YOU ARE THE NEXT ISAAC NEWTON – SAATCHI TELLS CUKIER

Breakfast today at Soho House with advertising legend Baron (Maurice) Saatchi of Staplefield, hosting my favourite data expert, Kenneth Neil Cukier, co-author of BIG DATA, A REVOLUTION THAT WILL TRANSFORM HOW WE LIVE, WORK AND THINK.

Guests included business leaders from retail, telcos and banking, who were all treated to the most erudite of introductions by the man who, many argue, helped to make Margaret Thatcher (and Britain) a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.

Maurice Saatchi graduated the London School of Economics with first class honours in 1967, so maybe he’s biased (Kenneth Cukier is Data Editor at The Economist), but I detected no irony when he referred to the author as a latter day Isaac Newton, sharing knowledge and science which seems new and unwieldy to begin with, but as obvious as gravity with the benefit of hindsight.

DEALS ON WHEELS

It’s been a busy seven days, starting with a masterclass in the art of negotiation with Clive Rich and THE YES BOOK at The Clubhouse London, delving into the dark side of BIG DATA with Kenneth Neil Cukier at Soho House on Friday, finally ending up on a (philosophical) train to ENTREPRENEUR COUNTRY with Julie Meyer at the Royal Automobile Club this morning (Thursday 28th March).

Julie’s Page in the Club Life Mag

I love the RAC. It’s a proper club where jacket and tie are compulsory, with an arcadian swimming pool in the basement and an olive green Bentley revolving in the foyer (seriously, there is), chrome bumpers catching the light like a glint in the eye of Mr Bond.

Into this fabulous formality glides Julie Meyer, with her entrepreneurial passion and her perfectly poised charm. The members welcomed her with open armchairs and listened intently to her views on investment, politics, technology, communications and what it takes to make a difference in business and life.

Julie doesn’t like with the way we give our data away to multinationals. Kenneth Neil Cukier, Data Editor of the Economist probably doesn’t like it either, but he sees the proliferation of information and “datafication of everything” as inevitable in a digitally powered society. He broke bread with the members and guests of

I like my data BIG in the morning

Soho House last Friday, predicting the emergence of “algorithmists” – a new breed of skilled worker who will succeed the data scientist as the industry “rock star” of the future.

Talking of real rock stars – IE ones that smash up hotels rooms rather than analyse their availability – Clive Rich has worked with a few in his thirty year career as a music lawyer and negotiator for “perpetual adolescents”. His book is packed with anecdotes about “tough guys” and how to work with them. The main tactic being to establish acceptable behaviour levels before discussing the content of a deal. It also works on six year olds, apparently.

Say Yes to Yellow

Coming up in April… Danny Wallace (Charlotte Street) and Tom Chatfield (Netymology).

Happy Easter!

MAKING YOUR MIND UP

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pre-dated the skirt-swishing, accident-prone pop group Bucks Fizz by almost a century, but in 1888, in his most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes, he generated a model for mental acuity  that is relevant today, especially in the field of psychology and popular neuroscience.

What were they thinking?

Maria Konnikova is a top Harvard psychologist and an expert on Holmes, with an exciting, contemporary view of  the brain. We were lucky to host her at Books for Breakfast in Soho House yesterday.

Her new book, Mastermind, How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, is a clarion call for us all to wake up and think before we smell the coffee. By predicting a pleasant olfactory sensation, are you merely executing a mindless verbatim strategy, wandering through existence with a positive bias that blinds you to the real world? Incidentally, self-delusion is seen by Maria as necessary coping mechanism for modern life, as she says, “Its good not to see the world as it is, otherwise you have depression right?”

The book takes examples from Sherlock’s criminal cases, mentally prodding poor Watson to whom most readers will relate, rather that to the controlling cocaine addicted detective, but the point is that we can all learn to keep an organised “brain attic” like Sherlock (probably best to sort out your actual attic first, if you have one) and think with a better, more purposeful mindset.

Thinking like Sherlock Holmes

Paraphrasing Maria’s book, with apologies to psychologist Peter Gollwitzer, here are five tips for staying focused if you running a business plan or a project:

1. Think ahead to your goal

2. Be specific about your metrics

3. Have some if/then contingency plans along the way

4. Write stuff down

5. Consider the consequences of success and failure

Next Month’s Book for Breakfast is Dan Pink, To Sell is Human.

SERVICE WITH AN i-PHONE

Really enjoyed meeting and chatting with Nick Lander about his book, The Art of the Restaurateaur, last night in the Wired Pop Up store on Regent Street. It wasn’t breakfast, but we did have tea mixed with Hennessey Fine Cognac and we talked a lot about food. We particularly liked the story about the posh maitre D’ taking a pic (uninvited) with his iPhone of the grouse being served to Nick’s wife “for training purposes.” Bet he used Instagram as well top make it look tastier.

THE HEART OF WIRED-NESS

Something happened between 1995 and 2000 that changed the way we work, the way we think and the way we live our lives today.

To varying degrees, in this brief, but bright half-decade, we all became focused on a new frontier, led there by a new breed of entrepreneur promising (and threatening) to bring down the old way of doing business, replacing it with a shining citadel of citizen-empowered prosperity, boundary-less opportunity and truly democratic wealth.

Bang smack in the middle of it all was a man called Josh Harris. His web media and TV portal pseudo.com typified the possibilities (and eventually the pitfalls) of a financial system that would self-inflict a three trillion dollar wound on itself over a five year period.

