Do-lectures, some more, Ben Hammersley

I wonder if this guy is Superman. And I don't mean that in the 'he's kind like Superman' way, no I mean it in the 'oh my god, this could actually BE Superman, he just changed his name'. Ben Hammersley was up next, and if there's anyone out there that can make you feel like you've done preciously little with your life, it's him. And I say that in the nicest and most awe-struck way.

Right, now to the actual talk/lecture, the title of which was 'The Optimised Self': choose a thing to maximise and focus on that by measuring what you do and then maximising it. Socrates said it all these years ago: 'The unexamined life isn't worth living.' Before you start running out and focussing the hell out of something, you have to figure out what counts: 'Making things better depends on learning what to count.'. If you choose to measure something, that's what you focus on, so be careful what you wish for. Or measure for.

There is a trend at the moment to collect personal data (and it's likely I'll write more about that at some point, since I'm fascinated by it) and publish it for the world to see. And building on that there's a whole host of applications that build on that, e.g. Citysense, and people will start to use data to analyse their own and other people's behaviour. Emotional data is a big deal and online sentiment analysis is the next biggest thing online (you heard it here first!).

People are already maximising their lives, companies need to offer the opportunities to do this. By concentrating on the numbers first, you free up time for creativity: you take away all the uncertainties, then creativity is left.

Little do: what are you measuring right now (and everyone measures something) and figure out if that's the right thing to measure.

And as an extra bonus, some sage life advice: * In the most dangerous situation: smile. It helps. * How do you become a foreign correspondent? Go to a foreign country and correspond!