While driving home at 6:15 on a Friday night from a long day of Podcast editing the inevitable happened: I got stuck in traffic. I was awed by the fact that there was actually traffic when I assumed people should have gone home a long time before. Now this time made me realise how amazing a city I live in despite some pretty major flaws. This post is an ode to my love-hate relationship with the city I call my home: Johannesburg.

Traffic: The highway in Joburg is pretty much the only way of getting around quickly. At the moment, almost every highway is being upgraded from a three lane to a four lane monstrosity and as such there will be traffic regardless of the time or day of the week. While I hate the traffic I find it’s here that I do my best thinking and come up with some amazing, if not bizarre ideas. It’s just me, the radio and my thoughts and I love it. This is probably my number one love/hate relationship with Joburg but lately I’m leaning more towards love. The best for me though is how no one ever obeys the speed limit. Either you’ve got people driving at least 40 kilometers per hour slower than the limit or 40 kilometers per hour above the speed limit. This is not a city for middle ground.

Pace: This place is seriously fast paced. The reason Joburg is the place where business gets done is simply because people are desperate to succeed. Deals are made over expensive meals and the rat race is faster as well as bigger than anywhere else in the country. It’s not uncommon in the larger companies to work an eighty hour week but this seems almost acceptable since everyone else is doing it as well. The fact remains, if you’re looking for the buzz that surrounds a hive of activity then Joburg is the only place to be.

Weather: Cape Town has three months of solid rain and Durban is constantly unbearably humid but in Joburg we have a fairly constant climate. As I write this it’s close on 11 in the evening and my car just told me it’s 21 degrees. In winter it’s mildly uncomfortable in the morning and evening but on a whole you can expect a bright sunny day 80% of the year. Not only is it constantly warm but you get the pleasure of the most visually amazing lightening in the summer months. For me nothing quite beats sitting in my room with the lights off at night watching the lightening strike outside.

People: With such a fast paced, aggressive culture you’d think people would be stuck up and arrogant. The bad news is that they are but the good news is that people are excited to meet other people. You could go into any bar/club/social gathering and make a few new acquantances anyday. Call it people’s desire to network with other successful or potentially successful people but the reality is that there is a desire to meet new faces. There’s none of this “clique” factor that exists elsewhere in South Africa. Sure people are snobbish but if you are from the same social stratus (and you will be if you’re hanging in the same places) then they tend to be very friendly.

Looks: People wax lyrical about how Cape Town has the mountain and don’t get me wrong, I think Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world but Joburg has a certain something to it. I dare you to drive on the M1 highway between Empire and Hougton offramps in the evening and not find the view breathtaking. If you’re brave enough to stop your car on the side of the road you’ll be greeted with the view of the Westcliff hotel, the Zoo and thousands of trees lining leafy suburbs all lit up by hundreds of lights. Even town, which is basically a monument to 50’s and 60’s dodgy architecture has a beauty in it that you will not find anywhere else. Sure, we don’t have a mountain but we’ve got some amazing architecture both old and new. Add to the fact that there are tree’s throughout the cities suburbs then you’ve actually got a leafy paradise.

Glamour: This is hardly something I can comment on but Joburg is very glamorous. I only realised this when a friend from Cape Town mentioned how “done up” the women in Joburg are. It’s a city with expensive clubs frequented by models and wealthy BEE enriched businessmen. There is an abundance of trendy bars and restaurants. People are dressing for success and it shows.

Quirks: If there’s one thing Joburg has an abundance of that would be its quirks. On an average drive around the city you’ll avoid at least a couple of potholes all while never stopping at red lights so that you don’t get hijacked. You will drive as aggressively as possible and and you will hoot as much as you can. People have places to go and don’t get in their way. Road rage isn’t just acceptable but it’s the norm. Joburg is a city where one of the largest informal settlements in the country borders one of the richest areas in the country. It’s a city of don’t haves and have mores; again there is little middle ground. Even if you don’t fit into the “have mores” category you’ll live juggling one credit card debt onto the next card just to pretend you’re wealthy enough to own an expensive German sedan. The list of Joburg quirks is probably endless.

