Other People's Problems [en]

[fr] Je pense qu'une des raisons pour lesquelles il est plus facile de trouver des solutions aux problèmes des autres est que nous avons moins d'informations à disposition pour essayer de choisir "la meilleure solution".

A few days ago I had a sudden insight. And yes, amongst other things, I blame Fooled by Randomness.

We all know that it’s easier to solve other people’s problems than one’s own.

And we also know that being away from home with no computer access makes it easier to relax and do other things. Or working in the office instead of at home means you are not “tempted” by home stuff while you should be working. That basically, being in a context where you physically have less options reduces stress.

I just realised that it’s similar for with problems. One of the things Taleb insists on in Fooled by Randomness is that more information does not mean you make a better decision. More information is bound to get you fooled by randomness.

So, two things here:

  • less choice means less stress
  • less information can mean better decisions

I think that both come into play in a way when dealing with other people’s problems. You have less data about the issue than the person who is stuck in the problem. That makes it easier for you to take a decision about it (or give advice), because you aren’t burdened by tons of possibly useless data that you still try to process.

Makes sense?

Business Thoughts [en]

[fr] Je suis en train de me rendre compte de la valeur qu'il y a à investir dans ce que l'on fait et qui fonctionne déjà. Sans vouloir tirer des boulets rouges sur l'innovation (je serais mal placée), payer le loyer est important, et lorsque l'on lit les histoires de ceux à qui les risques ont souri, ne perdons pas de vue qu'on entend rarement parler des perdants.

I think a bunch of things I’ve been reading and thinking about over the last months are starting to come to something.

For example, one thing I’m realising is that it’s easier to pursue and grow existing business than do new things from scratch. I mean this in two ways:

  • existing customers
  • “stuff you do” that actually brings in money

If I look at the past two years, there are a handful of things that have consistently helped pay the rent. If I look back, I’ve spent a lot of energy over the past year trying to do “stuff I wanted to do” — experiential marketing, for example. Of course, it’s easy to say now with hindsight that I might have been better off concentrating on what had worked, but if experiential marketing had been a huge hit that had made me rich, well, it wouldn’t have been a mistake right now.

(I’m reading Fooled by Randomness these days, can you tell?)

Of course, taking risks and innovating is a chance to break through. I’m not saying one should always stick to what one knows. But remember we see the winners, not the losers.

But paying the rent is important.

Le futur n'est pas encore ici de façon homogène [fr]

[en] What I'm doing these days: getting my "offline crowd" acquainted with newsreaders (Google Reader and Feedly, in particular).

Ces temps, je me retrouve régulièrement à initier les gens à Google Reader ou Feedly. C’est où en sont gentiment ceux de mon entourage qui sont moins connectés que moi, mais qui par contagion, s’y mettent gentiment. Il y a deux ans, c’était les comptes GMail, Skype, et doucettement GTalk.

Retour de vacances [fr]

[en] I've written a lot about my holidays in English. Time for my French readers to get a share!

Voilà, j’ai promis quelque chose en français, me voici donc. J’ai filé à la montagne pour une petite semaine au vert, sans internet, avec pas mal de marche et beaucoup de photos de fleurs.

J’ai un chalet (copropriété familiale, il appartenait à mes grands-parents, je me retrouve donc avec une tranche) à Gryon, tout près de la gare, et que je ne fréquente de loin pas assez.

Une de mes excuses c’est que c’est compliqué d’y monter, surtout maintenant que je n’ai plus de voiture, avec le chat, etc — mais expérience faite, ce n’est pas si terrible. Ça coûte une dizaine de francs aller simple. La même chose que pour aller à Genève.

Je mets le chat dans sa cage, et le charge sur les roulettes de mon caddie à commissions. Il y a un bac à litière et du sable déjà là-haut, et si je m’organise un peu, je monte des draps que j’y laisse, histoire de ne pas avoir besoin de descendre à chaque fois les draps communs pour les laver après utilisation. Un taxi direction la gare depuis chez moi, hop, 90 minutes de train, et j’y suis.

