Words to live by in 2015

Halfway through February seems as good of a time as any to reassess your goals for the year. Here’s ten words I’m trying to live by in 2015:

Declutter – your desk, home, mind and life.
Read – more of the things that light you up.
Learn – always expand your mind and your knowledge.
Accept – the things you cannot change.
Act – promptly in the things you can influence.
Unplug – take regular breaks from technology and media.
Listen – to your inner guide.
Move – your body more.
Sleep – earlier, longer, better.
Focus – on the things that really matter.

Geeks are the new rock stars

Guitarist_bugdog_1375213_13250127

These days, technology personalities get more clout and stardom than traditional ‘celebrities’. Tech folks are the cool folks now. Geeks are the new rock stars.

This is evidenced by popular events like TED and SXSW, where ideas and intelligence reign supreme. In fact, SXSW Interactive eclipsed the popularity of SXSW Music many years ago. Conference attendees are more excited by disruptive start-ups than they are mainstream music!

Continue reading “Geeks are the new rock stars”

Opinion: Dumb Ways to Die

Dumb-Ways-to-Die_Eat-a-tube-of-superglue

In the words of Metro Trains:

 

So what’s it all about?

Dumb Ways to Die is a YouTube video and song which delivers a train safety message in an innovative way. It features cute singing and dancing characters dying in a multitude of ways to illustrate that getting hit by a train is a “Dumb way to die”.

Continue reading “Opinion: Dumb Ways to Die”

The impact of people banding together

Baby-hands_haiinee_1391967_51320846

An employee at my mum’s work has a sick family member—her husband has cancer. Family illness is a horrible thing for anyone to endure. It creates extra worries, work, responsibilities and obligations. It puts a lot of stress on everyone involved.

So the employees at mum’s work created a great initiative: ease the burden by cooking a meal for that family each week. That way it gives the family of six, one less thing to worry about. Each week, a different person would cook a dinner dish for that family to enjoy.

I think this is fantastic.

Continue reading “The impact of people banding together”

What makes good blog content?

Hand-on-keyboard_sqback_1260787_20061053

Last week I wrote one of the most popular blog posts I’ve ever written—my post about the future of DVD rentals. It was favoured when measured not only by the statistics, but also by the feedback I received.

What really made me realise people appreciated the post was the number of comments I received about it offline (you know you’ve hit the big leagues when people bring up your blog post in person!). A few examples include:

Continue reading “What makes good blog content?”

My blog ranks higher than a retailer’s website in Google Search

yd-logo-white-on-black

Humour me with a quick experiment: run a Google search for the keywords “yd refund” or “yd refund policy“. If your search results are anything like mine, you’ll see a blog post written by Adam Jaffrey on 8 Jan 2010 in the top few results (it’s called Start your complaints at the top | by Adam Jaffrey).

My blog post ranks higher than Yd’s website in Google Search.

Continue reading “My blog ranks higher than a retailer’s website in Google Search”

How to get an internship: persevere, work hard and follow up

Taboo sketch IMG_5024

Today is my first day of a 3 month internship with Taboo.

Taboo is an awesome marketing agency in South Yarra which specialises in creative, innovative and youth oriented campaigns. They are well known in the industry for the great work they produce, which is reflected by their long list of big clients. Internships at Taboo are highly sought after and are very difficult to come by.

Continue reading “How to get an internship: persevere, work hard and follow up”