Sommarkurser

Jag har tidigare sommar ofta haft olike saker jag har fått för mig att göra, ofta med anledning att byta miljö, och uppleva och lära mig nya saker. Saker som att säsonga i Turkiet eller Grekland, jobba som volontär på festivaler, eller som senast, en roadtrip med okända personer genom USA som avslutades med det väldigt speciella Burning Man.

Lärande

Denna sommar blir annorlunda för mig – jag kommer satsa på utbildningar och kurser. Inte att gå själv, utan att lära ut och hålla i dem. Lärande och utbildning är något jag vill satsa mer på. Jag vet jag är bra och pedagogisk, och genom min erfarenhet från olika branschen är jag insatt i flera olika ämnen. Jag känner också att jag långsiktigt vill engagera mig i utbildningar – för jag ser missmatchen mellan vad som efterfrågas på arbetsmarknaden och vad personer utbildar sig till som ett stort samhällsproblem. Så detta är lite att testa idéer och koncept på hur utbildningar kan göras också.

Två olika kurser

Denna sommar kommer jag engagera mig i två olika kurser. Det ena är Scandinavian School of Coffee, även känt som Caféskolan, där jag kommer vara involverad i sommarens baristautbildning. Min långa erfarenhet från café och baryrket, med fokus på service, teamwork och stresshantering, är det jag kommer fokusera på där. Det blir med andra ord en rätt praktiskt utbildning.

Den andra kursen jag kommer vara engagerad i är Contentors nya satsning på SEO skribent skrivarkurser. Genom vår interna certifieringprocess hos Contentor har vi redan en vana av att lära ut och utforma material. Nu är tanken att ta det till nästa nivå, och ge enveckors utbildningar, på plats hos oss. Vi märker det finns många som vill bli skribenter, men det finns idag ingen standard inom branschen. Något som skapar ett problem, för lärde man sig skriva bra SEO texter för 5 år sedan så är det väldigt annorlunda mot hur det är att skriva bra texter idag. Vi vill att personer får en chans att lära sig det nyaste.
I denna satsning blir jag väldigt involverad, och kommer ha ansvar för stora delar. Det ska bli väldigt spännande att ta fram och hålla i denna kurs!

Enda nackdelen med dessa sommarplaner: jag kommer inte resa bort. Sen är o andra sidan denna del av Sverige, speciellt Helsingborg, fantastiska sommarställen. Så kanske inte så farligt.

The worlds tallest building during the medieval ages – and why they actually got shorter

A recently wrote an answer on Quora, regarding the worlds tallest buildings during before the industrial revolution and the modern times. Interestingly enough, it turned out they actually got shorter for a very long time!

The Question:
What were the tallest buildings during the Middle Ages, and what are the tallest buildings today?

The answer, as I wrote it:

Wikipedia has the answer, of course there is a list for this… :) See: Timeline of three tallest structures in the world.

  • For a very long time the Pyramid of Cheops was the tallest building / structure.
  • 1300-1549 the tallest building in the world was the Lincoln Cathedral in London – 160 meters
  • 1549-1625 St Olafs Church in Tallin – 159 meters (actually shorter then the Lincoln Cathedral, but the top spire at the Lincoln Cathedral collapsed in 1549 and was not rebuild)
  • 1625-1647 During this short time it was the St. Mary’s Church in Stralsund – 151 meters (also shorter, because St Olafs Church was hit by lightning and burned down, not rebuild at the same height)
  • 1647 and for a couple of hundred years Strasbourg Cathedral was the tallest buidling – 142 meters (also shorten then the previous record holders – as the St. Mary Church in Stralsund was struck by lightning in 1647, and burned down. It was rebuilt with a baroque dome, which, completed in 1708, is only 104 meters tall).

So those are the tallest structures during the middle ages. At least according to wikipedia… And somewhat unexpected that the tallest building actually got shorter during this long period of time.

