Friday Mindset #141

Happy Friday!

The boiler’s broken, the kids are shivering, illicit snowball fights are breaking out behind the DT block and the cynical old duffer in the staffroom is typing ‘how cold does it have to be before I can walk out’ into Ask Jeeves*

Yes, January is back. Happy new year! Here’s our motto for 2025, courtesy of the one-and-only Derek Sivers:

Great one to share with students. If you’ve an inspiring motto, manifesto or quote of your own for the year ahead, feel free to share at [email protected] and we’ll add them to the newsletters to come.

Right. Let’s dive in.

Something to try...

We came across the work of Nabeel S. Qureshi recently. Qureshi’s a British-born software engineer and start-up entrepreneur who studied PPE at Oxford before moving to the US. He’s a visiting scholar - with a specialism in AI - at George Mason University. Someone (sorry, we’ve forgotten who you are!) recommended Qureshi’s Principles. There are 63, short, pithy pieces of advice which put us in mind of a similar resource we shared with you; Kevin Kelly’s Advice for Living.

We like principles like these - manifestos, if you like - at the start of a new year, so this seems like a good time to share some of Qureshi’s. They’re not word-for-word, but they’re all his words; the detail we’ve added here and there are from other writings.

Here’s a powerpoint for you to explore, perhaps discuss with students. Very simple, but full of interest - students can debate the usefulness of each principle and choose their favourite.

Hope you enjoy!

Something we're reading...

We had the pleasure of spending some time with Ewan McIntosh a couple of years ago, and were so impressed. Great ideas, razor-sharp intellect, super-clear design-thinking, charisma by the bucket-load. Recently he emailed to share the CIA’s 1944 Sabotage Field Manual. This is typical Ewan; something that looks initially completely unrelated to education, but makes a profound comment on it.

What you’re looking at here is a WWII guide for ‘citizen-saboteurs’ detailing how to deliberately slow-down decision-making, clog-up meetings and prevent action; bringing the wheels of industry and commerce to a halt.

And blimey, it describes bad meeting-behaviour in education perfectly. Here it is:

The start of a new year is a great time to reflect on leadership, a significant part of which is of course the purpose, structure and content of meetings. This is one to stick above your desk as a constant reminder for 2025.

Portal Talk...

Exciting News for 2025: Introducing the Brand-New VESPA Shop!

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the VESPA Shop, a project inspired by feedback from students and staff seeking practical tools to help students focus and minimise mobile phone distractions during study sessions.

We’ve carefully selected an array of products to support productivity, including timers (featuring the classic Pomodoro timer), mobile phone jails, and planners. With more coming soon.

To celebrate this new venture, we’re offering Friday Mindset Subscribers exclusive first access and a 25% discount on all purchases made before the end of January. Simply use the code FRIDAYMINDSET25 at checkout to enjoy the discount!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the shop—what products you think are missing, whether the prices are fair, or any other feedback. As a token of appreciation, we’re giving away 5 Rotating Countdown Timers to the first five people who submit a review.

To participate, send your review to [email protected], including the address where you'd like your timer to be sent. Don’t miss your chance to grab one of these fantastic tools!

Explore the VESPA Shop today and join us in making 2025 the year of productivity and focus.

Our latest offer...

Anyone fancy a copy of Daniel Willingham’s Outsmart Your Brain? We’ve got a well-read and slightly battered one to give away to get the year off on the right foot!

If you’re the first to email us at [email protected], leaving us a school/college address to send it to, it’s yours. If you’re reading this and it’s - say - between 3:20 and 3:45pm on Friday 10th January, you’re in with a shot. Go!

Right. That’s it for now. All the best to you and yours for the year ahead,

Martin, Steve and Tony

*this really happened. True story. Back in the old days, though, when there was a choice of search engines.