The book that inspired my career…

February 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been fascinated by surfing. Something about the elegance of seeing someone balancing on a board floating over the forces of nature manages to be both inspiring and relaxing to watch. But despite a period of trying to conquer skateboarding, I knew I’d never be a surfer. Partly it was down to geography – Kent in England is not necessarily a hotbed of surfing talent. More importantly, I combined a lack of balance with a dislike of swimming.

But around the age of 11 or so, I read the amazing Walking on Water by Andy Martin. Like me, he grew up in England, and didn’t become a professional surfer – but due to his fascination and obsession with it, he did spend time in the water, and the book covers his journey to Hawaii to speak to the leading stars of the early 90s and to cover the world championship at the time.

What really hooked me was one passage, in which he describes being stopped at airport customs and asked what the purpose of his journey was. Having been hired to do some freelance reporting on surfing for The Times, he pulled out a busines card stating ‘The Times, Surfing Correspondent’, and that allowed him to carry on his journey. (I’m writing from memory as I suspect a previous loan of the book led to it never returning to my possession).

It’s followed by amazing writing, characters and stories as he gets to meet all his heroes and surf Hawaii, but the key thing that stuck with me was this:

You can be an expert, earn a living, meet your heroes and be utterly absorbed by something as a writer, and sharing that can be as powerful as actually doing it for a living.

Suddenly I realised that I might never be paid to race cars or bikes, but I could earn a living by sharing my obsession and knowledge of motorsport and all things with an engine.

Having applied that approach to motorcycles, cars, technology, and writing itself, I’ve had the enormous good fortune to be published by leading publications in their field, visited foreign countries, had amazing experiences and spoken with a number of my childhood heroes. Less than 1% of racers will ever get to legitimately be in the MotoGP paddock, for example, but as a journalist I was able to experience it, which I’ll always treasure.

And there’s another key lesson.

You might think that ‘those that can, do, and those that can’t, write ‘ (to adapt a hackneyed quote about teaching). But many top sportsmen and women can’t explain what they do and how they do it. It’s not their job. They have to concentrate on whatever it takes to get to the top and stay there, and not consider anything else. It’s why quite often the most talented people are the worst instructors, because they have no idea what it was like to be an untalented beginner!

That’s why it’s our job. And why it’s my passion and obsession to share the things I love in a way which could inspire the same passion in others.

Filed Under: Blogging, Books, journalism, Writing

Why artists want to kill ‘content’, and why they’re wrong…

January 12, 2012 By 1 Comment

A massive and heinous crime has been committed by the internet against writers and artists. And it isn’t piracy, electronic distribution or increased competition for attention. If you really want to offend a creative person, just watch their response to the prose, film and art they create and love being referred to as ‘content’.

First it was businesspeople talking about content as something to fill the empty space between adverts. Then those SEO types came along and messed around to game the search engines and fool users. And now there’s a growing army of marketing people talking about using artistic methods to power ‘content marketing’ and prostitute noble work even more.

Don’t they understand?
Seven Dirty Words 4/12

 

Writers, artists – it’s OK when people say ‘content’

I consider writing a massive part of both who I am, and also of my occupation. I’ve held editorial roles, and received payment both for writing, and using all forms of media as an integral part of marketing. And I have absolutely no problem with anyone using the term ‘content’, as long as they’re not assuming it magically appears and doesn’t deserve time, resource, effort and reward.

After all, words only have the meanings we infer on them, which is why I might apologise to a section of you still reading who may have been offended by the Lego imagery above. At the same time a section of you might have found it amusing, or just not cared. It all depends on the signification you get from the use of that particular word.

And yes, in a business and web development context, ‘content’ is often almost a dirty word, as if in retaliation against all the people who declared ‘content is king’ for so long in the past.

But it doesn’t have to meant that. All it means to me is a shorthand way to avoid repeating ‘text,images and video’, everytime I want to describe what I do, or what is meant to go on a page. And that’s all I hope it will mean to you in the future…

 

TheWayoftheWeb Wordle

A Wordle for TheWayoftheWeb. Pleased to see how big 'People' appears

 

How your work can avoid being just ‘content’

Here’s the thing to remember – ‘Content’ refers to what’s contained in a box as defined by a dictionary. It isn’t how the people reading or viewing your work are going to refer to it, especially if you achieve something remarkable. Noone in the history of the world, even in business, marketing or SEO, has come home from a day at work and told their partner or family about the ‘amazing piece of content’ they saw. Instead they’ll share an amazing story, a stunning picture or a moving film.