Gryon, c’est un coin superbe. Ça faisait une année que je n’y étais pas montée (et même quelques mois). Surtout, c’est un coin que je n’ai jamais vraiment fréquenté en été (du moins depuis mon enfance). Je garde des bons souvenirs de marche en montagne avec mes parents et des amis, quand j’étais enfant. Oui, c’était parfois pénible, marcher des heures et des heures, mais je crois que j’aimais assez ça — du moins retrospectivement.

Cinq jours sans accès internet, vous vous rendez compte? Ça faisait des années que je n’avais pas fait ça. J’avoue n’y avoir pas trop pensé, avant. J’ai toujours eu assez confiance qu’il me serait sans trop de difficulté possible de me passer de “connexion” durant un moment. En fait, je n’avais même pas tellement prévu si j’allais profiter ou non des possibilités offertes par mon téléphone mobile (e-mail, Twitter, chat/skype).

Après une première journée où j’ai manqué consulter mon e-mail durant les moments où j’étais seule, j’ai assez vite “déconnecté” sans souffrance. Oui, je me demandais parfois ce que j’avais dans mon inbox, tout comme je me reprenais parfois à penser au travail — mais simplement dans la mesure où quand on travaille non-stop et sous pas mal de stress durant des mois (voire des années), eh bien, il faut quelques jours pour décrocher complètement.

Marcher m’a fait le plus grand bien. Marcher, regarder les montagnes. Prendre des photos — un plaisir redécouvert, après quelques années ou la photo est devenue pour moi de plus en plus orientée “objectif-publication” (aux conférences surtout — prendre beaucoup de photos, les mettre en ligne à mesure, taguer, etc.)

J’ai envoyé quelques photos avec TwitPic, histoire de faire saliver un peu mes amis, mais pas de façon compulsive. Comme l’a bien dit Xavier, quelque chose qui me ressemble assez peu: pas de tags, pas de notes, juste une photo et un petit titre.

J’ai décidé que je voulais marcher plus, venir au chalet plus. Et j’ai bloqué des dates de retour à la montagne avant de redescendre en plaine. C’est beaucoup plus facile de bloquer des vacances quand on est reposé et en train justement d’en profier, que lorsque l’on est pris dans la spirale infernale du stress-travail.

Pour prendre de la distance, c’est important de se recentrer. Et me retrouver 5 jours à la montagne, avec une copine, à faire des activités tout sauf intellectuelles (marcher, dormir, manger, bûcheronner dans le jardin, papoter un peu et lire/écrire avant que le sommeille ne m’assome, avant 10h du soir), c’est ce qu’il me faut. Pas de soucis, pas de prises de tête, pas de possibilité de faire quoi que ce soit. Repos forcé de l’esprit. De temps en temps, rebooter la machine.

Etre au milieu des montagnes, en pleine nature, ça aide à prendre un peu de distance par rapport à ses soucis et à sa vie. Les montagnes sont là depuis de millénaires, immuables. Leur présence me donne le tournis. On voit sur elles la trace de leur naissance, les plis rocheux un jour liquide. Et puis dessus, quelques petits chalets. L’homme est un invité sur cette terre. A Lausanne, le lac me fait un peu le même effet. Mais en moins radical.

J’aime la montagne.

Une source importante de mon stress est ma tendance à aborder tout problème comme s’il s’agissait d’une question de vie ou de mort. Je prends les petites choses beaucoup trop à coeur, je m’y épuise.

Depuis mon retour, je m’exerce à “m’en foutre”. Pas dans le sens d’être indifférente, mais de me détacher un peu, de me laisser moins affecter. A ne pas prendre les choses tellement à coeur, justement.

J’ai ralenti, et je dédramatise. Le ralentissement est particulièrement perceptible. Je mets le temps qu’il faut pour faire les choses, plutôt qu’essayer de les faire aussi vite que possible, d’être la plus productive possible. Ça n’a rien à voir avec utiliser ou non une méthode telle que GTD, mais vraiment avec sur quel “canal” je branche mon cerveau.

Et là, je sens que c’est pour de vrai. Quand je me réveille, je ne me sens pas sous pression de démarrer au plus vite, d’abattre ceci ceci cela durant la journée, ce qui va habituellement de pair avec une furieuse envie de ne rien faire, de procrastiner, ou de replonger dans les bras de Morphée pour une heure ou deux.

