I was sent this article from local news site Brisbane times. In short it says the government is going to tax us more when we buy a car to make us pay less ‘mortgage duty’ when we buy a house. The article points out that people will save $500 initially on taxing on houses and later on $1000. Ok, so I am not rubbishing the journalist here but what the hell?
So tell me state government: what am supposed to do to save up the whopping 10% of $320,000? Last time I checked the only place I can buy a house for that price is in the middle of bloody nowhere, miles away from work, oh and did I mention that I am only eligible for a loan 1/3 of that? I suppose I could buy 32 houses? Give me a break.
So here we are in the middle of a housing crisis where people are living on the street and all we can do is give tax breaks to people who need it the least. I have to be totally honest here and say this is the least helpful idea in the crisis so far. I like Rudd’s sliding scale concept, but I can’t save with rising food and accommodation costs can I? Here’s a concept: work on making something different so more people can afford to buy a house. Wow! What a concept!
To be fair I think the idea has merit because of extending tax options for investors (thus making more rentals available…I hope) BUT this sounds like an attempt to bait investors to me NOT an answer to getting a house for the first home buyer. It does not sound (perhaps as it’s framed in the article) as an attempt to work towards a meaningful solution to the nations affordability problems. Now, I am all for making money and success but what happens when people keep getting rich on one end and the majority miss out? Poverty and rises in homelessness that’s what.
I have discussed these things previously and judging by a comment I received in that post this morning I am not alone here. This has made me seriously rethink the whole renting versus buying thing. As I have already said before, I am not sure it’s sound investment as many say it is. I would just like to add my voice to the growing discontent of how this situation is being handled. It’s like the people in charge of this thing are asleep at the wheel. So why am I whining about this? Well, it’s a classic case of looking at a problem from a purely economic point of view. Shallow, narrow minded and at best a poor solution to a problem that is growing rapidly out of control.
Well here we are reaching the end of another year. This year I was bullied, bashed and otherwise abused into making a blog by those around me. At first I thought, what a vacuous concept… talking to oneself over the web. As I have progressed into it, I have grown in confidence and had quite some success in the blogging world … well ok … I had a few good days.
So what did you like from me this year. I have dug into my Google Analytics file and found the stuff you thought was the most interesting… even if from a quantitative point of view. So here we are the best of me for 2007:
This post surprised me. It was really an idea I had when I was thinking of my own life and how things have gone bad for me in the past. It was my daughters birthday and my mother in law had ripped her bumper bar off her brand new car. We acted fast and got out of the mess instead of the mess consuming us.
This is really an anchor page for this whole site. It describes what I am all about. Heaps of people of have read this article and for this reason it’s available from my articles page.
I really like this post. It was an attempt to take my ideas around perspective shifting and make them into common sense steps. Did it work… probably not… but I am getting there.
When I was gearing up to write this post I realised that I had been telling a story. In fact I had inadvertently been writing a book. I am only half way there so I thought let’s see if people want to read more about what I write. This proved to be a fairly safe bet at this early stage so I am going to keep writing in 2008 and see how it goes from there. If you haven’t downloaded this book yet I would recommend that you do it now! It will give you an overview of what life skills are all about.
I focused on giving and receiving in this article and it proved to be a very popular choice. At the time I wrote it, I crashed my server! Giving… a contentious issue but one that is relevant today.
A lot of people thought that sowing into the future on a daily basis was a good idea. For this reason, this post became very popular in a short space of time. About 3000 people read it in a short period of time which for this tiny blog was a total surprise.
The seven signs were worked out in about 10 minutes from my own and my wife’s point of view. I have had many many broken relationships and restored most of them. Then again, was I prepared when my server crashed on this article and I was locked out of my bluehost account for a period of time? No I wasn’t. I learned something very valuable about blogging from writing this article. Make it so it’s understandable, readable and you will eventually find people will read what you write. Thanks to the 4000 people who read this article in that hour or two!
You know what… never judge your posts on what happens today. I wrote this post way back in September and nobody except John from Business Opportunities and Ideas read it. John was gracious enough to hat tip me on his blog and I noticed it began to grow and grow and grow. Sometime last week it hit a peak and became my second most viewed post. The cool thing is that I live by these principles and to see it grow as it has gives me a lot of satisfaction.
Okay so I stole Brian Clark’s technique… and it worked. I was reading the news as I do everyday when I read a comment by Shatner saying that if they make a Star Trek movie without him in it it would tank. I laughed so hard and then remembered how Brian had used Yogi to great effect in one of his posts. I leveraged Shatner’s fame and attitude to make a point about how you should believe in yourself and know your own ability (without being a blowhard). I love Shatner’s attitude. To me it says, ‘I am a winner and there isn’t a damned thing you can do about it!’ This one crashed my bluehost servers for 10 minutes. Thanks to the 5000+ people who love Shatner as much as I do.
