Philosophy – Gabriel Catalano®

Sonera express the speed concept of its 4G technology through a mobile game in a traditional and static media. Great!
Agency: DDBHelsinky

Author: DARMA

In many Eastern cultures the Dharma is the mission that is entrusted to each person in the moment of birth. It is said that if we are able of hearing ourselves and act on our essential nature, we will find the meaning of our life. DARMA was born that way, from the vocation and the need to devote our lives to what excites us the most: the graphic design and advertising on the one hand, and the engineering on the other. This blog is a space for our thoughts and for all those things we like and love: design, art, architecture, inspiration, lifestyle…

The Content Marketing Manifesto

pizcos.net

Seomoz acaba de publicar esta presentación sobre marketing de contenidos que nos parece bastante interesante, aunque esta en ingles se entiende muy bien, son consejos lógicos y prácticos.

View more presentations from Rand Fishkin

What Happens When the Sad Clown Finds a Mirror?

There is a common phrase amongst people with a relatively pessimistic or self-destructive outlook. You’ll have probably heard it several times in your life, if not perhaps even said it yourself. Well if we understand that all experience is subject to the many facets and mechanistic intricacies of our personality reflected back to us, then you can see why you might be reading this for a reason.
Have you ever noticed people uttering this particular combination of words?

‘I’m not being pessimistic, I am just a realist.’

Written by Ross Garvey - http://www.pickthebrain.com

There is a common phrase amongst people with a relatively pessimistic or self-destructive outlook. You’ll have probably heard it several times in your life, if not perhaps even said it yourself. Well if we understand that all experience is subject to the many facets and mechanistic intricacies of our personality reflected back to us, then you can see why you might be reading this for a reason.

Have you ever noticed people uttering this particular combination of words?

‘I’m not being pessimistic, I am just a realist.’

Therein is found a very revealing choice of words. Before I explain exactly what I mean, take a moment to ponder the many intricacies of the personality as I mentioned above in the following way. Ask yourself, what happens when you support a new teacher, a new potential leader of your nation for example and you find out he is a con-man? It’s a little embarrassing to you, a little harmful to the ego to feel you were ‘duped’ or ‘tricked’ into believing things that turned out to be just what you consider to be manipulation, but you move on and live life without losing too much self-esteem. Now what about if you had voted? What if you had picketed, protested, placed little stickers on all your windows showing your support, what if you had preached and delivered speeches and brought others into the magic of this man’s new vision of society. What if you had given all you are to the cause, and THEN you discover he is a fraud? Continuar leyendo «What Happens When the Sad Clown Finds a Mirror?»

Need Some Great Advice? Ask Death

Decisions are the key.

Every moment of every day of your life, you are making decisions. How many of those decisions are based on the fact that you are a being who is not only going to die, but could die at any moment? For example…

If most people knew they were going to die tomorrow, or next week, or even in a year, they would probably focus on just a few things…

Spending time with their loved ones
Forgiving and seeking forgiveness
Taking actions that they feel would make the world a better place
Doing the things they most enjoy doing — DON’T IGNORE THIS ONE
Tying up loose ends
Careful planning to make every moment count
Can you imagine what your life would be like if you were living like this now?

Written by Sky Abelar - http://www.pickthebrain.com

Death is a subject that few are comfortable with. Yet, making death your best friend can enhance your life in ways you might not otherwise imagine.

One of the most effective practices recommended by traditional Toltec teachers, is called, “Using death as an adviser”. Deceased author of over ten books of Toltec wisdom, Carlos Castaneda said…

“Death is the only wise adviser that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you’re about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you’re wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your death will tell you, ‘I haven’t touched you yet….In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.” Continuar leyendo «Need Some Great Advice? Ask Death»

7 Best Ways To Gain Confidence in 2011

Confidence is a characteristic that allows us to take risks in our lives. It is often through risk, we achieve great success in many aspects of our lives. It makes sense, therefore, to try to develop our own self-confidence as best we can in order to be successful and happy. Here are 7 best ways to do just that:

Create a Life Philosophy

The basis of your self-confidence will come from your having developed and followed a life philosophy. This life philosophy can grow out of a great thinker whom you admire, a convergence of ideas you’ve picked up in your education, or something unique to yourself that you’ve developed. The point is that you should have a philosophy that will guide your every action. If you have a solid philosophy on life, and it’s one that you’ve developed smartly, then you’ll always know how to act and think. That’s something you can be confident in.

