Apologies for the lengthy gaps between posts. February - with KiwiFoo Camp, Webstock, life, work and radio - is always a bit of a squeeze.
Over the weekend I had the privilege of attending KiwiFoo Camp, a gathering of about 170 people from fields as diverse as farming to psychology to product design. It was my third year attending, and as stimulating and eye-opening as ever. My particular revelation was Tim Bell from University of Canterbury and his Computer Science Unplugged work, which I'm hoping to write up on my work blog shortly.
One of my favourite sessions was one I co-ran with Nat Torkington; a simple session where people in the room simply make book recommendations. I've been to or run three or four of these sessions in the past 6 months with different groups, and I find the overlap and the idiosyncrasies fascinating. I've collated almost all of the recommendations into a list on Goodreads. The one missing item is The Pitcher and the Well, a memoir of an anonymous RNZAF navigator recorded as he lay dying of wounds in a German POW camp during WWII. However the full text is available online.
Later today I'll be on National Radio's Nine to Noon programme in my usual fortnightly art slot. I'll be talking about Google's Art Project and, if I get time, the ways Google Earth have been used for archaeological research. These are the links I've provided for the show
The Google Art Project site
Google Art Project YouTube channel
Roberta Smith on the Google Art Project, New York Times
Alastair Sooke on the Google Art Project, The Telegraph
Google Earth
New Scientist article on archaeologists using Google Earth
National Geographic article on archaeologists using Google Earth
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Friday, 9 July 2010
Admiration
In my professional life, speed is highly valued. I'm an advocate of Agile project management, for example, with its emphasis on time-boxed development periods and fast, focused releases. I've worked on numerous projects that have gone from 'here's what we want' to 'here it is' in 12 weeks. I've been to a million talks and presentations where people have preached the cult of failing fast and failing often, of rapid iteration and daily releases.
Which is why I'm currently filled with admiration for E.H. Gombrich. Start-up founders could take a lesson or two from a man who managed to summarise the history of human civilisation in under 300 pages and on a 6 week deadlines.
A Little History of the World was written in 1935, when Gombrich was 25. He'd finished his thesis, but hadn't found a job. Given an English history book for children to translate into German, he was distinctly underwhelmed by the text. He wrote a sample chapter of a rival book for the publisher, who gave him a conditional yes; the book would be published if it could be completed on the same deadline as the translation.
Gombrich worked 6 days a week on the manuscript - Sundays were spent with his wife, to whom he read each section. Each day, Gombrich would tackle a chapter: the morning for research at home, the afternoon for research at the library, and the evening for writing.
The resulting book - which I'm reading at the moment - is a marvel. Although the tone feels a little dated, especially the questions and comments directed at the intended child reader, the clarity is extraordinary. Gombrich introduces history as a long story, passed down from generation to generation. Writing history, he says, is like lighting a scrap of paper and dropping it down a deep well - the flare lights up the past as it descends. His flare lights up people, places and moments that shaped human culture, from the invention of writing to the age of chivalry.
Reviewing the book when it was finally released in English in 2005, Peter Conrad described it as a 'mental microcosm', and Lisa Jardine as "a manifesto for freedom and integrity". The thing that astounds me about the book is its personal tone - smilingly ironic, sincerely admiring, occasionally melancholy, rarely angered. Above all, it is wise and gentle - but never dull.
Review by Lisa Jardine
Review by Peter Conrad
Which is why I'm currently filled with admiration for E.H. Gombrich. Start-up founders could take a lesson or two from a man who managed to summarise the history of human civilisation in under 300 pages and on a 6 week deadlines.
A Little History of the World was written in 1935, when Gombrich was 25. He'd finished his thesis, but hadn't found a job. Given an English history book for children to translate into German, he was distinctly underwhelmed by the text. He wrote a sample chapter of a rival book for the publisher, who gave him a conditional yes; the book would be published if it could be completed on the same deadline as the translation.
Gombrich worked 6 days a week on the manuscript - Sundays were spent with his wife, to whom he read each section. Each day, Gombrich would tackle a chapter: the morning for research at home, the afternoon for research at the library, and the evening for writing.
The resulting book - which I'm reading at the moment - is a marvel. Although the tone feels a little dated, especially the questions and comments directed at the intended child reader, the clarity is extraordinary. Gombrich introduces history as a long story, passed down from generation to generation. Writing history, he says, is like lighting a scrap of paper and dropping it down a deep well - the flare lights up the past as it descends. His flare lights up people, places and moments that shaped human culture, from the invention of writing to the age of chivalry.
Reviewing the book when it was finally released in English in 2005, Peter Conrad described it as a 'mental microcosm', and Lisa Jardine as "a manifesto for freedom and integrity". The thing that astounds me about the book is its personal tone - smilingly ironic, sincerely admiring, occasionally melancholy, rarely angered. Above all, it is wise and gentle - but never dull.
Review by Lisa Jardine
Review by Peter Conrad
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