Books Vs E-Readers - Introduction

I read ... a lot.

With the advent of the Kindle and more recently the iPad (i still maintain it is a stupid name), i have increasingly been thinking about e-books. My first reaction was; 'great an iPod for my books'. Then i started to get nostalgic about having physical books on a shelf and worried about never really owning electronic products. Most recently i have felt guilty for not embracing the change and moving with the times. Today i realised that i still really don't know where i stand on the subject. 

So in an effort to try to work out what to do - buy books or buy e-books - i will write a series of blog posts on the subject. At this stage i plan to post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, about the following topics; Firstly The Benefits of E-Readers because they could be very useful. Secondly My Reservations About E-Readers because there are some serious issues with them. Thirdly i will post about Why E-Books Are Not The Same As MP3s because while it seems like a straight forward comparison, it really isn't. Finally i will post some Conclusions about where i stand on e-readers. Though the posts may well expand into next week if i think of any more topics.

I'm sure i will find this useful for working through my own thoughts and hopefully it will be useful to anyone else reading the posts who loves books.

Books Vs E-Readers Series

1 - Introduction

2 - The Benefits of E-Readers

3 - My Reservations About E-Readers

4 - Why E-books Are Not The Same As MP3s

5 - Conclusions

6 - Redux - An Open Letter To Jeff Bezos

Slipage

Since i got home from Australia i have experienced some slippage in my Arbitrary Dividing Point In Time Resolutions, slippage of course being management speak for totally screwing up.

While i technically posted in time on the blog last week, it was a particularly poor effort. A top 5 list isn't really a proper post, it took next to no time and is somewhat against the spirit of the challenge. So going forward i need to make more of an effort to do real posts.

I have also let my reading slip rather badly too. By reading The War Of Art in an afternoon, i got 1 week ahead on my reading. I did start The (mis)behaviour Of Markets, however i have not made any progress on it since the flight last week. So going forward i need to stop watching junk on TV (yes actual junk, on an actual TV :-O) and start reading every night.

Finally i have badly failed on writing in my Moleskine. Again i was sticking to the resolution well until i moved home and since then i have only written one page while at a lecture. Part of this was lacking a pen (lame excuse i know), part was being lazy and mostly it was a change in routine. So going forward i need to make writing in my Moleskine part of my new routine.

So now that i have identified the fact i have been failing on these less than a month in, i really need to do something about it. Previously i would have accepted the failure, ignored what i had committed to doing and moved on. This time, i am going to recommit to these resolutions and work them into my new daily routine from Monday.

Top 5 Books Read Last Year

Total cop-out this week, i'm off to training so there is no way i could write a post before the deadline. So i thought i would go for the tried and tested 'top 5' list.

1. The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

2. Generation A by Douglas Coupland

3. Hard Facts, Dangerous Half Truths and Total Nonsense by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton

4. The Choice by Eli Goldtratt

5. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Inconsiderate Travellers

Almost the only thing, that causes me to totally lose my shit when traveling, is inconsiderate people.

There is a thin veneer of civility when traveling, it allows people to be crammed in to small spaces without killing eachother. Most people maintain this civil manner, but some people are just totally inconsiderate. It manifests in many ways; from screaming at staff, to jumping queues, to being totally clueless at security screening, to boarding before your row number is called. However the number one inconsiderate thing people do while flying, is to recline on top of you.

The bottom line is, in economy space is precious. I am sitting in the largest passenger plane in the world and yet there is still barely enough space to use my 13" laptop, even without someone reclining on me. If someone did recline right now, not only would it render my laptop unusable in the space, but there is also a good chance it would crack my screen.

Sure you say, but what if you aren't trying to use a laptop? Well even with the tray table up, reclining makes it next to impossible to do anything else either. Try holding and reading a book, in the 6 inches remaining between you and a seat. Try getting something out of the seat pocket, that is now compressed against your legs. Heck even try getting comfortable, when the top of someones head is in your personal space. It just shows a total lack of respect and consideration for the person behind you.

Worst of all, reclining begets more reclining. If someone reclines onto you, most people then think it is ok to recline onto the person behind them. So the reclining cascades back through the plane pissing everyone off. There are rare people who try and break the cycle, who don't want to be inconsiderate to the person behind them, but they are in the minority.

