National Geographic’s Michael Yamashita on the search for serendipitous moments

National Geographic’s Michael Yamashita on the search for serendipitous moments

SINGAPORE — Renowned National Geographic photographer Michael Yamashita was in Singapore over the weekend for the CapitaLand- National Geographic Channel ‘Building People’ Photography Exhibition, for which he was one of the judges. He presented a photography seminar on Friday (Aug 16) to a full-house at the Capital Tower auditorium, followed by a workshop with the winners of the competition.

BY ALEXANDRA DAWN WESTCOTT –

19 AUGUST

SINGAPORE — Renowned National Geographic photographer Michael Yamashita was in Singapore over the weekend for the CapitaLand- National Geographic Channel ‘Building People’ Photography Exhibition, for which he was one of the judges. He presented a photography seminar on Friday (Aug 16) to a full-house at the Capital Tower auditorium, followed by a workshop with the winners of the competition. In an interview with TODAY, he shares about his career, his visual philosophy and his impressions of Singapore. Read more of this post

Why ‘Overlearning’ Is The Key To Ridiculous Success

Why ‘Overlearning’ Is The Key To Ridiculous Success

ANNIE MURPHY PAUL, THE BRILLIANT BLOG AUG. 19, 2013, 5:10 PM 4,336 2

“Why do I have to keep practicing? I know it already!”

That’s the familiar wail of a child seated at the piano or in front of the multiplication table (or, for that matter, of an adult taking a tennis lesson). Cognitive science has a persuasive retort: We don’t just need to learn a task in order to perform it well; we need to overlearn it. Decades of research have shown that superior performance requires practicing beyond the point of mastery. The perfect execution of a piano sonata or a tennis serve doesn’t mark the end of practice; it signals that the crucial part of the session is just getting underway. Read more of this post

Su Yongle, one of the creators and an angel investor in one of China’s most popular animated series, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, has lost interest in the Pleasant Goat brand and is now looking to invest in the field of online education

Pleasant Goat creator to move on to pastures new

Staff Reporter

2013-08-21

Su Yongle, one of the creators and an angel investor in one of China’s most popular animated series, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, has lost interest in the Pleasant Goat brand and is now looking to invest in the field of online education, selling part of his holdings for an estimated HK$17 million (US$2.2 million), reports the Chinese-language Chinese Entrepreneur magazine. An angel investor is an individual who provides capital for a business startup, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Su initially invested 3 million yuan (US$490,000) in making animated films before he created CPE Culture Communication Co. When Wong Wai Ming, former chief director of the series, began to establish the cartoon, Su decided to mass produce the series with the aim of seeing Pleasant Goat on TV screens throughout the country. In July 2005, Pleasant Goat made its debut in Hangzhou and was broadcast on the Zhejiang TV station before finally being broadcast nationwide. Guided by Su and Wong, more than 500 episodes of Pleasant Goat were produced by 2008. Read more of this post

Sometimes the best that a company can hope for is death; Failed businesses are seen as victims of errors rather than as having simply run their course

August 20, 2013 5:52 pm

Sometimes the best that a company can hope for is death

By John Kay

Failed businesses are seen as victims of errors rather than as having simply run their course

The Financial Times has carried an unusual number of obituaries and stories of terminal illness this summer. There was the bankruptcy of Detroit and the slide into administration of once-ubiquitous companies, such as Jessops, the high-street camera retailer. Then there was last week’s announcement of the continuing troubles of BlackBerry, which made the defining business product of the first decade of the 21st century. Humans have always found it hard to cope with the idea that every individual has a lifespan even as life itself goes on. The idea of a natural life cycle for a business, or industrial centre, is even more difficult to accept. So we ask: what can be done to revive Detroit? Can BlackBerry find a new role? Read more of this post

Bugaboo: the pull of a cool pushchair

August 20, 2013 5:09 pm

Bugaboo: the pull of a cool pushchair

By Emma Jacobs

Bugaboo founder Max Barenbrug, left, and chief executive Nico Moolenaar. Photographer: Paul O’Driscoll. Man with a pram plan: Max Barenbrug wants substance not hype to be the reason a Bugaboo is bought by parents

O n Fridays, Max Barenbrug, co-founder of Bugaboo, the maker of expensive statement strollers and prams used by Elton John, Madonna and reportedly the Duchess of Cambridge, is found at home. This time is earmarked for his two children but as they are aged 10 and 11, for the most part they are at school and he is on his own. “At home I am totally Max, which is sitting silently and thinking. I like to be alone. When I am with the children I ask the girls, ‘do your thing, don’t bother me’.” The childcare strategy allows him freedom to ponder. “I don’t like to work extremely hard. I have never worked extremely hard.” Which is a rare statement from an entrepreneur. His philosophy is that products are “1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent transpiration. Transpiration can be outsourced, inspiration is where you make a difference and I focus on that. An idea should be in the head as long as possible.” Read more of this post

How French Brand Vilebrequin Cornered The Market For $200 Swim Trunks

How French Brand Vilebrequin Cornered The Market For $200 Swim Trunks

ROBIN MELLERY-PLATT, THE BUSINESS OF FASHION AUG. 20, 2013, 7:04 PM 1,394

SAINT-TROPEZ, France — Winding down the Corniche, one of Europe’s most breath-taking roads, and descending into Saint-Tropez from the direction of Monte Carlo, the super-yachts cruising the bay below look like nothing more than polished toys, discarded in a child’s paddling pool. Henri Matisse, the most renowned Tropezian artiste en résidence, would have enjoyed the view at Le Byblos’ palette-shaped pool. Under the hotel’s terracotta and sand façades, swimsuits printed with colourful turtles, palm trees and maritime themes are everywhere. Almost every male guest is part of the riot. Read more of this post