Written by Barbara Jolie
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/7-best-ways-to-gain-confidence/

Create a Life Philosophy

Are You Barely Passing With Your Business Philosophy?

Here’s the thing: There were no right answers.

Philosophy isn’t something you get right or wrong. There’s no right answer – the textbooks are just there to make you think and learn how to question, explore and investigate life, situations, ethics, and morals so that you can come up with fairly rational arguments about what you believe is the right answer.

The right answers are yours and yours alone.

But I didn’t know that. I was doing what I thought was expected of me – following “the rules”. I thought that if I followed them perfectly, I’d get high marks. I’d succeed.

Written by James
http://menwithpens.ca/business-philosophy/

I hated philosophy class in university. Absolutely couldn’t stand it. I read the textbooks and documents several times, listened to the audio files over and over again and wrote papers that should have pinned down the right answer perfectly.

And each time the grades for my papers came back, my face fell. They always hovered somewhere between 60 and 70%. Never higher.

So I worked harder. Read more. Listened longer. Wrote better. And still the grades came back in the dreaded range.

I didn’t understand it. It was frustrating. I was pulling high marks in other courses, so why not this one? I was working hard, but it didn’t seem to be enough.

And how much more work would it take to nail this class? Why wasn’t I acing this one? What did my professors want? Why couldn’t I find the right answers to get 90s instead of 60s? Continuar leyendo «Are You Barely Passing With Your Business Philosophy?»

Multi-tasking is a waste of time!

by: Andrew Cox

http://www.addtodesign.com/freelance/multi-tasking-is-a-waste-of-time

My desk is a mess. My desktop is full of icons. My in-box is overflowing. I have a list of people to get in touch with. I have what feels like a hundred decisions to make…. does this sound familiar? I have a horrible case of Multi-tasking-itis…

In the same boat? Click here for a fantastic FREE remedy – Simpleology

I don’t know what has happened… work seemed to creep up on me… like the grey hairs invading my scalp!

It feels like I’m working three or more jobs. Paperwork, administration, design, accounting, writing, marketing, coach and local tech consultant.

While it is great to be ‘busy’ and to have lots of things on the go – I’m not complaining 🙂 – one thing has become clearly apparent… MULTI-TASKING IS A WASTE OF TIME!!

I know that this is not a breakthrough discovery, however, it is a great reminder – we produce mediocre results when we don’t give things our full attention.

Moreover, we waste time as we move from one task to another… losing our place… avoiding aspects of a ‘boring’ task… procrastinating… wearing down our enthusiasm… brain farting… building up stress etc.

If you want to do great work, avoid multi-tasking and focus on one thing at a time. Finish it and move on to the next thing.

Yes, it means some things aren’t going to get done as fast as some people may want. It means some people aren’t going to get your full attention for a while. But producing a lot of mediocre work, or making a heap of poorly considered decisions just to get through the pile isn’t worth it.

Stop… take a break… stretch… walk around and then come back to finish one task – then give yourself a pat on the back and move on to the next one. You will feel better – I guarantee it!

7 websites (in no particular order) to help you slow down, get focused and prioritise…

by: Andrew Cox

http://www.addtodesign.com/freelance/multi-tasking-is-a-waste-of-time

In the same boat? Click here for a fantastic FREE remedy – Simpleology

I don’t know what has happened… work seemed to creep up on me… like the grey hairs invading my scalp!

It feels like I’m working three or more jobs. Paperwork, administration, design, accounting, writing, marketing, coach and local tech consultant.

While it is great to be ‘busy’ and to have lots of things on the go – I’m not complaining – one thing has become clearly apparent… MULTI-TASKING IS A WASTE OF TIME!!

I know that this is not a breakthrough discovery, however, it is a great reminder – we produce mediocre results when we don’t give things our full attention.

If you want to do great work, avoid multi-tasking and focus on one thing at a time. Finish it and move on to the next thing.