Sadly the posts I most wanted to see make it didn’t. I want reveal what these were but if you are a long term reader you will note changes. I cannot make people like my boring content anymore than I can make them love Shatner. These posts you can easily find by looking under different categories and you will see why. My novel experiment tanked and since has been cancelled. In the same manner my creative projects bombed badly … so they too have died. Yet, in this mix I have learned that I love blogging and interacting with people even if they think I suck. Since August I have been pumping out gold and I will continue to do so throughout next year. Thanks to all who read anything I wrote and I wish you a happy new year.
Yes, it’s that time of year again for the Lifeline Bookfest here in Brisbane. So if you are living in Queensland or wherever make sure you get there. In short the Lifeline Bookfest is a twice yearly fest of used and near new books that have been donated to Lifeline, a charity for personal counselling here in Australia. Lifeline do a great job of helping those who need someone to talk to during the hard times. I have been to the Lifeline Bookfest many, many times and filled at least three bookshelves with all kinds of stuff. I once found a copy of Images of Organisation for a whopping four dollars. In short, the bookfest is a chance for book lovers of all ages to score a bargain. So if you can make it you will get a cavalcade of books. In runs from the 12th-19th of January at the Southbank Convention centre. You can learn more by click the link below.
The end of the year is now on us. Personally I am calling next year the year of transitions. Why? This is the year of moving from one station to the next. I firmly believe and am convinced that 2008 will be a year of transitions. I am going out on a limb here and am making some fairly silly if not altogether bold predictions. After spending time thinking, praying and generally walking around in a circle I have to come up with what I think will be the major events of 2008:
A continual shift from the right to the left in global politics
In political circles I think the continued abandonment of the governments in the western world that supported the IRAQ war will continue. It has happened here in Australia and in the UK and I think it will continue with the eventual removal of the Bush administration for the people on the other side of the fence.
The continued disintegration of global media markets
I haven’t written on this yet but I am going to shortly. Quite frankly I think the whole ‘web 2.0′ thing was only the beginning of a shift in media that make take several years to culminate. We are seeing the tip of the iceberg at the moment with the rapid growth of media sites like youtube. Digg is already coming under heavy criticism from major bloggers which I think is a sign of a new phase of social media marketing. I believe in 2008 we will see record venture capital spending of emergent user generated ‘creative’ content. Real media has almost nothing to worry about yet but given the amount of money changing hands for youtube, digg and the like I wouldn’t be surprised if we begin to see a shift in the next little while towards more user-generated decentralised content.
The death of social networking sites
I know what the hell is my problem? But what would a list of predictions be without some controversy. I think social networking sites are on the way out. Sure, they won’t go bankrupt anytime soon but it’s my opinion that soon a lot of them will shut their doors as a few emerge to contend for ‘top dog’ status. Given the CTR’s (click through rates) are so poor on these sites I am convinced that this will be the death nail for smaller less popular sites.
More downturns in the global housing market
In basic economics they teach that demand and supply are related. When demand outstrips supply you have a problem. A lack. Simple hey? Not so for people in the ‘make money fast in property’ bandwagon. We have a new problem in housing circles, prices are higher than they have ever been (I am speaking from Australia… sorry international readers… though I may be right yet!) yet demand is still outstripping supply and we are seeing a continual rise in the price of housing. This means, you will need to be able to service a loan of 8 times the combined family income by the end of 2008 to buy a house. Interest rates will go up again and again as a measure to stop this growth but I am predicting a worldwide shortage will lead to downturns. I can’t say what will happen because of this but my guess is record mortgage defaulting, increasing homelessness and more misery for fringe dwellers. In turn we can expect housing to slip out of the reach of average income earners soon.
Okay so that’s the bad news! What are some positives that I think will happen in 2008.
A rise in creativity
As I have mentioned before on this site… I think there is a genuine creative lag in the world today. Creative problem solving is at all time low and in general there is a lack of creative solutions to old problems. This will change in 2008. I believe there will be a rise in creativity seeing some new interesting things coming our way. New solutions to climate change will emerge as well as new ideas for education, health care and life problems. And yes, I intend to be involved!