As for the tallest today, that is rather simple:

  • Burj Khalifa – 829.8 meters
  • Tokyo Skytree – 634 meters
  • Shanghai Tower – 632 meters

I really like the way Quora makes it possible to find interesting topics and questions. And also makes you research things yourself, even if you do not know the answer – such as in this case.

Att tycka om kontraster

Är det något upplevelsen av Burning Man har lärt mig, både med själva festivalen och alla dess förberedelser, men framförallt allt runt omkring med communityn så som Facebook gruppen, är det att kontraster och starka motsättningar inte behöver vara dåliga. Utan att de tvärtom kan leda till väldigt intressanta saker.
Liknande inser jag när jag tänker på Young Entreprenuers of Sweden, och hur det nätverket utvecklat och sig under de år jag har varit medlem. Ett nätverk där många viljor möts och har ett intressant, men mycket bra, utbyte av varandra.

Kontraster tror jag är bra, för de lyfter fram hur komplext världen egentligen är, och gör det lättare för personer att påtala saker. Det är lättare att lyfta upp fler saker som kontrasterar status quo, ifall det redan finns tydliga konstraster.

The tyranny of the social self

In our Mindpark book-club we still read Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnemann, and recently we went thru the part where the book talks about “the tyranny of the remembering self“. This is a very interesting concept, that says that we as humans do a lot of things not because we want to do it, but because we like to remember that we have done it. This leads to both good and bad effects in our daily life.

One of the examples from the book is:
If you ask people that they would be able to go on a vacation whereever they want in the world, but afterwards all pictures or films they had taken would be destroyed, and they would take a pill that makes them forget the entire vacation, what would they spend on that vacation? It turns out most would not go at all, some not even if they where payed for it. An interesting visualization of the concept, that we do things not because we enjoy every moment of them, but because we want to enjoy remembering we did them. Which explains a lot of the decisions we make that can seem ‘illogical’.

Is social a deeper reason?
However, when I thought about it more, and paired it to my own experience of what drives me, I realized that maybe it is not a tyranny of the remembering self – it might rather be a tyranny of the social self. Kahnemann suggests we do most things because our remembering self gets to decide, rather then our experiencing self. But maybe it is rather our social self that decides – we want to tell others that we have done what we do.
Others could be either just a partner or close friend, as well as everybody – but I think in the age of the internet and social media, it shows that we do things because we want to be able to tell about it, and not just ‘for ourselves’. Of course, this also requires us to remember it. But I think the social aspect might be “deeper” reason behind it, then just the remembering aspect.

It might be that I am wrong, or it might that when Kahnemann played with the idea of the remembering self we just where not as surrounded by social-proof and sharing as we are now – but I think the recent years have revealed more insights into what really drives us humans. And one them might be this – that we do things not because we want to them, but because we like to tell others that we have done them.

I know that that often is the case for me at least, I am honest towards my own feelings and motivations.

How to improve business: looking at competitors

Today we had one of our Mindpark Bookcircle meetings, talking about the book we are currently reading, Thinking Fast and Slow. During a discussion about what to apply from the book to businesses, a good insight came to light, regarding what we called ‘competition neglect’

The theory behind competition neglect is that as businessmen, we are very bad at actually looking at our competitors and what they are doing. Even if that would seem like common sense to keep up with your competitors and draw lessons from their actions, in reality most entrepreneurs and businessmen are really bad at doing this. All of us participating at the meeting agreed to this – we do not look at competitors, or if we do, then we focus on things they do badly.

How come?

Here are some insights from the discussion:

  • Do due inflated self-importance, a feature even stronger in many entrepreneurs, we do like to believe that we are better then others. Maybe not the best, but certainly above par, better then most
  • Looking at competition seriously endangers our own self-image, as it might show that we are not as good as we think we are. This is emotionally extremely tough and therefor we find excuses and avoid doing it
  • This effect is even stronger the fewer competitors you have. The reasoning is this: if I have many competitors, then I can easily find many whom I think are not as good as myself, and therefor easily make myself believe that I am in the top bracket, above par. However, if I only have a handful of competitors, then even realizing that just one is better then I am dangerously threatens my self-image, as the risk of not being in the top bracket gets very big
  • Interesting enough, we have no problems looking at competitors when starting up a business. However, as soon as we are on our way, we like to compare us to the competitors the way we knew them when we did the research, and turn a blind eye to the fact that they might evolve and improve there business a long the way

All of these where very interesting insights.

