Monday, March 2, 2009

As I write this, I'm wearing my special birthday socks - thanks Mum - so first things first: thanks to everyone who's sent me birthday greetings. It's genuinely touching, ta.

I've spent the day writing an article about Genius. (Well, actually, it's nominally about genius but I wouldn't be writing it if I wasn't promoting Genius so, there's a blurry line there.)

A few friends have called with birthday greetings and they all seem to express shock and amazement at the idea that I have spent the day working. It seems like an odd reaction because I'm pretty sure that most people go to work on their birthday don't they? I've obviously misunderstood the advantages of being self-employed. Oh well.

While writing the article (which annoyingly I haven't yet finished) Twitter once again came into its own as a research tool. I asked a question. A few people answered it. Because the people who choose to answer are naturally those most confident on the subject they tend to provide the best links to other online sources. I definitely found myself looking at a site that was clearer on the subject than Wikipedia and more helpful than any of the top pages turned up by a Google search. Hurrah for Twitter. I'm sure it would be annoying if overused in this way... but if used every now and then, I think it can prove an invaluable tool.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Author Elizabeth Gilbert gave a pretty great talk at TED on genius and creativity recently. It made the rounds, so you may have seen it, but in case you haven't:

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!

Speaking of work and birthday, who on earth, invented the idea that the person, who's birthday it is, has to be the one to bring in the sweets and stuff?

Where is the sense in that?

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Dave.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday. I was not aware of your excistence since a few hours ago. My friend - we are blogging together on a Dutch blog site http://www.andersofniets.nl - wrote an article about you. So, nice to meet you. ;-).

Jenny Harvey said...

Many Happy Returns Dave (because who would want only a few returns)

Genius is 1 percent Inspiration and 99 percent Perspiration, and 2 percent getting the sums right

Anonymous said...

What an incredibly useful pair of socks! Easy to pair ( that's the mother in me) and invaluable if you get forgetful after celebrating said birthday! I have a birthday on saturday, I do hope someone is sourcing equally useful socks for me.
Hope you enjoyed your day

Unknown said...

Happy birthday!

I am also a Dave (although, not of the Gorman variety) and got those exact same socks for Christmas.

I was hoping to get some matching undies for my birthday in June

Dave

Anonymous said...

Liking the socks - good job you don't name your feet as I doubt they would both be called Dave. Coz that would be REALLY strange :D

B said...

I use it to find out what Stephen Fry and Philip Schofield eat for teatime.

Anonymous said...

Nevermind the socks. I'm loving the cushion!

get in here said...

Love those socks! I'd get some if my names was Dave.