The book, an update

I'm finalizing my book and find myself at last with a systematic and complete work (at least I think so), something that grew in my hands almost without my noticing.

This manual (unfortunately, I'm like the worker in a weapons factory in the story by Gianni Rodari, who however hard he tried to build peaceful toys for his grandchildren, always ended up making weapons: I only know how to write manuals), which will see the light this year (I’m currently searching for a publisher), has the pretension of saying that a better world is possible – especially with regard to work – that you shouldn’t always follow the rules imposed by others, that you can live well and decently without working yourself to death.

One question, over the years, has repeatedly come to mind: how many of us, when arriving at the point of death, would have spent even more time in the office? In my view, the purpose of work is to liberate time and therefore allow us to dedicate ourselves to more important and significant tasks. Today, thanks also to technology, we all can do it: if we do it or not depends only on ourselves, on the degree of freedom we give to our own lives.

I talk, whenever I have the opportunity, with people who have many responsibilities at work and I cannot understand their point of view when they refer to their work as something unavoidable like a steamroller (as they fail to understand mine: "Oh, lucky you that you can work so little..."). But for me a simpler life is possible, fuller and richer in meaning, devoid of unnecessary worries and most of all not full of work to the brim: it's up to us to give allow ourselves to live under the conditions that we decide for ourselves.

I arrived at these conclusions by changing considerably over the years: I learned to simplify, to apply the Pareto principle and Parkinson's Law. Now everything about work – and not only – just seems to me vastly simpler, and I think I can and know how to convey this two-bit philosophizing of life. That's why I am convinced that this book may be helpful to many people.

Dizionario delle Combinazioni Lessicali

Dictionaries are a disease I contracted at university after realizing (rather late, of course) that literature was what I really wanted to study and know. I remember that the Italian dictionary I loved most was the Garzanti: I also started keeping a list of Italian words that didn’t appear there. Then, for myself, I compiled a dictionary of bad words, in the wake of La mala lingua by Augusta Forconi: very funny, but it has always lain in a drawer.

In Italian, in short, “I mixed things up and recognized myself”, as Ungaretti said. (And I owe all this mainly to the great masters that I had the good fortune to have then, first of all Richard Massano – who really taught me how to write - and Guido Davico Bonino – who held lessons for audiences of students /viewers that were essentially shows. Pavese, then, completed all this.)

By chance, I came across this Dizionario delle Combinazioni Lessicali a few weeks ago. Since I’m proud of my writing (perhaps the only activity in which I really don’t fear any comparison), it's a tool that immediately intrigued me.

I bought and started to browse it, then I met the author. I asked him some questions to understand more deeply the nature of this work. Here are his thoughts.

Mistakes, what a teacher!

Or: I didn’t learn in school the vast majority of what I know about my profession

Danielle LaPorte doesn’t need any introduction. I was struck by a recent post, a list of mistakes that would be better to avoid but – if committed – are a godsend because they teach a lot about our work and especially about ourselves.

I found myself in many of them, especially in number 3 (Got a workspace too soon), because in those lines I seemed to trace the full logistics history of Tesi & testi.

My first office was a room of about 15 square meters and with the bathroom in the courtyard (it was 1995 - in 1940 I was not yet born): there, anyway, I laid the foundation for the future, I had insights that I like to call brilliant and I experienced intense emotions about my little creature of those days. (Such as the joy of owning a real fax.)

Then in 1997 I understood – rather, I thought I understood – that an entrepreneur must have, among other things, a lot of space for his company and a corner office for himself. The new office was elegant, very spacious, very beautiful to behold and comfortable: but in fact I spent entire years working to pay for it.

When we moved things have improved, but they really went into place only 14 years later (I'm slow to get the rhythm in everything I do, it's one of my 800 faults) when the circle was closed and I returned to the apartment that was once of the mother superior. Small spaces, life in the province, huge satisfactions, and the bottom line can only benefit.

Mistakes, a manna from heaven. Thank you Danielle.

