Archives for 2024

I was recently in the market for short term luggage storage—I had a day in Singapore before my late evening flight.

I found the service from usebounce.com to be excellent.

They provide the front-end booking and payment system, and then partner with hotels who provide luggage storage. I had options across the city, and booked my slot within minutes.

In the past, I had to deal with finding individual providers in Google Maps, and navigating to awkward locations. By using the infrastructure provided by hotels, Bounce has significantly increased the range and convenience of storage options for consumers.

A great example of a super simple service made more efficient with technology.

Here is a great Quartz post for the music nerds on how the pop music landscape has changed due to digital music production tools.

What was once a complicated and expensive process to capture audio to tape and produce it at scale, software such as Pro Tools, Logic, and Ableton have democratised the making of music.

Today anyone can make a record in their bedroom and have a million people listen to it the following day.

I’m also convinced AI will change music production forever. Think about prompts for film scores such as: look at the following action sequence, now create a 2 minute orchestral score in the style of Hans Zimmer; include a gradual build from 00:00 to 01:00, and reach a crescendo at 01:30.

I can see this AI being built into music production software too, allowing for immense flexibility in adjusting an AI generated piece of music.

Human musicians augmented by AI will create amazing things!

It needs time and space to work.

No trying, no straining, no forcing it.

There’s a reason why people have breakthroughs whilst walking, taking a shower, or doing chores.

The subconscious mind just needs a little room to breathe.

Everyone’s attention is on the ball. They watch players on both sides attack and defend; ferociously competing for possession.

They largely ignore the rest of the players. After all, that isn’t where the action is.

Yet most opportunities come from good positional play. From territorial control, from moving into open space, and from pouncing quickly on a counter attack.

When everyone’s eye is on the ball, there’s opportunity to create options and space across the rest of the field.

This works in football, and in many other situations too.

Back when files were saved locally on laptops, I lost a few university assignments due to forgetting to save my work.

Despite the frustration of needing to redo the work, the second time round was always faster.

I could avoid the obvious errors made during the first attempt, my muscle memory kicked in, and I already had a clear goal in mind.

It’s a healthy mindset to have when facing any setback. We’ve likely seen some flavour of this problem before. So if we treat it like it’s the second time round, we’ll get to the outcome faster, and with fewer headaches.

One of my favourite New Year’s traditions is one that I have no active involvement in.

A close friend of mine in New Zealand writes, performs, and films an annual New Year’s speech. He delivers it as the clock strikes midnight with fireworks going off in the background. It’s mostly humorous, but has a sprinkling of reflection and inspirational material in there too.

As the years have gone by (I think we’re up to video 5 or 6 now), the speeches and production value have continued to increase (this year’s had an orchestral score playing in the background). Our WhatsApp group waits in anticipation for the video to drop.

I love how these traditions and celebrations help mark the passage of time. They are important and joyous parts of the human experience; even the goofy ones!

Wishing you all a wonderful 2024! May you laugh and learn a more than last year!