Welcome to 2012

And welcome to the Year of Mobile. Just joking! And I don’t have any predictions for you either. I think there have bee enough of those posts over the last week or two. I’m just going to share some of the things I’ve been reading or thinking about in the last few weeks, as much for my own benefit as yours.

On New Year’s Resolutions and the like…

Quashing the self-improvement urge http://zenhabits.net/improve/. “Quash the urge to improve, to be better. It only makes you feel inadequate. And then explore the world of contentment. It’s a place of wonderment.”

10 Lessons from the Treehouse http://danburgess.typepad.com/tap_tap/2012/01/10-things-i-learnt-in-costa-rica-.html One to keep coming back to to get some perspective. Thank you to Dan Burgess for sharing.

How to write 300,000 words in a year http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/how-to-write-300000-words-in-1-year/. I always mean to write more. When I get round to doing it, I really enjoy it. I know I have things to say and I know there are people out there who want to read that (well, at least a handful not including blood relations). I doubt very much that I’ll get the 300,000 words done, but I am making a conscious effort to revisit longer form writing. Much as a I love twitter and will continue to hang out there, I feel the need to do more blogging.

On mobile technology…

What is HTML5? A great intro video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzPxo7Y6JyA

Update Conference 2011 videos are up and are all pretty much mobile focussed. Probably worth dipping into. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4850B9F46ADEFBE2&feature=edit_ok

Some Facebook mobile app figures for you from Benedict Evans http://www.ben-evans.com/post/14858334056/facebooks-300m-app-users

From Simon Rockman: A Knight’s Fail. Why Jony Ive isn’t the most deserving person to get a Knighthood http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/fuss-free-phones-simon-rockman-10024919/a-knights-fail-why-jony-ive-isnt-the-most-deserving-person-in-the-10025118/ There’s a bit of a UK tech history lesson in there too so an interesting read.

Stephanie Rieger tells us about The Trouble with Android http://stephanierieger.com/the-trouble-with-android/ – or more specifically the problems around fragmentation with Android. Do take time to read the comments too.

On mobile marketing and media…

Upstream is taking the social media and gaming approach to recruit their next mobile marketing campaign manager. Could this be you? http://thechallengeupstreamsystems.com/ (Job spec here http://corp.upstreamsystems.com/marketing-campaign-manager)

Gigaom’s thoughts on paywalls http://gigaom.com/2011/12/30/was-2011-the-year-of-the-great-paywall-not-exactly/

Infographic: The bigger the screen, the bigger the click-through rate http://mobileindustryreview.com/2011/12/infographic-the-bigger-the-screen-the-bigger-the-click-through-rate.html I’d be interested to hear if other ad networks are experiencing similar results. Feel free to add a comment on the topic.

On work and economics and opportunity…

No, you can’t pick my brain. It costs too much http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/03/28/no-you-cant-pick-my-brain-it-costs-too-much/ (This is something I think about a lot and I’m going to point people to it when I feel like I’m being taken advantage of in the hope that contacts no longer take the pee on this one. A coffee and a panini is not a fair trade for an hour of picking of my brain.)

The over-justification effect http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/12/14/the-overjustification-effect/ “The Misconception: There is nothing better in the world than getting paid to do what you love. The Truth: Getting paid for doing what you already enjoy will sometimes cause your love for the task to wane because you attribute your motivation as coming from the reward, not your internal feelings.”

Seth Godin tells us this is the chance of a lifetime so, in other words, get on with it! http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/12/the-chance-of-a-lifetime.html

Mastering the art of Living Well by Umair Haque http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2011/12/mastering_the_art_of_living_me.html and the related Business isn’t as Profitable as Betterness http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679052/business-isnt-as-profitable-as-betterness and podcast, Economics for Humans, http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2011/12/economics-for-humans.html