I fully appreciate that i could be considered inconsiderate, for wanting to deny the passenger in front the right to recline. But the bottom line is, while they want to do it, it affects me too. It is the same as passive smoking, a lot of people smoke without any consideration for those around them. Ok maybe reclining is less likely to give me cancer, but it is still something that makes my life miserable without my consent.

So what is to be done? From my perspective, there are a few simple options:

1. Fix the root cause: Design the seats so that reclining doesn't affect the person behind.

2. The liberal-paternal approach: Try to nudge passengers to be more considerate with; "ask before you recline" (or similar) stickers on the back of the seat in front.

3. The flexible approach: Offer everyone a 'recline lock' so that they have control over their own space.

4. The totalitarian approach: Superglue all of the recline buttons and just don't offer the option.

A380 A Love Story

This is the first time I have ever sat on the tarmac, before a 13 hour flight and wondered; "Will i have time to do everything i want to … ?".

As things stand right now, it looks like i'm going to miss my connecting flight to Inverness and have to spend the day in London … a city i hate with a fiery passion. However all i can say is that it will totally be worth it (both the hassle and expense), to have flown on the A380. As a passenger in Economy, it looks just like any other wide-body plane (747, 767, 777, A330 etc), but the modern details really make all the difference.

Let me count the ways I love you:

1. You have carbon fibre seats. Not carbon fibre effect, but real honest-to-god; 'these things are like a race car', carbon fibre seats.

2. You have the best entertainment system in the world:

a. It is a massive, high resolution, touch screen.

b. There are literally 101 (probably more) movies to watch.

c. There are more CD's and radio stations than i can count.

d. There is a whole business section, with audio books, news and even training by DeLoitte.

e. The map of the GPS location of the plane is interactive, it's like Google Earth, you can wander wherever you want.

f. There is a live camera from the top of the frickin' tail. Ok not hugely useful right now at night (black, black, more black), but in the day it would be awesome.

3. You have wifi/ethernet for e-mail and IM, sure its not full web access, but still damn useful.

4. You have power for my laptop (though not working right now) and my iPod (USB plug in the armrest). So i can actually use both of those things for the full flight, rather than having to try to ration the battery life.

Sure, i might not be feeling so euphoric about the whole situation, if there was someone reclining on me in-front and i was wedged between 2 people (Economy seats are still the same size). We'll also see how traumatic and slow the deplaning of 450 people is. But damn, i have been spoiled for every other plane i fly on from now on, at least until the 787 arrives, maybe longer.

Sadly despite being awesome plane, it doesn't make airline food any better ;-)

Things I Will Miss About Bunbury/Australia ...

In no particular order these are some of the things I will miss about Bunbury/Australia:

1. The People
Since I arrived here, I have met some really awesome people. In fact I would go as far as to say almost everyone I have met has been pretty cool. Don't get me wrong, a few have been a bit crap, some have been downright crazy and dangerous. But on the whole, the people I've met and worked with have been excellent. I have made more good friends and am more likely to come back for a holiday here, than anywhere else I have lived.

2. Being A 'Regular'
Somewhat tied in with the above, it has also been cool being a 'regular'. I think the only other time I have been a regular was the campus pub when I was at uni. It is just really nice going in places, having a chat with the people who work there and occasionally getting preferential treatment ;-) The other benefit is getting to see how a business is run over a medium timescale. A big part of deciding to start my own business, was seeing that problems in business are similar in every industry and having the confidence that my experience was relevant.

3. Being (somewhat) Anonymous
The flip side of the above, is that I could be a regular because I wasn't worried about running into people I know, but don't like. The biggest reason I try not to go out in Inverness is because of the above. Actually 'don't like' is a bit strong, I just have no patience for small talk with people I only have a passing acquaintance with, from years ago. This hasn't been a problem in Bunbury. Sure it is a small town and you run into people quite a lot, but they are all people you have seen somewhat recently, so there is less of the inane; "So what have you been up to?", nonsense.

