Pigeon: Impossible
Pigeon Impossible, the silent animated film by Lucas Martell released on 9 November that took 4 years to make, passed the 1 million views mark on YouTube after less than 2 weeks online. The film is set in the neighborhood of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., where two of my nieces and I […]
Goodbye to “one best way” solutions
Marvin Minsky of the MIT Media Lab and MIT AI Lab has a very pragmatic approach to robotic engineering and artificial intelligence based on systematic redundancy. “I’ve never seen any mechanical device that actually shows any thought about reliability,” he says (4:40) and goes on to explain his approach (from 4:45): “My theory is that […]
F is for first
First come, first served. First things first. One German translation would be “eins nach dem anderen” — one thing after another; break it down. The other would be “das Wichtigste zuerst” — the most important thing first; prioritize. I don’t think there is an equivalent phrase with both meanings in German. Wow: yet another example […]
Agile one to one. Progress, step by step
This is how I teach. Aiming too high can cause negative stress. I’ve learned to break learning down into small, productive, rewarding steps. I was thrilled and very priviledged to be sponsored by Cornelsen to present this at BESIG, the Business English Special Interest Group, in Poznan last weekend. It was a great event. This […]
One-upmanship
Just rereading a chapter in Peter Wilberg’s great book, One to One, entitled “Your basic attitude – one-upmanship?” Is this you?
Grammar guru: change jobs/ change the job?
Thanks to Markus’ very kind recommendation on Der Englisch Blog, last week’s Grammar guru question went off like a rocket: What’s the best alternative to “You don’t really need to register for the event”? “You don’t necessarily have to register for the event.” (86%, 36 Votes) “You mustn’t register for the event.” (14%, 6 Votes) […]
Conductors are managers
Helmut and I loved Itay Talgam‘s presentation of famous conductors and their styles, from the TED conference in Oxford. It’s actually not just a mirror of styles of management, it’s also a prism of culture, as control is organized in very different ways. So, which of the conductors appeals most to you: Carlos Kleiber, Ricardo […]