Stop… take a break… stretch… walk around and then come back to finish one task – then give yourself a pat on the back and move on to the next one. You will feel better – I guarantee it!

7 websites (in no particular order) to help you slow down, get focused and prioritise… Continuar leyendo «Multi-tasking is a waste of time!»

Insights first, ideas second

A more strategic way of generating ideas is to focus on building ideas on top of insights. Don’t get me wrong, thinking stuff up is fun. You let your imagination run wild, think of the impossible and think all kinds of stuff only you can imagine. It’s your own dream world! Mostly all these ideas will be way ahead of their time or not even doable. That’s why we need to combine our imagination with our intellect. Our intellect drives our capability to discover insights and our imagination helps put the pieces together in a new way.

So how do you discover new insights?

(…)Abstract

By Jorge Barba, an Innovation Insurgent | http://www.game-changer.net

Insights, they’re the seeds of new groundbreaking ideas.

A more strategic way of generating ideas is to focus on building ideas on top of insights. Don’t get me wrong, thinking stuff up is fun. You let your imagination run wild, think of the impossible and think all kinds of stuff only you can imagine. It’s your own dream world! Mostly all these ideas will be way ahead of their time or not even doable. That’s why we need to combine our imagination with our intellect. Our intellect drives our capability to discover insights and our imagination helps put the pieces together in a new way.

So how do you discover new insights? Continuar leyendo «Insights first, ideas second»

Look Backward, Look Inward, Look Forward for Success

Be it Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela or any of the other 6 billion or so people in the world, we all have one thing in common.

Everybody loses.

Beneath all the victory, power and flamboyance lie the painful scars of failures. Failures are the checks and balances put in place by God, nature, Darth Vader or whoever else you consider the omnipotent.

Passed on for a promotion for the umpteenth time? Denied all of the projects you bid on or applied for? Can’t get the cute blonde girl to go out with you? That’s sad. What exactly can you do about it?
Look Backward

The problem with lot of us human beings is that we don’t look back and reflect. Add it to a checklist and after every failed attempt, make it a habit to take a couple of hours for yourselves. Sit back and contemplate why things didn’t go the way they should have. Think of past mishaps and how they have not stopped you from taking another step forward. Be proud of how agile and adaptive you have been.

It also helps if you compare yourself with other people, be happy at what you have got and realize how blessed you are. But it has to be an “apples-to-apples” comparison. It would be ridiculous to compare yourself with a homeless person or a poor human being from a war torn country and consider yourself to be blessed. Compare yourself with your equals and people from your social circle.

To start with, find what your peers from the neighborhood, high school or college are doing. Not everyone from the class of ’88 will be a rockstar. Be happy that you have not squandered all the opportunities like Bill Jones did from the back benches. At the same time analyze how John Smith who sat in front of you is now a business tycoon. That’s a fair comparison. You don’t have to beat yourself up – but at the same time you cannot pat yourself on the shoulder just yet.

Justin Stravarius
http://workawesome.com/

Look Backward, Look Inward, Look Forward for Success

Be it Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela or any of the other 6 billion or so people in the world, we all have one thing in common.

Everybody loses.

Look Backward

From noticing to insight

There are a lot of ways to have insights, from quieting your mind to cultivating happiness all around you. Yet it doesn’t stop there, these are conditions that contribute to having insights. But what about active insight recognition?

That’s where observation comes in. Engaging one’s attention, not just seeing, contributes to the ability to make distinctions and then wondering why those distinctions exist.

For example have you noticed that some people, especially women, sit very close to the wheel of the car as if almost driving with their teeth? This can be attributed to many things such as their height, but that’s not entirely true. Elderly people come to mind when thinking about this but they have some physical limitations such as strength, shortsightedness and height. So why do some people drive almost with their teeth?

That’s where observation comes in. Engaging one’s attention, not just seeing, contributes to the ability to make distinctions and then wondering why those distinctions exist.

Ralph Lauren rompe las reglas de la publicidad con un modelo escayolado

Las fragancias de Ralph Laurent

Un logo de Ralph Lauren en versión XL

La campaña gráfica de The Big Pony se atreve a romper todos los esquemas de tradición de la marca, mostrando a modelos que parecen efebos en posturas ambiguas y que saca de todo molde al logo de Ralph Lauren, que se reinventa en una versión extra grande que ocupa casi la mitad del pectoral de los maniquíes.

