Review: Doctor Who: Robot

Having recently obtained a blu-ray copy of Tom Baker's first season as Doctor Who I thought it was a good chance to revisit those stories.

Robot doesn't mess around with the laboured regeneration crisis of later Doctors and plunges the Doctor and the UNIT crew into a mystery around various thefts with a hi-tech theme.  It's a good showcase for Tom's new Doctor as demonstrates his Holmesian detective skills, his ability to confuse enemies as well as...erm...card tricks and speed typing.

Elsewhere, Sladen as Sarah Jane gets to do some actual investigative journalism, while Marter's Harry seems to bumble around like a spare part who is clearly out of his depth.  A special word also for Burnham as Professor Kettlewell. His hair is quite extraordinary!

The Robot is well realised - even if it does appear to have rather weak wrists. Special effects wise, chromakey is the order of the day and probably a bit too ambitiously used to be truly effective.

Storywise, it draws upon influences as diverse as King Kong, Asimov's three laws of robots and the earlier Doctor Who serial, Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

It's not the best Doctor Who story, or even of this season, but it serves as a safe introduction to the fourth Doctor.  Weirdly, the story with its trappings of UNIT and Earth bound nature feels more like a Pertwee setup than typical of Baker's era.

The blu-ray is a nice step up picture and audio quality wise with much of the compression noise in the picture disappearing. You'll never be convinced that this is HD, but within the limitations of the camera and production technology - this looks about as good as it ever will.

Verdict: The fourth Doctor arrives in a third Doctor story.

Review: Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work

Stealing Fire is a sequel of sorts to The Rise Of Superman and serves to expand on some of Kotler's previous ideas on how to achieve flow and improve performance.  It may also have one of the wordiest subtitles ever.

Like the previous book, figuring out what to actually do is a little like catching smoke - only perhaps more so as some of the activities described are life threatening, illegal, expensive or all three!

A few examples of the options described:

• Get your psyche torn apart and built up again with the Navy Seals
• Experiment with largely illegal psychedelics 
• Do bio-hacking
• Go to Burning Man
• Take part in extreme adventure sports

Interestingly, I did add to my collection one new flow trigger to experiment with - shifts in gravity.  This may go some way to explaining my recent passion for the aerial arts.

Verdict: There were some interesting ideas here, but it did feel like a thinly argued advertorial...

Review: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Part meditation and part call to action, Gawande’s Being Mortal is a compelling if depressing survey of the state of end of life care and why it matters to get it right. 

Essentially, in the West at least, we are in denial about death. So much so, that we and our doctors shy away from difficult conversations about what a good end looks like in favour of increasingly brutal interventions that often fail to do what the patient hopes they will do - that is prolong or restore life.

 When it comes to it, we all want to take our chances at being the one in the million miracle cure and focus on that rather than achieving what matters to us. What matters to us, often turns out to be surprisingly small. A previous high flyer may simply want to enjoy an ice cream and his favourite football game. Others focus on strengthening bonds with immediate friends and family.  All seem to hone in on the now, rather than the future. 

Equally important is what care in old age looks like. Again what we might choose for others is not necessarily what they'd choose for themselves. For example, they'd choose home and autonomy over safety. 

Most of the stories are saddening, and a few are heartbreaking. I was particularly struck by the story of one young patient who remained in denial up until and including her final words. 

Gawande pulls no punches in explaining what old age is really like. It is, as my Mum likes to say, not for sissies.  Essentially, it’s a slow wearing out of backup and then primary systems until you get cascade failure.  Terminal disease seems equally unappealing. Yet, one and/or the other is the trade off for being lucky enough to walk on this planet for a time.  All things considered, it’s not a bad one and demystifying the end process certainly made me think about what a meaningful (end of) life looks like.  

Verdict: Essential reading for anyone who expects to die one day.  

Review: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

The missus and I made one of our increasingly rare pilgrimages to the cinema for the latest monster munch in the series.

As with anything, timing is everything and I suspect we will not be repeating a Saturday afternoon viewing for a while as the soundtrack was at times near drowned out by successive waves of wrappers being peeled off or rustled to satiate an obviously starving audience.

