I’m an amateur gamer from way back in the days of Atari, pong and Duck Hunter. I’m not the biggest app fanatic, though. I think I’ve bought two dozen at most over the past two years? Among them are a handful of games (some socially connected) that offer a combination of gorgeous, high-def graphics, simple and compelling challenges that keep me up past my bedtime, a sweet spot between struggle and success and user interfaces so straight forward that instructions aren’t necessary.
Here are my favourite finds, for Fridays or for any idle time in the week (revised March 25, 2013 from Feb. 1st post):
- Candy Crush Saga – like Bejeweled but more strategic than time-pressured. Gorgeous colours, simple premise, fun for the whole family (free).
- Four images one word – exactly as it sounds. Sort of a Wheel of Fortune for pictures (free).
- Hundreds - elegant, simple design and compelling brain teaser, as if it were made by Mr. Jobs himself.
- Bejeweled – particularly the Blitz, Lightning and Diamond Mine flavours.
- Vacation Quest – The Hawaiian Islands – did anyone else grew up loving the Hidden Pictures in Highlights magazines? All that and more in glossy colour.
- Song Pop – ridiculous how many songs of the 80s and 90s come back to me in two seconds or less. Somehow, I won a challenge on Professional Wrestling themes one night ?!
- Draw Something – I have a streak of over 200 correctly-guessed drawings going with someone in another country whom I’ve never met in person.
What are your favourite games and why?
Side note: this post was originally written in week 16 of my Friday’s Favourite Finds practice and I was finding that the weekly commitment was becoming more of a chore than a joy. From now on, I’m just going to issue an F3 when it makes sense to do so.
Something tells me that Gretchen Rubin would get this. 
My change of practice is directly proprotional to how little time I’ve been spending with external resources over the past few months. My work has become very internally focused, and for good reasons, but that doesn’t give me much to share externally.
That being said, I am now taking part in a workshop on social learning in business throughout March 2013 that is bringing me more insights and inspiration than I’ve had in the last little while. Hope to ‘see’ you there!
“Work for change or change your work” – Stephen Clarke
Investing more time in reviewing the knowledge of my network has paid off this week!
1. Every working day, I am reminded of the exhausting battle to simplify processes rather than give into the habits of complication and non-cooperation. Even a process that seeks to simplify copyright can get a bit confusing. Check out this great infographic on how to attribute Creative Commons photos if you’re still struggling with when-to-use-what.
2. Over the past year or so, I have enjoyed watching Harold Jarche continue to refine and redevelop his perspective on collaboration and cooperation.
3. Building on last week’s theme, I was pleased to find this piece from Harold about starting to work out loud, in which he gives very concrete and non-threatening ways to start participating in networked learning and narration. I also appreciate Ross Dawson’s comments on why microblogging is so easily adopted:
“Most employees initially view social software as additional effort on top of heavy workloads, so have no interest in activities such as blogging that they think will be time-consuming. Contributing to a microblog takes minimal time so is an easy starting point, yet people can quickly see the benefits.”
4. I appreciate the effort part because I believe that’s the #1 hurdle that underlies resistance to networked knowledge practices in my organization. What I don’t get, personally, is the benefits part. I was going to start ranting about how disruptive I find MS Lync to be and then I thought, “wait a minute, that’s instant messaging. What’s the difference between instant messaging and microblogging?” Thankfully, the first hit to that question on Google led me to this nifty little chart.
Okay, so instant messaging is fairly private, two-way and not trackable or searchable. If I had Yammer or a similar internal microblogging mechanism in my workplace, that might be helpful…but then I would have to build a following again, which may duplicate or be independent from my contact lists on email, LinkedIn, Twitter, SharePoint and my blog. This is getting lame. How many bloody accounts do I need to setup, password protect and monitor in a day? Remember how much effort I’m putting into not getting overwhelmed by this stuff?
5. Working out loud on communication is harder than you might think. Thanks to Julian Stodd for this piece.
6. I spent more time on Twitter last week than I have in a long time and was grateful to find Jarche rocking the foundations yet again:
“My perspective on budgets is that there should not be one for L&D to control. It creates false distinctions between learning and work. The 70:20:10 guideline is for the organization and those who control resources. If we have an L&D department we automatically think that we have to have L&D problems to solve. Training is too often a solution looking for a problem.”
Oh my, yes.
“Work for change or change your work” – Stephen Clarke
Last week, a colleague and I recorded an informal webconference in which I demonstrated the actions that I take to keep my inbox clean on a daily basis. It was quite enlightening for me to articulate those practices and to have my colleague point out other aspects of my behaviour that I had taken for granted, such as keeping nearly 20 tiny icons visible on my dashboard at all times for quick access.