Sin embargo, es en el vídeo de la campaña donde la marca Ralph Lauren suelta todas las amarras y aunque sin aclarar el origen de la misteriosa escayola, se atreve a situar a un rasta entre los invitados a una fiesta campestre organizada en torno a una partida de polo.

La marca Ralph Lauren decidió romper todas las reglas de la publicidad eligiendo como imagen de la campaña para sus nuevos perfumes The Pig Pony Collection, a un joven modelo escayolado.

La publicidad muestra a 4 jovencísimos modelos (de diversos orígenes étnicos) que representan a los ponys del producto, entre los cuales destaca un maniquí que lleva una escayola en el brazo, sostenida por un cinturón de polo, que indica que por un lado el estilo no se pierde y por otro apunta a que la lesión tiene un origen probablemente deportivo.

Ralph Lauren también se atrevió a romper con la sobriedad de su propia marca, que dictaba estilo con colores apocados y que se distinguía por su pequeñísimo logo, que los entendidos son capaces de distinguir a leguas, con un campaña colorida y tirada a los excesos. Continuar leyendo «Ralph Lauren rompe las reglas de la publicidad con un modelo escayolado»

Two Common Mistakes of Millennials at Work

Most if not all of the digital communities where Gen Y has spent time are highly egalitarian. They’re indifferent to pre-existing hierarchies and credentials, and sometimes even hostile to them. And these communities seem to Millennials to work really well; Wikipedia gives them good information on any topic under the sun, Intrade prediction markets tell them who’s going to win elections, Twitter lets them know what’s going on in the world better and faster than any other source, their Facebook friends answer their questions for them, and so on.

All this can make a strong case to Gen Yers that hierarchy and credentialism are passé as concepts, or should be. So when they show up after graduation at their first employer, some of them start acting this way.

Andrew McAfee

(…)

The first is simple oversharing. I wrote before how narrating your work is a very smart strategy because it lets you be helpful to others, and also increases the chances that they can help you. But narrating your every opinion, emotion, lunch, happy hour, hangover, etc. on your company‘s emergent social software platforms is just narcissistic clutter.

One of the knocks against Generation Y is that they’ve been encouraged to believe that everything they say and think is interesting, and should be aired and shared. This is simply not true for anyone, no matter what reality TV producers would have us believe. Periodically sharing bits of personal information is valuable because it humanizes you, lets others know what kind of person you are, and facilitates socialization and trust-building. But oversharing in the workplace just makes you annoying and immature.

The second not-so-smart practice of a digital native is to act as if all employees are equals, and equally interested in airing the truth. Continuar leyendo «Two Common Mistakes of Millennials at Work»

Why I Love 37signals

I don’t own any of 37signal‘s products. As a matter of fact, using Basecamp annoys the heck out of me. But I love 37signals and everything they do and stand for.

Why? They’re not afraid to say what they think, no matter who might get offended. A week ago, I posted an article called Teaching Graphic Designers About The Web. Personally I thought it was a great article and it seem to do well traffic-wise.

However a small demographic of my readers decided to completely ignore the 700+ word article and instead focus on one word – gay. Yes, I called the Droid gay. And no, I don’t regret it.

: Image via CrunchBase

I don’t own any of 37signal‘s products. As a matter of fact, using Basecamp annoys the heck out of me. But I love 37signals and everything they do and stand for.Why? They’re not afraid to say what they think, no matter who might get offended. A week ago, I posted an article called Teaching Graphic Designers About The Web. Personally I thought it was a great article and it seem to do well traffic-wise.

However a small demographic of my readers decided to completely ignore the 700+ word article and instead focus on one word – gay. Yes, I called the Droid gay. And no, I don’t regret it.

Why People Hate 37signals

I’ve never heard anyone say that they hated 37signals because their products stunk. Or their customer services. Or even their prices. Instead, people choose to hate 37signals because they think their “pompous” and “arrogant”. Apparently being truthful, speaking your mind and injecting humor into your writings now classifies as “arrogant” in the world today. Pity.

