I am a fan of Creature Discomforts! I just discovered these delightful creations from Aardman Animations while writing for another blog. As I wrote in that blog entry, these animations were made to help re-brand a UK charity called Leonard Cheshire Disability. This type of communication appeals to me immensely. I admire the animation work of Aardman Animations and love watching their stories unfold. At the same time, in this case, I am also “educated” about disabilities. Mary Poppins’ rule about “a spoonful of sugar” helping the medicine go down frequently applies to education – and I could add: technical communication. How to get a difficult, serious, sensitive message across in the best possible way? That is a task that many technical communicators face every day. Seeing a presentation like this is a tremendous inspiration, although the effort behind clay or stop-motion animation is so huge that it is definitely…
Comments closedTag: communication
I want to thank Dr. Randy Pausch for recording his Last Lecture so that it can viewed by millions, or rather, so it can inspire millions. Dr. Pausch died yesterday, July 25th, with his pancreatic cancer having the final say. CrunchGear brought me the sad news while I was searching for something else. I don’t remember how I learned about the video of Dr. Pausch’s lecture, now called the Childhood Dreams lecture. I remember thinking that I didn’t have time to watch a video that was over an hour long. I was just going to look at the first few minutes…. An hour and a half later, I was forwarding that video link to friends. To say that the lecture is inspirational is an understatement. Carnegie-Mellon had the concept of a lecture series where professors gave a lecture as though it was the last one they would ever give. They…
Comments closedI think it is quite apt to say that Jill Bolte Taylor’s talk at this year’s TED conference is mind-blowing. View or read about her “Stroke of Insight”. Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another. I do look forward to hearing Richard Saul Wurman speak at the closing keynote of the STC 55th conference in Philadelphia. Wurman’s idea back in 1984 made many lectures like “My Stroke of Luck” possible. This particular presentation is an excellent example of his aim to make a complex idea clear to a…
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