Content as an adjective is about being mentally or emotionally satisfied with the current state of things (the Swedish have one of my favourite related words, ‘lagom’, which is translated as being ‘just right’ ‘not too much, not too little’ etc, and to some extent it continues to permeate Swedish culture). If you’re doing just enough to satisfy the search engines, or the need for some promo text, then why do you deserve to be refered to as more than ‘content’ anyway?

Writing, photography and film-making are not inherently more noble than serving fast food or working in a factory. There will be people who are far more passionate about serving the perfect burger up with good service than some writers are about churning through the latest press release to just get something up which might get a bit of traffic.

So instead of spending time and effort bemoaning how people could dare refer to artistic output as if it was just the result of someone working, just do three things:

  1.  Create stuff that tears through any box it could be put in.
  2. Share and reward the brilliance of others. Comment, tweet,like,donate,flattr,recommend to publishers/studios
  3. Don’t settle for crap. Don’t be lazy and settle for something which is filling space for a brand or media company.

Filed Under: Blogging, Content Marketing, Digital Publishing, Writing Tagged With: , , , ,

This week I have mostly…

January 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Over the past few weeks and months I’ve been on a major de-cluttering spree, which has particularly focused on my pop culture addiction. I’ve sold, donated and binned a fairly substantial amount of books and videos, with CD’s and DVD’s either ripped and archived or in the queue to be added with the next external hard drive purchase.

The net result is that I’ve made a small amount of cash by letting go of books I’d probably never read again, I’ve gained some space and perspective on what is actually most important to me, and I’ve been investing in more digital formats for the future. The only downside is that one of my favourite habits is to check out the books/films/cds whenever I visit someone’s house, which doesn’t work so well in the digital age. Hence a quick top-of-the-head list of my entertainment for the previous week (For more comprehensive lists, you can always check out Last.fm, Goodreads, etc, but some items either don’t appear or get forgotten…)

I’ve been reading:

Since getting a Kindle, I’ve devoured Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, which I’d meant to read for ages, and finally picked up. Not only is it extremely interesting for those with an interest in medicine and science, but it should also be essential reading for any journalist and writer who has ever had to deal with a press release containing data, technical terms, or plain BS. And it’s a pretty damning report on the state of national news reporting when it comes to big medical stories.

I also raised through With a Little Help by Cory Doctorow. Like Bad Science, I’d meant to read it for ages, and indeed had started via the Creative Commons edition that Cory makes available for free via his website, but to enjoy it outside of a PDF on my laptop I figured I’d pay the ‘Lazy tax’ to have the Kindle version.

It’s a great collection of short stories, and although some did appeal more than others, what is always consistent is that every Doctorow tale comes with insight and inspiration for the future of the internet/society/technology etc. Even an average Doctorow story gets you thinking, and there are a number in here which are way above average. If there were two authors I’d subscribe to for all future work sight unseen, it’d be Cory and William Gibson.

And finally I’m just finishing the Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee – something which I’ve always meant to read but never enough to make it to the top of my list when in a bookshop. But it seemed like good timing, having rekindled my interest in actually practising some martial arts again by The Pajama Game, rather than just watching the occasional film. It’s interesting because it’s not a ‘how to’ guide for individual punches and throws – it’s a sometimes random collection of notes loosely structured after Lee’s death into the philosophy and approach of a fighting style which has no fixed style. And I also happened to read this post by Charles Frith which features an interesting interview with Lee.

I’ve been listening:

In a shocking lack of awareness, I’d seen Laura Kidd occasionally being mentioned in reference to her fanbase on Twitter, but hadn’t actually got around to listening to her music until she recently released an album of remixes in aid of charity. That prompted me to check out her album Disarm (on Amazon, and on Spotify), under the name ‘She Makes War’.

Turns out I’m an idiot, she makes brilliant music including a free downloadable cover of ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ which is now the version I’ll hear when someone mentions the song.

I’ve been watching:

Aside from catching the odd episode of Big Bang Theory and a passing interest in Man vs Food, the only thing I actually wanted to watch when it was being broadcast was Sherlock Holmes. At which point my parents decided to have their weekend telephone call, so I haven’t really watched anything this week. And luckily my strange soap opera obsession with Ice Road Truckers Deadliest Roads ended just before this week so you’ll never find out about it.

I will get around to watching Borgen, but will probably end up waiting for the complete series to become available rather than watching weekly – I’ve increasingly found it’s easier for me to spend a weekend immersed in a series rather than waiting impatiently for scheduling to mean that I get out of sync anyway.

In terms of films, there hasn’t really been anything grabbing me – I did catch random bits of films I’d already seen being broadcast yet again, such as watching Oceans 12 for long enough to remember why it was such a letdown. But I did end up watching the Smurfs, which combine Neil Patrick Harris with what has to be the best role Hank Azaria has played – normally his appearance in a film is a guarantee of slight irritation at a slightly annoying pastiche. One that kept a 3-year-old entertained enough whilst his parents could also enjoy it.

