JK Rowling gave the 2008 graduation address at Harvard. You can read and watch it here.
I think it’s excellent, focusing on the benefits of learning from failure and imagination.
This section is the best for me:
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other peoples minds, imagine themselves into other peoples places. Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise. And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are….
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
A new generation of students - those born Internet-ready - is working it’s way throught the school system, and is about to hit the workplace, with all of its training rooms and courses. This “Millennial generation” (sometimes called “generation Y”) has a distinctive set of characterizing traits and unique learning interests that presents a serious challenge to existing educational institutions and methodologies.
I am sitting in a full day session with Gary Hamel. I didn’t pay enough money to be alone with him, so I am sharing the hall with a few hundred other people, representing many of South Africa’s top corporates and leading businesses. Gary has been great. I enjoy his style (his PowerPoint slides are are shocker, but he is a relaxed and engaging presenter). His content is compelling. He knows his stuff. It’s been woirth the time and money investment.
Here I sit, at another conference without power. Don’t get me wrong - I am not talking about the content. I am at Gary Hamel’s latest thing: “The Future of Management”, a full day session with the innovation guru himself. “Live and in person”, just as the advertising promised! The guy is good, and probably the best academic on the issue of innovation in business. So, the content is great.
According to 
There are more and more cars on the road, and the complexity of these cars is ever increasing. Who is going to service them? Who is going to fix them when they break? Already, you have to book a few weeks in advance to get your upper-end car in for its regular service. And the quality of the servicing leaves something to be desired. This is a worldwide problem, as a report in “Tire Review online” suggests. Its in the 11 Sep 2006 edition, and is entitled: “Shops in Crisis? The Tech Shortage”, by Steve LaFerre. 
The scene: a meeting of the Direct Marketing Association that took place last October. In a banquet room in Toronto, before an audience of roughly 2,500 people, Siegel is introduced as one of the world’s leading Internet strategists. Rather than begin his talk from the podium or unveil a deck of PowerPoint slides, he walks around the room and asks to borrow a nice watch. A volunteer named Ted offers his Rolex.
It is a worldwide trend that women do not pursue MBAs as much as men. A recent Stanford lecture gave some insights.
A universal truth about a group photo is that, once it has been taken and the picture developed, the photo is only as good as each individual thinks they look. Make sense? Next time you are looking at a group photo that includes you, take note of who you look at first, as you pick up the picture. Then watch yourself pass a judgement on the entire photo, based on how good or bad you looked. Forget the fact that there were 70 other people in the photo who may have looked amazing…
Dave Winer has come up with the idea for an unconference out of sheer desperation - conferences are malignantly boring. Here’s the full text, or you can read his post 
For all the teachers who read this, and are interested in generational theory, here is a great lesson plan that helps children develop a multitude of skills, and at the same time learn something about the generation gap.
I was chatting to my business colleague, Keith Coats, the other day. His daughter, Tamryn, registered for university this past week. Keith was amazed at the choices of course packages that were available. This sparked a discussion. Keith was at varsity in the 70s. I was there in the early 90s.
We have all been to them, we all know what they are like and yet nothing changes. I’m talking about conferences in general and in some cases the strategy sessions and planning sessions that go on in the corporate world. They are generally, to use an analogy, like last weeks rolls that have been warmed up in the oven. They seem to be good, they look good, until you bite into them and then you know they are stale. The same goes for company planning sessions and conferences, they are generally stale and boring. So what is the fix. Well, according to 
I just had a birthday. My amazing wife bought me an iPod Video. It replaces my iPod mini that’s given me hours of amazingness. I used my iPod mini for mostly travelling by plane to escape the mind-numbing experience of airline travel. As I discovered PodCasts I spent a lot less time listening to music, and a lot more time getting some great input from the various PodCasts I subscribe to. The iPod video will enhance my experience even more. (that’s the theory)
I have just been playing around with Google’s online book search & it is awesome. 
I do quite a bit of work with my girls’ school, and have convinced them to start a computer games club at the school - as an extra mural option for the girls at the school.
While many of us speculate, comment and muse on the future, there is a 50/50 chance we could be right, more likely an 80/20 chance we could be wrong, who predicted blogging would be so big?, or that the web would become so pervasive or even, more sinister, who could have predicted that the 9/11 attacks would take place (Funny thing, Clem Sunter actually DID predict this in one of his books on scenario planning!!) However, being a futurist is not an exact science!
Many people tend to confuse the term with any skilled or trained worker, especially in the ICT sector, but this is not the case.
Here’s a thought from the DeMoines Register: Its time for America to enact another GI Bill - to give free education to “veterans”, to upskill them for a new economic reality. The previous time this was done was for veterans of World War II, who needed to be upskilled after the war. Most of them fuelled the emerging Information era over the following decades.
I picked up a post (more of a rant) by Rich…! at the always entertaining 
I have played the trumpet since I was 11, and even spent two years doing it professionally, including a year as lead trumpeter of the National Serviceman’s Orchestra of the South African Air Force (whilst conscripted in the late 1980s). I love the instrument, and still play to this day. When I was just out of the Air Force (at the “height” of my trumpet playing ability), I attended a concert by Phil Driscoll, one of the greatest trumpeters in the world. In fact, he is a genius musician, with a gravelly voice like Miles Davis, legendary trumpet and picolo trumpet ability, plays piano, bass and a few other instruments as well. Just oozes music. When he played the trumpet, it looked and felt like it was just an extension of his body. He was one with the instrument, and I was left dazed and in awe.
I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking around the plausibility of incorporating blogging in classrooms. The idea first struck me while catching up on my Biology skills with 
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