Je me recentre sur moi. Je prends le temps de me lever. Se lever c’est pénible, j’ai souvent l’impression qu’il me faudrait plus de sommeil, mais en fait (et c’est mon couchsurfeur de l’autre soir qui m’a sorti ça, sans ce rendre compte que cette phrase me suivrait durant des jours), “après on se sent mieux”. Se lever c’est pas drôle, mais en fait, une fois qu’on a fini de se réveiller, on se sent mieux. J’expérimente ça très consciemment depuis deux jours, et c’est vrai. Plutôt de focaliser sur la pénibilité du réveil, je garde à l’esprit que c’est un passage difficile pour me sentir mieux plus tard.

Au chalet, j’ai découvert le plaisir de me “réveiller” dans le jardin. Non pas que je dormais dehors — je parle de la phase où on “émerge”, où l’on ne dort plus, mais où tout ne fonctionne pas encore. Chez moi, cette phase un peu vaseuse se faisait souvent en ligne. Il y a un moment j’ai découvert que passer ces 10-15 minutes sous la douche plutôt que dans son e-mail était nettement plus agréable. Mais ça n’est pas rentré assez profond pour que je change mes habitudes.

Là, au chalet, une fois réveillée, j’allais sur le balcon regarder les montagnes, puis je sortais avec le chat, qui, peu à l’aise dans ce territoire qui n’est pas le sien, rechignait à aller prendre l’air tout seul.

D’une certaine façon, je dirais que ces petites vacances à la montagne m’ont aidée à mieux me reconnecter à ma vie.

Voilà, chers lecteurs francophones. Vous voyez comme c’est. Je vous néglige pendant des semaines voire des mois, puis je vous assome d’une tartine qui n’en finit pas.

On va s’arrêter là. Mais n’oubliez pas de jeter un oeil aux photos des vacances!

Photos From the Mountains [en]

[fr] Quelques photos de mes vacances au chalet.

As you know if you read my latest posts (I’m going on a link strike, be warned, so it’s up to you to dig), I was up in the mountains for nearly a week, staying at my chalet with a friend.

And I took photos.

I’d been on a photo strike for ages, and I rediscovered how much I liked taking photos, and even sorting them 🙂

Here are the albums of my days in Gryon:

Feel free to tag my photos, add notes, or add questions. I know most of the places and mountains photographed, but it’s easier to add information as it’s asked for!

My sets and collections are somewhat out of control, of course, but there is some underlying layer or organization. Maybe ten years from now I’ll go through with my project to select photos for a book or an exhibition (maybe you can help me: tags forbook and forexpo — doesn’t hurt to try).

If you’re using Firefox, you might want to download and install the PicLens plugin.

Here are some random photos that I like.

Chalet and Surroundings 55

Day 4, Solalex - Anzeinde - Pas de Cheville - Anzeinde 94

Day 4, Solalex - Anzeinde - Pas de Cheville - Anzeinde 16

Day 4, Solalex - Anzeinde - Pas de Cheville - Anzeinde 35

Day 4, Solalex - Anzeinde - Pas de Cheville - Anzeinde 77

Day 4, Solalex - Anzeinde - Pas de Cheville - Anzeinde 27

Day 4, Solalex - Anzeinde - Pas de Cheville - Anzeinde 50

Day 4, Solalex - Anzeinde - Pas de Cheville - Anzeinde 59

Day 1, Croix des Chaux - Taveyanne - Villars 080

Day 1, Croix des Chaux - Taveyanne - Villars 047

Day 1, Croix des Chaux - Taveyanne - Villars 049

Day 1, Croix des Chaux - Taveyanne - Villars 030

Day 1, Croix des Chaux - Taveyanne - Villars 026

Day 3, Bretaye - Col de la Croix - Gryon 23

Day 4, Solalex - Anzeinde - Pas de Cheville - Anzeinde 26

Chalet and Surroundings 12

Chalet and Surroundings 29

Chalet and Surroundings 42

Chalet and Surroundings 37

Chalet and Surroundings 65

Chalet and Surroundings 52

Chalet and Surroundings 79

Chalet and Surroundings 10

Chalet and Surroundings 66

Chalet and Surroundings 62: Steph and Bagha

I’m looking forward to my next holiday!