New breakthroughs in knowledge and the blogging medium
2008 will be a year remembered as a breakthrough year for new knowledge. We will see some old problems challenged to their core and some new and interesting knowledge emerge. Major advances I think will occur in electronics, fashion industries and of course blogging. I don’t see blogging dying off at some might. I think blogging will be something different in 2008. My gut is telling me that the majority of sites that make money at the moment are based on: a) personal development or b) how to make money online. I think we will see new innovations in the blogging medium next year that will enable bloggers to diversify income streams and offer product based solutions (i.e teaching sells or the problogger course) and a variety of clever ideas. So new knowledge and blogging… I am really not sure why I lumped those two in the same heading!
Deeper level of social consciousness and a continued shift away from materialism
This I think comes in the wake of the overt focus of materialism in society. When you have things like The Secret becoming so popular I think you often notice an adverse effect for people who don’t think so materialistically. I think we will see a continual growth towards markets that cater for non-materialistic concerns. There will be a shift away from the mindset of greed (as I have noticed more and more) towards a growth of social consciousness and less materialism. Don’t be surprised to see more clever and creative aid projects either. I think there will be more grassroots political movements returning next year as this begins to happen. There is an emerging wave creativity getting ready to sweep the planet.
The Olympics will be on
Yes, this is a bold prediction but it will actually happen!
Ok so that’s it from me. I will check back in a year and let you know if I was on track or not. Happy New Year!
The paralysis of analysis is when we get stuck looking at problems and not actually doing anything. It’s the endless cycles of what if’s or shoulda woulda couldas that get us stuck. So how to we break out when we get stuck?
Start trying stuff
The key way we break out of the paralysis of analysis is to actually do something. You don’t move forward unless you are moving forward. Wow… and yes that’s from a PhD scholar. Building your way takes a step. One at a time. See, while you are cooking up ways of doing nothing your problem is gaining the upper hand on you. Oh yes, problems are like weeds. Leave them alone for long enough and you will be overgrown. Think about it.
Trade stuff off OR Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a load of BS
Since I can remember I have been FORCED to sit through people explaining Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Can I say that’s it’s a load of old BS:
You will never be totally complete. There will always be something you could trade in order to secure something else. For example, people I know will trade experience and fun for safety of employment. Stability is the furtherest thing from their minds. All they want to do is travel, have fun and trade a regular secure environment for a unstable one. Facts are so easily recreated and changed for a more ‘convenient’ truth. When you are stuck in the paralysis of analysis you often find yourself trying to create something to believe in that will stop you from taking action. Instead of trying to meet the need trade something for it. What do I mean? If you want to be an entrepreneur you have trade stability for periods of instability. You want to be a teacher or an academic you have to trade ’spare time’ for lesson preparation and so on. Think what will I have to trade off in order to break this analytical cycle? It could be a belief about the plan that is nestled on your fears about personal security. Let me put you at ease. There is no such thing as personal security. You could lose it all anyway without even trying. That said, don’t be stupid.
A trick I have learned that stops the paralysis of analysis
Take out a piece of paper and write down the thing you would do if you could do it. What? Scenario:
You are a bartender. A man who is extremely drunk comes up to the bar and orders another drink. Do you:
A) throw him out
B) think about what to do and stare blankly at the drunk man
C) serve him the drink
D) Say nothing and run away.
Answer? What’s the first thing that pops into your head? Don’t give him any more to drink. Why? It’s common sense. Note, he’s a liability to himself, you and the other patrons. You serve him and it may not cost you this time but next time it could very well cost you. To get that answer I just wrote down the first thing that came to me without really thinking about it. I was reminded of the law in Australia which says as much and thought it reasonable. You can do this as well. Of course this is a simple answer. If you are on the end of a gun aiming at someone you may have different things to trade off!
Finally, if you are stuck in the paralysis of analysis it’s simply because you have too many answers floating around in your head. There are too many ‘what if’s’ or ‘coulda beens’ or ‘this should happen’ or ‘that should happen’. I think John Lennon said it best, ‘Life is what happens when your busy making plans’.
Ever been stuck in this? On a regular basis the motorway in Brisbane is a car park. As I am in process of building more content for this blog and in my travels I came across this video:
In this case De Bono has asked us to come up with some creative thinking to see how we can solve the traffic crisis. To show you the basics of perspective shifting, I am going to offer four ways to solve traffic problems. The four perspectives I am going to use are based on different assumptions. These are: Political, Economical, Social and Technical.
The Political perspective
The political view is one that says, ‘Traffic is the government’s problem’. To fix it we would require politicians to mandate to us an effective legislative solution. A political solution I think is a legislative one because we are creating a rule that stops traffic flow. This means, the government could tax us more to build new roads, more carparks and provide incentives for the use of public transport. These things (in Australia) are state supported and funded. This really means changing the law to restrict the flow of traffic in someway.
