LET’S BE FWENDS ISSUE #89:

A GUIDE TO NAPPING (OFFICE NAPS NOT INCLUDED)

“Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.” ~ Barbara Jordan

Well, hello there! In this edition of Let’s be Fwends, we look at wether we need the office space for innovating, how to take good naps, and what we can learn about the geological history of the terrior the Tour de France travels over.

Do Chance Meetings at the Office Boost Innovation?

Soooooo, there’s basically two things office culture has going for it that keep people from adapting a fully-remote work style: One: Social bonding is much easier when meeting face2face for most people, and knowing your co-workers on a personal level might make work more enjoyable and give your work more meaning. Two: Chance conversations that lead to new ideas, something like an organisational serendipity, free “heureka!” moments, so to speak.

Don’t know about the first thing, but the second thing doesn’t appear to be happening.

Which doesn’t really come as a surprise to me. While chit-chat can lead to valuable knowledge transfer and information flow, real innovation typically is the result of hard work, and well designed “meetings”.

I’m happy to read that the idea that the office is not a “catch all” solution to everything, but a special place with a special purpose (and answering emails is not one of those), is catching on. Let’s hope this continues.

Different Naps Lengths for Different Results

Salvador Dali was - amongst other things - a masterful napper. His favourite technique was to sit in a comfortable chair, a heavy key pinched between thumb and forefinger. Below the key, on the floor - a plate. When he drifted off, his hand would become slack, and he’d drop the key - which fell on the plate, making a noise that would waken Dali up immediately. The perfect power nap technique. I don’t know how long it would have taken Dali to fall asleep and be woken up again, but the for rest of us, there’s a handy chart telling us how long we should nap, depending on the outcome we’re looking for.

It’s Time to Ban Surveillance-Based Advertising

At least that’s the title of this report, and I’m inclined to agree.

A Geologists Take at the Tour de France

If you’re watching the Tour de France, then here’s your chance to learn something about the geology of France. A geologist covers the areas where the stages of the Tour take place, explaining interesting geological features and how they came about.It’s surprisingly entertaining, and the juxtaposition between people riding their bikes really fast and the earth doing things with stones really slow is really nice.

That’s it from this edition of Let’s be Fwends, another short one. My previous track-record suggests that the next one will be really long. Let’s see how predictable I am. 🎯