Author: Cecilia

10 things that would surprise my young(er) self about my world of work

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How useful my playing around endlessly in PowerPoint age 12 would be in a professional consulting environment.

How much you need other people to work on thorny problems where they know more than you do.

How many emails you get in a day.

How useful being a fast reader is because of the volume of material you have to read.

How many people that struggle with very fundamental IT skills.

How you can’t do “everything yourself” on a project of any meaningful size and scale.

How many adults across a range of professions that have truly no idea what they are doing.

How much PowerPoint and Excel are used in every organisation I’ve worked in.

How many meetings you have to attend.

How much of your success and opportunities are related to “who you know, not what you know”.

My 2020 Four Favourite Fiction Reads

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2020 has drawn to a close, and I surprisingly found myself having read half the number of books I read last year, despite the extra “free time” ostensibly available.
 
I read intensely in January and February, then only one book March-May, at the height of the UK lockdown. With the restrictions in place, I spent much more time making sure I moved, taking care of our little garden, baking sourdough bread (yes, really) and generally trying to move around whenever I wasn’t at my desk. 
 
As I was allowed into the gym again, my reading also picked up. With London now back in lockdown (#3), I’m again mindful that I keep moving but also to keep reading this time!
 

The Overstory – Richard Powers (USA)
A reminder of the sheer beauty and majestic presence of trees.

The Man with the Compound Eyes, Ming-Yi Wu (Taiwan)
An allegory of environmental destruction, loss, and love.

The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa (Japan)
A discombobulating story of collective memory and grief, evocative of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, and uncomfortably close to our society’s ecological shifting baseline syndrome.

Redemption in Indigo, Karen Lord (Barbados)
A pure bundle of fire-cracking joy, reminding me of how much colour and life you can pack into black and white paper pages.

 
Taking recommendations for 2021!