Rothacker Reviews

Hunch

Hunch by Bernadette Jiwa

Do you look at an object or device and wonder, "how might this work better?"  or,  "Is there a better way?"

Do you go to the post office, spend 15 minutes trying to figure out what priority mail is and the difference between it and other services and then stand in line for another 20 minutes only to find out you filled out the wrong forms? On a side note, I just visited the USPS home page and there isn't one mention of priority mail. 

While ordering at a fast food restaurant you notice a sign that says, "order it your way." So you make three changes to a standard order. The order taker tells you to wait over there. After 10 minutes the restaurant receives the phone call that you've been dreading. Your change in the order caused the corporate computers to crash. And now everyone is looking at you.

Bernadette Jiwa calls all of the above opportunities - "...problems begging for a solution - ideas that give consideration to the context in which they will become meaningful."

Bob says, "Hey that post office is a mind-numbing disaster, if they were to do this and that..." The post office debacle is an opportunity and Bob's suggestion to do this and that is a hunch. According to Bernadette a hunch is

A combination of insight and foresight, brought about by understanding what is and questioning what could be. It can feel like a snap judgement or a sudden spark of inspiration, but it's informed by our expertise, past experiences and the practice of noticing patterns and anomalies in the world around us.

In Hunch Bernadette teaches us to be observant for opportunities, define the problem and take it through a creative process to "invent, create and serve." 

In Part Three of the book Bernadette, using case studies and guided exercises, breaks down three of the major forces coursing through Hunch. Curiosity, Empathy and Imagination. We learn how people like Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, go from hunch to successful product or service (in Sara's case insane success!). Bernadette begins the guided exercises with a prompt - what's the problem you observe? Then comes action - placing physicality to research, questions and notes. Finally there's insight - guided questions and exercises to gain the most from the prompts and action.

While Hunch is laced with design thinking, Ms. Jiwa never specifically mentions it. It's one of the things I most appreciate about the book.

Grab your camera, notebook and Hunch and venture out into a world of possibility that's waiting just for you!

What To Do When It's Your Turn - Quick Glance

What To Do When It's Your Turn by Seth Godin.

Seth calls it horizontal publishing and asks the question, "How do we get books into the hands of people who want to read them?"

Seth sent an e-mail to his core readers in October. He asks us to buy multiple copies of the book and to pass them out to others. This is horizontal distribution as opposed to the, I scribe my important message (commandment) into this tablet and pass it down to the minions who grumble at my feet hoping to pluck a crumb of my offerings.

What To Do When It's Your Turn seemingly brings design into Seth's public world. It's a book written to those who want to help others change. It's wonderfully illustrated with rich pictures, art and graphic design. For those of you who love the feel, not to mention the smell of luxurious paper stock, this book does not disappoint. 

Over the last year or so I've been experimenting with how I read and learn from books. I'll talk more about that in the future but for now I will say that Seth's book offers an inviting canvass upon which to write. The tactility of this engagement amplifies learning while producing delight.

Like to comment about Seth and or his book? Head over to my Google+ page now.

Field Notes vs. Moleskines

Field Notes or Moleskines?

No.

Field Notes and Moleskines!

I wrote about Field Notes here. My connection with Field Notes starts with Aaron Draplin. As I explained, it was how Aaron made me feel about Field Notes that provided the spark for my fire. 

I jumped on the Moleskine train in 2005. The buzz in my then online communities (authors, management / leadership / marketing) made the notebook impossible to resist. Truth be told, I have always been a notebook junkie so it didn't take much. 

The day my first Moleskine arrived in the mail was the day I cut the link between Moleskine and Hipsters.

To me, then, Hipsters were folks who lavished over Seth Godin and many of the top fifty or so online marketing websites. It was like they'd link to Seth to show the other Hipsters that they were cool. They'd also write stuff about marketing and their readers fed upon their words like a school of pirana feeding upon cow intestines. Actually I think it was more of a Kool-Aid thing than a cow intestine thing.

As the immature idiot I was at the time, I quit writing stuff about Seth. While he's one of my most favorite all time authors ever, and although I have this tendency to rant about people I dig, I could not associate myself with the Hipsters. In retrospect, most, no check that, all of the Hipsters were way more talented than myself and any dribble from me would have been a grain of sand in the desert worth of distinction...Dave belly laughs here!