Cinema going experience aside, Bayona brings a touch of directorial flair to the formula with a couple of call backs to earlier horrors such as King Kong and Nosferatu.

Both leads from the previous film are contrived to return. Pratt's Owen has done a Walden, while Howard's Claire has gone eco-warrior on us in a bid to save the remaining dinosaurs on their increasingly volcanic island.  Needless to say, the bad guys hinted at in the first of the rebooted series have other ideas and the story makes an only slightly more successful Lost World style shift to the mainland during the second half to become a haunted house mystery.

I suppose it would be churlish to point out the flakiness of quite a bit of the science eg heroes can apparently outrun and survive direct encounters with pyroclastic clouds.  More amusing, are the tip of the hats to the Trump presidency. For example, one character is referred to as a "nasty woman".

Newcomers to the series, Pineda and Smith, neatly subvert expectations with Smith in particular producing some very effective screaming that would put a Doctor Who companion to shame. Pineda gets to poke fun at some of the film's standard tropes.

I'm sure I think this about every Jurassic Park/World movie - but the dinosaurs really do achieve another tick up in the realism stakes.

The 3D is surprisingly muted for a film of its kind and really adds little by way of immersion or thrills. I would not pay extra for it.  Similarly, if Goldblum's appearance in the trailers is tempting you in - don't be. He has little more than cameos topping and tailing the film.

Finally, the ending. Well, that was interesting - and sets up a couple of intriguing possibilities to complete the World trilogy.

Verdict: More of the same dino fun with a few mildly inventive touches.

Review: Lost Horizon

I'm about to write another variation on that familiar statement; "having recently read the book, I decided to give the film a try".

Lost Horizon is a very evocative film for me. As is often the case with my back catalogue, I likely first watched it at that impressionable period between the ages of seven and twelve where its themes of immortality, kindness and universalism together with action made a big impact.

They were also gentler and slower pre-VHS times - where a film might be shown on the BBC once in your childhood and you'd have to carry the half memory of watching in your head with no expectation of being to revisit again.  For our family too, all TV watching was on a 14 inch b/w portable which had the benefit of rendering black and white and colour films just the same (despite my Dad's half joking experiments with covering the screen with multi-coloured acetate film).

This time I got to watch it on the projector in our living room. Despite the best efforts of Sony's restorers, it's a bit of a patchwork quilt of various sources of footage and of a varying quality which even the blu-ray format can't do much for in terms of improving presentation. A few very short sequences are represented by stills and audio only.

The first hour or so of the film is still gold as the action sequences are suitably thrilling, the unfolding mystery tautly told and the unveiling of Shangri-La is a wonderfully 1930s in its design. Then it does begin to get a bit ponderous. The High Lama scenes, once so profound, feel quite drawn out and obvious in their insights.  Everyday life in Shangri-La itself is earnestly twee (although I'd still consider moving to the Shangri-La of the book).  Lastly, in a post Indiana Jones world - the fate of one of the characters now feels - like the book - under-dramatised and lacks impact.   The central performances, particularly of Colman are superb though and went a long way to keeping my interest.


Verdict: Sometimes a memory of Shangri-La is better than reality. 

Review: Lost Horizon

Hilton's remote mountain utopia of Shangri-La is a good counterpoint to Huxley's Brave New World. They were both written in the early 1930s, but in many ways could not be more different.

For most, Shangri-La - particularly those of a nostalgic, wistful bent - may be a more appealing utopia in many respects as it offers a longer more contemplative rural life away from the stresses and strains of fast paced urban living. This even extends to the prose - which has a dream like quality at times.

I was fascinated to read afterwards that an earlier name for Camp David was Shangri-La.

The protagonist, Conway, is rather more likeable than anyone in Brave New World too.  He's a thoughtful, well educated, courageous selfless everyman who's character - even across the passage of nearly ninety years - shines through with hardly a dated blemish.

"Laziness in doing stupid things can be a a great virtue".

