Callum Macdonald

This morning, during my porridge, a poor Indian gentleman had the unfortunate task of making no less than the third follow up call from Hewlet Packard regarding a problem I had with a printer. Oh dear, the poor Indian gentleman. While I wasn’t downright offensive, I certainly wasn’t polite, and explained, with one or two expletives, that I would be very much obliged if HP would never call me again, and delete any record of my existence from their records.

Working in or around IT, or even just having a computer for that matter, Indian call centres are one of the most frustrating experiences of modern life. I love the idea of international competition, of routing my call to somewhere on the other side of the globe because it’s cheaper, great, fantastic. However, when I call the helpline, I do expect to speak to someone who has a firm grasp of my language, the language in which I am transacting my business with whichever company I’ve had the misfortune to call. If that language happens to be someone else’s second or even third language, that doesn’t bother me at all.

However, I’m beginning to rant here, deep breaths, ahh, that’s better. It did get me thinking though, I think the likes of HP are making a big, big mistake in outsourcing their front line support to the quality of Indian call centre I’ve had to deal with. It’s seriously eroding their brand, and while I don’t know what other companies are like, I won’t be buying or recommending HP any time soon. Ok, rant over!

It’s been absolutely nuts here in Edinburgh city, we’ve been partying for the last three weeks relentlessly, and it doens’t look like it’s going to let up any time soon.

I’m off to a film premiere party tonight, no idea what the film’s about, but I know there’ll be free beer for three hours, so I’m there!

The festival is undoubtedly the best time to see Edinburgh, the whole city is alive. I spent Friday just wandering around the city centre, the Royal Mile, and soaking up the atmosphere. One of the cheapest days out I’ve had in ages! For anyone reading from abroad, seriously think about travelling to Edinburgh for next year’s festival, any time in August is good, and now’s the time to start booking. For anyone reading from Edinburgh, get out there and see it before it all comes to an end…

If evolution works by survival of the most adaptive to change (rather than the fittest), does that mean that some slight mutations of a species will survive, be stronger, and so evolve the species, while others will be weaker, not therefore survive?

If that’s the way evolution works, how does our approach to medicine affect that? The western approach at least is very much based on saving every life, at almost any cost. But what if we’re saving the weaker mutations, the less adaptive to change mutations, the ones that would naturally have faded out. Are we therefore diluting or weakening the global human gene pool? Would we be evolving faster, or better, if we were to allow nature to play a greater part in the evolution of the species. If nature were to play a bigger part in who lives and who dies.

Having said that, does it only apply to those that haven’t yet reproduced? If someone has alreay procreated, then their genes are in the pool anyway, and so it wouldn’t make such a big difference. How would that actually work? You get a lower level of medical intervention until you’ve procreated? That would certainly drive a pretty hard baby boom! Can you imagine people mating to stay alive? It would be hell of a party though…

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Sent from my Treo

I may just have invented a new word, nomadicness, but I like it!

I’ve been thinking recently that as people, we may be more suited to a more nomadic way of life. I met an Australian guy in Poland who has been travelling for 16 years. He’s 36, and he last lived in Australia 16 years ago. He spent 5 years in London, the last 7 in Sweden, and various other places in-between. What a great way to live. Settle somewhere for as long as it seems right, then move on.

With divorce rates soaring, perhaps we should approach relationships and marriage in the same way. Stay together for as long as it lasts, and then move on. I guess the challenge in a relationship is knowing when to move on. But also, the challenge in a place might well be knowing when to move on. When is it time to move on from your current job? When is it time to move on from your current home? When is it time to move on full stop?

I started thinking about the fact that you’d lose out on investing in property, and potential financial security. If you had enough people who adopted the same way of life, you could build those things as a community. For example, I own my house, I decide to join the nomadic movement, and I bring my property into the pot. It then becomes part of the portfolio, and it’s value is reflected in my financial stake in the business. I’m then a shareholder to the same value as my current property, in a global portfolio of property, managed by professionals.

That’s just a simple example, the same type of model could be applied to so many things. From access to housing all over the world to office space and mailing addresses. With the likes of Skype (new window) it’s actually very, very possible to do that right now. I was sitting in Amsterdam airport on my way back from Poland, taking incoming calls on my office line, and making outgoing calls at 1.3p per minute, all through the internet.

The technology is here. Now all I need to find is a digital mailbox, where physical mail is digitised and forwarded to me electronically. Then my I’ll be truly freed from my physical ties. With video conferencing being so cheap, if not free, and again, things like Skype to keep in touch, you could easily service clients from anywhere in the world, even across time zones.

Ahhh, enough dreaming for one night, it’s time to get some sleep and get ready to work again tomorrow!