In this post, we investigate three different personal approaches to creativity, and discover a somewhat surprising common thread.
Author Archive for Ruthy Askenazi
October 14, 2010
Confident Creativity
September 13, 2010
Water cooler talk with robots
The high tech sector has an impressive track record with regards to workplace innovation and efficiency. With the emergence of popular programs such as skype and google video chat, telecommuting has become an accepted reality in the modern day workplace. Employees can now work from anywhere in the world and still have that crucial face-to-face time needed.
This solution seems quite elegant, but the reality is that even with a video substitute there are still a few vital characteristics missing. The telecommuter using video chat software is confined to the computer of the person he is talking to and is not able to be part of the office culture.
The ingenious folks over at Willow Garage (a company that develops open source software for robot applications) have taken telecommuting one step further with the introduction of the telepresence robot. This “robot” allows telecommuters to move around the office, be part of meetings or presentations, and totally freak out the new guy. Check out the video below to see the telepresence robots in action at Mozilla headquarters!
Have you ever wondered what someone born in the 1800’s would think if they saw what human life is like today? Do you think they would value all the new technology that pervades modern life? Or might they consider 21st century civilization, with all of its hustle and bustle and multi-tasking required, a sad place to be? Hold on, I have a text message, I’ll be back to finish this blog post in a minute…
In this day and age one can easily participate simultaneously in various conversations or activities (i.e talking on the phone while chatting on the web, talking on the phone while having a Skype video call, driving while talking on the phone). Multi-tasking is hard to avoid in a modern, technology-filled world. For those of us who have given in, and who willingly call ourselves “multitaskers”, have we lost something by being willing to multi task? Perhaps there is something we have gained- some sort of upper hand over those who still insist on focusing on one thing at a time.
Continue reading ‘Attention, Multitaskers, You Might Be Paying a Mental Price’