This week, I stumbled across a similar narration by Dan Pontefract, in which he described his process for culling one third of his Facebook contacts. His post reminded me that it’s not enough to articulate the knowing-what (“I want to get my contacts down to a manageable number”) or to describe the knowing-how mechanics (“click here, click there”). In my opinion, the value of Dan’s post comes from his ability to articulate the knowing-why and knowing-why-not, which are two of the many ways of knowing that Jay Cross has spoken of in the past. I’m glad Dan made time to make his processes concrete for us.
Dan also gave a nice summary of how he uses Twitter to express what he’s ‘professionally passionate about’. I use Twitter in a similar professional manner, not a personal one. I strongly prefer face-to-face, telephone, email or FB interaction for that.
My last favourite find this week was the stunning long-exposure photography of Lincoln Harrison, who integrates technical expertise with considerable patience. What a lovely outcome! Hat tip to Guy Kawasaki for highlighting this.
What has inspired you this week?
“Work for change or change your work” – Stephen Clarke
Better late than never! My favourite find last week was a documentary called Craigslist Joe, the story of a young man who travelled across the United States for 31 days using only Craigslist to find food, shelter, transportation and companionship. He did not take any credit cards, cash or known cell phone contacts with him. His journey portrays the first-hand value of building trust and community through networked life. An upbeat and enjoyable 90 minutes well spent.
Have a great week!
“Work for change or change your work” – Stephen Clarke
The serendipitous value of networked learning continues to astound me. The very first link that I found on Working Smarter Daily today led me to a SlideShare by Harold Jarche on tools and competencies for the social enterprise. His presentation was immediately relevant to a desk aid that I am producing to compare communication tools against business requirements…I’ll share that when I’m done.
This one article was so useful, it deserves to stand alone as my single find this week, admittedly because I haven’t looked at much else! 
Happy New Year!
“Work for change or change your work” – Stephen Clarke
After a year and a half of dabbling with various platforms for networked knowledge sharing, I have concluded that LinkedIn and Working Smarter Daily are my two favourite sources of social learning and inspiration. Through these channels, I am linked to a network of intelligent learning professionals, fellow public servants and world-class authors with relevant and thought-provoking insights, which they share at a pace that is manageable for me to browse regularly and pursue more deeply as I wish.
Here are this week’s gems:
- Google Analytics in real life is a series of short, funny videos about poor web design. Hat tip to Mike Kujawski for sharing such a relatable link.
- Did you know that mothers incarcerated in Argentina are allowed to have their children live with them behind bars until the age of four? Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for sharing something so far out of my usual realm.
- I work really hard at not being a compulsive social media checker so this infographic about our brains on social media feels very validating (thanks again, Guy). I wonder if this explains why I still see so many idiot drivers whose addiction to checking their smartphones is more important to them than my safety?
- Facebook can be clogged with political and personal opinions that I don’t ‘like’ but this cartoon had me laughing out loud.
- I wish hospitals, bus terminals, train stations and stores would offer emotionally intelligent bubble wrap. Maybe I should just carry some around in my bag?
Though I have learned how to decode the shorthand we use in tweets, I find Twitter too much of a waterfall when I just want a drinking fountain from the limited number of folks I follow. I only use it to share my blog posts more widely and for the occasional #lrnchat. I also don’t subscribe to updates from blogs. I’d rather look them up periodically or discover them serendipitously in LI or WSD.
As the year draws to a close, these are my big takeaways from integrated learning and working, thanks to your contributions and the many books I’ve enjoyed:
- Make the effort to keep things as simple as possible. It’s much easier and lazier to drone on, which is more confusing and boring to others.
- Keep an eye on the design…of everything.
- “if we all share, then we’re all teachers” – @hjarche #slcwebinar
To all who celebrate the Christmas season and other holidays at this time of year, I wish you a wonderful, festive time with your loved ones, two-legged and four. Thanks for making time for reading and sharing.
I will not be publishing F3 again until January. See you online in the new year!
“Work for change or change your work” – Stephen Clarke
I was having a hard time coming up with content and a theme this time , which seems to go hand in hand with not having read much outside my corporate walls this week. That alone is worth pondering, n’est-ce pas?
Here are three goodies:
- Though infographics are quite popular and eye-catching, motion graphics are even more intriguing and probably much harder to design and deploy. I enjoyed #6 on pizza delivery in New York City, was drinking a Coke while watching #8, got a smile out of #10 and was silenced by the tragedy of #15. Hat tip to Dan Pontefract for sharing this.
- Dan kicked off his employer’s new blog with a definition of corporate culture.
- I am grateful to Harold Jarche for sharing this piece on cooperative competencies.
This is week 10 of my Friday’s Favourite Finds practice. I’m pleased to have kept it up this long. There’s a discipline to this, a sense of commitment and tangible results, particularly since this is also my 60th blog post.
What has inspired you this week?
“Work for change or change your work” – Stephen Clarke
