Sigurdur Orn's MeBot
Who wouldn’t love to have a likeness of yourself to take care of boring business while you sit in your pjs and eat poptarts? The technology is out there. Telepresence robots are on the rise, and may be taking over the work world. Okay, that may be exaggerating, but it’s still a cool concept.
MIT student Sigurdur Orn has unleashed an interesting little bot called the Mebot, that features expressive gesture abilities which Orn is calling “socially embodied communication.”
The robot was debuted at the Human-Robot Interaction Conference in Oskaka, Japan. It has a little screen that sits on a moving neck. This screen displays the user’s face. The robot also has two moving arms as well. To top it off, the robot also has a wheeled base, which allows it to move about. Although this little thing looks like some sort of strange alien bug person, these moving parts help to convey user expressions to the other party.
Maybe these avatars are the future of business, but for now, your best bet for success is still face to face contact (for those of you who didn’t learn this lesson from Up in the Air).
Having productivity issues? Try Hemingway’s Hack.
Hemingway had a few tricks up his sleeve to make sure he kept writing.
Maximizing productivity is a goal that a lot of people have. Ernest Hemingway, world famous author and winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in literature, was a pretty productive guy. Hemingway had a secret to his productivity that seems almost too simple. He has a way to permanently keep himself from getting writer’s block.
Hemingway said:
“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start”
Hemingway and other writers such as Roald Dahl have used this trick to keep them productive, and it seems to work.
So, the basic idea is don’t finish your daily task if you want to keep the momentum going. The more momentum, the more productivity. If you make finishing your task your next task, you will have more momentum when you start up again.
To put it simply:
You should stop your task when:
1) You know what you will do to finish it.
2) When you feel the drive to finish it.
3) When you reach a creativity peak.
—–Then don’t think about your task until the next day.—
Using Hemingway’s trick will help you to:
1) Avoid being stuck.
2) Keep your momentum going.
3) Start the next day with the reward of finishing a task.
4) Boost your self confidence and motivation level before moving on to the next task.
5) End your day on a high note.
6) Allow your brain purposeful rest when you stop working.
7) Allow your subconscious to work on the bigger picture while you relax.
This trick works not only for writing but for any creative process. So, no matter what you need to get done, take a tip from Hemingway and take a break when you’re ahead. You will feel more confident and be more productive!