The reality of Jozi is that you cannot be a wimp to survive here. It’s a fascinating, troubled environment where a lot of hard work gets done while at the same time many dreams are shattered. I’m not always a fan and complain about it plenty but there is no doubt it’s a place worth living at least for the experience.

While I’ve never actually entered the blog awards before, this year I decided to enter my podcast (www.thedigitaledge.co.za) into the awards. I think the actual concept for the awards is awesome but I do have a slight issue with the way they are run. Here’s my two cents:

So the way it works is that there are two phases. The first is a nomination phase where everyone sends in their votes and then secondly there is a voting phases once there is a top 10 (or some arb number. I made 10 up) for the actual category winner. Sounds innocent enough right? You’d be wrong!

So when you go to the website (http://www.sablogawards.com/2009/) and try enter a blog in a category (like say for example The Digital Edge for best Podcast) you get greeted with a response saying that you need to nominate three categories or else you cannot cast your vote. This brings me to my first complaint: how the hell am I going to get octogenarians such as my grandparents to vote for their favourite grandson if they have to enter two other blogs? I mean it’s okay for people who want to enter their blog into multiple categories but it’s pretty silly if you have a Podcast (such as www.thedigitaledge.co.za) and want to just vote in that category. The three categories voting thing is just silly.

This brings me onto my second point! You can create a cool badge to put on your site by simply putting in your blog address and choosing the categories you want to people to nominate you for. Now this is awesome but this brings us back to the first issue of having to need to nominate yourself for three categories. If you click on the badge at the top of this post you’ll notice that I have it setup for www.thedigitaledge.co.za with best podcast and two other random categories. There’s no way to choose three different blogs and nominate them for three different categories when creating the badge.

Ultimately I’m looking forward to crushing the other Podcast contestants and will be starting an awesome campaign sooner than later but these issues are just creating a very user unfriendly entrance situation. You live and you learn so hopefully these mistakes won’t happen again next year.

PS: This is a relatively subtle attempt to get you to nominate my Podcast so click on the badge at the top of the post and nominate us for Podcast of the year and the two other categories I randomly chose.

First up on Friday the 9th of January I was featured on Morning Live on SABC 2 to promote my website FirstStep.co.za. You can watch the recording below:

Secondly I was voted as one of the “Ten (more) Young  South African Digital Citizens To Watch” by Mike Stopforth. I’ve got some pretty esteemed company on that list and it’s a real pleasure and honour to be considered worthy to watch by Mike. For those of you that have never heard of Mike (get out from under that rock!) I jokingly refer to him as the “Demi-god” of the local Internet scene.

Finally, today heralds the release of something I’ve been working really hard on for the past few months. The release of the first episode of “The Digital Edge Podcast“. I’ve scripted, hosted and done some post production on the show so it’s really a labour of love on my part. I’d like to thank Jarred from Cambrient (the company sponsoring the Podcast) for the opportunity. Take a listen and I hope you enjoy the first episode. If you have any comments or criticism then please feel free to mail/twitter me with your opinions. It’s something I want to make really amazing.

As always, thanks for reading my blog and I hope your year is looking as optimistic as I feel mine is.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book “Outliers”, he posits the theory that for someone to truly become amazing at something they need to put 10000 hours into their craft. Now when I say truly amazing I mean world class, revolutionary or simply the best of the best. I’m certainly not going to disagree with the amazing Mr Gladwell as his examples show it to be true (he uses case studies such as Bill Gates) but it brings me to another interesting thought: should we push our children to put in the 10000 hours on an activity they might be vaguely interested in or let them develop on their own?

The numbers are quite astounding when you do the maths. If you practice something for three hours a day, seven days a week it will take you just over a year and a third to reach the 10000 hour milestone. While it’s a fairly daunting amount of time it’s not exactly that long especially for a young child whom has plenty of extra hours to spare.

So this brings me to my original question: should we push children to succeed in areas we choose? Would Tiger Woods have wanted to be a golfer had his father not made him put in the requisite hours required? As a person that has occasionally been pushed in the wrong direction or the direction not of my own choosing I’m obviously blantantly against this concept. However, what if the child had some vague interest in become, for example, a world class guitarist? Even if you made the child practice one hour a day, seven days a week the 10000 hours could be reached in less than four years.