4. The Coffee
I don't think I have been anywhere else where there is such an abundance of places selling decent coffee (by decent I mean anything better than Starbucks). Ok I have not spent much time in Italy, but compared to everywhere else I have been, Australia is excellent for coffee. Before I moved here, I hadn't had a cup of coffee for 6 years, that is how irresistible it is.

5. Clothes Drying Ridiculously Quickly (in summer anyway)
This is a really random one, but it is just so handy when you hang clothes up to dry and 30mins later they are totally dry. I can think of no other benefit of it being 35C and 30%RH outside.

6. The Wine
This is probably not true throughout all of Australia, but generally there is an awesome selection of wine here. It might have something to do with living an hour up the road from Margaret River, one of the best wine growing regions in Australia. I'm still hardly a connoisseur, but I do enjoy a nice red more than I have in the past.

7. Long Drives
Driving in general would probably end up on my 'Things I Won't Miss About Bunbury/Australia' list, but I really love long drives in the outback. The scenery can be rather monotonous, but there is something strangely zen-like driving for hours through an unchanging landscape. It is so much less boring and stressful than similar long drives on motorways in the UK. The traffic is generally light and there are plenty of opportunities for overtaking. The other great thing is that you can listen to a whole long audio book (or two or three) without really missing anything. It would be cool to hire a camper and drive around Australia ...

7 Reasons Today Was A Good Day

1. Productivity

Again I managed to do all of the things on my list of things to do.

2. Letting Agent

Met with my letting agent about leaving, she seemed cool with everything and I think it will be easier because I met with her.

3. Tax

By sheer luck leaving work when I did, has dropped me into a lower tax bracket, so I should be getting A LOT of money back from them.

4. Sleep

Despite yet again getting <6 hours sleep, i feel fantastic, much less tired than ususal, dunno why.

5. Business

I found out when and where I can get some free business startup training when I get home. Even better the timing of the training means I can get started really quickly.

6. Books

My 10 copies of the Revised and Updated version of The 4 Hour Work Week arrived, now I just have to give them away. Anyone want one?

7. Serendipity

No, not the fairly rubbish John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale film, but the literal meaning of the word; "The effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something fortunate".

As you probably know, I am flying back to the UK in just over a weeks time. I was offered a lift up to Perth from a colleague the Saturday before I leave, so I figured I might as well spend the weekend in Perth. Today I decided I would look for a hotel in the CBD, I was looking for something nice but not excessive, alas there were too many options. So I e-mailed my colleague to see if he had any recommendations, he suggested I check out the 'mystery hotel' listings on www.wotif.com.au. I figured, given that the issue was too many options, taking a punt on getting a random hotel at a good price was worth a try. I narrowed my search down to the Perth CBD and there were 3 'mystery hotel' listings. They were all around the same price so I picked one at random, once the booking was confirmed I found out that it was the Novotel.

The reason this is serendipitous is because it was the hotel I stayed in on my first night in Australia. Furthermore it had been my first choice, but I had ruled it out because it was too expensive! Its funny how these things happen :-)

Blogging Duel!

The challenge; Upload a blog post by Friday every week in 2010.

Rules:

• Set aside 1 hour a week to write the post (everyone can find an hour somewhere).
• Note down ideas (and details) when you think of them, so that you always have material to write about.
• Just write, it doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't even have to be interesting, it just has to be uploaded.
• Podcasts and Video Blogging also count.
• No excuses! Going to be away? Schedule a post. Really busy? Come on it only takes an hour. Really stuck for ideas? Do a Top 5/10 of something.

PS This post doesn't count ;-)

Arbitrary Dividing Point in Time Resolutions

Here are my Arbitrary Dividing Point in Time Resolutions for the year:

1. Develop a business that makes £2000/month after tax.
2. Develop a business that is location independent.
3. Visit at least 4 new countries.
4. Read 1 book per week.
5. Write 1 Moleskine page per day.
6. Watch a maximum of 1 TV episode per day.

The first three are longer term goals that will need to be broken down into smaller segments. The latter three are ones that i can track on an ongoing basis.

The main reason for posting these online is so that i am accountable, i.e. If you notice i am not following through on them, please kick my ass!