-
Dec 5, 2024 | 
dontwasteyourtime.co.uk | David Hopkins
As the year closes, I often take time to think about the events of the year. Sometimes these reflections can be very personal. Other times, like this post, they focus on my observations of UK higher education. This year has been marked by a complex landscape of financial pressures, job insecurity, the changing government, and evolving policies. Here’s a brief look at 2024:The financial stability of universities has been a concern for several years.
-
Oct 22, 2024 | 
buxtonadvertiser.co.uk | David Hopkins
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowOn the day of the Buxton Carnival Buxton Rotary ran their annual Duck race in the river in the Pavillion Gardens. This was great success with several cash prizes given out and the residual monies used for the support of charities both locally and worldwide.
-
Aug 30, 2024 | 
dontwasteyourtime.co.uk | David Hopkins
At this point, on August 30th, 2024. I am off Twitter. Done. No more. It’s not just that I logged out and no longer have that need to see what’s going on. I am out. I downloaded my archive and deactivated my account. I couldn’t go back on if I wanted to. And I don’t. I’ve passed that point of FOMO. Back in 2017 I started to get annoyed by the changes to the way it worked, how it was being used, and how it was allowing itself to be used.
-
Aug 8, 2024 | 
dontwasteyourtime.co.uk | David Hopkins
My third post on the lessons I’m learning from the amazing Creativity Inc book from Ed Catmull focuses on what Pixar came to know as ‘Notes Day’. In short, Pixar had grown from 45 employees to over 1,200, and along the way, the culture of what started Pixar and how they worked (see Braintrust and Fail Fast, Fail Early) was becoming more difficult to see and feel. Not everyone who joined later understood the culture, very few had any notion of how it formed, or why.
-
Aug 2, 2024 | 
dontwasteyourtime.co.uk | David Hopkins
In this, my second post about my recent re-reading of the Creativity Inc book from Ed Catmull, I want to think about the saying Ed talks about early in the Pixar story – “fail early and fail fast”. Left to their own devices, most people don’t want to fail.
-
Aug 1, 2024 | 
dontwasteyourtime.co.uk | David Hopkins
Have you ever wondered why your blog posts or articles don’t get the level of interest they once did, or that you’d hope they would? Are you as annoyed as I am when you find an article only to read something virtually unrelated to the headline that interested you in the first place? Yeah, me too. Welcome to clickbait headlines. More often than not they are to amp up interest to get the clicks and ad revenue.
-
Jul 31, 2024 | 
dontwasteyourtime.co.uk | David Hopkins
Why do I keep reading about how easy it is to be a remote worker? What posts or social updates don’t explain, when they state how great or easy it is, is about their own working conditions. Do they have a family at home competing for space, a dedicated working space, reliable internet and network access, a supportive spouse or family or manager or colleagues, etc, etc. So, to counter the posts about how easy it is, or how wonderful it is to be a remote worker (it is, by the way.
-
Jul 30, 2024 | 
dontwasteyourtime.co.uk | David Hopkins
If you’ve not read the book Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull, I thoroughly recommend it. Using the progress, successes and failures of Pixar films, its producers and directors, and how the business survived each one, there’s a lot to learn here. One aspect of the book, and Pixar, I am intrigued with during my recent re-reading, is their ‘braintrust‘. The braintrust is a process that grew organically through the early failures as part of the development of Pixar films.
-
Jul 26, 2024 | 
dontwasteyourtime.co.uk | David Hopkins
Most of us can map aspects of our career trajectory and identify where our experiences led to developments. These experiences, both personal or professional, lead to new connections or changes of circumstances which aided (hopefully) an upward journey in your field of expertise or into seniority and leadership roles. Lifelong learning is a focus for some, this voluntary and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge extends well beyond formal education.
-
Jul 12, 2024 | 
dontwasteyourtime.co.uk | David Hopkins
Well, I wasn’t expecting this:So what, I hear you ask, kind of dodgy nonsense am I trying to get ChatPGT to do that’s so nasty and worthy of violating their ‘usage policies’? Well, I don’t think it’s anything nasty, so to speak. Here is my prompt:“Familiarise yourself with the 1990 film ‘Pump Up The Volume’ starring Christian Slater.