I’ve listened to every one of their podcasts and read all of their books. I have never seen one thing that was arrogant or pompous. I think their writing is hilarious and I actually enjoy reading their business books instead of falling asleep like I have with so many other’s books.

Why is it that in this day and age, we have to be so stuck up as to “punish” those that think outside of the box? You don’t want a full-time job? The government punishes you by making you pay double taxes. You want to be an artist? You get laughed at, the crappy building in college or told to get a real job. This world is seems to be built like a factory where from kindergarten you’re told to sit down, shut up and do the same thing as everyone else.

Another reason people hate 37signals is because 37signals writes about how they’ve been successful in business and people claim it can’t “always” be done like that. Well of course, it doesn’t work for everyone, otherwise we’d all be rich, right? Do you really want another general advise business book or a company writing about practices they don’t actually do; or do you want to hear about what a company actually did to be successful? Continuar leyendo «Why I Love 37signals»

Ideas and Challenges in Open Innovation

Reflections

Still from the ” 2nd Annual Open Innovation Summit ” I gathered from twitter via Jose Briones some tips left about the challenges faced by companies when looking for partners in innovation.

They are put here as reflections and hopefully help us to see where hovers often the inertia of some companies.

Surrender to uncertainty.

The information we receive or request is absorbed, but our minds have limitations. Too much information inhibits the meaning of data and makes use of a time incorrectly.

If it is difficult to find the ideal information (correct and legible) , the harder it is to make decisions based on collections of data without meaning and without purpose. It’s a battle is not won, only serves to consume resources and delay decisions.

Surrender yourself to your experience and decide.

Buy when rent is sufficient

As with housing, if our project at a given moment in life has a specific purpose, why buy a house?

Does the feeling of ownership is so strong that force me to buy a patent, or is there an alternative?

Overlooking the white space

The opportunities for disruptive innovation can reside entirely in the company.

The challenge begins with obtaining a clear understanding of the potential of the company. The attitudes of ease in the action lead to the demand outside of what can be done indoors.

The company must accept the challenges as they are – hard!

Look haystacks instead of needles

The perfectionist’s feelings are enemies of discernment when it translates into trying to collect all the possible elements for a decision or activity. A good challenge is to find a pre- definition of the elements to use. Companies and their agents often follow the philosophy that the more alternatives the better choice or decision, but the hype creates chaos.

25 25UTC Agosto 25UTC 2010 por jabaldaia

Reflections

Still from the ” 2^nd Annual Open Innovation Summit ” I gathered from twitter via Jose Briones some tips left about the challenges faced by companies when looking for partners in innovation.

They are put here as reflections and hopefully help us to see where hovers often the inertia of some companies.

Surrender to uncertainty.

The information we receive or request is absorbed, but our minds have limitations. Too much information inhibits the meaning of data and makes use of a time incorrectly.

Surrender yourself to your experience and decide.

Buy when rent is sufficient

As with housing, if our project at a given moment in life has a specific purpose, why buy a house?

Does the feeling of ownership is so strong that force me to buy a patent, or is there an alternative?

Overlooking the white space

The opportunities for disruptive innovation can reside entirely in the company.

The challenge begins with obtaining a clear understanding of the potential of the company. The attitudes of ease in the action lead to the demand outside of what can be done indoors.

The company must accept the challenges as they are – hard!

Look haystacks instead of needles

What is your story? Facebook likes to hear!

What is “Facebook Stories”?

This July, Facebook announced that it had passed the 500 million user milestone. Along with this announcement, Facebook also rolled out a new application, “Facebook Stories,” to celebrate its achievement. As the largest social network in the world, stories of how people are interacting with others on Facebook happen every day. However, these stories usually end up only on Facebook Status Updates and News Feed, where limited users (i.e.friends) can access.

By launching Facebook Stories, users are able to share their unique stories in a collective environment, and all users can read these stories searchable by location or theme. Themes cover a variety of topics such as education, relationships, reunions, love etc. and after reading a couple stories, I would add some are quite inspiring and mind-opening. While various people use Facebook to keep in touch with old friends, others have clearly allowed Facebook to become a part of their lives.