this.

I suspect that the cause of the problem is most likely to be that the scanner management software is not compatible with the operating system version I’m using. Either that, or the version of Adobe Acrobat.

All of which makes me wonder: surely, there’s a better way to manage a product’s shelf life?

Here’s how I think it should be done:

• Products are packaged in such a way that the bundled software can easily be removed/replaced by the supplier/seller
• The manufacturer keeps a close eye on developments/events such as the release of a new operating system version, and alerts the supplier/seller immediately if any of the bundled software will no longer be appropriate*
• The supplier/seller removes the bundled software and stops selling and/or shipping products until the manufacturer supplies a new software bundle

I believe that if my supplier had adopted this system for managing shelf life, my experience with this scanner would have been entirely different - and considerably better.

* This includes ‘compatible’ but is not just that; for example, Adobe Acrobat 7 is ‘compatible’ with my operating system, but is now very out-of-date - Adobe Acrobat 8 was released in November 2006, and Adobe Acrobat 9 was released in July 2008.

. . patience for the hundred revisions you’ll need to do

This was the ‘Amen’ moment for me.

Better is best pursued by taking small, constant steps - not giant leaps.

Another great post from the oracle with the bald head.