James Avery’s blog

The term “think outside the box” has to be my most hated phrase, competing alongside the dreaded S word (solutions) for the platinum coated trophy of meaningless business speak. So why am I so proud to say that I do think INSIDE the box?

To me, thinking inside the box is a simple case of having an objective, and then defining the boundaries which are relevant for reaching that objective.  For example, the Chess Board Map I posted a couple of weeks ago might not make that much sense as a blog post, but it is very easy to explain in front of someone. I said I’d give it to my dad and let him work it out over the weekend. He’s back for the Christmas holiday now, and he worked out the first 20 or so cities in about 10 minutes. He did so, because it made sense to him. Likewise, the map was a lively discussion point with a fellow travel website owner at a Christmas party last week, because again, he thinks visually too.

I am still trying to find that magic bridge between the two different types of thinking, so I’m not quite there yet. Our Christmas greeting comes with the text “from Aalborg to Zweibrucken” or “Anchorage to Dunedin“. A to Z is for the conventional thinkers - yet Zweibrucken actually means “Two Bridges” in German. My grandparents used to live in Burgess Hill, which is not too far from Three Bridges in Sussex - but I digress - One Bridge is all I’m trying to cross here!

In the meantime, if you want simple instructions on drawing a map pr plan to demonstrate any point (remember that MAP is an anacronym for Make Anything Possible), please scroll down below:

      A                                                                 B
             a     b     c     d      e      f     g     h     i    
1     /     A     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     \
2     /     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     \
3     /     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     \
4     /     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     \
5     /     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     \
6     /     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     \
7     /     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     \
8     /     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     \
9     /     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     D     \
      C                                                                  D

• To hand draw: Draw the letter Z, starting at point A, and passing through points B and C to reach D.
• This represents the basic differentiation between traditional (A to Z) thinkers and visual (A to D through Z) thinkers.
• It also shows that the best thinkers actually DO think inside the box after all!
   

Where are you on the world chess board map?

I have been working on a new version of Flightmapping for a while, and let’s just say that some of our maps are going to be a little bit different to the norm.  However, I can’t keep everything under wraps forever, and I need to get some feedback from potential users, so here is a quick taster.

Imagine the whole world as a chessboard, with the most important cities represented at the intersection of each square.  Our chessboard map does feature cities from A-Z, but in terms of reaching the corners of the earth, we tried to do A,B, C and D, but we found that only A and D worked.  So we’re giving you Anchorage in Alaska (a1) and Dunedin in New Zealand (i9), for starters. 

Of course, any map like this is going to be contentious — why have we included x, but excluded y or z? All I can say is that the process has been part scientific and part random, but I hope that I can stimulate some good old-fashioned debate before bringing this map to life on Flightmapping.com — something we plan to do early next year.

This map is also something of a teaser — if anyone wants to have a go, I’ll e-mail over the first letter, or the IATA airport code for each city, but as it is my dad’s 75th birthday today, I hope that he’ll be able to complete it without any help.  He might still be teaching medical students and running triathlons on sunny Nevis, but he has always been a passionate yachtsman and Geographer as well.  As well as having a distinguished medical career, dad is also a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, so I have every faith that he will be able to e-mail his version of the map by the end of the weekend.

Why a chessboard?

Well, I’ve never been a sporting type, but I was captain of the school chess team, and if you’ll excuse my being corny, the notion of “check” hails back to the Czech Republic, and my granny was born in Prague.  Chess might be a game of war, but I hope this map is much more of a peaceful exercise. Most of the places on the map are attractive to visit for one reason or another, but there are one or two on their which have historical significance for less than pleasant reasons.

Around the World in 80 Dots

A chessboard has 8 x 8 squares, which gives 64; and 9 x 9 lines, which would give 81 cities.  I have decided to leave the centre point blank, as this roughly corresponds to the Holy land, or the great Pyramid at Giza in Cairo, which is the only ancient wonder of the world to have survived to the present day.  I think this map should be provocative enough as it is without starting any religious wars!  Phileas Fogg might have gone around the world in 80 days, so you are now invited to go around the chessboard in 80 dots.

The reasons for inclusion of each city vary across the world, but 8 factors include:

• Prominent architectural or natural landmarks.
• Tourist attractions.
• Transport hubs, including major international airports, rail hubs, and ports.
• Prominent sporting teams or venues.
• Cultural activities, including concert venues, birthplaces of composers or hotbeds of musical talent, artists etc.
• High standards of living.
• Major financial centres, including corporate headquarters, banks and stock markets.
• Large centres of population.
 

[Blank world chess board map]

Based on an original idea and Copyright (C) 2008 James Avery

After our storming victory in the Moorgins Pub Quiz last night (the second in a row for the team, but I was in Manchester last time), I was wondering what we need to do to make it a hat-trick for next week.  We know that our quizmaster has a penchant for questions about Erasure, Deal or No Deal, horseracing and Monopoly.  Apart from latter, I don’t really fancy my chances at any of these topics, but last night’s question about the number of £20 notes handed out at the start of the game was highly controversial — we said that players just got one, but the so-called correct answer was six. 

It turns out that in the British version of the game, played to just get one £20 note, but in other get versions of the game, they get six.  So what other monopoly questions might we anticipate?  As Lewis and I are already ardent players of the game, we should do reasonably well on any subsequent questions, but one thing I was wondering about is just how many monopoly properties are actually within the boundaries of the city of London?

This question is not as easy to answer as it looks, as the boundaries of the city of London follow so many random twists and turns as they negotiate various different backstreets.  Motorway map.co.uk has attempted to show all of the London monopoly properties superimposed on a map of London, and combining this with the official City of London authority map suggests that Whitechapel Road (brown) and Strand (red) are just on the edges of the City of London, but they don’t really go inside the boundaries.  Fleet Street (also red) and the two stations of Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street are certainly within the boundaries of the city of London, so I would guess that the correct answer is three. 

However, to be fully accurate, I’d have to go out and look for those City of London black bollards at the end of Fleet Street and Whitechapel Road — and however infinitely curious I might be, that would be taking my geekery just a little bit too far.  I think a far more interesting question would be to explain why the hell Fenchurch Street, which has to be the most irrelevant station* in London, made it onto the Monopoly board in the first place (again, Motorway map has a go at explaining) – as with last week, answers on a postcard please.

*Just to keep the good people of Essex happy, I mean irrelevant in the sense of number of passengers served, and the fact that Fenchurch Street has neither long-distance train services, nor its own underground station.  I have nothing against Essex people, and in fact, many of my friends come from Essex, blah blah blah.