Solutions for fighting competition neglect

We realized that in larger companies and corporation, competition neglect might be smaller. Both because the business is not as founder-centric as in smaller businesses and start-ups, as well as having employees with the task of keeping an eye on what competitors do.

For small businesses we realized there was an interesting solution to this problem. The best one is not, surprisingly, to force the founders to look more at competitors, as the self-delusion is actually good for the company. A founder of a company is one of it’s most critical sales persons, and thinking you are better then most competitors improves confidence in sales and self-promotion, which both are critical for a business to succeed.

Instead, the solution might be to give the task of monitoring competitors to one of the board members. This person does not need the illusionized grandness because sales is not their biggest focus, and he / she is senior enough to be listened to by the board, in contrast if an employee would be given the task of keeping track of competitors.

Tankar om att uppmuntra kreativitet i en stad #shareable

Återuppväcker denna sida lite till liv igen, efter lite stilstånd. Har lite fler tankar att dela med mig av tror jag.

Joakim Jardenberg skrev ett intressant inlägg på Facebook, jag citetar här och klistrar in filmen han hänvisar till. Jag skrev ett långt inlägg på det, och tycker det är synd om det går förlorad i cyberspacen, så tänkte jag klistrar in det här också.

Joakims post:

Filmen som syftades på var från Shareable

Mina tankar på det hela, som blev en lång kommentar:
Det är svårt det där. Mindpark känns ju redan som ett ställe som de pratar om, och engagerar många. Men är svårt hur man gör det på balansen mellan stad och medborgare. En tanke jag har är fler initiative som Creativelab Hackerspace, som hade kunnat stöttas med enkla medel och åstadkomma mycket.

En tanke jag har fått är att en stad (eller annan organisation) kan skapa “pottar” med saker som vill uppmuntra. Löst reglerade, och där man kan få allt från 10 000 till kanske 250 000 eller så ur potten. Om man ska vara väldigt konkret så skulle en tanke vara tex en pott för det s.k. H+ området, som gör att gör man saker där kan man söka pengar från potten.

Varför är detta en vettig lösning tror jag? Jo, jag tror att de som vill skapa, de behöver inga heltidslöner eller trygghet. Kan de få en mindre summa som gör att de klarar sig under några månader, givet att de gör något de själva vill göra, så kommer de kunna skapa fantastiska saker.

Är du en person som vill ändra saker och ‘skapa’ något har då få val. Antingen blir du företagare, som jag. Eller så blir du kommunanställd, som Artur Moustafa, vilket dock inte är din största dröm (antar jag nu bara, inget illa menad Artur om det är det i din fall). Men tänk vad vi hade kunnat göra, eller personer som Peter Eriksson eller Dimitrij Aleshkov ifall man hade kunnat söka pengar enkelt för att göra alla konstiga saker man hade velat.

Allt hade inte varit bra, men det ha skapats saker som aldrig förr. Och en pott med en begränsad summa (säg 2 eller 4 Msek totalt) hade gjort att det inte kan skena iväg.

Men det är bara mina tankar. Jag har lyft dem med Palle Lundberg en gång, och fick då visheten om att HASP finns, vilket jag inte visste innan. Dock är HASP inte riktigt detta heller – för stora krav är den känsla jag har fått (200+ hotellnätter om jag har fattat det rätt vill man gärna se som effekt). Vilket inte är fel, men gör inte att en kreativ person kan skapa det där sommarcaféet i ‘folkets hamn’ som det hade räckt med 25-50′ för att finansiera för en sådan person, eller den där after-beach konserten 5 gånger under sommaren, som en budget på 50-80′ hade gjort under för.

