Curiously Curious.... slow down and log everything

Curiously... curious

Our agency mantra is all about being curious and taking that curiosity into the business realm for our clients. I have always kept a notebook/scrapbook/journal that I paste things in that interest me. But here is a great designer Ken Carbone who takes this to the next level. I found this video of him talking about what interests and motivates him to keep up to date with his journal. I love his view that by concentrating on the objective of his journal. It makes him slow down at exhibitions and in general life so he can truly take it in.

I have written about Paulo Coelhos view on slowing down when you are in foreign countries and how it allows you to draw real insight.

I definately think there is something in that. I need to get back to slowing down ocassionally to really take things in.

Paolo Coelho is even teaching us how to create insights

12/365 My night., originally uploaded by Miffy Hippo.

So I have already written about my love affair with Paulo Coelho and the way he writes but also what he has done with this genius. I am currently reading his book the Pilgrimage whereby a man is on a religious journey. I am not a hugely religious person but two things came up that I thought were fantastic. The first is he highlighted the reason why I love to travel

'When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys you don't even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to be more accessible to others because they may be able to help you in difficult situations. And you accept any small favour from the gods with great delight, as if it were an episode you would remember for the rest of your life.
At the same time, since all things are new, you see only the beauty in them, and you feel happy to be alive. That's why a religious pilgrimage has always been one of the most objective ways of achieving insight. The word peccadillo which means 'small sin' comes from pecus, which means 'detective foot', a foot that is incapable of walking a road. The way to correct the peccadillo is always to walk forward, adapting oneself to new situations and recieving in return all of thousands of blessings that life generously offers to those who seek them.'

Sorry to write such a huge paragraph but it just typifies the reason I love to travel. You do take your time. You do notice more things specifically and try to get a greater understanding of their beauty. One big thing for me was openess to new people that otherwise I might not have been. Which lead to a lot of great friends and experiences. But this is my blog for work and there is one great thing that was in that paragraph. ' the most objective ways of achieving insight'.

The story then goes on to create an exercise for the pilgrim to expand his view of the world. Its brilliant and I believe we all should do it. In the exact words

The Speed Exercise

Walk for twenty minutes at half the speed at which you normally walk. Pay attention to the details, people, and surroundings. The best time to do this is after lunch.

Repeat the exercise for seven days

What if we all did what we do everyday at half the speed for just twenty minutes. We read that brief, research, data, had a conversation with a collegue or a client or someone in a focus group. I have tried to make 3pm everyday my twenty minute time. I have even found a special place to do it. You really do start to notice things more and think them through. We all know its not possible to do it all of the time. But just twenty minutes. Trevor Beattie has always said its just the little things that matter. So just a little bit of time each day, just once. We might just become a little more insightful.

He keeps my obsession going

So I wrote about my obsession with Paulo Coehlo....he's done it again. I got this off is facebook fan page from Art my obsessed friend....

Novelist Paulo Coelho finds the perfect alchemy of print & digital

From Paulo Coelho

Today at 4:19pm

Dear friends,

Paulo Coelho certainly has nothing against selling books. He has sold an astounding 100m copies of his novels, writes Jeff Jarvis.

But he also believes in giving them away. He is a pirate. Coelho discovered the power of free when a fan posted a Russian translation of one of his novels online and book sales there climbed from 3,000 to 100,000 to 1m in three years. "This happened in English, in Norwegian, in Japanese and Serbian," he said. "Now when the book is released in hard copy, the sales are spectacular."

So Coelho started linking to pirated versions of his books from his own website. But when he bragged about this at the Burda Digital Lifestyle Design conference in Munich last January, he got in trouble with his US publisher, HarperCollins, whose then head, Jane Friedman, called him.

Friedman had caught Coelho red-handed - one of the supposedly unauthorised versions he linked to had the author's own notes in it. "She said, 'Paulo, come on, don't shit me'." He was pirating himself. So they reached a compromise: each month, a different Coelho novel can be read for free in the publisher's online reader, which prevents making pirated copies. Meanwhile Coelho is off to new digital frontiers. He Twitters. He blogs and enjoys exploring a different kind of writing online. "I think your language for your blog is totally different from your language in the Guardian, right? So we have to adapt ourselves. I have a lot of fun doing this."

Please read a full interview with Paulo Coelho: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2008/08/novelist_paul_coelho_finds_the.html

Have a great day!

Peace and Love
Aart Hilal
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Obsessed fans... I think I've become one

Jonas Brothers Fan I, originally uploaded by odibusmacsimus.
I have never really understood the obsession people have with celebrities or things in general. I know that myself and my friends have addicted personalities and I guess that's where a lot of it comes from. You gain a sense of self from something else. Either they are an aspiration of yours or who you think you are.

I guess I see certain people are good at certain things and I admire them for that. That was until a friend put me onto Paulo Coehlo and a number of his books. I am well behind I know, but most people will probably know the Alchemist which I finished a few weeks back and thought it was awesome. My friend has read all of this books often in a number of languages and we often speak of the differences what we take out of them. There are quite a few distinctive points that he highlights in a number of his books that I completely agree with and I think it links to a mix between who I aspire to be and who I think I am. This is the beginning of the obsession. But the funny thing is I would usually leave this to my personal life and wouldnt comment about that on here. But now he is chasing my work life and doing it brilliantly I might add.

Firstly he is one of the first major published authors to begin giving away his work for free online. Check out his site. Thanks to Aart Hilal who commented on one of my posts about the site. I think we both could have a similar obsession.

Secondly, he has done a great collaboration with an old client of mine... HP to do a great online program to make a movie out of one of his books.

I'm about to scream leave me alone... but the truth is I cant wait to read another book and to see what he does next.