Sometimes they say necessity is the mother of invention- and Hong Kong’s tiny apartments (even smaller than Singapore’s!) have produced an ingenious solution.

Check out Gary Chang’s apartment:

Using the “radical transparency” model of innovation that I learnt from Making Ideas Happen, I’ll write a bit about a project that a group that I am part of have been working on- thirty.sg.

The Thirty.sg Site

It is an website that, for 30 days before National Day, allows anyone to submit concrete and executable ideas that can make Singapore a better place. So far ideas have ranged from small suggestions (more study tables in libraries) to the big stuff (education). More importantly, we are building a community around those ideas- where people discuss, debate and refine each idea. We then bring the best ideas to the people who can make them happen.

It has been interesting seeing the community grow and develop. We started out barely 2 weeks ago with a free website from Ideascale, and as of 2 minutes ago have almost 60 ideas, 505 votes, and 143 comments. Many of the ideas are really good. The team behind it is the reason for this rapid growth- I have learnt a lot from working with some of the most talented people around. Working with them has only increased my belief in the collective power of a small group of people to make something happen.

Check it out- I promise you’ll find the site interesting. I’m pretty sure at some point in our lives we’ve thought of something that Singapore could do, or should have. This is a pretty good way to get it out there- so put your idea up there!

PS: If you could help us evangelize the site, it would be a great help. At the moment we’ve been doing it solely through word of mouth, and anybody you tell about this site helps our efforts a lot.

This point is pretty similar to the previous one (action-orientedness), but it was so well put I had to highlight it:

“Shipping is when you release something… the final act of execution that so rarely happens.”

“Shipping is an active mind-set rather than a passive circumstance… instead of becoming someone who’s a wandering generality- who has lots of great ideas and ‘if only, if only, if only’, you are someone who always ends up shipping”

“Godin believes the source of obstacles to shipping is the lizard brain… primal tendencies to keep us safe by avoiding danger and risk… everytime we get close to shipping, the lizard brain says ‘They’re gonna laugh at me”, “I’m going to get in trouble”… [and as a result we don't ship]

“The reason why Godin has failed so many times is because he has shipped so many times”

[Godin] is comfortable with the risk of failure because that… is the key to being able to execute. As a result, [he] has made ideas happen again and again.

I can’t not recommend this book. I haven’t been able to put it (by that I mean the iPad) down so far. Find it at Amazon, or the iBooks store.

The easiest and most seductive escape from a project plateau is the most dangerous one: a new idea. New ideas offer a quick return to the high energy and commitment zone…

Although it is part of the creative’s essence to constantly generate new ideas, our addiction to new ideas is also what often cuts our journeys short.

This is really true- when Locra hit a wall, all I could think of were pursuing the many other ideas that were on my mind, and as time passed my interest in Locra waned and things did not move as quickly thereafter. That, I believe, was why Locra never truly got off the ground, even though we had the talent, resources and a solid idea.

Scott Belsky argues that we need to find ways to sustain focus, and find ways to renew our energies to break through the “project plateau”. He argues for “acting without conviction”- opposed to the traditional wisdom of thinking before acting. This is not recklessness but rather a controlled decision to avoid the dangers of waiting, which builds apathy and increases the likelihood that another idea will capture our fancy.

This principle is echoed in this TED talk by Tom Werner, who found that 5 year olds regularly outperformed MBAs at building spaghetti towers because they just started building right away. It is also echoed in IDEO’s (the design company) mantra of rapid prototyping, where debate and consensus is passed up in favor of rapid prototyping- a process in which “fledging ideas are road tested early on, exposing dead ends and leading to prototypes that point the way forward”.

I am prone to plan too much. Very often I have found myself spending more time on GANTT charts and achieve consensus, than actual work. The key for me is to balance my natural inclination to plan, and check myself to always remain action-oriented.

If you have lots of ideas, you probably have the tendency to get involved with or start lots of projects…

Energy is your most precious commodity

Another gem from the book, that describes my situation perfectly. At points last year, I was juggling up to 11 project ideas (from the big to the smallest), and taking the lead role in at least 6 of them. Looking back, it’s not difficult to see why most of them failed.

Scott Belsky recommends choosing just 5 projects that matter most- and prioritizing them from Highest to Lowest based on importance, rather than urgency. A project with the highest priority, thus, has economic, personal, or strategic value.

In my case, I came into the summer holidays thinking I would launch 3 projects concurrently, in addition to my internship, spending time with family, and fitness. Instead, I’ve decided I will focus my energy on one project (Gov 2.0) and give myself a time frame to make it happen. Hopefully this will yield better results.

As I wrote earlier, I’ve been reading a really good book called Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky. It’s helped to shape many of my philosophies recently- and I’ll write about a few of the lessons I’ve learnt.