I’ve been playing:

Rather than television, any leisure time goes into the Xbox. The social side of Xbox Live defines most of this, with my current Forza Motorsport 4 obsession combining a group of friends and the still-present ambition to find a way to race regularly. I’ve also had a very short blast on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, but it still hasn’t grabbed me as addictively as the previous games in the series.
Besides that I’ve finally been catching up on the downloadable content available for Grand Theft Auto 4, particularly now I know there’s a new one on the way, and also been slowly making my way through the Wild West version in Red Dead Redemption. Both are massive, epic games with enough storytelling elements to replace television and films, with the added advantages of interactivity and being able to pursue the areas and choices that interest me.

Filed Under: Blogging, Recommended Books, Videogames, xbox 360 Tagged With: , , , ,

My New Years Obsessions for 2012

December 31, 2011 By 4 Comments

The most positive way to describe my life in 2011 would probably be ‘interesting’. Along with every high, such as celebrating my first year in business, there have been a number of lows, particularly when it has come to family life. So the coming of a new year is a welcome fresh start, and rather than partying to celebrate midnight, I’m choosing to focus on how I start 2012 tomorrow morning when I wake up.

And rather than setting out a list of resolutions, a term which seems almost invented to accommodate them being broken, I’m thinking about my obsessions for the next year – things which will continue to drive me forwards no matter what happens.

The Business obsession: Building businesses which enable others to gain control of their employment.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to achieve work-wise. Obviously I’ll always be working towards greater financial security, as I suspect you will, too. And within my portfolio career in marketing, writing, teaching and other stuff, there are areas that I feel driven to concentrate on and expand.

But when I imagine success, I’ve realised a key motivation is that I know many, many people who are incredibly talented and skilled, and feel disillusioned with their current employment. So if I’m able to grow my business and can help other people become empowered to choose their own destiny in their professional life, that appeals far more to me than managing people in an office who are just paid to turn up every day.

So the plan for 2012 is to increase the turnover for my career, and get to the stage where I’m able to employ and empower at least a couple of those people on a regular basis by the end of the year, whether that’s in an existing project or something new.

The best way to achieve any plan is to break it down into smaller steps, which include improving what I produce for my own websites and the way I work, continuing to always do the best possible work for clients, and also making more of opportunities elsewhere.

The personal obsession: Building better connections with family, friends and strangers

Despite doing a reasonable job of keeping in touch with my friends and family via social networks, I’ve been a bit rubbish at actually catching up in the real world, and I’m obsessed with changing that in 2012. Not only do I need to keep working on being the best dad I can, I also intend to try to be a better son/grandson and friend to all the people who have supported and helped me over the years. It’s incredibly important that all of us make time for the people we care about, and it always benefits us as much, if not more, than it does the people we’re visiting/helping/supporting.

And by the same token, since being based more at home and outside of London, I’ve been rubbish at catching up with people I know well electronically, but failed to connect with in the real world. There are several people I haven’t seen in ages, and several more that I keep aiming to meet but fail to arrange it. And each one of them is inspirational in some way.

I have a sneaky suspicion that actually getting my social life together offline will also drastically help my creativity and business – I’ve already benefitted immensely from the clients with whom I regularly work in the office as well as virtually, from Digital People in Peterborough meets, and from the chats and conversations I’ve managed to make time for in 2011.

Again, I’m breaking it into smaller steps, by making lists of the people who I want to make time for, and sorting out my calendar in a more organised fashion.

 

How you can help…

No one achieves all their obsessions completely alone, and I’m going to take this opportunity to ask you for a tiny bit of help. Whether or not we’ve met before or chatted online, if you’d like to meet up for a drink or a chat, let me know. And if I don’t come back straight away with a date or time, then keep reminding me. Because I definitely want to meet up with you (if you’re not going to be in the UK at some point, then Skype works!) And this isn’t about me trying to sell your my services as a prospective client – it’s purely because there’s nothing more interesting to me than finding out about what you’re doing and what your passions are. And the fact you’re reading this means that you’re part of a self-selecting group that are guaranteed to be interesting – after all, you’re reading my blog aren’t you?

The only thing to know to save some confusion are that even if we’re meeting for ‘coffee’, I don’t actually drink the stuff, but mainline caffeine from soft drinks (I do, however, drink beer).

Here’s to a great 2012 for everyone, and I can’t wait to meet up with more of you this year.

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Dan Thornton, TheWayoftheWeb Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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