Lost Horizon 

Both books, however, have a benign authoritarianism - honed over many years - at their core, the rule of an elite and there is no escaping it. They also both have elements of prescience. In Hilton's case, he correctly anticipates another war.

Weaknesses with Lost Horizon? It ends very abruptly almost as if the author suddenly got bored with it.  Conway aside, the characters aren't very well drawn, making the hinted at fate of one of them less impactful than it might have been.  I'd need to watch the film adaptation of Lost Horizon again - but I think it may have made a couple of useful improvements on the book.

Verdict: Engaging utopia masquerading as an adventure mystery.

Review: Batman: Master of the Future

This sequel to Batman: Gotham by Gaslight is set roughly a year after the events of that graphic novel.  The art in this is richer and more modern looking, but that isn't much compensation for a rather slighter story with a villain who seems to have no real backstory or motivation beyond a massive ego.

Also this is more a story about Bruce Wayne and once again he is prevaricating over his role as the Batman.

Verdict: Interesting, but not wholly satisfying follow up.

A Guardian reader writes...

The Guardian has a question apparently from one of its readers.  Essentially, the protagonist has a good secure job as a middle manager in a public sector organisation but feels their career has stalled - and that they may become an obstacle to change or new management.  One additional difficulty is that they have a family (and presumably a mortgage) to support in London.

As someone who has been through something of the same in recent years, I'd suggest they have a few options:

Get some some side interests. People either work to live or live to work and it sounds like they are reaching the point where living to work is no longer doing it for them.

One idea is to simply think back on what you enjoyed doing as a child or young adult. Is there anything you'd like to have tried, but didn't get around to?  For me, I always quite liked the idea of gymnastics - but lacked the upper body strength as a kid and had discouraging teachers.  So I did a circus tryout class, found I enjoyed trapeze and aerial hoop - and booked some follow up classes.  Similarly, I used to enjoy reading and so I joined a book reading group.

Consider a side-business. Despite all of the hype about twenty somethings and tech startups, it turns out that being in your mid forties is an ideal time to get going on your own business. I suspect this is partly because we've been around for a bit and learned a few life lessons along the way which are transferrable to other avenues.

The problem I suggest most potential business people have is that they think it's all or nothing with regards to running a business and that it requires lots of traditional crap like a business loan, business plan etc.

It doesn't.

Simply do a skills/stuff audit and figure out what you can/would like to sell.  Can any of your skills be packaged up into a product or service?

Getting started could be as easy as listing a few things or services you might offer on eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Cafepress, Elance, People per hour, YouTube etc and then marketing initially to friends or relevant Facebook or other listings.  That will tell you a lot of potential size of market, pricing etc.

Potentially, you can rope in the rest of the family to help with fulfilment, book keeping etc.

If it doesn't work, no real harm done and you can try another idea. It took me around five years of part-time experimentation before I hit on something that made a significant difference to my income.

Keep developing your skills.  This could involve finding a mentor (probably outside of the organisation you work for), or a coach to identify gaps in terms of what you need to progress or maintain your current position, preferred learning styles etc.

How to learn effectively is a field which has come on in leaps and bounds since we were at school and university. Today, you can take your pick of speed reading, memory palace skills development etc which will make skills and knowledge acquisition much easier than previously.

Delegate or automate to free up time. As a middle manager, you are in a great position to delegate some of your work to others and it will (sometimes) even be appreciated as a career development opportunity.  Also give some thought to what can be eliminated or automated.

For me, regular report writing was often time-consuming and lacked reward so I simply templated as much as a I could (including having a list of stock phrases to hand to cover most situations) and automated or delegated the data gathering.

Work on plan B. If you feel at some point your face will no longer fit then, it's time to consider what you can do to mitigate the risk of redundancy.  Do you jump ship ahead of time, wait for a redundancy payoff, etc?

Other options are building a fund which is big enough to you to survive for a few months, and then once that is achieved consider keep going. Can you pay down or pay off the mortgage early? Or even build enough of a fund to retire early?

You can also simply make it known that you are up for a change in focus and see if a sideways shift to another department is possible.

