A useful Mindmap to avoid distractions. The full version is available after the jump. 

Focus-mindmap-for-web.jpg (1220×889) via kwout

Found via The Next Web.

The infographic referenced below describes 24H in the digital life. Some statistics are also provided. 

24h dans la vie d’un toxicomane du digital via kwout

Here is another great talk from TED: It a 3 minutes answer to the question "What leads to success?". It can be summarize by the picture below:

The full video description followed by the YouTube link is below:

Why do people succeed? An unmissable 3-min. talk from the TED Conference on the real secrets of success (Hint: Passion, persistence, and pushy mothers never hurt) Delivered by Richard St. John (Recorded February 2005 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 3:40)

The very serious Financial Times published on his web site a few days ago this call for advice:

I work in an advertising agency and my boss (who is quite cool) has just asked to be my friend on Facebook. I feel invaded – I’m passionate about my work but want to keep it separate from the rest of my life. I definitely don’t want him spying on what I say to my friends. He has also asked other people in the office who have said Yes and they seem to think it’s fine. But I don’t want to. Can I say No without damaging my career?

Advertising creative, female, 26

This is rather a new kind of problem generated by social networking sites like Facebook. And it’s symptomatic that this has been reported on Facebook. As actually Facebook appear to be both a networking site for professional and personal linking. The solution proposed by  Lucy Kellaway from FT.com is rather drastic: stop using Facebook. But Facebook should offer in the future the ability to separate your work friends from your social ones.

The popularity dialer is a web service designed to simulate phone call:

With "The Popularity Dialer", you can plan ahead. Via a web interface, you can choose to have your phone called at a particular time (or several times). At the elected time, your phone will be dialed and you will hear a prerecorded message that’s one half of a conversation. Thus, you will be prompted to have a fake conversation and will easily fool those around you.

This is very useful to avoid or delay a meeting for instance. Of course this service will not improve communication. Here is a video demo:

InformIT published an interesting article that highlights the difference between Nerds and Geeks. First I reproduce below the definitions:

Geek: 1: a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake; 2: a person often of an intellectual bent who is disapproved of.

Nerd: perhaps from nerd, a creature in the children’s book If I Ran the Zoo (1950) by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel): an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially: one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits. 

Then the article lists some reason why one should not be a nerd:

• A nerd can’t tell when other people are angry.
• A nerd can’t dance, and possibly doesn’t know he can’t dance.
• A nerd is easily made fun of because he is initially unaware of mockery.
• A nerd can’t tell when it’s time to go home, in spite of significant cues (like a yawning host who has changed into his pajamas). 

And the paper finish giving some typical geeky behavior:

I’m going to characterize geeks as people with fairly normal social skills, but with a fascination for technology that is puzzling to non-geeks. Here are some examples of "geeky" behavior:

• Programming a VCR without reading directions
• Carrying a PDA, Blackberry, and cell phone
• Writing a blog about technology
• Sending Mark Cuban emails
• Contributing to open source software projects on your own time
• Playing Zelda, the Ocarina of Time, for 72 hours straight

The bottom line is that it’s more convenient to be a geek .