The people would say, "Let us March..."

When Cicero had finished speaking, the people would say, "How well he spoke;" when Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people would say, "Let us march."
What sort of communicator are you being today? Do you have good ideas or sound clever? Or do you move the people around you to action? This is not just for our community leaders and intelligensia: This is for all of us in our everyday conversations. When you know the result that you want to communicate, you owe it to the person to whom you are communicating to ensure that your message is conveyed effectively, not just in terms of the information, but also in the outcomes.

What will 2005 bring for you?

Another year? Or the same year repeated again? For many people, five simple words hold the mystery to your life: "What should I be doing?" What should you be doing today? Tomorrow? Next week? Next year? For the rest of my life? And it is important to think about this, because you don't want to wake up in 10 or 15 years from now and wish that you could have done something differently, do you? May you take the time to think and focus yourself towards what you should be doing, so that 2005 will be the most rewarding, fulfilling and exciting year for you ever.
I am looking forward to seeing in the New Year in Sydney with Margot...Thank you for a wonderful year... Parties, Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Phone calls, Chatting; Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba; Andrew, Samantha, Jack, David, Gavin, Wen, Hannah, Lloyd, Russel, Sybile, Lexy, Nikki, Bamik, Christian, Sarah, Eric, Drew, Trevor, Geoff, Kuan, Kevin, Alex, Kurek, Tony, Dougo, Scott, John, Yolla, Liam, Mia, Callum, Grace, Miranda, Roger, Greg, Rob, Matt, Bobby, James, Leigh, Levente, Warren, Nick, Nic, Tom, Allan, Alan, Mark, Arthur, Giuseppi, Omar and so many of my other friends... Thank you.

The Bootstrapper's Bible

Business can be simple: It's about creating more value than you use. But for those of us concerned about having to spend thousands of dollars to set up a business that may not go anywhere, Seth Godin has written this eBook about how there's never been a better time to start a business with no money - I think this is fantastic, so have a look at it now!

The future of education

Our educators need to identify the cognitive operations involved in the tasks of their discipline. With the cognitive operations at a range of levels of generality expressed explicitly, we will be able to condition and train those specific operations, and identify the flaws in reasoning when they occur.
On the creativity front, my friend Win Wenger has finally created a Draft Prospectus for the Renaissance University: Imagine a University that uses and teaches the greatest methods of thinking and creating available to the mainstream of society today... Rather than a University that just crams heads with information.

The nature of intelligence

Intelligence is neither learned nor born, it is conditioned. While genetics and experiences have a role (thanks, Margot), I believe that there is a very important component that seems to have been missed by many...We all demonstrate a wide range of behaviours that are selectively reinforced over time. In time, these behaviours lead us to learn and grow and develop in response to our environment.
For example, when I was young, if I could find a way to do my homework while I was in class, I could go home and play straight away. As a result, I tended to learn to do multiple activities simultaneously and to pursue speed and efficiency in class time. How much of who you are, your talents and abilities, are because you are somehow talented, and how much of those talents were only able to develop because of the environment in which you were placed?
And when you remember how much talent is wasted in our community, it could lead you to think about how many of our problems remain unsolved just because somebody has been ridiculed rather than supported; chastisted rather than encouraged; forced to accept rather than being challenged to think.
I have been blessed with many guides, mentors and coaches. Sometimes these people have been supportive and loving; other times they were aggressive and threatening. Sometimes I feel as a grasshopper from a Kung Fu movie... Each and every one of you, thank you.