The Moleskine notebook stood on its own. I did not need Hipster validation. I loved them! As with Aaron, one spark for me was the company's brand story of its connection as a successor to the legendary notebooks used by yesteryear's rockstar artists like Vincent van Gogh. While the notebooks are not the same ones used by the previous two centuries worth of artists, the story mesmerized me. That alone however, would not be enough. Plain and simple, it's the way my pen feels in my hands as I write in the Moleskine that seals the deal. It. Just. Feels. Good. So, brand story plus tactility keeps me buying Moleskines.

In the past I used two Pocket-sized, (3.5 X 5.5 inch) hardcovered Moleskines in the field. The Classic Notebook and the Classic Reporter's Notebook. At my writing desk I use the Cover Art Journal and the Large-sized (5 X 8.25 inch) Classic Notebook, both for journaling.

I devoted a couple of Pocket Reporter Notebooks to grocery shopping over the past few years. Both basically fell apart. That crack in the Moleskine
armor led me to start using the Field Note memo book for grocery store duties. So far so good.

To me, notebook usage is an evolving phenomena. I began to use a Quiver pen holder with my Pocket Moleskine Classic and it enriches the experience. Still, I love the Field Notes memo book. So I will continue to use them as well.

One more thing about the Field Notes memo book: It inspires me to get out of the house and go record stuff. 

I recently subscribed to the Field Notes seasonal edition release. When that first batch of Field Notes memo books hit my door I looked at them and thought, "Now you really got to get your butt out in the field and take notes!" 

Feel like saying something? Head over to my Google + page and fire away.

T.S. Spivet, Field Notes and Notebooking

Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet is a twelve-year old boy genius. He is a cartographer. He also dabbles in zoology, geology and entomology. T.S. as he is called, lives on a Montana ranch with his father Tecumseh Elijah, who is a rancher, his mother Dr. Clair, who is a coleopterist and Gracie, his sixteen-year old normal, average teenage sister. Verywell the dog rounds out the family. 

I first wrote about T.S. here at Rothacker Reviews a couple of years ago. Reif Larsen's The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet parallels Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as one of my most favorite works of fiction.

T.S. uses notebooks like Babe Ruth used baseball bats. Not only does T.S. map out territories he also maps novels, the flight of bats and how his father drinks whiskey. His extensive notebooking reminds one of Leonardo da Vinci with one exception: T.S. is more organized.

Page 3 of The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. Here T.S. shows us a map of where he lives, a diagram of his bedroom noting where he stores his notebooks and one of a sparrow's skeleton. He also explains his notebooking system.

Field Notes is a brand. Field notes is also a way of documenting stuff in the wild. My thoughts on both here. 

The most famous and popular part of the Field Notes brand is the 3-1/2" X 5-1/2" memo book. Although author Reif Larson has his own thoughts on how T.S. 'notebooks,' I envision the lad using the Field Notes memo books while out in the field. Then when he gets back home to his drafting table, he transcribes and expands upon his thoughts in the appropriate notebook from one of his three collections.

To me, T.S. Spivet is pure imagination. Like a brand, T.S. his approach to the world and his adventures make me feel a certain way: inspired to do stuff.

While T.S. is make believe, Field Notes are not. In my mind, the memo book, as I look at it through the eyes of a twelve-year old boy genius is a real life artifact that represents adventure, learning and clarification.

So, if you plan to read The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, pretend that T.S. whips out the Field Notes memo book from his back pocket to document stuff while in the middle of his adventures. I suspect that you too will be inspired to go out into the wild and do stuff too.

Need some more T.S. and Reif? I challenge you to find the screen depicting T.S.'s tools here.

Feel like commenting on this? Head over to my Google + page here.

What are Field Notes?

Field notes are notes, documentation, sketchings, recordings and photos taken while in the act of observing something. It could be people or an object, experience, event or experiment. 

To me there is no hard fast defintion of what constitutes the field part of field notes. If I'm taking field notes, I'm outside of my home. If I attended school, I'd be outside of the classroom. If I'm making notes in a lab, do I consider that field notes? Not sure. 