Du kan klicka på Joakims inlägg ovan för att se hur diskussionen fortsatte.

Vision: Øresund

Sometimes people ask me why I do some of the stuff/projects I do. There are, of course, many different reasons but when it comes to projects in Helsingborg and the sorroundings, I have a strong vision of what I want to achieve which guides me – I want a greater integration in the Øresund region.

The main reason for this is simple national selfishness – I believe the Swedish side has alot to win by just seeing Copenhagen as its closest capital. That is because a capital has alot of benefits – in most countries the capital is the place where the countries “best” people gather. The most creative artist, the best IT-companies, the most extravagant social media gurus, the best law firms etc. This I think is especially true in Denmark, where there are few other large cities that can compete with Copenhagen, compared with Hamburg/Stuttgard/Düsseldorf vs Berlin in Germany or Gothenburg vs Stockholm in Sweden.

So it’s my opinion that alot of people living on the Swedish Øresund side, like Malmö or Helsingborg, have alot of good people/networks nearby, that most simply don’t realize.

For example, social media (or any other field for that matter)
If you want to make a name for yourself, it would be alot better to surround yourself with Copenhagens greatest minds. Go to their gatherings, their workshops. Because being in a crowd of the best people in a countries is alot more powerful then just being with Malmös or Helsingborgs best people – because then you wouldn’t be able to be he best, without being frequent guest in Stockholm. I mean just look at Joakim Jarderberg.

That’s why better Øresund integration is something worth striving for (and in the similar way, it is good for the danish side too – a larger “brain pool” that is part of the network).

Of course there are many solutions to this problem, and my own personal favorit is: gossip

My opinion is that one thing that is really needed is a shared news-network. Just the fact that on the swedish side Sydsvenskan has more or less nothing on Helsingborg, just as Helsingborgs Dagblad has more or less nothing from the Malmö area, is really bad. And just as bad is that both have more or less nothing about Copenhagen, even thougt there is enough happening there to fill most of Denmarks biggest newspappers.

The reason it’s bad is because news are one of the few things that is present in most peoples everyday live. Most talk about what the read in the news (either in papper, TV or internet) during their coffeebreaks, or with their friends and family. This gives a regionwide “shared experience”, something that lets you easily talk to strangers or new people in your network, because they have also knowledge about the news.

One thing which I find intresting is that gossip is really powerful in this regard. I, personally, don’t have much left over for gossip, but I see it for what it is – giving people something to talk about, to feel good about themselves together with theyre surrounding.
I feel that it is ridicilous that people here in Helsingborg know alot about the nightlive and happenings of the Stockholm elite, but more or less nothing about that in Copenhagen – even though it more or less is the same, with the same kind of people and same kind of spectacles. And just imagine how much more fun would be if you knew that this or that person is famous, when you are out for a beer in Copenhagen.

So that would be one of my favorite steps towards better integration – more gossip ;)


Update: Saw that Joakim linked here in his 10th of june post. Thank you! So in order for this to look better I corrected some spelling errors. And also made a more selling headline.
If you, for some reason, want to contact me but not leave it as a comment, you can reach me at karsten@deppert.se

Fairtrade coffee?

An idea has grown on me the last couple of days – I am currently investigating if it is possible to transform my coffeehouse to be the first fairtrade coffeehouse in Helsingborg. And still keep the costumer base it has today.

Maybe it will turn out to be Swedens cheapest fairtrade coffeehouse (for students atleast)?

Dare to ask

One lesson I really have learned is that you have to dare to ask others. For example if you are looking for a job, you should ask anyone around you that might be able to help you. Family, former co-workers or, above all, former teachers. The importance of asking is because if you do not ask, people will not think about you when they see an opportunity. But if you tell them that you seek something, they will come to remember it when they see something relevant.

I have heard this has to do with the way the brain works. It works by remembering things people have done or said, and things we have experienced. If you do not say it, another person cannot remember it.

So if you seek something – tell it to the world, and your chances of finding it will increase.