Text Sushi by Alf Rehn

When one of the absolutely most wealthy Americans in the world starts voicing socialist talking points, you know that the world has changed:

In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class Is Winning - New York Times

I love this. Made my morning.

The 25 Funniest Analogies (Collected by High School English Teachers) « Writing English

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

Despite our desire for another state of affairs, and despite our attempts to see ourselves as suave and elegant creatures, our lives are spent in constant clumsiness. We all pitch in, muddling our way through a awkward world, and we all look about in amazement at the sheer ineptness of it all. We do not so much sometimes lapse into being clumsy than constantly try to be less clumsy than we are, and try our darndest to escape our inevitable awkwardness. We stutter, stumble, stub our toes, spill our coffee, dance badly, miss the beat, and belatedly realize that what we took to be a droll witticism was seen as oafishly offensive. In other words, it is not so much a case of clumsiness being something we occasionally slip into, with calm and poise being the natural state of affairs, than the case of gracefulness and aplomb being radical breaks with this natural state. Not only are you and I clumsy, all our friends are too, and their friends, as well as this whole damnable creation we call the world.

Despite this, there is very little in the way of a theory of clumsiness, not to mention the lack of a philosophy of gracelessness. This might go to show that inquiries into the human condition still cling on to the hope that this state could be seen as a state of grace, with man standing proud on the very apex of creation. Still, the human animal is a peculiarly awkward and ungainly one, with little of the physical elegance of e.g. a large animal. One could argue that any theory of human behavior is, always already, a theory of clumsiness – it is just a roundabout one, created in order to salvage at least a little grace.

Stating this might sound like the cynical lashing out of a disgruntled teen, prepared to take vengeance on a world s/he doesn’t feel attuned to, but my interest in clumsiness should not be interpreted as cynicism. I do not find humanity less worthy just because I think clumsiness is omnipresent. On the contrary, I feel that the ungainliness of man is an interesting and intellectually stimulating fact, and that it might be our powers of approximate behavior rather than our faculties for exact rationality that define us. Therefore I believe a theory of clumsiness is needed. I shall return to this.

I found a link to Greg Williams work via BoingBoing, and curiously, it led to me thinking about an old favorite concept: Hammerspace.

The necessity for such a space in popular culture is widespread:

• How can action-heroes carry so much ammunition?
• How can game-characters move about when carrying a dozen weapons and assorted paraphenalia?
• Where does the additional bulk come from when Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk?
• Exactly where does a Looney Tunes-character go when drawing a door on a rock (or a wall), opening it and then closing it?

Of course, there was the high-tech version in Ultraviolet, and pocket universes, but the low-tech of hammerspace always attracted me the most. I wonder if one couldn’t create a sociological equivalent? Think about it:

• Where do all the multiple discourses of an organization fit?
• How can one carry all ones identities?
• Isn’t a brand really a hammerspace porthole?

Maybe theory, in itself, is a hammerspace concept?

Just a quick peek into the blogosphere will tell you that a lot of folks are thinking about productivity these days. Popular blogs like Lifehacker and 43 Folders have made productivity into something of a daily obsession, and David Allen’s curiously popular Getting Things Done-program is touted not so much as a model but as a philosophy and a lifestyle. And although it is obvious that part of this obsession with a less cluttered life springs from the fact that life is increasingly seen as hectic and pressured, one cannot but be bemused how the pursuit of productiveness has gone from actually doing things to meta-productivity.

The industry of productivity – models, methods and all – is booming. New calendars, new Filofaxes, new systems are flooding the market, and we even have meta-meta-productivity, as in the case of blogs about ways to enhance ones life. In part this is a security blanket for the modern professional, a form of allowed escapism (”I’ll get my life together once I’ve managed to convert everything into this new and streamlined model of getting even more things done.”), but in part it seems to be a symptom of the impossibility of productivity in an age of interminable meetings, flying across the globe for one hour of meetings and signing a document, and rampant email. Digital and social grey goo is everywhere, and blogging wont solve it. Yeah, I’m cynical today (too).

I love this kind of kooky stuff: 1 Second Film. Obviously, I paid some to finance this fine and upstanding project. I’ve always wanted to be a film producer.

Leafing through FastCompany, I was once again struck by the similarities between business ideas and zombies. As one is. I’m supposed to give a talk on zombies and organizing the living dead at Manchester Business School in December – I’ll be giving a keynote on luxury and project management a few days earlier at the same school, so my reputation for ..ahem, idiosyncratic interests should be reinforced – so zombies are on my mind. But my observation today was less esoteric. Quite simply, it seems to be a fact of life that certain business ideas simply cannot die, regardless of how many failures litter the field.

An example: Offices away from the office, i.e. “office love hotels”. The kind of place where the weary business traveler can set up a makeshift office, where there are phonelines, good internet connections, coffee and a comfortable table-chair combo, maybe even a conference room. Preferably set up in the teeming business district, such “hour-lease” offices are thought of as havens for the salary-man away from the home office, who’ll gladly for over some money to use a decent work environment for a short while. There are a number of these setups going, even in Stockholm. Still, I do not believe in this idea.

I’ve seen this suggested for the last fifteen years, yet no-one seems able to turn this into a successful business. Why? And why do people keep trying? The former question is easier to answer. With mobile technologies, setting up an office takes, well, nothing. Supplying phone lines, faxes and internet connections is basically like bragging you can supply electricity and water – so can a bar, or a hotel room, or the office you’re having a meeting at. The business of supplying infrastructure has changed radically, and I’m sure there is a business to be made in it, but this is not one. Offering a nice table and a good chair is a little more attractive, but then pricing comes in. How much will I pay to sit comfortably for an hour? If we’re talking flying to the US, I will pay for business class, yes (or not go, my back can’t survive 12 hours in coach), but not when I fly to Copenhagen. A desk simply isn’t that big a deal. Leaves coffee (duh) and the conference-room. Now, I’m not saying that access to a nice set-up for a meeting isn’t worth paying for, for it is. But then we have to take costs into account. For this to be worth something, it has to be very, very conveniently placed. It can’t be more than two blocks away, as it is then easier just to do stuff at the coffee-shop, and these hour-lease offices are through the law of averages always too far away. Ergo, I do not think they can ever really work.

But why do people keep trying? Why does this zombie always return? Well, as most business ideas that wont die, it just sounds too good. It is simple, communicable, seems to fill a “need”, and can be easily visualized. It seems like it should work, and no amount of empirical evidence will dissuade an entrepreneur that has bought into an idea. Ergo, the return of the living dead business idea. I’m beginning to think that this zombie-idea might have some milage in it.

Listening to Sweet and Lovely (Take 2) from the album “Monk Alone (Disc 1)” by Thelonious Monk

So, I’m back from China, where I couldn’t moblog, and possibly finally rid of my jetlag. It was worse than ever this time, completely annihilating me for three days. So here I am, with a pile of exams that need grading, a manuscript to finish in a couple of weeks, a journal article that need finishing, and supposed to give three or four public shows in the coming weeks. Moan, moan, moan, I’m turning into such a bitch.

Mood: Raspy Shit from the album “In My Mind” by Pharrell