Sometimes I catch myself thinking "oh crap - wrong time to start freelancing" when it comes to the coming recession in the world (which I believe will show up at our doorstep sooner or later). Most of the time I am thinking in a very Louise L. Hay way, that if the recession is coming then I won't be influenced by it.
If you look at what the economy of abundance has brought to society it is kind of a "have it all" feeling - everything you can possibly think of can be yours... Business models are starting to be formed around giving stuff away for free. Oh yeah sometimes I feel like a spoiled little brat...
Anyway, something tells me that economy of scarcity delivers more creativity and more eagerness than the economy of abundance, which is probably a result of the " I-could-have-it-all " kind of life. Why try harder when it is brought to us ?... why make excellent stuff when we can get by with mediocre ? I think a new economy of scarcity will make society work more creatively towards global problems than now where there is this "all is well" feeling to everything. If we need something we will just borrow the money for it in the bank - We are so wealthy it's incredible.
All is good for now - But my idea is that if the recession comes it's going to separate "crap" from "gold" and the more substantial people will make a better living than the ones that are in it for the money and the hype.
As Sanjay said in
geekarmyknife # 6 " we are looking at a reversal of stereotypes" - good call, and an really genuine idea to ponder about.
[creativity, business, businessmodel, economy, geekarmyknife, scarcity, abundance, alliswell, recession]
[14 comments]
David tagged me in his online habits survey - so here goes :
What site do you visit first thing in the morning (after your blog)?
Actually I don't visit my blog first - I think it's gmail and then possibly some social networking site and 2 - 3 categories in my feedreader. Also I tend to visit
greengirlsglobal.com for whom I have been blogging for a good while now. Then my clients sites to start my working hours for the day.
Name a service that you recently discovered and like?
Hm. that would be
podcastmachine,
actics and
IRL- but a little disclaimer is that a couple of friends are working on them (I am working on IRL myself - and I think it's a brilliant idea). They do have a huge thing in common though:
Vision to change the world, awesome. I don't know if it's a service but I am really into the
365days group on flickr these days. It my little creative project...
A blog whose design has impressed you?
My very favorite blogdesign (still) is
la petite claudine - I simply love her header - and her blog...
A widget that would really help out but which doesn’t exist yet?
I think all kind of practical proximity widgets has a long way to go still. They really have to be convenient for the users though - otherwise I don't like widgets...
The last 2.0 book that you’ve read?
I am currently reading
presentation zen ( the book), and I finished
Clay Shirky's "here comes everybody" back in April - oh and I am terribly happy for my
"how to be a rock star freelancer" book.
An online service that you think will become indispensable?
I really hope that
actics will come indispensable, or
dothegreenthing - basically services that makes you change the world.
A service that should exist because it’s sorely needed?
I don't know if it's a service - but a decision making mechanism that can change the world without have 50 politicians agree upon something before there's action. I think the world really needs that now. Decisions and actions - no more talking. But services that encourage actions are sorely needed. Services that makes people change their everyday patterns for more sustainability are sorely needed.
i think ethical proximity is gonna be huge in the future.
A blogger or net-entrepreneur whose work you admire?
I really admire people on their way up struggling, who succeeds in the end because of hard work. I admire
J C Fischer for putting out
his book ( he even made a dedication to me in it !!!!) and I truely and utterly admire
Laura Kiralfy who is my partner for the
inreallife.dk network for her creativity and her ways of action. Otherwise I will say
Chris Messina - for his work with both Barcamps and Coworking... rock on guys.
Im passing the survey on to - well
Sanjay (who we are interviewing for
Geek Army Knife tonight) and to
Elmine
[herecomeseverybody, geekarmyknife, podcastmachine, action, IRL, survey, greengirlsglobal, actics, Vision, lapetiteclaudine, presentationzen, howtobearockstarfreelancer, dothegreenthing, decisions, ethicalproximity]
[15 comments]
So - Im back in fulltime Toothless Tiger employment from june 1st. This is the right thing for me. This is the big dive into the open sea. I want to be more efficient evolving my workday - so my question is :
what works for you ?
What I have found has worked for me:
- Skype and IM meetings late at night.
- drafting all my thoughts in the wordpress CMS on toothlesstiger.com
- using
hiveminder and
basecamp as a productivity tool
- getting energy by not reading emails more than at lunchtime and in the afternoon
- incubation on tech blogs instead of normal news sites - they don't teach me anything anyway
where I really need to improve is:
-keeping myself on track - as I said, hiveminder is cool for productivity but I think I need something else as well
-keeping focused and not being distracted by not-work-noise
-doing boring business stuff (economy etc) as well as fun stuff
-setting both short term as well as long term goals
-family/worklife balance - sharing a calendar with the rest of the fam and other stuff.
-more filters of data instead of just data =)
What I think I need to make things easier:
-Hiveminder as a CRM tool
- some other podcastgear so I can rekickstart
GeekArmyKnife together with the amazing
Duarte
. (Huge thanks to
these awesome guys for inspiring me to start up again)
Please overload me with comments - I need as much inspiration as I can get =) ( especially to make productivity/effectivity easier)
[business, workday, effective, employment, efficiency, hiveminder, 37signals, productivity, emails, techblogs, newssites, focus, distraction, economy, shorttermgoals, longtermgoals, inspiration, familyworklifebalance, filtersofdata, CRM, geekarmyknife, dua]
[2 comments]