Many of you who know me know that I’ve always had a lot of ideas- and have managed to push out very few of them. Scott Belsky argues that it is a problem shared by many people of the “creative class”- right brainers, whose creativity is at odds with the discipline and rational logic required to execute ideas. Ideas, he argues, are useless if you don’t make them happen.

He studies those who are consistently able to produce great work- and finds that the best are not necessarily the most creative, but those most comfortable alternating between the creative phase of idea generation, and then the disciplined phase of idea execution. As Jonathan Harris put it, “the first is a more pleasing way to live life, but the latter is the only way to get anything done”.

This, for me, is really enlightening. I’ll continue to write about the most compelling ideas (for me) from this book as I go along.

I’m back in Singapore, and have been enjoying 2 weeks of my self-imposed “retreat” at home. After spending much of my life wanting to leave home and explore the world I’ve come to understand the importance of family, and how much it means to me. It has been a good break for me to reconnect with my parents, brother (who is in the army), and sister.

It has also been a good time to “sharpen the axe”. I’ve spent time to set up (and test) my personal productivity system (Toodledo and Google Calendar), my knowledge management systems (Google Reader, Twitter and Evernote). I’ve also set up and configured my Macbook, iPhone and iPad- to work with the systems. I’ve also been able to go through my finances, plan for the future. Hopefully, investing time in this “personal infrastructure” will enable me to handle more work in the future.

The iPad has been a new addition to my life, after saving up for most of the year. One of the things it does is encourage you to read books, something I had not done for a long time (I usually just surf around the web). I’ve been reading “Making Ideas Happen“, a book which targets people who have many ideas but hardly ever execute any of them (i.e. me). It’s a really good book, and I’d highly recommend it if you fit the description above.

Work starts next week, and I’m thankful I had some “down time” to reflect and recharge myself. Can’t wait to get back to the grind again- here we go

Oakland’s Crime Map- an application built on top of government data

There’s been a fascinating conference that I’ve been following for the past couple of days- the Gov 2.0 Expo in Washington D.C. It’s a really interesting topic- especially for those in the government. Singapore’s civil service is pretty efficient (compared to what I’ve seen overseas), but there is always immense potential for improvement- particularly when it comes to the adoption of technology.

I’ve been on-off interested in this subject for quite a bit of time- great blogs that covers this topic is GovFresh, and Gov 2.0 Radio. There’s been a flurry of recent activity on the topic as well, with Obama’s OpenGov initiative sparking a lot of applications built on government data. Conferences such as Gov 2.0 LA (for Los Angeles), and the Gov 2.0 Expo have brought a lot of renewed interest to the subject. I’ll blog about some key ideas from these conferences after my exams, which end next week.

iLink@Aljunied: Feedback

I wrote earlier on open helpdesks and idea aggregators and how they could help the government. This is already starting to happen in Singapore- iLink@Aljunied (what a name!?) is somewhat of a open helpdesk, for Aljunied GRC, and you can find a really good review of it at e27. It should be interesting times- I’m working on something in this field, and will write about it soon.

It’s been a long time since I wrote on sports. This year, I’ve become a pretty major fan of the NFL (American Football)- not just the game, but about how the league is run, and how it is marketed. Its growth from a small league to the richest sports business in the world is astounding- it is almost 2 times richer than the English Premier League, even though its audience is smaller. Why this is so is probably a reason for another blog post.

Anyhow, with the World Cup coming up I’ve turned back to my first love of soccer. Inter Milan finally managed to win the Champs League, testament to the phenomenon of the teams I support only winning when I stop caring about them. I had been crazy about them when I was 14 (started a  “Singapore Inter Milan Fan Club” on Community Zero then, which grew to… 6 members), but stopped caring about them beyond the check-football365-once-a-month.

It’s nice to know that some of the teams I support are capable of winning. Now, just for the Browns to win the Superbowl, and Ipswich the Premier League. Anyhow, this is a great ad from Nike (it’s not the one which, you know, everyone has been sending around).

I can’t help but feel that the “no-eating-or-drinking-is-allowed” law is being taken a bit too far here- fining a lady $30 seems really extreme- and if I may say- completely ridiculous.

I don’t blame the station manager, who is only doing his job. It, however, is a manifestation of an greater underlying philosophy in Singapore- the “slippery slope”. It is succinctly put in the video: “[if we allow you to eat a sweet], then everyone will also start doing that, then where are you going to [draw the line]?” The fear of the slippery slope has often resulted in policymakers going for the most extreme rule possible.

Is going for the extreme rule a sign of prudence, safeguarding society from its ills? Or is it just lazy policymaking, an excuse to not put in the hard work to find out where the metaphorical “slope” has its “plateaus”- middle grounds where rules can give people more breathing space, yet still safeguard society. I’m not sure, and I’d like to find out someday.

PS: You can also read about this incident here and here.