This video shows exactly why I did badly at school, and sometimes why I do "badly" now. I didn't and I don't give the answers my teachers, and even perhaps my clients, want to hear.
I realised at 35 that the reason that I did badly at poetry was because when the teacher said "what do YOU think of this poem", I told the teacher what I thought. At 35 I realised that the teacher meant "what do I think of this poem". If my teacher has said "what do I think of this poem", I would have got 100%. I mean, imagine having Shakespeare in your class. He would have "failed".
Luckily my parents told me to focus only on school work in Matric and so my grades went from E's to B's for Maths and Science and I got into University. And then my mind was blown by Dr Smart in first year Maths. He showed us a complex formula for Pythagorus. I found an easier answer in the World Book Encyclopedia. I took it to Dr Smart (his real name) the next day, and he said "Use it". I said "really". He said "I don't care how you prove what I teach as long as it works. You don't need to do it my way. In fact, if you invent a new way, I will be delighted and then maybe we can get a Nobel prize". I think he left out the last part, but I got the message.
And then when I did my MBA I did well because I invented a new way of working. I read the book my teacher recommended, and then I discovered that if I read a book by a different author and they had a different way of working, then in an exam, I could answer: "teacher said; the other person said; but I think ..." and I could get 100%. If I just said "teacher said, but I think", I would have got a lower mark.
You have to do analysis and synthesis.
I knew this at school.
Many people ask if I do "Agile". I say that I've been doing it since I started programming in 1979. I've always done my best to firstly NOT write the program (has someone done it already), and then to find the fastest way to give my client something they like and then build on it.
"The performance of the whole is not the sum of the parts, but the sum of their interactions", and hence why we cannot optimise parts of a business. Many parts of businesses are "loss makers" and the creative people in these parts of the business are made to think that they are failures and that they are inferior to those who make commissions in sales, or who work in "profit centres". And this is why our organisations fail. It is not just the "creative" department, which is creative. We are all creative. And we must be ourselves.
"Imagine if the system was destroyed last night. What would you do if you could do whatever you want?"
Study the whole.
I love the video. It is so much a CV and worthwhile getting today. Thank you to my friend Dean for pointing it out to me.
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