Review: The Alchemist

The Alchemist is another book I'm revisiting thanks to my local book club.

At its heart its a gentle mystical adventure quest about someone pursuing their dreams. The fable structure is pretty much a beat for beat example of Joseph Campbell's mythic structure which is probably one of the reasons it is so popular.

I enjoyed re-reading it, but probably not as much as my first read in my twenties when its few simple truths felt rather more profound.  It remains a good illustration of the value of perseverance and also of the various obstacles in quests.


Verdict: Good modern day fairytale.

Artificial intelligence and Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Last week I officially moved team and job (and went part-time to boot), and it saw us taking a break from the office to consider the implications of artificial intelligence on society and the environment as well as start to think about useful interventions or experiments we could run.  Tony Benn's quote on power feels as relevant as ever (and can equally apply to AIs and their corporations):

In the course of my life I have developed five little democratic questions. If one meets a powerful person--Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates--ask them five questions: “What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?” If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.

Tony Benn 

I've always been fascinated by Maslow's hierarchy of needs and I wondered whether they were more or less likely to be enabled by artificial intelligence. In a nutshell, what would our new search for meaning in an AI world look like (especially one which might be increasingly work-less).

It struck me that most of where AI is currently being applied is in the bottom couple of layers of the pyramid and that maybe we could be a little more ambitious than that.

So using these characteristics of a self-actualised person I had a go at dreaming up a few AI applications which might help:

Efficient perceptions of reality
This refers to the notion that self-actualised people are better at seeing the world as it really is. Here I had visions of using AI to detect fake news, to augment media stories with overlays that show the world-really-not-so-bad-after-all as well as providing opportunities for empowerment.

Task centering
I felt AI could help a lot both in identifying a mission that each individual could directly contribute to, but also help them stay the course through coaching and helping with goal setting and tracking.

Continued fresh appreciation
This refers to the ability to re-experience and enjoy everyday experiences like seeing a flower.  Here AI combined with augmented reality apps might highlight moments and pull you back to the now. I envisaged glancing at a poppy and  the etymology of its name, scientific information, or a cultural history could pop up causing you to take another look and appreciate it.

Comfort with solitude
Here an AI might train you to become increasingly comfortable with longer periods of alone time, but creating space to do so by removing non-essential distractions and providing reassurance.

Peak experiences
Again an AI might help monitor whether you are in a flow state and tweak the environment to allow you to stay in one longer. It might also help you better predict whether an activity will sufficiently (4%) stretch you and help design activities accordingly.

Profound interpersonal relationships
I have often read that you are the sum of your five closest relationships. Well, what if one of them was an AI who was modelled on a renowned person in a field of interest such as Einstein for aspiring physicists, or Picasso for artists?

Non-hostile sense of humour
This refers to our ability to laugh at ourselves.  An AI could definitely help with coaching that!

I'm sure there are many other applications of AI to the self-actualisation section of Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid. Have you thought of any?


Further reading

A blueprint for coexistence with artificial intelligence - Lee's take on what do humans do now?

The AI hierarchy of needs - because machines need stuff too.

Pay no attention to the man behind the gong

I visited a local music and arts festival this last weekend as I was interested in trying out a few things via the workshops on offer.

In the end I tried out:

• Gong bath
• African drumming
• Belly dancing

which probably tells you all you need to know about the type of influences on the festival and there were indeed a number of achingly conspicuous hippy types.

Gong bath

A gong bath invites you to lay down, close your eyes and listen while a chap (in this case, called Bear) bangs and tinkles various gongs while wandering around you using a huge variety of instruments.  Afterwards, he asked us to stand directly behind the biggest gong and at times you could feel your body resonate and sink into the instrument itself.

For the prior piece, the overall effect is akin to being in at times a highly immersive horror or science fiction soundtrack (I "recognised" sounds from Alien and was reminded of Interstellar a few times too) - but without the scares.

African drumming

The instructor for this workshop was an immensely charismatic and encouraging - creating rhythms that felt thrillingly tribal yet accessible.  It may be a bit woo-woo, but there is something immensely primal about hammering out a seemingly complex beat with a dozen strangers as it gets faster and faster. I totally get the appeal.