Thiel Fellow Launches A Topical Energy Spray For Absorbing Caffeine Through Your Skin

Founders Who Can’t Handle A Full Cup Of Coffee Want Everyone To Start Spraying On Caffeine Instead

ALYSON SHONTELL AUG. 20, 2013, 6:12 PM 1,479 2

In case you don’t like drinking, eating or inhaling caffeine, two founders going through investor Peter Thiel’s fellow program are creating another way to energize you. Ben Yu and Devon Soni have launched a campaign on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo for a product called Sprayable Energy. It’s an unscented, colorless formula that can be sprayed on skin, kind of like sunless tanner. It contains water, a derivative of the amino acid tyrosine, and caffeine. Four sprays equal one cup of coffee, the founders say, and each little bottle has up to 160 squirts.  The founders say they’ve “struggled with caffeine sensitivity” and the product they’re perfecting will give energy without the jitters. They also say Sprayable Energy users won’t experience a caffeine crash later in the day. Yu and Soni are seeking a modest amount, $15,000, to bring their idea to life. They’ve already raised more than $11,000 to tackle what they say is a $45 billion market. It’s worth noting that the a number of innovative ways to shoot caffeine into your system have been blocked. Perky Jerky was forced to stop putting caffeine in beef jerky, and the FDA went after inhalable solutions too.

Read more of this post

The importance of writing in Amazon’s success is a clue about why so many employers find that new college graduates aren’t well prepared to be contributors in their workplaces

Jeff Bezos’ PowerPoint prohibition

Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill Posted on 9 Aug 2013, 1:47 AM 5,629 views PD Forum

You’ve been there too-—the really, truly awful PowerPoint presentation that makes you want to run screaming from the room. More than a decade ago, it was estimated that 30 million PowerPoint presentations were given each day—the number must be much higher today. Just think of how many millions of hours are spent every day sitting through truly terrible PowerPoint presentations. So it’s noteworthy that Amazon founder—and new Washington Post owner­­—Jeff Bezos’ proscribes PowerPoint presentations at Amazon. Bezos instead requires that employees compose 6-page narrative memos, and he starts meetings with quiet reading periods—“study halls”—in which everyone reads the memo from beginning to end. Read more of this post

Here’s Some Wonderful Writing From Elon Musk That Everyone In Business Should Emulate

Here’s Some Wonderful Writing From Elon Musk That Everyone In Business Should Emulate

JOE WEISENTHAL AUG. 20, 2013, 9:10 AM 13,368 18

There’s no shortage of reasons to call Elon Musk a badass. He’s super-successful. He has a company that does private rocket launches that look like something approaching magic. He’s made the best car of all time, according to Consumer Reports. And the latest news is that he’s made the safest car of all time, as well. Here’s another thing about him that goes overlooked: He’s a tremendous communicator, on par or possibly better than Steve Jobs. Because while Steve Jobs was talking about the magic of gadgets, Musk is actually communicating about engineering concepts, which fly above most people’s heads. Read this from Tesla’s announcement today about its safety rating. It’s a wonderful paragraph:

The Model S has the advantage in the front of not having a large gasoline engine block, thus creating a much longer crumple zone to absorb a high speed impact. This is fundamentally a force over distance problem – the longer the crumple zone, the more time there is to slow down occupants at g loads that do not cause injuries. Just like jumping into a pool of water from a tall height, it is better to have the pool be deep and not contain rocks. The Model S motor is only about a foot in diameter and is mounted close to the rear axle, and the front section that would normally contain a gasoline engine is used for a second trunk.

After you read that, you instantly grasp how Tesla’s small engine block makes it safer. Read more of this post

New CEO Of Bloomberg Media Sent Employees A Memo Explaining His Philosophy On Journalism

New CEO Of Bloomberg Media Sent Employees A Memo Explaining His Philosophy On Journalism — Here It Is

LINETTE LOPEZ AUG. 19, 2013, 3:01 PM 3,106 3

There hasn’t been a peep from the new CEO of Bloomberg Media Group, Justin Smith, since his hire was announced. Friday, however, he sent Bloomberg’s media team a quick memo about his philosophy on journalism — we’ve copied it below. The most important thing to note here is that Smith makes it clear that he is a business man. “Helping create quality content and figuring out how to commercialize it has been my life’s passion,” he wrote. “Though I came out of print media, I’ve specialized in transitioning media brands onto digital and live event platforms.” Reading that, you can’t help but think of Jeff Bezos, a business man, purchasing the Washington Post from the family of journalists that held it for decades. It serves as a reminder that good journalism is alive — the problem is that it’s time to rethink how it’s sold to the people that want to consume it. Smith is promising that he knows how to do that, writing that he wants Bloomberg to choose to “live on the new, exciting frontier of media.” Note the word “choice.” Smith divides the industry into two camps — publications that are letting the industry’s changes steam roll the out of existence, and publications that accept the changes and embrace them. Check out Smith’s full memo below (emphasis ours): Read more of this post