John Pospisil

Rocio, Grace, Baby Hannah and I went to the Fish Markets for lunch today (it was very nice, by the way). On the way home while driving through Pyrmont Hannah needed a feed, so we pulled over. Rocio spotted a nearby cafe, so we went there.

Rocio ordered an organic lemonade (whatever the hell that is), Grace had a babychino (pictured, left), and I had a banana smoothie.

I think most of us have found ourselves in unexpected and random places and situations at various times in our lives.

Mostly, the connection to a place or event is fleeting, and it soon fades along with the multitude of other mundane moments that we soon forget, other times, these connections lead to profound and unforeseen changes.

I’m pretty sure turning up at this random cafe in Pyrmont is one of those insignificant events of life that would otherwise soon be forgotten. That’s why I decided to preserve it with a few happy snaps.

There’s no “other” point to this post, except as an excuse to post a picture of one of my daughters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our new daughter Hannah was born on September 19 – her due date. Here she is at about a month old with her big sister Grace, who happens to be turning two tomorrow.

My wife Rocio recently had some photos printed, including the one below of herself and our 18-month-old daughter Grace.

Of course I know that I’m a very lucky man, but this photo really brought home just how lucky I am.

This is a very short story I wrote in 2003 somewhere on a train in Europe. It takes place in a European capital some time in the future.

 

Vaclav had been in hospital for the  three weeks. His doctor assured him he didn’t have long to live, and that everything would soon be fine.

But Vaclav was still worried; how would he know it was really him? How could he be sure that when he opened his eyes in his new “Bodi” that it was really him, and not some machine that just thought it was him?

This fear had preoccupied him through the whole of the previous night, but he knew there was no alterative. Cancer had spread throughout his body, and his fear of death was greater than his fear of the transfer.

The only thing he could think to do was to stay alert until the moment the transfer started. Surely, if the transfer was successful, he’d carry his state of mind from his old body to his new one, and that way he could be sure of himself.

Yes, he knew there were flaws in this approach, but so far it was the best he could come up with.

The doctors promised him the transfer would be quick and painless, and that there would only be a brief interruption to his consciousness. They assured him that they would capture all of his memories, along with all his personality traits, and once installed in his new bio-mechanical body, he would be like new again.

When he asked the doctor about whether his soul would also be transferred in the process, the doctor scoffed, “you’ll have to go to a priest for that one”.

And when he protested, “but how will I know it’s really me?” the doctor laughed, “when you watch your cancer-ridden body being turned to ash in the crematorium, you’ll know it’s not you in that box.”

The doctor, realising his glibness was inappropriate, added: “The cells in your body are completely replaced every seven years. This body you’re so attached to is completely different to the one you started with seventy years ago. Just think of the transfer as this natural process accelerated.”

But somehow the doctor’s reasoning didn’t make Vaclav feel better.

His friend Miroslav had died from heart disease and was very happy with his new Bodi, which was styled around a handsome 25 year old. Vaclav couldn’t quite get used to Miroslav’s new found youth. They met a few times soon after Miroslav’s transfer, but somehow their friendship wasn’t the same. Miroslav was more interested in chasing young women than talking about the old days.

Vaclav’s fear gripped him again; how would he really know it was him?

Perhaps, his wife was right. Perhaps, it would be better not to try to play God. Perhaps it would be better to let nature take its course.

His wife was religious, and she didn’t like the fact that he was tinkering with the natural order of things.

“Talk to a priest before you do this,” she implored.

Vaclav also suspected she was also worried that he would leave her. For this reason he selected a new bodi that was based on his existing body; superficially he would look like his old self. The bodi salesman was quite surprised at his selection.

The salesman had started his spiel with: “So what do you want? Do you want to be young, strong, healthy, good looking? If you want a ten inch penis, we can do that. Would you rather be a woman? We have models for all tastes and requirements. And don’t tell anyone I told you this, but there’s a good chance that by the time your new Bodi wears out in two hundred years, the Mortality Laws will be repealed.”

When Vaclav asked the salesman how he would know whether it was really him, he answered: “I’ve sold thousands of Bodis to everyone from old people about to die, to rich people who want to be young and good looking, and not one of them has ever come back wanting a refund. If that’s not proof of a quality product, I don’t know what is.”

Still Vaclav didn’t feel comfortable about the transfer.

Vaclav’s contemplation was interrupted when his doctor entered the room.

“So what do you think of your new bodi?”

Vaclav was shocked. He thought he’d had some warning before the operation.

“Oh, you didn’t realise we did the transfer — yes, we did it about an hour ago. You didn’t feel a thing, did you? Felt instantaneous? We erased the last hour of your memories before the transfer to make your entrance into your new life was as seamless as possible.”

“You fool,” Vaclav thought to himself, “you had nothing to worry about, here you are alive and well.

“So doctor, when can I go home?”

“Now, the transfer went perfectly. We’ll keep your file backed up in case there are any problems, just come back in a week so we can do a diagnostic.”

The doctor shook his hand and left the room so Vaclav could get dressed.

His clothes were a little loose; his new bodi was a little more trim than his old one. As he was checking that he hadn’t left anything behind, a man rushed into the room.

“Vaclav, I’m Father Novotny, you called about an hour ago – you said there was something urgent you wanted to discuss.”

“I don’t remember Father,” replied Vaclav happily, “but as it turns out, I had nothing to worry about. My operation was a complete success.”

