On Getting Old
It’s Saturday afternoon. As I type this every part of my body is throbbing with the dull ache of stiffness, fatigue, defeat, and aging. On Thursday night, my basketball team was thoroughly trounced by our younger, sprier opponents. The nine…
Overhearing Community
And my point is this. Listen to the people around you. In addition to all of the hilarious stuff that we spout-off, there are also a lot of interesting, meaningful and touching snapshots of creative concepts that we might overhear that might be world-change-worthy that might inspire the best idea you’ve ever had. So listen to your community. Trust me – and trust Dave and Graham – it’ll be pretty great.
Vacations and Canada’s Work Ethic
I love the rumour/fact that the French are in possession of the most productive economy on the planet. The argument that the French get the most done while spending the least amount of time at work was recently put forward by Business Insider’s John Carney and Vincent Fernando. The Wall Street Journal and MSNBC, however, counter with some solid arguments about American productivity – not only do Americans spend more time at work, but they also produce more wealth-per-person than anywhere else.
Youth Literacy Day!
There are few organizations that I like more than 826 National (and all of their regional affiliates, for that matter). The organization combines writing, community and pirates. Few places/people/things/nouns have established such an utterly perfect Venn Diagram. In honor of…
Careers from Graduate School
Last week my friend, Dr. Jim Clifford, shared an article by William Pannapacker on Slate.com that painted a pretty grim picture about the plight of graduate students. First, you should watch this video montage, which is brilliant: Second, the above…
The Cost of Poverty
Poverty accounts for huge costs on our society. And not just the ones incurred by the massive losses suffered by our human capital because of all our wasted talent. There are financial costs, too. Big ones. The Canadian Centre for…
Going Zen
Every now and then all of us need to go zen – we need some time to re-charge our internal batteries and re-focus on the important and inspiring things that drive life, the universe and everything. For me, this place of zen is my family home in Merville, British Columbia.
The Culture of Mentorship
A very cool and educational event took place this weekend during UBC Alumni Weekend. UBC Career Services and Alumni Affairs celebrated 10 years of Tri-Mentoring at the school. Here is a superawesome video that highlights some of the best components…
Horn in the World: Plugged-In and Un-Plugged
A few weeks ago – back when he wrote for this blog and before he abandoned it to gallivant around “Europe” – my main man Steve Sloot wrote a column/article/post/whitepaper about traveling socializers who put it out there. Particularly ones…
Wasted Talent
You see, human beings are the only species on this planet without full employment. All the other ones – from worms to whales to walruses to wallabies – have jobs (or, more accurately, they all have work to be done). This is not a new concept – undoubtedly, the delicious jugs made me seem very wise at the time – but it should be noted that, according to the International Labour Organization, nearly one billion people on this planet are unemployed and countless others are underemployed.