Friday 15 February 2008
Wednesday 13 February 2008
Psychology reminder #1
For years psychologists could not explain why some tasks proved more difficult in front of an audience and some proved easier.
Zajonc (1965) unified this apparent contradiciton by proposing that audiences produce arousal within those performing the tasks. Quite simply, arousal makes easy tasks easier and hard tasks harder.
Preparation really is the key to successful presentations.
Zajonc (1965) unified this apparent contradiciton by proposing that audiences produce arousal within those performing the tasks. Quite simply, arousal makes easy tasks easier and hard tasks harder.
Preparation really is the key to successful presentations.
Thursday 7 February 2008
Saturday 2 February 2008
The wonder of London
London is amazing. Today I met Gloria Coates on the tube. She's a composer. I told her about the long tail and why it might help explain why she is selling so many downloads (I hope I'm right...).
She was off to Wapping and I advised her to get out at Tower Hill and catch a cab so that hopefully she could see Tower Bridge at night. I hope I was right about that too...Although not well-known (not to a peasant like me), due to the enjoyment of our discussion she easily makes my top 10 celebrity 'moments' whilst in London.
The full list is here, for your reading pleasure:
1. Meeting - and shaking hands with - Nelson Mandela outside the Cabinet War Rooms.
2. Doing a comedy scene about Bobby the dog with Harry Hill on Harry Hill's TV Burp
3. Jude Law winking at me - yes winking - when I left the Oxo Tower with a particularly attractive young lady. And yes, I smiled back.
4. Jogging past Gordon Ramsey nearly every Sunday whilst training for two London marathons.
5. Sharing a sofa with Vernon Kay (and, erm, Danny Baker) on GMTV
6. Studying psychology with Martin Sixsmith, who nearly brought down a Government.
7. Making Naomi Campbell laugh on a road outside Victoria Park. She clearly wanted me. I didn't fancy it.
8. Playing street cricket with the England bowler Ed Giddens outside Lords. Truly bizarre. We were all very pissed and used a stick and a crushed up can. At one point we all ran to get on a bus and Ed Giddens did too but no one knew why or where any of us was going.
9.Being in a meeting with Jack Straw. He asked me a question right at the outset of the meeting. I didn't really know what he meant and sort of stammered an answer which was totally inappropriate.
10. Meeting and chatting with Gloria Coates on the District line.
She was off to Wapping and I advised her to get out at Tower Hill and catch a cab so that hopefully she could see Tower Bridge at night. I hope I was right about that too...Although not well-known (not to a peasant like me), due to the enjoyment of our discussion she easily makes my top 10 celebrity 'moments' whilst in London.
The full list is here, for your reading pleasure:
1. Meeting - and shaking hands with - Nelson Mandela outside the Cabinet War Rooms.
2. Doing a comedy scene about Bobby the dog with Harry Hill on Harry Hill's TV Burp
3. Jude Law winking at me - yes winking - when I left the Oxo Tower with a particularly attractive young lady. And yes, I smiled back.
4. Jogging past Gordon Ramsey nearly every Sunday whilst training for two London marathons.
5. Sharing a sofa with Vernon Kay (and, erm, Danny Baker) on GMTV
6. Studying psychology with Martin Sixsmith, who nearly brought down a Government.
7. Making Naomi Campbell laugh on a road outside Victoria Park. She clearly wanted me. I didn't fancy it.
8. Playing street cricket with the England bowler Ed Giddens outside Lords. Truly bizarre. We were all very pissed and used a stick and a crushed up can. At one point we all ran to get on a bus and Ed Giddens did too but no one knew why or where any of us was going.
9.Being in a meeting with Jack Straw. He asked me a question right at the outset of the meeting. I didn't really know what he meant and sort of stammered an answer which was totally inappropriate.
10. Meeting and chatting with Gloria Coates on the District line.
Friday 1 February 2008
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