Inspiration to learn about yourself

# 1: Questions to discover your values # 2: Brainstorming # 3: Nigeria # 4: China # 5: Brainstorming - the SCAMPER method # 6: Learning strategies # 7:  Brainstorming - the DISNEY method # 8: Six thinking hats # 9: The power of music # 10: Japan

Watching the video embedded below, I learned that there are 6 fundamental things a city needs to get right. # 1: Order and variety An example: Every house in a neighbourhood has the same width and height. In addition, every house has been allowed freedom regarding form and colour. # 2: Visible life People like when they can see things going on where they work / live. # 3: Compact An example: A square should not be too small - and should be no larger than 30 metres in diameter. # 4: Orientation and mystery We need a good balance between a) big streets / boulevards that offer orientation and b) small streets / lanes that offer mystery. People love cities that have lots of backstreets and small lanes where you can feel cosy. # 5: Scale A suggestion is made that buildings should be maximum 5 stories tall. Above that, people start to feel small and insignificant. When, occasionally, there's a big building, make it a building that's really special and loved by everyon...

Listening to this very interesting  World Economic Forum briefing  by  Christopher Pissarides , I learned this: At 8:45, Christopher Pissarides mentioned that in Sweden, child care is subsidized - encouraging people, who have children, to buy child care services in the market. This initiative helps child care services develop, raises incomes for people, and reduces inequality. He also mentioned that, currently, this does not work in, for example, Italy, where the government - at the moment - does not take much interest in services like child care. This is one reason why we are seeing high gender inequality - including low rates of work participation by women - in Italy. At 19:35, Christopher Pissarides said that in Sweden, at least twice as many jobs are being created in child care services and other health care services as in Italy.

At 11:55 and at 42:55 in this World Economic Forum session entitled Escaping from poverty , Hikmet Ersek reflects on his experiences working in the USA and in Vienna, Austria. He explained, for example, that  in the USA, people were asking him: What do you do / what can you do? He also said that in the USA, it was not important for people what his name was. in Vienna, Austria, people were asking him: Where are you from? He also explained that in Vienna, his name changed everything.

During this World Economic Forum session entitled " A brave new world ",  Stuart Russell  mentioned at 24:30 that with autonomous vehicles, the need for parking spaces and taxi drivers will be reduced.

Listening to this very interesting conversation between Jack Ma and Charlie Rose   I learned this:   At 6:25, Jack Ma mentioned that the average age of a person working for Alibaba   is 27-28 years old. And at 39:15, he said that 47% of people working for Alibaba are women. In this regard, Jack Ma said he has found that women think about others more than they think about themselves.  At 7:25 Jack Ma explained that he failed several exams. He also said that he got rejections to many jobs he applied for. Being asked by Charlie Rose what effect it had on him getting rejected, Jack Ma said "I think we have to get used to it. We're not that good." At 11:45 Jack Ma mentioned that in 1995, when he was in Seattle, USA, he did a search on the Internet for the first time in his life. He mentioned that he could not find any information about China when he was searching. That inspired him.  At 25:40 Jack Ma mentioned that he was enthusiastic / excited a...

During an interesting World Economic Forum session entitled " In tech we trust " I learned this: At 3:40,  Marc R. Benioff  mentioned that only through radical transparency are we going to get radical new levels of trust. He added that we need more openness regarding where data is, what is going on with the data, who has the data, and - if there's a problem with the data - provide immediate disclosure, total transparency. At 5:15,  Marissa Mayer  made the point that personalized technology is better technology, and a personalized Internet is a better Internet. To have a personalized Internet, you need to store data in the cloud. She continued saying that trust is about each person making a trade of between how much privacy and security he / she wants vs. how many benefits he / she wants? She emphasized the importance of transparency, that users own their own data and have control over it, so they can examine it, take it with them, bring it to other sites /...

During the session " Inclusive growth in the digital age " I learned this: At 5:00, Erik Brynjolfsson mentioned that technology has always been destroying as well as creating jobs. Recently, there has been an important change, for example in the way that median income has stagnated. He added that when you digitize something, you can make a free, perfect copy of it and distribute it instantaneously anywhere around the world. Those 3 attributes - free, perfect, and instant - we did not apply to goods and services throughout most of history. At 12:30, Hans Erik Vestberg mentioned that throughout all technological revolutions that we as human have lived through, we have always created jobs. He added that due to the fact that Ericsson  is transforming fast, there are changes regarding the people working for the company. Last year, 19,000 people started working for the company, and 14,000 stopped working for the company. Hans Erik Vestberg also mentioned that today, less th...

During a very interesting Shaping Davos session entitled " Disrupting classrooms ", I learned, for example, this:  At 6:55, Lucian Tarnowski mentioned that things have changed. We don't need everybody to look like each other. We need much more creativity. At 27:00, Arunas Mark talked about the importance of quality content. At 29:50, Christian Morales Collado mentioned that coaching from different people will be helpful for people, who learn.  At 36:00, Fatin Bundagji talked about the importance of people from different cultures communicating with each other, for example about understanding their respective beliefs / values / ways of thinking and thinking creatively / innovating. At 39:50 Christian Morales Collado added that diversity brings more innovation. At 51:25, Lucian Tarnowski made the interesting point that the mobile phone is far more universal than the classroom. At 01:09:30, Christian Morales Collado emphasized the need to connect more peo...

Have you tried defining what your values are? How sure are you, which values are more important / prioritized higher than which other values? To find out, try answering these questions. As an alternative, ask someone else, for example a friend of yours, to ask you the questions.

The talk, by Carol Dweck, embedded below highlights some interesting initiatives for praising / rewarding people. Why not try and start out this year doing this: # 1: Stop praising / rewarding a person’s intelligence and talent. # 2: Start praising / rewarding process, for example by a) giving grades such as “not yet”, b) praising / rewarding a person’s improvement / progress from period A to period B, c) praising / rewarding a person’s focus on a topic, d) praising / rewarding a person’s perseverance, and/or e) praising / rewarding the effort a person makes to learn something / reach a certain goal.

# 1: Gender diversity # 2: China # 3: 11 advantages of using a blog for teaching

I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom, for me and you. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue, And clouds of white. The bright blessed day, The dark sacred night. And I think to myself, What a wonderful world. The colors of the rainbow, So pretty in the sky. Are also on the faces, Of people going by, I see friends shaking hands. Saying, “How do you do?” They’re really saying, “I love you”. I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, They’ll learn much more, Than I’ll ever know . And I think to myself, What a wonderful world. Yes, I think to myself, What a wonderful world.