When I'm out and about and taking notes, it's usually to facilitate learning and understanding. I also collect information in order to access at some future point. I use a small memo book, camera and smartphone.

Okay, so here's where I'm going with this. I am smitten with field notes, that is, field notes and Field Notes. I fell for Field Notes while helping Dan Pink to promote his book To Sell is Human. Dan had Aaron Draplin and Coudal Partners customize a To Sell is Human Field Notes memo book.

Then shortly afterward, I saw Aaron's film where he talks about the inspiration behind Field Notes. That did it. I connected with everything Aaron said. Especially where he says, "they mean regular people working really hard."

I spent a couple of afternoons reading what folks had to say about Field Notes on various review Websites.

Nick Long of Ephemeral Pursuits does a masterful job here expressing his thoughts on Field Notes! Actually Nick does a masterful job expressing his sentiments on movies, literature, fine books, epherma and TV shows at Ephemeral Pursuits as well.

I was looking for a few different reviews where I could say, "yeah, me too!" Then I'd post those at my Google + account and move on with my life. The problem was, although I read some really good stuff like Nick's post, I didn't find anything similar to how I feel.

I have a few different ideas and thoughts which I'll present over a series of posts. The first is my take on the Field Notes brand.

 The Field Notes Brand

I get the partnership between Aaron and Coudal. I love what they are creating and how they take it to market. My perception of Coudal? In crossing paths with them in cyberspace, I come away with a good feeling. I want to continue learning more about them and keep an eye on stuff they are making. Without Aaron however, there is no Field Notes brand. Well, of course there is a brand. But it isn't the brand that stirs my soul.

Aaron represents working class, real people. He appreciates the thought, design and craftmanship that went into yesteryear's memo books. He appreciates that people wrote stuff of value to them, in them. He gets a little wonky thinking about these prized possessions ending up in a landfill. Aaron's appreciation, thoughts and ideas are the corn that goes into the ethanol of Field Notes.

A brand is a person's gut perception, right? I think a lot of folks are experiencing Field Notes minus the corn of Aaron Draplin. A few popular designers or people who appreciate good design, use the Field Note memo books. They write about what they like. They compare it to Moleskine. Eyebrows are raised. People are turned on and place orders. Even without Aaron these babies are gonna sell. One sign I see to this brand fork in the road reads Hipster. The Coolies with their Cooly minions.

I am simply trying to identify a persona. I make no judgement. Like one famous American once said, "...that's alright this is a free country, live like you wanna live."

The Hipster interstate however, does not run through the cornfields of Illinois, Iowa or Michigan. And, it is my gut feeling that that's where the grist for Aaron Draplin's Field Note's mill comes from. As Aaron says in the film, "...just dudes sittin' around talkin' corn man, that's pretty good!"

Feel like making a comment about Field Notes or this article? Head to my Google + page.

Traveling salesmen memo book photo: Field Notes

Aaron's Draplin photo: 10 Engines

iSee: ESPN Sportscaster Attire

Isn't it a little 20th century for people reporting sports news to be wearing ties, suitcoats and dresses? 

What should they wear?

Ask viewers. Ask Nike, Reebok or Adidas. Ask professional athletes. Ask NASCAR. Don't ask the PGA though.

As a matter of fact, ESPN should seek sponsorships from various entities and NASCAR-ize their attire. Only kidding...maybe.

Ideas? Go to Google + page and tell us!

  

iSee

Watching myself watch myself, I notice that I am really coming alive while reading Tom Kelley's books, Creative Confidence, The Art of Innovation & The Ten Faces of Innovation. 

In regards to innovating, one theme that Tom carries through all three books is that when we're out in the world, we need to observe and see while keeping an open mind.

So I'm doing just that. Im looking for products, services and or experiences that can be improved upon. I'm looking for needs and what's not working for customers. Why are employees of certain stores happy to be there? Why are employee of other stores not happy that I am there?

I'm also making notes of products, services and experiences that I admire.

I'm calling this practice iSee. It's something I intend to never not do. For things that require I write more than a few words, I'll do that here at Rothacker Reviews. Everything, including these posts, will be posted on my Google + page.

