Thank you for reading wherewordsfailblog.com in 2017. Here are our top 10 most read articles for the year.
“… the arts, like culture, are not frills, luxuries, or the icing on the cake, but rather the elixir that is needed to live a happy, contented, and meaningful life at every stage in the life process, from the earliest signs of life to the final years of life”
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2. The case for culture by D. Paul Schafer
“…there is no doubt that culture possesses the potential to play a mainstream role in the world in both the theoretical and practical sense. Not only does this mean doing culture for culture’s sake, but also it means treating culture as the centrepiece of the world system and principal preoccupation of municipal, regional, national, and international development. Let’s get people and institutions in all parts of the world talking about this and planning for it”
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3. Want to win friends and influence people? Play billiards? by Grant Hall
“Throughout my life, playing pool has set me up with a fun way to make friends, gain more amazing life experiences, meet a diverse range of people, hear and tell stories, build international understanding and generally make the world a better place. On the more pragmatic side, playing pool within international government or business circles is a very effective and enjoyable way to build top end relationships, trust and influence”
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4. One important thing governments don’t get about arts education by Grant Hall
“I know that arts education gives students superior work skills that are highly transferable; I learned this first hand as I studied to earn a Diploma of Music. I haven’t worked professionally as a musician in over twelve years now, but does that mean that my government subsidised music education was a waste of time or money? Hell no! I learned more business skills through studying music than I ever did from studying business or management.”
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5. Productivity, microdosing and morning meditation by Grant Hall
“Experience has taught me how meditation increases my productivity, and I’ve noticed that the days when I meditate in the morning are usually much more productive than the days when I don’t… In short, meditation allows me to smash out large quantities of work within limited amounts of time”
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6. Debauchery, dodgy politicians and difficult fiction; my year in books and reading by Grant Hall
“For many years, I didn’t read business books or self-help books, or books that overlap between the two – I didn’t need to because I had various family members who were prone to reading them and then talking incessantly about them. Even today I could tell you a heck of a lot about business and self-help books that I’ve never even picked up like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I’m Ok You’re OK and The Cashflow Quadrant”
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7. Global cuisines and global mindsets by David Clive Price PhD
“The discussion and tasting of food in Asia, for example, is the single most important factor in building a long-term business relationship. If you can talk food, and try a little of everything, you’re in. If you stick with knife and fork and ask for sausages, you’re out”
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“Solving international problems – no matter whether they are in politics, business or in every person’s private life – requires the skill to understand the perspectives of other people from different cultures. The necessity to build and increase intercultural skills and cultural intelligence, is possibly higher in Vietnam than anywhere else”
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9. Cultural Learning is an Ongoing Process; an Aboriginal Insight by Jolleen Hicks
“A very important point to make is that how much you learn and how quickly you learn depends on timing. Cultural Learning requires an open mind and a respect for differing cultures. In order to learn and build on your learning, you need to accept that your own culture is not the only culture and that your own culture is only enriched by other cultures. There is beauty in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander cultures, as there is beauty in other Aboriginal cultures from around the world. I first learnt of treaties when I visited a reservation in the USA, and that was the moment I knew that I wanted to work with Aboriginal peoples from my country, Australia”
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10. Sensing the rise of Asia; one person, one city, one day by Grant Hall
“Some things are certainly better, like more dining options and shiny new gyms, but these things often come at a cost, as evidenced by the colonial era villa that was destroyed to make way for the car park of a new restaurant, or how people can now afford to go to the gym, but only need to go there because they are overweight from eating out too much and from being too busy to lead active lives due to work and study commitments. So – is this better? I’m not sure it is. But is it an exciting and interesting time to be in Asia? You bet it is!”
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See also:
Top 10 wherewordsfailblog.com posts of all time
Top 10 wherewordsfailblog.com posts of 2016
header photo credit: Mr Padraig
Trophies via photopin (license)
All other image credits can be
found on each individual post.
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