The Economic perspective
The economic view says, why not build bigger faster and better roads. In reality, you rephrase this view as ‘turn on the money hose’. I have been working in aid circles on and off for many years… I can assure you if more money was the answer we would be there by now. There are many circumstances where the economic view is substantial and correct but the majority of the time it’s wrong. To summarise this view the traffic crisis could be solved if we decided to build a bigger road system or spend more money on transport infrastructure.
The social view
Ex-leader of the Australian Labor Party Mark Latham once said that we need to go back to building grassroots movements for things to change. In short, in order for things to change we need to form together to become groups so that we can facilitate change in our social lives. This is community building and things like that. To change the traffic crisis from a human/social point of view you need to understand behaviour and ask what causes traffic jams to exist? Why do we all want to be on the road at the same time? This give rise to challenging solutions about the work weak, what jobs need to be done when and the ways in which we define work. A challenging task but not one that is entirely out of our reach. An example solution would be to create new work conditions that allow the burden on our roads to be shared more equally.
The technical view
The technical view always resolves things down to a scientific or engineering solution. So every problem has a simple/linear cause and effect view that will resolve the problem at hand. So for the traffic problem is viewed as a technical issue. The roads aren’t wide enough or there isn’t enough people taking public transport. Every problem is viewed as being a technical one and hence cannot be solved through any other method. A solution to the traffic crisis that’s technical involves making the roads better, or wider or some other technical view.
Combining different views in one setting
So what would a technical, social, political and economic solution look like? It might be a solution that saw the encouragement of staggering work hours (economic and social) or created wider roads that were toll based (social/economic/technical). Say for a moment we redefine the traffic problem as something else. It could be the problem is: too many people needing to go to different places at the same time. How could we stop that from happening?
Redefining the traffic problem
The first thing to do is ask the question: why do people need to be at different places at the same time? The most obvious answer is work. Secondly, school times are structured around work times. Thirdly, people tend to group activities around the same things at the same time. So they drop the kids off at school and go to work in one action and then conduct other activities. Stuff like playing bills, going to the shops. So say school starts at 8:30, work at 9:00 which finishes at 5:00 (when the kids are picked up from day care or after school care or not depending on your personal situation) and oh by the way honey can you get a carton of milk on the way home?
Now lets add more to it. Fourthly, the roads are too thin to handle everybody going everywhere at once. So when Jenny drops little Xavier off at school … everybody is using the road at the same time because they have to go to work or the shops or wherever at the same time. Fifthly, we have no control over which roads to use or when to use them. In Adelaide for example they have roads that are only available at peak times and are bi-directional. Not so in Brisbane. We have a bunch of one-way streets and narrow bridges! That said Brisbane is the greatest city in the world! Alas, I digress.
So we have work times (social and economical), school times (political), the grouping of activities around similar times (social), thin roads (technical/political), ability to access to roads that are only crowded part of the day (political/technical) and so on I go. See how just by combining different views I am able to uncover more perspectives of the problem. I even redefined it. Now, I am not that smart (handsome surely but smart?) anybody can do this. Yet, we fall hook line and sinker for simple answers from a singular point of reference. And, I have only picked four perspectives. Imagine if I had ten?
Some off the top of the head ideas for solving the traffic crisis
So what we really need is a solution that stops the constant flow of traffic being caused. We could use a variety of at hand ideas to do this. We could implement flexible work schedules for working parents and school parents. An example of this worked well on the Sunshine Coast. A staggered set of hours were offered for school times for older children. This meant they could walk to school later and traffic around the school reduced.
Remember the problem is why do we need to have everyone on the road at the same time? If we change that we change our problem. Technically we could build bigger roads that are only open in peak hour. That didn’t work well here in Brisbane… it actually made things worse some would argue. We could redesign work so that people could work from established targets (bi annual) and didn’t have to come the office as often. We could also offer incentives for people to work at night. Politically we could have a road toll that was twice as much as the bus and offer financial incentives to car poolers. For the biggest employers we could have incentive based payment systems for people willing to work flexible hours. So now we are starting to touch on the centralised work system that is really at the heart of the traffic crisis. I could go on and on … so could you.
This is just a handful of quick ideas that might work. All I did was begin to look at the problem from a different set of values. As you learn to perspective shift you begin to see more of the problem. At times I have found this process so useful it has gotten me out of some sticky situations. I have also found that sometimes I have also noticed that I can’t see beyond the problem. Like Australia’s housing affordability crisis. Hmm… maybe I will make that my next problem solving post?