I’m not sure what the answer is to be honest. It’s an interesting thought whether we should push our children to reach those 10000 hours in a discipline of our choice or one of their own later on in life. I’m not saying it’s the worst idea to push your children in a direction but I think it shouldn’t be purely to reach the 10000 hour milestone or for other reasons. I guess it’s different for every children but my vote is ultimately for nature even if it means you will blossom later in life.

I’d like to publically issue a million thanks to Mandy for the opportunities and the VERY kind words she has given me. Thanks again.

I’ll be back blogging more often fairly soon, just been adjusting to the life as a worker!

(I wrote this for another website I run, FirstStep.co.za but since this is the first piece of writing I’ve actually been paid for I thought I would post it here on my personal space)

Getting into the creative game:

Your parents might want you to become a Doctor, Lawyer or Accountant but if the thought makes you want to jump off a bridge, you might need to look elsewhere for a career.

Do you find yourself more interested in the creative side of your brain? Do you want a creative career as a writer, photographer, designer, animator or perhaps a filmmaker? If you ticked yes to any of those options you’ll need to study elsewhere than a traditional university.

Before you start do not use an excuse that you are not creative enough. Psychologists have discovered that no person is born highly creative and that it is a skill that needs to be developed. What this means is that people who say they can’t paint are actually just not developed in that art. In the same way that athletes spend hours refining their abilities you will need to work on refining your creative skills.  These same psychologists agree that the other major trick to becoming a better creative is to be surrounded by other creatives, preferably practicing professionals. The interesting thing about creativity is that it breeds creativity and those with experience will always give you excellent guidance and direction.

Everyone knows that to become an Accountant you turn off your personality, go to University for a few years and then suddenly you can add “Chartered Accountant” to the end of your surname. For creative’s though it’s still critical to practice your skills in a tertiary environment but an academic University is often not the way to go. We cannot stress the need for a few years at a specialised institute, as practical experience is often the defining factor in what makes a good creative. The best of these creative institutes is CityVarsity , which offers a wide range of career paths in areas such as Film (behind and in front of the camera), Journalism and Visual Arts, amongst others.

There are also many myths about the kind of people who make a living from being creative. Some imagine a person sitting in a dark basement, working away, with no social skills and more than a hint of insanity. Others see the life of a creative as very glamourised as the media gives us the idea that creative people live in a world of sex, drugs and endless parties. You might have the misconception that endless parties will be your lifestyle but there is no substitute for hard work and determination; the two tend to breed success.

Another common question is what kind of personality will actually succeed in such a tough environment and what kind of skills are required? The personality type is a simple answer: the kind of person who has drive, determination and has a thick skin – who deals with disappointment by getting back up and working even harder. Creativity isn’t the only skill you’ll need; analytical and problem solving abilities are fundamental. You will find yourself in tough situations that can only be solved by thinking out of the box and seeing the solution no one else is able to.

A major issue once you qualify is how you want to work. The options are either freelance or working for a company. The benefits of freelancing are that you can potentially earn more money and you can work wherever and whenever you want. The downside is this freedom can lead to many long and late hours. You’ll also have to worry about finding clients and marketing yourself in a competitive environment. When working for a company you’ll enjoy more job security but will generally make less money for the same amount of work. It’s probably best to work for a company and get an impressive portfolio in a safer environment before putting yourself out there.

The final myth to debunk is that creatives’ live in communes their entire life while “suffering” for their art. Every semi-famous writer, actor, artist and musician who has ever made some money off his or her art will disagree with that statement. While being the best requires hard work and determination the payoff is worth the sweat.

All in all, being a creative might seem very glamorous but at the end of the day hard work and determination is critical for success. We would hate to give you the impression that fame and fortune awaits you but you’ll certainly be able to compete with the Accountants in terms of lifestyle. Added to the fact that you’ll easily have more job satisfaction a life in the world of creative’s sounds pretty appealing.

Thanks so much

SaulK