Is popular culture the frivolous fluff floating on the surface of human existence, or the very glue that binds societies together? Well, it’s both, really. You can watch The Simpsons just for laughs or analyse it as a serious social barometer. However you choose to consume it, though, the show sprang up spontaneously without intervention from the Establishment and is not highbrow, so it’s part of popular culture.
Have you always doodled? Do you cover every available piece of paper in ideas, designs and cartoons? Then you have a natural affinity for creating visual images and it might be worth exploring the world of comic art. It might be possible to turn your ‘idle’ doodles into a career as a creative professional. Not paying attention or being bored in school could lead to a fulfilling creative career! While the non-doodlers settle into their jobs as accountants and financial advisors, those who doodled have the chance of really becoming something.
Put the headset away. Everybody has got to stop confusing AR and VR. This article is about AR (Augmented Reality), not about people stumbling into things while locked away inside a virtual world via their sci-fi goggles.
‘Knowing the ropes’ has entered popular parlance as a metaphor for acquiring the skills and knowledge necessary to do a job. It comes directly from sailing, particularly the days of tall ships when a deck hand had to master the complex arrangement of ropes and pulleys on a particular vessel. Knowing which one did what was crucial to the ship and crew’s welfare and navigation.
Have you seen Ready Player One? In a not-too-distant future, the film depicts humanity spending most of its time in a virtual world called the Oasis. Built by fictional software genius James Halliday, the Oasis becomes a refuge for the world’s population in the face of grim living conditions in the real world due to a breakdown in geopolitics and overpopulation. In this VR world, you can be anyone or anything you want, go anywhere you like, and live out your fantasies. It’s like Second Life on steroids.
Modern smartphones have a host of software tricks to make photos look better, plus cameras in some models that are as good as dedicated digital cameras. Almost everybody has a good quality camera in their pocket at all times now. But, as the saying goes, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The technology takes care of a lot of things, like exposure, colour and effects processing, but it does not (yet) point the camera in the right place and compose a scene for you.
The thing about meditation is we know it’s good for us, but we convince ourselves we don’t have time for it. Ironically, meditation can help to quieten down the very same stressful thinking that prevents us from doing it: time is in short supply, we have to keep the pedal to the metal all day in order to get anywhere, sitting still for ten minutes a day is a complete waste of time, etc.
How would you respond to the job interview question ‘How many electric kettles are there in New York State?’ It is beneficial to be able to make a procedurally-based, well-informed guess that shows you have the smarts to arrive at a logical approximation. How To Estimate Anything by Management Consultants SAPBRIEF teaches a skill that’s useful in business and life: the art of the informed guess.
Most office workers know a few Excel functions to get them through the day. But that’s like driving a Ferrari at walking pace. Excel is a massively powerful piece of software that can do almost anything that’s asked of it – if only you know how. Excel has arguably saved more hours of work than any other piece of software, but it needs to be programmed to do so. This means there is a substantial market for Excel training.
You are lost and alone in the wilderness. For the first day or two, it isn’t too bad apart from the mosquitos. You’re going to be rescued, right? On day three you’re concerned but still aiming to catch the next episode of The Walking Dead. But around day four, when nobody has shown up yet, the reality sinks in and you must start to plan your survival for however long it takes until civilisation comes looking for you, or until you find it again.
