Hi, I'm Martin and this is my personal space for sharing thoughts and learnings. Throughout my life others have reacted to conversations by saying "you have so much stuff in your head. You should share it". This an attempt to do so.

Why could this be of value to you? Because, like you I suspect, I have picked up many gems from so many people over the past four or five decades. This website is where I shall write them down.

I have always admired people who were thinkers and were interested in ways of thinking. People like Jock at UCT who shared his thoughts on how to go out of business. Or Edward De Bono (the inventor of lateral thinking), who I was privileged to spend two days with, learning about modes of thinking and "Po". Or Bill Belsen (from the London School of Economics), the question design guru, who developed techniques for getting beyond obvious platitudes.

Why "enigmatic"? - I have often had valuable conversations with enigmatic people (enigmatic - "difficult to interpret or understand; mysterious").

Maverick? Defined as "an independent-minded person". I guess there is some maverick in all of us, even those in careers like the military. I became interested in independent-mindedness when I read Ricardo Semler's book, "Maverick". He loved to do the opposite of what was expected. Such as allowing his employees to set their own salaries, whilst justifying them to their peers.

Then I discovered Peter Cave's book "How To Think Like a Bat" in our home library. He poses the question "What would a bat think of us humans having to live upside down, walk on only two legs and go through life without an echolocation faculty?" In other books and articles he poses questions about things we never really think about, like "what is so good about democracy?".

The danger of this website is that it becomes self-indulgent. That is why I have added a comments section below each article. I encourage you to leave thoughtful comments, but please respect others who may have another view. I encourage you to share your learnings too.

I was recently asked who the target audience is. I guess this is an opportunity to throw out the rules. I'm not trying to sell anything, so the target audience is anyone who gets some value out of it. If you do get some value out of it, or it provokes some thought, then "mission accomplished".

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