After a Day Back at Work [en]

[fr] Journal. Retour au travail, découragement, rythme toujours agréablement ralenti, de la vie seul ou à deux. Et des fumeurs.

Demain, j'écris en français, promis.

A day back at work, or a day back home. It hasn’t been easy, to say the least. I’ve been feeling very discouraged by the state of things and the amount I have to accomplish.

What has changed? I still feel slowed down, in a good way. I’m rushing less. Taking more time to do things. Particularly silly things like make food, brush my teeth, go out on the balcony to look at the storm. Retrospectively, I feel like I used to be rushing around to scrape every minute I possibly could and get back to being “productive”. That’s not exactly what I did, of course (gosh, no), but the fact I remember myself like that pre-holiday is an indicator of my level of stress then.

I’m less stressed. I see a slightly larger picture. You can’t spend days in the mountains and stay stuck to your internal screen. A dear friend of mine showed me that, long ago — with the lake, not the mountains. When anxiety goes up, that life seems too hard, and troubles not manageable anymore, go by the lake and look out. Lots of water, and mountains on the other side. It helps gain some perspective.

A bit like this phrase that hit me, and stuck with me, from Eight Principles: “Think about what’s worrying you the most now. A month from now, will it still be important? What about in a year? In ten years? in 100 years — will anybody care?” It helps me not take everything to heart. Everything in my life tends to be a matter of life and death. Dealing with life and death situations from morning to evening is very, very stressful. It takes some effort to remember that these are not life and death situations. They are small problems.

Problems which will not matter much ten years from now, or even a year from now. I’ll have moved on. I always do.

One thing I’ve realized, now that I’m alone with cat again, is how much easier being with somebody makes certain things. Eating, for example. I ate late today. I managed to conjure myself up a nice lunch, but dinner was… well, there wasn’t much in the fridge or cupboards, so I made do with what I could find. When there are two of you, there are two people to think about / provide the impulse for things like shopping, cooking, taking breaks, going to bed, getting dressed.

Alone, it’s all on my shoulders. I have to make all the effort. I have to lead, always, never follow. If I’m hungry, I have to cook — each time. There is no chance for somebody else to say “I’m hungry, let’s make some food” before I’m starving.

It’s a bit (in a positive way) like the mutual encouragement smokers are subject to when there is more than one of them. Being a non-smoker, I’ve often noticed how my smoking friends smoke reasonably little when they’re alone with me, and often more than double when they’re together. Each time one smoker reaches for her pack, the other lights one too. They are not just following their pattern of need/desire, but adding to it that of the other.

Being a social animal has its advantages — saving energy.

Here We Are Again [en]

[fr] Journal. L'effet des vacances.

So, here we are again. I’m back with my familiar feeling of not wanting to get up in the morning and crumbling under “too much to do”, and some of them unpleasant things at that.

One of the reasons the mountain works (like the beach, I guess), is that it’s a space where I can’t physically do a great number of these things. Hah! I’m finally understanding the point of going on holiday.

Could I decide that I’m on holiday except for (say) 6 hours a day? I have the impression that would not work. It took me a day or so to “switch off” — more mysteries of the brain to delve in, I guess.

In any case, one benefit of this holiday (even if the “effect” doesn’t last long) is that it’s reset my standard for being “relaxed”. I remember what it feels like, now. And that memory is going to help me not get too carried away into stress and frantic activity.

I’ve decided I was going to back-post these “offline entries” to roughly the moment I wrote them. So, don’t be surprised if you see past posts popping up here and there (I’ve posted those that I wrote during my vacation, so now all you should expect is a night late).

Welcome to my series on trying to figure out some kind of balance in life.

Back Online [en]

[fr] Journal. Retour en ligne.

Maybe I’ll get back in the groove of writing at the end of each day. For years, actually, I wrote journals (paper and pen when I was a teenager, then on the computer when I was older). Not these last years, though.