Cagliari, training for translators

Andrea Tuveri is above all a dear friend but he is also a brilliant and expert translator. On Thursday, March 11 9 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. in the Aula Magna of Cagliari University he will take part in a panel discussion titled Translating for a united Europe. The practice of multilingualism in European institutions, which is part of a series of meetings dedicated to translation and interpreting. He will speak about his experience as a translator and will give practical suggestions for people interested in entering this intricate profession.

A positive note is highlighted in the presentation of the meetings:

The meetings are aimed at all students regardless of the combination of studied languages and are designed with a practical rather than theoretical layout.

I note with pleasure - at last! - that academia is now talking less about translation theory and more about practice, marketing and so forth; and Andrea is certainly well prepared to make his own contribution.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Today I won’t speak personally – but a book full of ideas will speak for me.

I have more than one hundred and fifty employees, but nobody has asked me to disclose my financial knowledge. They ask me for a job and the pay-sheet, never to teach them what I know about how money works. Consequently, most of these people will spend the best years of their lives working for the money, without understanding what they really work for

Stop accusing me, believing that I am the problem. If you think like that, you’ll have to change me. But if you realize that you are the problem, you can change yourself, learn something and become wiser. Many people wish that everyone else changes, except themselves

When it comes to money, many people want to play it safe and keep their backsides warm. Consequently, they aren’t guided by passion, but by fear.

The best part was that our business provided us with money, even when we were physically away. Money worked for us.

The thing that worries me is that I meet thousands of people with one thing in common: they all have incredible potential, talents and personal gifts. Yet there is one thing that limits them: the lack of confidence and hence indecision. It isn’t the lack of technical knowledge that constrains them, but irresolution

The world is full of talented but poor people. Too often they navigate in a sea of financial troubles or earn less than they could not because of what they know, but what they don’t know. They focus on improving in their field, on cooking the best hamburgers, but they forget to learn how to sell and deliver them to the customer. Maybe McDonald's offers mediocre sandwiches, but it sells them in the right manner and in the right contexts.

Robert Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter, Rich Dad Poor Dad. What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not, New York, Warner Books, 1997.

The easy part and the difficult one

My last post, which was full of food for thought (not mine, but due to the often against the trend ideas of Luigi Muzii), has caused some – not many, indeed - comments on Langit.

In my opinion, one of the key points for translators, and thus a way to exit from the swamp in which too many of them are self-condemned, is marketing. And marketing doesn’t (at least no longer, if it ever was) mean getting on customers’ nerves off, but is made of much more subtle tools such as a well-made website, an effective tag-line in emails, a properly presented business card and so on. (I’ll take for granted the fact that the service offered is not less than excellent.)

For example, what Seth Godin did yesterday to promote his book (in a word: only online promotion, in the form of interviews with him by the most listened to and influential bloggers) is marketing of the best kind; and you aren’t even forced to talk to anyone.

Too many translators declare themselves – in words and in deeds – unable to sell, preferring to focus on what they do best: translating. An example: the overwhelming majority of résumés that I get seem to be done with the stencil (although, of course: who am I to judge?) but I ‘d like to receive a proposal that solves a problem, not knowing that in the summer of 2001 that translator has done an internship somewhere.

And so, alas, what is easy (translating) with time becomes difficult (effective marketing of your services); but when we challenge our limits, the difficult becomes routinely easy – and fun.

The barbarian thought: Luigi Muzii

My first "virtual" encounter with Luigi Muzii dates back well over a decade, when I bought and avidly read his La redazione dei documenti tecnici, one of the earliest - and still few - books in Italian devoted to technical writing.

Then I read more about him, and finally I met him in person in Bologna, at the last AITI conference: I met a brilliant conversationalist and – at the same time – a skeptical person, who wonders about the meaning of his work and of the industry in which he’s immersed.

Some days ago I asked him if he wanted to answer some questions. "At your own risk ...", was the answer: with a smile and in full Muzian-style. I planned, saved and sent them. Here (in Italian) is the first Brainfood guest blogger.