Having never played an African drum before - it was fantastic to learn a few of the basics. Hand always flat, edge of the drum for high notes, middle for bass etc.

Belly dancing

The missus had given me a mission to find out more about belly dancing classes in the local area so I thought I might as well sample the wares.  Again led by another talented instructor (who was welcoming when I tentatively asked if anyone could have a go).  Encouraged, I tied the biggest and most jangly belt around my waist.

It turned out to be a huge amount of fun. By the end of the session, I'd learned to do a pleasant sounding shimmy, as well as the basics of circling and a figure of eight.

Sadly, this will likely be my last belly dancing for a while as the missus is rather firmer about gender norms than I am - and has forbidden me to go to any classes.

Review: Brave New World

Brave New World is another of those books I'm revisiting as an oldster.  Apart from the ending, I don't remember much of it from the first time around.

Tonally and stylistically, it varies a lot. There's staccato like switching between scenes which feel very filmic, there's long rambling monologues, detailed pseudo-scientific explanations and about half way through there's an obvious false ending and it becomes a very different kind of book altogether.

Beyond borrowing something of the same premise ie a pleasure-centered utopia gone wrong, Westworld has two obvious tips of the hat to Brave New World in its characters. A chap called Ford is arguably the architect of both worlds - while a borderline outcast called Bernard acts as his conflicted enabler to varying degree.

It remains as prescient as ever, but obviously dates itself in unexpected ways. It clearly hasn't considered the prospect of a robot underclass or the impact of the internet.  The flying cars beloved of later science fiction are simply helicopters in this. Perhaps unsurprisingly, not many could imagine a Model T becoming airborne.

Verdict: Powerful satire and still relevant. 

Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story

Back in the late 80s, I would regularly poke around a local secondhand bookshop's science fiction section and stumbled on  - and eagerly snapped up, a number of Star Wars spin-off novels featuring Han Solo and Chewbacca's adventures before Star Wars.  They were a lot of fun from memory and featured covers of the duo usually engaged in some firefight.

The film, Solo, invokes a lot of the same spirit as these earlier novels - even down to the cover art or in this case, the lead, only somewhat resembling Harrison Ford's take on the character and physical appearance.   Also for my money, it's the most joyous of the new Star Wars films. Frankly, it's great to see the gang back in action again.

Ehrenreich -  thankfully - doesn't try to impersonate a younger Ford. He simply channels enough of the key beats of Han's character to make him recognisable. He's not quite as world weary as Ford, but that's to be expected given the timeline. The delivery of certain lines - "190 years' old? You look great!" - feel perfectly on point.

The humour was an unexpected bonus and some of best bits in it. So much so, I think they could have pushed it a little more. Glover doesn't get much screen time as Calrissian, but he's superb. So also is Waller-Bridge as the droid rights championing L3. Clarke feels slightly muted and underused though.

Of the behind the scenes troubles, there's little evidence of them on screen.  It's a heist - and an origins - movie for the inseparable smuggling pair and I hope like the books, the first in a number of spin offs.

Verdict: Recaptures much of the old escapist magic.

Review: The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work

Already dated, but still a useful peak under the curtain of Automattic - the company behind Wordpress.com.

Automattic is unusual in that its small staff body (then 130) is highly distributed and all home workers.  That was rare in 2011. It is less so nowadays (I'm a home worker myself).  As a result, the book is probably stronger on the psychology of managing teams rather than the topic promised by the subtitle - the future of work.

A few learnings.

Teams still meet in person once or twice a year to "recharge the intangibles". What exactly does that mean?  The book isn't clear, but from my own experience of working with colleagues overseas and also those who are mostly based in a head office - relationships can accumulate cruft without some maintenance. Small hurts or even misreads - perhaps lost in translation over the ether - can be nursed into bigger ones - and even an informal get together reminds everyone that we are all just humans trying to do our best etc.  At Automattic, when they get together in the real world - they are intensely social. 

