Pazzardous Material Vol 23

Pazzardous Material Vol 23  – the week’s posts on a single page:
 

To Cut a Long Story Short

Running in my local area, and hopping around the internet, it’s not long until I see superfluous language:
 

  • Companies who install windows or alarms with ‘Systems’ in their name (someone looking through a window doesn’t involve a system, just eyes, a pane of glass and whatever’s on the other side of it)
  • Posts about choosing “a digital marketing agency for small businesses” (who’d choose a marketing agency, in 2019, that doesn’t include digital when planning and executing its strategy?)
  • “In and of itself” (in every sentence I’ve seen or heard this, I break down the whole and reckon “in itself” makes sense on its own – as it should – but “of itself” never does)

Yes, I’m a pedant, but my work as an editor or sub-editor demands it, and people (clients and readers, for example) prefer it.

 

Jilted John

It took me a few years as I was gathering knowledge about internet marketing to realise that I probably knew more than I realised and more than I needed to start to get clients.

In the end, it was a podcast that I was listening to that forced me to appreciate my progress.

The person being interviewed said , “Yeah, losers make great buyers.”

I stopped listening immediately, unsubscribed from many of the lists I was on and started to read more content aimed at professionals rather than beginners.

Does Springsteen worry that he’s not McCartney? Of course not. And I had to stop worrying that I
wasn’t Derek Halpern or Brian Clark, get rid of stuff that was no longer good for me and just get on with the job.

 

Get Your Shirt

Kids need to understand their financial world and have three places where they can learn about it: at home, at school and online.

Sadly, it seems that financial education in UK schools is absent.

As well as how to make money, kids should be shown how they can save cash too, so they don’t lose their shirt. Here are a few sites or tools that could help:

  • MoneySavingExpert.com – where I start my searches for insurance, utilities, new mobile deals and other necessities
  • TransferWise – website and app for cheap, fair and simple international money transfers.
  • XE.com – easy-to-use and reliable currency exchange site
  • Jack’s Flight Club – get emails with news of cheap flights from the UK
  • SayNoTo0870.com – save money when phoning premium rate customer service numbers (on the home page, use the link that says “Search to find an alternative number”)

Let me know if you know another tool or site that you think kids should be aware of as they get older. Email paul@paulparry.com. Thanks.

 

Police & Thieves

Two ways that community policing has changed in recent years:

Email: I get crime updates from Hertfordshire Constabulary and even though they sound like they’re copied and pasted straight out of the investigating officer’s notebook, I think they’re a great idea.

And then there’s Twitter: @PoliciaJUN is used by the police and mayor to help run the town.

As resources are stretched, maybe more police forces should be making a similar effort to engage with local people.

 

Life’s What You Make It

When I was 14, in 1986, I loved Life’s What You Make It by Talk Talk.

So it’s sad to hear of the death today of Mark Hollis, the band’s co-founder, lead singer and principal songwriter.

“Life’s what you make it.” “The more you put in, the more you get out.” “You make your own luck.” All variations on a theme which I love to hammer home to my daughters as often as possible without boring them.

 

Light My Fire

I started to organise the book yesterday:

  • I thought about the a message, idea, or story that I want to share
  • Gathered much of the information I already have that’s ready and waiting
  • Organised my material in a Word doc

On that first point, thinking about the message, idea or story I want to share, there are plenty of all three that’ll go in this book.

I’ll use stories to illustrate what I’ve done so far to get to this point, how I’ve messed up and how I’ve tried to make things better, and why I hold some of the beliefs that are dear to me.

I’ll explain ideas that I like (and possibly use myself) and reckon others might benefit from.

And as for messages, I have several that I want to promote. Essentially, I believe we/kids need to:

  1. Understand social media
  2. Embrace the internet’s huge, limitless opportunities and benefits
  3. Understand the basics of personal and business finance
  4. Appreciate that many of the old ways are either dead or dying (TV advertising and jobs for life, for example)
  5. Promote solid (family) values – generosity, being nice, tolerance, friendliness (we want our kids/younger relatives to be happy and successful later in life. Their success and happiness bring our peace of mind. And that’s what we really want.)
  6. Collaborate – it can bring huge benefits and is easier than ever before

 

Blind

Sometimes the best way to learn something is to simply jump in, get started, make mistakes, then correct them and try again. In other words, “Ready, fire, aim.” Go in blind and feel your way through.

And I’ve found it helps you if you help someone else to do the same thing or achieve the same goal:

“The best way to learn is to teach,” as I heard once.

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