m2b8

Having just posted the first productivity lesson, I thought I might cover an important point. Once you’re more productive you will have more time on your hands and if you’ve caught the global citizenship bug you might wish to do something for your fellow person. The decisions you make about what you will do are very important.

I have very strong feelings on this subject because I have seen well meaning people caught-up in an altruistic fever when they realise they can make time to contribute. Not everyone makes the right decisions about what to do.

We all have things we will and won’t do. We will all only do some things for money or another consideration such as gratitude, attribution or the promise that it will happen the other way around next time… and we base these decisions upon the most important consideration, our ethics. Ethics are a very important element of what I’m trying to achieve with m2b8 because there are many ways to take a step backward while trying to step forward. I can’t imagine anything worse than everybody accelerating in the wrong direction. What would happen if our genes did that? A smaller frontal lobe, that’s what. Mind you, a tail would be nice.

It might be good for me to set an example by explaining a few things in which I won’t personally become involved.

Politics will always happen in other people’s brains, I know politicians and I like a couple, but they are in love with the idea of office and act in accordance with their plan for the acquisition and retention of a title on a business card and a salary. For this reason, m2b8 will always be a separate venture from my daily work where I need to earn enough money to support a coupe of expensive habits. I urge any person wishing to undertake a similar venture to consider a similar arrangement.

Many governments are not nice and those who are subject to democratic frameworks work very hard to make sure that influencing perception is at the top of the agenda. My alternative is simply to do what needs to be done. Politics will follow.

What I do is not journalism, even though I report on events beyond my own control. The difference being that while a journalist is only interested in reporting dispassionately, I want to bring about progress. It is a good idea to state this from the outset. Everything I post to m2b8 is either reported from external source, which I will attribute, or my personal opinion.

On the subject of my personal opinion I will not become involved in any project involving animal use; this includes animal agriculture, sport or entertainment. I can find no ethical reason for animal use because there is no reason for humans to consume them or require their presence in a human-specific environment. I understand that the hunting, fast-food and gourmet enthusiasts have a differing opinion:

“but I like…” (tough)

“my Aunt lived for ninety two years…” (could have made a hundred)

“human beings are at the top of the…” (or standing next to it)

“animals are an important part of the rural landscape…” (and will be a long time after we’ve killed our bloody silly selves)

“animals enjoy…” (if you can explain exactly what you are doing and get their agreement…).

Sorry, not here. Build your own site. I’m happy that having researched the subject for close to twenty years that I know my subject. I am, however, happy to hear from anyone who has spent twenty years researching an opposing view. I sometimes hear from people who have done twenty minutes with Google to find that an eminent scientist has decided that because animals do not exist within the human moral framework they have no rights. If the scientist can perform the same trick with the concept of ethics then I will be impressed. Until then, you don’t have to kill, create or even inconvenience, so bloody don’t.

I have similarly strong feeling on a number of subjects, which makes me great fun at dinner parties. For this reason, in my presence it is a good idea to avoid any discussion of soap operas, the architecture of the current British housing boom, Volvos, reality TV, the Birmingham road system (UK…), the Iraq war, clipped poodles, Microsoft Windows, those who fail to control their children, Australian beer, common wisdom, American sport…

Sorry if I’ve alienated you. My intention is simply to ask you to think carefully about how you will spend your newly liberated hours.

Sermon over, here begineth the first lesson!

Productivity. How to do more, do better and with less stress.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Matthew Bate asserts his right to be known as the creator of these works except where explicit citation or attribution has been made.

Thank you.

… is a crucial question asked of Moses by God – according to legend.

Apparently Charlton Heston also asked this of himself in the film of the book, which reached a wider audience.

As Rick Warren points-out in his book ‘A Purpose Driven Life’, that is the question you should ask yourself if you want to know what you can do for the furtherance of your self and your fellow man.

Although I agree little with the remainder of the contents of his book I do agree with his major point. If you want to make a difference, start with what you’ve got.

In the above example, Moses wanted to know what he could do to free his people from Egypt and lead them to the promised land of Israel. God asked him the question in the title. Moses was a shepherd, having retired from active seamanship as a child, so Moses was carrying a staff. Crooks came later. God asked Moses to throw it to the floor at which point it became a serpent. Upon Moses retrieving Hissing Sid it returned to sheep control mode. Handy when leading both people and sheep away from violent oppression.

Importantly, Moses hadn’t realised or valued this skill until it was explained to him, although I suspect he didn’t have the skill until God pointed it out.

Not many of us have a direct line to a god or a staff that turns into a serpent and if we did it would be a very bad idea to unleash it upon the world, although it hasn’t harmed Daniel Radcliffe’s career, but we have all got something and everybody’s something is different. How very Maya Angelou. I challenge you to find those two people in the same paragraph anywhere else.

Marlon Brando uttered a truncated version in response to being asked against what was he rebelling, and we’re all doing that. We’re rebelling against boredom, injustice and stupidity. Or is it just me?

What I’ve ‘got’ to sate my inner rebelion is a desire to live in a better world and in my hand is a lot of experience in personal productivity, project management and innovation. I won’t bore you with the details but if you want to be bored you can read a potted history of yours truly in the ‘about me‘ section of the site. You can be assured though that if any part of my life can have been considered truly interesting then you won’t find it there. Do I look like an idiot? … How do you know?

My plan is that what I have to teach can make anyone very much more effective at whatever it is that they do.

My hope is that others will be able to learn to do this and then learn to teach it. I would like to make a ‘conversion’ every week and send them off to teach what I’ve taught having come to it with an open mind and left with a sharp tool to use. They have then the opportunity to add to what I’ve done.

The tools I can give you are the training courses I’ve devised in the form of podcasts and a sequence of essays on matters related to both productivity and global citizenship.

I’ve started with the productivity episode and am progressing to project management and innovation. I have also written a short statement about ethics. There is nothing more important.

It is also important for me to point-out that what I’m not trying to do is to head a movement of any description. I’m simply a node pumping resources onto a network. I hope many others do the same but I’m not giving this a name nor am I building a structure. I do want to be adored and revered but only a little bit and only very quietly. If you haven’t worked it out by now, yes, I’m English. Being English I also have a genetic culpability for asset stripping the developing world and then disadvantageously lending money to those wishing to buy some of the assets back, which may go some way to explaining my current mood of altruism.

Having said that this isn’t a movement, it is time for me to get on with it and I hope you can find a way to contribute. I’m not saying that progress will be quick, look how long it took Moses to reach Israel according to legend, but it is progress.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Matthew Bate asserts his right to be known as the creator of these works except where explicit citation or attribution has been made.

Thank you.