Email isn't a thing. Most communication is via three tools. A blog for updates etc, IRC for one to many and video conferencing for 1:1s.   One thing that struck me is that the IM exchanges which Berkun faithfully, and not particularly interestingly, reproduces are highly chatty and give a good sense of each person's personality.  That's quite a difference from the short businesslike ones I experience at my current workplace.  They don't seem to use any horrible jargon either.  In short, they sound like warm friendly humans not emotionless business droids.

Help is always on hand. I guess my organisation's equivalent is our Slack #random channel - but you don't get the instantaneous response that it seems you do at Automattic.  Perhaps that is not necessarily a bad thing!

Don't hire assholes.  Lifted from a book called "The No-Asshole Rule":

"No matter how many golden lectures a leader gives imploring people to “Be collaborative” or “Work as a team,” if the people hired have destructive habits, the lecture will lose. And of course if the leader is the asshole, there is no hope at all."

 Scott Berkun, The Year Without Pants.

Having encountered a (thankfully) very few workplace assholes in my time, I can testify to the opportunity cost of employing them. They may "get things done" - but often at the expense of a massively demoralised set of peers and others who are less engaged and productive (and in some cases, leave for more fruitful working environments).

Avoid cargo cults. Aping a good working culture is not the same if the values etc are not also embedded.

Prioritise product creators over support roles like HR/IT etc. The classic mistake is of IT dictating what computers and software the creative people should use.

As a manager, prioritise communication and helping others.  This chimes well with me as servant leadership is my go-to approach.

On meetings, if it is important - people will pay attention.

Pick a problem, and write a product launch and support page for it. I love this future orientated prototyping approach.

“Writing the announcement first is a forcing function. You're forced to question if your idea is more exciting for you as the maker than it will be for your customer.”

Scott Berkun, The Year Without Pants.

I wonder what working at Automattic is like now. It's got a lot bigger - closer to a thousand than a hundred and fifty...


Verdict: Already feels a little dated, but some of the management psychology is still insightful.

Review: Unlocking the Habit code

Grogan’s well laid out book and fluid writing style provides an accessible formula for developing morning rituals in the form of a collection of habits.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit."

Aristotle

His rationale for focussing on morning rituals seems sound to me - but beware night owls, he has little truck with you.  Essentially, Grogan asserts that building in regular morning habits conserves creative energy and gives you a psychological boost for the day. 

He has developed his own approach called Messi (yes, somewhat dedicated to the footballer) which you commit to practising habits for 21 days

• Meaningful - the habits you want to develop have real meaning to you. 
• Easier - you design your habits to be easy to do
• Social - you find someone to partner with and commit publicly to doing the programme
• Setback ready - figure out how you are going to manage setbacks in advance. 
• Incentivise - create strong positive and negative daily and completion of programme incentives. 

It’s a good compliment to Steve Scott’s book on the same topic of habit formation which has more specific ideas. 

I also appreciated his description of what is a super habit (yep, the prefixing of super to everything seems to be habit de jour in this space at the moment):

• Thankfulness
• Rest your mind i.e. something like meditation
• Affirmations. Essentially, identify limiting beliefs and create positive affirmations that say the opposite.
• New learning
• Sweat i.e. exercise
• Fuel i.e. good food. 
• Outdoors i.e. get out into nature if you can
• Remind yourself of what you want to be e.g. goals etc.  use a mood board, write down goals on paper in your wallet, sketch pictures of future, or simply imagine.
• Make a promise - 3 promises about what will make today great for you (and others). 

That spells out TRANSFORM - cute, if slightly laboured.  The case studies, even if real, fictional or a hybridisation of the two, were a smart way of seeing how this works in real life and to help overcome objections. 

“I see life like on long university education that I never had, every day I’m learning something new”

Richard Branson

I already have a daily set of rituals I do so by and large much of what is in this book wasn’t that new to me. But I have started drinking 500ml of water on waking which is definitely helping with mental performance early on. I might try the genius moment stuff too - although just the name is making me feel self-conscious. 

Verdict: Excellent self contained introduction to habit formation.