Happy Friday Time again for some weekend downtime, reflection and turning that laptop off for a while … but not before reading your weekly instalment of ‘The 5 Minute Tech Break’. Theme this week is change and reinvention … something close to my heart as I’m onto my 3rd or 4th reinvention. This week I moved my centre of gravity from London to Madrid, which means I’m having to sharpen up my Spanish language skills and learn to drive on the right hand side but, having had a peripatetic childhood I’ve always been comfortable with reinvention and this is the latest instalment.It did get me thinking about the issue of change and reinvention more widely … Enjoy the read. Andrew Weaver https://cto.academy |
2050 and reinvention is de rigueur “As the pace of change increases, the very meaning of being human is likely to mutate and physical and cognitive structures will melt”Yuval Noah Harari has become something of a literary sensation in the UK. His book on the history of humankind ‘Sapiens’ has been a huge success whilst his latest tome, ’21 lessons for the 21st century’ looked at our world as it might be in 2050. A main talking point was how young people of tomorrow need to adapt and prepare themselves for the huge structural changes likely to take place. Having a dynamically flexible skill set and embedding reinvention into your DNA, not just your CV, are going to be key tools of success. The future is always uncertain and fascinating, This article in Wired goes into more detail about Harari’s thoughts on what it might look like.  |
How to optimise your business – The 4 hour reinvention Another high profile contribution here with a video from Tim Ferris, perhaps the modern master of reinvention. The author of books such as ‘The 4 hour workweek‘ and ‘The 4 hour body‘ – concepts focused around how to reinvent yourself so if it’s a topic of interest, he’s an interesting chap to follow.  |
Mastering The Pivot What’s the reinvention equivalent in the corporate world? Maybe it’s the pivot? Certainly within the start up world, uncertainty about product:market fit and the agility to ‘move fast and break things’ means entrepreneurs are more familiar and comfortable than most, with the concept of reinvention. Here at CTO Academy, we launched with an idea of what the product would look like, but market feedback and validation has shifted us in a slightly different direction of travel. This article looks at “The Top 10 Company Pivots“  |
Maybe It’s More About You Of course, reinvention doesn’t require moving to a different country, having an extreme diet plan or worrying too much about 2050. I struggle to plan much further ahead than next week!Reinvention can be something small, incremental, personal. It can be about setting yourself a target to change, a goal or purpose that helps you shift blockages, mindset, body. Pal of mine went through a stressful phase in his life and decided to book himself into a cottage in the far north of Scotland. No internet, barely any neighbours, certainly no Starbucks. Just him, 2 weeks and a pile of books he’d been meaning to read all his life. He came home transformed. Creating sufficient “me” time and space enabled real change in his life.A huge physical challenge or adventure can have the same impact. Just doing something completely different, even if only for a short period of time.This Huff Post article focused on new year promises to yourself but does throw some other ideas into the mix.  |
| Quote of the Week “It’s never too late to be what you might have been”― George Elliot |
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