California High Speed Rail 

500 million trips around California in one year is a lot - a lot of poisonous gases. There are only clear advantages of California building this High Speed Rail system, including 600 thousand new construction jobs, 450 permanent jobs and state oil dependence reduced by 12.7 million barrels/year. If that’s not enough, you will be able to hop on a train in downtown San Francisco and arrive in downtown LA 2 hours and 40 min later. Hope I’m still here by 2020. 

How we thrive

Faris Yakob is right when it comes to many things in the consumer world, and in this video he talks about gaming and B2B communication. He is right about gaming being a more accurate reflection of how society works with brands - we interact with the brand, participate in the brand and engage in the brand. He is also right about the narration part, of course.

The fact is, the best work comes from people sharing ideas, as Matt Ridley demonstrates, (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex.html) and these are only cultivated, in my opinion, when real relationships are formed. Not the stiff, corporate relationships, where people have to put up a facade that restricts their creativity and personal thoughts, which leads me to the environments people are supposed to thrive in. Cold, plain, uncomfortable, dark offices. Are you serious? Go out for a walk, have a picnic, sit on a bench and people watch, got to galleries - get inspired. One of the reasons an office space is built sterile is because it should fit every person and need - why not build different spaces then? One for brainstorming, one for more formal meetings, one for process etc. There are already different spaces in an office building, so use them. We need to minimize the corporate artificial way we appear, our suuroundings and the way we speak. As is stated in Dan Pink’s article, “If someone is really, truly sorry,” says Fried, “that’s how they respond.” But in business we rarely talk like that. Instead, we resort to a weird and inadvertent bilingualism. We speak human at home and “professionalese” at work. And that might be hurting our businesses more than we realise. In the end it’s about business and money, right? So why not invest in something real? I wish to be a part of a more liberal team one day, that understands how humans work.  

Vampire Energy

Us urban habitants constantly have electronic devices around us. But we forget them when not in use. 

Its great to see this kind of forward thinking, for many obvious reasons, such as practical, environmental and healthy living. I have to say that the people of Copenhagen have qualified as true urbanists and have adapted to the modern city. I am not suggesting that you take the cargo bike far out with heavy loads - its good for short distances. And they are a lot of fun. Who wouldn’t like to order thirst-quenching refreshers from the Margarita Bike while sitting in the park? I think this connects people, as you feel closer to a business when you skip that concrete barrier of a store or a metal van. Businesses also get to approach you in a more private environment. With caution though; I don’t want to see shouting and screaming for attention like in the annoying touristy areas. If a business gets the privilege of taking a peak into your private life, it needs to do so with a lot of respect.