So, since my last message (blog post, actually — funny for me to find myself suddenly having a spurt of journal-like blogging) I checked my e-mail, blog comments, twitter, friendfeed, etc. E-mail contained a few sources of stress (ie, “bad news”) which I’m still not sure what to do about. I noticed that as I was going down to the see the movie (X-Files première!) I was preoccupied. My mind was back on the “worry, solve problems” track.

Back from the movie, I went online again, and chatted a bit with an old friend who happened to be online and want my advice.

Writing offline is different from writing online. Online, I’m in the network, I have access to everything. Offline, I’m alone. Just like when I was a teacher, every now and again I would go and prepare classes or grade tests in my empty classroom rather than the staff room. I like talking, and honestly, given the choice between just about anything and having a chat, I’ll have a chat. So, I guess it’s normal that every now and again I need to isolate myself to do certain things. Nothing bad about that.

Time to sleep now. And try to wake up in my “holiday” mood, even though I have a day of work ahead of me.

Back Home [en]

[fr] Retour en plaine.

So, I’m back home. I haven’t turned on the router yet. Arriving in my flat a bit less than two hours ago, I saw myself preparing to leave, frantic, packing late, rushing to do things before my week offline (most of which I did not manage to do). I didn’t want to go on my holiday. If I hadn’t set the dates in advance with a friend, I certainly would have cancelled.

Back here after five days in the mountains, I feel different. I feel slowed down. I realize that I’m taking the time to do things. Unpack my toiletries. Empty my backpack. Take a bath. And I want to sit down and write a bit before I go back online, because I’m not sure what will happen when I will. It’s silly, isn’t it? I’m in charge, so I should decide — but there are different me’s, and it’s not always the one I want which wins.

Online — my office — is a fast-paced world. Spending five days away from my world of too many choices did me a lot of good. Nothing but walk, eat, sleep, read, and sort photos. In discreet but present company.

I can slowly feel it starting — this feeling that I need to quickly do this, quickly do that. But I don’t want to live my life quickly. I want to take the time to enjoy it. Slowly, more slowly.

As I was soaking in my bath a little earlier, I realized that I could enjoy this slowness whenever I wanted. I mean, there is nothing material to prevent me from doing so. Thing is… how do I switch into the mood? That’s the big question.

I’m a bit apprehensive right now. I want to go and check on my office, see what happened while I was away. It’s exciting, in a way. But I’m afraid of getting caught up completely. Where will I start? Do I just jump in? Do I take advantage of my “rested” state of mind (physically exhausted, mind you) to try and do things differently? Plan ahead? Tomorrow is catching up day. Go through e-mail (oh yes) and decide what I need to do next. Deal with emergencies. That’ll be enough for a day.

Online is fast-paced, but it’s also noisy, busy, full of people (and very quiet of course). It’s a busy city. As I’m “always on”, I think my life has become a bit of a “busy city”. So has my flat. Part of why I get sucked up in it has to do with how I deal (badly) with alone-ness. But maybe now that I’ve had a few silent days of walking in the mountains with myself, things will be different.

It’s quiet outside.

A couple more days offline [en]

[fr] Encore quelques jours à la montagne, et une réflexion sur l'e-mail.

Oh well — the text I wrote this morning was wiped by a computer crash. Maybe I should use a text editor with autosave.

So, back at the chalet after another day walking. About 4 hours today. 5 yesterday. The day before: raking, sawing, chopping, cutting, carrying branches — in short, transforming the jungle around the chalet into something resembling a garden. So, I’m physically exhausted, but I feel great. My brain on drugs. It must be all those endorphins.

I want to come here more, go walking in the mountains more, spend more time out of the city. I almost found myself wondering what kind of seasonly job I could find here — but it was just idle wondering, I don’t really want to do that. What I have done, though, is opened up iCal and blocked 3-5 days here every month. I wanted to do it before I left, because when I’m here I always want to come back more, but as soon as I go back to “regular life” all the “important things” get in the way.

I’ve been so busy doing physical stuff that my brain has been on hold these last days, which is a really good thing. I’ve tired myself out (went to bed and actually turned the light off before 10pm last night — something I hadn’t done in ages).