This is What the Internet Looked Like in 1999

Just as Elvis invented Rock n’roll, Harris invented “Always On” – the feverish aspiration to total connectedness, wiring up his huge apartment block / office / on Broadway to the Internet for everyone with a T1 line to enjoy and share in his increasingly bizarre behaviour and that of his 300 staff.

And then the bubble burst. The world woke up and Josh Harris ran to the hills to “launder” his head in obscurity.

In TOTALLY WIRED, author Andrew Smith travels thousands of miles to meet up with Harris, tracking down the “Warhol of the Web” to look him in the eye and ask what went wrong and why?

Have we learned our lessons or are we still willing to believe in the endless possibilities offered by cyberspace?

I’m hosting a breakfast with Andrew Smith as part of Internet Week Europe at the Hospital Club next week. You can book yourself in here.

LOOKING AHEAD

It’s been a busy fortnight. Last week I was in Germany with Ben Hammersley, talking to the members and guests of Soho House Berlin about 64 Things You Need to Know Now for Then and this week I was welcoming people to Entrepreneur Country with the rather amazing Julie Meyer at The Hospital Club. Tomorrow I’m hosting a Books for Breakfast at Soho House with Dr Steve Peters to talk about The Chimp Paradox. Between these three experiences I should be smarter, richer and more ready for the future than ever before…

I WENT TO BED WITH GAVIN ESLER

I went to bed with Gavin Esler last Thursday night and had breakfast with him the following morning.. It’s this kind of ohrwurm (German for earwig) that can create the scandalous impression inside your head that I’m “up to stuff” with the Newsnight presenting novelist. In fact, all I did was watch him on TV at night (from the monogamous comfort of my marital duvet) and then host a Books for Breakfast with him for the members and guests of Soho House the next day (see below).

Gavin was sharing the ideas in his new book Lessons From The Top – How Successful Leaders Tell Stories to Get Ahead – and Stay There , which covers the basic rules of being in power by telling stories that stick to the hearts and minds of your followers. The book also covers counter-stories, IE how to unstick a negative story and replace it with something else. Examples come in all shapes and sizes… Reagan, Mandela, Thatcher, Jolie, Dyke (Greg)…. all brilliant, all fascinating.

Thanks to Peter Greenwood for taking the pics.

WHAT DO MARGARET THATCHER AND ANGELINA JOLIE HAVE IN COMMON?

No they didn’t both audition for Tomb Raider. They are both, along with Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Greg Dyke, Tony Blair and Jay Gatsby, subjects for Gavin Esler in his new book, Lessons From the Top, How Leaders Succeed Through the Power of Stories. I’m looking forward to meeting Gavin at Soho House next Friday (31st August) and plotting the lines that connect these characters through his career as a broadcast journalist for the BBC. Given his own position in the public eye and the role of the BBC in our culture, I wonder what stories he wants to tell about himself and his employer, should be fascinating.

Maggie

Jolie

STACK THE ODDS IN YOUR FAVOUR TO FLOURISH AT WORK

Looking forward to breakfast with top psychologist Maureen Gaffney at High Road House next week (Weds 22nd).

I’m half way through her new book – FLOURISHING, HOW TO ACHIEVE A DEEPER SENSE OF WELL-BEING, MEANING AND PURPOSE – EVEN WHEN FACING ADVERSITY.

If you make it past the title without running out of oxygen, you’ll find a very easy read through some difficult topics – happiness at home, stress at work, the view we have of ourself and each other, the role of our parents in our future and, crucially, the daily balance of positive to negative experiences (3:1) which Maureen believes can mean the fine line between well-being or, to put it bluntly, depression.

Maureen Gaffney

The same is true for corporations, families and individuals, who each have an instinctive tendency to focus on negative information rather than positive news and ideas. It’s all to do with survival, apparently; threats to our safety are fast-tracked through our brains, barging past good vibes to demand our immediate attention.

If you’d like to apply for a guest place and meet Maureen in person, contact reception@booksforbreakfast.com. £10 covers breakfast and a signed copy of the book. In association with the iconic bookseller FOYLES.

GOING FOR GOLD OR PACKING YOUR BAGS?

July is either a mouth-watering prospect of fun and games or, if you live in London, an impending, imperfect storm of traffic, tourists and delays on the tube.

Sadie Jones

This month, Books for Breakfast is embracing both sides of the Olympic coin, as it were; looking outwards to the holiday sun with Costa award-winning, best-selling novelist Sadie Jones and inwards, towards the track-star in all of us, with “performance specialist” Rasmus Ankersen.

Sadie will be joined by the erudite, witty woman of stage and page, Viv Groskop, at High Road House W4 on Friday 20th July. They’ll be talking about Sadie’s second novel The Uninvited Guests and discussing the best books to pack in your travel bag or take away on your Kindle/Kobo/iPad this summer.

Meanwhile, back in Soho, I’ll be meeting Danish dynamo Rasmus Ankersen, who has travelled the planet to find out why certain countries produce winners in sports such as tennis, running, golf and football.

Rasmus Ankersen

If you have any interest in making the most of talent, you’ll enjoy his book; The Gold Mine Effect, Crack the Secrets of High Performance, which despite having a cheesy title, contains very edible nuggets of experience and wisdom from the world’s best coached and athletes.

You can apply for places at both events by emailing reception@booksforbreakfast.com.

Everyone attending gets a nice breakfast and a signed copy of the book.