PJH Studios

Author: Patrick

  • Seth Godin – Tribes

    Seth Godin’s Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us serves up a compact guide to be a leader of ideas. How should a leader of a tribe, a movement, cause, purpose devoted to a singular mission act or think? That’s what Godin covers with a mixture of anecdotes, stories from people who have led and succeeded or analogy or blunt deconstruction of a point.

    At about 130 pages, it reads quickly with each point or example no more than 300 to 500 words. He writes with purpose and clarity. There are times when his anecdotes seem thin, needing more context or explanation. Or is this a clever trick for the reader to become curious about the person he mentions and Google them?

    If you’ve read other Godin books, similar themes emerge. His emphatic belief that the factory mindset of cranking out widgets is broken. Education that invokes follow the rules behavior is an unsuccessful path. People fail not by the act of failing, but by not doing anything due to fear.

  • A Darwinian theory of beauty

    Denis Dutton gave a TED talk about beauty from the perspective of Darwin. In it, beauty is a representation of the best possible outcome, be it animals (rabbits), art, a soccer kick and on and on. We’re hardwired to recognize beauty, despite its subjectivity.

  • Can technology end poverty?

    Kentaro Toyama worked at Microsoft Research India for several years leading research initiatives but also ICT4D, or Information and Communication Technologies for Development. ICT4D seeks to address global poverty with technology.

    He learned a few things while there.

    Technology—no matter how well designed—is only a magnifier of human intent and capacity. It is not a substitute.

    Just giving impoverished communities access to technology won’t help those communities. They need skills and literacies to operate the given technology. They heed to be shown how the technology will help them in their own environment with practical day to day uses.

    In every one of our projects, a technology’s effects were wholly dependent on the intention and capacity of the people handling it. The success of PC projects in schools hinged on supportive administrators and dedicated teachers. Microcredit processes with mobile phones worked because of effective microfinance organizations. Teaching farming practices through video required capable agriculture-extension officers and devoted nonprofit staff. In our most successful ICT4D projects, the partner organizations did the hard work of real development, and our role was simply to assist, and strengthen, their efforts with technology.

    How technology can address poverty? Look at how it’s widened.

    1. Access: Increase the access to technologies
    2. Capability: Everyone has the same skill level
    3. Motivation: How to apply the technologies and skills to relevant situations

  • Marroon 5 – Hands All Over

    Hands All Over by Maroon 5 continues the jazzy, funk, keyboard and drums driven pop about love, longing for love, hurt by love, sorry for for hurting for love and redeeming oneself for love that they do well.

    Of the stand out tracks: Misery kicks off and sets the tone–upbeat and thumping. Stutter is a doo-wop, sway your hips kind of song. Never Gonna Leave This Bed is carried by a soaring chorus. Out of Goodbyes, their collaboration with Lady Antebellum, works well as the albums tender, ballad closer.

  • Keane – Night Train

    Keane’s 31 minute EP, Night Train, is a bland assortment of mash up pop. K’naan and Tigarah guest spot (rap?) to a confusing effect. Sure, artists experiment with sounds, but you kinda have to wonder what direction, a band that built its following on piano driven anthems, the rap collaborations bring.

  • Processed war photography

    Brian Barrel of Gizmodo spots Hipstamatic photos on the NY Times front page.

    When NYT photog Damon Winter went to northern Afghanistan to catalog the efforts of the First Battalion, 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division, he took all the fancy camera equipment you would expect. He’d shoot video of firefights with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, sure. But he also grabbed still photos using Hipstamatic, an app that lets you choose among a huge selection of filters…

    As he notes, this isn’t the first time a Hipstamatic photograph has been published by a major publication. The publishing of such photos is significant for the following reasons:

    • It’s not the gear you have, it’s the gear you have at the time.
    • Editorializing/editing of photos for publication

    Chase Jarvis preaches that The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You. Sure, you can lug two Canon 5Ds, one with a 35mm prime and another with a 28-200mm 2.8 zoom, and with that weight you’re going to get quality shots. But the iPhone (and other cell phone cameras) with various apps for editing and processing photos, is making the investment in gear moot. In the case of war photography, the thought of a photographer following a platoon with only an iPhone seems comical, however, in a connected era, telling the story as it happens or as soon as it happens becomes paramount. The work flow–take picture, edit as needed, upload to photo desk–to do this now can happen in minutes. Photographers of the Civil War didn’t have that work flow capability.

    The instant work flow, coupled with the photo editing apps in an iPhone, a photographer can file a photo that has a distinct, editorial feel. Photographers who know their craft can capture photos in camera without any editing, but normally, photos edited beyond basic cropping and dodging and burning receive the note “photo illustration.” So what’s being illustrated? The story or what photographer or the editor wants the story to be or the reader to feel? This is a tricky line, a line that photojournalism has always run against. Photography is an art to evoke feeling, and photojournalism is an art to capture events to evoke feeling. As one Gizmodo commenter, OrtizDupri, states,

    I can guarantee you, nothing I saw in my 16 months in Iraq looked like the view through a Lomo or Holga camera. The reality of war isn’t meant to be vintage colors and soft edges.

  • Long held beliefs eventually disproven

    Richard Thaler, a behavioral economist and research, issued a call for previous held beliefs that were eventually disproved, and for extra credit, why were they held for so long.

    Lots of good examples from a wide array of smart folks (Nicholas Carr, Howard Gardner, Clay Shirky and many many others). Some are obvious (gravity! flat Earth!) while others are arcane (prions/prions?).

  • Seth Godin’s Purple Cow

    Seth Godin’s Purple Cow is a call for businesses and start ups to be remarkable. Being remarkable means being memorable, unique and doing business in such a way that it can be distinguishably different from the competition.

    Godin explains his purple cow: drive about the country side and watch cows–brown cows, black cows, black and white cows. After a while, they’re boring and part of the landscape. But what if all the sudden you saw a purple cow? That would be remarkable wouldn’t it?

    And his caveat: for a while, and then it too fades in to the scenery.

    Where most businesses stumble, is that they create something new and exciting and make money, but then they become stuck in a cycle of protecting the product and doing things that are safe and for the masses. What businesses should do, he says, as the purple cow is making money, invest that money on the next thing, the next idea. He supports this stating that you make more money on early adopters who then tell the masses (their friends) about the product or service. This doesn’t mean you seek out they next cool thing immediately, but be attentive and creative to when the market will provide an opportunity for you to create your next purple cow.

    Godin writes in stories, anecdotes and case studies. Purple Cow contains plenty of examples. My Pearl Jam nerd self received a little bit of glee when the band sold all 72 live shows from their 2000 tour–and made a profit–as an example. Sections are at most two to three pages in length, and some contain explicit take away points. Teachers, administrators, entrepreneurs, mid-level executives should be able to gleam morsels of inspiration within the books 200 pages.

  • Fine Art Photography: Water, Ice and Fog

    Fine Art Photography: Water, Ice and Fog by Tony Sweet showcases photographs of of water in its three states. Yes, there are great shots, but this book is a how-to book. Sweet discusses the composition of the shot and the elements of photography that went into it. What lens was used, at what aperture, at what time of day with what filter. His writing style is direct and to the point and instructional. Novices and advanced photographers should be able to get something out of this book.