Posts Tagged ‘cycling’

Articles

Marginal Improvement and big thinking

In Digital,Lessons,Life,Marketing,Work on February 10, 2013 by kiltforhire Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

This is a post about marginal improvement and my recent list of rules

I’ve had a few people chat to me about my recent bunch of rules I’ve posted and have been saying that life needs fewer rules or that they thought I used to be a rebel would would always break the rules so I thought I would explain.

I’ve already posted these:

My Twitter Rules

My Train Rules

My Cinema Rules

And I’m currently working on a set for Facebook, LinkedIn, Vine, beach, elevators, escalators and more.

However, what I want to say is that they are more guidelines than rules. I follow the majority of them most of the time and I try to do what I can to be considerate to others. The guidelines or there just as a reference that if we all did all them well maybe, just maybe, the world would be a little bit of a better place.

Which brings me to marginal improvement. I’ve recently taken an interest again in economics (yeah I know who would have believed I would start enjoying that stuff all over again) and have been devouring podcasts on them.

The ‘Team GB’ cycling team in the UK won so many Gold Medals thanks to the their Head of Marginal Improvement, Mr Matt Parker. There is a good article on him here.

Basically he looked at how he could help increase the team’s performance marginally. Just a tad. Just enough to make them a little bit better. For instance he made the team where heated shorts before races to stop the players muscles going cold. The only team who did this were Team GB and I have no doubt at the next Olympics all cyclists will have toasty legs.

Now normally I’m the kind of guy who likes to take risks and who isn’t afraid to speak out. I’m always willing to go for the long shot and see how it pans out and I dream big – however I see that one of the best ways to dream big is to start small and that is with marginal improvements.

I’ve been re-focussing how I work by seeing which small things I can change and what things I can do that will make a small but important change in delivery and result and so far, so good.

I realise that you need a mix of marginal improvement and long term thinking. You have to dream big but also look for the small things that improve your life and your work marginally because the small things really do make an impact.

I’m not saying that from now on all I’ll be doing is looking for the little wins, oh no, I’ll always be looking to make a big impact but until they pay off I’ll be making small leaps rather than massive bounds.

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Articles

Drivers and Cyclists

In Lessons,Life,Uncategorized on May 30, 2011 by kiltforhire Tagged: , , ,

In my younger years I was a cyclist. I loved to get on my bike and cycle. It would clear my mind and look at things in new perspectives. I loved the speed and the distance a bike could take you.

I don’t understand joggers though. They screw up their joints and they don’t get too far but this isn’t a rant about joggers it’s about road users.

When I was in primary school I sat my cycling proficiency test and passed. Although I think that all kids did but what I learnt on that school playground set me in good stead for my future days cycling around parts of Scotland.

I always obeyed the road rules. Would wait at traffic lights. Properly signalled. Respected other road users. And, most importantly, I cycled on the road.

I had a road bike therefore I used the road.

I was thin as a rake and loved cycling even after I got my drivers licence.

Today in Australia I have a nice Cervelo that I take out from time to time. I even did the Sydney to Wollongong cycle the year before last and I’m thinking about tackling it again this year to beat my time,

But something about Sydney messes with me in regards to cycling. The majority of cyclists in this town are batshit mental and have no regard whatsoever for other road users, and a lot of them times, for themselves.

I live in a one-way street and the amount of cyclists who cycle up it towards on-coming traffic really pisses me the fuck off. The amount of them who don’t signal. Who weave through traffic. Who seem to think the road is theirs and the pavement is theres also. Who think they own the road is insane!

Oh and cyclists if you are cycling on the road and the pedestrian crossing button bleeps this is not a cue for you to suddenly start cycling again.

On the flip side of this it seems most Sydney drivers believe that cyclists are target practice. I don’t know how many accidents I have seen now with drivers failing to see the cyclist.

Now I’ve heard so many cyclists slam drivers and vice versa but if you all took some fucking time to actually pay attention to ALL road users and all obeyed the traffic laws the world would be a little bit better than it is today.

However, there is one last thing that pisses me off and that’s the decision by the City of Sydney to create what I can only describe as the dumbest mother-fucking decision in the history of stupid to create cycle lanes that begin nowhere and end nowhere.

Not to mention the fact that on a two way road haven a cycle lane on one side that goes in both directions is buttfuck stupid. How the fuck is the cyclist supposed to get from the lane he is cycling in without cycle path to the cycle path across the road and then back when the cycle path stops? I’ve included a picture to explain.

Really dumb cycle path if the cyclist has to cross the road

Sometimes city planners are geniuses and other times they need to stop listening to politicians and just do the right damned thing instead.

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