The Lovers by Rene Magritte

While doing a project for Organisational Analysis and Design (OAD) during my MBA, I came across this quote, which really resonated with me at the time, and since:

"The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

Marcel Proust

The big concept in OAD was that there is more than one way to look at or analyse a situation in an organisation. This OAD model used four frames (or perspectives) to analyse situations – human resources, structure, culture (symbolic), and political.

While it might sound pretty obvious, for me it helped me gain an insight where I suddenly saw the world in a whole new light. And it’s a concept that applies not only to management, but also to our personal lives.

Often we’re so stuck looking at a situation in our lives through our own jaded eyes, that we don’t see the alternatives, which are visible if we only we can step outside our current frame of reference.

I’m making pospisil.com.au a personal blog.

Please go to www.congentinsights.com for my business-related blog. 

BLORGE.com is a pet project I’ve been working on for the past few months. What I’m doing is setting up a family of blogs that provide entertaining and informative content under a common overarching global brand – Blorge.

Sound ambitious?? You bet.

So why the name Blorge?

Well I wanted a brand that I could call my own, and a brand that had some connection to blogging. I wanted a brand that couldn’t be claimed by anyone else, and a brand that I could register as a dot com.

If you’ve ever tried to register a dot.com you’ll know that almost every conceivable name is taken. I even tried names in Spanish, Latin, Czech, and Australian Aboringinal. All gone.

Then I started to play with joining names together. My colleague Alex-Zaharov Reutt suggested Blogasm, but I didn’t want to use a name that might have negative connotations. I wanted a name that was suggestive of blogs, but that also suggested the “reading of blogs”. I started thinking of other ways to express  this idea and came up with “consumption of blogs”, which led me to “gorging on blogs”, and so you can see that Blorge is a combination of Blog and gorge.

Once I was happy with the name I asked designer Ian Tjhan to come up with a logo. I’ve worked with Ian for many years, on both online and print projects, and I really like his work.

I think Ian’s Blorge logo is clean, striking and modern.

You’ll notice that the Blorge logotype is encased in a speech bubble, which represents the expression of ideas and dialogue, which is what blogging is all about. The logo is in black and white as a tribute to the printed page (which is usually black-and-white, think books and newspapers), which was the precursor to modern electronic publishing and blogging

It’s still early days, but the first two blogs are up and running. You’ll find them at:

• TECH.BLORGE.com – PC and lifestyle technology
• PHOTO.BLORGE.com – Digital cameras and photo tutorials

In the next few posts I’ll discuss editorial strategy, differentiation and competitive advantage, as well as introduce you to some of the people who are making Blorge possible.

I was interviewed yesterday by Dearl Miller of Trafficology.com about marketing on MySpace. While I was preparing for the interview I tried to distill the key issues for someone trying promote themselves (as a musician or artist) or a product or service using MySpace.

Here are the three principles I came up with:

You need to be authentic: I would explain this by saying that this is more of an attitude and approach than a marketing tactic. I think the kind of people using MySpace can spot a phony a mile away, and I think to succeed, you really need to be passionate about what you’re selling. I think this will come through in your profile and how you deal with people. While researching the book I interviewed a number of different artists to see if I could obtain some insights into how they used MySpace to promote themselves. The bands that really cared about what they were doing, and cared about their fans, had the profiles that were very engaging.

You need to interact: The Internet is a two-way communications channel; social networking sites even more so. If people show an interest in your profile, make a point of sending a thank you comment. Listen to what people have to say about what you’re doing. One of the big themes in marketing is getting closer to your customer. The idea is that the customer can help you shape the services or products you offer, so that create services or products that are more appealing to your target market. MySpace offers all sorts of opportunities to communicate with your customers, so take advantage of MySpace to interact.

You need to add value: Try to put something on your profile that will add value to the experience of people visiting your profile. It can be something as simple as information, or it can be more. A lot of the promotional sites offer backgrounds, or badges, or widgets that other MySpace members can add to their site.

I’d be very interested in your ideas. Do you agree or disagree with the principles I’ve come up with? Do you have some principles that you’d like to add?

The Universal Music Group is set to take on MySpace and You Tube over copyright, alleging that the sites are allowing users to post copyrighted material.

“We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars,” Universal CEO Doug Morris was quoted as saying.

“How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly,” he said.

Morris has a point. Universal Music Group does own the copyright of the music and videos of its acts, and it’s pretty obvious that some of the music and videos being posted are violating copyright (some but not all, as some online providers of music and video code have the appropriate licenses).

However, what Morris doesn’t realize is that the world have changed, and it’s not just MySpace and YouTube. Sure, they may recover some damages from these companies, but as many corporations have found, the old rules no longer apply.

Take the example of Napster. Yes the music industry has managed to clean up Napster, but what can it really do about the open-source alternatives, such as Bit Torrent, that have sprouted up as alternatives?

My advice to Morris is that his efforts would be better spent adapting his business model to the new competitive environment, and instead of taking on MySpace and YouTube, he should be turning them into partners. Though, I’ll be the first to admit, that this is easier said than done.

Hacking MySpace has been available in book stores in the US for the last couple of weeks, but I only received my author’s copies yesterday.

While I’ve written a number of books over the years, I still get a buzz when I first see the finished product. I think the publisher, Wiley, has done a great job on the cover design and layout.

And yes, the book is red, and not blue (as it was shown in the previews).

If you do decide to get a copy, or already have one, I’d really like to get your feedback. I’d also be interested in hearing about any ideas you have for this site.

If you feel that the book or web site has helped you, than I would really appreciate your help in trying to get it onto MySpace’s top ten books list (which you can find out how to do here).

John Pospisil