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The Top 5 Dream Jobs #top5dreamjobs
ROB FLEMING (Rob Gordon in the movie), FROM HIGH FIDELITY SPEAKS
On his top five dream jobs
- NME journalist, 1976-1979
Get to meet the Clash, Sex Pistols, Chrissie Hynde, Danny Baker etc. Get loads of free records – good ones too. Go on to host my own quiz show or something- Producer, Atlantic Records, 1964-1971 (approx)
Get to meet Aretha, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke etc. Get loads of free records (probably) – good ones too. Make piles of money.- Any kind of musician (apart from classical or rap)
Speaks for itself. But I’d have settled just for being one of the Memphis Horns – I’m not asking to be Hendrix or Jagger or Otis Redding- Film director
Again, any kind, although preferably not German or silent.- Architect
A surprise entry at number 5, I know, but I used to be quite good at technical drawing at school
So, inspired by this, I’ve decided to write my top 5 dream jobs, not limited by time travel or qualifications:
- CEO of Apple Inc, 2017-2022
Someone has to take over from Steve at some point and I reckon I could do it. It would also be one of Apple’s most challenging times as we introduce a new iWidget, buy Adobe and have to fight off Google and a newly revitalised Microsoft. Finish up by leaving on a high note with Apple as a worldwide carrier and get on my yacht and sail away on my 50th birthday. - Futurist and Author
Get to swan around conferences dispensing visionary wisdom to adherents. Probably pop out a couple of novels and have one or two optioned into movies. Spend a lot of time talking to interesting people and turn down those TED folk once or twice. - Serial Entrepreneur/Investor
Start and sell a couple of businesses and then spend the rest of my days helping other people get started. Get to hang out with the cool kids in San Francisco as well as prove that you don’t have to be in Silicon Valley to make a splash in the Digital sector. - Technology Journalist/Writer, 1970-2000
Get to watch all of the technology giants take off. Get to meet cool people from some of the most innovative companies during the birth of Silicon Valley and the web. Attend all the big conferences and renew my sense of wonder when someone gave me a computer I could carry with one hand. - Film Director, Writer and Producer
Writing and directing my own films and helping others do it too. Success would be nice – in order to finance the projects I consider to be art. Maybe even get to be interviewed by Apple during one of their product releases talking about how their new iWidget has improved my day.
So, what about you? Top 5 Dream Jobs?
Growing a Mo for charity
I’m growing a Mo for #Movember to help the fight against prostate cancer. Pls donate: http://www.movember.com/m/293694
I’ll be documenting my Mo on the blog here. This is my hairy face two days after shaving – I last shaved on Saturday afternoon (31st October) so it works out well that I’ll not be shaving my moustache area for the month.
Channel 4 surveys Digital Natives.
Channel 4 just published some results of a survey into how “young people” interact with the telly, with the web, games and each other.
- They personally own 8 devices (including MP3 player, PC, TV, DVD player, mobile phone, stereo, games console, and digital camera)
- They frequently conduct over 5 activities whilst watching TV
- 25% of them agree that “I’d rather stay at home than go on a holiday with no internet or phone accessâ€
- A quarter of young people interviewed text or IM (instant message) friends they are physically with at the time
- They have on average 123 friends on their social network spaces
- And the first thing the majority of them do when they get home is turn on their PC
Above all, youth’s obsession with technology is around communication.
What they took out of this was:
The TV is still young people’s most popular way to consume media, though in terms of time spent, TV time is pipped to the post by spending time on the internet.
I’m only really bothered by the words “consume media”. I rarely watch TV programmes linearly and spend a lot more time “consuming media” using my phone or notebook computer. In addition – using blogs, tools like twitter, I’m involved in the creation of that media – be they debates, micro-conversations or social plans.
I’d be interested in seeing what percentage of ‘old fogeys’ like myself would agree with the bullet points listed above. Do you watch TV with your laptop and mobile? Ever sent a message via text or Twitter to someone sitting in the same room? (I’ll excuse husbands and wives texting each other in interminable visits to relatives with the sentiments “Can we go yet?”)
So, what about you? Are you a digital native or a digital immigrant, new to these shores?
Great design creates new data.
Visual design is often the polar opposite of engineering: trading hard edges for subjective decisions based on gut feelings and personal experiences. It’s messy, unpredictable, and notoriously hard to measure. The apparently erratic behavior of artists drives engineers bananas. Their decisions seem arbitrary and risk everything with no guaranteed benefit.
…
An experienced designer knows that humans do not operate solely on reason and logic. They’re heavily influenced by emotions and perceptions. Even more frustratingly, they often lie to you about their reactions because they don’t want to be seen as imperfect.
and in the comments are some more excellent soundbites
…exceptional design has ideals, integrity and vision. It listens and is informed by its users, but sometimes more importantly, it knows better.
Doug writes:
Great design creates new data. Design is creative, not reactive
Two weeks ago I met Jonathan Ive. Ive is SVP of Industrial Design at Apple. He’s credited with some of Apple’s design triumphs: the eMate, the iBook, the iMac, PowerBook G4, iPod, iPhone, Mac mini and a raft of others. He said his team is small but they’ve been working together for a very long time now – something that affords great understanding between them. Ive seems a quiet and humble bloke, but his presence and passion were able to shine through in the brief meeting – his volume increasing as he became more passionate about the subject. This bloke, from the same part of the country as David Beckham, was voted by the Daily Telegraph as being more influential than Beckham (which probably says more about how out of touch famous footballers are with the rank and file).
I love how some of the designs I like inspire strong feelings in myself and others. Exceptional design should inspire polarity of thought – you should be in love with it or hate it – it should, by it’s very name, be an exception. This is subtly different from ‘the most usable design’ of course, which should slot into your own user model so easily that you barely notice it. Great design in interfaces can also polarise but even the worst reaction should acknowledge the attention to detail in the user model. This is something that, again, Apple does well. It’s always been a medium where Apple has changed things incrementally and when they have perhaps taken a step backwards (like Mac OS X Public Beta) it was most definitely a ‘girding of our loins’, a ‘hitching of our skirts’ so we could better witness and experience the changes going forward.