My time, when I haven’t been walking or cutting down trees, has been eating, looking at the view, chatting (a little) with the friend who came up here with me, reading, writing (this) and… sorting photos.

I’ve been taking photographs again. I think that one of the reasons I almost completely stopped taking photographs these last six months is that it had started to feel like work. Completely goal-driven, get the photos online, publish fast, sort, title, tag, sets, collections… I’ve known for a long time that one of my problems in life is that I’m too goal-driven. I don’t put enough energy into enjoying the process. Singing and judo are two process-driven activities I enjoy. But maybe I need more. And maybe I need to move most of my activities towards “less goal, more process”. Hmmm, maybe painting.

Being without e-mail has turned out to be easy. I had not decided beforehand if I would use my phone to access e-mail, chat and tweet while I was up here. I told everybody I would be completely offline, but I knew I had the possibility to “break the fast” if I wanted to. I think the first step was the most difficult one: the first evening here, I was tempted to check my e-mail, and almost did, actually. I think what kept me from doing it was that I had company. I could feel that the short moments when I was alone, I would reach for my phone and think about having a peek at my e-mail. But I didn’t. And right now, there’s no point. I mean, there is a pile of it anyway, and I’ll have to sift through it anyway.

I’m quite happy with how things have gone. In final, I’ve succeeded in taking my mind almost completely off my professional and personal worries, and when I think of them right now, typing away on the balcony with the mountains in front if me, they seem much more bearable. I guess that’s what holidays are for.

On the topic of e-mail, I have a theory about why it’s the first step that costs, and once you’ve gone without e-mail for a day, it’s easier with each day that passes (well, more or less). One book that I’ve been reading during my idle moments up here is Fooled by Randomness. At one point, Taleb explains how checking stock prices many times a day exposes one to the many ups and downs of random fluctuations. Lots of ups and lots of downs.

He also notes the psychological impact: if one is happy when the stock price goes up, one is unhappy when it goes down — but more unhappy. This is something I read about in The Paradox of Choice: losing 20$ makes you more unhappy than winning 20$ makes you happy. What this means, in Taleb’s example of constant exposure to random fluctuations, is that if the stock price at the end of the day is roughly the same as at the beginning, one’s psychological state, however, will not. All those “downs” take their toll, and the whole experience ends up making one more depressed or anxious.

Now, back to e-mail. For me, clearly, there is a “reward” factor in checking e-mail. We’re all familiar (I hope) with the intermittent reward reinforcement phenomenon which plays a part in how we train ourselves to check our e-mail more and more often. Good news, exciting news, a message from a friend we haven’t heard of in some time, a prospective client… all those are “reward” e-mails, “ups”. And then the downs: problems or simply… no interesting news.

So, imagine you check your e-mail 50 times a day, but you get about 10 “exciting” e-mails. That’s 10 ups for 40 downs. Now, imagine you check your e-mail 5 times a day. Even if your exciting e-mails aren’t spread out evenly during the day, there is a chance you might only experience one “down” (no news) e-mail check.

Should this argument be used to support the “check your e-mail twice a day” technique? I have a problem with that. E-mail is a rather high priority communication channel. Less than the phone or IM, though. I tend to deal with most e-mail either immediately (if it doesn’t require much processing or action), or within a few days. So… I’m not sure.

I do, however, think that this explains why it’s not very difficult to go another day without checking e-mail: I know that the next time I check it, there will be exciting news in it. And I don’t have the pressure of hoping to compensate for a series of “downs” due to checking it every five minutes on my cellphone for the last hour (particularly on a Sunday).

I also know that since I turned off Google Notifier for my e-mail, and put Gmail in a separate OSX Space, I’ve been checking my e-mail way less often (when I think of it, rather than when it thinks of me) and I’m much happier like that. I guess that if people send me an e-mail they need me to look at now, they can send me a tweet or an IM to tell me. (Assuming they’re Twitter- and IM-enabled, of course. But then, the people who aren’t probably don’t expect me to respond to their e-mail within an hour.)

This entry was back-posted upon my return online.