Print Magazines & the Article End Sign

Do you read real live print magazines? I do. Do you enjoy the tactility of the paper? Me too. Do you like the magazine's smell? Yep. Do you find delight in a well designed magazine? For sure. Do you find it slightly annoying that the editor makes you trudge to the back of the magazine to finish an article? Duh. 

My number one pet peeve of all time when it comes to reading print magazines is the lack of an article end sign. The End Sign is a small graphic that's placed at the end of an article. The magazine Fast Company places the white letters FC inside a black circle to signify the end of an article.

What about you? Do you have any print magazine pet peeves?

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Seth Godin, Marci Alboher and How to Matter

Special thanks to our good friend Denny Locascio of Impact Fitness in Tampa, Florida for turning us onto Seth's eight-minute talk here!

Seth talks about the importance of the stories we tell ourselves, how they're fused with memories of our past and how to matter to other people. How can we matter to others? By connecting people with a story they care about and one they'll tell others about.

Denny's timing in sending me the link to Seth's video this morning is uncanny. I'm in the process of reading Marci Alboher's book The Encore Career Handbook. I'd just written about how Gen-Y can go into espionage mode in order to enhance their career, by using Marci's book. But as I got up from my reading chair this morning, I grabbed the Encore book with the intention writing a little bit more.

Marci's chapter titled Back to School screams, just screams of the methodology I am attempting to etch out in Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness. Most people will not put to task and do the exploratory work described in the stories Marci weaves into this chapter. These most people, constitute the Sea of Sameness. The first component of Standing Out is to do this work.

So Marci's style of educating us through stories and the importance Seth places on stories compelled me this morning to tell you about both of them. Their stories matter to me and they'll matter to you.

I've been thinking long and hard on who The Encore Career Handbook might not pertain to. I've already mentioned how important it can be to younger folk and it's a no-brainer for those over fifty and considering something more meaningful to do in the encore years of their lives. That only leaves those who are approaching fifty. Let's think about that. Here's a guide that helps you prepare to enrich your encore years. Do you want to be like everyone else when you get older? Or do you want to Stand Out?

Feel like making a comment? Please join in on the conversation at our Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness Facebook Page!

Why can't we comment here Davo? Because one click to FB is easier than screwing around with the Captcha hassle issues.

 

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The Encore Career Handbook

The Encore Career Handbook by Marci Alboher

Are you a Gen-Yer looking to stand out, looking for an edge, looking to grow? Then The Encore Career Handbook, designed for older people looking to make a difference in the second half of their lives, is the perfect road map for you!

Are you one of those folks who grew up with What Color is Your Parachute? The Encore Career Handbook is the What Color is Your Parachute for the 21st century. Although I wouldn't replace the Parachute book with it, just use it to supplement your knowledge.

 

Back to Gen-Y, my most favorite generation. What do you suppose the odds are that sometime in your life you'll work for or with a Baby Boomer (people 49-67)? Do you think it might be to your advantage to get to understand thoughts, beliefs and ideas from this age group have?

To be real, I've moved away from forming hard fast opinions on people because of the generation they belong to. If it weren't for my bald head and the fact I look every bit of my fifty plus years on this planet, I'd say I'm a Gen-Yer - because I feel that way. But generalities are useful, particularly when they come to this subject.

I recommend reading The Encore Career Handbook because it will help you learn about some of the underlying motivations that Boomers take to work everyday. Did you know that Suzy, the fifty-one year old manager of your office, secretly desires to work with wounded animals? No. But engage her in exploratory conversations and you'll probably learn a whole lot more when it comes to your personal development.

I once told Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist, a book on career advice targeted to Gen-X & Y, that I bought and read her book so I could learn more about those generations and be a better manager. I believe the words I used were I was using her intel to go undercover. 

This is precisely what I recommend Gen-Yers do. Buy and read The Encore Career Handbook in order to learn more about Baby Boomers.

Update 8/14/2013 - I was a bit hasty in declaring The Encore Career Handbook the new What Color is Your Parachute? Dick Bolles has published a fresh and new copy of Parachute for thirty-nine straight years. And that doesn't include the two editions he published before 1975. That's just crazy man! I believe however, that Marci captures both the spirit and detail of what Mr. Bolles has been providing for nearly four decades.