Posts Tagged “work”
Ross • 31st Jan 2010 • Thinking • computers, computing, development, dharavi, economy, slums, technology, work
I am interested in the potential of boosting wages in slums by setting up IT centres so that locals can work via Mechanical Turk, and similar services. Although these jobs pay below UK minimum wage, it would be multiples of a typical slum-dweller’s income. It appears that this is not a new idea. Some firms have gone a stage further and distributed this work by mobile phone, broadening reach. However the benefit of a single location is that you don’t rely on the worker having a phone, and that you could combine work with education and IT literacy classes.
Ross • 9th Nov 2009 • Living • commuting, getting things done, reading, Thinking, work
Ben Casnocha blogs about the need for building thinking time into the daily routine. He suggests ensuring that you schedule in time for reading, driving and similarl activities where thinking can happen unprompted. I agree and it is for this reason that I lengthened my morning commute. I now take a less quick but less packed train to work. I have just the right amount of time to sit, read and think about the day ahead, and I still arrive on time. I lose only some fairly unproductive time between 08:20 and 08:50, when previously I would do a sift on the overnight emails to warm me up for the day.
Ross • 12th Aug 2009 • Learning, Living • economics, history, japan, ninja, work
The Business Environment Unit (BEU) is no more. I now work in the New Industry, New Jobs Directorate (NINJa). According to this excellent paper:
…the ninja were but one manifestation of fierce and extensive resistance to encroaching armies in the dying years of medieval Japan…. [they] armed themselves with simple weapons and guerrilla techniques…
Not a bad fit to my new unit. However:
…the ninja and the communities they defended were eventually slaughtered or intimidated into quiescence by the powerful armies of the “unifiers” like Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 16th century.
Not the best omen.
Ross • 10th Jul 2009 • Living • careers, international development, jobs, work
Adam Smith International, an international development firm for which I worked a few years ago, is recruiting for a graduate role. If you have just graduated (or are about to) and have an interest in political and/or economic development, I can certainly recommend working at ASI: responsibility from day one, international travel and a really good, close-knit team. Details here.
Ross • 15th Jun 2009 • Living • jargon, work
I read an interesting piece in yesterday’s Sunday Times on government use of jargon. So I was amused to come back to work today and find the emergence of a new term in my burgeoning, post-holiday inbox:
phoenixed (verb): the process of having gone into bankruptcy to emerge stronger and more streamlined, e.g. General Motors, Chrysler
